My 30th

I turned 30 last week!  I keep getting the same question “do you feel any different?”.  Easy answer.  No, I don’t!  30 is the new 20 my friends!!!!  There are days, however, that I just feel like my life is flashing by and before I know it, I’ll be old and in a nursing home.  I still can’t believe that I graduated college…and I did that 8 years ago!  I’ve been working as an accountant/CPA for 6 1/2 years now.  I’ve been married for almost 4 but have been with my husband for over 5 years now.  And of course, the big one, I have a toddler that is almost one and a half years old.  Time flies.  There has never been a more true statement. 

Anyway, Justin was asking me what I wanted to do for my birthday.  I don’t typically care to do anything special, but since it was the big 3-0, I told him I just wanted to spend time with our friends.  So we started the celebration weekend by heading over to the Ross Bridge crawfish boil.  It was supposed to rain, but it held off and gave us some pretty nice weather!  We met our friends the Lobdell’s who came with us to the same crawfish boil last year too.

 

They brought little Harper with them.  We had fun playing with him.  I can’t get over how fast our two boys are growing up! 

After the crawfish boil, we headed home to change before going to meet all of our friends for dinner at Margarita Grill.  This momma LOVES some mexican food and I feel like I haven’t gotten to eat it much lately!

Just a few of my favorite people :)  So glad they could all come out to dinner with us!  We were too close to Oak Mountain Lanes to NOT go bowling, so we did (well, most of us did-a couple of people had to go home)….

Me and Justin goofing off and me with all of my lovely lady friends!  We haven’t bowled in forever!  We had so much fun though!  I usually can never break 100 (I never claimed to be a good bowler), but Justin is ALWAYS on his game.  This sucker even has his own bowling ball and bowling shoes.  Yes, he’s the nerd that walks into the bowling alley with his own stuff.  Weirdo.  Naturally, I was SHOCKED when I beat him in the first game!

That’s my 130 and Justin’s 124.  I was so excited!  I never beat him at bowling!!!!  (We’re not a competitive couple AT ALL.  Wink.)

This was the 2nd game we played.  Justin beat me that time because, well, look at those strikes!!!!  By the way, “Mel” is Melanie Trimm, “M” is Marcie, and “Me” is Justin.  Justin got a spare the first round, followed by five strikes.  We were all watching him so closely wondering if he could get all strikes, but I think he buckled under the pressure ;) 

    

And this was just funny for me.  It started raining when we were walking in so I got my umbrella when I came inside from the car.  It’s my BMSS (the firm I work for) umbrella.  Tiffany and Trevor were already there and when I saw Tiff walking, she was also carrying her BMSS umbrella.  She doesn’t work with me, but her husband works for his dad and they are one of our clients so I’m always finding random BMSS stuff at their house.  They even have some things I don’t have!!

It was a great weekend overall and I greatly enjoyed our night off from being parents so we could focus on being spouses and friends.  Here’s some of the things Justin got me for my birthday:

To the left, a new pair of shoes.  The Mizuno’s I’ve been sporting have been needing to be replaced desperately so we took a trip to Dick’s Sporting Goods and got these bad boys.  Love them!  He also got me a 75 minute swedish massage followed by a 25 minute facial at the Spa at Ross Bridge.  AMAZING.  I’ve never had a facial before so that was my first and it was great!  My skin felt so incredibly soft afterwards!  Then I came home to this:

 

Actually, I came home to nothing.  Literally.  Justin and Carter were gone when I got home.  I took a shower and when I got out, they were home and I had beautiful flowers and two fun cards!  I love when Justin signs cards for Carter.  This time, he signed it “Carcar”, which if you read my post below, you’d know that Carter now calls himself “Carcar” because he can’t pronounce the “t” yet.  So funny and very sweet.

Here’s to another decade of fun!!!

Prayer Warriors

My dear sweet blog friends, someone needs your prayers right now.  Over the next five days to be exact.  See, there’s this girl, Jenny, and I’ve never met her, but I feel like I have known her for years because we’ve been following each other’s blogs and commenting on each other’s lives for a very long time now.  Jenny and her husband Adam started trying to get pregnant over a year ago.  August 2011 to be exact.  They got pregnant in May 2012 and found out about it in June, but all the excitement was short lived when she miscarried sometime between June and July.  She was devastated. 

