Show Us Your Wedding

This week at Kelly's Blog for Show Us Your Life the theme is Wedding Party and flowers/ceremony.

Justin and I married almost a year ago, August 8, 2008. 8.8.08. I love that it is so easy to remember. :)

We got married in the church where we met by our pastor whom we both adore!

Justin has an aunt who is a florist, so she did the flowers for the wedding. We did not have many flowers because of our small budget. I chose white roses.

My sister was my matron-of-honor. Justin's sister, Nicole, and his very best friend, Shelly, were my bridesmaids.

Their dresses were a gift from me. A couple of my girls were having financial troubles and could not afford an expensive dress. I found these dresses on sale for $18 bucks each and bought them for the girls. :)

The whole wedding party was a bunch of fun. The best man was a good friend of both of ours, Ty. The other groomsmen were great friends of Justin's, Dustin and Andrew.

We chose to see each other before the wedding, and I'm glad we did. It helped with nerves sooooooo much. We got to see each other and talk privately. Plus it gave us more time to get pictures, and freed us up for the reception immediately after the ceremony. I'm not very traditional.

A view from the balcony. I love this pic.

We had our pastor stand on the floor facing us so that we could face our family and friends.

We had a very Christ-centered ceremony with prayer and scripture. We also took communion for the first time as husband and wife during our wedding.

Our music was a surprise to most. We did not use any traditional wedding music. It was fun. We had Coldplay, Frank Sinatra, etc.

The other surprise was a surprise even to me! We were standing there waiting for Pastor Tom to say the magic words, "you may kiss your bride". Justin whispers, "I'm about to make out with you" and smiles with his best dippled smile. I freaked out for a half a second, and then this picture was taken...

It was a beautiful and great day. One I'll never forget as long as I live.

Chicken Supreme

For dinner tonight I decided to try a recipe that I found on Kelly's recipe blog.

Chicken Breast Supreme:

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken breasts
• 4-8 strips of bacon
• 16 oz sour cream
• 1 can of cream of mushroom soup
• 1 can of sliced mushrooms
• 1 jar of dried beef (this is found near tuna or spam)

Directions:

• Wrap the chicken in bacon and put in pan. 
• Mix up all the other ingredients. (Tear up the dried beef into small pieces-- this is what gives the meal the real flavor). 
• Pour mixture over chicken and bake at 350 for 1 1/2 hours

I left out the can of sliced mushrooms because my husband gags himself if he knows there are mushrooms in something he is eating.  :)

Also, I had never heard of the dried beef before!  Am I the only one??!

At Kelly's suggestion, I served with white rice.  Oh, and of course, sweet tea!

(I used Kelly's pictures because mine did not turn out good at all...)

The Newest Addition to Our Family

Nope.. not a baby!

We adopted a dog today! Justin has been wanting a dog for forever. He always had one growing up and has been missing that since we got married.

We looked in pet stores, on craigslist, and at several animal shelters. We looked at big dogs (we both want a golden retriever) and small dogs. We looked at all different breeds. And we finally found the dog for us!

He is a four year old Bichon Frise that someone dropped off at a local animal shelter.

He is a happy little dog that loves to go for short walks and loves to cuddle. We decided on him for several reasons... his size, his age, and his breed were big ones. Because he is a Bichon, he won't shed much and won't cause problems for people with allergies. This was important because several of our family members have allergies to animals.

Bichons are also supposed to be very good with children and other animals. This was important since we already have Sylvester and plan on having children in the near future.

His former owner called him Nobo. Not really sure what that means, but I wasn't crazy about it. We wanted something similar though so that he wouldn't be too confused. Justin liked Bobo, so that is what stuck! Bobo our little Bichon. :)

Justin with his new best friend....

He loves Justin, but so far he has taken a liking to me. He is like my shadow. If I stand up, he stands up. If I go to another room, he follows. If I sit on the couch, he sits on the couch. Etc, etc, etc.

(please ignore my nastiness.. we had just come in from playing outside in the heat!)

Sylvester is not too sure of him yet. But I hope they get along. Sylvester has been on pins and needles, sneaking around the house all day. I miss my relaxed and easygoing kitty.

Maybe he will be back soon. :)

Henderson Happenings

My good friend, Jenna, started a blog today!  Go check it out and leave her some bloggy love!

completely random

I have lots to say, so a list it is!

• First of all, I would like to thank everyone who commented on my shower question post.  I just don't think I can get Justin to squeegee the shower door after each use, but I did buy the Kaboom that some of you mentioned.  I have to say, I like it!  It says to let it sit on the door for 1-3 minutes, but I didn't.  I just sprayed and wiped.  And it worked!!!  Very happy!
• Also, I wanted to let you know that I took some of your suggestions on cereal.  I have tried two kinds of special k and the apple cinnamon cheerios.  So far, my favorite is .
• You guys are pretty good when it comes to recommending stuff.  It's been very helpful so far!  Now, let me recommend something.  This book was really, really good.  It really made me question and think and stretch.  I loved it!  You should try it if you haven't already!
• I finished my first full week of work.  Well, I say full, but I was only working part time doing training.  It went well.  I got to know the kids and had fun playing with them.  I can tell it's going to be hard though.  And I came home with a headache everyday.  :(   I'm off this week and start full time on Monday.  Wish me luck!
• Sunday night since Justin and I were both off, we declared it "date night".  We went out to eat and then rented a movie from redbox.  We love redbox.  The movies are only $1 and you can return them to ANY redbox location.Never heard of it?  Look here.   Anyway, we rented Confessions of a Shopaholic.  Justin was extremely bored and said it was the girliest chick flick he'd ever seen.  I admit, it was pretty bad.  I'm not a big spender/shopper though, so maybe I just couldn't relate.
• One movie I do wanna see is The Proposal.  I have heard only good things so far.  Has anyone seen it?  We try to stay away from pg-13, but I think I'm gonna watch this one anyway.  It looks cute.
• I signed up for a twitter account, but I don't know if I'll ever use it.  Facebook just seems so much easier and has ALL of my friends on it.  We shall see....
• Sarah at Kingdom Twindom is doing a giveaway for some costume jewelry!  The stuff is really cute.  You should go check it out!  I hope I win!!!

