4 Girls and a Boy

This weekend was a little different than most other weekends. For the first time in a LONG time I wasn't able to spend it with Josh. He took his youth on a mission trip to New Orleans and wouldn't be back until late on Saturday. I was sad I wasn't going to get to see him but decided I wanted to make the most of it. I was able to spend some quality time with 4 girls and a boy!

Friday after work Holly and I headed to the Promenade in Rogers for a little shopping. We went in several stores but barely bought a thing. I did get a cute dress at Forever 21. Holly actually picked it out for me and I love it!

We paused our shopping for a bit so we could make our 6:30 reservation at P.F. Chang's for dinner. It's a good thing we made a reservation. When we got there it was a 75 minute wait. Lucky for us we were able to walk right in. My friend Shannon joined us for dinner. This was great because she had never been to the Promenade or P.F. Chang's. I'm so glad we were able to experience it with her.

As you know I LOVE dessert and can't go without it. OK, so I probably could go without it but I would rather not. Fortunately for us they have mini desserts for only $2. So we ordered 5 to share!

Sounds like a lot but we didn't have a problem taking care of them! They were all delicious. And a perfect end to a perfect meal!

After dinner we went in Williams Sonoma to browse around. This was Shannon's first time in a WS and again we were glad to share it with her. It was a great way to end a great day!

Saturday proved to be just as fun and just as delicious. I woke up to storms and heavy rain. Holly and I were going to make breakfast but then decided we wanted to continue our eating fest from the night before and go eat breakfast at Bizy's. This is Shannon's parents restaurant so we called her to join us.

Oh my...it did not disappoint! I ordered chocolate chip pancakes and their homestyle potatoes (make fresh not frozen). They were both sooooooooooooooo good!

After breakfast we went to our new gym. You see, Shannon and I have been working out (I took a break for a couple of months while dealing with all the health issues) at the Center for Exercise. It's the gym associate with Washington Regional Medical Center. I love it! There are a lot of elderly people there but there are also some people of all age groups. The CFE has been located at the old hospital but on Monday the new center opens up on the new hospital campus. After breakfast we went to take a tour of the new facility and get our swipe card.

The new CFE looks great! Shannon gave us a tour. They have a couple aerobic and yoga rooms.

Lots of new machines



And a fun pool that I hope to use a lot!!

Just going through the new gym was exhausting so we came home to relax and take a nap. After I woke up I received a call from Katie saying she and Zach wanted to stop by and see me! Woohoo! I love them both and was overjoyed they wanted to come over. Katie and I had a good time chit-chatting and I had a great time playing with Zach.

He loves is ring toy and gets a little wild as he plays!

Katie showed me his almost perfected new trick...the roll over.

He has a little trouble with that dang arm! Luckily mom was there to give him a boost.

What a great finish! We cheered and clapped and Zach loved it.

The rest of the weekend has been pretty lazy. It's rained the whole time so being lazy is excused! I hope you all had a great weekend too!

P.S. THANK YOU SO MUCH for all of the registry tips! They have been a huge help! Since I wasn't able to see Josh this weekend we postponed our registering to this upcoming weekend. I'll post about it next week and let you know what we've decided!

Registry

According to wikipedia:

A bridal registry is a system designed by department stores for the purpose of allowing an engaged couple to manage the purchases of gifts for their wedding. From what is available at the store, the couple creates a list of items they would like to receive, then the list is mentioned or provided to their wedding guests. Some implementation methods allow participating stores to provide the list to guests. As a gift is purchased by a guest, the department store's list is updated and the item is removed from the list of the desired items, preventing a single gift from being accidentally bought redundantly by multiple people. This can be more efficient for the couple to be married, as well as providing guests with a framework for making decisions about which gift to purchase.

