Home Sweet Home

I've waited a really long time to be a homeowner. I can't believe all my dreams are finally coming true.....and in less than 2 months, I'll have a new husband to go along with the new house. I honestly can't remember a time in my life when I was happier.
If you have ever lived in an apartment, then you can appreciate the weekend that I've had.
FH and I had our first cookout Friday night, just the two of us. We've been together for about 2&1/2 years but we've never grilled out together. So we considered this like our third date. And let me just say, FH cooked me a mean steak! It was great! We sat out on our back patio and just enjoyed every second of it. I look forward to many, many more cookouts with him! :)
Saturday, we cut grass. This doesn't sound exciting.....but it was for us because we've both been looking forward to having our own yard to take care of!
We have a wedding coming up, and those aren't cheap, neither are houses. Needless to say we have been pinching our pennies and doing what we can to save. So when it came time to buy a new lawn mower, of course FH- being a man and all- wanted a big ole expensive riding lawn mower. Me, being cheap and having grown up with yard/fields so huge that a tractor was used to cut them, insisted on a cheap push mower because our yard isnt THAT big. It's great exercise, plus it will give me a chance to work on my tan and give us something to do together. So FH said we could get a push mower if I cut the grass while he weedeated (I'm not sure that word even sounds right!). So, that was our deal.
Yesterday evening, I started to mow and FH started to weedeat. Little did I know, he'd be finished about 5 minutes later!! Apparently, his job was tiny and mine was huge!
I look over as I'm slaving away in the yard, and this is what I see:




Not only did the man come outside to gloat and silently think "I told you so", but he brought a chair to watch me and even a cold beverage to cool himself off after his exhausting 3 minutes of cutting weeds! If looks could kill, he would have been hurting! He's enjoying himself, smiling even, and instead of holding a cold beverage, this is what my hands were doing:




My hands still hurt today too! And did I mention that we didn't cut grass until too late in the evening for me to even get a tan? Not to mention, yes it was great exercise but we stuffed our faces with Mexican food for Cinco de Mayo! So the exercise was cancelled out!
I'm ready for the next time we cut grass. I'm doing it in the sun, with my headphones, and then not stuffing my face afterwards. Lesson well learned.

And the house looked pretty amazing when we got finished, if I do say so myself!




**Please note, no FHes were harmed in this post. He did, in fact, get out of his chair and cut half the yard with me, like a good little future husband. I guess he got tired of the evil glares I was sending his way.***
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Sleepwalking

So, we have all been tired lately. Getting home late and staying busy has left us with no time to rest. Last night, around midnight, Alex came running into my room. First off, it scared me to death. Not having a man in the house at night of course always makes me think the boogie man is gonna come get us in our sleep. Second, I asked her what she was doing and she said she had to go to the bathroom. And then she proceeded to walk into my closet, turn on the light, and shut the door. Of course, I yelled, "Alex, that's the closet not the bathroom!" and she came back out and went into the bathroom without saying a word.

Like I said.....we all could use a little more sleep lately. Hopefully we can catch up this weekend! Pin It Now!

Life with the StYoungs

When I told my friend that I finally wrote a blog, her first response was "That must have been a long blog, you have a lot to catch up on!" So this one's for you J.....
Lots has been happening 'round these parts. Blogging has taken a backseat to work, softball, kickboxing, school, wedding planning, and house buying/packing. Not necessarily in that order. We have been busy to say the least. So, here is an update on us, The StYoungs.