shower question

This is a random post.. but it just popped in my head, so I wanted to post it before I forget it.

Justin's bathroom/the guest bathroom has a stand up shower with a glass door. It is driving me crazy. It's constantly dirty looking. If anyone has advice on what to use to clean glass shower doors, please share!!!

Show Us Your Wedding Dress

Kelly from Kelly's Korner is hosting a bloggy party for girls to have some fun.  Everyone is supposed to post about their wedding dress and/or dream wedding dress.

Since my one year anniversary is coming up, I thought I would play along and pull out some wedding pics.

(all of my pics are courtesy of Kyla Branch Photography)

My dress was ivory with a deep v-neck and a light floral pattern all over.  I didn't have a big budget, but knew I did NOT want a big or strapless dress.  I also did NOT want a long train.  When I went to try on dresses, This one was on display.  My Aunt Donna and I both instantly loved it.  I tried on about 4 dresses, but ended up buying this one before we left the first store.

If I could have chosen my dream dress and cost was not important, I would have chosen one that was really lacy with a pretty sash, like this:

Just for fun (and cause I love these guys), here are some of me with my daddy and my hubby.  :)

Feel free to join in the fun!   

Guess it's that time...

My dad and my sister messaged me today wondering why I haven't been updating the blog!  So I guess I need to come up with something to write about..

Let's see...

I got a new dress!

This was me before church on Sunday.  I cannot express how much I love these long maxi type dresses.  If I had 30, I would wear one every day of the month.  I found this one, like brand new, at Goodwill for a mere $13.00.  Love it!

On that same day, my sweet husband wore his new shoes to church.  This may seem like a weird thing to comment about, but he never, ever wears dress shoes.  He wanted to wear flip flops to our wedding.  That's just how he is.  So for him to buy and wear new dress shoes is huge.Excuse the funny face... it was bright out there!

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On a completely different note...  I GOT A JOB!!!!  I started my new job yesterday.  I'm working at a childcare center in the 3 year old room.

I am training this week, next week I'll have off, and then the first week of August I will start on my own.  I'm really nervous.  I have no clue why, but I'm more scared of a class of 3 year olds than I would be a room of teenagers!  I just don't know how to handle them, I guess.  Yikes!  Anyone with any tips (JILL!), feel free to leave them for me.  I'll take any advice, activity ideas, etc. that I can get!

To celebrate my new job, Justin took me to Chili's!  Of course we got chips and salsa.  Chili's has the BEST!  All of the food was really great, actually.  Chili's is one of my favorite places to go.  :)

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I have once again applied for college.  This time I am considered "continuing education" at a community college near us.  I'm thinking dental assisting or nursing, maybe??  Not really sure.  I just know I would love having the option of making more money than I am now.

All of this really depends on the government.  If I can get grants to pay for it, then I will start in September!

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And last but not least, I'm gonna share a recipe!  I made it and Justin lovedddd it.  We both like BBQ a lot.

Oven-Barbequed Chicken

6 small chicken breasts, boneless & skinless OR 1 whole chicken cut into pieces.

1 cup ketchup

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 Tbsp orange juice

1/4 tsp smoke flavoring

1/2 tsp dry mustard

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Mix all ingredients together in a big bowl. Put aside 1/3 of the sauce to save for later. Toss the chicken in sauce with tongs. Place chicken in baking dish at 375 degrees for 45 min. When you have 20 minutes remaining, put remainder of sauce on chicken.

This is the picture from the Deen Brothers.  This is their recipe.  It got 5 stars on the website, and was rated "easy" to prepare. 

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I'll try to do better at keeping up with blogging.  It's just hard when nothing is going on.  We are living pretty boring lives right now!

more pictures

boring title?  yes, I think so.  But that's what this is..

Hubby with his Momma

She and Nicole were helping serve food at the wedding

Family photos...

Uncle John and his other half

Dennis and Laura (mother of the groom)

My hubby makes crazy faces sometimes.

After church with my Aunt Donna

 

That's all I've got for today.  I've been feeling a little depressed today.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better...        

Going to the Chapel...

I was excited to find out that Kyla had me second shoot for her at Corey and Kendra's wedding.  I have to say, I was really nervous that I wouldn't get any good shots because I didn't have a flash and only took my 50mm lens.  I think some of them turned out okay though.  See for yourself...

  

Wow, that was a bunch of pics.. I'll do a separate post later with some pics of us and the family at the wedding.