Monday, March 15, 2010

Happy Birthday Darren

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear DARRENNNNNNNNN!!!!!! Happy Birthday to you!

Today was Darren's birthday and we have been celebrating all weekend. Friday after work we went to our favorite burger place DAN'S OL TIME DINER with Tim, Amy, and Carson. IT WAS SOOOOOO GOOD! Darren and I felt like pigs because we completely demolished all of our burger and and entire basket of fried. Tim, Amy, and Carson had 1/2 a basket of fries left...needless to say...I was embarrassed by the amount of food we ate! Oh well!

After dinner we headed back to Tim and Amy's to play the Wii. Ok, the boys played the Wii. Amy and I chatted and looked for puppies online :) It was a very fun night!

Saturday we went to get the pup and just stayed home and hung out with our own little fam (me, D, and the dogs!).

Sunday we went to church then headed to my parents. They took us all to BJ's to celebrate. It was sooooo good. They got Darren and I (joint b-day gift) a Wii fit! I can't wait to use it but it was on back order until April 3rd. After lunch we came home and I made Darren some lemon cupcakes for his birthday. I was actually really proud of myself because I even made HOMEMADE icing! (Darren's mom told me how.) I am so sad because I didn't take any pictures of them. Boo.

Today I sent Darren to work with the cupcakes to share with everyone at work. I laughed because I felt like he was my child and I was sending him with birthday treats for his class! Bahaha!

After work on Monday Darren's parents came down and took us to Texas Road House. Wow...I ate a LOT of food. You would think that I NEVER get to go out to dinner...I just inhale everything that is put in front of me...NOT GOOD! After dinner we came back to the house and sang Happy Birthday and ate cupcakes. Darren's parents got us a Kitchen Aid Mixer for our birthdays!!!! Omg we are so excited! We are going to make banana bread this weekend. I am going to turn us in to little bakers :)

The only present Darren got from me was lots of love and Ringo. Ok, so maybe Ringo was more of a gift for me :) I want to get him some new Sanuk shoes but the ones he wants are sold out EVERYWHERE! So I will continue my search for them and get them for him when they become available. Bummer :(

It was a wonderful weekend and a great way to start of the week. I love you Darren! Happy Birthday!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Ringo Lasley: We Must Be Crazy!

So I am sure all of you know I have an obsession with my dog Gidget, and weenie dogs in general. Well Friday night we went over to Tim and Amy's house and brought Gidget along to play. She has so much fun when she is around other dogs and their lab and maltese are no exception. So I decided she MUST have a friend at home to play with. Darren and I have talked about this before but I though he would never let me get another dog. He hates that I am so attached to Gidget and never want to leave her, I think he thought I would be worse with two! But, in my head, I wouldn't feel AS bad leaving them if they had each other to play with. Well, I think Amy was a big help because she was working on him with me and he said "well let's go get one tomorrow!" YAYAYAYAYAYA! Then he gave me the conditions. Booo. He said if we get another one we have to get a Jack Russell or a Boston Terrier. Blah. Ok well this was a baby step. I think Jack Russells are SUPER cute so we looked some up online and Amy even called on them. I kind of dropped it after that since we were with our friends and were playing games.

Then next morning when we woke up Darren asked me what I wanted to do for the day. I just said "uhhhhhhhhhhh...I dunno". So then we started talking about getting a puppy again. I just told him that I had heard Jack Russells were super hyper and that made me nervous since Gidget is literally the laziest dog in the world. What would I do with a dog with so much energy? So we decided to do some research. After reading a couple of sites on Jack Russells we decided that although they are the cutest little dogs, they may not be for us. Besides being know for acting SUPER HYPER they are also not the most tolerant around kids. That was the kicker. Gidget is AMAZING around kids! My niece tries to pull her head off and she just lays there. So then Darren said the words I thought I would NEVER hear "well maybe we could look at the weenie dogs they have listed." This was a complete SHOCK to me because Darren thinks that weenie dogs are so stupid! Hahaha! So I jumped all over this and we started calling places IMMEDIATELY. I was scared he was going to change his mind! The even funnier part of this story is that I wanted a boy and Darren wanted a girl. I wanted a red one and Darren really just wanted to stick with black like Gidget. We ended up with a red male :) This is not because I am a brat...but that really was what they had! I just got lucky!

