Our Wedding Day...er...Continued

Have y'all ever woke up in the middle of the night with the kind of migraine/tension headache that makes you want to break a toe just to forget how bad your head hurts? That's exactly what happened the night before our wedding. I woke up multiple times that night and no matter what I did I couldn't get rid of the migraine. I finally got up super early, called my momma who was next door at the hotel, and used my last "Please come help me I'm sick" card of my before-married life. She came over with Advil, and electrostim machine and tea and fixed me up proper. I love my momma.

By the time we left for my bridal brunch, and after a quick trip to Walgreens for Excedrin and champagne, my head felt better and we could get on with the day! A dear friend from work threw us beautiful laid back brunch with tasty food, lovely drinks and lots of laughs. Then it was off to the races!

A whirlwind six hours later that were full of last minute fixes - "Oh I can fix that" was something that consistently came out of one bridesmaid's mouth...and she did! And a memorable "I need a pair of pliers!" in the groom's room... - laughter, especially when someone was up under my dress tying my petticoat, and tears for those who couldn't be with us, those who have passed on before their times and tears of happiness, and we were ready to get married. I was literally sitting on a chair that was under my dress when my coordinator came in at 6:05 and I said "What's going on? What are we waiting for?" and she replied "We're waiting for you!" I almost took the chair with me in my haste to get down that aisle.

*Our photographer, Monica Burkett of Freshold Photography, is the same photographer who did our engagement photos. We love her and her work!

I have never been happier to see DH than I was when we reached the end of the aisle. He looked so handsome and sure and not at all nervous. A short 20 minutes later I was allowed to kiss my man and call myself a wife!

From there on out the night flew and slowed down all at once. We had a lot of people tell us that their wedding is a blur, but for me I remember everything. It just went so fast!

And it all came about because a guy and a girl took a chance on one another...

The First Auntie Em of the Season and Part of Our Wedding Memories

It's the first tornado warning of the season here in the Deep South. So of course I need to blog about it...and the vision I have of DH and myself...and the cats....in one bathroom....without any power...and a hysterical me....and an exasperated DH....and two hyper cats... Well, you get the gist of it.

Instead of that visual imagery, let's talk about my wedding. My beautiful perfect wonderful wedding! Well, almost perfect. There were a few very important people that weren't able to make it for our day due to new babies and graduation and just life that tends to intervene, but they were there in thought...or at least I think they were! Beyond that, the day was wonderful.

Let me back-up though. My parents and grandparents came in a week ahead to help with details and crafting and final plans. My momma did a ton of the planning and we executed everything once they were in town. It was glitter and punches and craft paper and a million and one trips to Jo-Ann's, Michael's and Hobby Lobby. Colors were much debated and at one point I was left wondering why I didn't just go with blush and bashful. Surely that would have been easier than matching specific shades of turquoise and coral.

My bridal party starting alighting on my house like birds coming home to rest, along with out of town guests as the week went on, including my godmother. It was so relieving to have loved friends and family around us as the stress of getting everything done grew. There is no way that our wedding would have been half as beautiful without them! We were all covered in turquoise tinsel glitter by the end of the week. I'm still finding glitter around the house despite the multiple vacuumings since coming home from the honeymoon.

The rehearsal went off without a hitch, as did the dinner which we held at a local BBQ restaurant. We wanted laid back and fun for our guests! After dinner DH and I wanted to be sure we spent even a few minutes with our out of town guests. Y'all, I have never been so amazed as I was by the friends that traveled for our wedding! I had friends from every part of my life, birth through today, who were there! Our great idea was to invite everyone for drinks to BDubs. I felt like I was being pulled in 40 different directions but it was a fun time. One of our friends said that it was great because at the wedding reception the next day they felt like they already knew people and it wasn't just a bunch of strangers. Whew!

I wish I had pictures to share but they are all residing in various cameras and phones...none of which I actually possess. I'll write more about the actual wedding day but if I put it all in here it would be a loooong post!

On a side note, I'm glad to be back writing. I'm even more glad that my DH is content to do his thing while I do mine. Hmmm...maybe it's time to switch from Dark Horse to Hubby. I'll think on that.

Shower Numero Uno

First of all, check out my breakfast of champions. I go back and forth about smoothies, some days I love them and then I hate them.  This one is a beautiful purple which makes me want to drink it for no other reason.

