I'm Ready for Fall, Ya'll!

Okay....I got my Pottery Barn and Willow House (the new Southern Living at Home) catalogs in today and now I'm so excited about fall and Christmas I could just burst pumpkins and glitter!

I get so stinking excited about decorating for Fall. It's not that I'm exceptionally talented at decorating, I just love it. I think it's because there has been such a lull and everything in my house has looked the same since Spring.

I'm going to try to not spend much money at all this year. I'm giving myself a $30 allowance to buy anything new I need to complete my list of fall decorating to-dos, and then of course pumpkins will just have to come out of grocery money. They will come from Wal-Mart, right? Alright then, we call that groceries.

:)

Here are some pictures that are inspiring me...

This picture if from Pottery Barn. I already have some thick, red candlesticks, so I'm thinking of putting those on my mantle with the small pumpkins and a thin candle on top, surrounding it with my stick pumpkins, real pumpkins gallore, and some fall garland I already have. I want to put lots of pumpkins on the floor by our fireplace too. Our TV is mounted above our mantle, so I can't do the mirror/wreath thing, but I do have an indoor fall wreath that I might could prop up on the mantle and it wouldn't cover the TV.

These beauties are from Pottery Barn too. My lanterns aren't this big, and they've weathered some, so I may have to invest in some new ones. I've seen some for a lot cheaper at Garden Ridge. I put them out last year by my wire pumpkins with lights and fall leaf garland and loved it.

must. have. these. stockings.

They're from Willow House and are marvelous. All of our Christmas stuff is lime and red. and they would go perfectly. I bought the star stocking holders at a Southern Living party last year, so how perfect would that be?

I adore this table runner that matches the stockings too.

In addition to the decorating excitement that fall brings, there's also college football!

The Collyge family reunion falls on the first game day, but the game WILL be on somewhere I'm sure. The second weekend of football, we'll be in Dallas going to a Dave Matthews concert, so we won't make it to that game, but after that it's on! I can't wait to have people over, cook some game day food, put on a hog shirt, hear the band play, and call those hogs!

WOOOO PIGS!!!

3 Posts Sunday

It was only a 2 day school week, but believe me, it was way more than a 40 hour work week.

It was a great first 2 days of school. All went well considering nothing ever goes as planned.

Dustin got up, wished me a good day, and took my picture before my first day of school. This has become a tradition for some reason. Its like I'm a small child with my backpack on...nervous to start a new beginning!

I got a bit behind on the blogging because of my overwhelmed-ness. So be sure to check out the 2 posts below to see what we've been up to the past two weekends!

I'm off to watch my favorite Sunday shows...True Blood and Entourage...that is until Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters starts up again. Then I'll have some DVRing to do! Oh what an exciting life I lead!!!!

Chillaxin'

Modern Family anyone? I love the dad on that show...especially because he made up his own word, "chillax", like I often do. Its part of my unique character that I sometimes make up words without even noticing. This weekend I made up the word "fester". Its a verb, as in "There are ants festering over there." Sounds for real doesn't it?

We went to Ouachita again this weekend, but this time to meet up with Dustin's family. The Brasuells came, but the Riedels were missed. John has had a couple of big trials this summer that have kept them from coming to the lake as much as they normally do.

This is only like our 3rd or 4th time all summer to be with Dustin's family at the lake, and we've only been with my family at Tenkiller for 2 or 3 weekends. This summer just went by way too quickly!

It wasn't too hot out, but we took advantage of the cool times in the day and went out at 9am, came in for lunch and to chillax for a bit, then went back out later.

It was Emilee's first time on the boat, and its safe to say she loved it! Here she is with her big brother in her swimming pool on the boat.

Our boys chillaxin' in the water.

Emilee was passed out and ready for a N-A-P.

I'd like to say Duke was on his best behavior this weekend....but he wasn't.

Watching The Hangover, but not laughing at the movie....we won't even go there.

Couples w/e at Ouachita

Last weekend, we weren't going to do anything since our summer funds were depleted, but then we decided we could go to Ouachita for pretty cheap considering...so we hit up Matt and Jessica to join us. They're cheap like we are, so they were fine with burgers for dinner, some Busch Light, and granola bars for breakfast.

