Womens Luncheon

My Grandma and Aunts church has a women’s luncheon every fall.  They have about 30 tables and all of them are decorated by women who volunteer.  It’s all a fall theme but you are free to interpret that how you feel.  They have an awesome brunch and then a guess speaker.  I was able to go last year and help my aunt with a few last minute decorating things.  She did two tables so I was happy to help.  We had just moved to Midland and I was looking for anything to pass the time.  I loved it so much that I was able to help again this year.  My aunt again had signed up for two tables and we picked a zebra theme and a peacock theme.  Ha Ha can you tell we like to be different?  It was fun to see all the tables.  They were all SOOO gorgeous and so different, its fun to see all the different personalities come to play.  The funniest part though was walking into a room of orange and browns and then right in the center are our tables.  There they were, our bright turquoise and purple table and a black, red and white table popping out for everyone to see.   It was great!  The speaker was the Author River Jordan who wrote the book “Praying for Strangers.”  She was really great and heard a lot of awesome things I can apply in my life.  Here are the tables that we did complete with table settings and favors that we made.  I was pretty happy with them.  The peacock table was my baby haha not really I just already love peacocks and those are my favorite colors, so I had the most fun putting that one together.  It was suppose to be the more elegant of the two.   The zebra one was the fun spunky table that we got to play with and make wild and crazy.

 

Ready for Fall!

So life lately…..hm well I have a bad attitude ha ha so I probably don’t see it clearly nor describe it with fairness.  No really I think lately I have just been letting myself be depressed about things that are totally in my control.  I can sit here and list all the things I’m upset about or not happy with, but probably at least 80% are things that I can change.  So with that being the case I will not sit here and bore you with my saga, but will commit to you that I’m trying to change them.  I’m SO imperfect and will probably fail at my many attempts, but I’m determined to better my life, myself, and my attitude.  So I’m committing to take control of my life and try to fix the things that are in my power to fix.  Hopefully I can stay committed and actually get off my butt and do these things.  I’m just ready to be a little happier and a little more productive, and I know Eric is ready for that too!  Yeah life has it’s hard things but my life really isn’t that bad, I just make it bad over stupid things that don’t matter.  So in that case I’m going to try to be be a little more positive,  nicer, spiritual, healthier, love more, have more patience, be more understanding, and just all around try to improve in all the areas of my life I can.  Wish me luck, and forgive me in about a week when I start complaining again and lose my motivation ha ha.  It’s like the song goes “I get knocked down, but I get up again” ha ha oh man cheesy did I just quote that? Why yes, yes I did!   Any who in the real news of life, I’m just working.  That’s about all I ever do.  Eric took a spill yesterday and fractured his ankle. OUCH! Poor baby!  He's now hanging out in a big ol boot and loving every minute of it....not.  Sadly he also loss his job today too.  They were just too slow and didn't have enough for him to do so they let him go! Could life get better?  I protest that it CANNOT!  His classes are a piece of cake this semester which I know he is happy about at least.  So he has school going for him.  Plus he is working really hard on lots of applications for his engineering degree.  Hopefully things can look up for him in that department. Other then work I’m just trying to get organized and start working on things for Christmas so I feel on top of it this year rather then procrastinating.  I’m pretty excited though, because thanks to my amazing In-laws we get to go to California for Christmas and be with family!  AWESOME!  I hate holidays not spent with family.  Other then that life continues as normal.  I CANNOT believe we have lived in Texas for over a year now.  Where did the time go?  In most instances I still feel like we just got here, but in others I feel like I have been away for WAY too long.  I can’t believe I have already been at my job for a year. It’s really mind boggling.  But then again I’m doing that with the fact that it’s October....correction in an hour it will be November.  Man I am behind!  How am I still thinking of new years resolutions and it’s OCTOBER? Didn’t the year just start?  How can it be almost over? Man oh man I need to get my butt in gear and start running my life before it runs over me!.  On a happier note of it being October, today it FINALLY felt like fall to me.  Though I’m missing these beautiful sights and colors

 

At least outside feels and smells like fall, which I’m thankful for.  I wait all year for fall, for boots, jackets and scarves, for pumpkin ice cream and apple cider!  Now with how time has been going, I know it will be over WAY too fast so I’m going to make sure and enjoy it!  Perhaps I will have to do a bunch of pumpkin inspired meals this next week and do all sorts of fall crafts to get it out of my system before it’s too late!  Pumpkin carving anyone? I’m in, that’s for sure! 

