14 WEEK UPDATE!!

I have seen these pregnancy questionnaires on other girls blogs and so I thought it would be fun (and I would bore you to death) by doing one for my own to look back on. And don't worry. THERE WILL BE NO BELLY PICTURES! Unless it is just me living my life and I post pictures of that and you will get to see my belly then.

How far along? 14 weeks 2 days

Total weight gain/loss? I have lost 2lbs. And this is amazing because I am absolutely ashamed of how I have been eating. My friend Susan gave me a veggie pep talk yesterday (seriously) and I HAVE to do better eating veggies.

Maternity clothes? None. All my regular clothes still fit which I am grateful for. I have a small bump but nothing that is keeping me from fitting into my clothes and no one can tell that I am pregnant. My first purchase will be some skinny jeans and then maybe just some regular dresses that will accommodate the bump rather than going straight to maternity.

Stretch marks? None. Anybody know when I start using a lotion or anything? Would I start this early?

Sleep? I can't get enough sleep. I am still so tired. Maybe its because I wake up at least three times a night to pee.

Best moment last week? Having those oh my god I am having a baby moments and loving it!

Movement? None and probably not for a while.

Food cravings? Just to list a few.....sweet tarts, re stuffed potatoes, cereal, ginger ale and Popsicles.

Gender? Prediction: Totally a boy.

Labor signs? No. I wouldn't know if I was. Ha!

Belly button in/out? In.

What I miss: Honestly, alcohol. I am especially going to miss a nice sweet tea vodka drink this weekend at the Junction.

What I am looking forward to: Watching my bulldogs play the first game of the season this weekend. Eating at City Bagel at least twice and then on Tuesday I have a doctor's appointment where I will get to hear the heartbeat again. I will be sure to update on that!

MAIL CALL

This weekend I am receiving two things in the mail that I am EXTREMELY excited about!

My Kindle!


and Mockingjay!


A little nervous about the book. It is for sure the last one in the Hunger Games series and that makes me sad. And while I have completely avoided any gossip about it I am anxious about what is going to go down in this last book.

I am pretty sure I will have it finished by Monday and already have a new DIGITAL book uploaded to my Kindle. I seriously need some good book recommendations!
'
Tell me what you have been reading!

I (HEART) THE 90S

So I have a new obsession. It my 90's on 9 radio station on my Sirius Satellite radio. First off let me say that I am also obsessed with my satellite radio. Kenny and I both got satellite radio in college and I haven't listened to normal radio since. Satellite radio is just soooo much better and not that expensive to subscribe to. You have no commercials, tons of channels of different genres of music and talk shows to choose from.

But in the past few weeks the 90's on 9 channel as moved to my top tier of presets. It is so good. Obviously it only plays songs from the 90's. And those are the songs that bring back the most memories for me because it reminds me of middle school, junior high and the best of all high school. The monitor gives you the name of the song, the name of the artist and then gives you the year in parenthesis so I can even calculate what grade I was in for each song if for some reason I can't remember. It is a walk down memory lane every time I get in my car! I am obsessed.

Here are some songs that have really brought back the memories lately!

The Fugees- Killing Me Softly - 1996

Big Pun- I'm Not A Player - 1997 ( As in one of the greatest lines ever....I'm not a player I just crush a lot)

Boyz II Men- Motown Philly -1991 But lets just be honest any Boyz II Men is hitting the spot. Especially any song that I still know every word to from their II album.

Goo Goo Dolls- Black Balloon - 1998 Remember this song from the Meet Joe Black soundtrack. I also loved their entire album from this time period.

Some others:

Blind Melon - No Rain - 1993
Cantaloop - Flip Fantasia - 1993 (My friend Ashleigh used to know every word to this song and I thought she was so "cool")
Pearl Jam - 1992 - Jeremy

Ace of Base - enough said

Deep Blue Something - Breakfast At Tiffanys - 1995

Paula Cole - Where Have All the Cowboys Gone - 1997

Honestly, I could just go on and on about all the different songs that I have heard and all the memories since I have started listening to this channel on a daily basis. Ha! And listing these songs just reminded me, remember when you would love a song on the radio so you would go buy the single. When was the last time you bought a single? I can still distinctly remember some of the singles I bought. Thank goodness for iTunes.

