Turkey’s Done!

November 29, 2012 by · 6 Comments

Some races just get complicated by life events.  We know some of you out there know what we are saying!  This Thanksgiving brought some firsts for both of us.

For Beth it was the first time that she and Brent actually spent Thanksgiving together, so we were finally forced to figure out how we would get time with each of our families.  We spent it with his family and they start earlier than my family does and my family had Thanksgiving at the house I lived in for the past 3 years so doing a race and getting ready for family was no big deal.  This year I had barely any time.  And why does the Turkey Trot start at 9 a.m.?! I didn’t remember it starting so late.  I vote we go with 8 a.m. next year! OK? OK!  And isn’t it cute how in my world 9 a.m. is now late? Haha

For Teal, well, we will just share with you the lists of things that includes firsts and therefore annoyances with Thanksgiving. 🙂

1. My dad did not come from Maryland (like he was going to) and I had to make a turkey (instead of my dad making it).

2. I had to get up at 5am to deal with stuffing a turkey, which I don’t know how to do so I was automatically stressed. Oh and I had the words of Michael’s cousin in my head, who was being playful but said “Don’t ruin the turkey, you will ruin Thanksgiving” Great.

3. The neck of a raw turkey is absolutely GROSS and I almost gagged and then the intestines bag had a hole and I had to touch the liver. Gag, again.

4. I turned the turkey roasting pan on and I thought it was going to catch on fire, smoke everywhere! Had to send my husband to Wal-Mart to get a new one, and for those of you who may not know I don’t like that place and once pushed one of their front doors off the track. I don’t go there!

5.  I felt bad for waking him up, making him go to that dreaded place, being annoying, and oh, by the way Happy Anniversary,  sorry I suck and can’t cook or read directions… see 6….

6. Turns out it wasn’t actually going to catch on fire, perhaps, read the directions first?

7. I didn’t know what to wear. I know, #firstworldproblems

8. I was going to be late and was afraid Beth would kill me, so then I worried (not that she ever would, but a girl can worry, we are people pleasers)

9. Ohhhh, you need to eat before a race?? I didn’t have any food so I ate Oreos, 2 of them to be exact, and I should have eaten 12.

10. I was starving, that starving where you want to throw up starving.

11. It cost me more money to take money out of the ATM then it actually cost to park.

12. The original $3 parking lot machine wasn’t working, so we couldn’t park there.

13. We drove to $5 lot and it was full.  Full as in the car in front of us got the last spot.

14. I HATE PARKING!

There. I feel much better. WOOOSSSAAAA.

Ok, so after surviving all of that, the two of us and Chase (Beth’s cousin) made it over to the race start.  We all three got hooked up with VIP wristbands so we got to use some nice port-a-potties with a not so ridiculous line.  Ohhh, the little things that make racers happy!

After that it was pretty much time to get lined up to start the race, but oh, yah…they put up a fence that makes it impossible to enter the racing area.  How quickly we forget these things after multiple years of running the same race. Ha!

Mile 1 to 5K Split

Teal: This is like a fun game of  “let’s try not to run any children over, kick a dog, elbow an elderly person, trip over a fire extinguisher, speed bump, or sidewalk,  have to come to a screeching halt every 5 seconds.” It’s sooooo fun. So needless to say, the first part of this race is a complete and total pain, if you would like to run, but I still managed to keep a somewhat decent pace. And just a disclaimer, I know this, and have known this, and still run because I like this race, and will always like this race, it’s just kind of a pain to do. AND I don’t think it will change, so this is more of a statement and not so much a complaint, although I am not sure maybe it’s both! I knew I would not PR at this point and was letting my list of 14 annoying things get to me. I wanted to take the 5k turn off, just wait for Beth and Chase and be done with it all but I didn’t. Just run the stinking race, and get happy.

The sea of people before the start of the race

Beth:  Maybe I’m a jerk for saying this, but while the 3 of were trying to get into the starting area I made probably the comment I make every year “why don’t they let the timed racers start in the front? or why don’t they start the 5K and 8 mile in waves?”  This man next to me informed me that “the mat will pick up your time when you cross it!” WHAT?! It will?? Haha, bless his heart. I am pretty sure that every year in the first about 2.5ish miles of this race I ask myself why am I running this race?? I hate this!  I’m fairly use to going out and running around White Rock Lake and hearing cyclist say “on your left” so I just decided to use that with the walkers.  Man the people that come out to the Turkey Trot spa-read themselves out on those streets!  This race always makes me think that people need to go through a Common Courtesies of Race Course before they can embark on their first race.  Not that that will ever happen.

