The BEST weekend E.V.E.R!!!

As you've read, I had a weekend away with

SEVEN woman whom I grew up with yet we have all moved away &&

made our own lives. We figured it up, it's been 13 years since we've all been together.

I explained here how it all happened && let me just say

it could have went either good or shaky.

Good is an understatement. I'm not sure if there is a word that really describes how fabulous && wonderful this weekend went. All seven {should have been eight} of us picked right back up.

I haven't laughed so hard in so long - seriously... wait until to hear all about it.

I was not ready to come home. I could have stayed another day, maybe two...

I cried dropping the last girls off at the airport.

That being said, we've already picked our destination for next year --- Yes! We plan to

make this an annual trip, hell yes!!!!

So much to even write about && can I say as much as I dislike breaking up

posts, I will definitely have to do so. && I promise it will be coming soon however they will take some time to work on. I promised the girls to "picmonkey" all photos!

There are many.

Until then... I'll be preparing posts about my girls trip &&&

the ever so wonderful Gender Reveal Party for the fabulous Caitlin & Cliff. That too, was a really really happy day/night that I never quit smiling for.

If you did not see the gender on instagram then you will either have to wait until the post OR.... maybe go see Cait to find out early!

&& of course visiting everyone Else's blogs since I've been a huge slacker.

Life is so busy at times. Forgive me.

Xo - Jess

Fourth of July {Take One}

Yesterday was such a wonderful day.

I spent the Fourth of July celebrating with my dear friend, Holly & her family.

Every year, Aaron & I are invited to this big cookout her parents host annually but

every year we are usually out of town. That being said, the 4th fell on a Wednesday

therefore we had no plans {until the weekend to follow}.

Our dear friend, Nathan is moving out of State on Friday so Aaron actually spent most of the day with him soaking up the sun {in sweat} fishing here & there.  I headed over to the gathering early before his arrival.

Mattie & Kendal {Holly's girls} being just as cute as ever!

Boy was it HOTT!

Seriously, I'm not used to it. I sweat worse than the average girl {gross} - it did not take

much for ALL of us to be drenched in sweat. We played multiple games

of cornhole, in which I was totally off my game. Our last tournament I was partnered up with Holly's Dad, in which he is REALLY good - I was so nervous. We ended up

hanging in there for a very long time, playing game after game but did not do good enough to win. It was still fun.

&& Eventually I went to pick my better half up to where he could

enjoy all the socializing & CH tourneys.

Caitlin, Me, Ashley & Holly trying to cool off in the shade while

watching the action from afar.

We had a wonderful time over at the Raulersons sharing this

holiday && to end the night, Mr. Lawrence gave us a beautiful loud firework show.

It was such a wonderful day & I was so happy to have finally spend it

with Holly & her family.

♥ getting ready for the fireworks

Holly & Matt also ready to watch the show

I did not even pull my camera out - ugh! I'm slacking now a days.

Thank goodness for camera phones!

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July celebrating our

countries Independence! We have one more round of celebrating this Saturday with our family & more friends! Maybe I'll do better with taking pictures!



Fishing in the Deep Blue Sea

This past weekend was the first time in so long

that I did not have anything "planned". Every weekend is always filled with

many to-dos, always somewhere to go - a party to attend, some kind of event.

I've been wanting to give our bedroom a makeover since we received

our beautiful new bed setting back at one of our wedding showers.

Our walls did not match with the look I was going for.

I also wanted to give a new look to our bedroom furniture set - it's old and

I really don't care for the color of the wood.

Well, things changed when a friend of mine, Kacie asked us last minute if we

would like to join her & her hubby on a Saturday fishing trip, catching Cobia.

My immediate thought was, this is on my bucket list - weird I know.

Aaron doesn't do much salt water fishing so he was looking forward to it &&

me? I was more excited about seeing Kacie. She and I have been lifelong friends since we were 3 and 4 years old. It's that kind of friendship where you live in different places and

have different people in your lives, at some point the road split & you ended up away from each other yet you can pick right back up as if no time ever got in the way.

