Where has the time gone?

Well as usual, I am very behind on blogging. I just seem to get in ruts and it's not something that I think about doing or even remembering to do. These last couple of weeks I have been thinking more and more about blogging. I need to do it on a more frequent basis (or at least try). I love reading everyone else's blogs (you should see my google reader, it is ALWAYS full), so I figured why not blog more so everyone (all two of you that follow me) can read what is going on in our lives.

So what has been going on in the lives of A & L? Well as my last post suggests we have moved down south and moved into our first home. We are loving it, and have been in the house for 4 months. I can't believe we own our own home. It is an incredible feeling to walk in everyday and know that it's mine and I can do whatever I want with it. The house looks completely different than when we first moved in. All the rooms are painted and decorated and we have done a few minor projects. There are several more projects that we would love to do, but they are not necessary, so that means they will be put on a waiting list. We would love to put hardwood floorin down in the living room and dining room. It is currently carpet, and is in need of replacing! I want a new kitchen sink and countertops. We want to build/extend our back patio. Need to replace ceiling fans. Relandscape the front yard, no need for the back, it seems that our two dogs are doing just fine at that for us.

Speaking of two dogs, I haven't told my blog land people about our newest addition to the family. We have a new dog, Gus. Gus is a lab/boxer/we don't know mix. He is mostly black with a white chest. Just to give you an idea of what Gus is like, Remember the mouse on Cinderella named Gus, well they have a lot of similarities. Gus is a well mannered, lazy but playful, cuddling fool. He has definitely served his purpose in being a friend for Brek. They enjoy playing together and have become great friends/brothers.

Well that is enough for now, I need to get off here so I can do some more studying for my Life Insurance Exam. Hope you all are doing great and L & I are alive and doing well. I hope that my next post will contain some pictures so you all can see our new home, dog, and life down here in the south.

Much love,

Alexis

Moving, New Job, Baby Burks

Well we certainly have been extremely busy since I last posted.

We have officially moved down south and I have started a new job. Now we are just waiting on the end of the month to come so we can move into our new home. We cannot wait!!!! Only one more week!

We will be having some house guests before we even get moved in :) My mom and aunt are coming down to help us paint the house. Not everyone is as lucky as we are to have such great family members who are willing to fly 1000 miles just to paint a house. But what can you say, they did it for the rest of the nieces and nephews, so you might as well do it for all of us.

We have a big week planned next week. Wednesday will be filled with shopping, Thursday and Friday will be filled with painting, and Saturday and Sunday will be filled with unpacking and catching up with all of the family that will be in town helping us move in. CAN NOT WAIT!!!



My job is going good, but the hours are CRAZY! I forgot what retail was like. Especially retail management. The hardest part is not having the same schedule as L. We are definitely not used to not being able to spend our weekends together going to visit family or just hanging out. There are a couple of job opportunities on the horizon so hopefully one of them will work out soon.



This morning I got a call from one of my very best friends who was in labor with her beautiful baby girl, Adleigh Joyce! Since I just happened to be off work today, I decided to drive up and see her since I knew it would be a while until I could make it to Memphis. The drive was uneventful, but the day was filled with lot's of love and adoration for a brand new addition to the world.




That's it for now. Talk to you all soon.

-Lex

I'm Back

Well, there for a while I was doing so well at posting, I mean three in a row, that is GOOD for me :)

This past weekend we moved out of our house in Memphis. Lamar is now down South and I am staying with a very good friend of mine. I cant thank her enough for offering to let me stay with her and her husband. To be honest, I am very thankful, because I did not want to stay in our house in Memphis by myself. Just to scary!

Things are moving along fairly quickly these days. I can only hope that these days that Lamar and I are apart move by just as fast.

I have an interview on Wednesday and am keeping my fingers crossed for a great opportunity and a chance to be with my husband.

My best friends in the whole world came back to Tennessee this weekend. I hate the reason they had to come back for, but I was very grateful to see them last night at dinner. It had been too long! I miss them every day!

Alright, well this is a very random post, so I'm going to leave it at that for now.

Hope you all have a good day!

Lex

Changes are in the Air

So the end of March is drawing near and that means many new changes for this family.

Since September, I have been attending RCIA, Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, in the Catholic Church. What does this mean, you may ask? It means that come Easter I will be Catholic. I have been attending a Catholic Church since probably 1997 so the Catholic faith is really nothing new, but there are so many things I never knew that I am definitely learning. I am very grateful for my loving husband to have attended these classes with me. Since he is my sponsor it has been so nice to have him by my side.