MmmmmMMMmmmm. Good stuff.

Turns out, our school secretary and buddy, Paige, and her family were at Ouachita too, so we met them in a cove across from Mountain Harbor and hung out for quite awhile. It was good times and the livin' was easy!!

Gotta live up every day of summer we have left, ya know! Before long we'll be wondering where those summer days at the lake went!

Going Private

In an effort to keep our personal life more personal, I've decided to make my blog private. For those of you who aren't aware, this just means that if you want to continue to follow my blog, you will have to let me know so I can invite you as a follower, and then you will have to sign in using your email and a password.

You may be thinking, "Well why the heck does she have a blog if she wants her life to be private?" Well......

Without going into too much detail on here...I'll just say that with my job comes a need to separate yourself from the politics that come along with teaching and the urge to protect yourself from potential gossip or prejudices. If you know me, I don't like to be muzzled or filtered. : ) I just want to be me...and not have to go through my mental Rolodex every time I write a blogpost or update my FB status to try to make sure I'm not giving off the wrong impression or filter what this or that person might think (mainly people directly related to my job)! I've given this a lot of thought lately, and I've just decided that this is the professional route, the higher road, and the best thing for my own sanity! :)

I'm going to leave this post up until next Monday for people who don't check the blog on a regular basis to see it. If you would like to continue to follow our blog, just email me at cdweath@gmail.com, or leave a comment with your email address. I'm going to email those of you who I know follow the blog regularly and whose email address I already have. In the future, you will have to enter your own email address and create a password to enter our blog site.

I hope this doesn't discourage anyone from following our blog! Please don't hesitate to email me or leave a comment that you would like to follow! I've heard several people tell me, our family members, or our friends that they read our blog, but I had no idea because they had never left a comment. We, by no means, have a huge following, but I don't want to loose readers because of this or scare anyone off!

Thanks for your understanding and patience!!!!

Happy Friday, Kids!

This is the best I can come up with to entertain ya'll today...

I love...pedicures

But hate....paying $25 to get one.

I love...Duke and Rudy, my two furry loves.

But hate....the hair that is taking over my every inch of living space.

I love...getting my room ready for school.

But hate....knowing that school is about to start.

I love...eating ice cream.

But hate....how it goes straight to my derriere.

I love...having a pantry and refrigerator full of groceries and buying in bulk.

But hate....going to the grocery store and spending cash money.

I love...looking at super glamorous clothes, researching home decorating websites, watching the Rachel Zoe project...and so on.

But hate....the feeling of inferiority it gives me.

I love...where we live!

But hate...being 3 hours away from my mama and living the farthest away out of all of our immediate family.

I love...knowing that I'm headed to Lake Ouachita today for a weekend with my love and our best buddies Jessica and Matt.

But hate...that it is the last official summer vacation weekend. : /

Member/Guest Golf Tournament in Danville...with Picture Overload!

This last weekend, Dustin played in the Member/Guest golf tournament at Chamberlyne Country Club in Danville with John. I tagged along to stay with Amber and the girls. We had a lot of fun doing absolutely nothin'. It was really nice to spend some quality time with Morgan and Braelyn with just me and Amber. I really enjoy our time a lot more when they are at their house with minimal distractions (i.e. Nana, who Morgan is attached at the hip to when she's around!)

Here's Dustin after a long second day of golf.

Dustin and I about to eat dinner at the club after Day 1 of the tournament.

Braelyn, Duke, and Morgan

Morgan took these next few photos....

Brae and Amber

Braelyn (Ouch, sister!....that's bright!)

I have no idea how she made this red. Maybe she put her finger over something??

Morgan, Brae, and I playing Disney Princess Memory

Morgan and Braelyn riding in the stroller on our neighborhood stroll

Dustin and Brae. I was trying to teach him that the baby is mobile. He can move with her in his hands. Ha! He's getting better every time!

The Riedels minus Braelyn

Me, Braelyn, and Morgan lounging around after church

This was totally Amber's idea! We tortured Braelyn and put her on Duke's back. Morgan decided she wanted to hop on too.This was just before Duke decided he wanted to get up and bucked the girls off!

A great weekend with great memories and family! Thanks for the hospitality, Riedels!