12 days...

yep....we only have 12 days until the wedding

wow!

I can't believe it's getting so close now

our dining room is wedding central and filled with purple, blue

starfish and shells

wedding programs

lanterns..........so much stuff

and we have to get everything boxed up to take down to the beach

this coming Sunday 7 of our out of town family will arrive

and I think I'm as excited about that as I am about the wedding

can't wait to see our family!!

and then on Wed 2 more family members will arrive

and it's like Christmas!!

Then we'll leave for the beach on Thursday morning.......

and have a blast!!

I can't wait until I can share pictures with everyone

later......



32 years....

32 years ago on May 19th

I married my best friend

I don't think I realized at the time that he was my best friend

we had fun together like friends

we were in love

we knew we always wanted to be together

so the natural next step was to get married

we wed in the church I grew up in

and though simple compared to weddings today

it was beautiful

I felt like a princess

and through the years we have moved 3 times

we have raised 3 children

we have been through so much happiness together

and with each year together, we became closer

we fall even more in love, even though I didn't think that possible

so on March 17th when Johnny suffered a stroke

I'm not going to lie....I though I was losing my best friend

thankfully, he is making a full recovery

and we are making plans

figuring out what we want for the next 32 years

Happy Anniversary babe....love you!

later.......



License to wed....

Besides meeting with florist, DJ's, etc.....Jacquelyn and Bucky

had to get their marriage license.

It's good for 60 days so they're in good shape there

here they are getting ready to go in and fill out the paper work!!

and here they are filling out the papers....

and here they are all ready for June 11th!!

want to know why it's blurry....because I already had tears in my eyes!!

later....

Betty Boop...

Johnny loves Betty Boop

and last year when we were at the beach, he found a 3 ft

Betty Boop

she was cute and sassy!

all dressed up in her Marilyn Monroe dress

and her cute lace panties

she was sitting outside of an antique store but the asking

price was a little too steep

So this year, we thought we would just stop by there again

you know, out of curosity

and she wasn't there!

we went inside and Johnny asked them if they had sold her

and they had not! For no particular reason they had put her in the back and she was sitting on top of their vault.



Johnny really wanted her...he wanted to add her to the pool room

soooo, we asked

and yes, they were ok with selling her and at a very fair price

they said they felt like it was meant to be that she go home with us

since one year later we had come back looking for her!

so here she is, laying in the backseat....

and here she is getting all cleaned up for her ride to Richmond

isn't she cute!

later....

At the beach....

We traveled back down to the Outer Banks on Wed

for more wedding appointments

Jacquelyn, Bucky and Lynne didn't come until Thursday night late

so during the day, Johnny and I wandered around our most fav

place on earth!

and look what we found...a raccoon!!

I took this picture from the car

I thought at first it was a cat but when he heard us, he got up and turned toward us

I was scrambling to grab my camera

see, always good to have your camera handy!



later...

Corn salsa.....

here is your recipe of the summer!

so fresh tasting....you will love this

and as with all recipes, I change them up just a little

2 ears of corn, cooked and scraped from the cob

(I also will use a bag of frozen corn)

2 tomatoes, chopped

(right now I use cherry tomatoes halved as they have more flavor)

small purple onion, chopped

one red bell pepper, chopped

(I use red, orange and yellow)

2 jalepenos, chopped

1 small can fire roasted chiles

(I chop these up a little)

juice from 2 limes

(I also use a spoon and try to scrape out as much of the lime as I can)

1 whole bunch of cilantro, chopped

olive oil

throw it all together, mix and put in the frig for at least an hour before serving

the olive oil, I just don't know how much to tell you here as I just pour it on

if I had to guess, maybe a 1/4 cup for this recipe

I doubled this recipe so I used more

this is just so fresh and yummy

the lime juice mixed with the cilantro...mmmm, good stuff

I bought the pita chips at the grocery store and they were

excellent served with this

I should have taken a picture....it's so colorful

if you make this, let me know how you liked it

later...........

New kind of potato salad........

I love good old fashion potato salad with Dukes mayo!

But...

we all need to eat a little healthier so here's a twist on tater salad!

since I started making this one, I don't care to go back to the mayo drenched taters!!

1 pound baby red potatoes, halved

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

3 scallions, thinly sliced

1/3 cup black olives, halved

1/3 cup fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped

1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 large lemon zested

( zested the whole lemon plus add the juice from it)

kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

boil your potatoes until tender then drain and set aside to cool

In a serving bowl, mix together all of the ingredients above.

Then fold in your potatoes.

Put in the frig for at least one hour before serving.

the recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of capers, rinsed and drained

since Johnny is on a low sodium diet and a few of the kids do not like capers

I left that out.

I love capers so probably really good with them but it's fine without

I hope you enjoy this recipe

it may make you give up mayo drenched tater salad! haha

later.........

Love....

Love our precious grandson Maddox

and I think he is loving this cupcake!!



later.......

My flower garden....

we have been getting a fair amount of rain

and my flowers are loving it!



my favorite....the peonies!

they are huge this year and so beautiful

later......

Bella Boo....

Jake and I were in the kitchen getting things ready for the cookout

on Saturday when all of a sudden

we heard a crash from the den

we knew that Bella Boo had to be involved

and yes, she had been running through the house and when

she ran behind the sofa, she caught ahold of the lamp cord

and knocked it over

it knocked the lampshade loose and then the end of the lamp

went through the shade!

Guess I know what I'll be shopping for this week

later....



Graduation....

Today we had a graduation cookout for Jacquelyn's good friend Melissa

Melissa is graduating from the Univ of Richmond tomorrow

and her family flew in from Texas for the event

So we hosted a cook out in her honor

here are just a few photos.........I'm sad that I didn't even take that many

Johnny was down at the river with our brother in law so Jake took

over the grilling duties

and he did a great job!

here's Melissa opening some of her gifts

Bella Boo loved all of the extra attention

and of course there were a few games of corn hole

that's it......like I said, just didn't take many pictures

I will be posting later a new recipe I tried

a really tasty corn salsa!

later.....

Happy Birthday.....

I can't believe it but my baby is 23 years old today!

my youngest, my son, my baby....

wow

Happy Birthday Jake

you're an awesome son and your dad and I are so proud of you

keep moving forward

don't look back

keep your dreams alive

WE LOVE YOU

later....



One day....

One day.....

I'll be back to posting on my blog on a regular basis

One day....

I'll be taking more pictures and searching for more photo classes

One day....

I'll read, cook and clean instead of googling

ribbons, pails, wedding fabrics, flowers, cardstock

One day....

my little girl is going to be married, actually, in less than 6 weeks

One day....

our life will go back to normal

but in the mean time....we are enjoying this and I can't wait

to be able to share all of the details with all of you

So postings will be very limited now that we are in the home stretch!

but I'll try to get a few in once in awhile

later......