Viva la vida!

So we're off to the Coldplay concert! All day, I've been hoping Chris Martin will do like he does in this video (click here). Maybe he'll dance like that tonight. And maybe I'll see Gwyneth! Can't wait!

Birthday, Play dates, and Renovations

We've had a very busy week, once again. We've done lots of painting, cleaning, organizing, you name it. But we also got to have some really good church friends over and Bailey even got to have some puppy play time. It was really fun. Unfortunately, on Monday night on the Bachelorette, Jillian kicked off who I think could have been the love of her life.HUGE mistake. But I can't get into that- I get way too emotional. OH and HARRY POTTER!!! We saw it on Friday night with some friends and it was amazing. Really, sooo good. Almost makes me want to go back and read the book. Almost:)

Well I had a really good birthday hanging out with friends yesterday. It's weird to be 25- not quite sure how I feel about it all. I still just feel like a college kid who happens to have a wonderful husband, a good pup, and a new house. I just really feel so blessed to be at this point in my life and be surrounded by such sweet and encouraging friends. For my birthday, I will get to be going to the Coldplay concert here on Tuesday night! Brandon hasn't ever been to a really big show like this, and it's amazing for us to get to go to a show we are both so excited about. I've been dropping "subtle" hints for months, but really gave up hope when they sold out really quickly. So that will be really fun. And then this weekend I get to see my family at my cousins wedding! Hooray!!!

Tonight Bailey got to have a play date with Knightley, Josh and Suzie's new puppy. They had a BLAST and never slowed down more than for a couple minutes. Here's a few pictures of them-


BFFs


Isn't Knightley the cutest thing?!?!


Also, we've been doing lots of updating on the house. Here's the most completed project so far...
Master Bathroom Updates

BEFORE:


AFTER:



Before:


After:



Before:


After:


A few more "After" shots...




We still have a few little updates to do on it, but that's it for now!
More project pictures to come soon!

Seriously!?!?

The heat in Dallas is getting to be unbearable. Today it was 104 degrees!!! Are you kidding me, Texas?!?! It's like you literally bake yourself a little bit just to walk across the parking lot to your car! I've never really had to deal with temperatures like this. Today was the hottest yet this year. The weathermen keep saying that maybe we can hope for temperatures down in the 90s this weekend. DOWN in the 90s??? That's still like crazy hot! I'm used to summers in the 80s, maybe low 90s when it's really toasty. Nashvillians THINK they know heat, but no no no. I now truly realize how miserably hot summer can be.

4th of July Weekend

We had such a great weekend with my parents. We all had Friday off, so they came in for the long weekend. I was so excited for them to come to visit. It's so nice to have a room for them to stay in- the apartment just wasn't so conducive to having visitors. They drove all this way and brought a TON of my old stuff with them for me to go through. We got some projects done and made about a million trips to Home Depot. I now fully understand why they call it home- it's becoming wayyy too familiar to me. Ugh.

Saturday night we ate BBQ, baked beans, fresh corn, and watermelon. The perfect 4th of July meal. To my family, it's really not summer without watermelon. And I had so much fun cooking with my mom in the new kitchen. After dinner we went to watch the fireworks (which were amazing and went on foreverrrr). It was fun having them here with us. And we got to take them to our church Sunday morning. Brandon and I have really become so comfortable here, so it was good to show my parents our little life here that we've grown to love so much. If only they just lived a little closer...


This is what Dad and Brandon were doing for a good bit of the time. They got to do some fun plumbing projects while Mom and I cleaned. They got a lot done, and the bathroom looks so much better. I'll post pictures of that soon. The weekend just flew by because we were so busy, and it was so good to have them here for a few days. But I was so sad to see them go.

Update on life

We've had a CRAZY busy life these past couple of weeks. We're loving our new home and putting every spare minute into fixing it up and making it feel like ours. We've been doing lots of little updates that I'll post about soon. We've been staying up late every night to get as much done as possible. Here's the update on everything. Prepare yourself, it's long...

MOVING OUT
As of last week, we're officially moved out of our apartment. It was kinda sad saying goodbye. It was a wonderful first home for us and the perfect little place for us, a newly married couple close to the city. And it was the place where we brought home our first baby, well...puppy- Bailey girl.


The end of one wonderful chapter of our lives!!


Sad, empty apartment where we had such a good life.


Farewell forever, 2172!


Last load! Hallelujah!!!

Then, last week Brandon went to Austin for a cool graphic design conference. And our last softball game was Friday night. We didn't get to make it to enough games, but we loved playing when we were in town, even though our team struggled just a bit.

BRANDON'S DAD IN TOWN
Brandon's dad came in on Friday to film a wedding and help with house stuff. Kim and Philip came in Friday night for the Rocketboys show and stayed for the wedding. It wasn't a very long visit though.


Us at the wedding, Craddock kids and Belt kids


The reception was right on Lake Ray Hubbard- gorgeous!

