Vacation

The second week of August Adam and I met my mom in brother in Little Rock to hop on a quick flight to Houston, TX. Dad had been there all week for a work meeting. He picked us up and we went to dinner and stayed the night in town.. We were all short on time between my lack of vacation days and Lee starting school the next week so a quick flight and a couple of days on the beach was the answer to a MUCH needed break.

We woke up the next morning and had a delicious breakfast at the hotel. Mom had a Texas- shaped waffle which I believe indicated that we were going to have a great trip!

Before arriving at the beach, we went to the outlet mall then ate at my dad's all time fav burger joint... Watta-burger. After I stuffed myself with a delicious cheeseburger, onion rings, and LARGE coke (which I managed to spill like a child in the middle of the restaurant) -we then headed to the Johnson Space Center. Lee was especially interested in seeing the space center (which I thought would be a total drag) and it ended up being incredibly cool! (Lee gets 2 cool points!)

 Dad and Lee being silly.

 I have trained mom how to pose for pictures. She's such a diva!

We decided not to pay the $20+ person and 120 degree golf cart tour around the space center and instead opted for the free, air- conditioned Apollo museum.  It documented all of the Apollo missions and one of the shuttles from a mission. (I do not recap details well so of course I cant tell you which one.) 

 Family picture by the giant rocket!! Y'all it was seriously huge!

I know this picture is sideways. And its dark. I dont know how to fix it. I want everyone to see my super cute dress from Target. :)

 They had the space shuttle broken up into each of the different pieces that drop off during the shuttle launch.

 The boys in between one of the sections... see how huge this thing is?

Lee in front of one of the huge jet engines on the back of the rocket. There were 8 of these!

 After the space center, we headed to the beach. Galveston Beach is definitely different than Florida beaches. The sand is brown and the water definitely had more debris. BUT, it was the beach and it was glorious. We headed out to put our feet in the sand before heading to dinner at a local seafood place.

 My cute husband in his new shirt.

My former roommates. I love them so. much.

The next day included a full day at the beach. There is nothing like relaxing on the beach! When we were sick of the sand and salt water, we headed to the pool. I had also just completed a dedicated week of watching Shark Week on the Discovery Channel. I do not recommend this for beach goers. I was seriously terrified to get in the water!

Laying by the pool.... so relaxing! Mom and I went a little overboard in the sun and had some nasty sunburns to pay for it... next post!

Dog Days of Summer

Lately its been hot in northwest Arkansas...

 My car said it was 112 degrees on Monday. At first I thought that surely couldn't be, but then I saw a bank marquee that said 117! Of course that's with the heat index, I think the actual this day was 109. It was a record breaking day temperature- wise in the state.

(not sure why the pic wont rotate)

Most days for work I dress up pretty nice. Either a dress or slacks with heels or wedges. I usually fix my hair, put on full makeup etc. It's been so hot lately, I can hardly stand to wear dress clothes. Getting in and out of my car all day means I stay hot all day because my car never really has a chance to cool off. This week, I've been a lot more casual than normal and sporting a polo with capri pants and "dressy" sandals. My hair is clipped up or in a pony tail. I've also been wearing less make- up than usual... there's really no point since I've sweated most of it off by the end of the day!

As hot as it is, I'm so thankful to have air conditioning in my car and in my home. That is something I take for granted and I know there are many that do not have that luxury!

This week, I was out of town to Mountain Home, AR on Monday night and got back about 6:30 pm on Tuesday. Our friend Bret came over for dinner. On Wednesday, we went to Sean and Nicole's for Sean's 26th birthday celebration. Nicole decorated so cute with a Fiesta theme. They had a yummy taco bar and all the fixins. 

 The birthday boy.

P, Sarah, and me

Payne and his cute mustache :)

Sean and Nicole have become some of our really good friends. They are in a very similar stage of life as us which makes hanging out with them a lot of fun. We met through our small group at Cross Church and we have really enjoyed getting to know this sweet couple!

Friday night our sweet friends, Shawn and Amy came over for dinner with their adorable baby, Harris. We miss them so much and are so thankful we're going to see more of them this fall! On Saturday and Sunday we SLEPT IN AND LAID AROUND. Did you hear me??? We NEVER get to have a lazy weekend and we were so thankful for one! 

On Saturday we literally slept until 9 and didn't get out of bed until 10:00. It was wonderful! Gus doesn't sleep with us but we let him in our bed for some cuddle time around 9. We made breakfast, did some house work, then shopped for patio furniture (we found none.) I think picked up my Little Sis (BBBS) and we ran to Hobby Lobby to pick out fabric for our project. "D" just moved into a new house and we made a lamp and some bulletin boards for her room.  Adam played golf while we worked on our crafts. "D" and I then made homemade pizza before I took her home.

