Large Marge.....

Hello ladies!! I can't believe it's Monday again. I am incredibly exhausted from the weekend I had, but it was sooo worth it! The girls and I headed up to Austin to celebrate bestie Alison's bachelorette party. We had a pretty low key night on Friday so we could save up all of our energy for Saturdays activities! Little did we know how much fun we were going to end up having :) We had booked a pontoon boat for Saturday afternoon and it just so happened to be freezing with winds up to 70 mph...not really, but it felt like it! We got on the boat and headed out to a cove to get out of the wind. As we were on our way out we came across a very large party boat. Large Marge was the name. At this point a couple of the ladies had to go to the bathroom and this boat just so happened to have 2! We hopped aboard to use their facilities and found out that this group was there for a bachelor party. We ended up hanging out the rest of the afternoon and had so much fun!! We thought we would be on our little pontoon boat bundled up for 4 hours painting our nails and reading magazines. Boy were we wrong! HA

After the boat ride we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our night on the town! We ate at Z Tejas (delicious) where we had Ali's lingerie party and then hit up the Belmont. We closed down the place!! I can't remember the last time I have stayed out that late. It was so much. Lauren and I showed off our amazing dance moves and I think we just might have been the best dancers that place had seen!! I don't think the Belmont will ever be the same. We danced for probably about 2 hours straight and I'm still feeling the pain today! Seriously, most amazing DJ ever!

All in all, we had an amazing weekend celebrating with Ali! There's so much more, but as one of the girls said "What happens on Large Marge, stays on Large Marge!" Kidding, Beau ;) I guess this is fitting since all of our boys went to Vegas......

Here are some pics of the weekend. I didn't get as many as I wanted since I was busy dancing the whole time. I guess that could be a good thing, ha!

First off, the Capital! I love me some culture :)
Stop laughing Lauren!

Boat ride out to the cove...it was a cold one!

You can't tell in this pic, but I was on 2 boats! Now, I thought
this was pretty cool until they started to spread....not cool!

Our girl, Ali, on stage at the Belmont with other brides!

It was definitely a weekend I won't ever forget! I had the best time and I can't wait to be there when Alison and Mark say "I do!" We are so excited for them!! Hope everyone else had a perfect weekend!

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I may or may not have....

Allowed my mom to cut miss Daisy Mae this last weekend with her horse clippers. Yes ladies, our more-than-matted labradoodle needed HORSE hair clippers to get through her fur. I tried to save a buck by letting mi madre do it, but I think I may have made a mistake :( She just doesn't look that cute....at.all. I feel like the worst mom ever!! Not that the groomers would have done any better. I mean come on, when your dog is matted, there is nothing left to do but cut down to the mats which in our case was to her skin. I'm sure our vet thought she was a rescue dog or something last time we took her in. Problem is, we only got half of her cut because her head and upper body took us about 2 hours! Yeah, no pictures of this one. She may or may not look like this:

{Disclaimer: this is not, I repeat, NOT my Daisy, but how funny is it?}

Moral of the story: Friends, don't let friends (err, mom) cut your dog's hair :) Aaron is horrified, I still love her and think she's cute; as only a mother would, but I am a little horrified too. Let's just say that she'll be an inside dog until this grows back.....

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Tornado Warning....

According to AT&T U-verse we are under a T- warning! What??? They just broke into our regularly scheduled broadcast to inform us of this. Currently I am drinking wine, dancing in the kitchen to Lady GaGa "Just Dance" and Beau is in here too. Apparently we need to pay closer attention to our weather!!

P.S. I am deathly terrified of all things tornadic (yes, that's a word!) but I think the wine and miss GaGa have taken my edge off.

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Time to suit up!

With all the pool time I had this past weekend it reminded me of how old my swimsuits are! I bought one suit last summer for our honeymoon and that was it...I know, pathetic! I am always in search of the perfect suit. It's a bit of a challenge in order to find ones that will fit me and the girls. You have to do the mix n' match thing and each piece ends up running $60-70. I can't remember the last time I have paid under $100 for a suit. Simply ridiculous! It's amazing how they hike up the prices for some measly underwire in a bikini top!! Well I found a suit online (I know what you're thinking "you ordered a swimsuit online??") and I think it's going to be perfect. Plus, it was on sale. YES! This particular designer (Freya) specializes in making suits to fit anyone from a AA to a HH. If you want to take a look for yourself go here! Without further adieu, here is the infamous swimsuit. Some say it looks like a Bond girl suit. I hope it makes my stomach look like this :) I guess that would make it a miracle suit? Not happening!

Happy Hump Day!!

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Aint life grand.....

I had the best time while my grandparents were here this weekend! The weather was perfect, we indulged in tons of yummy food and just relaxed. My parents have quite the backyard set up and we spent the entire weekend back there lounging. I was in desperate need of some pool time. It was such a great break from work! I took off Friday and Monday and let me tell you, it was so hard to get up this morning for work. I woke up early every day that I was off, but it didn't matter because I wasn't waking up to go to work. It makes it easier somehow. I was sad to see my grandparents go, but like they say, all good things must come to an end. Anyways, here are a few pics from the weekend. I believe I took around 300 (yikes!), but I will just show you a couple.

