Congrats to Jen and Blake

So it has been forever since I had blogged anything. So I thought I would start out with telling you about my big sister's wedding.
Jen's wedding was at 6:30 July 26th.The week of the wedding went pretty smooth. We didn't have to do much because the reception hall did the set up and clean up. So all we had do is get the little details together and get the church decorated. Jen and I had to go to Quincy, MI on Monday to go for my first dress fitting and Jen's last fitting. My dress was a little to big and we wanted to change skirt a little so we had to go back on Friday to pick up all the dresses. I didn't go with my mom to pick it up so we just hoped and prayed that it was going to fit. It did and I could breathe freely in it! Thursday we all went to get our nails and pedicures done. Jen's other bridesmaid Mellisa got to Mom's house on Thursday and our cousins from Chicago came in Wednesday. So needless to say the party had started.
Picture of us at the nail salon... we took the place over. Jen's new brother-in-law's wife...Katelyn joined us for her first pedi ever!!

This is Syliva and Stef our cousins from Chicago.. the party starters!



On Friday morning is when our decorating business opened. Jen had great ideas on how she wanted the front of the church to look. She had a group of us working on these ideas. This what the pew markers looked like.... yea I did all the bows. Jen did everything else. We decided we were going to start a wedding pew marker business when we got the first one done. They looked very professional.

The ceremony was beautiful the flowers the church the message... it was so wonderful. Our uncle Scott married Jen and Blake. He made it even more personal for the happy couple. Jen's flowers were awesome. The prettiest flowers I have ever seen in my life. She had a florist from Sturgis, MI do them. She found them at a bridal show.
So I don't have many pictures of the ceremony... I was kinda busy holding Jen's 20lbs worth of flowers! Deric took some but he was a usher and didn't have much time to take any either. But her pictures from the photographer should be up soon. His web site is http://www.designsbypeter.com. Peter is a close friend of Jen's from Bethel, he was so much fun and took many pictures. He is so good and very easy to work with. He lives in Southbend area so if anyone is in need of wedding photographer I can get you the hook up!
We did all the pictures before the wedding so we had lots of time to get all of them in. Also we headed out to the golf course to get some action shots out there!I am sure those will be quite the wedding pictures. Yea, we got some crazy looks from the old guys trying to play golf that Saturday.
But here are some of us getting ready. Yes, I did all the hair for the wedding and Jen did all of the make-up for us girls. Overall, this was probably my favorite trip home. It was so nice to get to stand up with my sister on her happiest day of her life. And I didn't mess up on my speech so that made the day even better!

Summer So Far, and Happy B-day Jen!!!

It has been pretty calm at the Bidwell house. Summer has been really hot so far, and I have discovered how the sun must be hotter here than Indiana. I have had a few sunburns already this year and I am sure more to come. We have some trips planned for the middle and end of the summer that we are looking forward to. My sister Jennifer will be getting married July 26th so we are going to head home the 19th. A month from today!!!! Then at the beginning of August we are going to Las Vegas with the Bidwell crew! This will be a fun trip. Never been to Vegas so I am sure it will be a blast. As some of you know I won a trip through work to Cancun. I will be going at the end of August. I don't have many details on this trip yet but I do know is that I won't have to much spare time to just sit at the beach or anything. I will be in classes and at the hair show. Though I am super excited about it I am a little nervous about traveling by myself to Mexico... I have never even been out of the country!


We have been working in the yard a bit this year, not as much as last but we have added a few flowers and bushes in the flower bed. Now I am wanting to tackle the back yard.... but like I said... it is really hot.


Our one tree in the backyard is begging for some other flowers and trees!


This is Divot helping me in the flower bed

Deric has been getting out about 3 times or more a week to ride his bike. He has started to ride with the Louis and Clark group on Wednesday nights. I don't ride but my duty is taking the dogs out for their walks. They expect it now right when I get home. I usually go for about an hour or so. Poor Birdie gets really tired, usually she will just sit down and I will have to pick her up for awhile so she can rest. Her little legs can't handle long walks.

This a picture I took of Birdie after a walk... thought it was super cute!

One thing that I have decided to do this summer is to make a new recipe once a week. However I love to cook, grill, and bake I am in the habit of making the same ol' dishes a lot. So send me some recipes if you have any fun dishes to pass along!!!

Happy Birthday, Nikohl!!!

