Tag... You're It!

I have no idea how the month of April has almost come and gone! Where the heck does the time go?!?! Seriously! Lots to update on....

Since coming home from Dallas at the beginning of April, I have been working out 3-4days a week hard core and just focusing on eating healthy. I don't really have specific weight or work out goals in mind - I am just striving to be the healthiest person I can be. :) David and I have found we REALLY love to cook! We actually get excited about what our meals are going to be during a two week period. We plan out all our meals; one - we know we have the ingredients, two - I can feel like we have a plan and the question of "what's for dinner?" isn't asked, and three - because we are in budget mode!

We have officially completed our Dave Ramsey's class on Financial Peace. We LOVED it!! We have already started chipping away at our debt and will be debt free as soon as we know it! We can not wait to get there!!!! This course is 13 weeks, for 2 hrs per week. It is intense and we actually had a couple of couples drop out during the duration of the course, but I am here to say it literally has changed our marriage. We had a great marriage before, but now we are on the same page about our finances and have the tools at our finger tips to get any problem solved. That in and of itself is a great accomplishment. Not that we weren't before, but Dave's plan just puts it in such simple steps that is almost fail proof. The only thing you have to do is: DO IT! I will say, being on such a tight budget is HARDDDDDD. Actually both of us hate it, but each time we hate it, we go and read testimonials that people who have already become debt free and what they are doing with all that 'extra' money they have each month and how they are impacting others! We SO want that to be us. We want to be smart with the money we are given so we can in turn give it to someone else to be a blessing. :) Working at a homeless shelter only amplifies that for me! I see the poor and needy everyday, and not just the stereotype, "druggie, with the long, white, mangled bread" but real people, real women, real CHILDREN, that they call this place home. Like I said, it definitely helps to keep you motivated. By no means do we think we are going to be able to change the world, but if we are able to just help put a smile on one person's face - our mission will be accomplished!

In the midst of all the budgeting and our debt free dreams, we are still living a life! :) lol. I know it is hard to believe. We have friends over to cook and have bon fires with instead of going out to eat. It sounds cheesy, but you would be surprised at how much fun you can have not having to "go out".






David has done VERY well this quarter and as of May 21st will be a SOPHOMORE!!!! I can't believe it. He will continue on for summer school, however with less hours as we have Aly's wedding and lots of weekend trips planned. :) We want him to get a little bit of a 'break' for summer too. He only has two test/papers due in each class and he will be well on his way into his 2nd year of college. This year has literally just FLOWN by!

Work is crazy busy for me, which is always a blessing. David and I are getting to attend a Ball tomorrow evening at Sam's Town to represent the Mission. LSU-Shreveport is putting it on and we get the net proceeds! How cool is that!! That is the best kind of event :) One you just show up to all "prettied up", get your picture taken, and collect a fat check. Lol. We are totally looking forward to it, because our friends, Doug and Missy got tickets to attend with us! I am also on the Golf Committee - we are planning a Golf Tourney in June and then we have begun the prep work for our HUGE event in the fall with author Ron Hall of Same Kind of Different As Me. If you have NOT read this book - READ IT!!!! It will change you life. (or maybe just your stereotype that you have towards the homeless!) It is an incredible story. In May, I am going to begin the 13 week course of the Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University here at the Mission!!!!! I am beyond thrilled and know that God has GREAT plans for each one of these woman that find themselves "homeless" for one reason or another - able to get the tool they need in order to find 'financial peace.'

God continues to bless our life one day at a time. We are so excited for summer to be here and all the craziness that it will include. We will definitely be outside doing home repairs, painting, making new brick paths, etc. - all the FUN stuff that David and I both love to do. We will also be spending lots of time with friends at the lake and getting tan. :) Hope all is well with you.
Loves.

He is RiSeN!

This Easter we spent it with our "family" at a small church that I used to be the Youth Director at. It is in a small town north east of Dallas called, Princeton. It is literally like a one room building that you walk in and you are standing in the sanctuary. So fun to get to be able to share such a special time in our Christian faith with so many people that mean so much to David and me.

Madison (one of our old youth), David and Myself.
Madison and Me

Our family. :) We love each one of them so much. We are so honored to have such wonderful friends, that even though we don't live in Dallas anymore - we can just pick right back up where we left off. Each one of them means something different to David and I, but oh how we love them so. Thank you for loving us the way you do!

