Ashley’s Birthday Part 3- Sunday

PART III – The day after her birthday –Family Day

We woke up to the blueberry lemon coffee cake (again) – which was delicious (again). We had a great family day. Half of the family cooked our big dinner and the other half cleaned the “mud room” as Ashley’s birthday request.

We (mom mainly) cooked a fantastic dinner. Gluten free spaghetti lasagna, sugar glazed carrots, creamed corn, broiled fish, steamed cauliflower, blueberry pie and gluten free bread pudding. It was DELICIOUS. My mom rocks.

After napping/watching Alex’s salt water fish tank we finally headed home that afternoon. It was a fantastic birthday weekend. I enjoyed it very much. The only thing we were missing was Andrew. :)

HAPPY BIRTHAY TO ASHLEY – it really is finally over.

(sorry – I did not take any pictures! lame!!)

Love and hugs, Lizzie

Ashley’s Birthday Part 2 – Saturday

Saturday – Part II of Ashley’s birthday weekend – Her actual birthday!

We woke up on Saturday morning and ate a delicious gluten free breakfast: Blueberry and Lemon Coffee Cake (ish). I topped it with fresh blueberries and powdered sugar. It was really yummy.

Ashley, Sarah and I went for birthday pedicures. We even had entertainment at the salon as some high/drunk lady sang and danced for us. It was pretty fantastic.

The pedicures were such hard work we worked up a big appetite. We headed over to PF Chang’s as Sarah had informed us they had an entire gluten free menu. Ashley was able to order noodles!

And we got dessert – gluten free of course:

Later that night we headed to The Barley Oak (the bar Alex works at) in Covington. We met up with Cynthia and Brock. They were able to hang with us for about an hour. After they left Mom and Dad arrived with Ashley’s gluten free rum cake. It was delicious.

We sang (sans candles as the fans would not allow it) and let her open more presents. She opened the big present from Doug and I – a worm compost! Her face was so funny when she realized what it was. She was so excited.

After the bar, we drove home and she opened more presents from Mom and Dad.

Finally the last surprise arrived: Darrell! She was so excited. We hung with Darrell until late and finally went to bed. Yay Actual Birthday!

Happy Birthday Ashley. I love you!

Love and hugs, Lizzie

Ashley’s Birthday Part 1 – Friday

In honor of Ashley’s 27^th birthday we had events planned Friday through Sunday. In order to allow you to really appreciate the party weekend we just experienced I will be breaking it into 3 parts. This is part one – FRIDAY

Friday night I cooked dinner for a small group of friends. As I cooked, Sarah decorated the Shack for Ashley’s birthday.

Ashley is sensitive to gluten so I made the whole menu gluten free. I made her baked chicken (dipped in gluten free bread crumbs), broccoli pie, cucumber and tomato salad, gruyere and garlic mashed potatoes, chocolate covered strawberries and gluten free yellow cupcakes.

Shawn, Lauren, Brandon, Doug, Sarah, Ashley and I had dinner and chatted. It was a great small group of friends to enjoy Ashley’s pre-birthday.

Love and Hugs, Lizzie

Ouch DOUG!

Doug and I play volleyball two nights a week. We play together both nights and we have done so for over 3 years. Doug and I have run into each other a few times, but we never have really hurt each other...until now. This past Thursday we were playing next to each other when the other team served the ball to me. I was lined up to receive the serve and out of no where Doug called the ball and stepped on me to receive the serve. To be fair, I had not called the ball, but I was there lined up to pass the ball.

Anyway, Doug stepped on my left shin with his left foot. As soon as it happened I yelled, but kept playing. When I looked down I was impressed by the already red and blue spot forming on my leg. I also noticed some minor bleeding from my shin. I pulled a Doug: rubbed some sand on it to help it clot and kept playing.

Four days later, here is what it looks like:

I wish I had taken a picture of it on Thursday so you could appreciate the damage created by his big foot and how much I have healed.

Next time I will call the ball.

Love and hugs, Lizzie

The Rising Sun of Japan

I think most everyone close to us knows this story by now -- and Lizzie's not here right now to tell me I can't share it with the rest of the internet, so here it is, my first mistake of engaged life!

About 2 months ago, Lizzie was flipping through bridal magazines while I was doing something important, no doubt. She called me over to ask me if I liked a dress featured on a picture in the magazine.

"No, that strap looks stupid and the skirt looks like Rising Sun of Japan!"

