A Surprise Package...

is what I came home to yesterday. This lovely package greeted me on my doorstep! It was from Alyse, our wedding planner! How sweet is she. I couldn't believe it. It was so thoughtful of her. The little notebook has an "M" on it... PERFECT!!! And the little brown box contained green M&M's. It has been such a thrill to work with her and I highly recommend her to anyone. She is fabulous! Thanks Alyse! You are the BEST!

Housewarming Shower

This past weekend we made the journey up to Morristown, TN for Traci and Robert's "housewarming" shower. Since Robert was deployed quickly after they tied the knot, they never had a chance to have a shower before the wedding. So being the loving family they are, Aunt Bea so kindly hosted a shower for them. Brian's mom side of the family was in attendance as well as Brian's aunts from his dad's side. Traci and Robert received so many wonderful gifts and were truly blessed. We even woke up to snow on Sunday morning! Doris (Brian's mom) was beyond excited! We really enjoyed seeing everyone and can't wait for our next visit to Morristown. Thanks for letting us stay with you, Aunt Bea!

Lent

It's Ash Wednesday! That means it's the start of the Lent season and for the next 40 days one gives up something that they like. This year we are giving up all red meat but I (Lynsey) am also going to try and limit my diet soda intake and make a strong effort to get back into the routine of going to the gym. The gym part started yesterday and afterwards I felt great!! Pray that I can keep it up. So tell me.. what are you giving up for Lent?

Wedding Progress Update

It's been over a month since we posted about our wedding progress in this post. So we thought we would update everyone on what we have managed to accomplish since then.

• We have booked our DJ - All the Right Grooves
• We have booked our Videographer, Hesman Productions - Thanks for recommending them, Chris and Lindsey!
• Finalized our guest list -- talk about painful!
• We have our Save the Dates and have only 20 left to address!!! - More on those later
• Wedding dress and veil have been ordered and paid for...both are scheduled to arrive in May... yay!!!!
• Bridesmaid dresses have been picked out - Mori Lee Style 412 in Chocolate Brown


• Our ring bearers have been measured for their tuxes
• We have registered! - More to come on this
• Booked our cake baker and have decided on the different flavors for each tier - white, devils food, red velvet, pumpkin spice, white with raspberry filling. The icing will be butter cream. It will be a square cake and we are deciding on the design.
• Sent our information to April Foster and she has started working on our invitation suite.
• Attended two bridal shows and won a free engagement announcement for one of our local papers.
• Found Brian's wedding band.. hope to purchase it within the next month.
• Narrowed down rehearsal dinner location to three local restaurants.

This fall/winter is going to be so busy for us and we are really looking forward to it. We will have our own wedding in October, in November my bestest ties the knot and I am so honored to be her MOH and then in December my brother ties the knot. Brian and I are both in the December wedding. We are looking forward to such an eventful fall/winter.

Love day

We had a nice and quiet Valentines Day. During the day, I went bridesmaid dress shopping with my bestest for her wedding and Brian worked around the house and pup sat the dogs. That evening we had made plans to go out to eat at Cities. Well.... I got sick and wasn't feeling all that well. Instead we ran to the store and picked up tulips for my mom and my grandmother and made house visits to surprise them.

We was just happy we got to spend Valentines Day together. Last year we spent it apart as I was in Florida running in a half-marathon.

Hope everyone had a lovely Love day!

I love you more than _______

Paperwhite Studio has a new way to express your love for someone on this Valentines Day. They want to get away from all the cliches and see how we really measure love. Personally, I think its a really cool project. Here are some of my favorites!

Hope everyone has a happy Valentines Day and always remember to tell those you love just how much you love them! I Love You Brian!

Quotes

I love quotes. In high school, I had a whole binder full of quotes that I found from various places. Here are a few that I have come across lately that really stuck in my head.

" In the time we have it is surely our duty to do all the good we can to all the people we can in all the ways we can. " - William Barclay

" Nothing makes a woman more beautiful than the belief that she is beautiful." - Sophia Loren

"Manifest plainness. Embrace simplicity. Reduce selfishness. Have few desires." - Lao-tzu

"Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till tomorrow what you can do today." - Lord Chesterfield

"Life is now...this day, this hour... and is probably the only experience of the kind one is to have." - Charles Malcomb Flandrau

"Where much is expected from an individual, he may rise to the level of events and make the dream come true." - Elbert Hubbard

Reuse, Repurpose

After seeing this post on This Young House , I got to thinking about items I had around the house that I could use for different purposes. Here is one of the many ideas I can come up. Sorry for the poor quality of picture but those are flowers Brian gave me for our one your anniversary. And the vase? It's a juice glass that normally would have found its way into the recycling bin. The flowers are lovely to look at when I am in the kitchen. I challenge you to take a look around your house and see if you can reuse and repurpose items.

Found

This little girl was found Saturday morning in the park by my house. No collar, no tags, no microchip. We posted signs around the park and in the neighborhood and also on Lassie Come Home. We would keep her but O'Malley is scared to death of her and she isn't house broken. We are weighing our options now. Hopefully we will be able to find her a very lovely home! If anyone in the WS area is looking for a sweet loving dog, contact us!

And pet owners, please be responsible and microchip your dog!

Rascal Flatts

I meant to post about this earlier but got busy and forgot. One of our friends, Dawn, scored free tickets to the Rascal Flatts concert in Winston. She was so sweet to invite us and we certainly didn't pass it up! Jessica Simpson was the opening act and bless her heart, her performance was painful to watch and listen to. I had high hopes for her and really wanted her to do well but it just wasn't her night. Rascal Flatts certainly made up for it though. I have seen them twice before and I will say this performance was the best yet! This was Brian's first time seeing them live and he really enjoyed it. They played a nice mix of old and new songs. Luckily Dawn had her camera with her and sent me these great pictures from the show. Oh and that whole Jessica Simpson weight gain issue... not believing it. Even though her performance wasn't great, she looked great!

Thanks again for inviting us, Dawn! We had a great time.

Take a look...

at what happened yesterday! SNOW, in the South! Almost unheard of! I've only been waiting on it all winter and now that it has made it's appearance, bring on spring!

And of course, I had to take O'Malley out in it. It took him a minute to figure things out.

Giveaways

Lots of giveaways happening lately in blog land. Check out some of the best...

Nina has her new site up and running. You have to check it out. She is having a giveaway a day for this week!

Giveaway 1.0

A Green and White Polka-Dot Dish Towel Set!!

Giveaway 1.2

Erin at Blue-Eyed Bride is having away a cute little Hanky Panky gift set. They are adorable!

Mojito Maven at Make Mine a Mojito is giveaway some yummies!

Such fabulous giveaways! Click over to their sites and see how wonderful their blogs are!