Around the lake tonight...

We decided to take a camping trip to Possum Kingdom Lake State Park (PK) this weekend with Courtney, Kevin and Elisha. (Their dog, Lincoln, joined us too. Molly and Jack lounged at the pet resort for the weekend.)

The trip started on Friday night after work. We loaded up the 4runner and the FJ and headed for a quick dinner stop and then off to PK. Lucky for us, Kevin had driven out earlier in the day and staked out the best camp site for us. When I say best, I'm not kidding. The site was huge and it overlooked the lake. It even included a big outcropping of rocks you could climb down to the lake.

We arrived well into the night and had fun putting all three tents together and getting a fire started. The stars were amazing that night - I think I saw as many stars there as I see in the British Virgin Islands when out on the boat. Just so you know how far out we were....the nearest grocery store was 40 miles away. That night was freezing. But we froze in comfort on our air mattress :)

The next day we woke up and made a yummy breakfast...egg taquitos, pancakes, fruit, etc....we definitely ate well on this trip thanks to our giant deer cooler and the favorable temperatures.

I took a towel down to the lake and laid it on one of the big flat rocks and read my book for a while. So relaxing. I felt like I was the only one in the world. We went on a trail hike and eventually found a very awesome overlook that had a great view of everything. We found a skeleton of something on this hike...definitely a small animal. And we picked up some sticks for our s'mores.

It really warmed up on Saturday (into the 80's) and the weather was perfect. That evening Robert spent a few hours trying to make fire the primitive way. Kevin made a roaring fire the modern way. That fire was so warm and the weather was so perfect that we all began stripping off our layers that night. Absolutely perfect. It only really started to get cold well into Sunday morning.

This trip was so much fun and it was a much needed break from everything that has been going on lately. Now we just need to figure out where our next camping trip will be!

Where, oh, where have you been?

Where has Kelly been?

Planning an awesome baby shower, that's where. The baby shower was for my dear friend Stacey and baby Jason, who will arrive some time around Christmas Eve. The shower was hosted by seven amazing women and was so much fun to work on. A nice break from wedding planning!

We created the invites in blue and orange with inspiration from a bottle of aqua panna. You really can find inspiration in every day life. They were flat cards with rounded edges, with a ribbon tied around them. We wrapped them in white tissue and put them in a craft paper brown box that was filled with yummy blue sour balls. On the outside, we adhered a cute sticker. They were so much fun to make!

Being the planner I am, I created a ridiculous assignment sheet for our hostess group. I have to admit, I did let go of my control freak personality a little and resisted planning a minute-by-minute timeline for the event. I'm learning. The assignment sheet was great because it gave everyone a job and a purpose during the special day.

I was so happy that Stacey's mom was able to make it in from Portland and that her sister was able to fly in from Canada. What a special memory for Stace.

And here is a photo preview of the event (photo credits go to Kristin!). There will be more photos from fabulous Ashleigh soon.

The guest book and gift table.

Our guestbook had prompts for each guest like,
"I hope you inherit your mother's..." or "I found out your mother was pregnant..."

We set up tables and chairs for the brunch.

Can't forget the food shot. Everyone brought such yummy things.

And finally, what dessert table would be complete without a diaper cake
filled with champagne, cheesecake lollipops and Sprinkles cupcakes?

I am still wedding planning. I'm just in invitation limbo right now. Working on the final address list for the calligrapher and running through some detail things. It's getting close and Robert and I are so excited :)

Moving right along...

Hello blogosphere.

It's been a busy few weeks filled with enough rain to catch us up from the dry summer. It almost, dare I say, felt like fall for a few days.

Everything has been moving right along and we've had a lot of blessings. Today we got up around 5 to get ready for our engagement picture session. We had so much fun with our amazing photographer. You can check out a sneak peek on her blog: http://melissazihlman.com/Blog/

(I also had some amazing help from Haute Facade with my hair and makeup!)

After that we went cake tasting and finally decided on cake "flavors" and designs.

And now we're exhausted so we're going to put off all of that other wedding stuff we wanted to do today and take a nap. I think we did enough :)

Robert is getting close to graduation - time is flying by. Soon he'll be a "master" just like me! And I don't think I even need to mention work. I have so much fun every day...enough said.

Off to dreamland...

And....GO!

Whoops! I said we'd be back in August and it has flown by. Let's recap the past month or so...

In late July, I went back to the U.S. and British Virgin Islands with my friends Ashleigh and Stacey and my mom. We had a fabulous week visiting beaches and making new friends. Ashleigh definitely made the most new friends.

we travel as "the cupcakes."

Our trip to Anegada gave us fabulous sun...

All of us had great tans by the end of the trip!