I don't know if that quote is verbatim as it has been a while since it happened, but it's pretty close. Lizzie looked a little stung, but I thought nothing of it and she continued flipping through the magazine and started showing me other pictures and asking my opinion. Yes, no, sort of -- the answers ran the gamut of opinions, but the rest of my responses weren't quite as... colorful? As we started to run out of pictures in the magazine, Lizzie's mood started to become more and more depressed. Through my unmatched deductive reasoning skills, I figured that this was not because we were running out of pictures.

Most of the married people out there probably know what happened here. They probably knew in the first 2 paragraphs.

"You showed me a picture of the dress you really like, didn't you?"

"Yes"

"I said I didn't like it, didn't I?"

"Yes"

"Was it the Rising Sun of Japan?"

At this point, her eyes simply started welling up. Whoops.

I've been running damage control ever since. It started with "you're going to hate my dress," and it's been downgraded to the point where she still thinks she likes the dress enough that she doesn't care that what I call it. Which is good for her, because even after I prompted my family to think of that flag when they saw it, none of them actually saw the military flag of Japan. They think I'm crazy.

So, should we get married and Lizzie is wearing the Rising Sun of Japan, we'll have both Japanese AND Mexican culture at our wedding. I'm sure she'll look better than any of the models I've seen in those pictures.

Sassy Tulle–Mom’s new business!

My awesome mom, Patti, has started her own business! She is very excited and I am so proud of her. She has decided to make wreaths and tulle skirts for girls of all ages and sizes.

While her website (www.sassytulle.com) is not ready, her etsy site is up: http://www.etsy.com/shop/SassyTulle or you can email her at sassytulle@gmail.com.

It all started when Doug proposed. She wanted to bring a decoration and made an awesome bridal wreath. It does not photograph as well as it  looks in real life. Here was her first wreath:

It is white with white flowers on the bottom left. It also has 2 little wine charms. One says “bride” and the other says “groom”. I love it so much and it is still hanging exactly as shown on my door.

Since then she has made and sold quite a few. Here are some of the wreaths:

She is also making adorable tutus for girls (of all ages). Here is some of her work:

So, if you would would like to order a wreath or skirt, e-mail my mom at sassytulle@gmail.com. She is having a blast making them.

On a side note: I am proud of you mom! Keep it up. You rock.

Love and hugs, Lizzie

A Tennessee Weekend…

This past weekend we went to visit Doug’s mom (DJ) and stepfather (Steve) in Memphis. We had a _fantastic_ time!! We arrived Friday evening after a very hard drive in terrible weather. That night we had quality DJ and Steve time as we had them all to ourselves.

Here is a picture I took that night. Clearly, it was a very serious conversation. (Not really, I think it was pretty funny, but I can’t remember the topic.)

Saturday was even better. We slept late and hung by the pool with DJ, Steve, Jenni (DB’s sister) and Tom (DB’s brother). We chatted about wedding plans and other parts of life. We learned about DJ’s foot injury (from her aggressive pool exercises), her sexy boot to immobilize her foot, and how she was not allowed to be on it for long periods of time. DJ had planned to cook dinner for everyone on Saturday, but because of her foot Jenni picked up the slack and did all the cooking under DJ’s direction.

Jenni stepped up to the plate and made chicken enchiladas for the whole family (including her husband, Craig, who came to visit after work). She slaved over the hot oven for hours and produced a fantastic dinner. It really was yummy. I am kinda drooling thinking about it now. It really was a fantastic day.

On Sunday, DB and I got up go work out as we have been slacking lately. We went for a walk/mini hike around the pond by DJ and Steve’s house. We came back and made brunch for the family. We made a quiche with raisin bread crust and French toast with assorted berries. It was pretty yummy. :) (I should have taken a picture, but alas, I did not.)

We had also decided to stay and watch the women's world cup game. Before the game stated we played in the pool again. I also spent some time reading a book given to me by my awesome boss (Charlie). I relaxed by the pool a bit and read my book. I will review this book later as I am really enjoying it.

Once the world cup game started all the men (Tom, Doug, Steve and Craig) disappeared from outside and began watching the game. It was a pretty intense game as we lost in a shoot out at the end of the game.

After the game we packed up and started our road trip back home. On the way we watched a financial peace episode. It was an hour long and talked about budgeting. We decided to start working on our married life budget. We listed all our expenses over the next year and looked at how much we could save in that time. We are pretty dorky in general and we know it :) I was excited to figure it all out.

Anyway, we got home that night and promptly crashed. It was so great to see the Miles/Wyatt family. We had such a great time. Hope to see you all again.

Hugs and love, Lizzie