Open Door Policy

We now have an official open door policy at our house, meaning that for once, we can open and close the doors as much as we want to now! :)

After months and months of talking about it, our new sliding glass doors are finally finished. I absolutely LOVE THEM.

No more coming off the tracks, no more sticking when it rains, no more falling over on pregnant neighbors, no more “locking” with a sawed-off broom handle. These doors actually work - imagine that! I’m a happy camper. Yay for home improvements!

Sayonara, old doors… Hope you have fun in the dumpster.

Always on the go...

After a wonderful date night Friday (the movie was great besides the 19-year-olds in the front row yelling, "Uh-uh, I know he didn't!" at the Ron-Hermoine-Lavender love triangle), we headed out to the country Saturday afternoon for the second annual slip-and-slide party with my old newspaper friends. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, but we had a great time. Sean grilled up some hot dogs and burgers, and we depended on the beer and the slip-and-slide to keep us cool in the hot Mississippi sun. Hopefully Lauchlin and Olivia will post some pics in the next few days. :)

Today we drove over to Vicksburg for dinner to celebrate Mamaw and J.W.'s recent wedding. It's always good to see and visit with family, but again, I left my camera at home! I guess I was on a photography hiatus this weekend, and I apologize. I know no one likes to read pictureless posts, so I'll try to do better next time.

I can't tell you how much I truly appreciated being at home (for the most part) this weekend. To actually wake up both mornings in my own bed was such a wonderful feeling! I feel rested and ready for yet another four-day work week. I'm spoiling myself, I know!

Date Night with Harry

Don’t be sad, Harry, we’re coming to see you soon. Just give us a few more hours, I promise, and we’ll be there ready to support you in your latest adventure…

Six years ago, only weeks into our new relationship, Derek confessed that he was a huge Harry Potter fan. I didn’t believe him. How could this shaggy-haired frat boy be into the whole Harry Potter craze? I thought he was joking. Only junior high kids liked Harry Potter. It wasn’t until he brought out his collection of hardback books that I believed him. And it wasn’t until he made me read all those books that I understood why. Now we’re some of those nerds that show up at Walmart at midnight when the book is first released.

I LOVE J.K. Rowling, and I don’t care if I’m a dork for saying that. I love her writing style and am totally amazed at her imagination and her ability to keep such detailed backgrounds on all her characters from book to book. I could only dream of being such an entertaining author. And those books are not for kids… sure, it’s about magic and elementary love stories, but they’re pretty dark at times, and it takes a lot of thinking to follow the intertwining history of the plot lines.

Derek and I have taken off work for every new HP movie that comes out in order to see the first showing the day it comes out. This movie has been an exception, but only because he was gone last week. He knew better than to go see it without me. Now the long-awaited day has finally come… I can’t wait until 6:45 tonight to watch it!!!

I can’t quite make myself get into the whole Twilight obsession, but Harry is different. I’m a true fan and proud to admit it. Long live all the Muggles out there like me…

Peace and Quiet

All this rain has been like an answered prayer for us to get some peace and quiet. We have been steadily on-the-go for about eight weeks now, and I can’t tell you how good it feels to slow down and stay at home. We even skipped softball Monday night, and Derek’s tennis match was rained out last night.

With Derek gone last week and me gone the weekend before, I forget how nice it is for us to both be home at the same time! We’ve had some quality time with our animals and have caught up on all our shows on DVR. I couldn’t be happier… Ha!

So, I’m totally fine with a few days of rain. It makes me stay home and appreciate just being there with my little family. :)

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Parker!

This weekend was John and Cassidy's wedding in Hattiesburg, and it was perfect. Cool weather, pretty dresses, my hair looked good, and the beautiful bride was happy... it couldn't have been better!

We started out the weekend with the bridesmaids' luncheon Friday at Canebrake Country Club, and then the rehearsal at the church and the rehearsal dinner at Lake Serene Clubhouse. Friday's weather was pretty ugly, but it made way for absolutely unbelievably beautiful weather on Saturday, which is all that counts.

The wedding was beautiful, and the reception was at Big Creek Wildlife Preserve. It felt like fall outside. I don't think the bride and groom had any complaints. Plus, it's not often that you get to host a party in your own honor with all of your best friends. It was so much fun to see all these college friends again.

Here are a few pics from their big day...

Here are my DG friends... we were totally outnumbered by Chi-Os this weekend... go figure. :)

Here's one excited newlywed...

