Happy Valentine's Day

Miss Anniston wants to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day!

My Family

I'm linking up with Neely today over at A Complete Waste of Makeup to share more about me and my family.  Since Valentine's day is tomorrow, I thought I would share a little about my husband and I, how we met, and about us starting our family.

In 2004, I was a second year pharmacy student at UT College of Pharmacy and Brandon was a logistical sales rep for a world-wide shipping company.  On my 24th birthday, some friends and I decided it would be fun to go sing some karaoke.  We ended up at a small, hole in the wall place and sang our hearts out.  Brandon had attended an engagement party earlier in the night, and a group of them decided to continue the party by singing some karaoke as well. (Well- his friends did but B opted out.)  A group of us girls got up to sing "Love Shack" (and quite terribly, I must add.)  That's when Brandon noticed me and an hour later as we were leaving he followed us out to the parking lot asking for my number. I had just gotten out of a relationship and was not about to give some random guy that I had not even talked to my phone number.  My friends, however, thought he was cute and looked normal enough so one of them slipped him my number as we walked off.  Looking back, I'm really glad they did.  He called me the next night and we talked for an hour or two just getting to know each other.  After a week or two of phone conversations, we had our first date. Obviously, it went well.  He called me the next day to ask if we could go out again.  I knew he was going to be special because he didn't even follow the 3 day date rule!  (The unspoken rule that you must wait 3 days before calling after a good date so you seem aloof, breezy, and cool.) 

One Saturday in June 2006, I arrived at his house after a very long day of work at Super D Drugstore.  I was in my fourth year of pharmacy school, in the middle of rotations, and working there as a pharmacy intern on the weekends for a little extra cash.  I was exhausted and stressed from a 6 day work week and was under the impression we were going out for a nice dinner.  When I walked in the door to his house, there were red roses laid out in a path leading me to the living room.  There were candles everywhere and the lights were dimmed low.  My first thought was that he was doing something nice for me because he knew I had a long week and was super stressed.  He had ordered pizza and had a blanket set out on the floor for us to have a little picnic.  We sat down to eat and he handed me the pizza box.  I grabbed a slice and immediately started chowing down because I was so hungry.  He looked at me strangely and handed me the pizza box again.  "Look in there again" he said.  I opened it back up and sitting in the corner was a black velvet ring box.  He took it from me and proposed!  Honestly, he couldn't have picked a better way.  I was so surprised, which made it even better.

Here are is a snapshot of my ring and a couple of photos from our engagement session:

We decided to wait until September, 2007 to have the wedding so I could finish up pharmacy school and get settled in at my new job.  I wanted to be able to fully concentrate on my last few months of school (and pass the boards) before starting the stress of planning a wedding.  Our wedding was everything I had hoped it would be.  Sadly, I don't have any digital copies of our professional wedding pictures but I do have some random snapshots of the festivities.

Engagement party

Rehearsal dinner

getting ready!

This was actually a pic taken for my bridal portrait shots.  For the day of, I had my hair up and a beautiful veil:)  I got to walk down a huge, southern-style staircase and pretended I was Scarlett from Gone With the Wind.

My beautiful bridesmaids

In December 2007 we welcomed the first member of our family- our beautiful boxer, Ruby.  I spoil her every chance I get.  She is seriously the best dog I know and we love her so much!  Here are a couple of her puppy pics from the first day we got her:

B and I had four wonderful years to enjoy just being "us."  We traveled, had plenty of date nights, and sometimes just plain goofed off.   It was a lot of fun and I'm really glad we waited awhile before having kids.  We were both so ready for parenthood by the time Anniston.

Fun times with just the two of us:

Honeymoon- Playa del Carmen, Mexico 2007

 Go TIGERS!

Biltmore- Asheville, NC 2006

San Francisco 2005

In October 2011, we welcomed our first child, Anniston Ruth.  Read all about her arrival here.  Our lives couldn't be more complete right now- and I have a feeling it's going to keep getting better!

Like Mother Like Daughter?

I came across some of my baby pictures a couple of weeks ago and was surprised at how much they reminded me of Anniston.  This picture is definitely not one of the best shots of Anniston (or me- hello, double chin!) but we are in a similar pose so I thought I'd use them.  What do you think?  Do we look anything alike?

Photo Challenge- Days 6,8, & 9

Been pretty busy this week, so it's time to play catch-up on my February Photo Challenge!

Day 6:  Dinner
Yummy pasta casserole I took with me to work Monday night.  I crumble tortilla chips on top and it is soooo good!

I'm going to skip day 7's "Button" because I couldn't think of anything...

Day 8:  Sun

It wasn't very sunny here in Memphis on Wednesday.  It has been pretty cold compared to the last few weeks.  I shot this out my car window as I was on my way to pick up some lunch for all my co-workers.

Day 9:  Front Door

Here we are on our front doorstep this morning about to leave for work (that explains the scrubs.)