Today is little Nikohl's birthday. As most of you know this is Deric's niece. She is 8 years old today. Which is a big deal! I can't believe how big she has gotten. I got the chance to meet little Nikohl just days after she came home from the hospital. She was born premature. I had only known her for minutes that August day and I knew I would always love her!
Deric and I were going out on a date and he told me we needed to stop by his sister's house to see his niece. I never even met his sister or family really at this point. I was so nervous and it was really weird to me at first, but he was so excited to get over to his sister's house I had to go.I knew when I saw her she was going to be little but she was TINY! She was so little couldn't even fit in infant clothes. Now you wouldn't even know that she was that small. She stands almost to my shoulders and she thinks it is cool that we can share some of our shoes!! She has turned into the beautiful caring little girl I always knew she would be. I am just proud that I have the privilege to call her my niece.


This was taken in 2004. She was just about 4 years old.

This was taken at Easter when they came to visit us.
Nikohl we wish we could be there! Hope you have a wonderful day!! LOVE YOU!

Free Concert

So every year in North West Arkansas Wal-Mart has their share holders meeting. This event brings in about 6,000 people to the area. They alway have concerts every night and they used to be closed to the public. This year however they opened it up for everyone to enjoy. My friend Olivia ( who used to work at salon) works for Wal-Mart home office and she took me with her!! We went Thursday night and saw Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban.....yea both of them! Well I was super excited to see Carrie and then it was icing on the cake when I found out Keith was going to be there as well. Deric and I were going to go but then found out they weren't opening the doors for the public until 15 minutes before the show. And we all know how Deric doesn't like huge crowds.I know he was just going because I wanted to go! So it was really cool that Olivia and I got to go together! Here are some of the many pictures I took!

Us after the concert!





I think this is one of the best pics I took that night!

Another Tag from Ashley!

I was just thinking during one of my many walks this week that I needed to post a blog. I have a hard time coming up with things to write about so Thanks to Ashley I have a topic now!!!
What were you doing five years ago?
I was a Senior in High School so I was doing whatever high school girls do on Sunday nights.... a movie with the girls or hanging out with Deric!

Five thing on your To Do list today
1. Walk the dogs
2. Clean up a little bit
3. Go shopping
4. Color my hair
5. Watch some "Lost"

What are five snack you enjoy?
1. Chips of any flavor
2. Dark Chocolate
3. Fruit
4. Crackers.... Cheese Itz and Goldfish!
5. Ice cream

What are five things you would do if you were a
billionare
1. Travel the world
2. Pay off family's houses, land, debt etc
3. Volunteer a lot
4. Open a free hair salon/spa for under privilaged women
5. Save as much as I could for the future.

What are Five of your bad habits?
1. Not putting clean clothes away right after being dry
2. Waiting until the last minute to get ready for something
3. Picking at my finger nails... I can never leave polish on!
4. Watching too much HGTV and TLC!!
5. I am a snacker if I am just sitting around!


Where are Five places you have Lived?
I have only lived in two cities but 5 different houses I guess!

What are Five jobs you have had?
Haven't had five jobs. When I was younger I babysat and then I went to work in Salons!
People you want to Tag?
I will tag Candace Zarecor and Candace Mettenburg.... ummmm everyone else I know who have blogs has already done it!I just realized I need more blogger friends!!

Back in Arkansas

Well most of you know I went home for my sisters graduation. I had a wonderful time. I hadn't seen my family since Christmas so it was nice to be home for awhile. I also got to spend some more time with the Bidwells and Terrys. My flights went really well on the way to Indiana. Deric took me to the airport at about 5:15 a.m on last
Thursday. I was in Indy by 11:30. It was a lot nicer than driving 12 hours to go home!
My sister, Jennifer and my best friend Aimee picked me up at the airport. I was so surprised when I saw Aimee with Jen, they kept a good secret I guess! Well of course I was super excited and I am sure I made a scene at baggage claim when I about plowed them both over!:) It didn't take long for us to get my luggage but when we hit the parking garage, Jen and Aimee had forgotten where they had parked! So it was up and down the walkways and the elevators for Jen and I. Aimee is so scared of elevators so she had to take the stairs! After about 15 minutes of me dragging my luggage around the garage we finally found the car.
First stop on my trip was the mall! I forgotten how much I love shopping with my sister and Aimee. It was so nice to just hang with my girls for awhile. We met the rest of the family at Se Senior for dinner.I had to get my Mexican food in!!