{my beautiful, tan little sister G}

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With this ring....

This past weekend, I had some free time with my new camera. Just me and the Nikon. Oh it was blissful! I am overly obsessed with it at the moment. I decided to play around with our wedding rings a little. I love ring shots and was so pleased with the ones that our photographers (AshleyK) got. Here's just a couple of my faves - well more than a couple, but I couldn't decide which ones I liked the best!

{one of my favorites...so simple}
{rings on the end of my calla lillies}{more flower/ring shots}

{m&m's from the candy bar}

With our one year anniversary quickly approaching us, I figured I would try out this whole ring shot thing. How hard can it be, right? Well, it was a little tougher than I thought but after several tries I was able to get some descent shots. I used a Bible and Beau's ring at first. I love how his ring shadows a heart onto the pages. I decided to try it with mine too, but I love the simplicity of his ring alone. This was pretty easy. Once you get the hang of it and get the rings to stay in place, you're good to go! I turned my flash off in order to get the shadowing affect and then doctored it a bit in Photoshop so they didn't look too dark.

I'm sure I'll spend this next weekend taking more pictures! I keep telling Beau that I need a new "subject" to take pics of. Daisy is filling up my folders! I need to borrow someones baby :) HA

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Showery Weekend

It was another wonderful weekend! Beau and I had ourselves a good ol' time at the rodeo. I got to meet all of his coworkers which was fun. It made for a long night, but so worth it! Saturday, my mom and I went to a bridal shower for one of my besties, Alison. Her wedding is on April 25 and we are all so excited! The hostesses did a wonderful job! Everything was so pretty!! I was only able to download the pics of the decorations. I took more of the actual shower, but on a different camera. If you want to see more head on over to miss Lauren's blog. She was able to get more than I did.

{the main table}

{the cupcakes :)}
{more cupcakes! i love this adorable dome!!}

Sunday Beau and I slept in until 10:30! I was so bummed because we missed church and we've really enjoyed the last couple of services. Our pastor does segments that last 4+ weeks and this last segment has been on relationships. It's been so eye opening for us each week, so we didn't want to miss one. I never set an alarm on the weekend because it's VERY rare that I sleep past 8. I don't know what happened to me! We spent the afternoon/evening doing our taxes. Let me tell you, if doing taxes doesn't test your relationship, I don't know what will. I'm not as patient as I'd like to think and Beau kept asking questions that neither one of us had the answer to so it was slightly frustrating. Not to mention the fact that I am self-employed and he is not, so that throws a whole other kink into it all! I miss the days when my mom and dad did this for me - ha! After that we were both a little stressed so Beau opened up some wine and we relaxed a little. It was nice!

I hope everyone had an awesome weekend! My grandparents (dad's side) are coming in to town this Thursday and I couldn't be more excited!! My grandma hasn't been feeling the greatest for the last year or so and they weren't able to make it to the wedding so I am so excited for them to come. However, this does mean that I am going to be cleaning like a mad woman again! Can't have a messy house when grandma comes.

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It's Rodeo time!

Tonight Beau and I are going to the rodeo. He scored some awesome tickets from his work and I'm pretty pumped because they just so happen to be in a suite. You know what that means: free food and drinks! What I'm not pumped about is that the weather has gone from bad to worse and it's 45 degrees and pouring rain. We'll be there with several of his co-workers so it should be an exciting evening! Let's hope Beau and I don't get too tipsy around the boss-man! That would make for some good stories come Monday, I'm sure!!

I love the rodeo. Clint Black is the singer tonight and I can't wait to watch some bull riding! Hope y'all have an awesome weekend!! Yee-ha!

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Shrimp and Grits

Do you ever have those nights where you have no idea what to cook for dinner? Well that happened to me last night. I was just going to do another cereal or sandwich night, but I felt bad since we already did that all last week! My mom was always so creative with her dinners. She would pull all sorts of stuff out of the fridge and pantry and come up with the most amazing meals. Not me! Did I mention she has 2 refrigerators FULL of yummy food? I miss home! Well, I don't have that talent of "oh, I just threw it together" kind of meals yet, but I'm hoping it will come with time and lots of practice. I continued to look and look but found nothing. You see, we haven't been to the store in like 2 maybe 3 weeks. We are trying to cut back. Apparently food was the first thing on the list to go?? Not sure. You know it's time to hit up the local grocery store when you run out of t.p. and have to go for the next best thing, paper towels. This could also be a "you might be a redneck, if..." joke. Ugh! Is it bad that I have thought about taking some t.p. from my office?? Only kidding, mom! I'm sure she's so disowning me after that one! Anyways, back to my post. I decided to go rummaging through my pantry looking for something to fix, and I came across this little beauty!

Now, Beau loves grits, as do I, so I thought I would give it a whirl. I happened to have some shrimp in the freezer, so I thought this would be the perfect meal! It was so easy and turned out super yummy!! The pack comes with the grits and the gravy mix. I ordered a few different things from this company called Gullah Gourmet before Christmas, thinking I would give them as stocking stuffers, but I ended up keeping most of them! Good thing I did or we would have been eating cereal again. I have tried the Pluff Mud Pie too and it was so insanely good!