There is no awkwardness - it's really great. This would also be the first time besides small gatherings here and there that Aaron & her husband William would really get to know each other. I was excited.

They live about an hour from us so we were invited to stay the night that Friday night

being we would be getting up at the crack of dawn. It was definitely the crack of dawn.

Aaron wasn't really sure I would make it being it was salt water - salt water is rough and the waves are much choppy-ier. In the past year, {past two cruises we've been on} I've gotten a slight case of motion sickness. I was a little nervous. The last thing I wanted to do was get sick on a boat with people I'm not comfortable around. Williams brother, Marshal & his friend, Will also joined us. && I don't say "not comfortable" in a bad way - I was just around them too, for the first time.

I took a motion sickness pill before bed that night && one in the morning -

it definitely helped. I may have been a little sleepy but I was good to go.....

for the time being.

We took the boat about 20 miles out - into the blue water which was nifty.

it was about an hour - two hour ride out there.

Aaron was catching something exciting {i can't remember what it was}

&& by the time he got it to the surface of the water a Barracuda came up & within

one bite he bite the 20 lb fish in half. Wow! That's intimidating && scary.

It was a big fish to be snapping in one bite.

We came across this one school of fish where there was thousands and thousands

of fish of different kinds. It was awesome to see underwater - the water was so clear.

We were all pretty amazed. Too bad they weren't hungry, they didn't bite anything.

It wasn't the best day of fishing - Will was the only one who caught a Cobia

but Aaron had a pretty good time reeling in many different types of fish he had never seen before. Several sharks were caught && some Spanish fish?! Again, I forget the name -

There was one fish I kept reeling in, we named his kind "Bubba" - he looked like a large trout with old man teeth. It was funny looking.

Will reeling in his Cobia.

Marshall reeling in a shark - he wasn't to happy about that.

"... it's just a shark."

Kacie forgot her motion pill that morning so she wasn't feeling the greatest starting off the day. She eventually got better. By that point I came across my yuck stage.

I never got seasick however there was one moment when I immediately got over heated.

It was rough there for a moment. I iced my body down && took a mini nap in the shade.

Not sure why it hit me out of no where but it did. I also used 50spf sunblock the entire day

but when I laid down to rest, I managed to fry my back. Ouch.

Overall, it was a great day with the Gaines' - first time deep sea fishing for me.

We headed out earlier than usual due to a bad day with no luck. The Gaines were disappointed but Aaron & I were happy. We enjoyed it. We were out of the water around 6:30-7ish && home by 8:30. Aaron and I slept like babies.

Sunday, we spent all day painting our bedroom. We didn't start on the furniture but our walls are completed. We are one step closer to our makeover - ekkkk!

St. Pattys Day {RE-Cap} + some

Can somebody PLEASE tell me

where in the world is Carmen San Diego?

Ha! kidding...

really PLEASE tell me why is it that my {followers} is not showing up.

I've done everything I know to do.

You can find me on my knees begging for your help. 

Until then. It's time to play MAJOR ketchup.

iPhone Style:

be ready for picture overload.

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St. Pattys Day Eve -

We piled up in the family {14 passenger} van as one of Aaron's co-workers

drove us down to Savannah to drop all nine of us off & to pick us up.

Wasn't bad for $30 a couple!

Yay for safe driving!

We had dinner at

Moon River Brewing Company - delicious but craZy busy.

In moments like this {above} is the only time my hubby

gets anxiety. 

 Uhhh, duh - I gotta get the first beer of the weekend!

Just a small, very small glimpse of the partying downtown

City Market! I met so many people from everywhere that night.

{yes, I am the person who talks to random people asking them where they are from in the beer line, that's me!}

After karaoke, dancing, & lots of drinking,

We ended our night at Wild Wings - where they had a heavy rock band...

that was insane loud.

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St. Pattys Day 12'

{took several pictures with my actual camera that I've yet to upload.}

Can you believe out of ALL the drinking I was doing,

I never ever ever ever ONCE drank a green beer.

I don't know how I feel about that.

I'm kinda ticked.