When we talked to the lady that we decided to buy from she had 2 red males so we told her to bring both so we could pick. We packed Gidget up (we thought she could help us decide) and headed to Ada.

When we got there and the lady pulled out both of the puppies I immediately knew which one I wanted. He was so stinking cute I couldn't take my eyes off of him! But I did feel sad for the other puppy. I know they will find him a good home though!

Riding home

Gidget wouldn't even look at me on the way home!

Checking out my new crate


It took Gidget a while to come around...but I think she is starting to like Ringo! They started playing which is super cute. Gidget gets a little rough with him but he will learn to take her down soon enough.

Sleepy babies
I am so glad my sweet husband likes to let me have my way because I love both of my babies!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Workin Hard

Well this week has been a tough one on my sweet husband! They have a big project/adjustment/something due at work and he has been staying late! This is no fun for normal people, much less newlyweds! Monday he had to stay until about 9:15 and last night he didn't get home until 11:45. :( I felt horrible for him this morning when he had to get up to go back to work...I was really hoping he would get to sleep in a little! But apparently there is still more work to do! I am just praying that he doesn't have to stay late again tonight. The other sad part about this is that I sit at home completely helpless when he isn't there. I have spent 22 years of my life single and now I don't know what to do when Darren is not there! Pathetic...I know. I am sure after 15 or so years of marriage I won't mind the working late as much ;) JK!

I am pretty excited for this weekend. We are celebrating Darren's birthday! Tomorrow after I get off work we are going to go to our favorite burger place with Tim, Amy, and Carson. Nothing beats Dan's Ol Time Dinner...yummmmm! Then we will head to one of our houses to hang out and relax! I can't wait! Saturday I just want to spend the day together. It seems like we are so busy every weekend that I just want to get to be lazy together...maybe we will take Gidget to the park or something!

Monday is Darren's actual birthday so I will have to figure out something special to do for that :) Oh, and I have been on a mad search to find him a present. I really want to get him a new pair of Sanuks but the ones I want to get are sold out EVERYWHERE in his size. So I guess he will just have to wait until they are back in stock! Maybe I will make him a coupon!

Well I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week and a fabulous weekend!

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Poor Gidget!

Yesterday was the big day, we finally had Gidget fixed! Besides getting fixed we also had her "doggie thumbs" taken out because they were constantly getting caught on things. We woke up super early in the morning and I dropped Gidget off at my mom's house before I went to work.

Here she is before we left


My mom dropped her off at Dr. Boyer's office (AKA THE BEST VET EVER!) at 8 a.m. and I was about to go pick her up when I got off work. When the receptionist brought her out to me she almost leaped out of the girl's arms! Apparently she was very calm until she saw me...little cutie!

Yesterday this dog was PITIFUL! She was extremely groggy and on medication. She was shaking like she was scared, and worst of all she had little casts on her feet. When we got home we decide to just take it easy! I kept her in her bed most of the time but let her lay with me some. I was really nervous that I was going to hurt her though! Darren had to work super late last night and I was teasing him saying I felt like a single mom! He left me with a sick puppy!

Here are a few of her sad sad pictures!





I went to see her at lunch today and she was still pretty upset to be wearing "the cone". I tried to take it off of her and she immediately started licking at her wounds. BACK ON IT WENT! I will let her keep it off tonight when I can keep a closer eye on her. The good thing was that she seemed pretty spunky. The doctor's said she could get back to her normal "exercise" tomorrow. How do you keep a dog from doing their normal exercise? Oh well! I can't wait to go home and take care of her! Let's just hope that Darren doesn't have to work late again!

Honeymoon

So blogging about your honeymoon is no easy task. It is truly hard to pick out the best things to talk about! Luckily my sweet sister-in-law got me a journal to keep track of all the fun things we did while we were there. In that I literally wrote down EVERYTHING we did. Here I will just give you some of the highlights.

