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

pup psychology

cuties

as an owner of a big guy and a little girl, i loved reading this article. very interesting, who knew dogs have the biggest variation in size of any land animal? this article helped me understand how even with their huge size difference (norm is 73 lbs, mckenzie, 3.2 lbs) they are such great siblings and friends!

cuter cuties...ooooh da tuna and nooooorman!

bachelorette

the definition, according to wikipedia, of bachelorette:

Bachelorette (American English) is an informal term for an unmarried woman.

pic from invite, cracks me up

apparently i have been one of these "bachelorettes" my whole life, however before i became engaged, no one had ever called me that term. whatever the case, this coming weekend, my wonderful friends (very special thanks to mollie) have planned a party to celebrate the end of this bachelorette-ed-ness, which is quickly approaching. we have a great crew going, and i am so excited to hang out with all my friends-that-are-girls for a fun evening in my old college stomping grounds.

woo-hoo! many pictures to come...

gee, i wonder why...

this is just sad.

FORT WORTH — (By DARLA MILES / WFAA-TV)
"Students who had been planning to walk across the stage at graduation ceremonies this weekend were instead walking a picket line Thursday morning.

The Trimble Tech High School seniors marched in front of Fort Worth Independent School District headquarters to protest Wednesday's decision by trustees to bar students who failed the TAKS test from commencement exercises. "


ok, so not to be insensitive, but i went to high school in texas and if i remember correctly you get like three chances to pass that thing. i don't remember anyone that didn't pass in the tenth grade. regardless, please look at the picture (above) again. notice the sign..."let ARE kids walk." hmmm, maybe you should learn the proper use of "our" vs "are" before you go picketing for your high school diploma. just a thought.

thank you very little

friends,

just in case i forgot anyone on the evite or one of you out-of-towners will be in the area, we are having a pre-party sunday before heading down to the colonial tournament's final day, so email me and i'll give you the deets.

"colonial party with caddyshack style." trust me, it will be fun.

Ty Webb: You take drugs, Danny?
Danny Noonan: Every day.
Ty Webb: Good. Then what's your problem?
Danny Noonan: I don't know.



katy

Kassie Kicks Monsters Ass

asking for your help

i have debated and debated on whether or not i was going to bring this up to anyone, but friends, i come to you today with a very heavy heart, asking for your prayers. last week, i took the dogs in for their annual exams. it appears norman has a heart murmur...and this isn't the first time it has been brought to our attention. we've been in conversations with other vets this week and this afternoon we received a similar word from another vet. apparently with the severity of the murmur and his young age, this is definitely something to be concerned about, probably something that has been there since his birth.

we are going to move forward with some different tests to see what type of murmur (in my research, i understand that there are two types) we are dealing with and what our options are going forward. it could be anything from medication all the way up to heart surgery.

the tears have not stopped flowing from my eyes over the last few days. i am losing sleep and feel completely helpless. it's just so hard to understand that such a seemingly healthy dog that runs with me everyday and never tires could have a heart problem! everyone knows how insanely crazy i am about my dogs, and this has just completely thrown me for a loop. please pray for norman!

mvp

talk about bad timing. oh well.

dirk, i still love you, and i'm sure you are as sick as i am of reading about all the controversy around your MVP award. don't worry, dallas fans are fickle. the ones who are talking the most crap about you will be right back in line next year, cheering you on. jerks.

wedding photos

after cabo i was able to post some of my pictures, but today we got some of the photographer's pics from the actual jacque-and-judd-wedding-extravaganza. i thought i would share...what a beautiful wedding and a happy couple! this weekend we got caught up on all of their exciting honeymoon stories and were able to spend some great time with the new couple.

catalina, oh my!

a couple of years ago on a trip out to southern california, jay and i took a little visit out to catalina island. we completely fell in love with that little piece of heaven. in talks about where to host our wedding, it automatically fell in the top three. really the only reason we narrowed it out is that each guest would have to take a ferry ride to get to the wedding site. we felt that might be a bit difficult on some of the older folks.


all that said, we both love catalina dearly and i was SO sad this morning to open the news and see that nearly the whole island is on fire! catalina is not large enough to suffer a big fire. pray for the beautiful santa catalina island!!

gospel brunch

the new house of blues has opened in dallas and i am thrilled! we are going to break it in friday night for the old 97's show, and i could not think of a more appropriate band to go see for the occasion. very excited.



i was just looking over the hob website and found the information for the gospel brunch. um, can you say YES! wow. the food looks amazing and i bet that gospel music is sensational. it looks like they start serving june 3rd, so i am already gathering the troops to try for a reservation. bring on the smoked salmon and homemade biscuts...oh, and some of that gospel music to help me sop up the maple syrup!

LDP

i love my friend mary (aka LDP) dearly. she is a treasure and time spent with her is ALWAYS fun. look up the word "giggle" in the dictionary and i swear you will find her photo. i just downloaded a couple of pics from the other night and found "serious mary and katy" and "giggling mary and katy" and wanted to share.

on our best behavior, early evening

let the giggle factory commence

good timing

i have had quite an interesting few days. let's just say that i am anticipating a lot of big changes in my life the next few months (in addition to becoming a married woman!). it's times like these that make me so very thankful for my faith in God and the friends, future husband, and family he has blessed me with. because otherwise, i would totally sink.

funny, this morning in my devotional, this was the verse that i came across:

"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails."
-Proverbs 19:21