WEEKEND RECAP

So Kenny was out of town this weekend for a market so I was on my own this weekend. I had a very nice and relaxing weekend that involved a little sisterly bonding time, A LOT of movie watching, and registering for baby gear.

Friday night my sister and I grabbed some dinner. McCallisters at my request because I wanted a loaded spud (yep still hardcore on the potato kick) which I thoroughly enjoyed! Then we trekked out to a suburb of Memphis because the movie theatre there was the only movie theatre still showing the movie we wanted to see. What movie you may ask? One that reminded us of our childhood.My sister and I both grew up reading all of these books and I have to say the movie was pretty cute too. Of course a little hokey but completely negated by the amount of famous people that made appearances. Everyone in that movie was a well known actor. The night was very low key, dorky and a lot of fun. The only downside was I really needed to pee before the movie started and the bathroom was kind of stinky, as was the theatre in general. So I threw up twice from the smell. That part was not fun.

On Saturday, I went to lunch with one of my girlfriends Mollie. We went to Carmelita's and then went and got yogurt at the new yogurt place. Lo Yo! It was so good and if you live in the Memphis area you must go! After that it was on to Babies R' Us to register. Mollie being a mom herself was vital to me for this part because I am TOTALLY clueless when it comes to baby gear. I needed someone to show me the different pros and cons of all the stuff so I could just point the gun and scan. I am happy that I now have a well compiled list of all the things I need. Right now, I am not worried about people purchasing things off the list. It is strictly for me to have an idea of what to buy. I NEED a list. But it didn't take too long and it made me really excited to start getting ready for baby! The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing, doing things around the house, watching movies, and waiting on Kenny to get home.

Here is a list of all the movies I watched...Really
- The Runaways
- Girls Just Want to Have Fun
- Dear John
- Enchanted
- Transformers 2
- Juno
- Father of the Bride

- The Sixth Sense
- Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
- The In Crowd on Lifetime (anyone ever seen this one? So good)

Told you I spent the weekend chillin. Ha! It was nice. Kenny got home yesterday afternoon and I am so happy. I actually cooked dinner for his homecoming. Haven't felt like cooking lately. I made a poppy seed chicken casserole (this dish reminds me of college and the sorority house.) Here is the recipe. It is a good dish. I did not enjoy it because I could taste the chicken (go figure) and chicken is weird for me right now. But Kenny gave it rave reviews!

POPPY SEED CHICKEN CASSEROLE
Ingredients:
Rotisserie chicken, shredded
16 oz sour cream
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 cup parmesan cheese
Poppyseeds
1 Roll of Ritz Crackers
1 stick butter

Shred your chicken and add to a large mixing bowl. Mix chicken with sour cream, soup, and parmesan cheese. Add poppyseeds - I just sprinkle until it looks right, which is about 4-5 tablespoons for me. Spread in casserole dish. Put your crackers in a zip lock baggie and smash. Top casserole with crackers, and drizzle one stick of melted butter over the crackers. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

THE FIRST THREE MONTHS

In a nutshell has been interesting but fun! Sorry if you don't want to read this. But this blog is just as much for me as it is for anyone who is reading so I want to be able to look back and read things like this. See how naive I was! Ha!

Let me first say that before I took my first pregnancy test I thought for sure that my monthly friend was here and it was just being weird. Sorry if that is just TMI but under the insistence of my nurse prac friend Susan who demanded that I go get a pregnancy test IMMEDIATELY, I was completely SHOCKED when it came up positive! Kenny and I were so excited.

At that point I was around 5 weeks and I wasn't feeling to bad. We went to Chicago the next week and I was a trooper. We did everything we planned on doing including the Cubs game and walking all over that city. My appetite was completely weird the whole time and a meal that we had there our first night ruined Chinese food I think until the baby arrives. Seriously, the words egg roll might send me running for the bathroom. Kenny likes to torture me with that. It wasn't that the meal was bad. It was delicious. But it was more that we got soooooo full and then brought the leftovers back to our hotel which made the room smell like curry and well that was the end of that.

Since then I would say the morning sickness has only gotten worse. I have only gotten sick a few times but I feel nauseous all the time and food is just gross to me unless it is some form of potato or CARBS! At around 8 weeks I got the doctor to call me in some Zofran and that has helped to some extent. I am hoping and praying that the nausea subsides really soon. But I do have to say I am so thankful for it all! Kenny and I have been so ready to start a family for so long that I even appreciate the nausea and weird food things. I miss food greatly but I appreciate it all!

