Wedding - Lance & Stacy

This weekend we went to Warner Robins for Lance and Stacy's wedding - remember we went to their bachelor/ette party in Gatlinburg?? It was such a fun time! I really enjoy getting to see all of our friends at all of these events. We got into town on Friday and checked into the hotel - we were bunking with Toby and Christine for the weekend. John and I waited for everyone to finish up with their rehearsal dinner stuff and then we all went out for the night.

Saturday morning Christine and I threw Stacy's bridal shower for her and all of her bridesmaids. After the shower we went back to the hotel to start getting ready for the wedding. Christine and I were put in charge of making sure everyone got down the aisle and then in charge of getting candles lit in the reception area. The wedding was beautiful even though someone forgot the rings and they had to be passed down the groomsmen =)

The reception was so much fun and we had a blast! Lance and Stacy left that night and will be taking their honeymoon to Jamaica a little later - I think....

Afterwards we went out and some girl had a little too much to drink at the bar and puked on my arm and the floor. It was gross...apparently she worked there too and just left the puke.

1st Trip to Pittsburgh!

We just got back from a trip to Pittsburgh, PA. All of John's extended family (on his dad's side) live up in that area. I had never been up there so it was a new experience for me! We stayed at his Aunt Kathy and Uncle John's house in his cousin Jess's room. She has the best room ever! We flew up there just for a few days and at the time his uncles and aunts were going through things in his grandparents' house because they have moved to a nursing home and retirement home. We found so many cool things in their house - including a newspaper article from when the first man landed on the moon - our wedding anniversary! Amazing how many cool newspapers his grandmother saved. In the basement all of the kids (John's dad, aunts, and uncles) had their sleds hung on the wall - they were adorable!

I spent most of the time scanning pictures of John's family to add to our family scrapbook - I love to have pictures of the family! Also while we were there we went to visit John's grandpap at his new retirement home. He was so funny scooting around everywhere and enjoying his new home. We also went to see John's grandmother who is in a health and rehab center. She has become ill with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's recently and it is a great place for her to have constant care.

I enjoyed my first trip to PA and hopefully we will get to stay longer next time! We had to make this one short because we have to get back into GA for Lance and Stacy's wedding!

Wedding - Doug and Lexi

This weekend we went to Doug and Lexi's wedding. As a tribute to me they planned it to be on my birthday weekend - ha! We got there Friday night and went to the rehearsal and dinner because John was a groomsman. A lot of our friends were also in the wedding party so it was a great time! John and I stayed and Alex's house and slept in one of the most comfortable beds ever - seriously, it was phenomenal.

Saturday we had all of the wedding festivities - John had to be up early to go do his groomsman duties and I just hung out. I ended up bringing a cooler of water and some other things for the wedding party to have while they were taking pictures. Later I got ready and went to the wedding. It was beautiful - naturally!

Next we went to the reception and had a wonderful dinner and a great time visiting with all of our friends that were there. Weddings are so great and it is so nice to see everyone that we used to see on a daily basis. John and I definitely miss our friends.

After we saw Doug and Lexi off (they are in Costa Rica for their honeymoon) we headed to the strip of bars and the Kappa Sig house to hang out with others that were in town and those that were at the wedding. We also had to celebrate my birthday! It was a fun time until one of the male members of the group got a little rowdy and had to leave the bar....boo to him!

Sunday we drove home and then we had my birthday dinner and birthday cake - yum!!

Trip to Gatlinburg

This weekend we drove up to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. We left around 1PM and traveled through South Carolina, North Carolina, and straight up into the Smokey Mountains. It was beautiful! We were barely into the mountains when we decided we wanted to visit again =) We made a couple of stops on the way - one to eat at a McDonald's on I-26 in South Carolina and then another at a rest stop in North Carolina. We had no clue we would be going through North Carolina and thought we might have made a mistake in directions. Luckily the map at the rest area/welcome center showed we were right on track! I drove through to the welcome center and John drove the rest of the adventure. The rest of the way was through mountains and curvy roads - not to be driven on while drinking that is for sure! Once off the interstate we were mesmerized with all of the gorgeous scenery we were passing. The look of fall was just beginning to show its face. There were a few lookout places to stop and enjoy the view, but decided to wait until our drive home - we were ready to see our friends!

The entire weekend was so much fun. After the stress John and I had been under with jobs and such it was nice to just get away and relax. The purpose for this trip was for a bachelor/bachelorette party for Lance and Stacy. During the weekend we went to downtown Gatlinburg, the Hard Rock Cafe, the boys played putt-putt, we hung out at the amazing cabin and all in all had a great time with our friends. I think the best was the "man hunt" for Lance and Ross - no clue how all of this happened, but it ended with everyone back at the cabin.


As usual John and I did not want to leave - we never want to go back home from vacations...

Phillips Family Reunion

This weekend we went to Colquitt, GA for a Phillips' family reunion. This is family on my maternal grandmother's side of the family. We stayed in Bainbridge with my Great Aunt Sara. She lives on a little row of houses where my Great Aunt Wilkin lives as well as Great Aunt Jeanne and Great Uncle Eugene. My Aunt Babs, cousins Paul, Jenifer, and Charlotte stayed with Aunt Wilkin and we also got to see my cousins Chip, Rhonda and their children (my age) Jennifer and Edward.

Each family that came to reunion had to bring a dish that would be large enough to feed their family. Mom made a HUGE pot of delicious green beans. There were so many wonderful things to eat there!!

This weekend we had one of the many "Danny-isms"* :

"with all those women bringing in their home-cooked recipes we're gonna have some good groceries"

The term "good groceries" was heard over and over....

*Danny is my dad and he has some of the most "country sayings" you will ever hear...and he will repeat them over and over and over for all of eternity.

Haircut!

I got a haircut today - and donated the hair to locks for love. This is my second time donating.

A BIG Change

Today we moved away from Valdosta to my hometown. The day after we got back from our honeymoon we had the worst wedding present ever - John lost his job. Seriously - what the?? Anyways, this is definitely going to be a blessing for us. I wasn't very happy with my job so I quit my job and we are moving in with my parents - yep, my parents. Now of course this isn't the most ideal situation, but its what we are going to do and its going to be a great way for us to save money to buy our own house. We had always talked about moving to where one of us was from after a year or so, but instead our plans just got bumped up a bit.

We rented a truck from Budget and then packed up our 2-bedroom apartment. Hunter was going crazy because we were moving everything. I had to turn in all of my stuff to my old job, laptops, car, etc. so now we only have John's truck here. I took my car back home a couple of years ago when I got a company car. We had a little tift over who was going to drive the Budget truck because it had A/C - John's truck has none. He won so John and Hunter had the nice cool air while I sweated to death. We met my parents where their cottage is and we're storing the majority of our stuff there. Hunter loved running around in the grass and having so much freedom while we moved all of our stuff (read: my junk) into the cottage.

We hope to hurry and both find new jobs so that we can be out on our own within a year!