Chris and Paaty. Thought this was a great picture of the two of them. They were gracious enough to let David and I stay (with all of our dogs!!!) while we were in Dallas this past weekend. Mom & Dad weren't a really big fan of the idea of having a shower at their house and having 7, yes SEVEN, dogs running around. lol... can't exactly blame them. :) Thank you so much for opening your arms to us Chris!!!! love you so much.

3 years, 4 months, & 4 days

According to my blog, David and I have been married for 3 years, 4 months and 4 days. I know it is sappy but the longer we are married the bigger my smile gets when I think about him. I just LOVE him! Of course, we fight and get on each other's nerves, and I promise I can't stand him at times (and ditto for him) but seriously, he is just so much fun to be with!
As you know life has been absolutely crazy the past couple of years, and we are finally in a place of peace. Life isn't perfect, but we are living life perfectly. David loves school and it seems like every day he is getting more and more things in the mail asking him to join this honor society or that! How cool is that!? :) At the end of May (May 21st) he will be a sophomore and will also be part of the School Business Honor Society (don't remember the greek names) and also the Louisiana Tech Honor Society. Words can not express how proud I am of him. He is just so stinkin' smart!!!
It is crazy how so many of our friends are having babies and more babies, but we just are living life to the fullest as a couple. One day kids will be part of our life, but right now we couldn't be happier just the two of us. There is a lady that lives in Arcadia that when she introduces people to her husband she says, "This is my sweetheart of 63 years and counting." How cute is that?!? All I can think of is, that is going to be David and I one day! :) Ok, enough blabbing. Here are some recent pics of us. He is truly my everything.

She is getting hitched... so we had a party!

This past weekend myself and Aly's best friend from Dallas, Chrisanne, threw Alyson her first bridal shower. I think overall it was a complete success! Alyson got lots of things off her gift registry's and the company was great to get to see. We had plenty to eat and some really fun games to play. :) I will let the pictures do most of the talking: I took so many! I just wanted to make sure Aly had pictures to look back on when she was married - that was one thing I didn't get a lot of pictures of my bridal showers when David and I were getting married. Anyway, here ya go!



Everyone who attended the shower; except me. (I am taking the picture).
Mom and Aly.

Mom, Aunt Nancy, Aunt Char, Aly, and Me.

Some highlights of the gifts she got: place settings of Fiesta, a DEEP fryer and spice rack!

We played three games. The first one was the Bridal Scramble. You had 10 mins to unscramble as many words as possible related to bridal things. The second game we played was a "match the pair game". Everyone got a name on their back and then had to go around the room and ask "yes/no" questions to try and figure out who was whom. The winners were Lucy & Ricky. :) The last game got the most laughs! We had 24 rolls of TP split into three teams and the team that made the dress most like Aly's won. :) It was quite humorous. No one knew what they were in for when they came to our shower! LOL.

Ms Cannon had the veil and flowers and everything!!! :) so FUN!

Look at all the detail in Ms Helen's dress! so impressive!!

Back of Debbie's dress

Front of Debbie's dress

Aly with Aunt Nancy, Mom and Aunt Char. Yes, Alyson is taller than all of them (myself included) however, she did have on 3-4inch heels, so it just amplified her height, lol. None the less I think it is a great picture.

Helen and Cherie paired as Lucy and Ricky.

The intense 10 minute Bridal Scramble. Some of the words really were HARD!

Chrisanne, Myself and Aly. (The 2 hostesses and the Bride to be!)

Aly's invite. I just randomly found these online and thought they were super cute and so "Aly". :)

Now you can see what I was talking about the heels... naturally I had decided to wear flats that day so really short. I am still 5"3 thank you very much! ;)

So David and I got in Thursday night and woke up early Friday morning to begin the daunting task of making 72 cupcakes! It was a blast. I always love getting to spend time in the kitchen.... I truly love it.

Cupcake tower.

spinach and cream cheese pinwheels. soooo good.

Here is a picture of a platter of cupcakes :) I made a variety just to make sure everyone found something they liked! The blue dot tops are dark choc with butter cream choc icing, the yellow dots are lemon with lemon butter cream icing, and the red dots are the red velvet with cream cheese icing. Yes, all of them were homemade. Soooo good!!

I also made these. They are called, "Whoopie Pies". I thought the name was very appropriate for a bridal shower and hello they were delish!! They were red velvet cake with cream cheese icing - such a hit! :)

The gorgeous flower centerpiece for the food table.