And I just have to say without bragging to much. Kenny has been absolutely amazing and is just as eager for the baby to get here as I am. He found a list of foods that might make me feel better and went to the grocery store and bought the ENTIRE list of food. It was so cute. And he is always asking how I feel and if I need anything and he is always willing to talk baby with me! I love it!

BIRTHDAY WEEKDAY AND A BIG SURPRISE!!!

So today is my 27th birthday! Woop Woop! Just kidding. I feel old. But why obsess over age I guess. Anyway, I was happy because Kenny was able to be here to celebrate for the entire weekend. Last year he was out of town on my birthday. It was something he couldn't help. He and I had an amazing weekend of relaxing and enjoying hanging out together.

On Friday, we stayed in because I am always wiped out on Fridays. We brought home some food and watched When In Rome. Which the parts I saw because I slept through 98% of it were H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E! I mean really really really bad! Saturday morning Kenny and I went and grabbed breakfast together before Kenny went to a golf lesson. When he came back he had my birthday cake, a Cold Stone ice cream cake! It was so good! Then we went to do a little shopping to spend some of my birthday money. I wanted to get some things for fall and for the football games. It is so hard when you start buying new fall clothes because it is still sooooo hot here and you know you won't be able to wear any of your new stuff for months!

After our shopping trip where I got some really cute things Kenny and I came home to get ready for our dinner reservations at Restaurant Iris. He was dying for me to open my presents before we went so I gave in. Kenny got me a Kindle which I am completely pumped about and a case for it, some new Rainbow sandals which I had asked for, and he also contributed to the shopping! He did such a good job! Then it was off to dinner at Iris. It was so delicious and I definitely recommend it for a special occasion. They do such a good job at making you feel welcome and helping to celebrate! After dinner we were so full that we pretty much came home and went to bed! Ha! Like I said 27 is old!

On Sunday we got up and I made pancakes and then we ate them in bed while we watched Extraordinary Measures. The movie with Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser. Brendan Fraser is a pretty bad actor but the movie itself was really good. Then we spent the rest of the day running errands and then watching the PGA golf tourney. Kenny forces me to watch golf all the time, in turn I have to say I have kind of gotten into it. Yesterday's tourney was intense! This week I am planning on going out with my girl friends to celebrate. They have agreed to let me drag them to the movie Charlie St. Cloud since its my birthday and all!


And now if you are still here after that very loooooong weekend update!
THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!

BABY LACEY IS ON THE WAY!!!!!!!!
That's right! Kenny and I are absolutely thrilled to announce that we are having a baby due on February 27. I am three months! I am sorry that I do not have a really fun ultrasound picture of the baby. But I had my first ultrasound at 6 weeks and feel weird about showing you the inside of my uterus without a cute little baby in there!! But we have seen and heard the heartbeat twice and hope and pray all is well in there as he/she continues to grow!

We will definitely be finding out what gender Baby Lacey is and don't worry I will be sharing our journey as we move through this very exciting time in our lives!

ITS ALMOST HERE!

Football season that is! Can you believe it!! Kenny and I are extra excited because we bought season tickets this year! So we will be doing our absolute best to make it to all the home games. There is just something about the start of a new football season. Anticipation and hope that this years team will be better than the last, seeing all your friends and people you know at the tailgates, being allowed to bring your cowbell to the game after they were banned for a while! It is going to be so much fun!

And there is one man that I can really get behind. In fact yesterday morning I might have told Kenny I had a little crush on him and may be a tad obsessed.

DAN MULLENI love him! He has made me into such a bigger fan admittedly because of his incredible use of social media. I am his friend of facebook and follow him on twitter. And I love the updates he gives us on the team, their practices, and any other goings on with the school. It really makes me feel more informed and more excited when he is telling us the defense had a great practice or so and so is doing great. He really knows how to build momentum for the team. Which is why we are having record breaking ticket sales for the season each year and could sell out this year. That is huge! I love that man! And I can't wait to support my Bulldogs!!