 

Isn't this pumpkin cool?  I aspire to always make cool pumpkin's, but they always turn out awful.  Ha ha hopefully this year I can accomplish a masterpiece.

 

If only Midland had haunted houses like Utah did, I’m have a hankering to go to one! Ha ha not that I would be going to one, Eric's not really a fan.
 

 

On another happy note, I just got a 7 minute message at work from a lady who sounded EXACTLY like this lovely little creature!

 

Made work worth while that last hour and made me smile!

Utah Finale

We had so much fun with the Simons and didn’t want to leave, but needed to head to our next adventure which we were excited for as well.  My Dads side of the family was having a reunion at Fish Lake so our plan was to head there and spend Friday and Saturday there before we headed back to Texas. Well Friday we got kind of a late start and then wanted to eat lunch with my sister and brother in-law.  Well that turned into lunch plus 4 hours of talking haha and then my sister Julianna had forgotten her contacts, so we had to break into her house to get her some contacts. Then we never had gotten to see Eric’s best friend and we wanted to make sure we got to see him and his wife before we left so we stopped by their house for a quick visit.  I was sad we didn’t have much time with them!   I really wish we could have stayed and hangout with them longer, but I’m glad we got to see them at all.  Well after this we finally hit the road to head to Fish Lake.  Just 6 hours late, no big deal.  We didn’t get there till late and it was really dark and Rango was having a panic attack, but we made it!  We got to sit by the fire and chat for a little bit before everyone went to bed.  I’m glad we got a chance to see everyone again even if it was only for a short time.  We didn’t have a ton of time on Saturday but we did get to go on the boat for a bit, take a nice walk and play down by the lake and play a few games with the family. It was sad leaving, but we wanted to get on the road.  We left that afternoon and headed back to Texas.  We only made it as far as Moab that night but Eric was tired and ready to sleep.  TOO bad every stinking hotel was full.  It was crazy we finally found one little hole in the wall with one room left that we snatched up.  We had a good nights sleep and drove the rest of the way on Sunday.  Out of all the drives we made, it was probably the most peaceful and didn’t feel like it took too long.  I’m sure to Rango it felt like an eternity but he made it.  Lets just say he was happy to get home and back on the ground.

This is where Rango hung out for a bulk of the trip!

Hanging out in Matt and Nicole's tent trailer

Eric playing hide and seek with Kyle

 

Oh yeah and I had forgotten to show you guys the invites I made for all the parties I did, here they are.

 

Here is the one I made for McCall's shower

 

Here is the one for Stephanie's shower

 

 

 

And here is the one for Nicole's.  I was pretty happy with them!

Well that wraps up our trip to utah!