And here's one of my favorite pics of the weekend... this place was clearly a groovy bachelor pad in its day, and it reminded me of what I think the Playboy mansion would have been like in its heyday. Here is Cassidy with all the bridesmaids posing in the master bedroom... yes, that's a huge mirror behind the bed, but what you can't see is the gigantic mirror on the ceiling... Super fun.

We headed to the End Zone after the reception still in our dresses, except for the bride, who refused to go to the bar in her wedding dress. She was on cloud nine, and I don't blame her. It was a perfect day for a perfect wedding and an even better marriage.

Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Parker!

Welcome (back) to Jacktown!

My old roommate, Katie (in the red above), just moved back to Jackson with her husband, Evan. She's from the Jackson area, but they've been living on the Coast since they got married a few years ago, and I am so excited to have another friend in town! We're going for Mexican and margaritas tonight to catch up.

Katie will always hold a special place in my heart because technically she's Izzy's aunt. :) We adopted Izzy and her sister, Bella, back in August of 2002 when we were living together. They were precious little kittens. We thought it was a great idea to have cats in our apartment... not everyone would agree, but it was worth it. Maybe we can schedule a cat reunion now that she's nearby. Actually, I'm not quite sure how well that would go over, but it's a good idea in theory...

Welcome back, my friend! Can't wait to catch up!

Countdown to Married Life!

We celebrated Cassidy's last weekend single in style this past weekend with a night out in Memphis. We headed up Friday after work and spent the weekend at a friend's house in Southaven. We had plenty of good, quality girl time at the pool Saturday and then had a lingerie shower before we hit the town.

We rented the VIP section at the Red Rooster bar right off of Beale Street and had a blast! Here are a few pictures to entertain you. Only five days to go until the big day! :)

Flashback

I'm heading to Memphis for Cassidy's bachelorette party this weekend, and I can't wait! In honor of this special occasion I finally got around to uploading all my old photos and videos from my "first" digital camera. I thought I'd play a little flashback video from my bachelorette party in 2006. It was the weekend before Derek and I got married, and everytime I watch this I want to take some jello shots and do some old sorority cheers...

Cassidy, clearly you were a great maid of honor... You've got yours coming, don't worry. :)

And the winner is... (drumroll, please)

We don't know. By the time we got back to the landing where the awards were supposed to be announced, there was no one there, so we're not really sure who won. But we're just going to believe that we did. If nothing else, we totally won the spirit award because I think we just about all lost our voices from yelling and singing along to our "4th Mix" cd. :)

We had a wonderful weekend. We headed to the lake Friday and had a low-key afternoon decorating the boat and singing karaoke outside. Here are a few pics...

On Saturday we woke up bright and early to get ready for the boat parade. We had a very enthusiastic group this year who agreed to some face-painting, costume-wearing and poster-holding to wow the judges. Here are a few pics from the parade. There were some really great decorations, but since we don't know otherwise, we're going to assume we won. That's fair, right? :)

Here's the pier full of our number one fans...

After the parade, we floated around a bit until dinner time (which was soooo much delicious food) and then headed down the road for a pier party with live music. Here are a few more pics starting with Uncle Derek and Ryan Hadley.

We were in our "seats" (either on coolers pulled up on the pier, sitting on Firefly Hill or floating on some noodles in the water) by dark so we would have a front row view of Gary's firework show. He's put on a pretty incredible show for the past couple of years, and this year was no exception. I caught the very end of it on video, but it doesn't do it justice. It's impossible to not get chills when you watch it. Amazing...

And of course we had to make an appearance at Chotard Landing Resort Saturday night to hear our favorite lake band, Magnolias and Moonshine. I won't post any pictures from that, but in case you need to be reminded, read last year's post.

All in all, it was a great holiday weekend. I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else but at Firefly Hill, and I think everyone felt the same exact way. It's always a memory. :)

In It to Win It

This weekend is the annual 4th of July Boat Parade at Eagle Lake, and we’re MORE than ready to take home a trophy this year (I don’t know if they’re actually giving trophies, but a First Place ribbon would be adequate….)

We’ve got lots of decorations, plenty of beads to throw and even a few extra special tricks up our sleeves to wow the judges. :)

This is one of my absolute favorite weekends of the entire year, and you can’t feel much more patriotic than when listening to “God Bless the U.S.A.” on repeat with your flag flying wearing a trashy American flag bikini top. I might as well even be drinking a 40-oz. Budweiser from a paper bag.

This is the first year they’re actually giving out “real” awards, so the pressure’s on. Watch out, y’all, the Greys are in it to win it this year. And don’t worry… I’ll take lots and lots of pictures. :)