Too much weekending.

Hi y'all. Happy Thursday. The week is almost done and since it is why not do my weekending post today? You know, right before the weekend happens again. I'm on Summer Break time, which basically means doing much of nothing, especially since all it has done is rain. Yay for summer! At least the sun is peaking out now and we're getting a break from school and homework! YAY!!

So last weekend was a busy one for us. We were on the go all weekend long and truthfully, i've been catching up on rest since then. I've finally figured out I'm not 21 anymore and staying up late, drinking, and eating all. weekend. long. isn't for me anymore so I should be a blast at my own wedding in September. Thank God we're getting married at 5:30. Just kidding. I'm sure i'll be pumped that day and not even wanting to rest. Back to last weekend.

Friday night we decided to do our grocery shopping so that we wouldn't have to fight the crowds on Saturday since it was Memorial Day weekend. We went to three different grocery stores because we're awesome like that. We like to spend our Friday nights grocery store hopping instead of bar hopping :) Welcome to your 30's friends. We thought we bought all the groceries and coffee we'd need for the week so we went home and dropped it off and headed out for round two. My Fiance had his eyes on a new grill for quiet sometime and since the bottom literally fell out of ours while he was cooking steaks the night before it was finally time to replace ours so to Academy Sports we went. By this time we were exhausted and had zero interest in cooking any of the $200 in groceries we had just bought. I was craving a Sonic's Corn Dog so Sonic's it was for dinner.

After we ate we sat on the back deck and I supervised while my fiance assembled his new grill. From about 8-12 we were out there. Finally he sent me inside because I was getting tired and grouchy, which is never good for anyone. I cleaned all the clothes off our bed and went to sleep. That was the end of everything that night.

Saturdayat the last minute we decided to have a cook out on Sunday with friends and neighbors so we headed back to the grocery store for cook out items. Hamburgers, hotdogs, all the fixin's. Our family had a mission to get what we needed and leave so i'm sure we took the store by storm. After that we headed home and well, I can't even remember.

Sundaywas cook out #1 day. We woke up, enjoyed our coffee then got busy cleaning this house. It looks like a new house now. So fresh and so clean clean. We then got all of our food prepared for the cook out and invited more friends/neighbors over. This is where the start of the 4 lb weight gain comes in. Yep! My fiance and I both gained 4 lbs back over the holiday weekend. This wouldn't be a big deal if I didn't have a wedding dress to fit into in just 4 months.

Anyway, we had a wonderful time with the Laberts and the Howes. Cooking out, sitting out on the back deck, enjoying good friends, good food, and great company. We really haven't had many cookouts with friends at the house. My parents & grandma, my best friend, and the Lamberts have been over a few times but that's it so it was nice to have our first official cook out with friends.

Did I take pictures? No but it was still a ton of fun.

Monday My Mom had planned a cook out and swimming at their house for Memorial Day. There was a good turn out of family and friends there, too so you can see where the weight gain happened. When you live in the South and everyone you know is an excellent cook then you tend to gain weight, which is what happened to me in the first place. Oh the homemade BBQ, Potato Salad, Homemade Mac & Cheese, Pasta Salad, Homemade cucumber Salsa, Cheese ball, Cakes and goodies and tons more! So yummy in my tummy, not so much on my waistline. We ate, drank, and had way too much dessert. We didn't even count calories. Monday was a ton of fun and I do have a few pics.








So that was our weekend. I've got to go run now. I hope you all had a fabulous weekend, as well.

Sixth Grade.

I remember when Dylan was only 5 years old and I sent him to elementary school for the first time. It was a hard time for both of us because he'd never been away from me. We were two peas in a pod, literally. He went pretty much everywhere I did and never had to be left in daycare or with a sitter, when he was with a sitter it was family. Through the elementary school years he grew and became a little less independent every year. He literally grew from a shy 5 year old to a very outgoing, confident 11 year old in those five years.

He's received all kinds of awards for his excellence in academics, his behavior and his willingness to help others. He's been in Program Challenge since second grade, which in middle school means he's in gifted classes for his basic core (math, social studies, science, & language arts). He's an all around excellent kid and we're super proud of him this year. Sixth grade proved to be no easy fete for this kid whom has never had to study and never failed, rather exceeded at everything. Math gave him a run for his money this year though so because of it he didn't win any awards but i'm still one proud Mama and Alex is still one proud Dad because we know he gave it his all and he learned from his mistakes. Life isn't always easy, we all know that, so the struggles are part of it but I believe it's how you handle the struggles that matter most. He learned about study habits, note taking, and organization and came up with his own methods for all of that.

I'm proud and relieved all at the same time. There were moments of sixth grade when we had Come to Jesus meetings. Moments when I thought none of us would survive but when it was all said and done we did! I celebrate this year for all three of us. It was also the first official school year as a family of three, not just he and I. I think we all did well! So here's to the 2015-16 school year. 7th grade ain't got nothing on this kid but first let's enjoy our summer!

