Hooray for Love!

Our sweet friends, Brooks and Mary Ann, are engaged! Hip-hip-hooray! hip-hip-hooray! 

Mary Ann and I met though a mutual friend when our combined awkwardness overflowed into a handshake/hug/high five. She's such a sweetheart, you guys! A year and a half ago we were sitting in biology class looking at pictures of Facebook of some cute boy she'd taken to a date party. 

Last June, Tommy would come home from class and tell me about some "frat guy who is always late to class. Probably because he's hungover."

In July, Mary Ann was spending her summer in Wyoming. Tom and I went to try the newly opened Steel City Pops and when I got to the front of the line I had another overflow of awkward. 

 "I've seen you on Facebook! You're Brooks!"  

the creepy stalker inside me blurted out.

After a very surprised/frightened look and a bit of conversation, we discovered that Brooks was the "hungover frat guy" (who is actually neither of those things) and the we are Mary Ann's friends who got married super young. That's usually something that weirds college-aged people out but Brooks' enthusiasm about young marriage was refreshing and told us that he was a different kind of dude. 

Mary Ann and Brooks are fun, sweet, God-fearing people and we are overflowing with joy over their engagement! To know the two of them as a couple is to know that you are in the presence of true love. They deserve all the happiness in the world and I just know that God is going to bless the crap out of their engagement and marriage! Congratulations, guys! Love you both!

sumo suits and catching up

Hello there!
Wow... its been over a year since I darkened the (virtual) door of this little blog. I didn't intend to abandon it, but life is pretty uneventful on this side of the screen. I hope this finds you well!
I spent the summer taking classes and am getting into the Teacher Education Program which keeps me pretty busy. I've found that my day-to-day goings on have been best reflected in a small journal.

But a few weeks ago my best friend told me that she missed reading my posts, so I guess I'll write one. It just so happens to be about her birthday party!

Sydney turned 21 on October 7th. She didn't know it, but we had been planning a surprise party for her for months! Honestly, on her birthday we all felt like complete jerks because we kind of blew her off and didn't offer to do anything special for her big two-one. Little did she know that we were actually the Three Best Friends That Anyone Could Have!!!

[I apologize from the crappy quality of the photos. I dropped the picture-taking ball and had to steal from instagram!]

 

You see, she mentioned that she would love to sumo wrestle a la The Office episode "Beach Day". We made it happen! And we totally wrestled in the front yard on a Monday night. Trust me, all the cool kids are doing it. 

It resulted in a lot of this:

It was super fun! And yes, she's continued to wear the suits in her daily life. One of the many, many reasons that I love her! 

Fellow party planners sandwiching the birthday girl! (At this point I was catching my plate on fire. NBD.)
I so enjoy planning parties for the people I love! It's wicked awesome!

Other than throwing sort of weird-themed ragers, we've done some pretty fun things over this past year. In March, Tom and I ran Spartan Sprint in Conyers, Georgia. I AM SPARTA! AROO!
In June, Tommy's sister joined the Mrs. club.
Oh! And we totally got to see the Backstreet Boys!! What?! Yes. It was fantastic. Fangirled big time over Nick Carter. Tommy also took me to see John Mayer, which was on my bucket list. Loved it! Except for the creepy old drunk guy who kept asking to take pictures with me. Why do creepy drunk guys have to make things so weird all the time?

I guess in the mundane-ness of my day-to-day, some pretty exciting things have happened. I should really do a better job of documenting it all. I'm going to try to get back into the swing of keeping up this little blog. However, that does not mean that I'm going to post regularly. And I'm not going to let myself feel bad about that. This semester I've had to learn to say, "no" to some things without feeling guilty and its been a hard lesson to learn. But more on that later.

Leave me a comment and let me know how you've been since we last spoke (typed)! Sending love from my glowing screen to yours!

the happiest 5K on the planet!

COLOR RUN!!!!!!! It was awesome, you guys!!!!!

Tommy, Brandon, Sydney, Mary Ann, Chandler, and I (collectively we call ourselves the Rainbow Ninjas) headed to Birmingham at 6am this morning to run our first 5K in the pouring rain that Hurricane Isaac is so sweetly dumping on us. On the way there I was being a bit of a Debbie Downer because of the general ickiness of the day, but in the end it made our color stick better and kept us cool! God knows what He's doing! Yay for rain!

