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. :)

Only in Mississippi...

Yep.... that's about all you can say...

She's An American Girl

My best friend Cassidy is finally back in the good ole U.S. of A. from year one of teaching in Japan and has just 20 days left until her wedding. We kicked off the wedding festivities this weekend with two showers and an old-fashioned slumber party to catch up.


She got lots of great gifts at both showers, and we had a blast lounging around last night and reminiscing about old times over a few drinks. My parents were out of town for the weekend, so we had their house to ourselves. We listened to an old college CD and looked through our old yearbooks. My cheeks hurt today from laughing so hard. I LOVE this girl and am so glad she's back, even if it's just for a couple of months.

I can't wait for her big day... July 18th will be here before we know it! :)