5K Split to Finish

Teal: LESS CROWDS! We lost half the race to the 5k turn off! Yippee!! I actually got in a better mood, ran a lot faster and didn’t feel as pissed. This is the best reason to run! They changed the course and I liked the change in the long run, but not as it was happening. It was way hillier than it was last year, but we didn’t have to run through a very boring part of Dallas. This change made the race feel fast at the end.  I really was trying to pick up my pace to overcome the first 2.5 but I just felt like it was not going to happen. I ended up being annoyed (theme of the day) with this women who kept on running at my shoulder up the hills and would then linger back to keep doing it again. I was determined to make her go away so my last 2 miles were about and 8ish to 8:30 minute pace, where I had been running more at a 9:30 min pace. My last mile was 8:03, which is fast for me, mainly to be done and away from the lady.

Overall it was not bad and I am glad I ran and I am still very proud of my time. It was not a PR and it was not as bad as 3 years ago so there! That’s a win in my book. And despite everything, I would and will still run this again, BUT I will not cook a Turkey, which will then make me less stressed and annoyed. MARK MY WORDS PEOPLE!

The sea of people after the race and a little bit of downtown Dallas

Beth: Ahhhh, this is why I run this race! It is amazing how much a 5K split can change things!  Not long after the split off we ran by where Brent and I got married which put a big smile on my face! 🙂  I had started noticing some small changes in course and was really hopeful that this one area would be cut out.  It was! I remember thinking the last few years on the last few miles being like when is this going to be over?  But this year it just seemed like it was over in no time.  That was when I remembered the trickster finish line they have! Haha, you see the start line and think, almost there!  You aren’t your going to fork to the right, go up a small but long  incline then keeeeeep going even though you already started your last minute sprint to the end and then BAM! you’re done. According to my runkeeper I had an overall pace of 8:35 for the race.  Also according to my runkeeper I ran 8.36 miles which makes me wonder how much of that is extra mileage from my dodging at the beginning, and then there is always one area in downtown where the GPS gets off.  Don’t start telling me how GPS systems are not always 100% accurate because I know!  And please don’t start talking to me about running tangents because, again, I know.  And I”m also admitting that the dodging of people in the beginning was me probably adding on some extra mileage.  Pretty much like Teal said this is a race where you get frustrated in the beginning, but ultimately the annoyances get overpowered by the last two thirds of the race roughly.  It is a great race and great that it brings so many people out together to get some activity in before a full day of eating far too much!

So, Capital One Bank Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot (that is a mouthful), we will see you again next year!

Results:

Teal: 1:15:33, finished 73rd in age group and 1,850 overall

Beth: 1:11:36, finished 66th in my age group and 1,396 over all

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A LiAR Christmas List

November 27, 2012 by · 6 Comments

So Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come in gone, but we bet you are still shopping for your friends and family for Christmas.  We are definitely still shopping!

This holiday season we decided to compile our own list of running gear we would love for Santa to bring us on Christmas morning! 🙂

1. Flipbelt – Who isn’t always looking for the perfect way to carry everything you might need on a run? Ever since Courtney told us both about these we’ve been dying to get our hands on one for each of us.  Of course a lot of the other belts out there for carrying around personal items we haven’t tried, but this one has completely got our attention!  For $24.99 it’s not a bad belt to try out, right?

 

 

2. Brisk Run Headband – This is one item if Santa wants to get it, he better get on it!  It’s currently on FINAL SALE at Lululemon! Eeeee!! We still get our fair share of cold weather down here in Texas that we should own at least one of this….or two or three! You can never have too many colors! 🙂

3. Compete Every Day Hoodie – This isn’t the first time we’ve mentioned CED on our blog and it probably won’t be the last time.  We love this Dallas based company – love what they stand for, their quality workout apparel and awesome customer service.  When they started advertising this hoodie we both immediately wanted it! Santa, we’ll take a small and a medium, please!