Color Zones were loads of fun and we went through a couple of them twice, just to make sure we got what we came for. A Color Thrower gave me a face-full of blue so I came out looking like a scary female Braveheart/Avatar monster!

When we crossed the finish line it was time for the Color Celebration, which is exactly as much fun as the name implies! On the count of three everyone throws their paint powder into the air and creates a giant rainbow cloud! It was the most awesome and most terrible thing all at once. When everyone throws and is dancing and singing to Call Me Maybe, it a blast! But when you suck down a pound of dust because you're singing to Call Me Maybe, it's an awful coughing mess! All I could think was, "I'm going to die. At Color Run. How lame is that?!"

As you can see, none of us died due to extreme color exposure. Though we may have lost our sanity! HA!

Even in the rain, Color Run was super fun! It's coming to Tuscaloosa October 6 so get your tickets and try it out! I'm thinking of volunteering to be a Color Thrower.
How was your Labor Day?

*click here to see more of our goofy pictures

mushy-gushy loveydovey awesomeness

Hooray!!! My sweet, sweet sissy-in-law is engaged to Matt!

We are so incredible happy for you two and hope you have a wonderful engagement, beautiful wedding, and a long, happy life together! I feel so privileged to have been able to share in your special day. It was perfect! Way to go Mattman! Love you both!

Who doesn't love a good proposal video? It's a proven fact that watching them improves your day by 67% so click here to have an instantly better day! You'll have to listen carefully. His poem is sweet and my sound is stinky.

***For people who may not know, Matt moved to Mobile during the summer for work. That's why he says being away from her is confusing.

boxes, boxes everywhere

That's all I've been seeing for days. But it's finally over! For now anyway. I've only moved once before and I hated it because living out of boxes totally stinks. And we've acquired so much stuff in the past year! The whole time we're packing I'm asking myself questions: How have I been storing it all? Where did it come from? What is that for? How is this all going fit into the apartment? You never realize how much junk you have until it has to be pulled out and stuffed in a truck.

But four days and four hundred boxes later we are halfway to our final destination! We officially no longer reside at 12 Springbrook! Huzzah! We're now (rather lamely) living with my parents for the next three weeks (yes, it's weird) until our new apartment is ready to be moved in to. So then we'll do it all again. I'm hoping to stay in the apartment longer than we stayed in the house. Moving totally stinks!

Now, don't think I'm not excited to be moving because I totally am! I cannot wait to be in our new home meeting new neighbors, decorating, chillaxing by the pool (that's right, there's a pool!), I just don't like the act of moving. Its sweaty work! Especially in July. In Alabama. Phew! Tommy and his friends did way more heavy lifting than I did so mega props to those guys! You go guys!

We'll be packing up and moving to our more permeant new home August 13th so if you're feeling generous and want to help us out, DO NOT FIGHT THAT URGE! Until then keep us in your prayers as we tie up the loose ends of leaving 12 Springbrook and I hope you have an awesome week because you are awesome! Catch ya on the flip side, bloggers!

Happy America Day, y'all!

"Read somewheres that the human body is 75 percent water. Not me, y'all. I'm 75 percent sweet tea, 100 percent Merican."

Every year on the 4th of July my granny wants the whole family to dress in red, white, and blue and take a great big family photo. But every year no one knows about it until we get there so it's always a huge disaster. This year my brilliant mother came up with a great idea to raise enthusiasm and make granny happy and that wonderful idea's name is Redneck Showdown! The idea is to be as patriotic and tacky as possible! You have to wear your costume all day for flag football, tug-of-war, and eating yourself silly. At the end of the day everyone votes for someone besides themselves and the winner gets a trophy! We're all super excited! Especially Tommy and I because there's not much we love better than dressing up in costume!

This year we aren't able to fully participate because we are going to the beach with the rest of the Snows (we haven't yet mastered sharing family time) so we have to send in our photo submission. We can vote, but we can't win. Honorable mention by photo submission. But they better watch out next year! Even Jack the Dog will be bringing his A-game! I am so looking forward to sharing this new tradition every year with my family!

Momma and Poppa Snow are here now to pick us up for beach fun so I've got to run! Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe 4th of July! USA USA USA!

Nanny Diaries: a funny, a sweet, and a gross

For a year and a half now I have been the proud full-time nanny for the three silly little Potter girls: Rylee, 7 years; Emory, 3 years; and Lucy, 18 months. In that time I have learned a lot about kids and myself and yesterday reminded me of all the reasons I love my job, as well as how strong my stomach has gotten!