I thought these were SOO cute. Mom found them in Austin. They are Bride/Groom Toothpicks! How fun is that?

Chrisanne got these M&M's. They have "Aly & Matt" on some and others read "June 12, 2010". Such a cute shower idea! I def took notes for that one! ;)

It was a crazy busy day, but one that was definitely enjoyed. It was so great to get to catch up with some old family friends. I love planning and hosting parties. The more I do it the better I get. :) Hopefully by the time I get another shower again I will be an expert to help! lol. :)

....and Aunt Nancy was worried about our social life!

When David and I made the decision to move to Louisiana my Aunt Nancy called me (which never happens) so I figured something must have been horribly wrong! In all seriousness, Aunt Nancy asked me "Aren't you worried you wont have any friends there? You will just be bored out of your mind moving to Arcadia!" I simply smiled and said, "Aunt Nancy, thank you for your concern. I am a 'grown', married woman and have been on my own for over five years now, somehow I am sure we will manage." Hello! She has never been worried about my social life before! Why start now. :)
I have to admit there was a slight fear in mind that we might not make friends, or better yet with who and where would we find them? We didn't know ANYTHING about hunting, guns, bonfires, cutting trees, plumbing, handy work, or anything else "redneck"! (or so we thought...) But, don't worry y'all, God had our back's from the beginning! Moving over here has been nothing more than a complete blessing and total step in faith for us and God has beyond blessed our efforts. Not only do we have FRIENDS and several of them, we also have extremely fun social lives! I know it's crazy, who thought you could REALLY have fun in North Louisiana - I mean REALLY what is there to do! Ahhhh! For all of you that think that - come spend a week with us and see if you need a vacation from your "boring" week in La. :)
Our friends here we have not known for very long, but are incredible. We have two really close couple friends that we just adore. Both are amazing married peeps but more than that I have never had such genuine "adult" girlfriends. My prayer from the day David and I got married was to be able to find some really wholesome women that are God fearing, independent, smart women that I could relate with, be able to tell my life complaints to but also share my joys with and know that they really care. It is amazing that God has not only answered my prayer but double!
April is Philip's wife (he and David were separated at birth and just now reconnected...seriously). She would drop anything to help you in a heart beat. She has such a caring heart but yet can seriously hold her own! I love her so much and look forward to rocking on a front porch together when we are 90 yrs old.
Missy is a jewel. She has a fashion sense to die for and is the life of a party! She loves the Lord and has an incredible sense of humor. Together we are going to be some SERIOUS hotness this summer! :) I told her like the second time we went on a "date" (don't ask) that I felt like we were soul sisters. lol. Like you feel like you have known them for years.
Both of these women are simply gifts from God. They both have such respect for themselves and confidence to kill. I can not express how much it means to me to have two amazing chicks in my life. I love them so much.
David has also had some blessings of men in his life that are really incredible. First of all, Tim one of David's older brothers lives in Shreveport. It has been a transformation of a relationship between the two of them in the past year that neither would ever take back. It is awesome to be so close to family that is SOO fun to hang out with! :) Tim is also such an encouragement to us and both of us look up to him in so many ways.
David has also found some great mentors to lean on for guidance. Don't get me wrong, all of our friends we left in Dallas we are still very close to and love dearly. It is just incredible to watch how God provides your every need no matter where you live and how far apart people are. Philip and Doug are the other half's of my two girlfriends I mentioned above. They are both great guys. Each offering different qualities, David loves getting to hang out with each of them! :) (I know it is gay to talk like that, so I will stop - but I'm just sayin!!).
I just wanted to take a second to brag on some very special people in our life right now. We love everyone that we are so fortunate to call "our friends." Our social life is ANYTHING but boring!! We have a great time. You know you are "living" life when you LiVe for the weekends! :) After moving to Louisiana we have had an opportunity to re-learn things about each other that we had maybe put on the back burner for one reason or another. It is awesome to be able to ENJOY life. It doesn't matter how much money you make or where you live, or what kind of house you drive; if you can't honestly go to bed at night with a smile on your face excited about what the next day may bring - you might want to reconsider your priority list. Take it from a couple who had our list out of whack! We reorganized our list and it has been such a blessing ever since. :) God is good and He WILL give you the desires of your heart! I thank God for our friends daily! LOVE Y'ALL!!!!
Phil & Anna; Missy & Doug



David and Phil; April and Philip

Missy and Anna; April and Anna