Weekend With Sydney

There are really no words to describe the awesomeness of this past weekend. My husband summed it up best when he described it as "the best weekend of his life."

We laughed, we played,... we enjoyed every second of it.

A few things we did included cookie-making, swimming, wii-playing, a slumber party, movies, reading, ice cream, and cooking out. This weekend will be, by far, one of the most memorable of my life.


Yes, Syd LOVED her new room. I think she really feels like she has a place here in Memphis.


I decided not to pull out my big camera this weekend so I could enjoy every minute, but here are a few photos we took with the point and shoot this weekend. We also have a couple of videos, but I'm still in the process of trying to figure out how to load those, so hopefully I'll post those later.




I took Caleb's pictures this weekend at Faith and Jason's home. While we were there- Faith grabbed this picture of the three of us. Thanks, Faith!

Tagged

Well, Renee tagged me, so here goes...

8 Things I look forward to:

1. Sydney's visit to Memphis this weekend
2. The day I can quit my 7:00-5:00 job and be a full-time photographer.
3. Having someone calling me "mommy" every day (and no, Zach... you won't suffice).
4. My first cup of coffee- every morning
5. Sinking into bed every night curled up against my husband
6. Seeing me by brother, sis-in-law, and nephews this weekend
7. My grandma's wedding
8. lunch :)

8 Things I did yesterday:

1. marketing stuff at my M-F job
2. a photo shoot at Collierville Town Square
3. Small group at Kyle and Elyssa's- and got WAY too emotional while saying our goodbyes to J.R.
4. gave the dogs a bath after Bryant got sick (again) in his crate.
5. went to the doctor for a routine check up
6. Edited pictures from Grace's photo shoot
7. helped Pat find a way to break into our house (over the phone) after we forgot to leave a key for her. Thank goodness for removable screen windows!
8. Had Church's fried chicken for lunch! Mmmm...


8 things I wish I could do:

1. Quit my day job
2. Get pregnant
3. travel anywhere I wanted, whenever I wanted
4. Be around Sydney on a daily basis
5. keep a cleaner, more organized home
6. have more free time
7. live in the same city with ALL my nieces and nephews
8. cook every night.


8 shows I watch:

**This part is going to be EXTREMELY embarrassing... but I can't help it. I have a need for mindless, pointless television after long, exhausting days.
1. American Idol
2. One Tree Hill
3. 90210 (the new one)
4. New Adventures of Old Christine
5. Grey's Anatomy
6. Private Practice
7. Desperate Housewives
8. Brothers and Sisters


Now I tag 8 bloggers:

1. Mom
2. Mandy Upchurch
3. Jennifer Lajeunesse
4. Jennifer Shackelford
5. Tami and Dan
6. Katie Cordell
7. Melissa
8. Anne Camille

I've Caved

http://twitter.com/LizWiggs

Before/ After

Ok, so Zach was right and I was wrong....

Sydney's room turned out GREAT!!!

Here's the before:
Here's the "in between":
And here's the After:

For some reason, the green in these pictures is turning out to be a yellow-ish color, but in reality, it is much more of a "green apple" color and it looks FANTASTIC with everything. The paint color was "plantain" from Color Match, a Wal-Mart paint brand.

The curtains, shag rug (which I just realized isn't showing up in the pictures), wall decals, side table and desk are all from Target. The bedspread and sheets came from Wal-Mart. The headboard is the same one from the previous room- we just painted it white.

The pictures above the wall are mounted on foam board. I drilled holes in them and tied ribbon through them and hung them on wall pegs that I also bought from Target. The pictures are alternated between 18x12 and 8x12s. I really can't take credit for this idea AT ALL. I pretty much stole the idea 100 percent from Life in Motion Photography.

Record-Breaking Snowfall & Jess's Bachelorette Party: Better Late Than Never

It's been exactly one month and 13 days since Jessica's bachelorette party, but I've put off blogging about it, because it is a post that DEFINITELY needs pictures, and I didn't have my camera with me. BUT, Martha Jo just released her pictures today, so I'm stealing them.

Jessica lives in Knoxville, but REALLY wanted to have her bachelorette party in Memphis, where she grew up. Months in advance, I kicked it into gear and tried to get the details ready for February 28th. Our plans were to meet at Crystal's house for a lingerie shower and games, then head downtown to Rio Loco, a great Mexican restaurant in Downtown Memphis for dinner and margaritas, and then we were going to do a little dancing downtown. Almost a dozen girls were expected in from out of town for Jess's party.

About 5 days prior to the party, the forecast said snow was a possibility for that night. If you're from Memphis, you know that whenever snow is a possibility, it almost NEVER happens. Not to mention, even if it did happen, there was nothing we could do about it. Jess was getting her party! Our plan was to meet at Crystal's at 6:00. At about 5:00, the snow started coming down pretty hard. The snow moved through Memphis that night, dumping about 4 inches on the ground. BUT, in a weird, freakish way, the snow system made a big circle, and came through Memphis AGAIN... dumping another 4-8 inches on the ground.

We perservered and made sure Jess had an amazing night, but there were NO shortage of stories from that night (girls sliding all over the street in their heels, cars spinning out, the people we ran into downtown, etc.). Downtown Memphis felt like a weird snow day in college. There were very few people around, everyone looked rough after getting caught in the snow, but no one seemed to care. Note to self, if the forecast even remotely calls for snow or ice, do NOT wear peep toe heels.

That night, at about 1:30 in morning, I decided to make the trek from Downtown Memphis back to my house in Oakland. I had photo shoots scheduled for that next day and all my contact information and camera equipment were at the house. I finally got home at 4:30 AM, 3 hours later, after driving 10 miles an hour the entire way, spinning out at least a dozen times, and at one point getting stuck on the road and having to flag down a nice man in Oakland to help pull my car out of the ditch. On the way home, I saw at LEAST 30 cars abandoned in the snow and ice.

Of course, I didn't have much time to sit back and enjoy the snow or take any pictures, but according to the news, Oakland received about 11 inches of snow, the most in 40 years!

Overall, I don't think anyone will forget Jessica's bachelorette party. I'm SO glad Martha Jo finally released these pictures.

What in the Shrek is Going On??

We've been planning for Sydney's first visit for a LONG time. Most of you who know us, know that Sydney's regular visits to Memphis will begin in a couple of weeks. From this point on, she'll be spending weekends with us every few weeks, and will be with us on or around certain holidays and will have a week of vacation with us every year. This is something we've been praying for forever now.

Ever since all these developments came about, I jumped into action, trying to turn our guest bedroom into Sydney's PERFECT room. My top priority right now is making sure Sydney feels at home in our house and has a place she can call her own.

BUT- I'm REALLY starting to second guess my paint choices about now.

This was the guest bedroom about two weeks ago.


We asked Syd to pick our her bedspread and told her we'd surprise her with the rest. This is the bedspread she selected. When I started shopping for her room and all the accessories, EVERYTHING was pink, so I did NOT want to paint a pink room. But, I also didn't want to paint it white, so I decided to paint the room a NEW shade a green. I matched it to the green in the bedspread, thinking it would look fantastic.



This was the picture I took last night, with only one coat of paint on the walls. It looks like Nickelodeon slime green or, in my words, like Shrek exploded onto the walls. Zach keeps telling me it will look great once we're finished painting and everything is in the room and in place.

So... stay tuned.

I SWEAR this will be my last Snuggie post... BUT, my friend Angie sent this to me this week and I couldn't help posting it.

April Fools

IF ONLY IT WERE TRUE

Thanks, Dan for sharing. Whenever I get over this state of nausea and depression I'm experiencing, I may share my thoughts on this whole thing.