I'm sure for the most part we all knew that! But did you know:

• The concept of a bridal registry was first instituted by Chicago-founded department store Marshall Fields in 1924
• Target was the first to introduce an electronic gift registry in 1993 using The Gift Certificate Center in Minneapolis, MN

OK...now that you are well educated in the history of the bridal registry it is time for you the help me out! I've looked around a couple of times at things to register for but haven't actually sat down and got it all together in order to get the whole process started. I've been a little stressed about whether or not my china was too expensive, how many place settings to get, what about every day dishes, etc. So I decided, why not ask my blogging friends?! Those of your who are married should have lots of experience in this department. And those of you who are not probably have lots of experiencing buying gifts off of registries. So here's what I want to know:

1. How expensive do you think is too expensive for a place setting of formal china?
2. How many place settings should I register for?
3. Did you all double register for your china and/or other items? If so, what items?
4. What did you register for that you wished you wouldn't have?
5. Did you register for crystal? What items did you choose?
6. What didn't you register for that you wish you would have?
7. What did you register for that you are glad you did?
8. How many places did you register?
9. Any other tidbits that you think I might find useful.

My mom and I are going this weekend to look at a lot of things. I hope to do most of it online but would like to see it in person before I add it to the list. Fortunately Josh is very laid back and doesn't really care what I pick out. I've already consulted him on the important decisions so I'm sure he'll be on board with what I decide. I'll have to finish the rest of it though, like bedding and towels, when he is with me to offer his opinion!

Thanks in advance for helping me out with this process! I know I can count on you bloggers! And for those of you who read my blog but don't comment (I know you are out there! That's what my blog trackers are for!!) now is the time to start!

Easter Weekend

Update: I heard from the nurse yesterday and the MRI results came back clear! Praise the Lord! Thanks again and again for all your prayers! Right now the doctor wants me to take my medicine a couple weeks and see if I have any relief. Lyrica is what the prescribed me. Some of you might be on it as well. It's for fibromyalgia (sp) and nerve pain for diabetics. It has been used in other instances so they are hoping it will help my headaches since they still feel it is caused by my nerves. And yes, I sure stress has something to do with it unfortunately these aren't like typical stress headaches which is why they are trying other things. I told them I would gladly accept a prescription of taking off work for a couple months if they could get my insurance company to pay for it. Haven't heard back about that so I'm sure they are still working on it.
Thanks again for all your prayers! I'll let you know if and when they figure out the cause of this madness.

Also, the Easter Bunny left something for my sister and myself. Hers is the left side of the table and mine is the right! Josh got one too but the Easter Bunny came a day early for him!

I started off Good Friday by taking the day off from work! I had to start some medication and knew that it was probably going to make me a little out of it. I was right, it did. I'm still out of it! But not working on Friday was a smart choice. It was wonderful! Josh was off too so he was able to come a day earlier to hang out! I loved having him around an extra day. My goal that day was to bake my friendship bread Katie had given me to start 10 days earlier.

I had a lot of fun making the break and making a mess.

I can't believe I didn't take a picture of the finished product. I thought I had but guess not. They turned out beautiful and delicious. Josh took a loaf to some of the guys in his seminary classes and apparently they enjoyed it! I'm making chocolate next time.

Friday afternoon Josh and I went to eat at McAlister's, went to Old Navy and then headed to my sister's house to spend the weekend with my family. Upon arrival my mother shared with me one of our favorite sweets, sugar cookies from Paul's Bakery. Yum!

Josh and I made a Wal-mart run then went to pick up dinner. While at Wal-mart I spotted our dessert for the evening.

DELICIOUS!

We got take out from one of the best restaurants in Alma.

Josh and I took a picture of ourselves while we waited on our food.

For the rest of the evening we just hung out, ate, watched basketball and made fun of my dad. Pretty much a typical night with my family.

Saturday was a big day for us. We planned to meet with the lady that is going to make my "cake", meet with another person to work on the menu for the wedding, check out the rehearsal dinner location, and take pictures and measurements of the reception area. We had lots to do so we stopped at McDonald's for a pick me up to start the day off.

Here is my dad placing our order. This is always a fun time for us because he is terrible at it. He gets tongue tied every time and it stresses him out. We have some major outbursts of laughter and embarrassment in times past. He actually didn't pretty good on Saturday.

We started our list of things to do by stopping by the rehearsal dinner location. It's going to be great. Casual and laid back which is what I want. I'll share more on that later. Next we went to meet with Susan. She's going to make my cakes.

My mom and Susan

Actually I am having a cupcake wedding cake. I'm sure that comes as a huge surprise to all of you. I think it is quite obvious that I love cupcakes. It only seemed natural that I would have those for my wedding cake. Susan was great! She does a great job and they are so yummy. She made us a dozen cupcakes so she could play around with the icing and colors.

