Is it Monday already????

As every other weekend goes, this one was packed full of craziness and fun! I had to work on Saturday morning for a workshop we held on "Family Literacy." It was a very interesting workshop, and I have lots of ideas to incorporate reading into my future children's lives! I hope they love reading as much as I do!

Saturday night was my cousin, Tye's, 4th birthday party. Did we go to Chuck E. Cheese? Absolutely not! This big boy wanted to go to Fuji, a local Japanese Steakhouse, for his birthday! Here are some pictures from the night - sadly, I did not get one with the birthday boy!

Here I am with Tessa (Tye's sister) and our other cousin, Taren -I then let Tessa be the photographer for the night - she got this great shot of my momma and Brad.
And this weird picture of me eating my Fuji soup!
My mom and I have a ritual on Sundays - we go to the early service at church, go to breakfast together and then spend the whole day doing something fun. This Sunday, we went to the Antique District in Franklin, Tennessee - which is about 45 minutes from my hometown. Here are some of the goodies I got yesterday -

I got this cute blue basket to go in the master bedroom - I plan to make an arrangement to go in it - Does this little picture look familar? It should! It's a smaller version of the three pictures I got from Stein Mart a few weeks ago. I also got this sweet little birdie and a nest to go in my room as well -

This was BY FAR the best buy of the day...I got a 1915 edition of Little Women for $15! As y'all know, Little Women is one of my favorite books, and I just could not pass this by! I can't wait to read it to my little ones!This was a birthday present from Brad, and I love it so much! It says "Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul" - Emily Dickinson. It matches perfectly with our bird theme!

I have lots of old pictures of my family, and I wanted a neat way to display them - I saw this idea from another blog (Harrington House) a while back. I had the yellow berry garland, draped it over an antique mirror and clipped old pictures to it. I love it! It's so fun to look at all of them!

This is what I ended up doing on Sunday night - packing up all of this....

....to make room for all of this....

Oh, how I have missed you bright colors!!! I was so sick of wearing black and brown, so I changed out my closet and put up all of those fuddy-duddy sweaters! I'm sure it'll be 30 degrees next week, and I'll be stuck, but I don't care! Ha!

I hope y'all had a wonderful weekend! Blessings!

This just made my day...

So everyone, I mean EVERYONE, knows how much I love the book, The Secret Life of Bees. I make everyone read it, I buy copies so I can give it to people to read - I L-O-V-E it!

And it just made my day when I get wind that they are making it into a movie! Not only that, it is going to star Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifah AND Jennifer Hudson (among others). The movie is not scheduled to come out until 2009, but I just had to share my excitement!

I have a love for books, and that brings me to the SPRING READING THING!

I saw this over at my ADPi big sister's blog, and I thought it was a great idea!

So, here are a few books I would like to read in the upcoming spring months:

-My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult (I have heard great things about this book, but I hear you need a whole box of Kleenex to go with it.)

-Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns (Melanie recommended this book to me, and I have not gotten the chance to start it.)

-Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Again, I've heard great things...)

-The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (I have actually bought this book, but I have not read it yet!)

-One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (another book I previously purchased.)

As you can see, I need to get BUSY READING!

HAPPY READING to all of you who have joined in on the fun! Hopefully this will make me finish these books - feel free to leave comments if you have read any of the books! And check the spring reading thing for more information!

Where have I been???????

So, my sweet bloggy friend, Caroline, asked for an update....so here it is!

I apologize for my lack of posting, I was sick on Monday with a nasty stomach virus, felt better on Tuesday, and today I feel worse than I did on Monday - YUCK. As I am posting, I'm in my cozy bed with sprite and saltine crackers within my reach. Ha!

So here is a breakdown of what I've been doing...

CELEBRATING MY 24th BIRTHDAY!

Friday was my birthday, and it was such a fabulous day! So many of my old friends were in town for Easter, and I was so excited to see so many of them! I had a wonderful birthday lunch at Goodness Gracious complete with fruit tea, chicken puffs, tortellini salad and pineapple and cheese casserole - the best part was that April got to come along as well, and I got an especially wonderful gift from her...

This is one of her adorable button rings that she gave me - you can purchase them HERE. I love it, April!

Brad's parents sent me The Patriarchs - I was so excited to open it as I have NOT been able to find it here! Thank you, Marcia and Ron!

My family took me to my favorite Mexican restaurant that night - here I am, complete with sombrero and sopapilla!

