Playing Catch-up

Last weekend was eventful and fun filled!

Friday I met two of my best friends, Jill and Emily, for lunch at Cheer's in the Height's.

Friday night Justin and I had dinner with our friends Matt and Rachel at Michelangelo's.

Saturday, while Justin played in a golf tournament, I laid by the pool with Jill and Anne.
Time just flew by as we visited on our rafts/lounge chairs and bounced around in the pool. SO MUCH FUN!

Saturday night we met the Swann family at The Red Door in Little Rock to celebrate my in-laws 28th anniversary. We enjoyed fantastic food, wine, champagne, and best of all the company. Lots of laughs. As usual.

After dinner Saturday night we met some friends at the Fountain and WE DIDN'T GET HOME UNTIL 1 a.m. CRAZY.

Sunday, I met Rachel at the pool to layout for a couple hours before Jeff and Charley got in town. When Jeff and Charley arrived we went out to Spencer Lake to fish. I wish I had my camera because all four of us loaded up in the flat bottom boat. Humorous. Before Jeff and Charley headed home we went to eat at La Huerta.

Needless to say, J and I crashed Sunday night {after watching Celebrity Apprentice, of course}.

Laying out Saturday by the Curry's pool

A beautiful location to soak up the sun

Gillin' Out

We love to grill out, so one night this week J fired up the grill and we ate dinner out back. Noir, grilled portabella mushrooms, and grilled corn on the cob. Yum. Justin also had the brilliant idea to build a fire in the chiminea so that we could make s'mores for dessert.

It's the simple things in life that make us happy!

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." ~Leonardo DaVinci

Books, Books, Books

Some evenings, after work and dinner, when we relax in the den, Justin watches the Discovery channel (or the history channel) while I'm usually curled up with my latest book obsession. UNLESS...American Idol, Celebrity Apprentice, Parenthood or HGTV is on, and then my attention will revert to the screen. My love for reading began at an early age when my classmates would scowl at the teacher for making us read as I remained silent but secretly praised my teacher for that 20 minutes of reading each day . Math, no thank you, but reading, ANYTIME. So, I know I am a few days late, but I wanted to participate in Kelly's "Show Us Your Life: Favorite Books."


While I am not a huge fan of Nickolas Sparks novels, I have read a hand full and "The Wedding" is a great story.

Recently, I let myself indulge in what I thought would be a sappy romance novel; however, I was pleasantly surprised to find Emily Griffin's series "Something Borrowed," "Something Blue," "Baby Proof," and "Love the One You're With" to be delightfully entertaining and fun. I purchased the first one and finished it that day...I couldn't put it down and stayed up way past my bedtime to finish.

If you like a good suspense than you cannot go wrong with James Patterson's book series "The Women's Murder Club" and "The Alex Cross"series. Several of the Alex Cross series books were made into motion picture movies.

For all of you married couples, I have to suggest "Love and Respect." I read it while we were engaged and discussed the majority of what I learned with J. The author offered excellent advice and the book proved to be thought provoking. I am always up for improving and making any area of my life better, especially my marriage, and this book provided real life examples and insights into the "other person's" mind.

Of course, I cannot forget to mention The Twilight Series...already mentioned here

Two Thumbs up:

Authur Golden's "Memoirs of a Geisha"

"Same Kind of Different as Me" by Ron Hall & Denver Moore with Lynn Vincent

"My Friend Leonard" by James Frey

"The Help" by Kathryn Stockett

"Redeeming Love" by Francine Rivers

"Captivating" by John and Stasi Eldredge

Classic novels that I will always adore:

*The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Stalinger

*The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

*Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin

I also love biography's/autobiography's, and next on my list is "Laura Bush: Spoken from the Heart."

Whether its a cold winter day curled up by the fire or a warm summer day by the pool/beach, I would argue that having a book in hand makes it that much better!

“Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting” -Aldous Huxley

The Past Couple Weeks...

A couple weeks ago, one morning, I opened my car door and sat down to find this...

A sweet note from handsome saying that he loves me and to have a great day in my CLEAN car! He cleaned up the inside and outside of my car and instead of just telling me about it, he left me a sweet little note. He knows me well.

Last weekend J went on a fishing trip, so I stayed here to hold down the fort (and take care of these two).

Friday and Saturday night we encountered strong storms in our area, but Saturday night was worse. I left our house Saturday night to head over to my mom and dads to hang out, and when I ventured that way the sky was clear. Not for long. I got to their house and that's when it really started. I felt guilty that I left our dogs outside, so after one storm died down, mom went with me to my house so we could check on the dogs and put them inside. As we were driving to my house (with the weather man on the radio and my mother-n-law on the phone) we heard the sirens going off, so of course, I sped. We got to my house and the dogs were going completely nuts-o, and we heard a man's voice tell us to "take cover immediately." Um, Okay. Side note: my mom loves to watch storms, she is the one standing outside while they pass by your house. BUT in this instance when the man came over (what sounded like) the intercom mom ran inside and told me to grab a pillow and lay in the bathtub...hahah. Seconds later we found out through a local news channel that it was amazing that the funnel cloud didn't touch down because it was so low, and it would have done MAJOR damage. Here is a look at the funnel cloud mom yelled at me to come see.

Back-up, Friday night I ate pizza at mom and dads and watched "It's Complicated" on their big screen...such a cute movie. I said this before but who doesn't LOVE Meryl Streep!? She was fantastic, once again. I fell in love with her kitchen {in the movie}...

Last Sunday I got to help celebrate (shower) one of my best friends as she will be getting married in the near future. Ali and Rich were blessed with so many wonderful gifts and it was nice to sit down and visit with some of my favorite girls!

Marietta, Amber, Ali (soon-to-be bride), and me

us "showering" Ali

J picked me up from the shower and we headed to experience TOAD SUCK before it closed down. We managed to get exactly what we went for; chicken-on-a-stick, fresh queezed lemonade, corn dog, and a bag of kettle corn!

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And that brings us to this weekend. We are having my parents and Justin's parents over for dinner tonight to celebrate Mother's day. We love our momma's and this is just a little way to show them how much they mean to us! On the menu: Steak, twice backed potato, salad, bread, and for dessert chocolate pie and lemon ice box pie. YUM! Please excuse me, I need to get in the kitchen.

Have a great day!