...what we DID do this weekend

We went to the County Fair!

I desperately wanted to Kate to ride this pony, but she wasn't feeling it... We petted the ponies and talked to the ponies and watched other little kids ride ponies, but when it was her turn to sit on a pony, she flipped. So, we let McKenna go first, watched her do it AND I promised Kate a lollipop if she rode it.

Well... it worked!

She definitely wasn't thrilled about the pony, but she couldn't wait for that lollipop!

 Some "Elmy" love :) 

 Later that night, the Rochas came over for dinner:

 hahaha...

I mean seriously... does it get any cuter??

 Love these babies so much.

So I guess it worked out that we didn't get to spend the weekend in a cabin. We got to spend it with our best friends!

We also got to spend it cleaning because someone looked at our house! Who knows if anything will come of it, but we do have one seriously clean house. It is always nice to start the week that way, especially because it's going to be a busy one. HayHay has several soccer games, Sarah is having an Initials, Inc. party (yay!), our small groups are going out to dinner, book club is at my house and Jordan + his girlfriend (Emily, of course) are coming for the weekend. At least we're nearly ready :)

did that really just happen?

This weekend was supposed to be amazing.

Several weeks ago, we realized that we had only one free weekend until after Thanksgiving (yep, 9 busy weekends in a row) so we thought it would be a good one to take advantage of. David found a sweet little cabin nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains and booked it right away. I had been fantasizing all week about visiting the apple orchard and using our freshly picked apples to make a cobbler, sleeping in and reading, and "vacationing" with our pup (the cabin is pet-friendly!).

So, Friday afternoon couldn't come fast enough. I dashed home, grabbed the dog and hurried to pick a waiting-outside-of-his-office-he's-so-excited-to-get-our-weekend-retreat-started-too David up. We drove the 2ish hours to Blue Ridge, Georgia, and after getting lost and barely making it up the mountain, we found our little retreat, Talking Leaves. And guess what? So did the Prices. Yep, a nice couple from Augusta, Georgia were there celebrating Mr. Price's birthday with a long weekend getaway in the mountains. A quick call to the owners revealed due to her frenzied summer, she must have forgotten to record their reservation, thus making it available for us to rent again. It was double-booked.

The funny part? Not ten minutes prior, while we were driving aimlessly around this mountain (lost), David jokingly said "watch, we'll get there and it will be double-booked."
Jinx.

So, home we went. David left work (in his team wear, no less) just to make a 4 hour trek home. Four hours for dinner at Zaxbys.

Yes, we got our money refunded and she paid for our gas and dinner (woop de doo...). No, we did not have an amazing weekend-retreat-getaway, but we did have a nice, low-key weekend at home.

CAR for sale

2003 Jeep Liberty Sport

6 cylander

2 wheel drive

Automatic

Low 78,000 miles

black/grey

asking $10,000

Call Andy @ 706-464-9940



wish right now

Last night I was reflecting again about what I want to remember about now.

I want to remember nights (and weeks!) with no evening obligations...

the freedom to sit around at home talking and making dinner together...

playing at the dog park...

going out for an evening ice cream treat (the humans AND Harley!)...

and an early night to bed.

Life is so sweet right now.

I want to always remember this.

weekend report

We spent lots of time spent with the Bryants this weekend (and have no pictures to show for it...). David took the day off work Friday to go to parent's day at Baylor with John and Patrick! He had so much fun, and one of John's friends actually thought David was his dad! Bahaha! The boys spent the afternoon playing golf, then we watched Hayden's soccer game, and the boys came back to our house to hang out for the rest of the evening.

Saturday I spent the entire day at my Junior League provisional retreat. I was kind of dreading it simply because it was supposed to last from 9am to 8pm! It turned out to be a really fun day, and I got to know some sweet new girls! We spent the morning at the Ruby Falls ZIPstream (combo ropes course/zip line) which was super fun, and the rest of the day we learned more about JL and got to know each other. The afternoon culminated in a cross town game of Amazing Race (geared around JL projects and initiatives) including:

A Hamilton County school, the Coolidge carousel, the Chattanoogan, Sam Hudson (a JL sustainer), the Bargain Mart, a Hamilton County teacher (at Big Lots), doing "smart moves" at Mojo Burrito, at the JLC house and "JLC"on the walking bridge

what is my wrist doing? why can't I make a "C"??

I had a blast, but was definitely ready to turn in early after such a long, fun day!

Sunday was great. Church, lunch at the club with the Bryants, a low-key afternoon of reading (me)/napping (David & Harley), a visit to the new Red Bank dog park (!!) and an afternoon/evening with our long-lost besties (the Rochas were out of town for like 10 days... you guys aren't allowed to do that again, you know?).

...And this didn't happen over the weekend, but I took pictures of it so I have to post it on the blog...

David's VW soccer team (the Greginators... haha) came in 2nd place in the league tournament Tuesday night! I have loved him being on this team. He loves playing soccer and I love watching him play slash talking with all the other wives. They only won 2 regular season games, but Tuesday night they played 3 in a row and made it to the championship! So fun!

Mike, Eric, Jamie, Ingo, Eric

Jan, Greg, David, Markeith

Saskia, me, Wendi, Jodi

missing Andrea



recent phone pics

This dog loves to snuggle- when he is sleepy.

baby outfit in the works for KJ.

Mom- I need your help!

Lots and lots of burp cloths (from this tutorial but modified).

My co-worker's cooking station... hamburgers from this morning, unidentifiable meat cooking as we speak. We all leave work smelling like a bar & grill.

what we've been up to lately...

http://786lawsonstreet.blogspot.com/

http://chattanooga.craigslist.org/reo/1950499660.html

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/786-Lawson-St-Chattanooga-TN-37415/83753351_zpid/

good stuff

cutest pictures ever

hillarious video

I love this funny website

another hillarious video (a Bourke family fav)

this is totally nuts

I want her to win America's Got Talent

wedding day- part 4 (last one!)

The Reception

Our reception was in the Imperial Ballroom at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo. It isn't the classiest place in Chattanooga, but it suited our needs and was reasonably priced. It turned out that the food was really good and so was the service, so we were all-around pleased.

We spent most of the reception hugging necks and saying "hi" to folks that we wished we could have spent more time with. There were about 250 people there (we actually ran out of tables and had to add in one), and we didn't get the quality time we really would have liked, but I guess that's how it goes.

We really were (are) so blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family members in our lives. Just looking at these pictures makes me feel so loved.

Click on the picture to enlarge it.