Update & Big Girl Food

This week has been pretty crazy and busy.  I got up bright and early Monday morning to take Anniston to the pediatrician because I felt she was being a little "off" on Sunday.  She was fussy at times when she normally isn't and because of past experiences with this- I could feel an ear infection brewing.  I wasn't due to be at work until 10 am so we hightailed it to the pediatrician's office when they opened.  I was right- both ears were infected.  Here we go again.  Another round of antibiotics.  I did mention to my doctor that she has pretty much been on antibiotics since Christmas (minus a few weeks in between rounds of it.)  Thankfully, she said we needed to sit down and talk about our options for getting tubes put in if this is going to continue.  Anniston was really pretty good even though she felt bad.  Even when she's sick and I know her ears must be hurting, she is still a very good baby.  Bless her heart.  I raced to get her prescription filled after leaving the doctor's.  Luckily, one of my friends was filling in as pharmacist at the nearby pharmacy so I was able to pull some strings to get it filled and ready before we got there.  Then it was off to the babysitter's to drop her off, give her a dose of antibiotics before I left, and race in to work.  Whew.  I was worn out by the time I got therek.  I worried all day about how she was doing.  Thankfully, the lady who keeps her is awesome and sent me a couple of emails throughout the day to update me.

The pediatrician did say that I could start her on some solid foods at any time.  We discussed if she was actually ready to start and pretty much concluded that since she looooves to eat- all the time, anytime, anywhere- she was most definitely ready to try some solids.  This put me in a very good mood.  I've been so excited about getting to feed her solids and was so anxious to see how she would do.  We gave her her first taste of rice cereal Tuesday night.  She absolutely loved it!  She would get cranky in between bites and start flailing her arms and legs and then gobble it up when I offered her another bite.  It was so much fun to watch her.

Apparently the rice filled her tummy up because she took a very long nap soon afterwards.  I actually had to go wake her up to take her last bottle and change her into pajamas before bed.  I don't know if the rice had something to do with this or not- but she worked up a really good (and really, really smelly) poopy before bedtime.  I had to do the work myself to change her diaper and clean her up because B was about to be sick from the smell.  You would think he would be used to it by now.....ha ha.  I just had to snap this pic because it was too funny!

Photo Challenge Day 5

Day 5: 10am


At 10 am today we were heading off for a run. It was a chilly 44 degrees outside but we warmed up fast and ended up running 3 miles today.  This was our fastest 3 miles we have done since I've started back running!  Yay us!  Here is a pic we snapped before we headed out:

 Of course I don't Ruby to feel cheated with all the pictures we take of Anniston so we snapped one of her too.  She loves to have her picture taken, by the way.  She always tries to get in the pictures if she sees us take the camera out:)

Busy Saturday

Anniston and I had such a busy Saturday.  We woke up early to get some quality one on one time with each other.  We played in her jumparoo, read a book, and she sat in her highchair to watch me clean the kitchen and fold laundry.  Next up was a much needed Target run.  She didn't sleep much but instead was quite content watching me shop.  She decided she wanted to talk (very loudly) as we strolled down the toy aisle- was that a hint?  She was being so good that I decided to get a few more errands in on the way home.  We ran by Walgreens to pick up some photos and then Old Navy to use some coupons I had been saving.  By the time we made it home she was ready to get out of her carseat and eat.  Aunt Allie stopped by to visit with us and take some pictures.  Here are a few we took:

Then it was time to get ready for a dinner celebrating my cousin's homecoming and job promotion.  This was also Anniston's first "official" big girl dinner at a restaurant.  We did bring her to Brandon's grandmother's birthday dinner back in November but we had a private room so it didn't really matter if she cried nonstop (which she didn't, by the way.)  So last night was our first "real" trip to eat out in public.

  My extended family lives about an hour and a half away so I'm glad they all made the trip to Memphis so we wouldn't have to drive there.  We ate a yummy, carb-loaded dinner at Carraba's Italian Restaurant (kid-friendly, thank goodness.)  As we were pulling in to the parking lot, I noticed a "foul" smell in the car.  I immediately assumed it was Brandon (he is a guy after all!)  When I took Anniston out of her carseat once we got inside, I could still smell it- and it had gotten much stronger.  Apparently, she had been very busy on the ride there!  Mom and I hauled her off to the bathroom to change what turned out to be a very impressive poopy.  What luck- I had just changed her diaper before we left for dinner.  Oh well...

Anniston was so well behaved throughout the dinner.  I wasn't really worried about it because she is so good these days.  She didn't disappoint me.  She looked around at everybody and everything going on in amazement.  She was so good-natured about being passed around while everyone took turns holding her.  I had a couple of strangers come over to look at her and tell us how adorable she was.  Just what every mama wants to hear:)

It was so fun getting together with everyone.  It's so hard to see my aunt, uncle, cousins, and grandmother these days since I've gone back to work and they live in a different city.  We are a very close family and I love spending time with them all and catching up.  I am so proud of my cousin, Will, and his new promotion. I'm glad we got to celebrate with him!

Getting ready to leave for dinner- I swear I didn't match us on purpose!

Poppy and Anniston

My Aunt Nancy and Anniston

Allie and I with our handsome cousins, Will and Jake

 The girls:  me, Mom, Allie, Nancy