GUILTY PLEASURES

These guilty pleasures might make me sound like a little bit of a trash ball but oh well. Ha! But you know sometimes there are just things that you love that you can't help.

At least with the first one I am not alone.
JERSEY SHORE
Unless you live under a rock you all know that Season 2 of the Jersey Shore premiered Thursday night. I was a smidge excited. Kenny and I get the biggest kick out this show. These people are so over the top and the situations that they get themselves into are hysterical. Did anyone else watcht? What did yall think of the first episode?

I thought it was good. It was kind of a re-introductory episode so not a lot happened. My one concern is that we are going to have to listen to Ronnie and Sammi "Sweetheart" whine the entire season. Give me more Snooki, JWoww, and The Situation beatin the beat!

And my other guilty pleasure...
EMINEM
I've always had a flare for the dramatics and I even like drama in my music. I love Broadway,mopey songs, Celine Dion and embarrassingly enough even some Josh Groban! Ha! But the common theme is that all of those are overly dramatic when they sing. I would kind of put Eminem in the same boat. I am loving his song out with Rhianna (who I also adore) right now. And I I'm Not Afraid. In college I loved his song with Dido "Stan." To me his rapping is dramatic. He actually says things in his songs even though some of it might be disturbing. Plus he usually has good hooks and choruses in his songs so they are catchy to top it off.

HER BAGS ARE PACKED

So this morning one of my best friends, Susan, moved away. She and I have lived in the same town for 9 years we figured out last night.

It all started at the ripe ol age of 18. It was move in day at Rice Hall on Mississippi State's campus. And it being August it was H-O-T. I had always heard that the person at the end of your side of the hallway controlled the air so I walked two doors down and politely knocked on the door (she tells this story completely different btw) and asked her if she could turn down the air just a wee bit. And that was it. We were friends. I mean it didn't hurt that we ended up pledging the same sorority and living in such close proximity to each other freshmen year. Being from New Orleans and the middle kid of 6, Susan was a little different from some of my other friends. Anyone that knows her, knows that she is quite the character.

But we have made many the memory and have watched each other move in and out of relationships and consume far to much alcohol and cheese dip! And just this past May I was honored to be a bridesmaid in her wedding as she married the perfect guy for her, Andrew. She of course was in my wedding too. Right before the wedding Andrew got an amazing opportunity with Amazon and they made the decision to move. TO SEATTLE!!!!!

So far away! So this morning she is off...Gone for good. I am very sad. She really is my first friend to move away outside of everyone graduating college. So I kind of feel like there is a little hole from where she left. I guess this just means that I am going to need to purchase a plane ticket pretty soon. At least Seattle is a really fun place to visit and we've never been.

I MISS YOU ALREADY SUSAN!!

WHAT I'VE BEEN FILLING MY HEAD WITH

I've been on a pretty big reading kick this summer and have managed to finish a lot of books. Most of them I have absolutely loved. Here's a little list of what I've finished.

The Hunger Games

Catching Fire
Can you say obsessed! I am obsessed with these books. The third and final installment comes out in August and I cannot wait to get my hands on these. I gobbled these books up within a four day period. Loved them!

The Help
Everyone and I mean everyone has read this book by now. Its really good and it was a nice light summer read. I am excited that they are making it into a movie which they are filming in Mississippi. I would have like to audition to be an extra.

Next I tried to read this:
I've read the entire series and somewhat enjoyed them. But for some reason I just could not get into this book. I got a few pages in and quit. Might be done with ol Sookie Stackhouse.

Heart of the Matter
I had never read any of her other books pretty much because I do not like books about girls who shop and plan their weddings. This one was different from her others from what I have heard. But it was kind of depressing. It was about marriage and sort of the demise of a marriage. A bit depressing but still a good read.

Right now I am reading:
I figured with the Twilight Series and all the Sookie books I had had enough of vampires so it is time for Zombies. This book is written very differently and I am loving it. I also have a thing for post-apocalyptic books and movies. Weird I know.

Things I Have in My Queue:
Animal Farm and 1984 ( never read either of these in high school for some reason)

Eat Pray Love.I haven't read Eat Pray Love but I am hoping to get a Kindle for my birthday next month and I am planning for Eat, Pray, Love to be my first book to read on my Kindle. Right before the movie comes out.