Utah Part Three

After Nicole's baby shower we moved right on to the next event.  Mel and Stephen left the next day for a trip to San Fransisco and the boys got to stay with Granna and Gramps for the week!  I'm so glad I got to spend some time with my adorable nephews.  Saturday was Amy's final day at EFY so we were suppose to pick her up.  After getting home so late from the shower and being exhausted, Eric was a doll and picked her up and gave me a few more minutes to snooze.  We ate a lovely breakfast prepared by my awesome papa and then headed out and spent the day with Amy.  Sunday the rest of Eric's family got home from California, and we met up with them at the blessing for our new niece.  I'm so thankful that David and Stephanie were able to work it out so we could be there.  It's hard for me to sometimes not be apart of all the family events happening in Utah, so it was so nice to be able to participate in that.  It was so good to see the rest of Eric's family! I couldn't believe it had been nearly 7 months since we had seen any of them! FAR TOO LONG if you ask me!  After the blessing we went to have family dinner at my parents house for the last time to be with my whole family together.  Talk about jumping around much? um yes! Dinner was awesome as usual but probably my favorite part was sitting outside in the backyard after.  We all just sat around on the grass and watched all this kids play.  It was seriously one of those moments of bliss where it feels like the rest of the world has stopped and this is the only moment that matters.  I know cheesy right? But I got to hang onto these moments to get me through the ones that are not as great.  Ryan and Paisley were HILARIOUS eating the sour apples off the tree.  My favorite is to see Paisley, who is a year younger, trying to feed and boss Ryan around.  It was sooo cute.  All the kids were so fun!  It's so crazy to see how different they all are.  They are different kids every time I see them.  It's so fun to be able to watch them grow up!  After that we head up to Mom and Dad Simons house for a fun night of playing games!  If was so fun to finally get to spend time with almost the whole family.  Unfortunately Steven, LaNelle and Kinsely couldn’t be there, but they were there in spirit!  The whole rest of the week we got to spend with the Simons family and it was awesome.  It was the first part of the trip that things finally slowed down.  We got to just spend every day with family doing fun things and enjoying our time with each other!  Later that week I did shower number three for Stephanie and her gorgeous new baby!  With the help of my amazing Mother in-law and sister in-laws Amy and Anna we were able to pull it off!  We did a Milkaholics theme.  It was black and pink with cow prints and we did a milk and cookies bar.  We had all sorts of different types of cookies, a make your own fruit pizza station, and thanks to Anna’s amazing idea had like 8 different flavors of milk to choose from.  She found these cool milk straws that made it so everyone could pick their own flavor!  We also did a decorating Onesies station and a hair bow making station.  Amy and I had pre-made some bows for those who are not very crafty and just wanted to glue it on and also had all the supplies for the more adventurous people.  Unfortunately with it being summer, not very many people were able to come.  But we had a lot of fun with the people who did make it, and over all had fun just being close family there so that we could talk and enjoy each other’s company.  After that in a last minute decision all the siblings got together to go see a late movie.  The movie was sooo bad that it then turned amazing and we all had so much fun together!  I got to hold the baby most of the movie too so that made it extra awesome!  It was so fun just being with all the siblings together!  I hadn't laughed that hard in awhile! 

here is part of our decoration station set up.

I had just about anything you could imagine.  Paint, buttons, jewels, ribbon, fabric and anything else crafty related.

I had mason jars as the milk cups

MILK STRAWS!!!!!

Annas AMAZING cookies.  Pretty sure I at twelve.....not really....but I could have!

Fruit pizza!

Some of the head bands that were made

 

Here is one of the onsies I made.  I ended up making like 5 but I guess I only took a picture of 1.

Adorable Amy!

Grandma with cutie!

 

Utah Part Two

After the crazy first 24 hours I had in Utah all I really wanted to do was sleep, alas that did not happen. There were just too many people to see and fun things to do! Eric’s family was gone at this time working in California but we were able to spend the weekend with his little sister Amy and it was SOOO GOOD to see her! I loved having her all to ourselves!    Eric's Brother David and our sister in law Stephanie were in town too and we got to spend the evening with them and their adorable new baby girl.  I just love being an Aunt!  We put on a movie and I was pretty much out like a light.  Ha ha oh well my body was there soaking up family time.  Come Monday sadly we had to say goodbye to Amy and we dropped her off at EFY. So the events just kept on happening. Tuesday was McCall’s bachelorette party and Thursday was the wedding. From one thing to the next was pretty much the theme of this trip. The wedding was beautiful and I was so happy I got to go. McCall looked gorgeous and I’m just so happy for them! 

I mean come on look at those gorgeous girls!

 

 

Is she not the most gorgeous bride you have ever seen?



It's so weird to think we are both married now, and its fun to think back on some of our conversations just a few years ago.  Its funny to see how far we have come and how much has changed.  One thing I know for sure, is that I am so thankful for McCall and her friendship!  She has been there for me through so much and I don't know what I would do with out her in my life. 

Love my Cally!