 

4. Point 6 Socks – These socks rock!  Beth had the opportunity to snag a free pair when she was shopping for her dad for some new socks for when he is active.  Definitely fell in love and the thin layer of wool in them really does help prevent blisters!  Great stocking stuffer right here!  This is also another company with fabulous customer service.

 

5. Daily Om Duffel – Sometimes you just need a new gym bag! Right? And right now Lululemon has the peeeerfect colors for the two of us! We are trying to figure out however why they named the Teal bag the color that they did instead of just using the awesome name of Teal!  Beth is still obsessed with grey since it was one of her wedding colors, so don’t you think we *need* these bags?! Haha

 

There are always a lot of things out there we’d love to try and test out ourselves, but then we probably wouldn’t have any money to enter any of the races we hope to run!  We also are in no way being compensated for this blog rather we simply wanted to share with YOU items that have caught our eyes!

What are you asking for this holiday season? Do you have a fellow runner you are buying for – what are you getting them?  We want to know!

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Wordless Wednesday No. 35

November 21, 2012 by · 4 Comments

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Our Turkey Day Tradition

November 16, 2012 by · 15 Comments

It’s time for the Capital One Bank Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot AGAIN! Hard to believe that Thanksgiving is literally right around the corner.  We actually got the email Tuesday that said Packet Pick-Up was starting Wednesday.  WHOA!

We love this race because  1.) it’s super fun 2.) the atmosphere around this race is hard to match 3.) it’s pretty much a tradition for us at this point oh and 4.) who doesn’t find it great to burn 800+ calories and enjoying everything you eat that day!  That’s right because each we like to participate in the 8 mile portion of the this race.

Apparently we aren’t the only ones that like this race. Time Magazine actually just listed it as one of the Top 5 Fun Runs to Try Now! Fun Run is exactly the correct terminology, while you could definitely hit a PR in this type of race (both of us did last year 🙂 ) it is definitely not its true purpose.  Even though it is actually one of the largest fun runs in the country, the race is well organized and put together, but some cramping occurs at the beginning making it more fun to take in the atmosphere and enjoy the run through some of the best parts of Dallas! Many families come out for the 5k distance and you are even allowed to bring your pet! Teal is not sure Wilson could handle it though, he is too chicken. 🙁

The Turkey Trot always comes up with something fun and after 40+ years they haven’t run out of new ideas. Last year you might remember that we dressed up as Turkeys and participated in the Guinness Book of World Record challenge to gather the most people dressed as Turkeys in one location! Oh and we did actually break the record! Does this make us famous??

Check out our awesome costumes and Beth’s sewing handy work.

This year they have decided to start the Mascot Trot.  They have invited all of the Dallas area schools to come cheer on the North Texas professional mascots as they race each other around Dallas. There will be “Champ” from the Dallas Mavericks, “Ranger Captain” from the Texas Rangers, and “Rowdy” from the Dallas Cowboys’ mascots and they will all compete in a race with the official Turkey Trot mascot, “Tommy the Turkey.” We didn’t even know they had one!  This happens the day before the race so anyone can come out and watch, even the runners! Maybe you could even be spotted on Good Morning Texas!!

This will be our 3rd year in a row to run together as Life is a Run, but this is something that has been around us for a long time dating back even into our high school running days and hopefully we can keep it up!

Turkey Trot 2010 with Bitner and Chase

There is ONE more thing that makes this day special in addition to it being a day of family (Thanksgiving) and the Turkey Trot, but it is also Teal & Michael’s 4th wedding anniversary!

Who is running the Turkey Trot this year?? We as usual would LOVE to see you.

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#BethBrentHitched {Wedding Weekend Take 3}

November 15, 2012 by · 9 Comments

If you missed Take 1 or Take 2, well, there are the links for them! Now go catch up! 😉

And here we are rapidly approaching 6:00 p.m. and the start of it all!  The whole day really did go by quickly and then the last 15-20 minutes seemed to sa-loooooow down! Is it time now? ……What about now?

At a point I was told to not sit down because of how it did this or that to my dress. Ok, then can we just get started?

