Chamber Banquet

Back in January our Chamber of Commerce had their annual banquet. Kody and I went with a group from the City. The theme was wild about our members and I was so lucky to find a dress with a leopard top! I loved it and it was CHEAP! I love a good clearance sale! Dinner was good and so was the  company….it was fun to sit there and hear the people win Humanitarian of the Year, Lifetime Achievement, etc. and think that SOMEDAY will be people our age winning it. I felt like a young duck there, but someday it will be people like us (maybe not us, but our age group). Courtney got a picture of us at the banquet and I attempted with my big camera when we got home.

 

Even though I was super tired that night, it was fun to get dressed up and go out with KT!

Old Friends, Nephews, Dinner, and Dancing…

Last weekend we spent a couple of days in Jackson. We had the best time! Friday night by the time we got there we just ate soup at the house and went to bed early. We both had had colds earlier in the week so we wanted to rest.

We got up Saturday morning and went to a running store. I’ll post more on that later. Afterwards I met my friend from college, Jess Ladd. I love Jess and had missed her SO much!! It had been too long!! We met at the mall and shopped around for a bit then went to lunch at Cup ‘n Cork downtown Cape. It was fun to drive around and see things from our glory days. ha! We could have talked for two days straight!! We went to Hobby Lobby, Target, and TJ Maxx and then she headed back to St. Louis. I was so glad she came down! She even brought me 4 LARGE bags of her Mom’s famous popcorn!!!!!!!! Thanks Jess, love ya!

After Jess left I headed to Jackson to see Drew & Drake. Drew continues to get taller and maybe even skinnier and Drake is his same ole chubby self and I LOVE IT!!!! He was in a good mood and I got several pictures of him. Drew is the hard one to capture on film. I have two really cute nephews!! This picture is dark!

Saturday night we went to the 3rd Annual Red & Black Affair, which was a fundraiser for the Jackson School Foundation. It was a lot of fun, just a little loud when trying to talk to people. They had one of the local bands playing, Mid Life Crisis, and they are so good. Kody and I love to hear them. They even did a couple of Adele songs and they were SOOO good! I saw lots of old family friends and got to visit with a lot of people and family. Kody enjoyed seeing people from high school. It was a good night! Poor guy lost his voice though half way into the night so it was nearly impossible to hear him with the band playing. We got home a little after midnight and were both off to bed!

Sunday we got home and hung around the house for awhile and then went to lunch with John, Teresa, Grandma and Marion. We stopped by to tell Drew & Drake bye and then headed home.

We got home about 5 and headed to the Skeeters’ house about 6:30 to help Jay with some trim in their kitchen. As soon as we walked in the doors both boys started running towards us doing their best to say our names! Precious! I played with Jen , Paige, Drew and Luke while the guys worked. Fun ending to the weekend!

Pinterest Inspired Craft Night

I’m really embarrassed to just now blog on this, but I was going through pictures tonight and came across these two fun projects I did one night while Kody did homework.

I love Pinterest, it’s just FULL of good ideas. Whoever came up with it is GENIUS!! Kody and I had collected wine corks in Hermann on our annual anniversary trip. We just asked every winery if they gave away their corks, sure enough all of them gave us a TON. I had seen this “T” on Pinterest not long after I joined.

I simply bought a “T” at Hobby Lobby for like $3. Then I just hot glued the corks onto it switching back between red and white wine corks. I love the way it turned out. It’s going to hang in our kitchenette in the basement.

I also made a Christmas card holder from Pinterest. It was fun and easy enough I wanted to make another so I made one for my MIL.

I just bought a pack of clothes pins, green spray paint, and then pinned each pin on a big box and took it outside to spray paint.

And as you can see it held up pretty well! I was so pleased, this was definitely a fun project that I will pull out next year too!

What’s your favorite Pinterest project you’ve completed? Follow me if you want! http://pinterest.com/trulythompson/ 

Sweet Dudley

I’ve dropped off the planet, but had some good reasoning.

A week ago Wednesday we lost our sweet, loving Golden Retriever, Dudley. Dudley was our pet at my Mom and Dad’s house for the last 12 years. He was such a sweet, loving boy! We were not expecting him to pass away so soon so I think that may have been why it was so hard for me. I also knew that my brother wouldn’t get to tell him bye and it was his dog so that hurt me too.

Dudley had a seizure Tuesday afternoon when my Mom got home from school. She had noticed the last week or so he was slower getting around and seemed kind of out of it, but he is old, likes to lay around, and we just thought that was maybe his new normal. We were afraid he was having joint problems but it was something else. During his seizure he was throwing up :( and went to the bathroom and she finally got him outside and down our deck stairs where he just laid there. My Dad came home and they took him to the vet to find out that his heart, lungs, and stomach were filled with fluids. The vet said that most the time by the time the fluid gets to the stomach there just isn’t much they can do. It was like congested heart failure. They brought him back home for one more night and then Kody and I went to say bye Tuesday at lunch. Lord, I haven’t cried that much in a long time and it’s still hard for me to type this post.

It’s funny how pets become so much like your family. It’s weird going to their house and him not being there, just barky Boj! He loved Kody and when we went to see him at lunch he was laying on a pallet in the living room under covers and when Kody walked in he raised his head and started wagging his tail. :( We’ll miss him for sure, I hope he’s running around Doggy Heaven with all his friends and family.