This one was made with a small can of pineapple juice, a handful of strawberries and blackberries each, a banana, a quarter cup of plain Greek yogurt (2% fat), a scoop of passion fruit Noosa yogurt and enough almond milk to make it smooth. I happened to have all of these things on hand, which is not the norm! I also don't typically drink my morning smoothie out of a beer mug but it was the only glass large enough to hold it all.

I'm going to need the energy because I have a ton of Thank You's to write. Why you ask? Because....

DH and I had our first shower this weekend. My wonderful sister-in-law, brother-in-law and mother-in-law to be and a close friend from work threw it for us. It was a couples shower which was so much fun! I am blessed enough to be having two showers, the one here and one in Yankeeland, which will be very different from each other. The night before my sister and mother-in-law and I made cupcakes and spent some time hanging out. We made the icing from scratch and it turned out pretty good. I also make the love bird fondant toppers using one of the Wilton's silicone molds.

Friends, DH will have to limit me on how many of those molds I can buy. It was crazy easy to do and you don't need all the "tools" they recommend. I used my fingers to press the fondant in and they popped out without a problem. Check them out if you want people to think you're a decorating genius!

A friend took pictures for us while we opened gifts and it drove home the point that I take many more funny pictures than serious ones. A few for your viewing pleasure... (Please ignore my humidity inspired hair.)

I only cried twice but I'm confident that this will increase exponentially as we get closer to the wedding. Exponentially. Because I am my mother's daughter. And I cry at commercials. And Teen Mom reunions. And bad reenactments of true life situations on TLC.

Good gravy, I'm going to be a mess on the wedding day. Because I get to marry this guy.

Food, Food and More Food...and some football

This past weekend has been all about food. I kicked off the weekend with DH and his family at Cracker Barrel on Saturday morning. There is nothing like family and those biscuits put together! My SIL to be and I got to talk shower details and I'm so excited to officially be part of this family in a few months.

Saturday afternoon friends and I went to the Ft. Worth Food Truck Park. Y'all, if you don't have a food truck park nearby, get on a plane and get here ASAP. It's such a laid back, fun, family friendly place! They have a rotation of trucks and there is an actual bathroom (always a plus in my book!) and a cantina where you can get beer, wine, coffee. I had one of the best things I've ever eaten in my life - First Bite's egg rolls. They have some carne asada, corn, cheese, beans, spinach. I can't do the deliciousness justice. We finished up with Red Jet Sweets cupcakes. Yes, plural. You gotta problem with that???? I had a coconut comet there and bought a Kentucky for later - bourbon cake with caramel buttercream rolled in pecans. This was all paired with a Rahr and Sons Iron Thistle beer. I can't believe I'm going to say it, but it was better than Guinness.

Now we all know that Sunday was all about food. Even if the football was the reason for the food. Usually I watch some/all of the Superbowl. But this year the hockey gods smiled upon me and Sunday afternoon was the Penguins-Capitols game....and it was on HERE! After seeing my boys royally beat Ovechkin into the ice, I couldn't have cared about the Superbowl at all. So the food was where it was at for me this year. We hung out with friends and ate our hearts out. Chili, buffalo chicken dip, salsa and cream cheese, ham cheese ball, ranch dip, deviled eggs, cookies, cinnamon cream cheese ball and Mississippi Sin. What's that? What's Mississippi Sin? It's a little piece of heaven. I got the recipe from my friend YaYa and it will rock your face off. There are a ton of variations - I thought I lost her recipe and I tried finding it on Pinterest - but I love her version. It's got dried beef, pimento, green onion, sour cream, cheese and green chilis all mixed up and then baked in a hollowed out Hawaiian loaf of bread. If you want more particulars leave me a comment. In all fairness, don't make this when it's just you at home. You'll regret it after you eat every last bite.

Today continued this weekends food extravaganza. I tried a recipe from Pinterest for philly cheesesteak stuffed green peppers. They look good! Well, they look like the recipe picture so I'm hoping they taste as good too. The recipe came from Peace, Love and Low Carb. I also made Pioneer Woman's chicken spaghetti with a small adaptation - I subbed Velveeta for the shredded cheese and I didn't add cheese on the top. We'll have it for weeks to come! I forgot how much one recipe makes.

The best part of the spaghetti is that DH and I are taking it to some friends who recently had a baby. It's win-win: they get dinner and I get to snuggle a little muffin while sniffing her head. Everybody wins!

What did y'all eat this weekend? And why can't we have a Superbowl every sunday????

