From East to West: Hotlanta & The Big D

Last week I went to Atlanta for National Thirty-One Convention and it was FABULOUS! I couldn't believe there were over 16,000 Consultants there!  I saw every color of every style Thirty-One bag that you could ever imagine!!!  Here was the view as I walked into the arena:

The convention was very motivating, but I was most impressed with the CEO (Cindy Monroe) and her husband, who serves as the COO.  Of course they talked numbers & sales, but their main focus is running a faith-based company that encourages women to tailor their business that fits their lifestyle -- one that allows them to serve God and  their family first.  Pretty cool. I was also amazed to learn that Thirty-One is the 5th largest direct sales company in the country and the 24th largest in the world! Think about it though.....every woman...in every part of the world....loves a cute purse...right?  

I had a BALL meeting the amazing ladies on my team and others in the airport and such...ya'll know I never need a stranger. 

And this lady is pretty special...Diann, my Executive Director. 

So back here on the ranch, life is good.  We are scheduled to close on our house on THURSDAY!!! So put us on your prayer list this week that everything goes smoothly.  I am ELATED! Jeremie and I have essentially been house hunting for 3 years, so we can't wait to get settled in and really put down some roots! 

Today I went to a Jr. League meeting and I am super excited about all the fun activities and projects.  And lucky me, I have 2 sweet Mississippi friends that joined as well!!! So stay tuned for pics at the country club, and who knows...maybe we will even master Big Texas hair.

Other notes from the week:

-I don't know about everyone else, but J and I have LOVED watching the Olympics! As you could probably tell from my homemade vault video on Facebook, women's gymnastics is my ultimate favorite. I have been doing my "acknowledge the judges" move all week. I also tried a cartwheel, but I heard like 8 bones pop when I did it, so I won't be doing any more of those.  I've also really enjoyed the men's gymnastics though, because I love their stories and personalities! Love diving too! I

- Of course since we live in Dallas, we have been watching the new Dallas series. What cracks me up is the intro song, where it shows all the downtown buildings and immediately flashes to big open fields with horses and cattle, like the skyscrapers are surrounded by farms. Take it from me, it is not a short carriage ride from downtown to the country.

Well, that is about all that's going on for now.  Will update next week with hopefully a picture of a big SOLD sign!!!  

HAPPY TRAILS!

This Ain't My First Rodeo....

But unfortunately, this IS my first blog post for July, and July is almost over. It has been a little dramatic over here the past few weeks, but I've pretty much come to the conclusion that life in general is just dramatic! (But fortunately we serve God who specializes in handling drama, right?)  Ha! 

So LONG story short, J and I are under contract for a house SHOULD close in about 3 weeks! Even so, I am going to save all the details for a blog post until after we close, ink is dry, and keys are in hand!  I'm not really a superstitious person, so it's not like I feel like I'll jinx myself if I write about it.  BUT, for fear of anything happening, I'd rather not have to delete a blog post about "our wonderful new house" if something does go wrong!  HA! I'm sure that ANYONE who has ever purchased a home understands what I'm talking about.  This is not our first rodeo with the home buying process, which obviously has disappointed us in the past, so I will save all the thrills and frills for later.  

On a lighter note, I DID attend a real rodeo this month and it was fabulous.  Morgan, my dear friend from Tallahassee, came to visit for a week and we did all things Dallas. We shopped, went to Southfork, Dave and Busters, Downtown Dallas, rode the Trolley to Uptown Dallas, went on a historical tour, ate at the Food Park, and played cowgirl for a day at the Ft. Worth Stockyards.  

Southfork Ranch, where they film the outdoor scenes for Dallas was SO much fun and beautiful!  It is indeed much smaller than they make it look on TV; it's amazing what you can do with a wide angle lens. But it was still fun to see everything and hear the story of how it came to be the location for Dallas. The family that owned the home finally had enough and moved out after J.R. got shot on the original series and people were all over their property leaving flowers and get-well cards. Nice.

