Hoppy Easter

Jeremie and I stayed in Tally for Easter since he was on call.  We missed being with our families, but it was still a special weekend and I tried to make it the traditional Easter with a big meal and Easter baskets.  (Set out on the hearth, just like my Mama did every year!)  Friday night was the Good Friday service at our church which was amazing.   They had a large table in the middle of the sanctuary with the Lord's Supper laid out.  It was a great time of prayer and preparation for the Easter weekend.  Sunday morning service was equally amazing but different atmosphere.....Warren (our worship leader) was ROCKIN'....as usual....and David gave an awesome sermon about the meaning and significance of the veil being torn by Jesus' death on the cross.  I'm not well versed enough to expand on how incredible this message was...but you can listen to it at http://www.icelebrationmembers.org/

Anyway.....so I forced Jeremie to take pics when we got home from church..he looked so handsome in his suit and my FAVORITE pink shirt of his.  When I told him how good he looked, he returned the compliment with...."You look beautiful....like the risen sun".....that was the quickest comparison he could make in regards to the orange in my dress.....then we realized the irony that it was Easter...so this comment was not to be confused with "The Risen Son"....we laughed all the way to church. 

Manny was even dressed up in his new Springtime handkerchief. This is his friend Tom.....

The Easter meal menu consisted of: 

Pork loin, butter beans, mac and cheese, cornbread dressing salad, creamed spinach and sweet tea. : )  

Dessert was Mandarin Orange cake which is Jeremie's favorite that his Grandmother makes.  I had to call her to get the correct recipe and it turned out good.  Even Manny got a lick off the spatuala.  Which came back to haunt us later.   

It was a great Easter holiday with our little family.....

A Night Of Mystery.......

Last weekend we went to a murder mystery party!  I have always wanted to go to one, so I was excited when we got the chance.  The theme for this party was "Las Vegas" and my character was "Mimi Martini", a cocktail waitress and Jeremie was "Ace High", a high roller.  We were assigned our characters a few weeks ago, and had so much fun shopping for our outfits.  Believe it or not, but most of both of ours came from Goodwill! Even J's sear sucker suit, which cracked me up.  J had a great time accessorizing with the bowtie, rings, cigar, Mimi Vice sunglasses, and even the fake $5,000 bills that he left hanging out of his pocket.  (A lady a Dollar General actually stopped him coming out of the store trying to tell him his money was falling out of his pocket!)  I even glued some plastic glasses to a tray to finish of my waitress look.

We had already been given some information about our character, and when got to the party, we were given more info plus some paper cash in case we needed to "pay up" for secrets......

My character was a money lovin' waitress who was in love with Ace High (and his money.)  Although, Ace had supposedly lost a bet to "Hustling Haley" the night before and wed her in the casino chapel.....

Our friends Melissa & David were "Precious Trump", the casino owner's daughter, and "Paul Piano", the casino entertainer.  Take note of his glitter microphone that he carried around all night.....

Precious Trump was dating Jack Black, one of the casino dealers, which is totally against casino policy.......She had to pay me some cash to keep me from spreading her secret to her father, Ronald Trump, owner of the casino.....I told him anyway....which I also got cash for....sorry Melissa...

Jessica & Alex (on the right) were "Senator Justice and Mrs. Justice".  Senator Justice was apparently involved in some suspicious activity that would harm his campaign.....and ignored his wife...making for a very bitter woman........

As we were mingling around the room, the lights suddenly went out and we heard a thud!!!!  When they came back on, much to my despair was Ace High on the floor--murdered!!!  They taped off the scene (literally with masking tape...hilarious) and we got more info about what our character knew about going's on in the casino and what info we were looking for. 

Since Jeremie's character died, he turned into the FBI Agent on the scene and presented us with all the evidence to make the decision about who we thought the murderer was.....just as I thought-- it was that Hustling Haley!  Awards were also handed out to best dressed, which was Elvis, and Drama Queen--which went to......drumroll please.....Mimi Martini!!!!  I'm not sure how I feel about winning the Drama Queen award, but I guess I can't deny my inner cocktail waitress. 

The fun didn't stop after the party...one of our party favors was scratch off lotto tickets, and we won the big money on one of them....$2!!! So the boys wanted to stop at a gas station to cash them in, but were rejected. (Apparently you have to mail it in.) This gas station had probably never seen anything like Ace High and Paul Piano. He actually did take the microphone into the gas station and made the poor clerk repeat herself in the microphone when she said she couldn't cash them in........ 

We had a blast dressing up, cracking the case, and meeting new friends. 

Viva Stark Vegas!

Catching up on the last few weeks of life....Jeremie and I recently made the 7 hour trek to Starkville for Super Bulldog Weekend. We packed in as much festivities AND food that we could. Saturday we hit up the traditional sidewalk sale at The Lodge where they have all things MSU and I almost spent our month's savings. With a little niece or nephew on the way, it opens up a whole new world of shopping. No one will wonder where this baby's loyalty lies.

We met up with Debbie, Amy, and Mary Perry for lunch at......the Grill! Mary and I realized that we have not seen each other in over a year which is just plain blasphemy.

Then we headed to the baseball game, which we won't talk about, but we enjoyed the socializing anyway. Well-the girls did---poor Jeremie was surrounded by 3 women most of the day, but he was a good sport. The Maroon & White game was next, which gave me just enough a taste of football that I am now ready for the season again!

That night we hit-up Old Venice-another Starkville classic, complete with crawfish rolls and pizza.

Sunday kicked off with the BEST donuts in the world in my opinion--Shipley's. We ate our breakfast on campus and met up with the dynamic duo (Amy & Roxie) to walk around campus and take some pics. Manny got his first tour of MSU and looked like he really enjoyed it.

Campus is always beautiful--but springtime is just breathtaking; the lawns and flowers are impeccable. It was great to be back at the place that has served as a backdrop for all the 4-H camps, where I got my education, met some of my best friends, and most importantly where Jeremie and I fell in love.....

The Simple Life....Camping with the Clendenins

A few weeks ago we met up with our favorite fellow honeymooners and went camping with Bart & Jenn near the Suwanee River. In true form, the weekend started out with some drama when Manny jumped out of the truck and immediately ran over our neighbor's site and engaged their dog in a fight UNDER their RV. And also in true form, Bart jumped right under the RV and yanked Manny out while I screamed at the top of my lungs. (If you recall, our last visit with the Clendenins involved a squirrel on the loose in our house.)

After the dog fight, J and I decided we should get settled in and put up our tent. We were quickly embarrassed by the size (or lack there of) our tent was in comparison to the Clendenins. Bart hit the nail on the head when he said it looked like their tent gave birth:

Their Tent

Our Tent

After we discovered there was a huge gash in our brand new air mattress and J went to Wal-Mart to get another, we finally settled down to some grilled hamburgers and veggies. I wouldn't really call our camping the "simple" life, because we definitely didn't go hungry. We had pancakes, french toast, sausage dogs.......

Saturday we went canoeing on the Suwanee River which was a blast. Even Manny buddy got to go on his first river trip. The water was so calm and we even stopped at a place that has a natural spring that used to be a resort 100 years ago. It even had it's own railroad and people would come to from all over to experience the "healing waters" of the spring. There was still some of the stone walls from the resort. It was really amazing. We even saw some "friendly" critters along the way....

The camping resort had a neat craft village and ice cream stand that we also hit up. Saturday night was a wildly competitive round of Phase 10 that was won by....I hate to even say this...Jeremie.

We had so much fun with Bart and Jenn-we feel like we have known them forever and are so excited about their new addition that is arriving in September! So the next get together will have one more in this picture...