WEEKEND RECAP

Kenny and I had an amazing weekend staying in town. On Friday night we met a big group of friends for sushi before packing up our friends radio flyer with coolers, chairs, and even a battery powered fan and parking it at Memphis Botanical Gardens for their Live at The Garden Concert Series. Al Green was playing along with Robert Randolph as the opener. Kenny and I have seen Al Green before and loved him. So we thought it would be fun to see him again. This was my first time to go to a Live at the Garden concert. I really liked how laid back it all was. They allow you to bring any kind of chairs you want, tables, candles, coolers, food. It really is the perfect opportunity for a nice little date night and it was a lot of fun with friends.


I do have to say that sometimes doing anything on Friday nights is hard for me. It is the end of the work week and I did wake up early that morning so I was struggling a little bit. Was a smidge tired and my chair was pretty comfy along with this fan (who was someones GENIUS idea) blowing on me I might have dozed off in between acts. Ha!!

On Saturday, Kenny went and played golf all day with our friend Michael and I ran errands. I was excited because I was getting to finally pick up this piece that my mom had put together for me for Christmas and we are planning to hang in our office. I think I might have mentioned this before but I love all things Walter Anderson a little too much. Sorry for the poor picture. I carefully put this in my car only to realize that the door wasn't going to close. Oops!

On Saturday night I was soooo excited because one of my best friends, Stefanie from college, was in town with her 10 month old little boy Conrad Patrick who I had never met. Her brother and sister live here and her mom was in town too. So Kenny and I went out to eat with their family. I am sad that I did not take a single picture. But we had the best time at Ciao Bella (one of my favorite restaurants) and then we all went to Muddy's for some cupcakes. By this time it was waaaay past little Conrad Patrick's bedtime and he was still being soooo good! It was so much fun to see them and it made me realize how much I miss seeing her! If only we could all go back to college right where we saw each other everyday.

On Sunday, I stayed in bed ridiculously late watching movies and reading.We watched Old Dogs with John Travolta and Robin Williams in bed. Before you laugh Kenny and I have seen almost everything at Blockbuster that is out right now. I won't bother giving this movie a real review. It was a D-

Then Kenny and I went to see Inception. This movie was amazing. I loved all the people in it especially Ellen Page. And while you might stay a little confused during the whole thing, you just have to keep going with the flow and not try to overthink it. We left the theatre and I literally felt a little daze from it all. It is pretty long and I kind of want to see it again because there is so much to take in and you probably catch more the second time around. Can't wait to own this one and personally I think it far exceeds The Matrix. I give it an A+

After getting home from the movie Kenny and I grilled out sausage dogs that were totally yum and sweet potato fries. It was all so good. It really was such a great weekend!

PARANOID MUCH............

So we got home from being out of town on Sunday to find someone had stolen our Mississippi State flag from the front of our house while we were gone. Not a huge deal.

I mean we love it and of course I am sad because we will have to get another one before football season starts. But in the grand scheme of things it was not an extremely expensive item, it is easily replaceable, and no one actually broke into our house or anything.

So what is wrong with me. On Tuesday night I had a horrible nightmare that I am convinced that was a reaction to the silly flag being stolen. The kind of nightmare where I woke up frozen in bed and had to tell myself it wasn't real. It was just a nightmare. I do not have nightmares very often.

In the nightmare, these kids were terrorizing my street. It was dark and late and Kenny wasn't home and they were knocking on peoples doors trying to get them to come out of their homes so they could do who knows what. It was a dream after all. But they were breaking things and wreaking havoc. In the dream Lena was going nuts and I was looking out the windows trying to call the police but I would stand there with the phone up to my ear but it would never ring.

So last night Kenny is out at a concert with some friends and I am home alone and I have fallen asleep and am sleeping pretty hard when Lena wakes me up barking barking barking. She heard something. So coming out of a deep sleep I am somewhat delirious and my heart is pounding. I get out of bed and find myself deja vuing the nightmare. I start looking out the windows like a crazy woman expecting to see people in my backyard stealing things. Paranoid right??

What am I going to do if Kenny has to go out of town? I am not sure why someone stealing our flag has me so worked up and paranoid. I guess its the feeling that someone was kind of lurking around our house that wasn't supposed to be there. Either way I hope I have zero more nightmares and the paranoia goes away really soon.