On Sunday, we again slept until 9 and went to the late service at church. We had lunch with our buddies at Schlotzky's Deli before coming home to lay.on.the.couch. It was bliss. Just my man and my doggy on the couch for 3+hours. We watched a sad movie, "The Time Traveler's Wife" then took a nap. We then headed to the Owen's house for a game of Yahtzee and dinner.

We're getting ready to head to Galveston, TX with my family in a few days! I am so looking forward to getting away!

Wedding Season Is Upon Us!

We are in the stage of life where weddings and babies are a regular occurrence! It seems like every time I go to the mailbox it contains an invitation of a good friend that is starting one of these life chapters and has invited us to be a part. I LOVE weddings. I love showers, buying gifts, and watching a bride walk down the aisle. I also love wedding food and cake... DUH!

This summer has been no exception, we've attended several weddings already this year and wished we could have been others but our location and busy lives kept us from a few. This past week, I attended 2 weddings of very good college friends.

Lyndsey was my "Little Sis" in our sorority- Delta Zeta, at UCA. I met Lyndsey her freshman year when I was her R.A. We had an immediate connection and spent lots of late nights in my room talking about all kinds of things. Lyndsey got married at the Junior League in Little Rock, its one of my favorite places!

 the bride and I.

 I was an RA (Resident Assistant) in college for 3 years. (I'm a nerd I know... actually it was the easiest money I've ever made!) All of these girls lived on my hall their freshman year and I haven't seen many of them in years. We had to get a picture together at Lyndsey's wedding.

One of my favorite parts of a Delta Zeta Wedding... singing to the bride and her new husband. So sweet.

Payne and his mommy came to eat lunch with me on Friday before I left for the wedding. Payne looked so cute with his spiked hair and t-shirt that says "I still live with my parents." Hilarious! I love that boy so much.

The next day, I met up with some of my other college besties and we headed to Memphis for Lauren's bachelorette party. Now, normally I don't get really excited about bachelorette weekends (I'm usually the only married woman and I'd rather go to bed at 10 pm than stay out all night,) but we seriously had a great time and I laughed a WHOLE lot. I met Lauren through several of my pledge sisters and we all went to Florida together my Junior year of college.  Lauren wasn't in our sorority, but might as well have been. She is one of my favorite friends from college.  We all wore wigs on Beale Street to celebrate her last night as a single lady!

Myself, the bachelorette Miss Lauren, Kristine, Sarah, Jessica, Katie, Morgan, Elizabeth, Erin, and Erin. Lizzybeth even came! She and I got sleepy before most of the other girls so we went back to the hotel early and raided the snack bar. :) These girls keep me young. (Ha!) About half of them are married/engaged so we're not quite as crazy as we used to be. It's funny to me how when were together its like we can pick up right where we left off.

After a crazy week, Adam and I had a date at Olive Garden on Friday night then went to bed early. We slept in Saturday and then headed to Little Rock for Lauren's wedding. It was beautiful and we got to see a few other friends that we hadn't seen in a while.

 Mr. & Mrs. Kelsey

 Us girls with the bride and groom.

 me and Jessica. We were good friends in college, but have been hanging out a lot lately since she is in NWA for the next year for her pharmacy rotations. She is seriously one of the funniest people I have ever met! And she is beautiful! She runs about 10 miles a day most days... she's my inspiration!

 Friends.

 After the wedding and reception at the church, the groom's family hosted an "after party" in the River Market. I loved that Lauren had a cute, white cocktail dress for the after party!

 The bride and I. Yes, I am re-wearing my bridesmaids dress from Meg's wedding last year!

Myself with Tyler and Becca. Sadly, they did not get to attend the bachelorette party! We sure missed them and I was SO glad to see both of them at the wedding!

My date for the evening. Isn't he a hunk? We drove back to NWA Saturday home and didn't get home until late.  We woke up Sunday morning and our poor doggy had got sick all in his crate. We went to late service at church after cleaning him up then I went to a movie (The Smurfs) with my Little Sis (Big Brothers Big Sisters).

Me and D.

Gussy in our bed after he was feeling a little better today. I don't want to tell you what it looked/smelled like in his room/my office this morning... I guess dog's can get a stomach virus??? Luckily he seems much better.

After that, I came home to my sweet husband cleaning the house. We laid around for a little bit before I headed to the grocery store and he mowed the lawn. I came home and cooked a yummy Veggie and Bacon Fritatta! (Blog post soon about some of my new recipes!) I'm headed off now to pack to go out of town tomorrow. I've been staying overnight every other week for work. It's 2-3 nights a month away from home which I'm not crazy about... but I am really loving my job right now so it works.

Adam and I are loving life right now. We are in such a fun season and I always hope to remember weekends like this together! I think we have 6 more weddings this year.... I'm not sure we'll be able to attend all of them, but I am looking forward to trying!