Then the nerves set in, and not cold feet nerves more than holy cow there are going to be a lot of people in that room watching. What if I fall? What if I lock my knees and pass out? Haha

Then all of a sudden my dad was walking me down the aisle. AND I DIDN’T BAWL MY EYES OUT! I definitely thought I was going to, but nope! Didn’t happen.

My youth pastor from growing up married us, and that was so special because I’ve known him since before I entered the youth group at 12 years old plus he’s just always been a big part of my life and my family.

Before we move on let’s once again remember how incredibly cuuute our flower girl and ring bearer were that day and just are in general!

One aspect of the wedding ceremony that I loved was having Bitner involved in it.  Remember him from some races with us? We’ve pretty much known each other for almost 10 years now and when I first met him in college I just loved him to death!  If I’m ever having a bad day he is always able to turn that around – he’s just so darn funny! But he read Love by Roy Croft for us except for the last line or two of it and he did a fabulous job!

We were pronounced husband & wife, the Bride was kissed and then we walked down the aisle as Mr. & Mrs. Brent Holland. 🙂

The whole ceremony took a grand total of 20 minutes, and then it was take your traditional pictures while guests go enjoy a cocktail hour.  I love pictures so you may be getting way more than you wanted to see. 🙂

the color is a little weird in this one, but hanging out in the court room while the guests leave the ceremony room

with each of our sets of parents

who doesn’t love a goofy pic?

Then the reception started, and Brent & I had our first dance together to Everything by Michael Buble.  I am a HUGE Michael Buble fan so I do love this song, but this particular song was also kind of a joke between the two of us so it’s the only thing we have close to an “our song.”  After that Brent & I did manage to actually eat dinner with our wedding party at what I like to think of as the largest head table ever!

or have you seen larger?

Somewhere in the mix we had the Father/Daughter dance sung by one of my Dad & I’s favorite entertainers in Dallas, Pat Peterson. Sweet moments with my dad!

We cut cake, forgot to feed it to each other, but we DID feed each other cupcakes. Hooray! Have I mentioned that I am obsessed with my cake topper? It is actually Brent & I! I emailed one of my engagement pictures to Simply Silhouettes and this is what they sent back –

And then we all just danced! By now you know that our wedding favor was a pair of sunglasses with #BethBrentHitched on one side of them.  I love them!  I loved seeing them through an instagram photo on our Best Man’s little boy the next day!  A pair has been on vacation to Cabo already. So fun!

Have to include the green drink picture!  Green drink pictures have been a thing two of my best friends have been doing for about 7 years now.  Just one of those things that randomly develops and Teal joined the green drink club!  How fun that the green drink actually matches the wedding!

One thing I was excited about doing at our wedding was the Aggie War Hymn!! I am a fightin’ Texas Aggie and Brent is also a fightin’ Texas Aggie! WHOOP! 🙂  Let’s also go ahead and give another big WHOOOOOP for the Ags beatin’ the hell out of Alabama this past weekend! A-WHOOP! 🙂  Ok, I’ll stop now, but we got all the Aggies together and sang our war hymn.

Kind of love those photos! And my DJ actually got a video of a little bit of it as well!

 [youtube=http://youtu.be/cjJNe4HZJK0]

 Again it was a really fun night and while the whole evening didn’t feel like it went by in five seconds it did still go by very fast! I loved it!  🙂

at some point I finally took off my heels and you can see just how short I am compared to Brent

I love this, so I’m sharing it with you! 🙂

And we are off!

Then we lived happily ever after! 😉

Sorry I’m wordy and  use lots of pictures.  It reminds me of what my youth pastor, Mike, said at the wedding with Brent you get 5 words and with Beth you get 500 words. Haha. Oops?

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Wordless Wednesday No. 34

November 14, 2012 by · 8 Comments

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Ft. Worth Marathon But You Know Only the Half

November 13, 2012 by · 5 Comments

Perhaps it was the mix of activities for Beth’s wedding or the fact that both of our houses have been a complete disaster, or that we didn’t see each other for a week, or any number of other things but let’s just say this half definitely snuck up on us. We didn’t even do a pre-race post! Whoops?? Perhaps just another bit of proof of our not preparedness.