Next we met with Brandy to talk about the food. She was very helpful and I think we have our menu figured out. It should be yummy!

Mom, Courtney, and Me

Dad, Josh, and the acorn pillow

After we got all of that settled we were hungry ourselves. We had to wait for a table so we decided to enjoy the scenery.

Isn't the view gorgeous? If you think this looks good just wait until you see the view from the ceremony. It's amazing!

After a long day of wedding planning we went back to my sister's house to relax, eat, watch basketball, and of course, pick on my dad. Josh decided he needed a cupcake from earlier and thought it would be great to eat it in one bite.

Next it was Easter Sunday. What a great day! God is good! And how awesome to celebrate that Jesus rose from the dead and that He lives today!

I was still really out of it due to the medication but was excited to see the Easter Bunny had dropped in.

Chloe was glad the Easter Bunny came too.

One of Chloe's favorite things are Easter eggs. She loves them so much and is hilarious to watch as she plays with them. The Easter Bunny brought her her very own basket.

She tuckered out pretty quickly

As you can see I had a great weekend! I still don't have the results of the MRI. I'm hoping to find out tomorrow. Like I mentioned earlier I have been on a new medicine that has me very drowsy and pretty much out of it. It's getting a little better but I have to plan it around driving to work because with it I am unable to drive. Fortunately my headaches have been a little better so maybe they are on to something. Thanks again for your prayers. I'll let you know when I know something.

Weekend Rewind

**Update: The MRI this morning went just fine. It isn't the most exciting thing I've ever done but hopefully the end result will be worth it. I what actually know the results until next week someone. The radiologist is supposed to get the results to my doctor either tomorrow afternoon or Monday sometime. From that point I'm not sure when I'll actually here from my own doctor. Thanks again for all you prayers! I REALLY wish I could get the test results by tomorrow afternoon sometime but I'm not going to get my hopes up!

Well, I'm finally getting around to posting about this last weekend. On Friday I left work early and headed to Little Rock. We didn't do much on Friday night because I had a headache most of the day. Fortunately when I woke up on Saturday it was gone. My mom and dad were going to go to the St. Patrick's Day parade to meet up with some people but decided not to.

Instead they decided to skip it so Josh and I decided to hang out with them for the day.

Our first stop was one of my favorite stores, Stein Mart! I'm so sad because they took the one our of Northwest Arkansas and even Fort Smith. Thank goodness the one in Little Rock lives on.

My mom and I tried on quite a few things while my dad and Josh waited on us.

I got two dresses that I love. One is for work and the other is for fun. I'll probably wear it to a wedding or some other fun event.

Josh even got a shirt too. I told him he could wear it to Razorback games.

Then we went to Dillard's and Bed Bath and Beyond to look at registry things. I had been really having trouble deciding between two china patterns. I loved them both so I wanted Josh and my parent's opinions. I think I've decided. When I know for sure I'll let you know.

While looking Josh came across a cool vegetable scrubber.

He liked it so much he bought me and my mom one. He's so sweet.

While at Bed Bath and Beyond we heard Etta James (on CD) singing her famous At Last so we danced a little in the store. Josh was embarrassed at first but I assured him he needed to dance with me. :)

That was pretty much our Saturday. Later that day Josh and I along with my mom went to Sam's. I love Sam's! I wish I had taken pictures of some of our fun but I didn't. Maybe next time.

Sunday after church I called my friends Jenny and Todd. They were still at the hospital. Jenny had given birth to Benjamin John a few days before and they were still waiting on the little guy to get released. Josh and I went by the hospital on our way home from church. OH MY! Benjamin is so cute! I instantly fell in love.

He had these Velcro patches on his head to hold his little glasses in place. The doctors were trying to get rid of his jaundice. I for one think they look adorable on him. He wears them well.

When Josh and I got back to my parents house after visiting this hospital guess what my dad was doing?

He's so funny! He's totally loving this wedding planning business. We call him Franc.

Ok, so there you have it! That's what I did last weekend.

P.S. My MRI is scheduled for tomorrow (Thursday) at 10:45 am.