Dylan and his Grandparents on Grandparent's Day @ school in first grade.


And the first day of 6th grade.


We love you buddy. Just remember you've always got your family & God on your side.
You can do anything you believe you can!

Acceptance.

I watched the Bruce Jenner interview with Diane Sawyer and I must say it's not at all what I expected. I expected it to be a lot of denying his changes even though they're evident to our eyes. Instead it's very sad and inspiring. Sad that this man has achieved such greatness while not even being comfortable in his own skin. Kanye put it so beautifully to Kim that "I can be married to the most beautiful woman in the world & I am. I can have the most beautiful daughter in the world & I have that. But i'm nothing if I can't be true to myself. They don't mean anything" in regards to Bruce. I'm not saying I'm a fan of Kanye's but this isn't about that. This is about acceptance. It's sad that he has lived a life that was a lie because he knew he would not be accepted in our society. I know he's not the only one who can possibly feel this way.

I think it's also an inspiring story, too because this is a man who decided to hide his gender identity from his children and the rest of the world because he didn't want to make life hard on his children when they were much younger. He made the choice to hide this away to be the best father he could be and to protect his kids.

I know in Duteronomy in the Old Testament of the Bible says Women should not dress like men and men should not dress like women but let's not forget that the Bible also says Not to Judge or Condemn others.

**I wrote the first part of this post when the Diane Sawyer interview aired and it sat it my blog roll, un-published because I didn't have time to finish it up. It worked out good though because i've spent today catching up on the family special that aired last night on E! Since watching that I've realized just how sad it is to live your whole life as a lie. He did what he thought was best for everyone else around him and in his life, not even thinking about himself. I can't imagine the hurt that must have caused himself.

I think it was amazing that Scott sat down and related so well to him. He even asked Bruce if it was frustrating to be around all those women when he couldn't be a woman? His answer? Yes! Then Scott says "it's pretty wild that you get to live two life's in one lifetime. Not many people get to do it which is pretty extraordinary in some ways." To me it's going to be extraordinary if he (Bruce) uses this opportunity as a way to help people who are struggling with the same things. He's a motivational speaker so he has the platform to share openly but I think he has to work through this all first & to be accepted by his family, friends, and those who mean the most to him.
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He said "Right now i'm very optimistic about the future and I haven't felt that way in a long, long time because I think going through this I will come out on the other side a better person, a much more understanding person, and I feel like I can help people and do some good." Wouldn't life be great if we were all the best person we can be? If we were all a little more understanding and compassionate and if we all helped others. We're all capable of doing good.

I love it when Scott says "It's only a positive for my son & my daughter to know all these different things that go on in the world. You can do whatever you want as long as you become happy with yourself, that's all that really matters. You only really get one chance at this life so whatever you've got to do to be happy, you've got to do it." Then Kourtney, when talking about telling her son, Mason "its such a great lesson to teach him not to judge people. It's a great life lesson that I have to make it the most positive that I can." To me, that's the true definition of acceptance. If we all lived with those beliefs and thoughts then the world might be a little less cruel.

You never know what someone is going through, be it, a friend, a neighbor, a relative, or a random stranger at Target or on the Subway. Always try to keep an open mind and sprinkle a little happiness as you go about your day. Hold the door open for the person behind you, smile at a stranger, send loves ones a card or a little gift in the mail-just because and always remember that everyone is going through something. Let's all try to judge each other less and accept each other whole heartedly because we all want to be accepted.

Weekending.

Hello Y'all! Happy Monday! Grumbles all around, I'm sure, since it is Monday. If you're anything like me you are running on empty. For the last two weeks I've been completely exhausted for some reason. This morning is no different. When my alarm clock went off I wanted nothing to do with getting out of bed but, since it's the last week of school, I had to. I'm so counting down the days until Summer Break starts! Give me sleeping in, wedding planning, laying in the sun, and relaxing please. I need it something fierce.

Anyway, after the weekend always comes Monday but with Monday comes a weekending post. This weekend was kinda boring with the exception of Engagement pics on Saturday. Friday my honey worked late so we had a mellow evening at home then he worked all day yesterday, too so nothing exciting there, either but Saturday was so special. I had my family take our engagement pics and my sweet Great Aunt & Great Uncle opened up their home to us. They have the most incredible home and a lot of different settings for pics. They were more than happy to let us take pictures there, too. Between everyone we took well over 200 pictures. I'm not about to up-load all of those here (or Facebook or Instagram) but I thought i'd share a sneak peak with y'all.









Like I said, there are many many more and I'm sure I'll be using them in up-coming posts so keep an eye out.
I can't give away all the goodness at once.

Happy Monday, y'all. I hope it's a great day for all of you.