Outside All Weekend

We spent a lot of time outdoors this weekend.. and what a beautiful weekend it was. Friday we jumped in the car as soon as school was out and headed for the lake. We are itching to be in the sun and enjoy the water. Summer can't get here fast enough. Saturday we went out on the boat and took a forever long boat ride... nearly 3 hours and it was fabulous. Disclaimer.... most people have to pay to have this "David Hasselhoff" hairdo... not matt.. just a few hours in the wind and he comes out looking like this.

Dad was a great captain and at one point the rest of us were snoozing in the back as he cruised along.

Me and the madre.. let me tell you that people had to put on the sunglasses for this pale skin that hasn't seen the sun in quite a few months. Mom and I got a little more sun that we needed on the first day out, but oh well. We flew home from the lake to get together with some of the coaches and their families for a dinner at one of the coaches house. We had a great time hanging out and it not being at a football game.

Sunday after church we met up with mom and dad again and went to the Regions Charity Golf Tournament. Thanks to sister and dad we had some free passes and you can't pass up free.

One quick picture in front of this beautiful golf course at Ross Bridge.

And then the rain came. So much for that beautiful weekend right... anyways we had literally been here 5 minutes and long enough to take the 2 above pictures and it started pouring. We high tailed it over to the hotel and found a good spot under the cover to wait it out. Thankfully it was a quick shower and we were back out for some more "exciting" golf.

Now in the years past mom and dad have lucked up and found some awesome tent passes where you get in an a/c tent and free food. It's fabulous... we didn't have any today but the Lord is good and mom and dad ran into some friends that hooked us up. We chowed down on some yummy food and were able to sit here the rest of the tournament at the 18th hole and watch it.

This was the view from our little seating area. Now, I cannot tell you who won or anything else about this event. I just came for the social aspect. I did enjoy doing a lot of people watching and got to eat an ice cream drumstick, which is my fav!

Mother's Day

Sunday we had a relaxing, laid back Mother's Day with my fam. We went to see Matt's mom last weekend and enjoyed some time with her as well. Just a quick photo break .. can never have too many of these (but Matt would probably say otherwise)

Me and Keri with mom. We enjoyed a yummy lunch together and then...

Mom got to open her gifts. Matt and I got her these pearly earrings... oohhh ahhh

Keri and Steven (which I didn't seem to get a picture of yesterday) got mom the cutest polka dotted glasses from pampered chef. They match her polka dotted bowls... love it!

Mom and dad. Aren't they the cutest?? Dad always picks out great gifts for mom. He picked out this cute houndstooth elephant necklace. He has good taste. Mom, I hope you had a great Mother's Day--You deserve it -- After putting up with Keri (and me I guess) all these years!! We love you to the moon and back!

Graduation And A Festival

Saturday was a big day... we graduated with our Educational Specialist degree in Administration from Montevallo. Woohoo!! This has been a long year and a half, but we accomplished what we set out to do. Lots of long hours, dedication, and missing out on a lot of fun stuff... but it will be well worth it in the long run. Anywho, we didn't actually walk at our ceremony.. we did that for our master's degree and decided to pass this time. But we had to have some pictures in our cap and gown.. so here you go. Here's the graduate in our house.... we had our own ceremony and I bet it was a lot shorter than the actual ceremony.

And here I am.. woohoo thumbs up because I am pumped. Let the party begin!!

Now I could only find this one cap and gown in the closet from our other graduation.. so we had to split it up. Matt got to wear the gown and I got the hat. I think I have the hat on backwards... or maybe the hat just looks weird because my mind is so full of knowledge now... probably not.

We also worked and enjoyed the Buck Creek Festival. We worked for a few hours at our church's booth and passed out fans. Then we headed over to the Crocker's booth where they were selling some t-shirts.

Matt and I consumed a lot of junk yesterday... but it's so hard to resist these festival foods... dippin dots, corn dogs, ice cream, fried pies, steak sandwiches... delish!!

And look at this sweet family! The kids were such troopers for the day. Hope you had a good Saturday!

