trust

this verse has given me so much strength this morning...it's my anthem during this crazy time of life.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to
prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
-Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

with the wedding, the new job, possibly selling the house, moving, buying a house...i'll stop there and just say, i have a lot on my plate right now. i'm very excited and patiently praying and waiting to watch God's plan for us unfold. i was talking to mollie this morning and told her that i am so open to God's plan right now, i swear i feel like i'm about to be asked to build an ark (have you seen 'evan almighty'? so great)! anyway, the verse was a great encouragement to me so i thought i would share!

it's official!

we are selling the house and moving back to big D! i landed a sweet job in dallas that i am very excited about, and today is the first day of "showing" the house. as i was sweeping the hardwood floors and straightening up the house, i thought of that scene in "american beauty" when carolyn (who is a realtor) is going through that empty house frantically cleaning and telling herself, "i will sell this house today, i will sell this house today, i will sell this house today!" so funny. let's hope my realtor does!!!!

more details to come...so happy to be heading back to dallas soon!

something old...

i spent some time with my mom today and she presented me with a small pink gift bag and a card. it was a little something she has saved for me for a while...like, oh, since birth.

tears...

the magic hanky

i'm just a little hanky
as square as square can be.
but with a stitch or two
they made a bonnet out of me.
i'll be worn from the hospital
or on the christening day.
then i'll be carefully pressed
and neatly packed away.

for her wedding day,
so we've been told,
every well dressed bride must have
that something old.
so what could be more fitting
than to find little me.
a few stitches snipped,
and a wedding hanky i'll be.

dads and their boys

i have the best brothers on earth. this is a fact, so there really isn't any point in arguing with me on the topic. this weekend, they (the bro's and their wives, joy and shannon) pulled off one of their greatest stunts yet and i am pretty proud of them.

my dad loves convertibles. always has, always will. after a terribly frustrating 'car year' (i'll spare you the long story), my brothers' families decided to play santa and get him the car he has always wanted, but as a minister, not felt like he should really purchase.

yesterday our entire family drove to the halfway point between dallas and tulsa (where my brother, josh lives with his family) to surprise my dad. jay and i were tasked with riding with dad and coming up with conversation to try and distract him from whatever the "good news" that josh wanted to "tell him in person" was..."are they moving? new job? what is it?!?!" it was very hard to keep a straight face.

as my brothers drove up...my dad was saying, "what's going on here?"

i'm not sure if he's bowing down to my brothers or the car!

cutie patooties

we followed them the entire way home, and i swear that grin never came off his face!

a star is born

my mom has a little shop called 'the antique garden,' which is located in the brownstone village in arlington. they host neat little marketing events and are doing a cancer fundraiser next month. they had a contest to choose a mascot for the event and they chose my mom's yorkie, sadie!!!

Madtv - Apple I-rack

wedding reception

the link family

since jay and i are getting married in colorado, some of my parents' best friends decided to throw us a reception-style party here in texas this last weekend. i must say, it was a bit overwhelming. we had a swarm of over 400 friends and family show up to celebrate with us and humble us with waaaaaay too many gifts (not that i'm complaining!).

it was a fun warm-up for the real-deal wedding day, and it was great to spend time with some of the folks that will not be able to make the trek up to breck, as well as some that will...never too much time with good friends! thanks to you all!!!

the bach party

what a fun time we had in wacky waco! mollie did a great job organizing and it made for a fun night. i'm not sure of the final number, there was somewhere around 20 of us (the greatest girlfriends on earth) and we tore up the town. we started off at george's, a favorite of ours in college, went back to the hotel for the lingerie shower (thank you again, girls!) and then headed to dinner at ninfa's, a tex-mex restaurant that we frequented (to say the least) in college.

it was a perfect party and i had a blast. definitely a fitting end to my singledom.

george's in our favorite corner booth

big o's are yummy

ninfa's

uh-oh. just kidding, we just thought the cops were cute

the late night crew at (and in) the fountain