-Kate and Alex are old. 9 years, to be exact. somewhere along the way, my babies stopped being babies anymore. well, usually, they still have baby moments when they are tired or don't get their way
-In case you didn't know, I'm getting married!!!! (What, have you been living under a rock somewhere? This is the best news since those new "put your own toppings on your yogurt" stores. Well, to us it is, anyways.) There is sooooooo much to do for the wedding and it is fast approaching. We have a little less than two months left to get EVERYTHING done and I wish I was one of those girls that lost weight just because they were stressed. So not me.
-Softball. We love softball at our house. It's one of our favorite sports. But we play softball in Atoka, and we live in Cordova. Sometimes our games are as late as starting at 7:30. Which means we have about 2 hours before the game starts without being able to go home and then a late night drive home. Not to mention, I do have to make sure K&A bathe every now and again, and sometimes I make them do their homework. Well, ok, I guess I always make them do that. We have been very creative lately though......who says you can't do your homework on the way to school in the morning? I mean, why not take advantage of that 35ish minutes of free time in the car??
-Work. It's pretty busy. Boy do I miss the good ole days when I had nothing to do at work except check facebook and email my friends! Now, life at work is slightly different.....I actually work. Crazy, I know. My supervisor recently got a new job and so I have been swamped. Luckily, I love my job so it's not bad, but it sure is busy.
-We bought a house. Yes, you read that right. I'm in search of some camo shorts for FH because we are moving to Tipton County!! Finally. After about a year of searching for a house, we finally found the perfect one. And the timing couldn't be better. We were just about to give up the search and focus on the wedding, but now the girls and I can get all moved in and it will only be a month before FH will have a ring on his finger and a permanent spot in our garage.
-Packing. I've been slowly packing as much as I can. So, we can't ever find anything. And right when I packed up all of our warm clothes, it got cold again. Sorry about that coldfront that came through, that was obviously my fault for jinxing us all.
-Kickboxing. My friends and I bought a groupon for a month of unlimited kickboxing. It's great! I love it. I can feel the pain and I can see a difference. I almost thought that I should make a career change and become a lady kickboxer (do they even exist?) but then I realized that if I ever actually got punched in the face then I would probably squeal like a little girl. So, I'll just stick to my desk job. We have been going to a lot of classes. It's funny, because we are all 5 accountants. Obviously I am not your stereotypical accountant, I like people and I'm never actually very quiet and my best friends aren't numbers. But we are all now kickboxing accountants. With handwrap and boxing gloves and bruises and 5 AM wake up times. It's gonna be pretty sad when our month ends. I'm gonna ask Santa Clause for a punching bag this year. Or just see if FH will let me kick him every once in awhile.

So, there you go. That's what's been happening with the StYoungs. :-)
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Say you have a daughter......

Imagine for a second that you have a daughter. Actually make that two daughters, both in 3rd grade, and both kind of look alike. They could even be twins. Now pretend like one of those daughters was really brave. And now combine that brave attitude with an extreme case of boy crazy. Imagine said daughter decided at the ripe old age of 9 that she was ready to date. Imagine that she went so far as to write a note to a boy that she likes and she asked for your permission to give it to him. What would you do?

Me? I said "Ask your Daddy."

This seemed like the appropriate response to me.

If I were a true blogger (which obviously I'm not since I haven't posted in months), I would have probably taken a picture of the note. But I couldn't do it because I didn't need the world/all 4 of my readers to know the name of the boy that she likes. I can describe it to you though. It was all folded up like a note, think back to 5th grade and how you passed notes (apparently she is more mature than I was because I know I never passed a note to a boy in 3rd grade-or maybe I just can't remember that far back), when you open it up, it said really large "DO YOU LIKE ME!". That part was kind of cute but then when you flip it over, it said "ME OR (INSERT ANOTHER LITTLE GIRL'S NAME HERE)?". This is when I was a bit shocked. She's 9 and her cute little innocent note was basically saying make a decision, it's me or her. Make your decision so I can move on with my life and stop wasting my time on you or so that we can start going on dates and live happily ever after, just decide already.
This is the same child that already tells me she will be rich when she grows up. The one that walks into a jewelry store with us last night to look at wedding rings and picks the most expensive ring in the entire store and announced to the lady that worked there that it would be hers someday. The child that claims she will have a pool boy one day and a rich husband, and she will be famous. And don't forget the pink convertible that she will be driving. The child has big dreams.

And now just imagine, she has a twin sister that is just as boy crazy.

Mothers, hide your sons.

***Please note, if you know my daughter, and you tell her about this blog post, I will deny it. :)*** Pin It Now!

Junior Bridesmaids

Kate and Alex are sooooooo excited about the wedding. Recently, we took a little trip to the bridal store. The girls were in heaven. I won't tell you which dresses we are going with, but I'll show you a few options.....
