Cinco de Mayo

Happy Cinco de Mayo once again! It was a fun filled day celebrating the 5th of May. I had dinner tonight with 2 very special friends. Sara Katherine, Ryan Lee, and I met up for some mexican food on this special day. Let me give you a little background... the 3 of us became very best buds in high school and have kept in touch through the years and we actually all live very close to each other now. Fun time with old friends! Let me give you a little Flashback Friday... even though it's Wednesday. I dug up a few old pictures from the can I buried out back. This was our senior year of high school... homecoming week and it just happened to be toga day. Oh those were the days. Please excuse my fro.

And here we are before our senior prom. Don't be jealous of this full beaded ankle length formal gown. I think I still have this puppy lying around somewhere.. although I wouldn't be able to fit my left thigh into it. That's our limo in the background.. here's a funny story. We all wanted a limo so bad and my sweet parents went around everywhere trying to find one and the last place they found one was a funeral home. So here's our sweet ride from the graveyard. We loved it though!

And here we are today... awww sweet memories. I think I have actually gotten shorter over the years. From here it only goes downhill.

And another very special event happened today. It's Harley's birthday!! Yay!! He turns 10 years old today.. man he's getting to be an old fella with a lot of gray hair. You can see above that he did get a birthday card from his girlfriend Esmerelda. He was so embarrassed to read it in front of me. He was pooped out from all his birthday festivities and well wishes from family and friends! Hope you had a happy Cinco de Mayo... go eat a taco!

A Good Laugh

And that's just what we had as we had dinner with friends last night. We got together with the Warrens and Crockers for dinner at Jubilee Joe's and a little Hershey pie at the Warrens. Whitney, me, Hope. We first tried to get Asher to take our picture because they guys were busy... but he only got Whitney's leg in the picture, so we decided we better ask an adult.

And the boys, Matt, Drew, and Nathan doing manly stuff.. or whatever they are doing

Asher entertained us when he found Hope's "sunglasses" in the diaper bag.

And the 6 of us. We had a great night hanging out with dear friends.

And on another note... the hubs is a little under the weather and we had to make a visit to the doc in a box after church today. I can't take any chances these days with school coming to a close... so I needed to take full advantage of these free face masks they had available. This could come in handy when you are confined to small areas... say planes, elevators, hot air balloons... etc.

Randomness

Here's a random rundown of the last few days. Friday night we had a girl's night at the movies and saw "The Last Song." Have you seen it?? It is so sad... I had to eat a hot dog when I got home to cheer me up. Let me pump up the hubs for a minute. This rockstar cleaned the entire house while I was gone friday night. He is the bomb!! Saturday was a mess! It rained all day, complete with massive thunderstorms and all....here's a few things from that day.... we did make a quick run to the ole postal office to put an important piece of mail into the big blue box... we paid off my car. Yippy skippy. We bought my car exactly 2 years ago... and intended to pay this booger off sooner... but I guess I made too many trips to the mall instead.

and we did a little snoozing too. Look at this Stinky McStink... he is such a lounger. What a life!

Today after church we went to eat with several couples from our class.. Asher is the closest thing I have to a child or nephew or any little person in my life... and he loves some cheetos. After that Whitney, Hope and I did a little shopping....we tried on handfuls of dresses and kept the dressing rooms occupied for a while. We at least came out with something, so it wasn't a wasted trip. From there Hope and I went to our VBS meeting where we will soon be teaching first graders... how do I get myself involved in these things?? The theme is Wild Wild West.. I can't wait to get my costume.

and the highlight of our life recently.... no we didn't win the Ed McMann sweepstakes... but we did pass our comps!! Hooray for that!! We have officially passed our comprehensive exams and are one step closer to graduating. I just hope they spell my name right on that diploma.

Cowbells And Wedding Bells

Friday we headed to the lake to do a little work for the summer. See, you have to work before you can play. But we did do a little playing on the tractor. This here is a Kubota... don't you buy no ugly tractor. Dad and Matt just had too much fun on this thing.

