Saturday, August 13, 2016

The Saturday Six

One.


This post, by the delightful blogger at Between Naps on the Porch, talks about home trends some people say need to go the way of all the earth. I confess some of these items are in our home. And by some, of course, I mean many. How about you? Any of these pop up in your home? Or do you dislike any of them?

Two.


Last fall, I was part of a Bible study at our church, and our curriculum was written by a pastor's wife named Marian Green. I read this week that she has a new book coming out about her healing and restoration from a life of promiscuity. I also read this article she wrote, and I think it might be helpful to someone, so I wanted to share it.

Three.

Anyone else loving the Olympics? I am, although I have missed way more of it than I intended to! If you want to have a little Olympics party at home, just for fun, this post has a lot of great ideas! 

Four. 


I've been invited to some bridal showers recently and found this gift idea, which is very cute, I think, when paired with a waffle iron. And who doesn't love a waffle iron?? 

Five.


I'm just going to leave this one right here... 

Six.


You know what's great about 13 hours in a car? Plenty of time to read a book! And that's exactly what I did when we traveled home from Kansas earlier this week. I read Lynette Eason's new novel, Without Warning.

This book is the second in a series called Elite Guardians, and while I had not read the first book, I was able to jump in and learn the characters with no problem. The series centers around a group of women who serve as bodyguards for people in dangerous situations. I've gathered that each book in the series will focus on a different member of the group, and this book featured Katie Singleton.

Driving home from work one evening {and into a week of vacation, no less}, Katie happens upon a crime scene investigation at a local restaurant. She recognizes the owner as the uncle of one of her favorite self defense class students and stops to see if she can help. Before the night is over, the back-to-back combination of a body in the cellar of this restaurant and the burning of another restaurant location owned by the same man {Daniel Matthews} convince Katie that Daniel has a target on his back and she wants to figure out why.

Katie and her team come on board to watch over Daniel and his niece, Riley, and the attacks continue to come, as the title says, without warning. As the group tries to stay one step ahead of the person or people behind the crimes, they also work to figure out who is doing this...and why.

I kept trying to put the book down so I could talk to Ryan in the car, but it turned out that was impossible and I had to keep picking it back up again until I finished it.  The suspense was so real that every time Ryan slammed on the brakes, I jumped and screamed. The twists and turns were well-done and I kept saying "Well, I didn't see that coming!"

This is another example of a book that intertwines good suspense {not cheesy} with a strong faith component, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This was also my introduction to Lynette Eason's writing, and I would absolutely read her work again!

* Thanks to Revell for providing a copy of the book to me in exchange for an honest review. *

Friday, August 12, 2016

Wedding Bells!!

You've been so patient and kind to read our wedding adventures this week, so I thought I should actually give you...a wedding!

I had seen Cassie in her dress {via pictures} when she tried it on at the shop, but I had never seen her in it for real until she came to the church on her wedding day. Stun.ning.

This dress. Oh you guys!!!
 And look at the back! {Ignore us. NO idea what my expression means.}
I still can't get over this dress. It was amazing. You'll see more of it in pictures below.

But before that...my handsome, handsome date and yours truly, all dressed up! {Another borrowed dress and more borrowed jewelry. Thanks, Amanda and Marie!}
My parents...
The bride and her beautiful entourage:
The beauty of a small family is that you get good seats!! I sneaked a few pictures during the wedding. {Don't worry, photographers everywhere. I used Ryan's phone and kept it in my lap. No flash, no sound, and no one even knew, including my mother!}
Murphy was fairly bored.

And just like that...she was all married!

Ryan and I were recruited to be the official bubble-hander-outters after the service, and we did a mighty fine job, I believe.  A few photos from that:



Next week, I will show you some of our reception fun!




Thursday, August 11, 2016

Trial Run!

Friday night, after all the decorating had been accomplished, Ryan and I got all dressed up and went to the wedding rehearsal. Cassie had asked me if I could take pictures at the rehearsal, and as you might imagine, that utterly broke my heart.

But before I show you the rehearsal, I gotta show you the Ryan and Bekah picture. I think we clean up pretty nicely!
One of Ryan's co-workers was sweet enough to let me shop her closet, and I borrowed both this dress and the dress I wore to the wedding from her. And my friend Marie let me borrow jewelry! I owned the shoes!!

Now back to the photos:

My sister, aka the mother of the bride...
My parents with Cassie's dog, Murphy, who was in the wedding:
My brother-in-law pulled double duty: father of the bride AND wedding officiant.
Learning their places:
The whole wedding party:
And Murphy!
Just a day away from being husband and wife!
After the rehearsal, there was, of course, dinner.

Snapped this cute shot of the parents of the bride:
And while I couldn't get the guys to even look my direction {ooooh blast from the past!}, the girls requested a group photo. OKAY!!!!
Now. Back to dinner. It was delicious, and can we just pause for a moment to discuss dessert?
Yeah. I thought you might want to discuss that.

Part of our family:
And the bride and groom, Cassie and Kasey:
Aren't they so cute???

We didn't have a wedding rehearsal, so I enjoyed this one a little extra. It was a lovely night...and just for fun...isn't the church stunning at night?



Wednesday, August 10, 2016

It Truly Takes a Village

It's been a while since I helped put together a wedding, so I forgot how much work goes into the whole thing! We spent Friday helping decorate the church and helping assemble the puppy chow bags. You people have never seen so much puppy chow in one place in your life. I PROMISE.

We started with the church decorating. Ryan and I were in charge of the guest book table. They had their guests sign Jenga pieces.
Jeff and the bridesmaids worked on the sanctuary.


And it all looked so pretty when it was done!



One of their reception favors was a bag of puppy chow for everyone who attended. My sister made THIRTY-FOUR BATCHES of puppy chow leading up to the wedding and the day before the wedding, Mom, Dad, Ryan, Lori, Jeff and I transferred it into bags and tied them with a sweet little message. What a party!!





In case you're wondering, it takes six people about two hours to bag roughly 300 bags of puppy chow.

Like I said. Takes a village!!