On April 5th, Lamar starts his new job. The down part to this is that we will have to live apart for awhile. Since the new job is not in Memphis, he will be moving down there Easter Sunday and I will be staying with some friends. (I am a chicken and didn't want to stay at our current home by myself for that long) I won't be moving down there until I can find a job, which who knows how long that will take. I have been searching for something since he first found out about the job back in February, and still NOTHING! Finding a job is no easy task, especially when you have no idea what you even want to do.

On April 15th we will be closing on our new home. The kicker to this is that we won't be able to move-in until June 30th! UGH!!! The sellers of our new home are actually in the process of building a new home and really did not want to move out until their new home was finished. In order for them to be a little negotiable we got the short end of the stick. We decided to go ahead and close on the home and let them rent from us, so we could go ahead and get the first time home buyers tax credit.

These are just a few of the changes going on in our lives today. I know there are others, but why should I continue to bore you. You may have noticed, this is the third day in a row that I have blogged! I am very proud of myself. I feel like I actually have something to say since our lives are changing. Hopefully I will continue this little hiatus and will be able to find things to blog about to keep everyone updated on our lives. (Not that any of you really care) :)

Have a good day!
Lex

Snow Day

We have had a couple of snow days this year, none of which I've gotten out of work for sadly. The first one though, I did get to go in to work late, but even after we closed, I had to stay because of a ribbon cutting we had scheduled that wasn't cancelled. :) (Please cry for me now.)



I just found these pictures and thought I would share them with you. The first one is Brek in the snow last year (2008-2009) when he was still just a little puppy.





Here he is this year, next to our wonderful snowman that we built, all grown up. We still can not believe how big he has gotten.



Hope you have a great day!



Lex

Busy, Busy, Busy

This past weekend was extremely busy for us. There are so many things going on in our lives at the moment, that we both just need a little time to just relax. But, unfortunately, I don't see any relaxing times in the near future.




Friday night we went to over to some friends and had spaghetti and beer cheese sauce. This may not sound appealing to most, but it is a recipe that my mom made and we love it with our spaghetti. They all told me they liked it too, but who knows, you're not really going to tell a cook something was bad. :)



Saturday morning we had to get up early so we could drive south to look at houses. Since we will be moving, we decided that we wanted to purchase a home instead of renting. This will be our first "home" together and we could not be more excited. After looking at the houses we felt fairly comfortable with where we stood, so we decided to drive home. Little did we know that we would find something else that we wanted to look at. So, on Sunday after church we left to go back down South to take another look around and ultimately find the home we will be purchasing. We could not be more thrilled with our decision and are extrememly ready to become homeowners.

Sorry if the picture is a little blurry, I forgot to take one of the outside so I had to take it off of the website. woops!

So there you have it, Our New Home.

Hope you have a good day!

Lex

Who knows

Well, it has been a while since I last updated the blog. Can anyone say 4 months? That's crazy! I am really good and ready everyone else's blogs and keeping up to date on all of your lives, but keeping you up to date on mine is another story.

Since it has been 4 months since my last post, let me see if I can summarize what we have been doing:
October:

• Started the RCIA program at our church in Memphis to become Catholic.
• I went to Nebraska to visit my family and celebrate my nephew's 6th birthday. I had an absolute blast.

November:

• We went to Melbourne Floriday for Thanksgiving and celebrated Lamar's grandparents 50th wedding anniversary.
• We got to visit our friends Chad and Jenn who had just recently moved to Palm Beach from Memphis.

December:

• Had Christmas in Hattiesburg with Lamar's family. The thought of not being with my family on Christmas for the first time ever, really scared me, but the good news is that it wasn't bad at all.

January:

• Nothing really exciting in January, at least not anything that I can remember.

February:

• Lamar interviewed for a job in Vicksburg, MS and was offered the position.
• Found out we would be moving to the Jackson, MS area, soon
• Went to Soup Sunday at the FedEx Forum with some friends

March:

• Well March is just starting, and let me just say, it is going to be a busy one.

Well it was good to "talk" to everyone again. I really hope it won't be this long until my next post. I will really try to keep everyone updated on our new lives, but as you have seen before, I'm not very good at this whole blog thing. :)

Lex

Let's get updated

As always, it has been quite sometime since I have blogged. I read blogs by other people every day and I can tell you I am always quite impressed at how they can sit down and think of something to blog about every single day. They definitely have more intuitive than I do.

