Tuesday Topics: Flowers

Today we're talking about flowers. When I was planning our wedding I knew I wanted my bouquet to have deep plum calla-lilies. I just loved them! 

  

Roses were also in my bouquet, as well as on my cake.

That's the extent of my flower knowledge/experience, but if you really want to discuss flowers you should talk with my sister. She was on the floral design team in high school, and I think they made it to state! 

Happy Tuesday, friends!

The day facebook statuses became prayer updates

*This year for Lent I gave up Facebook and Instagram. I felt it was time to step away for a while and clear my head, and Lent seemed like the perfect opportunity. {I am also doing a daily bible study/meditation that was handed out at church a few weeks ago.} 

The first morning of Lent I drove to HEB, and as soon as I stopped at the first red light I reached for my phone. 

Oh, yeah, I thought. I can't check Facebook. No big deal. I'll just sit here. 

After sitting through a few more boring red lights I made it to HEB and bought my groceries. While I was there I decided to get gas and go through the car wash. I pulled up to the car wash, typed in the code on my gas receipt, and slowly drove my car inside. As I put it in park and the sprayers started spraying I reached for my phone. 

Dang it. I thought. What am I going to do while I sit here?

I ended up reading a few blogs, and I got so caught up in them that I didn't even notice the flashing green light telling me to "exit the car wash". 

As I drove home I started thinking about all the empty moments in my day that had previously been filled by scrolling though my newsfeed. When did I develop this constant need for useless information?

I took the next evening off, and as I was walking out of the hospital I noticed it was still daylight. My next Facebook status immediately popped into my head:

'Leaving work before the sun goes down! I forgot how good this feels :)'

I quickly remembered it was Lent and that I wouldn't be posting this status. Man, I thought, I just want everyone to know how excited I am to be leaving work right now!

Then I realized that here I was wanting to shout to the world how excited I was to be leaving work at a decent hour, and the one I should really be talking to was already listening. 

I paused in that moment and said a quiet prayer, 

thanking God for an evening at home with my husband. 

Tuesday Topics: Stores

Three stores. That's easy. I love a good shopping day with my mom and sister, and we definitely have our favorites!

I first discovered Francesca's when I was in college, and it quickly became one of my 'go-to' places for cute dresses, tops, and amazing accessories. If I went today I'd try on...

{1 / 2 / 3}

I fell in love with LOFT about a year ago when I stumbled across a sale and found some amazing deals. Since then I've found several of my favorite tops there. This spring I'm loving...

{1 / 2 / 3}

Nordstrom is another favorite. Their shoe department is amazing! Of course, I'm always on the look out for a sale when I shop here.

{1 / 2 / 3}

After all of this I'm ready to do some serious spring shopping, and I'll be even more excited in a few months when it's all on sale! Happy Tuesday, friends!

{via}

Perfectly Imperfect

It's time we had a heart-to-heart talk about marriage, what it's really like. As much as I love sharing all of our happiest moments with you, I also think it's important to be honest, to tell you that marriage is tough and that ours isn't perfect. 

After two years I've learned that marriage has seasons, good and bad, and right now we happen to be in a really good season. We've faced a few challenges along the way, but we've learned so much from those experiences.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that our lives aren't perfect, we aren't perfect. We argue and fight and both act selfish at times, but at the end of each day we remind ourselves that we're a team. We're in this together. For better or worse, remember?

I know that life isn't a fairy tale and that there are going to be difficult days ahead, but I'm okay with that. As long as we both try everyday to be the best husband and wife we can be, I'm okay with that.

I'll take perfectly imperfect any day. 

*I'm linking-up here today.

Weekend Update: Valentine Edition

This weekend perfect. 

I took off of work on Thursday evening, and we had a relaxing Valentine's Day at home. We exchanged gifts, ordered pizza and caught up on some of our favorite shows. 

On Friday Brandon planned a surprise lunch and took me to King's Inn, which is now one of my favorites. The food is served family style, and we ordered fried catfish, shrimp, onion rings and avocado salad. It was amazing! 