Darren and I woke up the morning after the wedding at about 6ish...we were completely EXHAUSTED! We were so wired after the wedding that we didn't fall asleep until at least 2! So we got up, got our stuff together, and headed to the airport! I thought Darren was going to make me wait but when we got on the plane he told me our final destination! We were going to Playa Mujeras. See picture below :)



Our flight arrived into Cancun and we had about a 30 minute car ride to our resort. The first thing our driver did was offer us a beer. We politely declined, and he popped the top on 2 bottles! Look how funny this sign is in the vehicle!



Our hotel was absolutely amazing! Darren surprised me with a rooftop room! So basically our room had a staircase that led up to the roof. On the roof we had 2 beds and our own little cool down pool. It was absolutely AMAZING! Of course I started crying because I thought it was all so perfect and that Darren was so sweet to do all of this for me! Well here are a few pictures of the room...





Here was the just of our honeymoon-Eat, sleep, relax, and layout. That was it. IT WAS PERFECT. We would nap almost everyday on our rooftop and stuff our faces. We pretty much had the time of our lives. We only left the resort once to swim with the dolphins :) I loved it!



Since that was the only time we left the resort, we didn't make it home with many souvenirs. Let me correct that, we only made it home with one souvenir! One day it was a little rainy so Darren and I decided to paint a platter. I thought we did pretty good! We make a great team :)



The resort provided activities each night. The only ones we made it to were the casino night and the Michael Jackson tribute. Don't worry, I had to DRAG Darren to Michael Jackson...it was so fun!





Here are some pictures of us around the resort and on our rooftop!








On our last day we decided to splurge and go to the spa for a couples massage. It was so great because before the massage we got to do an hour of hydrotherapy. I LOVED IT! We went around the pool to different jets that worked on your neck and back. We also tried out a couple different saunas. The message was so wonderful. I FELL ASLEEP AT THE END! Darren was like "Tamara, wake up!" hehehe!

All in all we had the most AMAZING PERFECT WONDERFUL honeymoon I could have ever asked for. I have the best husband in the world and I feel so lucky!

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Our Wedding Day

February 6, 2010 was the best day of my life!

I woke up with all of my wonderful best friends and we headed to Jimmy's Egg for breakfast. We decided to splurge on the food in case we didn't have time to eat for the rest of the day! We had tons of fun just sitting around chatting and having a LOT of coffee.

After breakfast we went back to the hotel and lazed around for a little bit. This was a wonderful relaxing morning...NO STRESS AT ALL :) After that I decided to hit the showers. I don't know if I had mentioned before that I decided to spray tan before the wedding...not the best idea I ever had! I mean, it looked fine, but I was just VERY dark...it didn't really look like me! So I soaked for a while and the color ended up being great...more of a glow instead of a full on TAN!!!!!

When we all got ready Heather, Berly, and I headed off to the mall for me to get my hair and makeup done. Berly's sweet sister Kathryn did my hair and she did an AMAZING job! I LOVED IT! After my hair I met Heather over a MAC to get my makeup done. Berly got her hair and makeup done by her sister while we were at MAC. I am not going to lie, I was a little nervous about my makeup. When I came to my trial I did not LOVE how it looked. So when I got there I asked her to tone it down a little and it ended up being PERFECT! We got done with all of this at about 3 and headed back to the hotel to get the other girls.

We made it to The Palace at about 4. IT WAS ALREADY A MAD HOUSE! My mom was frantically decorating the tables and setting up the candy bar and my sister-in-law's nanny even came to help set up all the candles! SO SWEET!!!!! I LOVED the time before the wedding getting to sit around with all my friends and chat and play! IT WAS SO RELAXING FOR ME! I don't know if I am just a total weirdo but I found NOTHING about my wedding day stressful! I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT!

One of my favorite parts before the wedding was when my sweet little nephew Jett saw me and ran down the aisle and said "T...YOU ARE MARRIED!!!!!!!!" Hehehe! He is only 3and pretty much the cutest kid in the whole entire world.

Oh, I think I forgot to mention earlier how much I missed Darren before the wedding. We NEVER go that long during the day without talking...IT WAS REALLY HARD!!!!

Anyway! We took a few pictures before the wedding then I hid for pretty much the rest of the time.