On Saturday, I cleaned the house because Brad and I were hosting Easter lunch at our home. We did a lot of work outside (mowed our yard for the first time!), and it was BEAUTIFUL outside. Too bad the warm weather didn't stick around for Easter Sunday. I also volunteered at church with nursery duty. My church had two services for Easter this year, and one was on Saturday night, so I volunteered with the 3-year olds. We had 10 three-year olds in my cube, and there were over 97 three-year olds there for the entire night! It was a packed night for a first ever Saturday night Easter celebration!

On Sunday, we celebrated Easter at our annual Easter Celebration - each Easter, my church has Easter service at the local university basketball arena, we invite the whole community, and it is a HUGE celebration of Christ! This year was no different!

Here I am with my mother and grandmother. Notice my cute jacket? That was a gift from my sweet husband for my birthday - I LOVE it, Brad!

Brad and I at the Easter Celebration.

We always have a special guest at the Easter Celebration - this year Diamond Rio was our special guest! I'm not a huge fan, but they were great! They are actually releasing a Christian album sometime this year. Here's a picture of Diamond Rio - sorry the picture is a little dark!

After the service, everyone came back to our house for lunch. And what Easter lunch is complete without an EASTER EGG HUNT??? Here is the front of my house with some hidden eggs....can you find them?

Brad was in charge of hiding eggs in the front yard, so most of the eggs were impossible to find. Tessa did find this one...

We hid over 250 eggs for two kids - how crazy are we???? They did have a blast, and they were looking cute as always! Here they are after the egg hunt.

After finding eggs, we decided to break out the sidewalk chalk and play a little hopscotch. Pretty sure I was AMAZING! Ha!

After hopscotch, we started tracing each other with the sidewalk chalk. Here I am with Tessa and the tracing of my body that she did - see the resemblance???

We had a FABULOUS Easter weekend, and I had an amazing birthday. Thank you for all the sweet wishes! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Blessings, y'all!

Spring has SPRUNG!

Happy first day of SPRING! And what a beautiful day it is!

I've been busy for the past two days with a special United Way project (along with blogging friend, Alison) - but you'll have to wait and see what we've been up to (and I CANNOT wait to show you)....

When I got back from the office, I had a nice suprise -

a special HAPPY BIRTHDAY party just for me!!

Here is everyone-

And these special girls came to wish me a happy birthday as well...

The sweet little plant with a little nest and a bluebird! I love it!

Tomorrow is actually my birthday, but since it is a holiday here at United Way, we celebrated early! I'm so blessed to work with such an amazing group of ladies who make me feel special!

I hope you are all enjoying your first day of spring!

Blessings, y'all!

Spring plans.

So, Thursday is the FIRST day of Spring - YAY! I'm am so excited! Here are some plans I have for spring...

1. Celebrate my 24th birthday with my favorite girls @ my FAVORITE restaurant, Goodness Gracious on Good Friday!

2. Plant some of these...We had four hydrangea bushes planted at our old house, but we accidentally left them there! I may go back and get them! Ha!

3. Organize our office/craft room. It currently looks like this....

I'm thinking about doing something like this... (I have an antique hutch that needs to be painted, and would be GREAT for storing all my scrapbook materials).

4. Paint my laundry "closet" and make it super cute and bright like this... 5. Organize my closet (and put all my SPRING clothes out) and organize the GARAGE! EEEkkk!

So, needless to say, I have LOTS of things I want to do! Brad and I are also planning on buying a new sofa set in May, so we have been looking for different sets that we like. I really like this set - it fits so well with our nautical theme!

Brad thinks it looks too much like what we already have - I'll definitely be asking for opinions!

What are your plans for spring?

Blessings, y'all!

St. Patrick's Day.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

I'm sure all of you look oh-so cute in your green outfits! Not this gal - pretty sure I drove to work without a stitch of green on! Ha! I totally forgot it was St. Patrick's Day! We had a meeting this morning, so I decided to make a four-leaf clover pin so I wouldn't get pinched!

My weekend was jammed pack, but it was AWESOME!

Friday night, Kayla and I went to see "Horton Hears a Who" - it was so cute, and I definitely recommend it for children! I ate WAY too much candy though! Ha!

I worked on Saturday at the shop even though there were some pretty bad storms that blew through! After work, I went home and threw on some GREEN for our Junior League "Luck of the 'Boro" Auction. It was such a fun night, and we raised quite a bit of money for the Primary Care & Hope Clinic! Yay! I got to spend some quality time with some of my favorite gals, as well as with their significant others - all in all, it was a great night! Pictures below...

My favorite girls - Courtney, Keisha, Jennifer and me @ JLM Luck of the 'Boro!

