Weekend Rewind

This weekend Hubby & I had a wonderful weekend with the right mix of relaxation, time as a couple, & time with family. Friday night we used our coupon at Ruby Tuesday for BOGO free entree'..gotta love those coupons. We took Bogey on a long walk around our subdivision and just enjoyed a nice relaxing night at home.

Saturday we were actually both home and we had no plans. Hubby mowed the yard (it now looks like a golf course again!) and I made my weekly trip to the grocery store, cleaned the kitchen, & worked on laundry. We spent the afternoon doing absolutely nothing!!! I took a nap while Hubby watched the PGA Championship golf tourney on television--this almost always results in at least one or both of us sleeping! We decided we were tired of being inside so we made ourselves beautiful & headed out for an impromptu date night...a 4:30 showing of The Time Traveler's Wife & dinner at the Pizza House. It was such a great time! I enjoyed the movie (haven't read the book but will probably have to now) and the Pizza House has great food. It's just a local pizza joint that has been in business for about 50 years & they cut their pizza into bite size squares....so yummy, but bad since you have no idea how much you eat!

We got home fairly early but had time to take Bogey on his nightly walk. We try to take him a walk every night so he gets plenty of exercise (plus his owners' need the exercise as well!) A normal nightly walk is normally 2 1/2 rounds around our subdivision which is about 1.5 miles--lately we've been trying to take him 3 full rounds since it's been cooler at night so that is getting is to 1.8 miles each night. We walk at a pretty brisk pace & Bogey keeps the pace very well by pulling us along so it's a fairly good workout!

This morning we went to church and heard a great message about being ready for Christ's second coming--our pastor even used a couple of clips from Runaway Bride--trust me, it tied in very well! We grabbed a quick lunch at Qdoba.......YUMM!!! and now I'm at home sitting in a chair trying to keep myself from taking a nap for the second day in a row (in other words, Hubby is watchign golf again)!

Tonight we're headed to Branson for dinner at Cantina Laredo with my parents & my brother & his wife. My little brother recently found out that he was accepted into law school at UMKC in Kansas City, MO. Orientation starts on Thursday so this is kind of a going away dinner for both of them. It will certainly be an adjustment as my brother & I both never lived more than an hour from home all through college and even now I'm only 15 min. away and he's 30 min. away. I guess the big bonus of him being in KC is a free place to crash if I need a fix at the Country Club Plaza! I'm so super proud of my brother & all that he's accomplished and I'm sure this experience will be no different. Good luck Nick & Millie...I'll miss you both and I'll certainly be praying for you guys!

(Sorry no pictures this weekend--I didn't have much that was actually picture worthy--but it was definitely an amazing weekend!!)

Favorite Vacation Spot!

Show Us Your Life: Favorite Vacation Spot

This week at Kelly's Korner she is highlighting everyone's favorite vacation spot. This was so hard for me! St. Lucia will always hold a very special place in my heart since this is where we went on our honeymoon. It was absolutely breathtaking and I trip I will never, ever forget! You can see some pictures from St. Lucia here from last weeks' Blog Hop.

Growing up my parents took my brother & I on a family vacation every summer right after school got out for the year. I am 26 now & I would guess that for at least 15 of those 26 years my parents took us to the Florida Panhandle. We would occasionally take a trip to somewhere else, but we always seemed to return to the beautiful, soft, white, sandy beaches of the Gulf Coast. We started out going to Panama City Beach, but more recently we've switched to Destin because it seems much cleaner, has better shopping, and is less of a Spring Break crowd year around. You can see some photos of this year's trip here. I can't wait until Hubby & I can take our own children to the ocean & watch them play in the sun & sand! I have such great memories from here.

In addition to our honeymoon in St. Lucia & our annual family vacations to the Florida Panhandle, I also have to include a couple of other favorites. One of our non-Florida summer vacations was a 10-day trip to Maui. All I can say is Wow!!! It was absolutely beautiful!! We flew into Honolulu & visited Pearl Harbor before taking an inter-island flight to Maui. It was an unbelievable vacation. Hawaii was definitely on the short list for honeymoon locations; however, we quickly decided that we wanted to go somewhere that neither one of us had been! I'll definitely be taking Hubby there sometime--maybe even as soon as a pre-baby vacation! Sorry, but I don't have any photos---they are all on on the computer at my parents' house!

Finally, I would have to add Mackinac Island in Michigan to the final list. Hubby's parents live in SE Michigan & 2 summers ago we traveled farther north to visit this fantastic location. Mackinac is completely free of motorized vehicles so we rented bikes & rode around the island, had some homemade fudge, & enjoyed the beautiful day! I would totally recommend this part of Michigan if you're wanting a relaxing getaway and something totally different from a day at the beach!

Don't you just love Hubby's cute basket on his bike?!?

Hope you enjoyed my travels...I know I sure have & I can't wait to make many more memories on our trips in the future! I have a huge mental list of where I would like to go...some we can probably afford in the near future--others will have to wait a few (or 30) years!

Wednesday Ramblings

Not much going on in the Layman household this week, just a bunch of random happenings.