I can't believe how much Brandon's dad got done. We had a great weekend with him, but we worked really hard. Brandon took off Monday and Tuesday so they could work all day. I found out that Brandon is so much like his dad in that he works really hard and will stay up all hours of the night to finish a project. While he was here, he helped with lots of little electric things and helped finish painting our master bedroom and bathroom walls. But most of the time, he and Brandon painted the wood paneling in the living room. I'll post pictures of that very soon once it's all done and furniture is back in. I'm really excited about it though. We were sad to see him go...


Thanks for all the help!!!

MY NEW JOB
I'm loving my new job. My co-workers are wonderful and I look forward to going everyday to help my wonderful patients. I feel so blessed to be in a place where I feel like I can make a difference and brighten the day of the elderly patients there. And I just feel so encouraged and supported by everyone who works with me. I'm not loving getting up early every single day of the summer, but I'm getting used to it. But it sure it nice to finally have a second income. I'll update more about my job soon.

OUR CRIME FIGHTING ADVENTURE
FINALLY, as promised, here are the pictures and story from Florida...
(this is a long story- skip to the end for pictures)

So there we were in Florida, loving vacation life on our second day on the beach. We were all out in the water together for like a total of 10 minutes. In that short time when one of us wasn't laying in the sand, my beach bag was stolen. I was freaking out when I realized this. It was my cute beach bag (that my friend Beth gave me), which had in it my planner, some money, a room key, my camera, book, shoes, and both my and Brandon's phones. I was SICK. Most of all, my life felt like it was spinning out of control because of the loss of my planner. I wouldn't know how to function without it!!! So everyone in my family starts to panic and run down the beach looking for the bag or evidence of something somewhere. It was hopeless. Well, Allie (my brilliant sister) was up in the condo trying to figure out what to do while we were waiting on the policeman to show up. Well, being the cell phone addict that she is, she calls Sprint, just asking to see what they could do. They didn't sound hopeful. But after some flirting or SOMETHING, it just so happens that they offered her a free trial of the Sprint Family Locater service. Well, that's something, but there's no WAY these idiots would have left the cell phones on, right?? WRONG. The locator thing on Allie's phone started telling us that our phones were in Florida....yeah ok great, lots of help that is. But then it slowly starts telling us that it is closer and closer to a location. The policeman wasn't showing up and called to tell us that he had several emergencies he had to stop at. SO we decide to hop in the car and see where this locator leads us! Even my very rational father was all about it. So we all hopped in the car (except my Mom who couldn't handle this real life drama). Brandon and Jonathan felt like they were in a movie- so excited and ready to take down some criminals. So as we start to drive, Allie's locator finally says that are phones are within 14 YARDS of this one house! We go over there, and it just makes sense. It's the one junky house with stuff all in the yard in the middle of a nice neighborhood. So we drive around trying to figure out what to do. We denied my dad's idea that he walk up to the door and just ask with the car door open (so they see all of us as witnesses). CRAZY. So we find a cop car parked at a house near and ask the nice policeman who is doing yardwork if he could help. He ended up putting in a phone call to the local sherriff. After some phone calls, a detective showed up to ask us about the situation. Luckily, he was crazy enough to go and ask about our stuff. He called for back-up, and walked up to the door. After about 2 hours of us thinking there's no way he would find anything, he called us and said to come back to the house. We really kinda thought we'd have to apologize for a wrongful assumption. I walk up to the the officer at his car and as I got close, he pulled out my beaach bag!!! He found EVERY ITEM on my list! Even my planner!! Then we see the other policemen hand-cuffing two guys and putting them into the cop car. The detective told us that it was 2 guys and a girl, all about 20 years old. He apparently intimidated them pretty good. They just allowed him to come in and search their house (idiots). He said they had thrown the things all over when they saw him walking up. He had separated them as soon as got there to question them, and came out with written confessions. They would all be going to jail for Grand Theft. Whoa. The detective looked so proud- he was trying to trick me when I walked up, but he was so excited to give me back my stuff. We were just so excited to have our things back. It would have been so expensive to replace our phones and camera, not to mention what a hassle. But later that night we found out why the stupid robbers didn't turn off the phones-- they were downloading dirty pictures and ring tones onto our phones. And taking pictures of themselves on my camera (which we turned in as evidence). But that's our story. It was a CRAZY adventure. I just couldn't believe we got it back. Can you BELIEVE that?!?!


Let's catch some thieves!


Brandon and Jessi peeking in from the back.


Me and dad talking to the detective, who was not so sure about all this.


I got back my BAG!!!


So excited.


FLORIDA PICTURES


I love him. And we love vacations.


My wonderful sisters at our favorite place in the world.


My sweet mom and dad


My mom's FAVORITE thing- the nesting Skimmer birds on the beach


We have the best family in the world!


I love them.


What a great husband


No words...


We had SUCH an amazing week.