CHI -TOWN

For the long weekend Kenny and I planned a little getaway to Chicago for our annual summer trip. We had the best time. Neither of us had been before and we made sure to pack EVERYTHING in! We stayed downtown in the perfect location where pretty much everything we wanted to do was in walking distance, a short train ride or an extremely inexpensive cab ride which we took a few of those to! It was hot!

On Saturday we of course had to pay our respects to the hallowed ground of Wrigley Field. The stadium really is amazing and we got so lucky in that our great seats were in the shady part of the stadium by the 3rd inning. Once we were in the shade I was ready to chow down on a Chicago Style hot dog! Yum!! The game was really exciting and the Cubs won!




After the game Kenny had mentioned wanting to go buy the famous Billy Goat Tavern, site of the famous Belushi skits...you know Cheezeborger! Cheezeborger! Cheezeborger! We finally found it tucked under the Tribune building and we couldn't leave without having one of the famed Cheezeborgers.


On Sunday, it was my turn to have chosen the activity so we went to see Billy Elliot at the Ford Oriental Theatre. OMG this show was sooooo amazing! And oh my lord the dancing! This play had so many talented kids. It totally made me want to have a stage kid! The show was different than what I expected but sometimes having no expectations means you enjoy it so much more, The only tickets we were able to buy were literally in the front row. I had never sat this close before and it was a new experience. We could smell things they were cooking on stage as props and smell their cigarettes. And I am not sure if I was just being emotional or it was seeing the actor's faces so close up but I cried a GOOD bit through this production. We will go see it again when it hopefully comes to Memphis!


After the play we walked around Millennium Park.






It started to get kind of cloudy and started to rain so we ducked into a Jamba Juice. Just had to include this picture because Kenny waited in line for like a hour for these smoothies with a bunch of tweens. By the time he finally got them it had stopped raining.
On Monday we did a lot of touristy stuff. We took an Architecture Boat Tour which really was interesting and a lot of fun.




And we went to the John Hancock observatory and walked around a good bit.


Can anyone guess why we took this picture? Kenny was so mad we missed them by a week. Here's a hint. It is not Julio Inglesias!

For lunch we had to make our tourist checklist complete with Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. So we headed to Gino's East right off the Magnificent Mile. Have to say it was indeed worth the wait.

Here we are waiting on our pizza. The first thing the waitress told us was it was like a hour wait for a deep dish. But we were determined. And by the way I do actually have clothes on in these pictures. It was a strapless dress. Woops.


After we were stuffed from lunch we did some shopping on the Magnificent Mile. I was a little wiped out with it being the last day and all the go go going. So we actually went back to the hotel and took a two hour nap before going to The Custom House for our "anniversary dinner." The food was delicious and they couldn't have been nicer in helping us celebrate the occasion!

So we are home now and I am trying to recover. We did so much and stayed so busy. Loved Chicago and hope to go back someday. Looking forward to this very short week and then a laid back weekend.

HOOKED AGAIN...(ALMOST 10 YEARS LATER)

So back in the day. I mean a long long time ago Kenny and I had just started dating and he lived with his best friend Chad. And every week Chad and his girlfriend and Kenny and I would all crowd around the television to watch this new hit show The Bachelor. We were glued to the television, boys and girls alike. Who was "The Bachelor" going to pick to propose to. Somehow we missed the first season so this was Aaron's season and we all wanted him to choose Brooke, the girl from Alabama soooo bad.

I have to admit I was a long time watcher of The Bachelor and probably stopped watching when Meredith became the bachelorette. The girl's personality was boring with a capital B! But then came these scandalous commercials in the past year. Some girl in the bachelor house had hooked up with someone in the house who was GASP not the bachelor. And while I am totally ashamed to admit this...that commercial worked. I tuned in. And by default...poor guy... so did Kenny. And now we are hooked.

Jake as the Bachelor was so incredibly cheesy and I could see upon my return to the show that the producers were taking new liberties with the word reality and I was loving all the drama. Rozalyn and the crew member, Allie and Vienna's hatred for each other and then Jake just picking Vienna at all!

Last season Kenny's favorite was Allie so naturally we went right along with the new season and her being the bachelorette. Wow! These guys on this show are weirdos. But Kacey takes the cake and he has kept me cracking me up the entire time. I am sad he is gone. My friend Susan who lived with us for a week because her AC was out watched the episode where Kacey serenaded Allie and now she is hooked. What's with this ridiculous show??