I also ordered the Seafood Bisque and I did end up giving that to my mom at Christmas. I kept one for me too though! I love the directions for how to prepare the meals. They are all written in Cajun tongue(?). Hilarious, but can be hard to read at times.

Gullah used to have a website, but it looks like they have taken it down. I did find these tasty treats HERE so if you have an itchin' for some delicious Cajun cuisine you can head over there. They also have the cutest gift baskets. Perfect for a going away gift if someone is moving up north. You know they would miss this food!!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Tuesday!

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Dear Builder,

I would really appreciate it if you could be as speedy as possible on the new house that you are building basically right in our backyard. You see, I have a dog, who some would call a wuss, that just recently got over her fear of the grill on the back patio, and then you have to go and throw up a house! She is once again terrified to go potty outside. Bless her heart! The hammers, yelling and lovely Tejano music are scaring her to the point of the shakes! I know, she has a problem, but when she doesn't go potty outside, guess where she goes???? Yep, in the house! This leads to a problem in the mornings for me. Between the pleading, coercing, which leads to yelling and cleaning up pee I have been late to work the past 3 days now! It's maddening I tell ya!

So I would appreciate it tremendously if you would hurry and maybe not build anymore houses until she's grown out of this frantic stage. Thanks!

Unhappy wussy-dog owner.

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No pineapple, extra chocolate

That's how I order my banana splits at Sonic. And, I just polished off one of those delicious sundaes! Mmm it was so tasty. And lucky for me, Beau despises bananas like I despise green peas (egh) so I didn't even have to share. Do you know how difficult it was for him to order my banana split with my specific orders of "no pineapple, extra chocolate"? Mind you, I am sitting right next to him in his truck repeating it over and over. He had to ask "what" about 5 times and he still didn't get it right. You wanna know how the first one came out. Banana split WITH pineapple. Goodness gracious child! Men have the hardest time ordering at a drive thru. Either way, it was delicious. I honestly can't believe I ate the whole thing. I feel a little sick right now. I normally don't have that big of a dessert after dinner....especially when trying to lose weight. I don't know what came over me; well I do, her name is Hormones. The craving overtook everything in me that said "No, you don't need it! You will ruin your workout that you just finished!" But when I asked Beau if we could run up to Sonic and get one, he was so quick to accept my request. Little did I know he had his own agenda. Poor Beau hadn't eaten yet. I know, I'm a bad wife. I made myself a sandwich and let him fin for himself. Tonight is fin for yourself night (FFYS) at our house. On these nights we eat leftovers, sandwiches or one of my favorites, cereal! So he got got something out of this ice cream run too. A juicy burger with fries. See he got his dinner and I got my crave for ice cream filled. Perfection!

Well, I'm off to write my birthday thank-you notes! There is a basketball game on tonight and since I am always taking over the TV, I have decided to be nice and hand the remote to hubs. But for the next 2 hours I have to deal with him yelling at the TV. Oh the joys!

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Amazing Gifts!

First off let me say thank you so much to all of you sweets for leaving me such nice birthday wishes!! I really appreciate it! It's so nice to be told "Happy Birthday" by so many people. Makes a girls day!

The birthday festivities started Friday night at my parents house. My dad grilled some amazing steaks, as always, and we had some wonderful appetizers that my mom and sister cooked up. Look how cute all of the table decorations are! My mom outdid herself once again!

{precious flowers!}

Let them eat cake - the cutest most delicious cake ever, that is!! Loved the way it turned out and it was oh so tasty.

{make a wish ;)}

And then there were two: Me and sweet beau. Pay no mind to the pale, white washed face. I will be tan this summer. You just wait!

Not onto the good stuff. The presents!! I know I've said this before, but I really am so fortunate to have the family that I do. They are so good to me. I feel so blessed every single birthday I get to celebrate with them! On to the gifts. My favorite of all night had to be my new Nikon D-60 camera!! It was a gift from my parents and beau. I am in LOVE! I was a mad woman this weekend snapping pics left and right. I think every girl, after they get married, falls in love with photography. It's hard not to. You see all of the amazing images and you want to be able to try your hand at photography too. I will never be a pro, but this is a start!

My big sis knew about the camera so she picked me up this little guy! It's not the full blown Photoshop, because let's face it, I am in no position to drop 3K on that, but it's so perfect and exactly what I was wanting!

I don't know if you recall the black coat from this post. Well I was surprised when I opened up the box from my grandmother and found it inside! It's so cute and the fit is to die for! I wore it out to my birthday dinner that Beau took me on with my new black boots and I felt oh so chic!

And my little sis, err, my mom picked this cute bottle of wine up for me. How funny is this? I had no idea they had "Middle sister" wine. Perfect!!

I can't end without saying how sweet Beau was on Saturday. He woke up semi-early (which he doesn't ever do!) and fixed me delicious cinnamon muffins and eggs. And then *gasp* he cleaned up afterward. It was great! Ok, I'm done now. It was an amazing birthday and I couldn't have asked for more.

Happy Hump Day!

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