We are home!

Hi friends, Zack and I made it home today! We had a GREAT vacation! It was such a wonderful way to celebrate our 5 year anniversary! We had a lot of quality time and made tons of memories together. I will be posting some updates from our vacation over the next couple days, so be looking for them! Miss ya'll!

exhausted, but excited!

So much for an early night! BUT, Zack and I are finally ready to go...our bags are in the trunk and we are heading to bed...and we are SOOO excited! This is going to be an adventure! I am not sure if we will have internet where we are going, but I will try to give updates on our trip if possible...if not, I will be back in 2 weeks!

Crazy...

That is the word that I would use to describe things at the puddle this week. Zack and I have been trying to get ready for our upcoming vacation, fill out paper work for my impending job, and spend time with family/friends.

Monday I had an employment physical/HR paperwork to do...(SOOO many things to sign!!!) and we had small group.

Tuesday was house cleaning/laundry/trip planning/grocery day and Rachel came that night.

Wednesday was my fun day spent with Rachel. That evening, Rachel left and my father came. He worked at a ropes course nearby our house for the past day and 1/2. So, we got to enjoy Rachel for a day and then got to have my dad come spend some time with us...which is always nice.

Last night, dad played the Wii with us...it was pretty funny. He was sword fighting and kept getting closer and closer to the TV until he eventually hit the TV screen with the remote! :) ha! I have gotten close to doing the same thing...you get so drawn into the game that you don't even realize that you are doing it!

Tomorrow is our last day to get ready for our trip...I hope that we can get everything packed that we need...it is kinda daunting to think about! I feel a little overwhelmed by it all...but packed or not, we are headed to the Mid West Saturday morning. We have an early flight Saturday morning. So, we will have to get up SUPER early...hopefully we will be able to get to bed early tomorrow night!

sisters

Aren't sisters great?! I didn't have one until about 3-4 years ago when my BIL Ben sweet talked her into marrying him; I just love her! She is so much fun and has such a gentle, loving (occasionally mischievous) spirit...and most importantly, she loves the Lord. She is working toward a Master's in Divinity. We are so proud of her, and I feel so blessed to call her sister!


Rachel, came up this week to hang out so that we could work on getting things planned/together for a Georgia Bulldog themed bridal shower that she is throwing for her brother and his fiance in October

I had so much fun getting to hang out with her and just do girl stuff. She got here Tuesday night and we watched 17 again. Rachel had already seen it, but she humored me and watched it again, since I had never seen it. I thought that it was pretty cute.

Wednesday, we went shopping for supplies for the shower. We went to a couple of stores before we found just the right paper to make invitations and we were able to nail down ideas for table decorations. We found some REALLY cute fabric that was black with red and white paisley. She is probably going to use it for a table runner over a red tablecloth...she will be able to reuse the fabric after the shower is over. We also got some daisies for her to put into mason jars to place on the food table. Again, these are probably something that she could use again in her own home.

Isn't this cute fabric?

Gerber Daisies always remind me of my college roommate, they were her favorite flower!

We worked on the invitations and have them almost complete. She just has to print the the actual invitation part and attach that and ribbon to them!

I think that they will be REALLY cute when she gets them finished!

I had so much fun getting to help her work on this shower...I LOVE doing stuff like that. So, it was right down my alley!

We loved getting to have Rach with us for a little while and hopefully we will get to hang out with her and Ben again soon!

Love you sis! Thanks for letting me be a part of all the fun party planning! :)

This movie looks really good...

After what seems to be a period of drought in movies worth going to go see, I am so glad to see that there are some movies coming out, and in the theater that actually look like they would be worth spending money to go see. This one looks like it will be one of them.

I'll always be daddy's little girl!

Today is my Dad's birthday and so I am reminded of what a wonderful man he is.

I have been truly blessed over the years to have such a loving and caring...albeit occasionally overprotective father. He has passed on a wonderful Christian heritage to me and my brother and has been a Christ like example in our lives. He has a heart for the Lord. He is loving and caring. He can fix or build anything...and he has been my hero for as long as I can remember! I could not have asked for a more wonderful father...and I love him very much! And, while I now have a wonderful and loving husband, I will always be my Daddy's little girl!

Happy birthday Daddy, I love you!!

A dry run

Zack and I are going to be going on vacation starting the end of next week, and we are planning to do quite a bit of hiking. We have been looking at trails and maps, etc...but didn't know how far we could reasonably hike in a day. So, today, we did a dry run. We went and hiked a relatively hilly 10 mile loop near our house and timed ourselves to see how long it would take us. We also packed our daypack similarly to what it would be packed on our trip.


