30 Days You Can Do It!!!

Hello Friends! It has been a while since we've chatted. I have been staying busy with work, wedding planning, and being a crabby butt. Yes for the last couple weeks I have been just a little stressed with my car situation. Finally RESOLVED! Rhett has been putting up with my stinkiness so I decided I am going to try out this little challenge for the next 30 days. He does not read my blog so he will have no clue about it. Even though we are technically not married yet still doing it. (when I get to #11 I will improvise!) So try it out and see if it affects your relationship! Today twice already I asked if their was anything he needed help with! It may sound cliche but the look on his face after I asked the second time made me so happy I asked.

I think the countdown has officially begun 41 days till our wedding day! Whoa where has the time gone??? That means even less days for my bridal shower and bachelorette party. Getting so excited!! In the next week I will be going for a fitting for my dress. I have folded, sealed, and labeled 175 invitations. It honestly did not even take that much time at all! My shower invites got mailed and people have already begun getting things off our registry! I am so excited for all the awesome kitchen stuff. I received a gift by UPS the other day. I had no clue what the UPS guy was doing here bc I knew I had not bought anything that would be delivered......Once I realized what the deal was it was very exciting! Of course I could not wait so I opened the lovely gift and now I own this! Love it and can not wait to use at a party and fill it with something delicious!!!! Thank You Jess Gericke!

If you are confused on how the Cabela's Wish List works it is very simple. I know some family  members were asking already. Go online to http://www.cabelas.com/ and at the top of the page click on Wish List. It is right in the middle. You have to type in state IL and my name (not Rhett's) and then enter and it should appear. They do not have an official registry for Cabela's so had to do the wish list. If an item is purchased online through the wish list I am almost positive it shows that it has been bought so that is probably safest route if wanting to go through Cabela's.

I sampled some yummy popcorn this weekend so now I have everything figured out with the popcorn for the reception. We will be making the caramel and I will be getting the kettle corn through this guy I found. Needless to say when you go to work at 4 am and spend 24 hours in 2 days at work and pick up bag of popcorn on way it is going to get eaten!! I ate the whole bag ooopppps

Hence the new diet I am starting today

The Satan Diet

Eat Your Heart Out

I weighed myself this morning and I am currently stuck in a rut. Not going up but staying at the same weight as when i finished the Advocare plan so I need a little bump to get me moving downwards. I think it is going to be difficult but going to try and stick with it for the 7 days. I will let you all in on my results! I thought about doing the 3 day one Kim  did but I hate tuna and when I eat hot dogs they are covered in ketchup so I am trying this out. The only thing is I don't eat plain tomatoes so day 5 is going to be really hard. 

I have spent the morning doing little piddle diddle things like putting together the gift bags for the kids and my bridesmaids, working on the programs, organizing paperwork. Now off to go back to sleep for a bit so I can catch up from my lack of sleep from the weekend. 

Bling Bling Goose Band Ring

In the last week we have gotten some important items checked off the looooong to do list.

#1 Purchased a ring for Rhett

I knew he wanted a ring similar looking to a goose band so I did some research online. I was just very hesitant to order an engraved ring with out him being able to try it on. What if it didn't fit, he didn't like the width of the ring, or if the quality was poor. Too many what ifs. One of his friends got a hunting themed ring so they gave us the info and we went to Marion to check it out at The Jeweler's Bench . Now I am sure he probably won't even wear this ring most of the time because as a farmer it will get filthy dirty/ruined but maybe I'm wrong. The wedding is really only a little over a month away so I kinda waited till the last minute on this one. The ring will be ready for pick up on October 5th (Friday) as in DAY before the wedding. My brother lives in Lawrenceville IL and will have to drive through Marion on his way so he is going to be the hero and most likely pick up. Unless.....it is ready on Thursday and I will gladly drive down and pick up. I hinted how wonderful it would be if they could have it ready a few days earlier so we will see what happens. Overall Rhett & I are both very excited to see the finished product.