It was Ashlee's (Potter mommy) birthday on Thursday so I hung out with the girls extra late so that the Potter parents could celebrate like adults with adult friends. We made a totally pool party day of it and had a blast!

Funny

While in the car we always listen to Disney songs on shuffle from my iPod for the simple reason that the girls love them and I don't have to answer a million questions about why I have so many love songs and why did "they" break up. So we're driving to the pool yesterday morning and playing "I've Got A Dream" from Tangled and Rylee takes particular notice of an unfamiliar phrase. 

The line goes: "I've always yearned to be a concert pianist!"

but Rylee turns to me and asks: "Bethany, what's a concrete penis?"

OH MY GOSH! I almost wrecked the car for laughing so hard!*  

Sweet

Around 2, after stuffing ourselves with pizza my mom brought and playing in the sun, I had to make a drug store run to pick up a prescription and more swim diapers because Lucy was blowing through them! But when I walked off to my car without Lucy she squirmed down from her chair and waddle-ran after me and threw herself on the concrete sobbing. I couldn't just leave her there with my mom when she was being pitiful, so I loaded her up and took her with me. She was being very good waiting in the long line and quietly yammering on in baby speak about whatever she saw. 

I've been with Lucy since she was 15 days old and I've gotten pretty attached to her. I love all the girls, but its quiet time that reminds me of my special connection with this kid. I kissed her little forehead and gave her a squeeze. She looked up at me, giggled and returned it with a sloppy, open-mouth, baby kiss on my cheek, gave me "taters" (a fist bump), and snuggled her head on my shoulder. I love Lucy and I am really going to miss her when I grow up.

Gross

We finished our pool day around 6, ate and played at Chick-fil-A, and finally got back to their house for baths and bedtime. Poor Lucy has missed her nap for three days in a row so she was barely out of the bath water before she nodded off. Emory convinced herself that she wasn't sleepy long enough to make it to the couch and curl up next to Rylee before passing out. I had Rylee hide so that I could tell Emory that everyone was in bed and she needed to be too. Yes lying is bad, but I at times like this I don't care much!

I picked Em up and started to carry her to her room went the perfect day went to pot. She raised her head to say, "Where my mo--" VOMIT SPEWING EVERYWHERE! On my face, in our hair, down the left side of my body. I stood her on the floor, more puke. Grabbed her hand and drug her to the bathroom to finish, leaving a trail down the hallway. I kid you not, it looked like the scene from Sixth Sense! I put her in the bathtub (she was so groggy that she couldn't understand why she needed two baths) and went to clean up, but luckily (luckily?) their giant red lab, Forbin, had already eaten most of it. I tucked Em in bed, borrowed some clothes from Ashlee, and washed my hair in the sink. When I got home I super scrubbed myself before Tommy or the dog could love on me. 

Kids are so pitiful and confused when they get sick. When she was in the bath Emory looked up at me with tears in her eyes and said, "I so sorry. I need clean up the floor, Bee?". Broke my heart. She's so precious, even when she's a barf monster. To think that I used to get sick at the sight of baby spit up. I was such a weenie! 

Hope you weren't eating when you read this! Happy weekend!

*I did not actually "nearly wreck"

**Couldn't find a recent picture of all three girls. Age that one about a year and you've got it!

Oh, hello there!

Wow, blog friends! It's been quite a while since we've run into each other and I'm so glad to be back!

I kind of gave up on blogging after the midterm because of a terrifying drop in my grades, particularly stupid Western Civ, but now I can proudly tell you that after finals they are much better and my scholarship is safe. WAH HOO!

Other than being buried in our books, not a lot has been going on at the Snow house.
Let's see... we had a wonderful Valentines weekend! We made dinner at home and I surprised Tommy with a weekend get-away to the cutest little B&B in Birmingham. Highly recommend it if you need a cozy, romantic mini-vacation!

I was finally able to see Wicked! It was awesome!! My sweet mommy-in-law bought tickets for Mom and I as my Christmas present so we made a girls trip out of it. Love girls trips!

Tommy and I went to Panama City Beach for spring break. We purposely avoided the crowds (Wrong place for that, am I right? HA!) but I still saw Luke Bryan! He was chillin on St. Andrews beach with his camera crew not ten feet from me! I didn't ask to get a picture because I didn't want to be "that girl" and let me tell you, totally not worth it! Why, oh why, didn't I just take a stinkin picture?