The Food Park in Ft. Worth has several food trucks lined up and you take your pick.  Morgan and I sampled several things, but the "Back Breaker", which is a grilled cheese with Mac N' Cheese and pulled pork, definitely took the prize. 

 I think they should call it the Diet Breaker, but it was worth it. Good thing we don't live in Ft. Worth, because I would probably getting one of these at least twice a week and my butt would be this big...

Don't worry, it's a chair.

The historic Stockyards in Ft. Worth were awesome and definitely a must see if you come visit us! It looks like something out of a movie.  They have cattle drives and gun fights by day and rodeos by night. We had a blast and even took "a spin" on a mechanical bull. I did pretty good, but every major muscle group hurt the next day. 

This definitely was not my first rodeo, but it was probably the most exciting!  The bulls and broncos were SUPER CRAZY! One "buckin' bronco" literally did a head-over-heels somersault in front of Morgan and I. And the bulls were throwin' the cowboys off like rag dolls and then going after them with their horns, which actually was pretty scary at one point.  

When we weren't touring, we were cooking at night, and as usual, Morgan ran circles around me in the kitchen, so J was well-fed for the week.  I really believe that the timing of her visit was God-ordained, because it definitely kept me distracted a midst all the drama with the house negotiations! We had a great time and I just might have made a Texan out of her.  : )  

The Great Southern Adventure

So I have finally returned from my adventure, recovered, washed all my clothes, gone grocery shopping, and returned to my little routine, which is much appreciated.  After 12 nights of being away, I was so happy to sleep in my own bed and cuddle up to my hubby!  BUT, I had the most fabulous time on my trip.  I traveled a total of 1,645 miles (more or less) and visited what feels like almost everyone I know or have known! HA!

I kicked off the weekend with my 10 year High School Reunion, which was a blast!!! It was awesome to see everyone. In some ways, it made me feel younger to be around all the people I grew up with, and in other ways, it made me feel older to see us  married, and lots of them with children! One of the neatest things was the "Memory" table we had, where everyone brought their old pictures to share. They were hilarious. Here are a couple of mine that I am reluctant to share, but they are too funny not to. Everybody had an awkward, ugly stage right??? Try to play Where's Waldo.

This is my 5th Grade class picture. Check out bottom far right. Yes, that is KT. Even my mom said:  "Aww...look how homely you look!"

9th Grade Cheerleader Pic. Far Left. Love the braces.

We laughed at our old memories and danced the night away! Even hubby had a great time with the other husbands! 

The cheerleaders are all grown up!

My very first [kindergarten] boyfriend!  Ryan Channel! We tried to make our respective spouses jealous, but they didn't seem too concerned!!!  Hahahaha....

The rest of my week in Petal/Hattiesburg was spent visiting with my parents, grandparents, and other family & friends.  It was so nice to spend  time with them and not be in a rush.  Mom & I managed to "squeeze" in a trip or 2 (or 4) to all the surrounding Hudson's, which only South MS folks can appreciate. And of course a highlight was getting to see my GROWING nephew, which just filled my heart.  I arrived at the PERFECT time when Mama Cate was helping Lauren with work, Jeremie was napping, & Papa Mitch was somewhere. This meant I got 3 full hours of Judah all to myself. He napped on me, I fed him, and chased him around, as he is now crawling like a bandit! And bath time is always entertaining.

Is it me, or does my Mother-In-Law look like she's 30?  : ) 

Next, I headed north to Meridian and visited my roommate from MSU, Kelly.  In true South MS style, we spent the day by the creek catching up and old times and new. : ) I totally forgot a bathing suit, so  I dug one out at my parents' house that was from 9th grade! I was proud that it even fit...not the same...but hey, I technically could get it on my body.

The next day, I kept heading north and made a stop in Starkville to get my hair done by my FAVORITE hairdresser of all time, and had the Blue Plate Special at the Veranda with Amy. Another one of my besties, Meg, picked me up in Starkville and like a tornado, we headed off to Huntsville, AL to visit our third counterpart, Mary. Our girls reunion was absolutely fabulous. The three of us have not been together  in 2 years, so we had much catching up to do. We agreed that we laughed until we cried and cried until we laughed. If an outsider heard some of our conversations and ridiculous cackling, they would question our sanity. Mary's hubby Stan cooked for us and catered to us like we were queens. We also managed to squeeze in a trip to the Melting Pot. Mary hosted a Thirty-One Party on Saturday and it went great.....so I think I need to take another "business trip" to Huntsville again soon. 