#2 Picked out tuxes

I have been saying for the last few weeks how we need to go pick out the tuxes for the wedding. Rhett has just been extremely busy and we had not gotten the chance to go but we finally did. Yay!!! Getting this done just made me feel so much better. We went to Twyla's Flower Shop in Red Bud. The ladies were very nice! This is actually the mannequin they had on display and we both liked the tie/vest color & print so that is what we picked! It is amazing how many different shades of purple exist. It works out perfectly when your sister in law lives right across the street and you need a color swatch of your bridesmaid dress. One phone call later and my niece walked it right over so we could compare to make sure our colors match as closely as possible!!! Thanks Brooke & Erin!! Instead of making the guys all rent a tux a 2nd time (for the reception in RB) they may just rent the same tie and wear a nice white shirt/black pants. Not totally sure on that yet but we will get it figured out.

I ordered our invitations from North County News so those should be in any day now. Getting excited to see how they turned out. Our engagement announcement was in the paper this week. I bet their are a lot of people 1. shocked to see that we are not already married  (I think people just think we are) or 2. thinking geez louise finally!!!!! I posted 40 of our awesome engagement photos on facebook so hopefully you have all gotten to see them on there. I am so happy my Mom & sister took them! It was a lot of fun and am so thankful she was wiling to do it. It took me forever to sort through them and literally only 15 minutes to upload them into the guest book I made on Walgreen's. Now just waiting for a good coupon to come along to order it. My shower invites also got mailed out this week. This weekend I have 4 days off so I must be wedding productive!!  I am going to organize as much as I can and cross a lot of my to do list. Also looking forward to my work out & getting measured today at Design Fitness with Darla & the Color Run on Saturday. Fun Fun!! Crunch Time really begins now!

Adventures in Babysitting

I know it is already Thursday but I have been super busy and haven't had a chance to fill you all in on my awesome weekend. It is probably because I have been spending my time combing through the 800 plus engagement pictures my Mother took of Rhett & I on Sunday. That's right I didn't stutter she took a lot of pictures!!! Now on to Friday night's adventures in babysitting. Erin needed to take Brooke & Madison school supply shopping so Rhett & I watched the boys all evening. Jake & Cole are seriously the sweetest cutest funniest little boys in the world. I might be a bit partial bc they are my nephews but oh my they are so good. I love spending time with them. Friday night I also started my batch of sweet cinnamon pickles. They are a lot of work but everyone enjoys them especially little Coley Boley. It is a 5 day process to make these pickles. They are also supposed to be red but this year I got creative and made them purple. Anyhooo I had to clean, peel, remove the seeds, and cut the cucumbers. I had told Jake we could go swimming so once I was done cleaning the veggies we headed out to the lake. Even though it only has 4-5 feet of water an almost 2 yr old & 4 yr old don't care! Jake was a crazy man swimming everywhere trying to catch baby frogs. He loved it. Cole & I kinda just floated around near the dock while he repeatedly kept saying BUBBLE. So cute!!!!!!! I wish I had a little voice recording of it. After our swim we ate some snacks and hung out on the front porch searching for more frogs. Most evenings Rhett has been noticing 2 frogs (1 who he has named kimmy) hanging out. The dogs don't even mind the frogs, they just get ignored. He enjoys catching bugs and then feeding them to the frog. (Yes I am talking about my 30 year old fiance not the 4 yr old) Jake thouroughly enjoyed meeting kimmy too. He squeezed and squished and his hand got peed on. Heaven for a little boy!

After making Jake wash his hands and come inside to give the poor frogs a break we had a near mental breakdown. All of a sudden Jake was crying and sad missing his mommy & daddy. I tried soothing him with a chips
ahoy cookie (the blue bag kind). He said "my mommy has the softest choc chip cookies." (The red bag kind) Of course that is not what I had!!!!!!! He was soooo sad. I was seriously laughing while taking these pictures. What a horrible aunt I am. After a bit he was fine and decided to watch the frogs through Rhett's binoculars. What a wonderful evening!!