We double bagged our phones in case it really did rain during the race

Because we were driving to Ft. Worth we wanted to make sure we got to the race in time and especially since we had to get our packets that day!  Teal wasn’t even actually sure she had registered and the guy couldn’t find her name on the list… Oh, he was looking at the list for the marathon, but it was rather hilarious that we really couldn’t remember. So by the time we finished picking them up we had about an hour and a half to kill before our race started.  The different distances at this race are staggered by 30 minutes, so it was a 7:30 a.m. start for the marathon, 8:00 a.m. start for the 20 miler and a 8:30 a.m. start for the half.

Look at how long this race shirt is?!

Miles 1-5

Teal: We talked to Caron before the race and she had mentioned taking it 5 miles at a time. In my head that sounded like a good plan, I hadn’t fully registered that she was running the 20 mile when I decided that sounded great, and it sorta works for a ½ so I went with that. 1-5 seemed to take forever and I couldn’t really figure out why. I am usually done with a mile in about 3ish songs and by mile one I had heard 5. This was not registering with me. Apparently not being prepared also causes my brain to not work. The course was flat for the most part which made me happy! It was too windy to deal with hills too. The wind at points was rather ridiculous.

Beth:  I really didn’t have a game plan in my head AT ALL about this race.  I knew I needed to not start too fast considering the month of October I let my marathon training and mileage be all over the place. 🙁  Plus Thursday night I was hit with a 24 hour stomach bug. So I thought I’d just kind of play it by ear!  Soon after we started and I had turned on my runkeeper there was no music coming from it.  Then I remembered how I had turned the music option off in the app while I was in Hawaii, so I just tried to turn on some music.  When I did it was a slow song, so then I remembered how Thursday night I’d just put my music on shuffle during my stairmaster workout.  To make things even more fun I’d turn down the brightness on my iPhone to help save some battery life which means I couldn’t see through the two plastic bags I had my phone in to turn on a playlist.  My music during this race consisted of almost every slow song on my phone and Christmas music. Ha.

Miles 6-8

Teal: Still not bad but super freaking windy. I was ready to get to the turn around. Not to mentioned this women that had thrown her water on Beth was about to get my foot up her toosh! ( I mean I really would never do that) but she was that much on my nerves. She kept cutting me off for no reason, or running right next to me within like breathing distance. Sometimes Beth and I run like that next to each other but that is because we are LONG TIME RUNNING BUDDIES!! Back up off lady! At 8 I finally was annoyed at how long this seemed to be taking and the time not adding up so I asked Beth what we were really at. She said 7.96! Sweet! I had us at 7.41, so apparently my trusty little Garmin was also not prepared for the day! I actually felt a little energy

Beth: Um, yes to the freaking windy! Do you remember how at the Taco Run there was a guy that messed with my head for the last few miles of the race? Guess who was here at this race? Did you say the Mind Messer Man then you are correct!  I forget when but at one point we caught him and passed him a teeny tiny little bit, but don’t worry, y’all, he surged and he passed us! There was just this nice stretch of me being annoyed that he was there and with the lady who dumped the whole cup of water on me.  It’s one of those things where I get that you don’t want to STOP and walk with your water, but for the love, at least slow down a little.  Her technique of trying to grab a small cup of water at full speed was not affective.  At one water station where I didn’t even get water I was excited because she behind me so no water on me! Wrong, she spilled a cup on my feet. We should also mention that I for one ran more than 13.1 on this race course. Yes, I know tangents, we wrote a blog that included that in it.  There were a couple parts of the course where it split and was either a gravel/dirt path or a paved path and there were no markers to say stay this or what not. I just don’t like courses when it makes me wonder if I’m on the intended path or not?

Miles 9-13.1

Teal: My energy from that .6ish mile increase made me happy and until 10 I was happy. Then at like 10.1 I wanted to die. I had dropped a little behind Beth but just at the perfect timing she slowed to let me catch her! We stayed together until about 11 again and then it was just get home to the finish line. I could see the storm coming in and was just ready to be done mentally but my body just said, Nope you are staying at this pace. I managed to get in and done but was ready to die. My legs hurt and I was pretty shaky and actually a little dizzy. I think the fact that the running was off and 10 mile long runs missed made this difficult. Overall however, I am not disappointed! I finished with a clock time of 2:07 something and really wanted to find out the real time! I am not disappointed with that as it is still pretty quick for me!!