So what has been on in our life....well not to much, but I will give you the scoop since I have been gone for over 2 months.

August, we went to Chicago for the wedding of one of Lamar's cousins. We took the train from Memphis to Chicago and let me just tell you it was an experience. Something that we had always wanted to do, but something that we will probably never do again. The wedding was absolutely beautiful.

Lamar and I before the wedding.

It was an outside wedding and of course it had to start sprinkling right before it started. So we were all given these napkins so we could cover ourselves from the rain.

In September, we didn't really have too much going on. We did go to the lake over Labor Day with our great friends Chad and Jenn and her parents. We had a BLAST!! Got lot's of good sunbathing, boating, and company. We actually stayed at the cabin of some of Jenn's parents friends. It was wonderful, have to say it was much better than sleeping in a tent. :)

So far in October, we haven't done too much, but it won't stay that way for long. Next week is Lamar's birthday and then that weekend we are planning on going camping with his parents. Then on October 31, I leave to go visit my family for a week!! I am extremely excited. I am actually going to get to take the kids trick-or-treating and we are having Brayden's birthday party while I'm there as well. Should be lot's of fun and I hope to take lot's of pictures to share.

Well until next time, (who knows how long that will be) have a great day!!!

-Alexis

Girls Night

I am quite excited to finally be having a girls night. I can't tell you the last time I actually went out with just my girlfriends.

Tonight we will be heading to dinner and then to the Orpheum to watch Mamma Mia. Can't wait!
Then tomorrow we get to help celebrate the first birthday of one of the cutest little girl's ever, Lil P. Here she is last December at a Christmas party we had with some friends.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

-Lex

Stand Still

On my way in to work this morning I got to thinking about what I want out my life. Right now, I just feel like I am at a stand still in my professional career. My job is currently less than satisfying, I'm not being challenged by anything in my life career wise, and I just feel like I have need to move forward with my life and get out of this rut.

My brian has been working in overdrive these last couple of weeks trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. Go back to school? Change career paths? If so, where do I even want to start? These are just a few of my questions that have been rolling around in my head lately.

I have come to determine, at my ripe old age of 25, trying to decide what you want to do with the rest of your life at 18 when you're starting college is just too soon. Let's look into that a little deeper, how many people do you know are actually doing the job they went to school for? Well it's not many. Yes there are a few people out there that know what they want to do in life and they truly enjoy their career life, then there are others, let's just say me for example, who changed their major 4 times in college and still don't know what they want to do in life.

Ok, I know I am just rambling on now so I won't bore you with any more.

Hope you all have a good day. And I'll let you know what happens after my life gets moving again.

Happy Anniversary!

It has been one year since I married the love of my life. I feel blessed each and every day to have Lamar in my life. He truly is one AMAZING man and I feel like an amazing woman when I am with him.

We took a little weekend trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas to celebrate the occasion. Our plans were a little delayed since it rained all day Saturday, but we still had fun.

Friday, we drove to Little Rock after work and stayed in their downtown area. We ate dinner at a local pizza eatery then went back to the hotel.

Saturday, we had planned on going to Crystal Falls, Magic Springs in Hot Springs, but the rain and storms decided to take us a different route. Instead of going straight to Hot Springs we decided to take it slow leaving Little Rock and did a little bit of shopping. Early afternoon we decided to head towards Hot Springs. We got into the quaint little town and decided to wander around the downtown area. We went and ate lunch at Brick House Grill, where I had some of the best potato soup EVER, walked along Bathhouse Row, and strolled into some quaint little shops along the way. By this time, we were both tired so we decided to check-in to our Bed and Breakfast, 1890 Williams House, to take a little nap. After waking up, we drove to Lake Hamilton and decided to have a couple of drinks at the Fisherman's Wharf. We then went and ate dinner at The Porterhouse and had some great steaks.

*1890 Williams House was great! We stayed in the Williams Suite and it was fabulous. It had a nice sitting area with a two person jacuzzi tub and the bedroom area with a four-poster bed. This was such a great place and definitely captured the moment of our anniversary.

Sunday we woke up and had breakfast in our room then decided to drive to Little Rock and go to Wild River Country water park. We stayed there for a couple of hours, decided we had "been there, done that," so we headed back home to Memphis.

Hope you all had a great weekend!! Lamar and I are ready to start our second year of marriage and can't wait to see what life has in store for us.

Owl vs. Brek

So do any of you know a dog that is scared of his own shadow? Well, that would just about explain Brek. The dog should be a chicken.