Love that they get to share in my special day!
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Christmas 2011

Ok so I am a little behind on blogging, but I have a fancy new camera so there are lots of pics!! I believe I will tell about Christmas by using my pictures.....

Christmas eve is always spent at my mom's house. We always have tons of fun there opening presents and eating the awesome food! I don't have any pictures from there because I still needed to buy a memory card for my new camera.

After my mom's house, FH, the girls, and I went to the house to open our presents for each other. It's so nice to have a family of four. We would be lost if we didn't have FH with us!! Please excuse the girls clothes, they were suppose to be getting in the bath and putting on PJs but somehow they were so excited that they got confused and put their PJs on (even though Alex still had her dress on) so their outfits look a little crazy....

After the girls opened up their presents to each other, they got in the bath and then were allowed to open the rest. The girls HATE, absolutely hate, bathtime so anytime that I have a reason to bribe then to take a bath, I use it! Please notice their towel wraps for their hair. They got these for Christmas and we use them every night, I LOVE THEM!

The girls got new little fish tanks for their fish, and a few other things. I noticed they were being pretty quiet which is NOT THE NORM for them AT ALL. They finally told me that they were really hoping that we had gotten them iPod touches, which is what they really wanted. There were no gifts left so they thought they didn't get them.

FH was pretty excited about his new tennis shoes........

Isn't he the cutest?! (I'm not biased at all.)

So, then when we were all done, I told the girls to go look in their stockings because I forgot about one more present that they had. It was an iPod touch for each of them. They freaked out!!! The pictures don't do the freak out justice. They literally went nuts. The pictures are a little bit blurry because they were jumping up and down....

These were definately the highlight of their entire night, and they haven't put them down much since. The rest of the night was spent looking at all the good presents we got.

We also made cookies for Santa and popcorn for the elves, of course. FH ran to the store to get carrots for the reindeer, but the store was closed. Kate just HAD to feed everyone so we cut up some cookies for the reindeer to nibble on. The girls had lots of fun with this....please excuse Alex, she doesn't like to wear clothes.....

Pretty soon, it was time for bed! The girls warned me that I should hurry up and get in bed too or Santa wouldn't come! I was a little worried about how quickly the girls would fall asleep. It was tradition when I was growing up that my brother, sister, and I all slept in the same bed when Santa was coming. My mom has pictures of us doing this. The girls don't fall asleep too quickly when they sleep together, but I at least wanted to try. They fell asleep immediately! And look how cute they looked snuggled up together in Alex's bed!

The girls woke up at 3AM. yes, you heard that right. Or wait, maybe it was 4AM. Yeah, I think it was 4. Either way it was WAY too early. But they claimed they had to go to the bathroom and they couldn't come out of their room without seeing surprises. They had to go to their dad's house around 9 so I figured I would go ahead and let them get up and have time to play (and nap) before time to go. And do you know what that silly Bella the elf did? Well, she trapped them in their rooms!!

It was fun and the girls got to run through it on their way to see their Santa stuff. (Thanks pinterest!)

That little elf wasn't the only one busy all night at our house, Santa came too!!

Kate's stuff was on the recliner, Alex's stuff was on the couch, and the shared stuff was over to the side. ***Please ignore the TN pillows. I'm pretty sure Santa delivered those to the wrong houses!***

Kate absolutely freaked out when she saw her electric scooter (she walked like a zombie towards it), and Alex couldn't believe it when she saw her new keyboard!!

                                                  Santa was good to them this year!! And they still had lots more places to go. They went to spend time with their Dad and his family next. When we got them back,we headed to FH's sister's house for some fun. The girls got great gifts and helped keep everyone entertained by forcing them to play Truth or Dare. It was great fun and everyone was crying laughing while playing the game.

It was a great, great day. I am so grateful for our families, we are lucky to have so many loved ones.

The next day, the girls were up SUPER early ready to try out their new toys outside since it was raining on Christmas day.

       Merry Merry Christmas everyone! Now, bring on 2012. The year of the wedding!! I can't wait! Pin It Now!