Cheers to Junior League!
Most of Sunday afternoon was spent wedding planning! That's right girls, I'm back planning a wedding! Actually, my mom and I are helping plan a wedding for my good friend, Lindsay, who just got engaged! They are planning for an October wedding, so we are trying to nail down as many details right now - time is of the essence! Lindsay's favorite color is pink, so we're trying to throw as much pink in as possible...you'll definitely hear about wedding planning now! I'm so excited about everything, and I can't wait to see the finished product!

I hope y'all had a wonderful weekend, and please don't be pinching anyone today! Ha!

Fashion Shows and "Horton Hears a Who."

Today, I had the pleasure of attending the "Legacy in Black and White" Fashion Show by Elrod & Co. (a boutique here in Murfreesboro). My sister works at Elrod's, and she is a Fashion Merchandising major, so she put together a lot of the outfits and wrote all the commentary for the show. I was so proud of her - this was her first show, and I think she did a FABULOUS job! My sister has always loved fashion, and I love to call her up and ask her advice about clothing. She always knows what is "in" and will tell me if I'm wearing something that's not "in" anymore!

Seeing all the bright and springy outfits definitely gave me SPRING FEVER, and I've been browsing all of the clothing websites looking at spring collections!

I can't wait to pull out all of my spring outfits and brighten up my wardrobe! Are y'all feeling the way I am????

I would especially love to be wearing this dress right now...

Heck, I would love to be wearing something other than BLACK or BROWN!

In other news, I'm taking my little sister, Kayla, to see this movie tonight, and I CANNOT wait!

For those of you who don't know, I have been an official BIG SISTER to Kayla for over 6 months now. She's 16, and we are seriously the best of friends! We didn't get to hang out last week, so I'm excited to see her tonight!

I am so excited it's the weekend - what about y'all??

Blessings!

TAGalicious!

Today has been one of the crazy days - as soon as I walked into my office @ 8 this morning, I was go, go, GO! I had an Executive Committee Meeting, Board Meeting, and two meetings for our Women United High Tea! Whew! I did get to my sweet friend, Megan, for 2.5 seconds, and it just brightened my day!


Anyways, I have been tagged by the PRECIOUS Caroline, and I'm excited because I really can't think of something that y'all would want to hear about! Ha!


What if I could meet someone in the art world to chat with?
- I am a lover of art, that's for sure! My dad was an attic artist - he would seriously go up in our attic for 36 hours straight and paint the entire time! I took art throughout high school, and it was one of my favorite subjects! Most of my family members have some piece of artwork that I did while I was taking classes! Ha! If I could meet someone in the art field, it would have to be Georgia O'Keefe - I really enjoyed studying her in high school, and I love her perspective on flowers! Absolutely gorgeous and so interesting!

What if I could have one wish granted for the benefit of all mankind?
Since I work in a nonprofit, I see so many people struggling every single day - I would wish that those people who struggle daily would be able to survive - especially children. I also pray for all those people who cannot see the beautiful and magnificent things our Lord is doing every single day! We serve an awesome God, huh?


What if I could travel anywhere in the world?
I'm with Caroline on this - there are so many places I would like to visit...France and Africa are two places I'm dying to visit. I really want to see the Great Wall of China, too! I would also love to visit Israel - our pastor leads a two-week tour of Israel every summer, and Brad and I hope one day to travel with the church doing this AMAZING trip.

What if I could live in a period other than the present, for 24 hours?

Hm, interesting question...I think I would love to live in the Victorian times - the times of little white gloves, tea time, and frilly dresses! But I would also love to live in the 50s - I love the movie Mona Lisa Smile, and I think it would be so interesting to live in a time when the role of a woman was changing!

What if I could make over three areas of my body?

I would make it where I would NEVER have to pluck my eyebrows - I HATE doing that! I would fix my big booty (the curse of being a dancer/tumbler for so many years). And I would tone up my arms - I would love to have some muscles! Ha!

What if I could become an animal for 24 hours?

If I could be an animal, I would be a cute puppy - like a Yorkie or a Toy Poodle! Who doesn't love a cute puppy????

What if I could bring someone back to life for 24 hours?

Only 24 hours, well that wouldn't be long enough for me! Ha! I would definitely bring back my sweet Aunt Peggy, who was taken so tragically from this Earth, tell her I love her and have her tell one of her hilarious stories!

Thanks, Caroline for the tag! You are such a sweet spirit, and I am so happy to have connected to your blog!

Ok, now I tag whoever feels like doing this! Just let me know if you did it so I can read your answers :)

Model for a day.

Today was such a beautiful day, and I was reminded of another beautiful day last May - no, not my wedding...the day I made my bridal portraits!

