Birthday Boy

Yesterday was Brandon's 26th birthday, and I just have to write a quick little note about my wonderful hubby. I feel so immensely blessed to get to go through life with such a wonderful Christian man who makes everything so fun. I love how I know that I see a side of him that nobody else in the world sees, yet he is so true to himself and what he believes in. I can't believe we've been married 1 1/2 years already- time really has flown by. Happy birthday, my love!


Ok so there's a story behind this wonderful picture. Brandon has been wanting a dart board for several months now to go in his "boy room". So I've been thinking about it for a little while now. But little did he know that when he opened up the box to find this little plastic one that I found at work with only 1 dart. I did buy him the real one I knew he would want, but I had him thinking that this was the one I picked out. He tried to be so nice, telling me that maybe someday we can get a bigger one and he might not go hang it up just yet. I kept a straight face for a while, telling him we can return it if he wants to. But I pretty quickly broke down and gave him the real one. It was just about the squirmiest I've seen him in a while, really not knowing what to say. But boy was he relieved when he saw the one he wanted. Happy birthday Brandon!!! I loooove you.

Briana's Wedding Weekend

This weekend, I headed to Tyler to meet up with friends to celebrate Briana's wedding. We stayed at Callie's apartment and had such a fun little reunion with all my girlfriends. It was the perfect weekend for the girly time I was needing, and we had a blast. It's always fun getting together and being immature with them, and we didn't stop laughing all weekend. We helped Callie put the finishing touches on the cake and transported it to the church, which was so very chaotic and funny. But I really have a whole new respect for cake makers- Callie did so good. And Briana looked amazing-- now she is Mrs. Briana Singleton! Yayy!


Krystina, Briana, me, and Brooke at the Bridesmaid's Brunch


So excited for you Briana!!!


Excited to be having girl time :)


Love you Brookie


Callie made the beautiful wedding cake, so yummy!


Brooke and Tina


The beautiful bride- gotta stay hydrated!


I miss my Callie :)


Mrs. Briana Singleton


The skilled cake servers- just don't look too close :)


Thanks to Brooke, I wore heels for about the first time in my life


Thanks for letting us stay with you Callie!


I had such a fun weekend, love you girls!


And also, GO COWBOYS!!! We had a big win today against
the Falcons- woo woo Miles Austin!

Happy Birthday Mamacita!!

Today is my mom's birthday and I wanted to wish her the HAPPIEST BIRTHDAY EVER!!! I always hate being so far away on days like today. I just wish I could be there with Jess and Allie to bake the classic Black-family tradition for her birthday, a big chocolate chip cookie cake with extra chocolate chips and yummy icing and tons of candles. Birthdays have always been a big deal in my family, the one day to show someone how much you love them and how glad you were they are in your life. Well, my mom is amazing, and I can't imagine my life without her support and encouragement. She is one of the most intelligent and independent women I know, and she has a love for people that is really inspiring. I hope to have just an ounce of the strength and compassion that my mom has. Some of my favorite things about my mom--I just had to make a cheesy acronym- it just seems like the 'mom' thing to do:)

M is for all the ways she was a great example for the Mom I want to be to my kids someday
A is for the the way her Accent changes when she talks to people who don't speak English
R is for the way she is always Reaching out to help people
G is for the way she demonstrated how to live in a way that glorifies God
O is for the Only person I know who might love the beach more than I do



Happy Birthday Mom! I love you more than anything!!!

Our weekend

It was such a gorgeous weekend, we literally spent all of it outside. Saturday morning I ran 6 miles for the first time in my life. Running is actually going ok, but more on that another day.

When I got home from my morning run with my girlfriends, Brandon had already mowed and weed-eated (haha, how do you write that?) the yard. So we decided to go and get some plants for the yard since we heard this is the best time of year to plant. We planted a Red Oak tree in the back yard and several shrubs in the front. But the biggest project was removing the shrub/tree monster from in front of the bay window in the front. We had NO idea what an ordeal it would turn out to be. Brandon ended up recruiting our friend Chad to come and stare/ponder what to do with the huge stump that was left after Brandon cut off the top of the tree. Long story short, they ended up strapping a tow rope and using a truck to pull the massive piece from the earth. But after hedging and weeding and lots of digging and planting, the yard is looking good. We still have lots of landscaping hopes and dreams for the future, but we're happy with it for now.

Here's a picture to show what it looked like before, even before we painted the shutters:



And here's what it looks like now:



Can you tell I love this time of year? Happy Fall!!!

Pajama Party

Last night we got to hang out with Brandon's little cousins, Samantha and AJ. We really had a good time. Samantha helped me cook while the boys grilled out and played with Bailey. It's amazing how many stories those two have to tell. After dinner we got in our pjs and watched Monsters vs. Aliens, which was SO GOOD! Brandon and I both really enjoyed it. After they warmed up to Bailey, they had a good time playing with her and snuggling during the movie. And then we had a good time playing cards and trying to beat Brandon by cheating as much as possible.


Comfy cozy movie time:)


Thanks for coming to play Mantha and AJ!!!

Whhhyyyyyyy

Why can't it stay pretty?!? Will it ever stop raining?!?! The answer appears to be a definite NO. How depressing. Not only is it getting too cold for comfort, but now rain. We were just starting to have some of those really nice sunny days with a light cool breeze. Then crazy Texas had to go and rain for weeks and weeks with only a few brief moments for us to stop and catch our breath before it starts back up again.