On Friday my mom, Jen and I went to Jen's first dress fitting for the wedding. I can't post a picture..... it would ruin the surprise! We also helped mom pick out her dress.... by the way I am super jealous of it.

On Saturday I went to Nikohl's soccer game... it was a bit windy out that morning. I enjoyed watching her play. She had grown into quite the soccer player.I remember her first season of soccer and it makes me so proud to still be there to watch her play and grow.

As of the rest of the weekend I just hung around home with the family. Saturday night was a lot of fun my brother and his wife and kids came over to visit they have four now. It was the first time I got to meet my new niece she is now 3 months old.



Later that night Aimee and Jaxson ( her son) came over to play. They boys found that they loved the game Jegna and mom's autamon! As you can see they all had to get in it.


Sunday was the best day of them all it was when my big sister,Jen, was now a college graduate! She has been waiting for 5 years to get there and she did it! Not only did she make it to graduation but she did it with honors! She has always been one smart chick (inside joke)! She graduated with 2 majors; a Secondary English Education and Theater Arts degree. I took a lot of pictures of that day but I only posted a few! I am a very proud little sister! I always knew she could do it!


I'll let you in on little secret. When I was about 12 years old I went to Bethel College with a lady I babysat for. Right then and there is when I said I wanted to go to school there because of it's American Sign Language program. Well the years past and Jen made her decision to go there.... I am so bummed even though I was working for my cosmetologist license at the time. I was so upset that she was going to go there because it was MY dream. But I got over it and I was so glad it was my sister's dream also to go to school there. If I had to share a dream with someone there is no one better person than my sister to share it with! ( Mom, stop crying!!!! I mean it!)


At least I got to stand in the front of Bethel College with my Big Sister on a very important day! Love you!!

Spring Is Here!

It started warming up around here weeks ago, but we always have a few days where it gets really cold again. Well, I think all that crazyness is finally over and it is going to stay warm. We have had three weekends in a row of great weather. Last year it warmed up a lot in March, and it was our first spring in the house so we were all excited to get our landscaping done. We planted lots of flowers and bushes, only to have a few cold nights in April wipe everything out. This year we were a little bit smarter and waited until later in the spring to do our landscaping.
Two weeks ago we bought a bunch of bushes and a red Japanese maple for our front flower bed. After digging about 10 holes we had everything planted or transplanted where we wanted it. The picture above is the final result, but we still haven't planted many flowers. In the next couple weeks we will put in a lot more flowers to add some color.You can also see our tree has some leaves on it. It is really starting to look nice. Last year it was okay, but looked kinda funny. This year it looks much nicer.


This next picture is our Crape Myrtle. We bought it last spring and it just sat in our flower bed all year looking like a dead stick. Well this year it was looking quite dead again. After everything else had started blooming and turning green the crape mytle was brown and lifeless. Then, all of the sudden just a few days ago green leaves just started bursting out of the sticks. It looks like it is actually going to do something this year... Exciting!!



This weekend Amanda flew back to Indiana to go to her sister's graduations, so I was living the bachelor life this weekend. I still had the dogs, so I was like a bachelor with two small shi tzu's. It was just me and the dogs this weekend and we had all kinds of fun. Divot usually acts like he hates me most of the time, but I really think we bonded this weekend. He didn't have Amanda to follow around all the time so he actually had to acknowledge me. No blog entry would be complete without a couple pictures of the dogs. Here is Divot having a good time playing with his basketball in the back yard today. Birdie hates getting her picture taken, but I found out that if I stand far enough away and use my zoom lens I can actually get a decent picture of her. She loves being outside on the deck. Most of the time she just stands on the deck and watches Divot run around, and barks at him when he passes.





Well, I will close this blog entry by putting up a couple pictures of out new entertainment center. We got our new TV last fall and our old Wal-Mart furniture wouldn't cut it anymore. We were going to buy one, but most of them are too long and we want to put it in a corner. My boss agreed to build me one, so I drew up some plans and he built it for us. It is really nice because he used solid oak and you usually have to spend a lot of money to get furniture made out of real wood. He finished it a couple weeks ago, so I had the
task of sanding and staining it. It took me about 7 coats of stain to get it that dark, but we thought it turned out pretty well. It definitely makes our living room look a lot better. It is really nice to know somebody who is good and making stuff. He did a great job. Well that is all I have for today.