Hello.

Yes I have been MIA for a while now! My computer at home is very very sick, and I just don't have any other time to blog!

But I thought I would post some pics from last weekend. My bff Kelly had a Wizard of Oz party for her two oldest daughters, Emma and Ava. Ava's birthday was actually in April, which was right when they were moving back to Memphis. So they decided to wait and have a joint birthday party in July for Emma's birthday, since they knew they would be all moved in and settled.

The girls LOOOOVE the Wizard of Oz, and it was probably one of the cutest party ideas I've seen! Here are the birthday girls...Emma turned 5, Ava 3! Check out those cute dresses!

That morning I went over and helped Kelly get everything together since they had been out of town all week. One of the girl's gifts was a new bunk bed, and it was delivered the same morning. Needless to say, it was a hit among all the girls!

The girls with one of their best friends!

I made these flowers so they could have a "poppy field"...

I'm going to be honest, I havent seen Wizard of Oz in like 20 yrs, so I dont remember all the details. But I offered to make some signs for Kelly since I had some canvas' on hand...plus I haven't crafted in a long time, so I was really wanting something to do! Here's one of them...

I also made one that said Follow the Yellow Brick Road, but I apparently forgot to upload it. OH well. But how cute is this??? Kelly made the stockings...so cute!!!

Dorothy's dress was on display of course :)

LOVED the cupcakes...they had toppers on them that were so stinkin' cute! Some had 3's for Ava along with her name, and 5's for Emma. Plus misc. characters from the Wizard of Oz...

Getting ready to blow out the candles!

I told Kelly to make sure she saved all the stuff bc I might have to copy her one day! And to keep the Wizard of Oz love going, we're actually taking Emma and Presley to the Orpheum on Friday night to see the movie. This will be Presley's first movie so I'm really excited and nervous all at the same time! I hope she does well :) We're going to take them to eat at the Majestic Grille which I'm really excited about myself...I heard its amazing!
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Then Saturday night I get to see my other BFF and her hubby and son! LA and Jason just moved back to Memphis, so we're going to their new house to have dinner and let the kiddies play. Presley has been talking about Lawson for 2 days now, so I'm sure shes going to be excited!

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And last but not least, I thought I'd give y'all an update on my weight loss....since apparently I haven't blogged since I told y'all about it! I've lost 15.5 lbs and 7 inches so far! Its the hardest thing I've ever done, but I've already learned so much! I'm excited to see the end results!

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Well I hope yall have a great rest of the week!

Thankful Thursday...and prayers, too :)

Happy Thursday!!

I swear I never thought it would get here. This has been a really slow week for me. Actually there were a few of us at work that thought Tuesday was Thursday...thats how rough its been around here! Now that I'm one day closer to the weekend, I'm in the best mood ever.

I'm thankful today because tonight we have our monthly dinner club, and I get to finally meet sweet Magevney Mae! One of my really good girlfriends had Magevney almost a month ago and I have still not seen her!!! I know, I know. I'm an awful friend.

Erica and Magevney!

And Miss P will be so excited because this means she gets to play with Brooks, Magevney's big brother! She LOOOOVES Brooks. Seriously, every time we see him, she talks about him every day for the next month.

And on to more important things. Say a prayer for my sweet little nephew Ben.

He has his surgery today at LeBonheur. He's having a feeding tube installed, and although its very routine, its still nerve racking to have your 2 yr old nephew go into surgery. So please say a prayer for him as well as his momma and daddy....I know they're under a lot of stress, too. I can only imagine!

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Well, I started on the Second Short Life of Bree Tanner last night. Its a lot different from the Twilight books, but I'm really enjoying it. Well, I guess I enjoyed it the best I could. Clinton made me watch Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures last night. Yep, you read that right! He couldnt believe that I had never seen it, or Waynes World, so he made me add it to our stupid Netflix. I'm sorry, but I wasn't impressed. I'm sure I would feel differently had I grown up watching it...which is what Im sure is the way he felt when I made him sit down and watch Girls Just Wanna Have Fun :)

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Well, I hope that y'all have a wonderful day...enjoy the rest of your week!

2 down, 3 to go

I stayed up last night and finally finished Something Blue...A-Mazing!

If y'all haven't read Something Borrowed and Something Blue, you're really missing out! I think they've moved up the chain as my favorite books...besides the Twilight series of course :)

Now that I'm done with those 2, I'm going to read Baby Proof, Love the one your With, and Heart of the Matter. My goal is to finish all 3 of those before school starts, which shouldnt be a problem since I read the other two in about a week or so. But Before I get started, I also want to read the Short Second Life of Bree Tanner...the spinoff of Eclipse. I haven't heard many reviews about it, but I'm really excited!