Here he is with Jax when Jax was younger and my friend Courtney’s dog Ranger. This night he was like the referee between these two pups.

Christmas time 2006, he looks like he’s smiling here.

Brothers, just different sizes!

We always had him shaved in the summer time. He would act embarrassed right after he came home, but loved being cooler.

He loved being outside, chewing on that bowl. If he was inside he would find towels and chew on them. In his later years he loved playing with those ‘stuffless’ squirrels.

I’m so glad back in the fall he got to come spend the night at our house. He loved our HUGE yard and ran all over it playing. That night he got to sleep on the couch. First big dog to ever be allowed on our couch, but I broke the rules for him. Here's one last more right after we got him 12 years ago on Halloween with Alex!

Love you Dudley, we won’t ever forget you!

You Had Me at Hello…

What a corny title, but it is true. When I think about our story it is corny, but it’s my favorite story to tell. I’ve told it on here before but Becky at From Mrs to Mama is having a V-day link up and I thought why not???

Link up your love story today! She’s got a set of questions to ask that will tell it all!

1. How long have you and your significant other been together?

We met in September of 2003! That’s almost 8 1/2 years ago. Woa. We’ve pretty much been together since, but married a little over 2 years. It will be 3 years October 24, 2012.

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?}

Bare with me, this may get long. My friend Jessica and I were cruising town one night just having fun, listening to music, and laughing, because that’s what I did when I was with her….we noticed a silver Extera and immediately said those are COLLEGE boys. HAHA! We were juniors in high school, just turned 17. We pulled the Extera over to notice that one of the so-called-college-boys was a guy named Aaron that was from West Plains. We talked for a minute at Wendy’s and he had 2 other friends with him…Kody and some Richie kid. We drove off and I really never thought much more about them…until the next night.

On Saturday night my friend Courtney and I were driving around with her boyfriend and a set up for me. HA, I was dying to get out of the car. He was a freak! :) We stopped at Auto Zone (one of the cool spots to hang out) and we noticed Aaron, Kody, and Richie were hanging out with some guys that were seniors that we knew. We went next door to Hardee’s and I got in the truck with them. That’s big y’all, I didn’t normally do things like that. Kody was quite dreamy…buff football player with sweet hair and a light yellow Polo shirt. We talked driving around about anything and everything…family, religion, sports, friends, etc. We went to Wal-Mart (with this group) and on our way there he said he would be marrying me someday. HAHA! We were running around Wal-Mart and he stopped and bought one of those fake, gaudy “diamond” rings and proposed right there in Wal-Mart!

I, of course thought that was cute, but wasn’t sure where our engagement would take us. We exchanged numbers and I really never thought he would call me…but he did. Later that night and every night since. We went 2 months before we saw each other again and then at least every month for 2 years. We really became best friends first, but by the time we met up again it was love!

Here’s one of the first pictures of us together…and then some others from the first couple of years including my Senior Homecoming, my Senior Prom (w/ a broken arm), 2 weddings, concert, and my graduation!       

3. If married, how long have you been married? If not, is this the guy you hope to marry? {do tell}

We’ve been married a little over 2 years. This is the guy I hoped to married! He was made for me.

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding? If not, where would you like to get married? And will it be big or small?

We got married at our church, First United Methodist Church and our reception was at the Opera House here in town. It was the best day ever! It was as big as we could have it, around 300 people.

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share!

Not really…I call him “Code” most of the time, except I always put a K on the front of that…Kode short for Kody. He may call me Mal from time to time. Not many people do….

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.

1. Hilarious

2. Understanding and helpful

3. Loves me for me.

7. Tell us how he proposed? Or your ideal proposal?

We went on a little trip to Branson. We were eating dinner at Landry’s and afterwards he slid the box over and asked. Then told me not to make a big deal out of it! HAHA! Typical Kody.

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?

Can I say neither? Really, he would buy me the moon if I wanted it. We just don’t spend money on little stuff like that. We prefer to go on a little trip, go to a nice dinner, or just hang out. I don’t need gifts to make me happy.

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?

I choose all of the above. Depending on where we are at…I love to watch the sunset on the beach, take walks on the beach, etc…but we are 10 hours from the beach. We also enjoy meeting right after work for dinner and then heading home to watch a movie.

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?

He really wants to go to Scotland and Ireland someday. Hope we can do that. I also would enjoy spending about a month or more in Jamaica at our favorite resort. We love to go and do, but there’s something to be said about being home too. Someday I hope we can build 1 house together. I don’t really want to build more than 1, so it’d be our dream house.

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day.

Well don’t you know it will be a happening night being a Tuesday and all…ha. This weekend we’re going to visit the in-laws and attend the Red & Black Affair. So we’ll get all dressed up, eat and drink good, and dance. Sounds good to me. Probably the next weekend we will go to dinner or something. I REALLY want him to take me to see The Vow.

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day?

Just to see The Vow.

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.

Do things together and enjoy it. Life is short, you always think you need to do this, have to be here, need to go there, participate in this. Really, when we leave this earth we won’t remember what club we were part of or all of those basketball games we were at. We’ll remember who loved us the most.

14.  Show us a picture of what love means to you.