Hopefully it will clear up very soon so we can enjoy tshese few weeks of fall leading up to Halloween. Oh that would be lovely. Please, Texas, please! What'd I ever do to you??? Just let us enjoy October and we'll see this craziness again in the Spring. I'm justo ready to get outside and have an enjoyable autumn.

I'm just so tired of seeing this for the forecast--


Instead, I'm ready to see this!!!

Running

For some reason, heaven knows why, I've agreed to start running with some girls from church. They talked me into it because they have a really great program for training to run long distances. I HATE running and really always have, but I really want to learn to like it. Or at least not abhor it like I do now. I kinda figured this is my chance- if I don't do it now, I never will. We got up early Saturday and ran at White Rock, then we ran yesterday and just now tonight. Three runs down, and I haven't died yet. That's HUGE for me:) If it weren't for girlfriends to run with, there's no way I would do it. But it's actually been quite tolerable so far. It's been fun to have girl-time and talk while running. Some of them are training for marathons and half marathons. I just want to see how it goes and get to the point where I can enjoy taking Bailey out for a run. But getting to that point is the issue. And as of tonight, I now have something to work toward...



On Thanksgiving Day, I'm going to run in the Boulevard Bolt in Nashville with my dad and sister! It's one of those things that I never would have thought I'd want to do, but I'm pretty excited about it. It'll be something good to keep me motivated to keep running and I think it should be a reasonable goal for me to look forward to. Until then, you know what I'll be doing! Wish me luck!

Briana's shower

This weekend, we threw a shower for Briana at my house. It was soooo fun catching up with all my girlfriends from college. I miss them so much!


We had so much fun.


Me and Brookie


Brooke and Krystina, love you girls


The future Mrs. Singleton-- only three weeks!!!

Things are looking up

Oh I hate getting behind on blogging! But the past couple weeks have been busy. And it finally got really pretty here after some long rainy weeks of depression. I never knew that weather had that much of an impact on me. After all the rain, I couldn't get over how gorgeous the sunsets were here last week. No other state can beat this big Texas sky. Then this weekend we got to get out of the city and see the big sky full of stars.

Camping

We went camping at Lake Tawakoni with our church group. We had a wonderful weekend just relaxing, fishing, and being outside. The weather was perfect- just barely chilly enough at night to want to sit close to the fire, but not too cold to wear shorts during the day. Bailey had a great time playing with all the other pups on the camping trip. And Brandon had a great time going out with Chris on the boat. They got up at 5:30 AM on Saturday and Sunday to make sure and have as much prime fishing time as possible. Lacey and I joined them out on the boat on Saturday afternoon (thus the pictures), and I even caught some fish. I got pretty lucky and brought in 4 sandbass on my first 4 casts. Brandon and Chris weren't too thrilled at my good luck streak. But I must admit, I'm learning to like fishing and camping much more these days, as long as it's in small doses, I catch lots of fish, and I get smores every night.


Brandon made sure to document this as the first fish caught


Loving boat life


Lacey and me with our pups, Katie and Bailey


(I really don't like touching the fish)


Like Katie-girl, we were all pretty pooped after roughing it all weekend.

We had a really fun weekend. It has been pretty cool in the evenings, but it feels about right for being football season. Speaking of, Brandon has been pretty obsessed with any and all things football. Last night we watched the game with friends and Bailey got to play again with one of her buddies. Finally Cowboys won a game in their new stadium! And thank goodness- I'm not sure if Brandon could handle the emotional stress of another Cowboys loss. I am still getting used to how very seriously he takes these games. Luckily, Brandon can have some therapy time by spending some good quality time with the boat. He's been excited to get to work on it, making a few little improvements as he goes.

Sad day
Last week was my friend Amanda's last week at work. I never really anticipated becoming such good friends with a co-worker, but Amanda and I just hit it off ever since I started working there in June. She's a contract PTA, so her contract was up and now she's headed to Florida. We became really close, so I've been pretty bummed that she left, and now I'm just stuck with a bunch of boys to work with. How sad!

Grey's Anatomy
So I've been eagerly anticipating the return of Grey's. I've missed them- Meredith, Derek, Cristina, George, Alex, Izzie, Miranda, and even Callie. But this first episode was very emotional. I'm not going to even get into it, but I was bawling my eyes out in the first 10 minutes. It was so sad, but I'm just so glad it's back in my life again.


And last but NOT least,
Happy Birthday Memommy!!!!!

Yesterday was my Memommy's 80th birthday, and I was sad not to be there with her. But she's such an amazing woman, and I get a lot of my personality from her. And I just hope that someday I'll look as good as she does at her age. She's such a beautiful Christian woman, and I just love her so much!

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?

Well, football season is upon us. Today the Cowboys won their first game of the season. We've actually really been looking forward to football season this year. Since living in Dallas, we've both become big fans. Brandon grew up here, so he has enjoyed rekindling his love for the beloved Cowboys. And I am excited just to finally be able to know a little about what's going on. (Well, sorta.) I have actually learned to enjoy a good football game with my hubby. But then there's the world of Fantasy Football. Brandon started that last year and now become somewhat obsessed. I really don't mind watching Cowboys games, but must we watch nearly every NFL game on television?!?!?! I mean, this is not the man I married!!!
Here's to you, football season!
Our weekend was good, very rainy. But hope everyone had a good one!