We've seen Avengers twice and it was amazing both times! Thor.. Oh, Thor, how I love you.

I had a secret stray pet for a while whom I dubbed Poor Kitty. Tommy is allergic to cats so I just fed and pet her/him on the front steps every day. Then it rained really hard for a few days and I haven't seen Poor Kitty since. I hope he/she is okay and found a family without allergies.

And we've just gotten back from the beach again. I love having a father-in-law who owns a grocery store because Tom and I get to tag along on these awesome food show trips! Free food and great family beach time! Also, the place we stay has the BEST fish tacos. Not that I've eaten fish tacos anywhere else, but I'm assuming that they can't be as good as these.

Tommy has come down with some pretty icky sick this week, but other than that all has been well in our little corner of the universe. We have succumbed to the sweet laziness of summer and are loving every minute of it!

Now enough about me, how have you been?

i am thankful

Happy (three days after) Thankgiving, y'all!

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

We spent Thanksgiving break (hallelujah a break!) in Fort Payne with my family and had make-up Thanksgiving lunch today with the Snows. I'm so full of dressing I think I might explode... We loved seeing everyone and celebrating everything God blessed us with!

My aunt Regina came up with a game to play at Mawmaw's. We each came up with something we were thankful for besides the obvious (awesome family, cars with heat and AC, a safe home, jobs, great friends, a loving God, ect.), wrote it on a slip of paper, and had to guess who wrote what. We know each other pretty well because we all guessed right off the bat! Tom and I continued to play our own game of it and here's what we came up with:

- cranberry sauce from the can
- indoor plumbing
- Walking Dead and Call of Duty for teaching us how to survive zombie attacks
-  the A'Chocolypse and Cinnapsis bars hiding in my purse. We love Sweeteeth!
- The Office and New Girl for giving us hours of hilarious entertainment (I've been repeating Zooey's line "I got the last turkey in AMERICA!" all week! So far Tommy hasn't made me stop but I'm sure he's glad the holiday is over!)
- spell check for helping us look smarter than we are
- Jack the Dog
- a vacation from the schools we are both so blessed to attend
- fried rice, sushi, and shrimp sauce
- hard times that teach us to be strong
- love. For exsisting and making everything worth it.

Even with the silly stuff, we are truly blessed. I love the crazy family I was born into as well as the great big one I've recently become a part of. I love having true friends I can count on for anything. I adore having a my sweet, goofy husband and fluffy puppy to come home to every day. Thank you God for these blessings and many more!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! What are some things you are most thankful for?

i love festivals!

Last weekend Tommy and I went to the Kentuck Arts Festival with Syd and Lynda!
I love going to Kentuck every year and seeing all the cool art, but Tom had never been so I had to take him!

Let me say, I have always been a volunteer at the festival and got in free so I had no idea what everything cost. It was $10 a ticket to get in (not so bad), but they wanted $15 for a 3-piece chicken finger basket! What?!? And because there were no prices listed, we ordered two! We thought they would be about $5. Nope! Now we know to eat before we come!

Despite unintentionally spending a huge chunk of our money right off the bat, we had a really great day browsing through all the booths and checking out each artists unique style with good friends. I bought a cute little ring made from an old silver teaspoon! We got another cool something I can't tell you about because it's my dad's Christmas present! He is going to love it! Before we left we even got to see Kara's baby sister Anabelle at Justin's tent! I love his mixed media paintings! I'm determined to have them in my grown-up house.

See that stick in Tom's bag? Well he and Lynda decided that some of the "art" looked like something that could be done by a child or picked out of the backyard yet it was priced extreamly high. So they got a stick and Lynda bet Tom $10 that couldn't get someone to ask him where he'd bought such a beautiful "gnarled branch" before we left. We caught several people admiring it but no one said anything! But as were getting off the shuttle at our car I heard a woman whisper to her husband, "He bought himself a little tree! How nice! I wish I'd seen that!"
Score!

camping with my famjam!

Hey there long-lost blog friends! I've missed you!
School has been comsuming my life so I had to leave the blogsphere for a little while. But now I don't have anything due until Tuesday! Yay! Time to catch you up on everything going on in The Land of Snow! I have pictures!

Two weeks ago-- October 7-10-- we went on our annual Boatwright family camping trip! This time was extra special because Tom and I got to bring Puppy Jack annnnd the three of us got our own tiny tent!

so pretty!

 homework stops for nothing. thank goodness I didn't need wifi!

