Home Sweet Home

On Friday Tom, my mom, my brother Shane, his wife Emily, their daughter Eliza Grace and I set out on a mini family vacation to Gulfport, MS to see my paternal grandmother and uncle. We had a great time! We went out to eat, shopped the outlets and took EG to the beach for the first time! My grandmother doesn't remember any of us (she's 88) but it was nice to see her and visit with my uncle.

Me and Tom before the outlet mall

View of the pool...definitely too cold for that!

My brother and sis in law

The Russell Family on the beach

Shane and Tom ATTEMPTED flying a kite

Tom and I both work for a hardware distributor, Orgill. He made me go check out one of our stores down there! He is a definite hardware dork! :)

One night my mom kept Eliza Grace so Shane, Em, Tom and I could go to dinner. After dinner, we went to the casinos Beau Rivage and Hard Rock. I think Shane lost $20...we're definitely not big gamblers!

My brother NEVER smiles in pictures so I thought this one was funny!

Me and EG (Eliza Grace)

Me and Tom before dinner

Finally the whole family

All in all it was a good vacation but I was glad to be home to these guys!

Lottery Dreams

'I wish' .... I could win the lottery REAL soon, and I would hope to never work again! SERIOUSLY, everyone keeps saying they would have a part time job to keep busy. NOT ME! :) I would love to be able to be a stay at home wife and one day mother. I'm pretty sure I could find things to fill my day...

Shopping....

Working out....

Um, sleeping?

On another note, we just got home from Gulfport yesterday from visting my grandmother and uncle. I hope to have another post up later from the trip!

Happy St. Patricks Day! (I forgot to wear green! Yikes!)

Favorite Charity - Jodi's Joyful Journey

I originally did this post for Show us Your Life but now I'll edit it for Wishful Wednesday!



'I wish' .... I had never-ending funds to donate to a charity and it would be St. Jude!

Kelly at Kelly's Korner is doing favorite charities for Show Us Your Life Friday. I live in Memphis so my favorite charity is St. Jude. It is amazing that it is right here in town! Hearing and seeing all the great work that is being done makes you feel like your money is truly going to something life changing for so many people.

Here is a chart that I got off of their website that just shows what amazing work they do!

If you are interested in giving, please go here:

http://www.stjude.org/waystohelp

Thankful Thursday

I decided I would start doing a thankful Thursday! I'm going to try to think of the small things as everyone knows I am so thankful for my husband, my family, my friends, etc.

So today I am thankful for JENNY CRAIG! As I said in my last post, I gained 40 (!!!) pounds when I first started dating my husband. So far on Jenny I have lost 13! I have quite a ways to go but I figure writing about it will make me more accountable.

I would love to lose another 30 pounds. My main thing is I hate to exercise! I was a cheerleader and basketball player in high school and was forced to run/exercise everyday. Now, I can't stand it! I have Jillian's 30 day shred and everyone is so complimentary of it. I think my problem is I expect to be able to do all the movements at her pace and with perfect precision. I need to get OVER that and just do what I can while I work up to her pace/precision.

I would love to just be this size again (in no way skinny)!! Hopefully writing about it will keep me on track! Wish me luck!

Today's Wishful Wedesday is about wedding dresses! Oh, how much I have to say about this topic! From the day I started dating Tom until our wedding day, I gained 40 pounds, no joke, no exaggeration! So needless to say, my search for my wedding dress was more about finding something that looked OK with my weight gain. Here were some ideas I found.

I wanted sleeves because I was not happy with my new arms! I think I ended up doing pretty good... I just wish I could have lost some weight beforehand. However, nothing was going to stop me from marrying Tom as soon as possible!! :)

I may not have looked the way I wanted but I couldn't ask for a better marriage or husband!

Well, I will get back to the documentation of the rehearsal dinner/wedding later. I am missing too many fun blog things! Jessica at Love from Texas is doing a Tuesday list special. Today is what is on your wishlist... I am going to go for "never gonna get it" wishlist.

I would love a TAHOE!

For now, not gonna happen. I would also love a new HOUSE.

.

Ok, so that one is quite large but any size will do :) Finally, I would love an IPad! Tom complains about me being on my IPhone; I couldn't imagine how bad I would be with one of these!

Well, that's enough wishing for one day! :)

Pampering

The day of the rehearsal dinner Marta, Cathy, Polly, Marta's friend Valerie, Valerie's daughter Kate, and Cydney joined me for some pampering and lunch. We got manis and pedis, sipped mimosas, and then ate at a neat place next door to the spa.

It was great because I know if I was left alone all day, I would have been going stir crazy. I was so ready for everything to be there!

Thanks for helping me calm down ladies!