1. Last night I babysat for some friends of ours. I kept their little girl for about 2 hours. She's 2 and is absolutely adorable. We had lots of fun & she was definitely glad to see me. I can honestly say that might be the first time that I've ever babysat someone who I wasn't related to...as you can tell babysitting was not on my list of odd jobs in high school or college. We painted, played with her American dolls, played on the swingset, watched Veggie Tales, read books, etc., etc., etc. all in the matter of 2 hours. Oh how innocent little minds can be!

2. Tonight is the launch date for the new fall season of small groups at our church! YEAH!!! We are starting as one big church group for 3 weeks of a quick study on prayer and then in a few weeks we are breaking out into our individual groups. Hubby & I are super excited to get started again...our small group is such a blessing to us. We are discussing doing a women's study only and a men's study only for the first few weeks. I would love this!

3. Work has been incredibly slow this week--nice in some ways, but not so much in others. I much prefer a crazy week/day where the time just flies by...otherwise I'm tempted to spend way too much time in the Blog World. However, I have got caught up on several tasks which is always a nice feeling!

4. This is the dress I bought for my cousin's wedding. The wedding is at 4 in the afternoon but is rumored to be quite formal. I thought this fit the bill just perfectly with my new navy peep toes & some fun jewelry (which has yet to be purchased). It has pockets & while it's not very flattering if I put my hands in them--they are certainly nice to have if I choose to want them! The dress is BCBG and I bought it at Dillard's over the weekend...I just love their clothes too bad I can't afford them most of the time (unless they're on sale!)Hubby is wearing a navy suit with one of his new awesome shirt/tie combos so we will look super sharp together!

5. We have ZERO plans for the weekend...I mean ZERO....who knows what we'll end up getting into! I love spontaneous weekends!

Weekend Rewind

Hubby & I had a pretty laid back weekend and I was very thankful for that because it was super hot outside. Friday night we had dinner at Old Chicago with another couple and their little girl Makenna. At 1 1/2, she is just a doll and was incredibly well behaved while we ate dinner. After dinner we stopped at Sam's to pick a few things & then came home to relax. We spent some time playing with Bogey and he certainly enjoyed playing in the water like always.

Bogey certainly loves his kiddie pool!

He also loves milk jugs or any large plastic container!

I had to work on Saturday morning until noon (but I left early thanks to it being slow) and I headed back home to pick up Bogey & Hubby. We headed down to my parents' house for the afternoon and had some great pool time. My brother & his wife also came down later and we had a wonderful family dinner of steaks, potatoes, spinach salad, and homemade peach pie (YUMMM!!!). It had been a long time since just the 6 of us had a meal together. After dinner we took all 6 dogs & headed up to my grandparents' pond for a little swim time for the pups. We had a blast & it was hilarious to watch them all get incredibly muddy!

Josie really loves the water -- this was the perfect spot for her to keep cool!

Bogey & Dallas retrieving sticks from the pond

Nick & Millie with Romo who was incredibly muddy--but had a great time!

We went to church this morning, grabbed a quick lunch at a new little spot in town & then headed to do some quick shopping. Hubby & I both wanted something new for my cousin's wedding that's in Tennessee in a few weeks. It was tax free weekend here in Missouri and I was afraid that the mall would be really busy but it was actually not too bad. I found a new dress (possibly more than 1) & Hubby found 2 new shirts & 2 new ties--so he'll have some options...It was definitely a successful trip. We've finished up the day relaxing (aka napping while Hubby watches golf). Just another week of work ahead for both of us...it's supposed to be hot here again all this week...I think we're now paying for the unseasonably cool July that we had!

Show Us Your Life--Reception & Honeymoon

This week at Kelly's Korner the theme is Wedding Reception & Honeymoon. I was lucky enough to be able to have our wedding reception at my parents' house (also the house I lived in my entire life). We set up a huge white tent & the weather could not have been more perfect.




Arriving at the reception in our Vintage Rolls Royce (it was a surprise from my parents!)


Making our way into the tent!

Hubby's cake--a golf cart of course!



My cake


Our favors...Personalized golf tees & mints


A good view of the inside of our tent!

The bouquet toss...notice my face, I was scare of hitting the top of the tent!

Preparing for the garter toss--I absolutely loved how our head table ended up looking!


Little back story...my brother & my Hubby went to the same small Baptist university and also had the same major so they had several mutual friends..it became a joke to make up personalized words to a popular song at the time. We got a version of The Angry American, by Toby Keith that was personalized to the experiences of our relationship...it was a riot!


Honeymoon: We left the next morning on a flight at 6:30 am to go to St. Lucia. It was absolutely breathtaking and we would go back in a heartbeat (if we had the funds!) One story I might add is that we walk into our room on the first night to find 2 twin beds...our bellhop looks at us and says in his Island accent..."I guess this probably isn't going to work" Umm...no, since we're on our honeymoon. At that point we had been traveling for a little over 12 hours and didn't care about anything but sleeping. The next morning we went to the front desk & asked if we could be moved...never in our dreams did we expect to be moved to a villa with a view like this! It was beautiful & the rest of the trip went off without a hitch!