"studying" but I don't know what. maybe the inside of his eyelids!

Jack loved playing outside all day with everyone! He also enjoyed eating countless acorns, rocks, and what was left of a dead squirrel. Ewe!

And of course no camping trip is complete without banjo music!

Kind of felt like we were in Deliverence..I kept checking behind me for crazy backwoods people creeping up.

Sydney, Tom's family, and the Calhouns all came to visit and cook out! It was so much fun that I forgot to get any pictures!

Ps. Oct. 7th was Sydney's 19th birthday! We went to Bento's for birthday lunch and it was delish! I love my bff!

Labor Day Lazies

Happy Tuesday after Labor Day everyone!

How was your long weekend?
Did you make it through Noah's rainstorm?

Tom and I had a great, busy labor day! Friday night we went to Workplay theatre with Sydney, Mary Ann, and Rachel to see Dave Barnes!!! For those of you who don't know, he's the genius and original artist of God Gave Me You. Blake Shelton is ight but Dave is the stuff!

See what I mean? Can't be touched!

Saturday we all went to the Alabama v. Kent State game! Funny story: After I've paid $55 to get a student guest ticket for Tom so he can go with me, we get up early, dress in our game day attire, park a million miles away, and walk to the stadium only to discover that the Kent State game was not in my package and we had to buy a second ticket to a game that we probably wouldn't have gone to had we known. Roll tide.

But it's okay because we had a really good time with our friends! The excitement of game day was totally worth it! And I have to say I was very pleased with the courtesy our fans showed to the Kent State players! Roll tide!

Sunday we went to church, made tacos (my first time ever! thought they were purdy good) until I had to go babysit. As I was on my way there I got a message telling me not to worry about it! YAY! So we had an Office marathon! We love the Office! Hardcore Parkour!

That is Tom favorite Office moment and hearing him laugh so hard at it cracks me up!

Monday we had originally planned to go to Six Flags, but we had to cancel because of the rain and the heart  meds Tom is on right now. Instead, we caught a bad case of the Labor Day Lazies, so it made for a great day to sleep in, eat spaghetti, clean, and do mountains of homework! Personally, I'd have rather read Jane Eyre, but UA is funny about homework; they actually want you to learn something. Go figure! We lazed around in sweats all day and never even left the house. It was a good day :)

Oh and a funny tweet I read about today's weather:

"If I'm not breaking a sweat on the way to class, I'm trudging through an artic downpour...#alabama"    -Sam Light

So true! Thanks for the laughs Sam! I was not aware that it was cold when I left my house in shorts and a tank. Did anybody else have this predicament? Or were you a smarty who dressed appropriately?

Happy Short Week!

college thus far...

I have been at UA for two weeks now and I really like college! I love that I only have to go to a class three times a week at the most. I love that I'm done before noon every day, some days before 10! I love walking to class! Even though my walk is loooooooong it's nice to be outside!

I've learned that, for the most part, high school prepared me for college, but there are a few things no one mentioned like...

1. There is a big black cat that hides in the bushes outside of Morgan and it will attack you.

2. There is no rule against massive amounts of cleavage, even if there should be!

3. You will spend almost $200 worth of sixteen-digit access codes.

4. You actually have to read your text books. Totally never did that...probably why I sucked it up in AP Economics

5. Get On Board day is so much fun and gives you a ton of free stuff! Even if you don't actually sign up! I have three Taco Casa free taco coupons now! Go me!

and finally...

6. there is the occasional Medieval duel (I can't figure out why it's so blurry!)

I'm having a lot of fun and I can't wait until kick-off Saturday! RTR!

woop! woop! ladies night!

Last night I left Tommy at home to play Call of Duty with Brandon while I met up with some long lost friends for an awesome Ladies Night out!

We met at Mugshots for dinner and then had a super fun scavenger hunt through downtown Tuscaloosa! The tasks included...

1)  Snag a Resturant to-go menu

2) Get a resturant to-go cup and a picture with the giver

he didn't quite understand that i just wanted a cup, not a drink.

3) Video a team member escourting someone across the street.
(Emily has this video)
4) video your team stuffing an imaginary elephant into a mailbox

5) Take a team picture in Government Plaza

Our team beasted and we beat the "Young Adults" by two items! Go little girls!

 Thank you Terri for organizing such a fun evening!