Happy 20th Birthday

to my Beautiful sister!!!

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

You have grown up to be such a beautiful young lady. I am so excited to see what the Lord has for your future, and proud of who you have become. Continue to follow Him and allow him to guide your steps. Thank you for always being there to talk to, and be crazy with:0)

Hope we helped make your Birthday fabulous!

Today was a fun day with Family. After church we went to my mom's to celebrate B's Bday.

We grilled out for lunch and then geared up for a few pretty intense games of pool volleyball.

Cobras won one game...Swans won the other

The Swans were clearly the better skilled players ;0)

We played 4 against 4. so much fun!

However, my throat is sore from talking so much smack:0)

Few pics from the rest of the day...

It's rare we get a pic with all 4 of us

Tyler and Elise- she is part of the fam :0)

( this is the most we could get Tyler's eyes to open)

I managed to squeeze in a 30 min nap...apparently Roxy decided to join me

she loves the water

What a relaxing day!!!

Stick with what ya know

New Kicks

After 2 1/2 years with my old running shoes...

I finally broke down and bought a new pair

My previous shoes that I was running in were Asics. I loved them, they fit my feet well and my feet did not ache after I finished a run.

I kinda wanted to go with a different brand this time, mostly for cosmetic reasons. I wanted shoes that looked different from my old ones, and the shoes Asics has out right now look a lot like my old ones.

I read blogs and reviews on various brands. why people did and didn't like them, and which were good for running because I research everything. Shoes are expensive, and I wanted to make an educated decision:0)

I still never really found any that I loved, but I had to make a decision because my old running shoes are dying a slow death!

I went to Trak Shak in Birmingham because they assess your gate and suggest a brand or type of shoe accordingly.

Well...I have a neutral gate and arch, so basicly most brands were fair game.

I tried Nike, Pearl Izumi, Mizuno, and even K-swiss

I have a narrow foot, so my foot would wiggle around or slip in all of them... except the Asics

I ended up with The Nimbus-13 gel  Asics

I feel pretty sure they are going to make me faster!

In the end I had to go for comfort, even though I would rather have a shoe with less white, none of the others fit as well. So I brought em' home. and overall happy with my purchase.

My sister took a pic of me like this, when I bought my last pair of shoes...so we are keeping it consistent:0)

even though she cut my bottom foot out :0/

( I promise to attend to the no make up, dirty hair problem later today)

Dance Class = success

Last night was our first dance class!

Several of Autumn's friends from work had also bought the living social vouchers, so they met us there.

Thankfully we had 3 girls and 3 guys, so everyone had a dance partner.

We primarily learned the cha cha... even Incorporated a little turn in the dance(my fav part :0)

I was very surprised with myself. I actually got the hang of it pretty quickly and we all had an absolute blast!

Toward the last half of the class we had a 'dance party'. They turn the lights off, turn the disco ball on and crank up the music. They play all different types of songs to cover each form of dance. I also learned a little bit of swing, rumba, fox trot, and tango.

SO MUCH FUN!

Needless to say, I think this is only the beginning of a very fun hobby for Autumn and I.

We loved it.

3 things we learned:

Always bring a partner with you

wear shoes you do not slide around in

Dancing is a for sure work out!

Happy Friday!!!

Hips Don't Lie

Most of you have heard of living social. If not, you should check it out. It is a website that sends one daily email of 'deals' that local places around the area you live in are running.

This past week I called my friend, Autumn, at work

(pictured on the left)

and asked how she felt about taking dance classes.

The deal for the day was to buy 6 dance classes for $12 (originally a $60 value)

then you choose to learn Latin, ballroom, swing, or line dancing.

Several of our other friends also bought the voucher.

We bought 2, so that we can learn two types.

Tonight is our 1st class, and according to the title of this post you may have guessed it, but we are learning Latin!

We are both so excited! and neither one of us have rhythm... so it should make for an interesting evening, but nevertheless I feel confident it will be fun!

Day 2 of bootcamp is tonight... I hope I'm able to walk in the morning with this sudden rush of physical activity my body has not been used to in 3 1/2 months :0/

Hope everyone is having a FANTASTIC week so far!