During last night's episode of The Bachelorette a commercial came on for The Bachelor Pad starting in August. Have yall seen the commercial. It looks awesome in a trashy television kind of way. After the commercial was over I said "We are sooooo watching that." To which Kenny replied "Well hell yeah!" Poor guy...

HALFWAY THROUGH

Summer is flying by! And since May was so incredibly crazy for us we have tried to slow it down in June. Try being the key word. So that brings me here. I know I haven't blogged in a while. But its official! I'm back and I promise to make more of an effort. Hope there are still a few of you guys reading!

This picture is funny but it looks sorta like theirs.

Last weekend our friends Joe and Tracy invited a big group of us to their families new lake/river house. It was so nice and the best thing was Joe and Tracy just bought a pontoon boat and I have to say I am a smidge obsessed. They have always had a ski boat but I have officially jumped on the pontoon bandwagon. We had like 12 people on there and 5 coolers and it was so much room. And there is something to be said for just jumping off and floating in the water for hours on end. It was so fun!

My poor skin hasn't seen a natural way of getting a tan in a few years so I of course got a mild sunburn WITH suncreen reapplied but it was so worth it!

This weekend my mom came in town. She just got back from the Camen Islands so it was fun to hear about her trip. Friday night Kenny was itching to cook a meal so he had me pick out what I wanted. I have to say it was amazing. He made these maple slow cooked country ribs and horse radish restuffed potatoes that were worthy to feed to company. It was soooo good.

On Saturday my mom and I went and got pedicures and went to get some art framed and then headed up to Brookhaven Pub to watch the USA soccer game. It was so much fun watching the game in a packed bar full of people. It was kind of crazy how loud it got when USA scored.It was sad when USA lost but they just seemed tired. After the game we went to see Knight and Day. The new Tom Cruise movie. It was cute. I won't give a whole review but it was funny, totally unrealistic, made me want to go to Spain and a remote Caribbean Island, and Tom Cruise did not bug me in it despite his bad outfit choices (one included a jean shirt and black jeans). I would give the movie a
-B

Hoping this weekend flies by because Kenny and I are excited about our 4th of July plans!

PUP

Well heeeeeelllloooo there! Its been a while. Things have been a little crazy over here at the Lacey houeshold. When we started gearing up for May we knew we were in for it. We had multiple bachelor/bachelorette parties, a wedding that includes an extended stay in New Orleans, and a guys weekend to boot. We knew we were going to be busy with a capital B.

Then life threw us a wrench. Our beloved Lena got sick. Really sick. Without giving you the long story of how it all went down. We have endured three weeks of ups and downs, three surgeries, kelly green vomit in my house(yes kelly green), parts of her bowels dying and being removed, her not eating for 10 days, the vet calling me at work to tell me that Kenny and I needed to come put her down,a full day of crying(I have never cried so much in my life) over that decision, and then a week of part agony, part extreme joy while she recovered as doctors, vet techs and everyone else sat back and watched in disbelief and finally one extremely happy and emotional homecoming. It has been a roller coaster.

A roller coaster where I also might have decided that in my stressed out manic state that it might be good idea to trim the hedges with an electric hedge trimmer while Kenny was out of town and then hacked through my hand with said hedge trimmer. Earning my sister and I 12 hours in the ER and me 15 stitches in my hand. Like I said it has been wild here.

Lena has been around for as long as Kenny and I have well...existed. Kenny and I started dating in September and we got Lena in April. And now here we are almost eight years later, there has never been Kenny and me without Lena. All the more reason that these three weeks where she lived at the vet, our house was a lonely place. WE have never been dogless. Ever. People might think we are crazy, but we have no children at this point and we love and cherish Lena deeply.

But through all of this, Kenny and I have been amazed at the life lessons that we have learned in the last few weeks. All from an integral part of our family. Our dog.

Thank you to everyone for all the texts, prayers, calls, emails, thoughts, check ins to see how our girl was doing. Everything. Lena is doing extremely well and while we are still veeeery paranoid and almost can't believe it. We are so thankful for everyday that we get to come home and see her happy face filled with unconditional love.