Birthday and Anniversaries

Living far from "home" has its downsides... its impossible to be involved in everything going on with our families that we'd like to be. Somethings are worth driving 3 hours there and back for... my daddy's 55th birthday was one of those!

Every Sunday night my dad's family gets together at my parent's house. Since my dad's birthday was also Sunday, we had a birthday party for him. It was a great time and I'm so glad I got to celebrate with him.

 Happy Birthday, Dad! I'm so glad I got to spend the day with you!

July 24th also means 2 VERY important anniversaries! My parents got married on July 24th 1982... it was dad's birthday (he said he would forget their anniversary otherwise!) It was also the year Adam was born... ha!  It's also ironically the anniversary of my in-laws! They have been married 40 years!  I kind of wish now we had considered getting married on July 24th. It would have been really neat to celebrate an anniversary on the same day as both of our parents. BUUUT I wanted that gorgeous winter wedding! Anyway.... Happy Anniversary to mom and dad Richardson and "Judge and Baba" Fite. Thank you for being a wonderful example to Adam and I about what marriage is about. We are so thankful for you all in our lives and love you very much!

Going "home" also means seeing this sweet girl... my little cousin, Avery. Isn't she a doll?

I didn't take a lot of pictures that night... I guess we were having too much fun! I think we are are town for the next several weekends. I am looking forward to the fall since our parents will be coming up to Fayetteville a lot for all of the home Hog football games!

Down By the River... Almost

Well my in-laws, (otherwise known as Judge and Baba to my nephews and now us) spent the weekend with us. We started dreaming up plans for them to come to Fayetteville for their anniversary back in April. They have been married for 40 years this year and wanted to spend it with us... how sweet! Baba decided she wanted to do something "outdoorsy" and thought that floating would be fun. We decided that the Buffalo would be too slow and hot in July and hoped to float the Elk River in Southwest Missouri instead. It's only about an hour or so drive North of Fayetteville. They were going to stay in a nice hotel in Rogers and we would float on Saturday... nice dinner Sat night followed by a card game... church Sunday... the works! Weelllll..... then we started getting reports about how the Elk River was frequented by we will say, "shirtless hillbillies." Evidently at one point on the river ladies have the opportunity to gain Mardi Gras beads and this act is done so often. After discussing with my husband, then he with his mother, we all decided that seeing some toothless female removing her swimsuit for a $.10 strand of beads was not our idea of a good time. That topped with an unexpected funeral that the MIL and FIL needed to attend meant...

 Dinner at Mermaids, then coffee drinks at Arsaga's with the in-laws.

Then a private tour of Adam's company, Acumen Brands. The in-laws hadn't seen the building since it had been completed. Here are Adam and I on the giant bean bags in the break room. Its seriously one of the neatest companies I've ever heard of. They have an equally as neat new office space!

Then... I had this genius idea to check out our local Botanical Garden. We have never been before and I kept hearing about the "Firefly Festival" going on so we headed on over there on Friday night. It was kind of neat to walk around and see different kinds of flowers and plants and just spend time together... the boys were NOT impressed.

 You sweated just by breathing and there were a million people... mostly kids.  Supposedly there was a great show on the stage at dusk so we encouraged them to be patient until then (we had just paid $30+ to get in!) So we waited....and waited.... and sweated... and waited for the show to start. When it did we expected a million fireflies to be released or something spectacular. Instead.... there was a puppet show. One of those shadow puppet shows.... the boys were done. We left and laughed all the way to the car about how dorky it was.  We WERE spending time together and that is what was important!

On Sunday we went to church, then had brunch at Greenhouse Grill, one of our new fav restaurants in town. We then did a little shopping. I was SO exhausted from a week of traveling and little sleep so I went home and crashed after that. We had such a great weekend! No matter what we do... we always have a good time with our parents when they come to town!

J&B- I'm sorry it wasnt the weekend we had originally planned, but we really enjoyed seeing you guys! We were thrilled that you decided to celebrate your anniversary with us. We love you!

Happy 4th Y'all!

We had a wonderful 4th of July weekend. On Friday night, we met up with 3 other couples at a place in Fayetteville called Greenhouse Grill. It is a restaurant that serves only organic food. They have the regular stuff like burgers, pasta, etc... but I decided to be adventurous and get Veggie Crepes. They.were.amazing!  I'm not sure that they were low in calories, but they were definitely made with home grown vegetables and whole wheats.

After dinner, we went to the Turpin home to play cards. The 8 of us played a card game called "The Great Dalmuti." It was a blast! We had a great time visiting and eating Kirsti's delicious dessert, Calypso Pie. (She refuses to share this age old family recipe! Darn it!)

