Weekend Wrap-Up

We had a nice, relaxing weekend at home this time around... Friday night we went over to Drew and Kristin's to grill out and play Rock Band. We're now obsessed... so much so that we ordered a Wii online yesterday AND Rock Band to play when it comes in. It wasn't a spur of the moment decision though, we have been talking about getting one for more than a year, and we thought that would be a perfect way to spend some of our tax refund. :)

So, anyone who wants to go on tour with us in our living room, come on over. I have this fear that no one will hear from us for days, and someone will finally venture over to check on us and they'll find us without showers, without food and with our eyes glazed over begging to play just one more song. Yes, it's that addictive.

Yesterday we enjoyed the beautiful weather outside with a few friends at the Crawdad Hole. It was just a tease of Spring being right around the corner. We took it easy last night and visited with Ben and Tina for a little while before calling it a night about 10. Guess we're getting old.

Today I haven't left the house, and it's been SO nice. I've been able to catch up on laundry and even fit in my Sunday afternoon nap while watching a Lifetime movie. It's my paradise. I couldn't care less about the Super Bowl, so I'm doing a few things around the house while the game is on and sitting down to watch the commercials in between. It's a little backwards, but that's what girls like to do.

I'm not ready to go back to work tomorrow, but at least I was able to have a great, totally relaxing weekend beforehand. Once Monday gets here, I'll be workin' for the weekend once again. :)

Welcome to the world, Baby William!

Our friends Melanie and Trey welcomed their second child, William, to the world last Tuesday. He weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces and was born with a FULL head of hair, just like his sister. :)

The picture above came from Mel's Facebook page, but Derek and I were able to meet him last night and take a few pictures. He is so precious! He looks nearly identical to Jane Reynolds when she was born (which, by the way, was exactly two years and three days before William)… lots and lots of dark hair and dark skin, only William has little mini-sideburns. He’s as cute as they come!

We couldn’t give William all the attention… Here’s Jane Reynolds snacking on a cookie in her little pink chair. She was prancing around in her nightgown with pink heels on. She is a total hoot!

Congrats, Mel and Trey for a handsome new addition to your beautiful family! We'll expect another one in January of 2011. :)

It was Super Bowl Sunday 2003...

The Super Bowl has a special place in my heart… Not for the game itself (I couldn’t care less about which teams are playing unless it’s the Saints), not for the halftime show (we missed the one exciting halftime with the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction while gone to pick up a pizza), and not even for the commercials (although they’re usually the most exciting for me)…

It’s because it was during halftime six years ago that Derek and I became an official couple, and the rest, as they say, is history… Not that it was that simple… There’s always a story, so I figured now was as good as a time of any to share it.

It started with a night out at Sports Rock Café (classy, if you remember it) in early January. I was out with some girls, and Derek came up to talk to a friend of mine, Melanie. They were friends from Vicksburg, so he just sat down next to me, and we started talking. It sounds cheesy, I know, but it was the easiest conversation I’ve ever had with anyone. And he was cute. We went our separate ways, but the next day, we were both asking Melanie about each other. He came out with a group of us that next night to Mugshots for the Dave Matthews Cover Band (how old does that make me sound?), and we talked and danced all night. I even asked him to go with me to our next DG date party a few weeks away.

He started calling me, and we started seeing each other. The trouble was that I was also sort of seeing two other guys at the same time. Let me make it clear right here that I never, ever had this much luck with guys before, and I had never, ever dated more than one person at a time. It’s too stressful. I continued to see all three for the next few weeks but was spending most of my time with Derek. Then Super Bowl came around…

To make a long story short, after Derek figured out that I was seeing other people, he decided that night that he wanted us to date exclusively, and I agreed. That was January 26, 2003, and we’ve been together ever since.

Fate was on our side when I graduated that May and got a job at the newspaper in Vicksburg. Derek was home that summer before heading back to Ole Miss in the fall. We had time to build up our relationship before making it long distance for the next two years. It wasn’t easy, but we made it. He graduated in May 2005 and moved back to Vicksburg. We got engaged three months later.

And we lived happily ever after. :)

Happy Birthday, Kat!