They started trying again and low and behold she got pregnant again in November.  They’ve already been to a couple of doctor appointments, but it’s not looking good.  The sac isn’t growing at the rate is should be.  This is a common problem with endometriosis, which her doctor diagnosed her with and she has already had surgery to correct.  Jenny and Adam have to wait until December 18th for another ultrasound but her doctor already told her that it doesn’t look good.  I can’t imagine how she is feeling right now.  I feel awful for anyone who’s had to experience a miscarriage, let alone multiple miscarriages.  So anyway, Jenny is a faithful follower of our Lord.  She believes in miracles and she is asking for prayers.  I believe in the power of prayer and can’t think of anyone that needs them more than her and this sweet baby right now.  Please pray with me, with us, that this baby is ok.  We need prayer warriors!

#56 - CHECK!

Number 56 on my list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days was to attend the wedding of my friend, Ashley to her sweet hubby, Brad.  Ashley and I have been friends since middle school when we were members of the same youth group.  A fun side note, our youth pastor, Bo Brown, was the one that married her and Brad.  It was so nice to be around him again along with several members of our youth group that we stay in contact with!

Anyway, Brad used to work with me at my firm.  I am proud to say that I hooked them up!  While at the reception, lots of people commented on that but I said the same thing each time.  I really think it was more God using me, than my own matchmaking skills.  See, Brad and I were on the same softball team for our firm.  He was our team coach.  During one game, I was sitting on the bench waiting to go up to bat and the thought penetrated my brain and for some reason I felt a HUGE urge to set Brad up with Ashley.  I called Ashley immediately and told her of my plans.  They both looked at each other’s facebook pages to determine if a first date was even worth it and they both liked what they saw.  So they reluctantly had their first date at Workplay Theater. 

Fast forward a couple of years and here they are now:

Such a beautiful couple.

Here’s a few more pictures of the day:

Before the dresses went on.

Something blue to say “I Do”!

Her reception shoes.  Ash wore white and we all wore black!

Matron of Honor, Allyson, doing touchups on her hair.

The look of nervousness when walking out the door to see Brad for the first time!

This is Wendy and Allyson doing the hair of the flower girl, Addy Kate, who happens to be Allyson’s daughter.

 

Isn’t she GORGEOUS!?!?!

Ashley and Wendy

Me and Ash.  You may notice how friggin skinny she is!  Girlfriend did the Paleo diet (and I’m not talking one of those easier versions of Paleo…she did the 100% full Paleo diet) a few months before the wedding.  She almost didn’t fit into her dress she’s lost so much weight!

Ash and T (Cristina is her full name, but all of her friends call her T)

The view at the ceremony

My friend Carina!

First dance as husband and wife.

Me and my hubby

Carina and Yarbrough are still planning their wedding which will be held in Las Vegas next May.

Gorgeous cake!

Cutting the cake.

Their ride to the hotel that night.

This isn’t the best picture.  I was trying not to use my flash so that her photographers would have the best picture.

More members of our church youth group.  Justin Mayfield is on the left (and he happens to be one of my neighbors) and to the right is Adam Madinger who is also Allyson’s hubby and Addy Kate’s daddy.

This is our “Georgian” picture.  All four of us use to live together in an apartment complex called “The Georgian” in Tuscaloosa. 

Showing off the comfy reception shoes :)

We had so much fun the whole weekend and I couldn’t be happier for my friend.  The ceremony was absolutely amazing and I had lots of tears for sure.  I’ve never felt an urging from God as strong as I did that day at the ball field and now I know why.  These two were destined to be together and I am so blessed that I was a tool God used to bring them together.  I love you guys!  Have fun in Mexico!!!

Harper Gets Baptized

This past Sunday, one of my best friends little boy got baptized.  Tiff and I were pregnant at the same time with our boys.  Carter was born 5 months, almost to the day, before Harper.  I’m hoping they grow up to be big buddies :)

My mom kept Carter overnight on Saturday (because we also had a wedding shower to attend Saturday, so it was just easier to let my mom keep him overnight and during church the next day).  Justin and I headed to First Baptist Church of Pelham to watch Harper along with several other adorable babies get baptized.  After the service, we all headed over to Tiffany and Trevor’s house to celebrate!  I got videos of the actual baptism for Tiffany, but I won’t put them on the blog.  I will put up pictures of the after party though!

Harper and his daddy

The cake that Tiff’s mom made!  She’ s FABULOUS at stuff like this!

This is Tiffany’s high school friend Sam and her husband Joe.

A few of the girls from their high school group

All the girls!

The Lobdell men, minus Harper

Chad is Trevor’s brother and this is him with his wife Alyssa.

All the Lobdell men AND Harper :)

The sweet Lobdell family!

Me and my hubby

Harper and his grandfather (Tiffany’s dad).  How sweet is this picture?!?!