It's That Time of Year Again

March Madness

It is time to get your NCAA brackets filled out! First game starts tomorrow at 11:00am so you better get on it! You can print a copy of it here. I love this time of year! I get really excited even though I usually end up doing terribly with my bracket! I'm in charge of the pool going on in my office. I slave over my bracket, research and really try to pick the right team. And of course it is the person that doesn't even know what a basketball looks like who ends up winning. Oh well! Maybe this is my year! Good luck! I'll keep you all updated on how I'm doing! I hope you'll do the same!

Headaches

**Update: First of all, THANK YOU for your prayers! They have helped so much! Today has been much more tolerable than the past couple of days. My head has still hurt but the medicince has eased it a lot whereas yesterday nothing was working. Yesterday at the doctor's office the nurse practitioner told me that at this point she and the doctor both feel it is nerve related. She doesn't suspect the MRI will turn up anything but still wants to schedule one to put both our minds at ease. She gave me a prescription for a drug that is supposed to help nerve pain for certain disorders and it might be helpful with whatever is causing my headaches. Unfortunately it is the kind of drug that insurance companies don't want to pay for unless it is absolutely necessary. So right now I'm waiting on two things, getting my MRI scheduled, and getting word that I can in fact get my prescription without having to pay a ridiculous amount for it! Thanks again for all of your prayers! I really appreciate it! Keep them coming! I'm sure once I have the results of the MRI I will feel much better about everything!

Hello Blogging Friends! I have not forgotten about you! I will post soon about this past weekend and share some pictures. Nothing overly exciting! I just wanted to do a quick post to ask you to pray for me! I've been to the docotor a lot lately. The last month it has been about headaches I've been having. First of all, I don't get headaches so that was weird to begin with. Second of all I had never had one like these. Of course the first thing is always tension headaches caused by stress, muscle tension, etc. And I have had muscle tension and stress so that's a good call. Only the things they use to treat those hasn't helped. Then my doctor was thinking neuritis. So he gave me a shot in my occipital nerve. Unfortunately that didn't help either (and it hurt, my goodness!). I had an eye appointment yesterday to see if that had something to do with it. Nope...all is the same on that end. I have an appointment with my doctor again here in a few minutes. They are supposed to schedule me an MRI or CT scan at the hospital. Please pray that I am able to get the test done quickly and please pray they will have the results right away. Thanks in advance for praying! I will keep you updated...and do a picture post soon!

Sneak Peek

Well although it seems like there's been a lull in the wedding planning I assure you there hasn't. We were able to accomplish a lot of the big things right away and since then have been working on the details. Although I don't want to share ALL my details (still want an element of surprise on the big day) I will share a few!

A couple weekends ago my mom's friend (and the person that decorated her home) Cynthia came over to my parents house to helps us brainstorm.

I brought out my wedding binder full of all kinds of things I had taken out of magazines. We talked about the kind of feel I was going for and it didn't take Cynthia long to give us great ideas! One of the areas I want to save money is the flowers. I think I've mentioned that to you all before and fortunately we have some possibilities that won't require a lot of expensive flowers. Here's a sneak peak of a couple things that we're going to incorporate into the wedding.

This is a swatch of the fabric we're using at the reception.

This is one of many drink dispensers we purchased for the reception.

Ok, I know that still doesn't give you much to go on but at least it is something! As much as I am DYING to tell everyone all the details, etc I really want to keep a lot of it a surprise!

Other wedding news:

• Next weekend we are going back to the wedding site to take more pictures and make sure we get a good visual for how things are going to play out.
• We're also meeting with the person make our "cake." She's going to bring us some samples of things to try and to look at.
• Getting the menu set for the reception.
• Meeting with the person we hope to make the bouquets, etc.
• Right now the save-the-date cards are being completed. I hope to mail those out next week at the latest. Thanks to my dad's assistant Laura for all her help with those! She's been awesome!
• My parents went and listened to the band that is playing at our reception last week. They were great! I'm really excited! You can listen to them here.
• We are going to listen to the person providing the music for the ceremony this weekend.
• My bridesmaids are deciding which neckline they want and we are ordering those early next month. Which, by the way, in case you didn't know I have 7 bridesmaids
• And of course, me trying to lose weight and shape up! Not easy to do when I keep going back to the doctor and hearing them tell me not to work out. Are you kidding people?!?!