Amber & John's Wedding Weekend!

As usual, this post is way overdue...over Memorial Day weekend, Tim and I headed to McKinney, TX for his sister's wedding to John.  I'm sure Jody (Tim and Amber's mom) wonders how both of her Nebraska raised kids ended up falling for Texas folks, but I think she should just consider herself lucky  :)  And they say Texans are arrogant.....

The long weekend started out great on Thursday with me finding out I had received a promotion at work which was fun to get to celebrate with family.  Friday morning we headed to the Allen outlet malls - found a MK purse on great sale - before Amber treated us girls to manis and pedis at one of the nicest nail salons I've seen (seriously...there was an indoor fountain).



All the girls!

Next stop was the rehearsal at Heard-Craig hall.  We did find out that Hollie Cavanagh, "McKinney's American Idol" was holding a concert down the street on Saturday.  Amber had everything planned out and was a great director for the rehearsal!

Their rehearsal dinner was at Randy's White's BBQ - such a good idea!  No waiting for food, just go through the line and pick out whatever you want!  There was also a dessert bar (I limited myself to just two desserts...) and fresh bread!  It was way more food than you could ever eat and very "Texan" if I do say so myself.  Tim & I got to spend some time with John after the dinner which was good - sometimes its hard living so far away! 

Saturday was THE BIG DAY!  Of course, I decided to take a total of ONE picture...didn't even get one of Amber in her dress (which was stunning).  I'll just have to wait to order from the photographer!

The sign hanging in the gazebo, which you can ALMOST make out in the pic above was carved by John's late father (it says The Blacks) and Amber added a few touches.  It was pretty special.  Also, best idea ever....instead of one cake, they had SIX!  There was a groom's cake (complete with a Longhorn groom and Husker bride) plus a separate cake for each of the letters in their last name (B, L, A, C, K if you haven't caught on yet).  Each cake was its own flavor - white chocolate with raspberry, amaretto, spice cake, etc.  My personal favorite was chocolate peanut butter.

Since the wedding was at 1, Amber and John had the great idea to invite everyone to downtown McKinney for dinner and drinks that evening at Churchill's. 

Just one super grainy iphone pic...

I think my favorite thing about a wedding is its reason for so many people to get together - ALL of Tim's aunts, uncles, cousins (plus their kids) were there!  We don't get to see them nearly enough, so its extra special.

Sunday, we headed to John and Amber's for a little gift opening (and munching on some leftover cake...)  John and Amber are hoping to plan a trip to Ireland and so a lot of their gifts were of the $$ kind.  We all got a good laugh when Amber opened a card and I'm assuming didn't want to say "Thanks for the moola," so she paused when telling Jenny (who was writing down the gifts) and said that she had been gifted a....donation.  (At least I'm pretty sure that's what she said, hope I'm not butchering the memory!)  They also got some great kitchen stuff from Jody & Mike's store, some authentic Mexican items from their aunt and uncle who live there and a few other things.  For their gifts to each other, Amber had this huge map framed for John's office which looked great and he got her a new computer!

Tim with his sis & new brother-in-law

So, even though its a month or two late, congrats to John and Amber and thanks for planning such a great weekend for all of us!

Miscellaneous Monday

I promise I'm going to get better at updating this thing...I'm WAY behind - so far, you've missed a wedding, an engagement party, a Dallas trip and our 5th anniversary!  I'll catch you up soon!  :)

I've also realized how much better my memory is when I blog about something - this really has turned into my own little scrapbook.  Something about writing it down and then being able to recall from the pictures. 

Now, to hold you over in the meantime a few miscellaneous thoughts.

1.  I cleaned out my attic a couple of weekends ago.  Actually, that's probably giving myself a little too much credit.  I started cleaning out my attic a couple of weekends ago.  It's amazing what all I've saved over the years...examples: 

Exhibit A - My very first driver's license.  I had originally posted this on Instagram & Facebook, but thanks to my dad for reminding me to be careful about putting private info out there!!!

Exhibit B - My Wrangler boots...



For those of you not from the lovely state originally, this is what they looked like in action (must be blury because we were moving so quick):



Exhibit C:  Various old work paraphernlia:

2.  Poll Question:  I love my iPad...like close to the same level as I love chocolate...BUT Tim and I just booked a big beach vacation and the only thing that drives me crazy is not being able to read on it outside (yes I know - very first world problem of me).  I'm thinking about splurging for a Kindle, but Tim thinks I'm nuts to have two eReaders.  I know it would sync my spot between a Kindle and my iPad - I do it now to read on my phone sometimes.  And even though it may seem silly, my dream vacation is parking myself under the sun with a good book and I feel like there have been several opportunities where I've not had anything to read b/c I stopped going to the library (download books for free!) and my iPad was too hard to read.  Any body else use both?  Other suggestions???   

I think Tim should have known I'd be a two eReader kind of girl....this is what he bought me for Valentine's day:

3.  Speaking of books, if you were a fan of the Hunger Games, you really should read Divergent by Veronica Roth.  I read book 2 of the series this weekend and couldn't put it down.

Book 2 - Insurgent

Definitely a quick, easy read which are my #1 and #2 criteria for summer books!  As a quick plot summary - the book is based in the future and the world has been divided into factions based on what each of the people value.  Candor (honesty), Dauntless (bravery), Abnegation (selflessness), Erudite (intellegence), Amity (peace).  It is interesting to think about and see how although each of the values are important, there can also be too much of a good thing.  Makes you think, but not TOO hard.  I probably would put myself with the Erudite - too bad they're pretty much the villains in this series!  Now, I have to wait forever for Book 3 to come out.

4.  Also, speaking of vacations, I think I'm completely spoiled this year!!!  Here are a few of the places I'm looking forward to in the next few months......

I cannot wait!!!!

Hope everyone has a great holiday!!!