LOVE these girls.

Meg and I headed back to Starvkille on Sunday where I spent the last two nights of my big trip.  Sunday happened to be my 28th birthday, so Amy & I celebrated at Old Venice, one of my Starkville favorites! The first birthday I celebrated at Old Venice was my 20TH! So I definitely felt a little older!  

Amy had a chocolate cake for me which we enjoyed in our pajamas! Wild night, huh?

The next day we be-bopped around campus, which never gets old.  I could make laps around the place and still not get enough! Just love me some MSU! Another trip to Hudson's scored Amy some outdoor chairs which would NOT fit in her car. A lady saw us "struggling" (her words exactly) and showed us how we could fit them in the trunk and tie them down. Again, in true South MS style, our trip home looked like this: 

The rest of our night was spent watching our guilty pleasure, The Bachelorette, and doing some arts and crafts. It was great to spend some quality time with my sister-no one really gets you like your sister, right? 

So after many nights away from the family, I picked up some Shipley's donuts & coffee and hit the road for my 8.5 hour drive to Texas!  Thank goodness for books on CD!  It was (and still is) wonderful to be home.  It was an awesome trip, and one that I feel like was a rare opportunity! God has blessed me with wonderful family & friends! 

The Wells Weekly

So I don't really have an exciting title or event to blog about. Most of this is totally random/uninteresting, but every day can't be a circus, right? So here's what I got:

1. Manny's LOVES small, hidden places, but his all time favorite place in this house is behind the door of our little toilet room in the Master Bathroom. This house is much larger than our last place, so one day when I was frantically looking for him, I spy this......

Found him.

And other times Manny is not so shy.....

2. Our neighborhood does have a community pool, but it's always super crowded and I'm pretty sure the teenage residents have given the code to ALL of their friends. And personally, I hate toting all my stuff down there and having to use a community bathroom. So I made my own oasis in the privacy of our backyard.

3. I have been working out hard lately and really enjoying it!  This may or may not be motivated by my upcoming 10 Year High School Reunion, but nevertheless, I've lost weight,  feel better, and met lots of friends. J is also doing The Biggest Loser at work, so he's trying to lose a few pounds too.  This has lead to healthier eating, and this has been my best creation so far:  Strawberry Spinach Salad with Grilled Chicken. YUM. 

4. One of those said friends at the gym is a woman after my own heart: She loves antiques and took me on a "field trip" to a place called the Frisco Mercantile. It was an endless maze of booths full of vintage antiques and adorable crafts. I came home with an adorable pig painting. Laugh if you want to, but I have a love for pigs after raising them for years, and just couldn't resist it.  It perfectly matched the deep coral & blue pillows that I've already bought for our Master Bedroom when we buy a house. (Going for a funky Southwestern theme.) Call me crazy, but I thought the pigs were smiling, and sure enough, the name of the painting is "Happy Pigs." Oink, oink baby.

5. Not to kill the pig theme, but a few weeks earlier, I had bought a cute iron pig for our porch. Although J loves both purchases, he told me no more pigs. I think he's worried I will start a weird collection and was envisioning a China cabinet full of porcelain pigs, wooden pigs, Santa pigs, you get the point. So we are on a pig freeze right now.

6. My Thirty-One business is going great! My two online parties, the Texas party order, some stuff my Director sent me, and a company incentive all came in within two days of each other, so it was like Christmas over here this week! I loved looking at all the orders and some new products I've never seen before! I've pretty much made back the money I spent to get into it, so quite happy about that!  And I've got a couple more parties booked that I'm really excited about!  

7. I'm so excited about this week coming up: HS Reunion, spending a few nights with the parents, then headed north to visit Amy & several of my fabulous college friends!!! I won't bore with itinerary details, but I will be blogging about my entire trip when I return! 