Tomorrow is FrIdAy :0)

It is Finished!

remember when I showed you these cute plates?

and promised I would share the plan I had for them?

... well I know It has been a while, but better late than never, right?

So here is the deal...

I have been in my house for 3 years and still not decorated the way I want it.

I have known for forever that I wanted to hang plates behind the wall on my kitchen table, but never could find the right plates and wasnt really sure how I wanted to arrange them.

I decided I wanted a color behind them...since my walls are tan. The living room and kitchen run together, so unless I wanted to tackle a HUGE paint job, painting the actual wall was not an option.

I put my thinking cap on and here is what I cam up with...

My mom had an this big, old, Huge frame. (How's that for proper use of adjectives;0)

I took the picture out and got a piece of sheetrock to fit the frame, then painted the sheetrock. For anyone who knows me, you can probably guess my color of choice...

yep... red!

I then got plate hangers and hung the plates on the framed sheetrock

then hung the whole frame on my actual wall.

Minimizing holes and side stepping having to paint over it for resale purposes in the future!

I am very happy with the finished product!

Next up on the home improvement list...

Living room curtains!

I am picky and cannot find curtains I like that do not cost a fortune.

I decided I would just make my own.

I rounded the corner in Hobby Lobby, saw this material...

 It was love at first Sight!!!

I went and bought the fabric yesterday. I had a really great conversation with the lady that works there, and she gave me an extra discount!!!

I walked away with 6 yards of home decor grade fabric (originally $25.99/yd) and  6 yards of material to line the back of the curtain panels with ($2.79/yd) for $84 bucks! Do the math. It should have been much more! I ended up getting the 30% off advertised, then they let me use the 40% coupon in the paper on top of that! (should have been one or the other)

Being friendly pays off!!!

I am so excited to get started on these. Will post more pics as soon as they are finished.

Lazy Summer Days

My last few off weeks have been crazy busy!

This week, I have a few things to get done... but no real obligations.

Yesterday I got the house clean, so I can just enjoy the rest of the week

My youngest sister, Cassidy, has been in town at my mom's the last couple of weeks...so I came over to the pool to relax and hang with her for a bit

LOVE her!

It was fun just to spend some one on one time together and catch up on each others lives

Ellie joined us!

She loves swimming :0)

Got some errands to run this afternoon, then it's the 1st night of

Bodyshock Bootcamp!!!

In other news...

Aisha (friend from Africa) emailed me. John and several of the other babies are sick with the flu and one other baby at the orphanage has malaria. Be in prayer for their health. Also, she said John took 5 steps last week, so he should be walking quite well by the time I get back!!

Hope everyone is enjoying the week so far!!!

Parent's Night Out

Last Friday was our first fundraiser to raise money to help with our trip back to Africa in October.

In case you didn't know... I am going back to Uganda in October...and it gets better!

I will be there during my Birthday week!

I am going with my friends

Brittany

Stacey and her Boyfriend Aaron

We have a great group! and I'm so excited!

.....back to the fundraiser

Britt and I did a Parent's night out at Desperation Church

We were really only expecting around 5 kids, because we ran out of time and did not advertise very well.

We were pleasantly surprised to have 12 kids!!!

We are hoping to have a much bigger turn out in the future (total cost of trip is around $2000.00, so we have a ways to go)... but that was a good number to start out with and see what went well and what we might want to do differently.

Everything went smoothly and we had a lot of fun!

We painted faces

I learned to paint spiderman and was pleased with the end result!

She was such a big Helper!

So cute!

had a few races...

and a talent show!

which included singing, stand-up comedy, and dance

By the end of the night we had them quiet, watching a movie, and most importantly...

NO injuries!

Thanks to everyone for bringing your children!

If you missed out on this one, we plan to have several more in the future and hope to see you there!

round 2

I have to admit...I have fallen off the wagon with running and working out lately

and let's just face it... this 98 degree weather is not motivating!

My solution to get me back in a routine?

yep...  I'm going back for more! starts next week! I'm signing up for the month of June

and plan to run on the days I do not do this.

If ya see me out and I'm hobbling around... I have good reason!

I'm excited about it though!