Matt was just insistent that I learn how to drive this tractor. Here's just another thing I can put on my resume now. I finally learned to drive this honker.

The color totally clashes with my t-shirt though. It was an adventure and you know how I am trying to be more adventurous... so I guess I can add it to the list.

Late afternoon we cleaned the grease behind our ears and put on our best and headed to a wedding for our friends Lacey and Jason. We didn't quite time it very well and skidded into the parking lot on two wheels and were the last ones seated before the wedding party came in. Nothing like meeting the bride in the parking lot because you are so late.

Me, Lacey, and Chrissy. And there is the groom in the left corner. It was such a sweet ceremony and these MS State grads had their reception decked out in maroon and white, complete with cowbells and all. I guess it kept with my farming theme for the day.

I'm Exhausted

Today, I can barely move. Literally I am having trouble walking, every muscle in my body feels like I was hit by a train. But it was all for serving others and showing Christ's love. Yesterday we worked with some couples from our small group to re-roof a house for a lady and her family. When we arrived, I thought this can't be that bad. I really thought I would be sitting on the cooler most of the day, just chatting with the girls. I couldn't have been more wrong. Rachel, me, Whitney, and Hope. This was one of our mini breaks that we took. The first part of our day consisted off shoveling the old shingles into the wheel barrel, around the house, and into the dumpster. Not that bad huh?? Well, when there are 4 layers of roofing to shovel up and a million piles, they were endless. This was straight up manual labor.

A few snapshots throughout the day. Mid-afternoon we began to get a little worried that we weren't going to finish. People began to leave and it was down to just a few of us. The guys ordered the girls up on the roof to help nail down this paper stuff. This was a first for me. But after a few scoots around on my bottom because I was too scared to stand up, I was an old pro.

And the six that remain. The Crockers, Warrens, and Howards finished strong. When it was all through, we had worked 12 straight hours on this roof yesterday. The guys worked even longer, because they started Friday.

Guess who even stopped by to help?? They felt sorry for us because we were so short handed and mom and dad came to the rescue. They were a huge help and helped us finish strong.

And this man rocks!! Matt worked incredibly hard for 2 days on this project and we practically had to beg him to come off the roof just to eat lunch. It was an insanely long and truly exhausting day, but we really had a blast doing it.

The Grave Is Empty

Happy Easter!! What a day to celebrate that my sins are forgiven because of the cross. Because of the greatest gift that could have ever been given, a gift we can never pay back, except to surrender our lives to follow the will of our Lord. I am forgiven, because He was forsaken. He became sin, who knew no sin, all for you and for me. All because He died and rose again! What a blessed day! We were able to celebrate this beautiful day with the fam. The guys were troopers for the picture taking festivities. No Easter egg hunt this year, we just decided to sit around the table and fellowship instead.

We were blessed to have our sweet friends, David and Jennifer, to join us for lunch. Their families live away and they were all alone for Easter... and you know my parents.. we do not want people to be alone on holidays.

We did a little relaxing after lunch

Look at these cuties?!

And here is the greatest pops in the world!!

Sister just had to wear her bunny ears.. must be part of her halloween costume

And sister and me with the best mom in the world!! We kind of look like an Easter egg with all these springy colors.

And I will leave you with this little bunny for Easter. I hope you enjoyed the day!!

New Baby And A Life Preserver

A little shout out to our awesome buds Matt and Celeste on the new addition to their family. Introducing Cannan!! Isn't he a cute one?! We haven't been to St. Louis to see this precious little booger that was born on St. Patty's Day.. but we hope he can meet his aunt kristen and uncle matt very soon. We're coming...we promise!! And here is the question of the day.... To cruise or not to cruise?! Matt and I have been trying to decide on our summer vaca and what we will do...we have never been on a cruise...what do you think? Give me your thoughts... but if we do decide to go... this is probably what I will look like the whole time on the boat. I just keep having these flashbacks of titanic...and a little celine dion...can't get her out of my head.