That afternoon we went into Corpus to exchange Brandon's new cap for the right size, and while we were in town we had dessert. Brandon had frozen yogurt, and I enjoyed a cake pop and green tea frappe from Starbucks. {Thanks, Tiff! I used my gift card!} 

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing and doing a few things around the house. We hadn't spent an entire weekend at home together in a while, so this this weekend was just what we needed.  

Tuesday Topics: What you don't know

What you don't know {if you only know me via blog world} is that my family went on a private tour of the West Wing of the White House. We stood in the doorway of the Oval Office and sat in the President's chair at the breakfast table. 

{On the lawn in front of the West Wing, one of the few places we were allowed to take pictures.
Sidenote: Welcome to my awkward stage.}

What you don't know is that I was Little Miss Yoakum when I was seven years old.

Yes, pageant winners wore red lace-up boots and leather sashes. Only in Yoakum...

{A typical Saturday morning for Yoakum's royalty.}

What you don't know is that I took clogging as a kid. I'll be honest, I was one of the best cloggers out there. But when it was time for the ballet routine, I was always in the back. 

{Performing in downtown Yoakum at Land of Leather Days}

What you don't know is that I'd like to go back to school one day and become a play therapist. The longer I work as a child life specialist the more I realize that play therapy is what I really want to do. 

Happy Tuesday, friends!

{I'm linking up here today.}

Tuesday Topics: My Hometown

"All hail to dear old Yoakum..." I thought I'd start with our high school alma mater lyrics, 

then I thought 'Hmmm... Better not.' {Pitch Perfect, anyone??}

Welcome to Yoakum, Texas!
Population: 5,847
{according to Google}

The small town in south Texas where you know everyone, and everyone knows what you do on the weekends. Just kidding. Sort of. 

There's not much to say about our town, other than we're the leather capitol of the world. 

Yeah, the world. We think it's a big deal. 

It's such a big deal that we have a festival once a year to celebrate. The last weekend in February we get together for "Land of Leather Days", a weekend-long craft show and chili cook-off. It's guaranteed to be cold and rainy every year, but don't worry. If you eat enough chili you'll stay warm.


Then in June we have our annual Tom Tom Festival. The festival originated to honor Yoakum's tomato industry. Get it? TOMato, Tom Tom?? Anyway, the weekend consists of a barbeque cook-off , live music, a parade through downtown Yoakum, a softball tournament that Brandon plays in every year, and most importantly...

The weenie dog race! Princess made her race debut in 2008, and after winning Ms. Congeniality she retired.  {Don't tell Princess, but there was really no Ms. Congeniality award. Since she was more interested in visiting with the crowd than actually running the race we gave her that title ourselves.}


On the weekends we enjoy live Texas country music at The Gin, our former feed store turned dance hall,

{via}

and in the summer we stand in line for up to thirty minutes to get one of the town's best sno cones.

{Funny Story: B and I used to ride our bikes here in junior high!}

But if you want to get a real feel for our town find a back yard or pasture where friends are gathered. They'll most likely be near a camp fire, toasting marshmallows and enjoying a game of washers or cornhole.

{Kayla and I at the camp house; October 2012}

{Shell, Maddie, Alicia; October 2012}

Life in Yoakum is pretty laid back, but if you stick around long enough you'll make friends that will last a lifetime.

{I'm linking up here today.}

Friendship, and Weekends Like This

This is the third opening line I've typed for this post.
I just can't seem to get it right. 

I want to tell you about our weekend,
the weekend that Kayla and Riley came to visit.
I want you to know how much we truly enjoyed it.

First I want to tell you our history and everything that brought us together.
I want to tell you about our life long friendship
and what role each of us played in helping one another find true love.

I want to share with you all of our memories,
memories of proms, graduations, twenty-first birthdays, and weddings.

Mostly, I want you to know just how special this friendship really is.

And then maybe you'll understand why this weekend meant so much.
Maybe you'll understand why it felt so good to pick up where we left off
and continue our heartfelt conversations.

Maybe you'll see that a weekend of dinner, bowling,
breakfast tacos and Pitch Perfect can actually be good for your soul.

If you're like me you'll realize
that this kind of friendship only happens once-in-a-lifetime,
and you'll vow to yourself to make weekends like this happen a lot more often.