Saturday we went to an auction during the day and in the evening had our family birthday party at Margaret & Justin's house. After the party I hung out at my mom's house for a few hours. This is when my sister (best MOH ever) showed me all the great stuff for my bridal shower. I know you are all probably groaning now. Yes I wanted to see everything!!!!! I am not real hip on surprises so I was just fine with it. She even sewed me a pink veil for the bachlorette party. Amazing!!! I think she has managed to keep a few things a secret though. Erin also made my invitations but I will share that another day. They look great! On Sunday we attended church with Margaret, Justin, Erin & the kids, Meg, Jason, my Mom, & sister. At the end of the service it was a little Father Clyde & Cole show. Cole had snuck up on the alter and was interacting with our priest. All eyes were on him for probably like 5-10 minutes. I can't even begin to describe the whole ordeal bc it was just precious. I wish I would've had a video camera to capture the moment. If you were there you know how sweet is was. After church we took our engagement pictures. I will post about that another day! We also went to the melting pot in the evening with our friends Allie & Brandon. It was delicious and a fun evening. Monday was my actual birthday and it was spent very low key. Went with Rhett to the dr, rode with Margaret to Carbondale to pick up tax papers, and went to kb class. Overall what a fantastic busy 4 day weekend!!

                    I bet little Avrie loved that dessert at the end of the meal!!!!!
                                               Can't wait to meet her!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Today is my 27th Birthday which means it has been 1 year since Rhett & I got engaged. Hard to believe a year has passed already. So many decisions have been made since then. Lots of new & exciting things happening. Meghan got married and is now pregnant, Erin and her family are building a house, my sister now lives a lot closer to me, my grandma passed away, my brothers are each heading off onto the next step of their life (the real world & college), the list could go on and on. I know some people don't even think twice about their birthday as they age but I think that is silly. I celebrate every year!! 27 years ago today my mom & dad welcomed their firstborn baby girl into the world. I can imagine that it was a very happy day. So today really shouldn't just celebrate me it should celebrate them as well. Thanks MOM & DAD for everything. For raising me in a loving home with 2 loving parents. For teaching me how to excel in school and sports and balancing both. For raising me in a town where I could ride my bike up to get a sno cone or candy bar all by myself. For giving me 3 wonderful siblings to grow up with. For buying me a car when I turned 16 and then a 2nd car & then a 3rd car...(the last one lasted 10 years). For paying for my education to continue in college. For taking millions of pictures of me growing up so I can look back and remember. For checking on my dogs countless times when they needed a potty break or a babysitter. For teaching me right from wrong. Thank you for loving each other and giving me a good example of a happy marriage. For celebrating my birthday every year! For being in the crowd at whatever it was tumbling, awards banquets, graduations, cheerleading, and anything else possible you could attend. I could really never say thank you enough!!
Today is also my mother in law Margaret's birthday. Her age will remain nameless. It is great that we get to share this special day. I'm sure most of you know that we are very close but if you didn't now ya do! I feel so blessed to have her as my mother in law. Any time I need ingredients for whatever I am cooking/baking I know I can call her and she will say come on over. Any time I need advice I can ask her and she will tell me her honest opinion. Any time something is going down in the fam and I am not sure what to think she is the person to talk to. Any time she needs something she knows she can call us and ask for help. She is such a great grandma and mom to all her kids. If I say I am going over to visit for a just 15 minutes Rhett knows it really means over an hour. I think we could sit and talk forever if we had the time. She calls me Sara Louise (which my mom almost named me). For the longest time everyone thought that was really my middle name. In a lot of ways we are so alike so I think it was meant to be Rhett & I. Happy birthday to Margaret my 2nd mom!!!!! In my birthday card she gave me it said "This is your last year as Sara Phegley". Wow I hadn't really thought of it like that but she is right. Next year for my 28th I will officially be Sara Simpson. Can not wait for that day to be here!!

I had a great birthday weekend very busy Friday Saturday & Sunday but I will fill you in on all those details later in the week. I have a house to clean and engagement pics to sort through. Here are a few sneak peeks till then!