We managed to hike 10 miles and take about a 30 minute break for lunch in 4 hours. So, we felt a little bit more confident in what trail lengths we could potentially tackle on our trip...of course, we haven't tried to hike such distances several days in a row...but hopefully our biking/running over the last couple months will have gotten us in good enough shape that we will be able to hike without too much trouble!

An apple a day

One of Zack's favorite things to eat is Applesauce. He loves it...he especially loves the homemade variety. So, while we were up in the mountains last weekend, I picked a bag full of Apples off of the Apple tree and brought them home with the intention of making some applesauce for my man. I have to admit to you that I in some ways dread the process, but the pleasure that it brings Zack is well worth the cramps that it leave in my hands from peeling and cutting up all of those apples.

I filled a pot with cut up apples and about 2 cups of water. I let it simmer on the stove top for several hours and once the apples had broken down into a sauce like consistency, I added about 3/4 cup sugar and a tsp of Cinnamon. I then let it all simmer together for about 3o minutes more. Then, I let it cool and poured it into jars.


Zack will probably eat this all in about 2 days...but it is worth it to see the smile on his face while he's eating it!

Dinner at the Deatons

Tonight, Zack and I got to go over to the Deaton's for a cookout. We had hamburgers (Berry Beef), hotdogs, chips, salsa, baked beans (a la Jody...aka delicious), and Ice Cream Turtle. We had a great time getting to catch up/ joke around with some of the Rage Alumni...good times! Skye was cracking us all up with stories from her road trip out west this summer...and Jay was reminding us of good times with "little bit" from our days together at Berry. It is always such fun to get together with friends and make new memories while remeniscing about the old days! :) Thanks Jody! We had a blast tonight!

Going Greek

Tonight I tried a new recipe, Chicken Gyros. I found the recipe online (cannot remember where) a while ago and I have been wanting to try it ever since. So, I made it for dinner tonight, complete with Tzatziki Sauce. They turned out really well and I am sure that I will have to make these again in the not too distant future!

My Plate.

This past weekend, Mama Sandy brought Rachel and I's plates that we painted over Girl's Night up to the mountains. I thought that I would share the finished product with you. I think that it turned out pretty cute...I wanted to put "as for me and my house we will serve the Lord" on it, but I do not have good enough hand writing to free hand that and they didn't have many stencils with letters...so, I left it a little more plain and simple! :) I still think that it is cute!

Rachel's dish turned out really cute too. I don't have a picture of it...sorry...and I didn't get to see Mama Sandy's since her's was at her house...but she said that she was happy with how it turned out!

This plate will serve as a reminder for me of some really fun times with Rachel and Mama Sandy! Love you girls!! Looking forward to many more girl's nights! :)

weekend with family friends

Group shot

In life there are people that you become friends with at that is all it is, friendship...and then, there are those few friends that become more like family than friends. This past weekend, Zack and I were able to spend some time with friends of that nature.

Zack's parents had a group of friends that they hung out with for years...and while they have all moved and grown and changed over the years, those friendships have remained strong. They have lived life together...and later apart, and the friendships have stood the test of time and even in some cases grown stronger over the years. They raised their children together, they went through hard times and happy times together...they share a lot of history together...and they love and care for one another.

Love these girls!

Zack calls many of them Aunt and Uncle...and so, I have adopted this tradition as well. We love them and always have such a great time with them. It is at times difficult to remember that they aren't actually family.

I have several friends from my high school and college years that I would lump into the friends that are family category...and even though we live in different places and don't see much of each other, they still hold a VERY special place in my heart...they are in a very real sense like family to me.

I hope that when Zack and I are in Zack's parents stage of life, with kids of our own, that we will have a group of friends that we still get together with that will mean the same thing to our children that these people mean to us.

The girls went for a walk...this is our attempt at a group shot! lol!

We were so excited to get to spend a weekend with them up in the mountains. We had a great time playing games and visiting the swimming hole...and eating WAY TOO much food! It was a weekend full of blessings and I am so glad that Zack and I were able to be there!

We played a game of "squishy" ball

...then after getting nice and sweaty,
we had some of Rachel and Ben's home grown watermelon!

and of course, then we had to go to the swimming hole!

..and of there had to be some guitar pick'n and singin'

...and most importantly, a time of praise/ corporate worship

to the strongest common bond that we all share...The Lord.

We feel greatly blessed to have such friends as these!!