To celebrate America's birthday, we headed to Arkadelphia, AR on Saturday to meet my family at Lake DeGray.  I grew up going to Lake DeGray every weekend. My parents had a ski boat and many Saturday's were spent there enjoying it. They sold it a few years ago when my brother and I became involved in so many activities (mainly his baseball) that kept us too busy on the weekends in the summertime to go to the lake. SO- when dad mentioned renting a boat for the day, I got very excited!

 Brother Lee, Gus, and Husband on Dad's fishing boat. Gus had a BLAST! It was his first time ever on a boat!

 Baby Kate and Lee driving the big boat

 Husband and I

 Me and Gus. He LOVED the lake!

Kate and Uncle Ted. 

My dad's whole family came to the lake on Saturday.  We ate lunch at the lake and then dinner at one of my all time favs... The Fish Net! Sadly, I didn't get a picture of our whole crew, but I did get one of my Meme with all of her children! We had such a good time and I'm hoping we will make the lake on July 4th weekend a tradition!

On Sunday, we went to church with our parents, ate lunch with Adam's parents, then headed back to Fayetteville. We wanted to make the firework show at our sister church, Cross Church Pinnacle Hills. I am SO glad we made it back in time... the firework show was one of the best I have ever seen! We met up with the Francis family to enjoy the show.

 Josh, Jen, Brody, Jillian Kate, Adam, and I. We love their family!

 Brobee (Brodie) loves Adam. I think this was right after he gave Adam an "elmo drop."

On Monday I slept in while Adam met his BFF Brad for golf. I then met them and Brad's wife Mandy for lunch at Chic Fil A before Adam and I headed to the mall for some shopping. We are redoing our bedroom and found a new bedspread! I had to order it but it should be in this week... pictures to come!  Monday night we met up with the the Green's and the Owen's and had dinner at Fayetteville CC. We then sat on the driving range to watch their annual fireworks show. We had a great time. I told Adam several times this weekend that I wish I could just freeze time. There were so many great moments this weekend with our friends and with our family.... I feel so blessed.

Those blessings of friends and family coupled with the fact that I live in the greatest nation in the world- one where I am free to worship and praise my Lord without persecution are my greatest joys. Happy Birthday America- I enjoyed your weekend of birthday festivities!

Where Did June Go?

I have no idea where the month of June went! It's like it was May... then it was the 4th of July!  I went back through my Outlook calendar (my whole life is documented there!) and wanted to remember a few things about June...

1. I started a new job June 1st which consumed much of my time this month. I still work for the same company, Advanced Tissue, as an Account Representative.  For the past 2.5 years, I have called solely on hospitals and outpatient clinics. As of June 1 I now also call on nursing homes.  Its been a big change, but a good one. I will no longer be jet-setting to Florida once a quarter, now my territory is close to home. I will miss working on the beach, but glad to not spend as many nights away from home. I really enjoy my job.  It's challenging, but a lot of fun (most of the time.) Its very fast paced, but I enjoy it- especially the flexibility of it.

One weekend in June I spent in Dallas for training.  I got to meet up with one of my BFF's Kori.  Kori and I met when we were 11 or 12.  I used to always introduce Kori as "my home schooled friend."  We met at church and were great friends growing up.  Kori and her husband moved to Dallas after they married 3 years ago and we don't see each other near enough.  Kori picked me up from the airport and we grabbed a late lunch before she took my to my hotel. Sadly, I did not get a picture of us that day, but here is a picture of us together at our BFF Megan's wedding. She is the Indian colored girl in the middle. I am the starkly white Caucasian to the left of her. We ate at La Madeline, which was completely delicious!

2. We spent time with friends cooking out. I love summertime (the heat doesn't really bother me) and being with good friends. We are blessed with GREAT friends and one night got together at Ryan and Sarah's.

 The boys.

 This is my new friend Kelly. She is Sarah's friend, but I'm taking her.

 This cute little couple is a product of Sarah and I. We helped them meet 1 year ago and they are some serious love birds today.

 We had a pretty yummy spread going. We like food.

Ally made this delicious fruit tart for desert. It went perfect with our homemade ice cream!

3. Father's Day. We went home to Benton for Father's Day to spend time with our dads. Adam spent the day with his dad on the golf course and my dad spent the day together just piddling around town. We love our dads very much and are thankful that we live close to drive home for the weekend.

4. We celebrated MIL's birthday. Known as "Baba" to my nephews, we celebrated her birthday with dinner at a new favorite restaurant in Little Rock, Bravo.  We love you, Baba!

Other than that, Adam and just tried to spend as much time together as possible.  While I'm not going across the country, my new job does involve a few nights overnight away from home per month.
We are loving the stage of life that we are in that keeps us very much on the move. Hopefully I will be able to continue to document bits of our life along the way!