Lane's Bday

This past week Lane had a birthday! Of course we decided to have a little schindig at the house for him. Neeley wanted it to be extra special and a little different than usual because of it being his birthday... but if you know Lane at all you know that he would much rather chill and absolutely have NO attention on himself, thus began a challenge to have a complimentary low-key extra special birthday bash. I believe she pulled it off!!

His birthday cake had a guitar on it so the party had a music theme which was perfect for the person who could sit in a room close his eyes and listen to music for hours...

I made these pinwheels out of printed off music sheets to string along the wall in the living room.

 

Neeley turned this lamp into a cool musical piece by stringing cd's to a wire and hanging around the shade... Super fun and cool touch!

 

She also made these adorable flags out of scrapbook paper with music lines on them then stickered letters on them to spell out the above message.

 

Candles are a MUST HAVE at any of our gatherings and they looked great lit and displayed here with some more musical themed decorations.

 

 

 

Lane got some cool shirts and a couple adult beverages glassware since he is now considered "of age"

 

 

Overall it was a great night of celebrating one of the sweetest guys day of birth!!

The Help

Last year my Nana gave me a book to read, it was The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I couldn't put it down! I was so intruiged by the writing and in shock that our country used to be in that state of chaos and prejudice. I loved reading about Skeeter's ambition to buck the system and Abilene's calm nature in the midst of wrong doing. Minne was such a delightful character to read, her spunk and no-nonsense attitude kept me turning the pages.

Last night My Aunt Tammy, Kelsey, Rhonda, Neeley and I had a girls night out with dinner and a movie. We went and saw Hollywood's version of The Help. I was very abrehensive about seeing the movie, as cute as it looked, the book was just so good and movies have a tendency of ruining books sometimes. I will proudly say they did a GREAT job with the movie. For obvious time issues they could not put in every single detail of the book but included enough that it was a full story and depiction of what the book was. Completely impressed! I think Emma Stone is adorable as Skeeter and Bryce Dallas Howard is despicable as Hilly Holbrooke. I highly recommend it to any and everyone!

 

 

   

 

Thailand

There have been ALOT of asian influences around lately, on tv, in the DIY world, in my dreams... I had the honor of traveling to Bangkok, Thailand with my best friend in the summer of 2006. We joined Let's Start Talking and raised money to go teach English to university students in the heart of Bangkok. It was such an amazing time in my life... we had study groups everyday and I would sit one on one with students as they would read through the book of Luke practicing their English. I had several students who kept pursuing the word of the Lord after we left and one atheist student who was very highly educated with whom I left my Bible. I think about my time there alot and pray for the people there and their journey to find God. I remember thinking how hard it would be to be a Christian in that environment, how unbelieveable the story of Jesus is to one who has grown up buddhist or without religion. If I did not grow up in a Christian home would I eventually find my way to God?

I was reminiscing and praying for the sweet people there while looking through photos, I stumbled across these from one of our weekend get aways. Some of the pictures remind me of the Bachelorette's last season when they spent time in Asia. I just wanted to share some of the beauty I experienced in Thailand 5 years ago. One day I hope to go back and visit my friends there and experience the culture again!

He and I

I hate having pictures taken of myself but recently while working a wedding out at Starlight Drew and I managed to snap this self portrait. We have maybe 4 photos of us together from our 10 month romance, desperately need to change that!

He makes me laugh every single day. He is striving to better himself to one day provide for a family. He opens doors. He fixes my roomates plumbing problems. He tells me to CHILL OUT when I get worked up and stressed about nothing. He loves my mom. He works harder than anyone else out at Starlight. He adores Kelsey and loves to tease her. He doesn't mind that sometimes all I want to do is sit on the floor in a pile of chaos and craft. He cooks a mean breakfast for lunch on days that I like to sleep in.

I am very excited for him to meet the rest of my family in early September.

90.

Today he would be 90 years old.

Today we would sing Happy Birthday to him as he strummed along with his fingers, closing his eyes to the sound of his family singing.

Today we would probably eat Abuelo's or Perini's in celebration of an amazing life.

Today I would kiss his cheek and tell him how much I love him, how proud to be of him I am.

Today we would all fumble around to give him gifts that severly lack to express how much he means to us.

Today we would laugh and cry at memories we have shared, each taking our turn to tell how he made us feel as if we were his favorite.

Today we would witness love from the greatest love story of all time. We would watch as two people look lovinginly at one another in amazement of another year of celebration.

Today he would be 90.

Instead today we will remember what it felt like to celebrate with him.

We will remember what his love felt like.

We will walk taller and be prouder today to remember that we are his representation here on Earth.

We will think of him looking over us from the place he lived his life to finally be.

We will strive to be more like him in all that we do.

We will call Nana to tell her we love her and miss her beloved today.

We will praise God that we even got to know him and be part of his life.

We will praise God that he was apart of ours and know that we are better off because of him.

Today we celebrate the Amazing life of the Greatest Man I Ever Knew.

Happy Birthday Grandy!!

I miss you and love you!

Breakfast for Dinner

Sometimes you just need to have a little breakfast for dinner... that is exactly what the girls and I decided to do on a recent night of chilling together. With us all saving our pennies for VEGAS we decided breakfast would be a cheap way to get us all fed for the evening.

 

Neeley got to work making egg casserole ....

 

Bailey wanted fruit and decided it would be a wonderful opportunity to have a go at eating a coconut

 

It looks so nice and simple to attack, right... WRONG!

 

Finally got into and to the clearish thick milk... not at all what any of us expected

 

 

Really hoping to never be stuck on an island having to eat this stuff.

Great night of hanging out with the ladies, waiting for Jersey Shore to come on and eating breakfast! Sometimes you just need a simple night.

A little bird told me...

 I spent the past weekend in Abilene with my mom and Nana. It was a productive weekend and in the midst of all our running around we did manage to drop by a couple of my favorite stores in Abilene. My must stop shop in Abilene is "It's About Time." They have the best collection of vintage and new decor. Mom and I found these amazing shadow boxes by Melody Ross, it a new collection that they have picked up. I felt like they were perfect statements for each of us for where we are in our lives, so we had to get them!

  

 

  

I got this one for mom... it was the perfect statement for her to remain positive in this moment of her journey! I love them, they make me smile and remember to remain strong every time I see them.