At one of of the beautiful beaches

In front of the Pitons (Gros & Petit aka Big & Small)...these are St. Lucia's claim to fame and they are pretty spectacular!

In front of one of the many waterfalls

Candlelight dinner on the balcony of our villa...all for us!

I can honestly say that from the start of the wedding day to the end of the honeymoon we had nothing drastically go wrong. We had such an amazing time & I will certainly cherish the memories we made as a couple for the rest of my life!

How Big is Your Giant?

And David said, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and may the LORD be with you.” 1 Samuel 17:37

As a Christian, most all of us have had those times in life when you are sitting at church listening to a pastor teach from the Word of God and it hits you...Is he talking directly to me? Is the pastor really talking to anyone else but me? God...is that you?

Yesterday was one of those moments for me. The pastor was preaching about being Fearless & was preaching from the story of David & Goliath. Ok...so I know we've all heard this story before: A small boy kills a giant man with a slingshot. End of Story. Well, not yesterday and maybe not ever again in my life. Our preacher went on and discussed some of the background of the story & while most of the sermon was at least slightly familiar to me--the last thing he said was not. Althought it might seem like such an obvious realization, it hit me yesterday like a slap in the face. David didn't defeat Goliath with a stone...he defeated him with the power of the Almighty God. David didn't compare the size of Goliath to himself because that wasn't what mattered. He compared Goliath to the size of his God and in that comparison Goliath was no giant at all.

I don't know about you, but there are plenty of giants in my life both big and small. Yesterday was such an amazing realization for me. Who am I to try and fight those giants on my own & why do I think they are so big? I need to stop comparing my giants to the size of myself and my weak human abilities and start looking at them compared to my Heavenly Father who is "...able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us. " Ephesians 3:20

I need to remember just like David did those times when God pulled me through & has helped me fight the lions & the bears...this is the same God who will help me defeat the giants in my life.

Weekend Rewind

Hubby played in a golf tournament this weekend benefiting the golf team at his alma mater. He didn't tee off until 1:30 both days so this meant I got to spend most all of Saturday & Sunday at home doing whatever I wanted. I was very productive this weekend doing lots of things around the house that I had either been putting off or hadn't had time to accomplish.

Friday night Hubby & I actually just hung out around the house. He grilled filet mignon (Mmmm...our favorited) for dinner & then we made a quick trip to Dairy Queen for some ice cream. (Side note: the 30 Day shred took a brief hiatus this week due to Hubby being out of town early in the week...needless to say our so-called "watching what we eat" went out the window with the Shred.) We also watched Slumdog Millionaire...good movie, but not really what I expected. I'm not sure what I was expecting...just not that. Oh and if you're keeping count, that is movie #1 for me this weekend.

Saturday we had no plans for the morning so we had the wonderful pleasure of not setting an alarm. I woke up, glanced at the clock & it was 9:30! 9:30...we never sleep in past 8:30 and that's normally only on Sunday mornings. It was definitely quite nice! We did a few things around the house & then Hubby left for the first round of his golf tournament. The golf course is an hour away, because of the tournament it was going to be a 5 hour round, & then an hour drive home meant that I had time from 12:00 noon to about 7:30 to myself. Here's where my lady of the house duties began. First, I tackled the lovely chore of cleaning out the cabinet underneath my bathroom sink. I managed to throw away about 1/2 a trashbag full of old makeup, half-used bottles of lotion that I'll never use again, a self-pedicure set that I received as a gift about 3 years ago, freebie makeup from those gift sets at Clinique & Estee Lauder...I'm sure by now you get the idea. My goal in doing this was to create room in this cabinet to put all of the products I use each day instead of them cluttering up & dirtying my countertop. Next task...Walmart. I took my weekly trip for groceries & snagged up some cute little baskets to put all of my bathroom stuff in!

Next, I did something I knew Hubby would be very excited about. I baked an apple pie from scratch, including the pie crust. I actually love to bake apple pies but they take a while so this was the perfect opportunity! We had apple pie a la mode when Hubby got home and it was soooo yummy!!!

Gala apples...all ready to be made into a pie!

Pre-baking

Hot & ready out of the oven with sprinkle of sugar on top!

The rest of yesterday afternoon included some laundry, movie #2 Confessions of a Shopaholic (it was certainly entertaining but I'm glad I didn't spend money on it at a theater), some dishes, and movie #3 27 Dresses (on TV while I waited on Hubby). Hubby brought home Pizza Hut pizza for dinner & we just relaxed the rest of the evening.

Today Hubby & I went to church together & then we went our separate ways. He headed back to the golf course & I grabbed a quick lunch in the car & headed to Michaels. Remember how I wanted all my bathroom stuff off the countertop...well now I had room & a reason to put something pretty there. I grabbed up a few new candles & a tray from Michaels and...VOILA!!! A nice little accent piece for the bathroom counter!

It looks so much nicer & not so cluttered!

The rest of my afternoon has included baking lasagna (for a quick dinner one night this week), more laundry, cleaning off the back patio of Bogey prints, refilling Bogey's pool, movie #4 Bride Wars, and vacuuming the house Whew....what a weekend!

My wonderful companion for the weekend!