Last night we celebrated Katherine's 27th birthday with a get-together at her house before a night out at Martin's to see Col. Bruce Hampton. It was a fun night!



Honestly, there are very few times when I think music at a bar is actually worth a $10 cover charge, but this was definitely worth it. He and his band were so much fun! I had never heard him before, but he's got a great soulful voice, and his music is like a cross between blues and jam band style. We had a blast, even if we are paying for it a bit today. :)

It's official... she's really getting married!

I officially ordered my bridesmaids' dress for Cassidy's wedding today, which really made it hit home that my best friend is indeed getting married in only six short months. Gosh, how the past six have flown since she got engaged. At the time, a year seemed like so far in the future, but then once you add thousands and thousands of miles between where the wedding will be and where she's actually living while she's planning it, I guess the time just slips away.

I think she has most everything checked off her wedding planning to-do list, she's just trying to finalize the guest list and make sure everything is booked and ready to finalize when she gets back to the States in June. Jenna and I, as co-matrons of honor, are trying to take whatever stress off of her that we can, which hasn't been a lot at all. She's been so organized... it's amazing. Maybe she should start an overseas wedding planning business or something.

As for Japan in general, she seems to really like it, especially now that John has finally moved over there. I know there is so much that she has wanted to show him and teach him and share with him, that it's got to be exciting to have him there in person and not just through a video chat on the computer. I'm still trying to get her to start a blog so we can keep up with what she's doing and all the crazy stories about the culture differences, but I haven't had much luck. Maybe John can help her now. I will say I have the start of quite the collection of Hello Kitty artifacts, thanks to her living in Japan. :)

Now, back to the dresses... they're very pretty and will be perfect for a hot summer wedding in Mississippi. The bad part is just having to be fitted for the dress in January. It's just hard to convince the sales girl to let you order the dress one size smaller because you swear you'll fit into it by July. They just won't let you do that. So for now I'll just have to appease myself with the thought that it's a lot easier to have a dress taken in than let out, and tanned fat always looks better than white fat. THAT I know. :)

Never Have I Ever...

... Had a slumber party with a bunch of 27- and 28- year-old girls, but I totally recommend it!

Friday night we decided to have a girls' night in honor of Melanie's birthday a few weeks ago and the pending arrival of Baby William next week. We started off with dinner at P.F. Chang's and then all headed to Meredith's house for an old-school slumber party. I think our pregger friends Mel and Jessie were thoroughly entertained and probably pretty annoyed at watching the rest of us drink wine all night - and the wine was plentiful, trust me - but I think everyone had a blast.

Meredith bought Melanie a delicious caramel birthday cake and we even broke out some traditional slumber party snacks, Doritos and popcorn.

We had a little dance party in the living room and, in keeping with the old-school theme, played some fun games like Never Have I Ever. We had plans to play Light As A Feather, Stiff As A Board, but not wanting to risk Baby William making his debut any sooner than planned, we nixed that idea.

It was such a fun night and a tradition that I think we should try to keep up at least once every few months. Hopefully next time everyone can partake in the fun. Love you, girls! :)

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Ryan Hadley!

Sorry for running about a week behind on this, but I left my camera at a friend's house and finally got it back today...

Friday we took off work a little early to make a quick trip to Vicksburg for Ryan Hadley’s birthday party. What fun! I can't believe she's TWO! She's such a big girl... she can even put her own birthday candles on her cake... see above. :)

She is so precious and was so sweet about opening her presents and taking her time playing with each one instead of jumping to the next present. She totally racked up on fun stuff, including a toy cell phone, a real kid-friendly digital camera and a potty chair!

Derek and I gave her a bag full of goodies like Play-Doh, a Sponge Bob toy, a DVD, the Candy Land game, and the xylophone seen below. It’s so much fun to shop for kids, especially when the toys make noise. Ha! I’m sure Zach and Jennifer will repay the favor one day by making sure to give us the LOUDEST, most annoying toys ever made. Ha!

Jennifer’s mom made a delicious cake in the shape of Dora the Explorer, and it was so much fun to visit with family and watch Ryan Hadley enjoy turning two! Happy Birthday, sweet girl!