Friends, Cupcakes, and Funglish

I'm so behind! I can't believe how long it's been since I posted. My apologies. I plan on making up for that right now. Friday night there was a 5k in our neighborhood that ran right in front of our house. The last two years Doc and I have participated in the race - him running and me walking. This year, we decided it would be fun to invite a few friends over to watch the race and cookout instead. It's much more fun to sit back and watch people exercising than to actually do it yourself, right?

Jenny and Darrin came to watch.

And so did this little princess.

She loves her momma....

...but sometime neglects her puppy dog.

Her proud daddy came over too.

Allison brought her new toy over. Her approach to photography is a little different from mine. I may have to try the drink-in-one-hand-camera-in-the-other style soon. :)

Her husband, Chris, spent some time entertaining Miss Wesley.

The race was fun to watch. It started at 7:00 pm and the pace car and lead runner passed our house shortly after. I think we were between the first and second mile markers. Our neighbors had their water hose out to give the runners a rinse-off as they passed by.

By the time the last walkers were through, Doc had dinner ready for us. Pork tenderloins, cowboy beans, and rolls. Yumm-oh! (I really could not host parties without Doc. I always have the idea to invite everyone over, and I sometimes help with the prep-work, but when the actual party starts happening, I completely forget all of my hosting duties. Good thing he ALWAYS remembers to cook the food and get it ready to serve!)

Here we are after I thanked him for cooking while I sat outside taking pictures and visiting with our friends.

Thursday night I decided to make cupcakes for us to have as dessert. They're supposed to look like cherry and blueberry pies. Can you see it? Sorta?

After dinner, Wesley changed into her pj's and got ready for bed. Doc didn't really help calm her down.

Flying baby!

Later in the evening, we broke out the Funglish game. Who says it's just for kids?

My teammates!

I'm sure you're dying to know so I'll just go ahead and say it....the girls won.   Maybe if the boys are lucky, we'll let them have a rematch one day.

Hello, Hydrangeas

We're back from the beach! (I'm really not that excited - I'd rather still be there - but I'm trying to be optimistic.) Most of the flowers I planted this spring were looking closer to dead than alive when we got home Tuesday afternoon. We've been drowning them with water trying to revive them.

But there was one bright ray of sunshine in our yard...the hydrangeas are finally blooming!

We lucked into these plants (we have two of them).  The previous owners of our house had them planted so we inherited them. This past winter was the first time we had cut them back all the way to the nub, and I have to be honest, I was nervous they wouldn't come back.

But they did!

They're like perfectly white snowballs and they're almost the size of my head.

See?

I wished they smelled as good as they look. I mean, they don't stink or anything, but they also aren't fragrant like the gardenia.

Know what I mean?

35 Years

Thirty-five years ago today, my parents were married in a small church in Selmer, TN. Quite a good-looking couple, eh?

Mom wore a dress that was handmade by Mrs. Winnie, her step-grandmother.

Now, 13 months ago, I was searching frantically for the perfect dress to wear to our rehearsal dinner. My mom never thought to mention that her handmade wedding gown was upstairs in the attic. What?? How could I have not known this?? I would've loved to have it altered into something I could've worn that night.

She didn't tell me about the dress until about a month ago when we were in the attic looking for something. Of course I had to try it on.

So it's safe to say the dress looked muuuuch better on her than on me, but still. It's handmade! And it was in our attic!

Look at the detail on the cuffs of the sleeves.

I can't believe I didn't know about this last year.

Anyway, back to the point of this post. My parents - 35 years! That's a really long time. They are quite the inspiration for Doc and me.

Here's to laughing together for 35 more years!

Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad. We love you!

P.S. Mom - in the dining room, look in the piece of furniture that used to be Memaw's bedside table. I left a gift for y'all in the top drawer.

Date Night

Today was much like yesterday - we slept in, ate breakfast, headed to the beach, played in the ocean and sand, read books, came back for lunch, and went back out to the beach.  Doc and I headed in earlier this afternoon to get ready for a much-anticipated date night. Lala took our picture before we headed out for the evening.

We started out with the pizza special from Bud and Alley's Pizza Bar. The special was margherita pizza with salame and it was delicious! I barely got this picture taken before Doc snatched up the last piece.

After dinner we walked across the street to the outdoor amphitheater to find a seat for the concert that was about to start. We traveled all this way to end up seeing someone from our home state! I have seen Dave Barnes several times before, but I think this setting was by far my favorite. It was so relaxed (and free!).

Dave is so funny and such a good singer that he had a gaggle of girls lined up at the front of the stage waiting on him before the show even started.

Unfortunately for him, they were all a little young.

In between songs I was playing with my camera and decided to take a picture of our feet...

...and then, as the flash went off, Doc said, "Oh wait, are you taking a picture of our legs and feet? I wasn't ready. Do it again."

Notice anything different about this picture?

I'm totally outting him and his flexed muscles.

At the end of Dave's set we got to go up front to get some better shots.

See all the blurry dots in the picture below?

Those are bubbles from bubble guns that the girls on the front row were shooting. I think he secretly paid them to do that. It made for a nice effect.

View from the other side.

And rockin' out the last song.

And that was it. It was such a perfect date night! If you don't know who Dave Barnes is, or haven't ever heard his music, I highly recommend you check him out.

We came home to a rousing game of dominos that has since ended and everyone is getting ready for bed. The rain held off for the outdoor concert but I think it's going to come any minute now. Hopefully it will all come tonight so we can enjoy another sunny day on the beach tomorrow!