Beth: I was going back and forth on how I was doing and telling myself when you get to 10 it’s just going to be another 5k.  I kind of got pumped at one point and was like LET’S DO THIS!!!  Then at 10 I told myself to take a chill pill.  I was pushing myself too much too fast.  I was coming off inconsistent running and being stick with a stomach bug (a.k.a. not holding food down). So I stopped to find Teal because I was pretty sure if I didn’t chill out and run with her I was not going to make it. When we were about 2 miles out from the finish line I knew I could do this and pushed a little bit harder and at some point in here I passed Mind Messer Man when he stopped to get water. YES! All, I had to do was keep him behind me now! And I did! We actually talked briefly after he crossed the finish line. He was all – weren’t you at the Taco Run? Considering how the last month has been and being sick I am dang proud of this race, but now I got some work to do! We have another half coming up that if I don’t PR at it I better be dang near close!

 

Results:

Teal: 2:06:27, finished 17th in her age group

Beth: 2:05:15, finished 16th in her age group

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The Day of Preparations {Wedding Weekend Take 2}

November 12, 2012 by · 9 Comments

Just kidding there are some pictures of my aunts and cousin from the Bridal Luncheon! Tada –

Aunt Leslie, Kate and Aunt Cindy

Saturday morning things got rolling early, but not the butt crack of dawn early. Those of us staying in the hotel met at the Starbucks attached to it so we could wake up and make sure the below photo happened for the day.

At the Bridal Luncheon the day before the Bridesmaids passed out hoodies they’d gotten and one of their rockstar Mom’s embroidered them all with our names, well, my mom’s said “Mother of the Bride” and they gave me a men’s button down shirt they’d had embroidered as well for me to wear while I got ready (as seen in our latest Wordless Wednesday). Absolutely loved the shirt for getting ready AND my hoodie!

We all got to Old Red Courthouse about 9:00 a.m. to start getting the place ready for the entire wedding and the hair & makeup ladies were arriving shortly after that to get started on all of us ladies! There were reception centerpieces to set out, mantles to be decorated (the reception room had two), place cards to be put in corks, etc.  So very grateful to each and everyone of the ladies and Bitner for their help with everything! I really and truly have the best friends in the world!

 

 

One of the BIG wedding craft projects that took a TON of time was to make these flutter curtains. I’m pretty sure the original idea came from pinterest, but linked me to this blog.  You see I needed sooomething to decorate these beams that would be above the area that Brent and I stand for the wedding.  When I found the flutter curtains I wanted to do them just modified as narrow and long curtains.  Teal, Kate, Rebekah (on the right in picture below), Mandy, Brent and myself together probably cut a couple thousand fabric circles for this project.

Trying to figure out hanging the curtains, but ultimately my dad, Bitner and my brother would do the hanging later that day

I can’t even tell you how many hours went into making those curtains, but a whole heck of a lot of them that is for sure!  I like to think that it really wasn’t that stressful of a day.  We got things put out in good time and eventually got to all hang around in the bridal suite area of Old Red to watch others get their hair and makeup done. My wedding coordinator, Bethany, handled all the other details and if a vendor was late arriving, I had no idea! We may or may not have broken into some of the wine/prosecco/champagne at this point (shhhh – don’t tell the venue that) and the Caramel Eileen cupcakes I had Trailercakes bring extra with the delivery of the groom’s cupcakes so we could partake in a tasty treat before the wedding.

 

And then my flower girl, Meranda, and my ringer bear and nephew, Wesley showed up it meant we were really getting closer to the wedding getting started! The Groom and his Groomsmen and Ushers were arriving and pictures were beginning to happen.  My wedding coordinator had the idea of taking the follow picture since Brent and I were waiting to see each other until the ceremony, and I love how it turned out and that the huge staircase at Old Red made it work.

 

There are more with him turned around and me facing the wall and a couple of me peeking over the railing trying to see him. 🙂 The venue really does create a lot of great pictures and they do still have a courtroom in it which is where the wedding party mainly hungout before the ceremony began and then after while we waited to go back in the ceremony room for pictures.  I just think that Wesley and Meranda were the cutest on my wedding day and here are a couple of pictures of them in the courtroom.