 After the wedding there was no time to recover it was right on to the next event or what my sister and I like to call THE BEST BABY SHOWER EVA!! My sister Mel and her husband got in on Thursday while I was at the wedding! It was also my mom’s birthday! Late birthday shout out Mom holla, LOVE YOU! So Friday morning was spent finishing up projects and working on the food for Nicole’s baby shower. We did a Dr. Seuss theme and it turned out awesome if I do say so myself. I was thrilled when Mel was willing to help do it with me, it made my life so much easier and I love planning things with her because we are so similar. We decided to split up the responsibilities and I was over the decorations and invites and she did games and food. We helped each other out with the whole thing, but those were the main things we were in charge of. We had a lot of fun and it was so awesome to see all my sisters and sister in laws and have some girl time to just hang out with everyone. I didn't realize how much I had missed it and them. It makes me sad sometimes to think we are all in different places, but it also makes me happy to see how close we all are and how much fun we have when we do get the chance to get together! 

The sign said "From there to here from here to there baby things are everywhere."

Sign in table.  We had little snacks to the left, one game in the green basket, our favors, another game and the sign in book.  Mel got an "All About Me" Dr. Seuss book.  It was really cute and I think Nicole will enjoy being able to keep it but it being of use.  We did Hop on Pop-corn {caramel popcorn}, truffala seeds {skittles}, and one fish two fish red fish blue fish {goldfish crackers.}  One game we did was the star-belly sneetch game.  Everyone took a necklace with a star on it and if they said the word baby it got taken away from them.  We also did a Dr. Seuss name game where they had to match up the names of characters with what book they were from.  There was also an ABC game where you had to come up with a baby related item for each letter kind of like Scategories.  These were really fun filler games to play while we waited for people to come and while we ate. 

This is what we did for favors.  It says "Don't cry because its over, smile because it happened." - Dr. Seuss.  We had a chocolate turtle inside for Yertle the Turtle and had a sign with a quote from the book that said "And the turtles, of course....all the turtles are free. As turtles and maybe all creatures should be."

We took a bunch of the plants from the institute and put them everywhere to create a jungle of Nool kind of feel.  We also made a bunch of banners from old pages from the books that we had hanging everywhere.

We did a display table at the back.  We had the diaper cake I made Nicole plus a bunch of Dr. Seuss books.

Gift table

Diaper cake I made. Nicole planned on having another shower which would be the big one, so for this smaller friend one we just did a book and diaper shower.  I got her Goodnight Moon and The Hungry Caterpillar.

We had another game set up called Diaper Thoughts.  We all got to write funny messages on diapers and then we packaged them back up and gave them to Matt and Nicole.  :) Hope they have fun changing Mia and reading all the funny things.

 

Food Tables

Drink table

Eating tables.  We wanted it to be unusual seating since everything Dr. Seuss is a little silly.  We didn't want everyone at seperate tables but we didn't want to be sitting family style so this is what we came up with!

We had water that was from Luke Lucks Lake and pink lemonade  - Pink Ink Yink Drink

 

These were yummy!

 

The yummy food table.  Green eggs and ham - Deviled eggs with green food coloring and ham sandwhiches.  We also had roast beef sandwhiches to go with the Grinch.  We then had grinich spinach (SOOOOO GOOOD) and stuffed mushrooms - Yot in Pot (One of Nicoles favorites) 

 

 

Desert Table

Beautiful Schlopp with a Cherry on Top {chocolate mousse with strawberries}

Who pudding - white chocolate mouse with strawberries parfaits and a piece of chocolate on top.

 

David Donald Doe's Donuts

Cake pops - Truffala Trees

 

Centerpiece for the table we made out of dollar tree sponges and craft fuzy balls with pipe cleaners.

Center of all the tables.

PARTAY!

 

Paisley having fun with the big girls!

Lacie having a little too much fun!

Nicole opening gifts

Diaper thoughts

 

A lot of us dressed up for the shower.  I was Amazing Mazie from Horton Hears a Who, Mel was the Lorax, and Nicole was a Star-belly Sneech.