Last Friday after Lamar had left for work, and put Brek outside, I hear Brek barking. This is quite unusual for him as once he is outside he is usually quite content, but not today. I finally get out of bed and go see why he is barking. I get outside and look into the pen and see this stump looking object in his kiddie pool. Not knowing what to expect I get closer and decide to se if this object is alive or dead so I splash some water on it. As I splash this object, he then slowly turns its head and two big round eyes just stare up at me. At this point I was a little freaked out, I mean what would you think if you saw two big eyes just staring at you.

I, being the "chicken" that I am just run out of the pen and immediately call Lamar to tell him that there is a baby owl in Brek's pool and he is going to have to deal with it when he gets home.

Five o'clock finally rolls around and I meet Lamar at the house. WE then proceed to the backyard so we can get rid of the owl. After Lamar got it out of the pool it just sat on the ground and Brek had to get his turn with the owl. Long story short, the funniest part of this whole situation was Brek playing with the owl. So please be prepared to laugh out loud just like Lamar and I are doing in the video. You will have to excuse Lamar he is on the phone talking to his dad about this debacle the entire time.

Hope you enjoy as much as we did!

The Crafty Side of Alexis

I'm sure most of you already know this, but I have a little crafty side to me. A couple of my co-workers and I recently threw a baby shower for another co-worker. I of course made the invitations (there is a picture below) and everyone in the office receive one. Most people made comments about how they loved them and that I could do this on the side and earn a little extra income.

So here is where you all come in, I have included some pictures of the invitations that I have created, my wedding and the baby shower and I would like to know if you like the invitations enough to order them from me, if the option was made available. Keep in mind that I can change the fonts, wording, layout, etc to meet your specifications. I am not one to put a lot of graphics or images on my inviations for a couple of reasons a)I am not a graphic designer and do not have the skills, as of right now, to do so and b)I honestly prefer the look of pure paper, ribbons, etc. Below I have briefly described each set and included pictures. Sorry there are so many pictures, but I want to make sure you got the idea of the invitations. Hope you enjoy!

*The pictures are not the biggest and for some reason I don't know how to have them enlarge when clicked on. If anyone wants to help me out let me know.


My wedding invitations


This is the front of my invitation. It was a pocket-fold invitation.

Once opened, this is what you saw: The invitation portion was on the top of the fold, and the information cards were below in a pocket. Since I had a destination wedding there was a lot of information the guests needed to know. Inside the pocket there are cards for Accomodations, Event Details, RSVP, and Directions. Sorry the wording is marked out, but I wanted to protect the information at the time.

This is the invitation itself.

These are two of the cards that were included, the Event Details and Directions

My wedding programs

My programs were a fan and here is a picture of them closed and open

Baby shower invitations and diaper cake

These are the baby shower invitations I made. The shower was for a baby girl and the colors were chocolate and pink.

This is the diaper cake that I made for the shower. The lollipops spell the baby's name and fresh flowers act as the cake topper.

A Must Try Recipe

Wow! It has been quite a while since I last posted. Not much to say for myself, other than I just haven't gotten around to doing it.

I found a great recipe for Taco Salad that I just had to share with everyone. I made it last night for Lamar and I and I have to say it is probably the best taco salad I've ever had. If you make it let me know your thoughts.

Taco Salad from Campbell's Kitchen

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef (I used diced chicken breast)
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell's® Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup
1/2 cup water
1 pkg. (1.12 ounces) taco seasoning mix
2 tbsp. chopped green chiles
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 can (about 15 ounces) kidney beans, rinsed and drained (or whatever kind of bean you like)
2 cups tortilla chips
4 cups shredded lettuce
1/2 cup sour cream
1 medium tomato, chopped (about 1 cup)

4 green onions, sliced (about 1/2 cup)

Shredded Cheese (I used a four blend cheese, but you can use whatever you like)

Directions:
Cook the beef in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until it's well browned, stirring often to separate meat. Pour off any fat.

Stir 1/2 can soup, water, taco seasoning, chiles, cumin and beans in the skillet and cook until the mixture is hot and bubbling.

Heat the remaining soup in a 1-quart saucepan over medium heat until it's hot and bubbling.

Arrange the chips on a large serving platter. Top with the lettuce, beef mixture, remaining soup, shredded cheese, sour cream, tomato and onions.

Serves 6.