8. The Big D House Hunt has officially commenced!  J and I looked at 5 houses this weekend, and really liked one of them. Another one smelled really funky and another had 5-foot cement gargoyles in the front. It definitely helped us see which areas we like the most, so hopefully we'll find the perfect one soon! House hunting is tiresome and definitely not as glamorous as HGTV makes it look.  

9. I posted this on FB, but must document on my blog, too.  I was at Hobby Lobby the other day and they have an entire aisle dedicated to Homecoming corsage materials. I saw an episode about this on Big Rich Texas, but honestly thought it was probably scripted to be funny/stereotypical Dallas.  But apparently, it's a for real tradition. Some of the ribbons were as tall as me! I guess I will have to add this to my Texas Mom duties.  

Happy Trails!  

Update from the Lonestar State

Oh, how behind I am on blogging!  Jeremie and I have been enjoying many of the "amenities" that Dallas has to offer.  The day of the Kentucky Derby we went to Lonestar Park to view some horse racing Texas style. It was a good time. Jeremie & I always like to pick opposite teams (in this case horses) to cheer for so there is a little friendly competition. Does this surprise anyone?  

                                              

   

Go Baby Go!

The next weekend was our THIRD Anniversary, which I still cannot believe. Being married is still SO much fun and I love waking up to my best friend every day.  I know I already posted a sappy anniversary blog, but I found this the other day and LOVED IT. 

Anyway, we celebrated our anniversary the entire weekend starting with a fabulous dinner at Rick's Chophouse in McKinney.  It was DELISH and we even got free dessert. 

The next day we headed to Downtown Grapevine which is ADORABLE and reminded me a lot of Thomasville, FL.  It is very historic complete with a Vintage Train & blacksmith.  

                                           

                                           

This past weekend we attended the Byron Nelson golf tournament where we got to follow Phil Mickelson and see our first hole in one! The course was GORGEOUS and in true Dallas style, it was a total fashion show.  I thought I was totally golfed out in my collared shirt and pink Taylor Made hat, but was completely out done by the chicks in their maxi dresses and wedges. I think they were trying to scope out some rich golf hubbys who in turn were more interested in watching Phil's backswing. 

                                  

I snagged this picture right before being disciplined by an official in red pants!

A lot of my time though has been spent working on my new Thirty-One venture! Thirty-One was created by a lady who envisioned a company that women could pursue a career, but also have the flexibility of making their own schedule that would work around their family. (Love that!) The name Thirty-One was inspired by Proverbs 31 (love that!) and the products are adorable organizing bags and purses (love them!). I paid $99 for a big pink box full of adorable bags and start up supplies.

                                        

Yes, I understand that I have an Agricultural Economics degree, and I never though I would be selling purses  and bags.  BUT, the closer we get to starting a family, the thought of being able to do something from home is priceless. I already love that I have the freedom to work out & grocery shop during the day so I can be done when J gets home from work!  

That being said, last night was my first party, and it was so fun! We did a "Boots and Bags" theme; perfect for Texas.  Our Texas theme included Pigs-N-a-Blanket, bacon wrapped crackers, Haystacks, and Cowtails. (Which I will single-handedly finish off myself.) 

The other news flash is that we are starting the house hunt, and have our eye on this:  

HAHAHAHA....JUST KIDDING of course!  I passed by this house and just had to take a pic hanging out my window like a typical Mississippi redneck! HA!  

Happy Trails!

THREE Years Ago Today...

Another year of marriage has flown by! And what a year it's been...but having J to go through this life with is such a blessing.  He is everything and more than I could hope for.  I could try to put it into words, but the card I found him this year says it better than I ever could, so I'm just gonna steal that:

What we have is a beautiful partnership.
We're a team, you and I.
The kind of love and friendship we share doesn't come from just wishing.
It comes from being together 365 days a year, through good times and bad and everything in between.
You are my closet friend, my partner in life...
The one I can count on and who can count on me.
Today and every day, I love having you in my life and in my heart.