And now for the big part!!!! So there was only one TINY mishap during the wedding. The guys went out a little late so my song was a LITTLE off on the timing...I mean, I made it out on time, but my bridesmaids had to basically RRRRUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNN down the aisle! Just a small glitch!

Pretty much everything after this is a blur. It all went by sooooo fast! I remember asking someone what time it was and I was so sad about how fast it was going! But, we all had a great time! I loved being out on the dance floor with all my friends. It is something I will honestly never forget! Darren and I's first dance went great...we talked pretty much the whole time because we were embarrassed about our dancing skills. :) My dance with my dad went much better than expected! I had to talk to him the ENTIRE time so he wouldn't listen to the song and start crying...I LOVE MY DADDY :)

At the end we did a farewell dance and headed to the car through all the bubbles. I LOVED THIS PART! The bubbles were so pretty and I was so surprised at how many people stayed until the end!

Finally we headed off to the hotel as husband and wife! I LOVE MY HUSBAND AND HAD THE MOST PERFECT WEDDING A GIRL COULD ASK FOR!

Here are the FEW pictures I have from the wedding...like...FEW!

Me and my BEAUTIFUL MOMMY

Mr. and Mrs. Lasley

Darren's sweet decorating

I LOVE CANDLES!

Friday, February 5, 2010

Rehearsal Dinner

We may have had the most amazing rehearsal dinner every! But, let me start our day off from the beginning. I had lots of things to do today. After I woke up I headed over to the nail salon to get a pedicure and get my nails done. I loved how relaxing this was BUT it was kind of hard to enjoy with so many things on my mind! After getting all "PRETTIFIED" I went back to my parent's house to get all the gifts together and get all my things packed up. THIS WOULD BE MY LAST TIME AT MY PARENT'S HOUSE!!!!!!!! Well I mean living there anyway!

After I got everything together I headed to Darren's to pack for the honeymoon. THIS WAS VERY STRESSFUL! After I left the house I would be stuck with what I packed and with what I forgot to pack! VERY SCARY!

At about 4:30 my BEAUTIFUL SWEET PERFECT friend Kelly came over. She flew ALL THE WAY FROM NEW YORK to come to our wedding! Since she was here I MADE her come to all of the wedding events :) I wanted to get as much time with her as I possibly could! So she came over early and saw our house and got ready with us. We were a little bit frantic trying to get last minute things together (Music for the rehearsal, packing, etc.)

At 6 we went to The Palace for the rehearsal. It was a little weird because we didn't get to rehearse in the actually building of the wedding because they were having an event. But we still got to practice non the less. We went through everything a couple of times (IT WAS MADNESS WITH ALL THE KIDS) and headed off to the dinner.

Let me just BRAG on my AMAZING mother-in-law (to be). She had the tables set up soooo beautifully and the food (which she made) was DELICIOUS! Everyone kept freaking out because she made it all (with help). We had ribs, chicken with mushrooms and cheese, brisket (my fave), cheesy potatoes, salad, okra salad, and TONS more! I literally could not stop eating. I apparently did not care if I fit in my wedding dress the next day!

After everyone ate we played our slide show. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it! I love hearing everyone laugh at Darren's younger pictures! No one laughed at mine because I was so stinking cute (NOT!). We were at the table with my siblings and my sister-in-law started CRYING! Oh Marnie! I think it got her when I had a picture in my cheer uniform in the slide show...she was my cheer coach!

After dinner McKenzie, Jessica, Berly, Heather, Kelly, and I all headed up to our rooms that Darren's mom got us. We stayed up FOREVER just talking and reminiscing. If you could have been a fly on the wall to listen to these conversations! HAHAHAHA! At about 12ish we decided to head off to bed. I took some NyQuil to help me sleep. Well I am pretty sure this had the reverse affect on me. I was LITERALLY bouncing off the walls keeping everyone awake. I was having a total giggle fest in my bed! Poor Berly! I think I finally drifted off at about 2!

Here are a few pictures from the rehearsal!

I LOVE HIM!!!!!! :)

Matron of Honor and Awesome Bow Bouquet!

Grandma and Grandpa Smith (our Preacher!)

PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE!!!!

Oh JETT!


Sweet Cashie looking for trouble!

THE END :)