Other than that, not a whole lot going on. I have a busy weekend ahead of me. Lord only knows when I'm going to find the time to actually start on my projects. It seems like every weekend is booked between now and when school starts up.

Oh there is actually something to talk about. I started a weight loss program today. It's a hormone that I'll be taking called HCG. It's the hormone women have when they are pregnant to provide nutrients to the baby. The purpose of it is to pull calories from existing fat in case the mother of the child is not eating healthy and providing the necessary nutrients to the baby. With that being said, I'll take this hormone daily (via a nose spray) and have a very strict diet, and hopefully drop some weight. I'm nervous and excited about it all at the same time. My regular doctor is the one that told me about it. She said that its very effective and has the best results for maintaining the weight loss. I'll keep you posted!

My water baby!

Well it was another busy weekend that went by way too fast!

We had a wedding to go to on Saturday night for my youngest cousin. It was kinda sad because as he was standing up there, I was remembering the night we all went to the hospital when he was born. Am I really that old??

Sunday we headed to Jackson Tennessee which is about an hour away. Our friends Josh and Betsy came down from Nashville to celebrate Josh's birthday at Betsy's parent's house. We drove up there so we could spend a few hours with them, before heading back to Memphis for my nephews EIGHTH birthday!

Here's a pic of Josh and his little mini me, Lily Ann!

One of their dogs, Tank, taking a swim.

Now on to the topic of my post. Miss Presley Pair LOVES swimming! I've always known this, but it was definitely confirmed yesterday. She was running and jumping into the pool...well, into Clinton's arms. It about made everyone a nervous wreck, but she had a blast!

She loved swimming with Tank!!

Yep, even jumped off the waterfall!

Love love love this picture of Clinton smiling at his little girl :)

Now I'm trying to convince Clinton we need a pool just. like. this. Ironically, the company he just started working for is the one that designed and built this one, so I think its a sign haha. Loved it :) Anyway, I think its time to start putting her in swimming lessons. She just has no fear of the pool, so better safe than sorry!

Well I hope y'all have a great Monday!!

Well I did it

I told my babysitter this morning that Presley was starting PreK in August.

It went over a lot better than I expected, but I could tell she was pretty sad about it. She was really nice and told me that Presley will do wonderful in school, but that she just hated that I'm starting her out so young. I understand where shes coming from. It seems like parents are so obsessed these days with their child being the smartest. School seems more like a prison compared to how it was when we were younger. You can't have fun anymore because teachers are too worried about their appearance and how they are going to be evaluated at the end of the year. I get that, believe me.

But at the same time, I want her to be in a learning environment, and I just don't believe that there should be an age cap on when she starts that. So now that the hard part is all over with, I can get really excited about all she'll be doing. They gave me a breakdown of their daily schedule by hour. Of course its not carved in stone...nothing is carved in stone with 2 yr olds. But basically she'll be doing the following:

* Chapel M/W/F, Bible Study T/Th
*Learning Center twice a day
*Circle Time twice a day
*Recess twice a day
*Snack twice a day
*Art every day

ON Friday's that have Water Day and she is going to LOVE it! They have one of those big blow up water things, so I have to bring her swimsuit and towel every week. They also have pizza every Friday, too, which she's going to love!

I really am very excited for her. Shes such a social butterfly and has such a good personality, so I really think she's going to have a blast being around all those kids...with so many activities, too!

The only two things I'm not crazy about are as follows:

1. She can't have anything peanut butter...and the girl loves her some peanut butter.
2. She can't wear open toed shoes. This bothers the heck out of me. I love her little sandals and stuff, not tennis shoes or keds. I hate even more when she has to wear socks with her keds...when shes wearing shorts. I know, I know...she's a little girl and it doesnt matter. But it bothers me. If I wouldnt wear it, then why should I put her in it??

My MIL already bought Presley her first book bag from Pottery Barn. It wasn't the one I originally wanted, but its still really cute. But low and behold they came out with a new pattern this week and they had one I LOVED. OH well ...here's the one she got!

She loves butterflies, so this one really was perfect for her! Well, that's all I have for today. This is going to be a busy weekend with weddings, birthdays, and of course the kick off to my summer To-Do List. Have a great weekend everyone!