First St. Patricks Day, married!

It was an AWESOME day.

Started out with our first Wet Willie Drink at 9am...

and then face painting....

My bestie Kristie is a teacher, therefore she brought her

face paint from class down to the parade to paint shamrocks - my hubby thought he'd

join in because he was ticked to death over this shamrock (& she talked him into a mustache, hilarious}. After seeing a few {5+} of his art work, I was quite impressed.

The hubster & a very very old/great friend of his, JP.

I love seeing these two together - Aaron gets SO excited. Can't ya tell by the

hand on the hip? {he's pretty lit}

... & again showing this craZy amaZing fun side along with my

second Mom, Mrs. Wanda - my best friends Momma. They were on a roll!

Walking down to see my family on the other side....

Remember the other day when I mentioned having like the smallest ounce of

baby fever... yeah, well it's moments & pictures like this that get me.

♥

... better said as the smokn' hott Georgia heat.

Rachel and in the blaring sun visiting my Momma, sister & her family down

the road from where we were. They agreed to share our spot next year - way too hott.

I have a lot of favorite people in my life, but these two by far hit the top!

I couldn't do it without either of them! ♥ My heart.

Grandma and Chloe, my niece...

sweating to death. No joke. Almost heat stroke... in March.

Minutes after this picture, we headed back to the Oak Trees....

... and instead of normal people we thought it would be great to walk with one

of the Irish families {IN THE PARADE} - it was hilarious. We got weird looks, however

by that time the enormous family was pretty tired and we were just getting started...

we had the crowd going! :)

It was a must-stop-right-now, please take a picture with me

moment!

These ladies reminded me of my bachelorette party, Madd Hatter Style!

Yep, that's me drinking beer out of a straw &

then a small shot-like drink in my other hand that a friend Nic, made for me.

It tasted just.like apple pie, De-LISH! 

Kristie & Candice chill-axing!

About 5 minutes before this moment, I had little Lacey on my

shoulders. Rachel {her Momma} clearly stated, "Jess, you do not have to do that. Holding a child on your shoulders is not for woman, it's a mans job."

Yeah, well I was {Mrs. Jess aka Mrs. Awesome} and Lacey couldn't see...

so I did it. It wasn't minutes before I was dying but wouldn't say a thing.

Jon saved me. It took me 1.5 days to realize why the heck my body was hurting SO very

bad. I thought I was just getting old and couldn't drink that like anymore.

#truestory. - definitely a mans job.

And that's all I got for St. Pattys Day photos.

We ended the day at Jalapenos filling our tummies!

Great day!

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A little bit of where I come from:

small town. one stop light in the whole town. everyone knows everyone.

My new mantel look, SOOO please with it!

-Thanks to Caitlin from my hometown!

You can find her here -----> blog  website  etsy

Her store is called, Embellish Boutique

It's springtime. I'm in love.

Even though I've recently moved my bird feeder to the dogwood tree behind it,

I still love this picture. It was taken on my front porch.

Is this not beautiful? I can look at it all day long.

A few pictures I captured of Aaron's family Plantation:

a woppn' 130 acres :: what used to be a campground many years ago.

It's where we call home.

the pecan trees.

pond #1:

this is what he did as a kid. seriously.

fishing is his passion.

Pond #1

Love this picture♥

Pond #2

+

pond #2 - once of my favorite places to be.

One of the many family members homes that live on the property. 

that would be me. collecting the fish as we walk around the pond.  :)

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Random nights of Yahtzee.

Aaron bragging on {ALL} his Yahtzee skills.

Candice finally getting her first Yahtzee!

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Mommas birthday gathering

{post coming soon}

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First timers!

{posts coming soon w/ recipes}

Stuffed Artichokes -amazing!

Banana Pudding {yum!}

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A night at the ballpark.

Me & my mini-me, Addyson.

AKA my niece - Maybe not today but she is a spittn' image of me when I was

a little girl. && yes, I too have natural red hair.

They didn't win, however Ashlyn had the best play of the night! :)

I was a proud Aunt♥

The End.