My wedding photographer does a lot of fashion stuff, so I for real felt like a model during my bridal portrait. It was such a fun time getting my hair done, make-up done and putting on all the wedding jewelry and attire for the first time. We spent about 3 hours taking pictures - my photographer took over 400! And I love every single one of them!

I love my dress so much, and I would so put it on tomorrow and do it all again - although I doubt I would fit in it. Looking at all these pictures motivates me to get back into shape! Ha! When my mom, grandmother and I went to view all the pictures to pick my actual portrait, I had a hard time really believing that it was me in the pictures...next to the wedding day, this was the best thing about getting married! Here are a few of my favorite shots (all photos property of Chuck Arlund) -

I had my portraits made at a Civil War-dated plantation here in Murfreesboro called Daffodil Hill. The owner of the house is a family friend, so he was gracious enough to let us use his BEAUTIFUL Southern home!

This was the first picture Chuck took.

This was one of my mom's favorites - I love the orange chaise and the color of the room.

This is a picture of Daffodil Hill - I am standing on the balcony. I just love this house!

Outside the house.

This picture is taken outside of another Southern mansion in Murfreesboro - Oaklands Mansion. Most people think Chuck made my veil look like this - I actually had to throw it up and immediately pull my hands down. I kept laughing the whole time - I love the "floating veil" look!

This was actually one of the last shots Chuck got - I just sat down on the front steps of Oaklands and told him to take my picture. I think he got my true personality in this one - I had actually taken my shoes off by this point. This was my favorite picture, and it is the one we chose for my portrait. (can you see my toes poking out??)

I truly felt like a model during this time - you can see some of my other pictures here from a previous post. I will actually post more pictures of the wedding and memories from that day closer to our anniversary...I can't believe it has almost been a year!

During the entire day, I kept thinking about the next time I would be wearing my dress - the day that I would be marrying my best friend, and I seriously could not stop smiling!

So I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane with me!

Blessings, y'all!

Writer's Block.

I really don't have much to say today - I have a million thoughts running through my head right now, but nothing seems to make sense! Do you ever have one of those days? I woke up early this morning, remembered something that I DID NOT need to forget, and by the time I got to work, I could not remember for the life of me what it was! It'll come to me later I'm sure!

Last night, I had a Junior League meeting, and I got to see one of my favorite people, Megan! I was so excited to see her - plus I got to FINALLY give her Vance's birthday gift. Vance turned one in early February - we got him the most adorable outfit, and I can't wait to see him in it! You better take pictures, Megan!

Every morning, while I'm driving to work, I usually listen to some kind of praise and worship CD to get me pumped up and ready for the day. My favorite song to listen to is "Trading My Sorrows" from Darrell Evans. I for real get excited and dance around in my car! My church, World Outreach Church, just recently released this CD, "Touch Our Generation." It is a really great CD, and I am pretty much in love with all of the songs!
I'm pretty excited about doing this study, A Life Well Lived at church. My women's small group leader, Diane, is teaching it, and I absolutely love her. God has truly blessed me with such an amazing leader. Have any of you done this study before? I'm fascinated with Solomon, and I can't wait to learn more about Ecclesiastes, the book he wrote at the conclusion of his life. Looks pretty interesting to me!

Anyone else out there having writer's block today?????

Our snow day.

So the snow came - and it was a lot. But then by noon, it was gone! Seriously, that snow melted faster than I thought it would - it's a good thing I got some good pictures!

Here's Brad braving the snow with Turner - it's so funny because Turner is actually terrified of the snow, but there was no way of getting around it this morning!

I know I have taken several other pictures like this - but we actually got quite a bit of snow, so I had to document it!

The mailbox covered in snow.

Sweet little birdhouse.

Another view of the house - there was snow everywhere! Back patio furniture covered in snow - I can't wait to do some grilling back here in the summer!

I seriously did more cooking and baking during this "snowstorm" then I have ever done before! On Saturday morning, I made these muffins - if you have never made these, then you are FOR REAL missing out!

I even made hot chocolate in my Williams-Sonoma hot chocolate pot - the only other time I have used it is on Christmas Eve, but I sure do love it!

What is better than hot chocolate and warm muffins on a snowy morning???

The snow was gone by noon, and I had to go to work (yuck). The snow was fun while it lasted, though!

I had to post this picture of my beautiful sister (don't we look alike???) - we seriously took a hundred pictures of her with my mom's cat, Alphie. I love this picture because it looks like he's smiling - he is the best cat EVER!

I hope y'all had a wonderful weekend, too!