Thankful Thursday indeed :)

I am thankful today because I am officially done with summer school!!! I'm glad I decided to stick it out and take the class. I've never done summer school before, and I really hated to give up any of my break. But the class was really fun, easy, and went by super fast! Now that I'm gonna have about 6 weeks of freedom, its time to get organized and take care of some projects that I've been putting off.

Last night I met up with Clinton, Presley, and the in-laws for dinner. The entire time Presley begged to go back home with "Nanny" even though she had already been there all afternoon. I finally let her go which totally worked in my favor. I went home and plopped down in the chair and started reading.

If y'all haven't read the following books, then get busy. Seriously!

I finished up "Something Borrowed" on Tuesday night. It seriously is one of my favorite books ever. So last night I got started on Something Blue and I think I'm gonna like it, too....although I'm still no Darcy fan.

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I actually went to sleep around 11 which is early for me. And since I didn't have to wake up early to get Presley ready and take her to the babysitter, I was able to sleep in an extra hour! I actually got EIGHT hours of sleep last night...something else to be thankful for!

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So on to another topic thats totally non-related, I need some advice. I'm really stressing out about something that I've gotta do either today or tomorrow....

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Tell my babysitter that Presley starts preschool in August.

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I'm sure some of y'all are wondering "Whats the big deal? Just tell her!" I wish it was THAT easy. First of all, our babysitter is a family friend that we've known for years. She LOVES Presley and Presley LOVES her. Every morning Presley asks me if she's going to Lisa's house, if shes going to see "Abby Dog" and "Baby Hays"...she loves it there. But I just really want Presley in more of a learning environment, and with children her own age, too.

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The reason I'm so nervous about it though is because my babysitter has made a lot of comments about how she thinks parents are obsessed with their kids being the smartest, so they're always rushing them into preschool and stuff, and never let them just be kids for a few years. I can see her point on that, especially now that I'm a parent. But at the same time, it's never too early to learn. So why would I put an age cap on it??

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To top it off, she told me last week that she needed some more kids and to put the word out. Now here I am telling her that another one is leaving. It just makes me sad for her, and nervous for myself. I just don't know how she'll take it.

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I've been playing my speech over and over in my head, so any advice or words of wisdom are welcomed! Also, I really want to do something special for her, too, so I need some ideas. I thought about just paying her for an extra week, but I want something more thoughtful as well.

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Well, wish me luck ladies! I'll keep ya posted! AND for any of you that are FB friends with me...do NOT comment on my page about this just yet haha!

Weekend = Wonderful

Well its been 2 weeks since my last post, and I have no good excuses for it!

Actually...I do. I've been under a lot of stress at work. We've been going through a lot of changes and I've been really uneasy about everything. I feel like I've had a constant migraine for 2 weeks. Then today, I got a lot of clarification which was nice. But at the same time, they let go of about 15-20 people, 4 of which that I'm really really close to. Needless to say, I'm sick about it all.

But enough of that. All I need is to start crying...again.

So just like everyone else, I needed this 3 day weekend. And it was fabulous. Friday night I went to see my boyfriend, Mr. Pattinson, in Eclipse. One word...Amazing. I'm not going to go into detail about my favorite parts because they were all fabulous!

I went with Laura and Shelby from work. My bff Kelly came, too, along with Shelby's friend Lauren. We had sooo much fun! Here are some pics from work...

A To Do List Laura has had up on my erase board all week :)

Countdown complete!

Me and the work bestie, Laura!

Laura and Shelby in their Twilight gear. Shelby's shirt said "Only vampires can love you forever"...love it!

Saturday Miss P and I did our weekly trip to Target and the mall. We both got some new clothes...like she really needs any. I, however, did.

Saturday night we went to a firework show on the lake behind the in-laws neighborhood. They weren't near as good as they usually are, but it was still fun.

My two loves :)

Couldn't get the camera focused, and you only get one shot with a 2 yr old.

The fam...

Presley and Ben on the motorcycle. Yes thats a look of fear on his face...rightfully so!

Sitting at the edge of the lake. So sweet:)

I hated that I couldn't capture this any better...but Presley is covering her mouth in awe of the fireworks! I have never seen the child so freakin excited!

Sunday we laid low, due to another migraine. We missed out on our Church's fireworks, but it was nice to just hang out by ourselves, too.

Monday my mom and I went shopping and got some great deals! I bought a really pretty painting that was normally $330 for only $60!! My mom bought two kids Adirondack chairs for only $20 each and they were normally $100 each! Last night Clinton and I grilled some steaks and corn, and enjoyed being at home with our Little P.