On the Mend

Brek did great yesterday at the vet. They told us he was a very well behaved dog and everyone loved him. I know everyone always says this about their own dogs. He is at home on the mend. He got to stay inside today and will probably stay inside most of the week. He is not supposed to get his incision wet so with it raining outside, that would be a little hard not to do.

THere is some good news and bad news in this whole situation though. Which do you want first? The bad news...no no let's go with the good news first....

The good news: We are going to Hattiesburg this weekend to see Lamar's family for Mother's Day. I know isn't that just great!

The bad news: While in Hattiesburg, Brek is going to be one unhappy dog. Not only will he not be able to play with Carmel, Lamar's parent's dog, he will not be able to get in the ponds and swim. You see, he is not allowed to jump or run for a week and he is not allowed to get wet for 10 days. CRAZY!!

The poor thing doesn't know what's coming...Again! I hope he isn't too mad at us after this is all over.
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Ok so this next part is completely off subject, but I need a new name for my blog. Anyone have any stellar ideas?

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-Lex

A New Man

Our little man went to the vet this morning and he will come home a different man.

Happy May Day!!!

***Update- See below in Purple, the significance of not being seen***

Did you even realize that there is such a holiday as "May Day." Well there is and you know what, as a kid, my family celebrated this holiday.

It dates way back, and is not very popular in the United States. If you want to read more information about go here and read the History of May Day.

As a kid, we would always make our baskets the night before and get them ready to be delivered. You would then wake up the next morning and go to different people's houses, such as family and friends, then put your basket on the door or ground (depending on the type of basket you made) and make a beeline so they wouldn't see you. **The trick is you don't want the neighbor to see you! If you get caught, you are supposed to get a kiss.**

I remember celebrating May Day in Nebraska in the little town I grew up in and everyone was familiar with the holiday and participated. After we moved to Tennessee, we did it one year and no one had a clue what it even was. So needless to say, the tradition of celebrating May Day in our family went away.

Happy May Day Everyone!!! Sorry I don't have a little basket for you.

-Alexis

This is for Lamar....

....so Lamar is trying to get a free macbook air laptop through one of "those" websites. Yes, we know it's crazy, and yes we know it's possible, because I do know a few people who have actually gotten one. The thing is, he needs your help. He/I normally would not do this and I hate to ask, but if you would, please go to the website below and sign up for one of the offers. 

I know there are not that many people who read my blog and I really hate to ask, but if you want to help Lamar then go here:

http://www.freemacbookair.com/?referral=fx57b5

Thanks!

-Alexis

Spring Is Here

Springtime is officially here and I am SOOOOO excited. I used to say that winter was one of my all time favorite seasons, it still is if there's snow to look at. But here in Tennessee, the best season is by far spring and fall.

We had a fairly uneventful weekend, but it was fun none the less. Friday night, our friends Brad and Katy came over to have dinner and hang out for a while. We had hamburgers and twice baked potatoes (thanks to hungry girl). Dinner was pretty good. We then just sat around and talked for a couple of hours. Brek loved the company and was quite fond of Brad. We will have to have them come over again.

Saturday, Lamar ended up working all day from 7 to 6:30. I was a little bored, but did get some good America's Next Top Model marathon watching in. I also took Brek on 2 walks. It was such a beautiful day, I hated to spend the entire day outside. Saturday night we went over to Ray's house to hang out and eat hamburgers again. We sat outside and just talked for a while. I will say, that being the only girl with a group of 4 guys was quite interesting. I'm glad they feel so comfortable with me and all, but "guy talk" is much different than "girl talk."

Sunday was supposed to be our lazy day since Lamar wanted to catch up on some sleep. I knew this wouldn't last long, just because Lamar is not the type to hang out indoors. So we laid around until about 12 then we both went outside and started to work. He went to work washing the cars, which by the way, mine looks fantastic and I can finally see out of my front windshield. I went to work raking and cleaning out the area on the north side of the house. We then had to go to Lowe's to get some supplies for Brek's fence and I wanted to get some flowers. I felt so domestic planting flowers. We were going to plant a garden, but the area we wanted to do it in is full of sand so we put that off for a little bit.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Blogger Help

I need a little Blogger help. How do you all upload pictures into blogger? It seems like everytime I try it always messes up my formatting.

So I'm asking, how do you all upload your pictures:

1. Do you insert them all first then do your tryping?
2. Do you insert them one by one after you've typed and then move them to the area they should be?
3. WHat formatting do you use when uploading them?

Help me please!! I just want to know what works best for everyone else, because they are a headache to me.