And I get to go back to the BVI for Thanksgiving. Another girls trip! I'm loving the vacation this year.


The day after we got back, we went to Candice's baby shower. She's having a little girl later this month. Candice is so cute!

Later that week we went with a big group to Babe's in Burleson. If you know Babe's, you know it's an awesome place to eat. But to make it even better, Stacey and Russ were revealing the sex of their baby! It was so creative...they had the sonogram technician seal the result in an envelope. They gave it to the waitresses and said if it's a boy to put the biscuits down first and if it's a girl, the salad.

Drum roll please...it's a boy! I know everyone is excited to meet baby Jason around Christmas Eve! Now we're busy planning Stacey's baby shower.

Robert finished his summer finals around the time we got back from our trip. He just started his last semester. It's so exciting that he'll be done with his masters right before Christmas!

For Labor Day, we had planned a camping trip to Lake Ouachita in Arkansas with Kevin and Elisha. The last week provided a little drama and we didn't get to go. Jack got a hold of a safety pin from one of my dry cleaning tags and swallowed it - open - unbeknownst to us. He threw up for three days straight and and wouldn't eat so I took him to the vet. I thought he maybe had a stomach bug and I'd be laying out hundreds of dollars without ever finding out what was wrong. I was wrong! After an x-ray, Jack was rushed into emergency surgery to remove the safety pin, which had traveled down to his intestines.

It was terrifying. All I could think was, "what if he doesn't make it through the surgery?" He made it through like a trooper! The pin had preforated in three places but only tiny spots. The doctor was able to remove the pin and give him stitches. We couldn't go camping because someone needed to be with him the first few days all the time. He has to wear a c collar for at least 7 days and is taking 5 different types of medicine. He's doing really well and even though we were bummed about the camping trip, we're just glad we still have Jack! And our $2,000 safety pin.

I've taken advantage of all of this downtime this weekend to catch up on a few things. I've been organizing stuff in our house. We're down to the details on wedding planning now so it's been nice to get a few things squared away. Today we were trying to decide honeymoon things. Quite possibly an entire year of celebrating!

And I think that brings everything back up to speed...for now.

See ya!

Be back in August :)

Monday, Monday

It’s been a tough week. A very close family friend went into hospice. She’s battled cancer and many other ailments and won. But she paid a price with restricted mobility, trouble breathing, restricted diet, etc. She was tired of fighting and was ready to pass on. As selfish as one can be when someone close to them is dying, I found myself having a lot of respect for her decision. She was ready and without fear and I have to say, that’s pretty admirable. She passed away late last night.

I was really impressed with the hospice program at Arlington Memorial Hospital. It’s a new concept and it is focused around what the patient wants. They can spend their last days doing what they want, eating what the want, seeing their pets – all without being poked or prodded. They even told us that the brought a woman’s horse down on a freight elevator so she could see it one last time. That’s what I call care.

This weekend was another whirlwind. I am so excited about going on vacation in two weeks because I’ll get to rest!

On Saturday we went to visit Courtney at her place in Plano. She always makes the hour+ drive to see us so we thought we’d go out her way. She lives in a loft at the Shops at Legacy. We went to dinner, saw a couple of live bands, watched a water show and drank wine. A very good Saturday night.

Yesterday I picked up my little sister, spent some time at the hospital, visited my dad and took Caitlin for lunch at Dutch’s. So good. Then we met Stacey, Ashleigh and Russ at Frogberry for some froyo. Yum. Caitlin and I also went to the TCU bookstore, which is amazing, to do a little shopping. I picked up a few beach reads for the vacation and we both got a new pair of shorts. I love that they carry TCU branded Nike running shorts.

We then commenced our Harry Potter marathon to prepare for Wednesday night when we go to see the new movie! Nerds.

And now it’s back to work on a Monday. I definitely woke up at 5 a.m. to make it to Hillsboro for the safety meeting and no one is here. They are in Waco for another meeting. Kind of wish I’d been in the loop on that so I could’ve slept a little later. Oh well. That’s a Monday for you!

hellogoodbye

Hello blog. It's been a while. I've been a really bad blog friend.

When life "happens" sometimes the blog gets pushed to the back burner. I'm back. Just today.

Here's a quick update: Lemonblueberrysprinklesaregood. Annualreviewwasspectacular. Holidayweekendwastiring.

Wedding planning is coming along slowly. Last week I booked our photographer and hair and makeup. We're still bridesmaid dress searching. I have a lot of other vendors lined up and ready to go once the bridesmaid dress color is finalized.

In other awesome news...Ashleigh, Stacey and I are going to the British Virgin Islands in 19 days. I am SO excited.

I think that's it for today. I'll try to visit again soon.