Actually Road Tripping

It's the long awaited road trip post! You were waiting, right? Nah, probably not. But I'm gonna talk about it anyway. Cause it's my blog. 

DH and I agreed that this road trip would be a test of whether we have looong road trips in our marital future. The trip from the Deep South to the Deeper South (Knoxville TN) is roughly 13 hours. We broke the drive out into 2 days to make it a little more do-able. Of course Hurricane Isaac came through the night we arrived in Little Rock. It was a drive full of fried pies - y'all....to die for!...and zipping past tractor trailers at high rates of speed in very wet roads. I white knuckled a bit, not gonna lie. 

DH loves fried pies enough to sing about them! And the pecan pie was worth singing about.

The next day we sprang out of bed, well maybe slowly rolled, and hit the road. We met up with a great friend of mine in Nashville and had lunch, did some shopping and talked wedding stuff for a couple hours. Way too soon it was time to get headed onto Knoxville. Not that we weren't excited to get to Josh and Rachel, but I was sad to leave my Nashville friend.

It was our first trip to Knoxville and we loved it! It has such a small town funky feel to it. There's a little of everything there. We were so excited to see some of Josh and Rachel's favorite places....

Brassiere where I had my first frog leg and was introduced to salmon to die for.

Chez for breakfast

And we also tried a new place that DH and I pretty much would DIE to have here in the Deep South.

Dead End Bar-B-Que. Y'all, if you are ever within a couple hours of Knoxville, take the time to detour and go eat. It was a-freaking-mazing. DH and I are totally jealous that we don't have BBQ anywhere near this in the Deep South. 

*Before y'all start leaving me hate mail about how Texas has great BBQ, we agree. But this place is way better. Truth, y'all.*

My beef brisket, cheddar and fried onion sandwich. I could eat this every day.

And there is Yuengling on tap. On. Tap. 

Let's all take a moment to reflect on the lovelieness that is Yuengling.

The thing with Yuengling is that Tennessee is the closest state you can get it in to Texas. Unless Florida is closer than Tennessee. Then that statement is wrong.  We brought back a couple cases to Florida and it will be drank like the liquid gold that it is. It was only a couple cases because the place we went couldn't sell more than that without shorting their own stock.

When it's gone DH and I will look like this...

But until then, we'll look like this.

And when we got back to the Deep South there was a Henry who was very happy to see his Momma.

Weekend Wrap-Up

Last week was filled with ups and downs. Luckily the ups outweighed the downs by the end of it, so we'll call it a success. But by Friday I was ready for the weekend!

I volunteer with a cat rescue group once a month, and this past Saturday was my day. I usually help get the adoption set-up and then hang out for a bit. I love helping with this organization, even when I wish I was laying on a couch soaking up whatever is on Bravo. But DH and I have this bad habit of double booking ourselves on those Saturdays...this weekend was no exception! So after a couple hours with the kitty cats, we were off to Grand Prairie with friends.

For a cupcake meet. Which has nothing to do with cupcakes and everything to do with cars. Lots of cars.

Outside.

With no shade.

In 106 degree sunny clear skied weather.

Heat stroke hot weather.

Yes, we're crazy.

It was hot, people. Luckily the guys were troopers and went to the car to get the cooler and some books. You read that right, we sat and read in the shade. Girlfriend and I are basically Rory Gilmore.The menfolk ventured out with Powerades and oohed and ahhed to their hearts content. And then we blasted the AC the whole way home to try and cool off.

Sunday is usually a pretty lazy day for DH and I. We try to get to the gym where I pretend that I can still run miles on end without stopping. Why is it that I feel like I've gone 6 miles only to look at the treadmill display and see it's been a whopping 1.5 miles? I ran about 3 before throwing in the towel and hopping on an elliptical for my last 20 minutes.

The side effect of all that running is that I became ridiculously hangry while we grocery shopped. And whenever I get hangry - anger born from hunger - in a grocery store I find it impossible to find anything to eat. In a grocery store. Surrounded by food. I managed to hold it together until we left the store at which point I'm pretty sure I morphed into the Hulk. DH told me later that even when I'm hangry and grumpy he still thinks I'm cute. It's a good thing I'm marrying this man!

The weekend was topped off with The Bachelorette - finally Emily picks the right guy! - and Breaking Bad - I love Mike, love him.

Today it's back to Sculpt class and baking cookies for Little Monkey's birthday fiesta. Not a bad way to spend my Monday!

Have a good one, y'all!!!!