 

And I can’t leave out a picture of my littlest nephew, Easton! He looked absolutely adorable this day!  This picture is technically from after the ceremony, but I wanted to include it now. This is half my blog I can do what I want right? 🙂

My brother, Scott, Easton & me

I’ll leave you with one last picture of me with my ladies before we officially started the evening!

 

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The Good, the Messy & the Hilarious {Wedding Weekend Take 1}

November 8, 2012 by · 3 Comments

For the two of us ladies the whole wedding weekend kind of kicked off Thursday afternoon! Teal rocks and took not only Friday off, but also Thursday to help me with last minute things.  Priorities first though we went that afternoon with my mom and sister, Kate, to get manicures & pedicures for the weekend.  The nail salon loved Kate, Teal and me because we all wanted the exact same colors on our fingers and toes, but it gave us more time to drink our wine since they only had one bottle of the green polish!

Green and gray to match the wedding colors!

Then the four of us were off to run a few errands.  Teal and I stopped by Target for wine and goldfish. 🙂 Y’all, these are essentials in our lives – haha! And then Teal very graciously continued to stick around and helped me do a mock of the cupcake table, pack up all those supplies in bins, get the place cards ready to go and really just get organized for the weekend.  Also, a big shout out to my sister too for all her input and helping me load up our cars that night to head to downtown Dallas Friday afternoon!

This is from Wednesday when my SIL, Tiffany, and littlest nephew, Easton, were over helping me with stuff. My sister & I’s house has been a wedding mess forever. Thanks for putting up with me and the wedding mess!

Friday my dad’s sisters and my one and only girl cousin threw me an awesome bridal luncheon! I’m sad because I don’t think I snapped a picture with just them at the luncheon. 🙁  But should you read this Aunt Cindy, Aunt Leslie and Erin I am truly blessed by the 3 of you and lucky to have such wonderful women in my life I get to call family! It was so fun to just get to hangout with the ladies in my family and  my wedding party!

Mother of the Bride & Bride

Sisters!

LiAR!

 

My House Party dude! 🙂

I was fiiinally able to give my Bridesmaids their presents for being in my wedding.  One of the things I gave them in particular I was trying really hard to either keep it all or aspects of it a secret, but one of them ended up having to teach my mom and me how to make so she knew ALL about it.  My mom sewed clutch purses for all of my Bridesmaids (well and me, my MIL and herself – a lot of purses!) and I don’t really sew so the only contribution I was really able to make was being the fabric cutter.  Lots of hours went into these bad boys but thankfully we started pretty early on them and they were done well in advance of the wedding! I think they’re sooo cuute!  Thank you to my mom for generously giving up all of that time to work on these for me amongst other things!

One of the other things I got them and was really excited about was that OPI in the spring, I think, came out with a Holland collection (my future last name), so I was able to find a good deal on a set of the Holland collection nail polishes. Perfect timing, OPI!

Anyway, after that we all kind of went in separate directions until the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner that night. Brent and I both grew up in Dallas, but didn’t know each other so pretty much the whole weekend of events was in Dallas proper which seemed appropriate with both of us being born (same hospital just a couple years apart) and raised here.  The wedding venue had some fabulous views of the Dallas skyline, and my in-laws also picked out a wonderful rehearsal dinner venue with just as awesome views!

Bride & Father of the Bride ready to rehearse!

with my in-laws to be (the next day)

The rehearsal dinner was full of good food, lots of laughs and just fun time with family and close friends.  Brent & I are truly blessed by the not only amazing family we have but the true friends in our lives!  After dinner a lot of us headed to the hotel bar to have more time to just hangout before we called it a night.  Eventually Brent left to head to his house for the night  and most of the wedding party was staying at the hotel so when we were ready to call it a night we just went upstairs.  And let’s end this Friday night on a funny note – when Kate, Teal and I got to our floor and off the elevator we look to our left and what do we see?  Two men in their boxer briefs wrestling. Haha.

**Disclaimer: There are SO many people that graciously gave of their time and helped me out throughout the last year of my life if you weren’t specifically mentioned in this post please know that doesn’t mean I forgot about you or by any means am not completely indebted to you for your time you shared with me.**

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Wordless Wednesday No. 33

November 7, 2012 by · 2 Comments

 

 

 

 

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