Pictures of our trip

I didn't take time to post any pictures when I last blogged. So I decided to put them up now! Enjoy!

Jen and Blake


This isn't the best photo but I had to include it because Blake just makes me laugh!


Nate loves Iron Man.... He makes a pretty cute one if you ask me!

My best friend's little boy, Jaxson, with the toy I bought him for Christmas!
Stephanie Miller(Justin's wife) with her dog Zoey, they are so much fun!

Nate and Nikohl after the Christmas program at church.
Nikohl all dressed up as Mary for the program

Nate being himself.... a little "wise-guy" as Pastor said
Just thought this was cute..... Birdie you can tell really hates that outfit..... poor girl!

Happy New Year!

Finally!!! I have been such a lazy bone when it comes to this blog! I don't know why because I get online everyday! So a lot has happened since my last blog!
We have had both sides of the family down here! Deric's mom and older brother Jeff (his first visit to the house) were here right before Thanksgiving. They drove down for a long weekend. We didn't do anything too exciting but it was really nice to see family since we hadn't seen anyone since my sister's wedding in July!

Guess I will start this long blog with Thanksgiving.... I know that was forever ago... I mean it is ALREADY 2009!!! My parents came down to our house again this year. My sister Jen and Blake however didn't make it here this year. They are going to do every other year. I love having Thanksgiving here. It has become the new tradition for my family. Mom and I put up our huge tree that my grandparents gave us.  It is always a lot of fun to do that with my mom. We also got the rest of the house all decked out for Christmas that weekend.  I really don't know why I HAVE to get out all the Christmas decor I own. We aren't even here for Christmas! I think it just gets me in the holiday mood. It makes me want to get my Christmas shopping done! I wanted to get out on "Black Friday" and shop... my mom however didn't, which is fine.  Instead we both went to get hour-long massages. I wasn't really looking for anything I just "had to have" or wanted to get an amazing deal on anything. I was really in it for the people watching! I have always wanted to see some woman go crazy in a store so early in the morning then watch it again on the news that night! I know weird! So once again I didn't get to see some hillbilly woman dragged off to jail! Man! (Putting this on my 2009 list!)
So after Thanksgiving we had to get all the shopping done for Christmas. We have to be careful with our gift giving since we have to take it all in the car on our 12 hour trip to Indiana. I am a typical girl who packs 3 weeks of clothes for one week and 10 pairs of shoes. For just two people and two dogs we are always so loaded down! I think we might have to buy a over the head luggage thing for the top of the SUV for next year.

We had a great Christmas! Our travel time was filled with good weather until we got to Fort Wayne so that is always helpful. The dogs were great in the car... makes the trip so much better. Birdie our 7 pound guard dog would stand in the back on top of luggage and bark at cars/semis that she thought were too close for comfort! Divot on the other hand has to be right in the front making sure to get to Grandma's house in good time. He thinks he has to sit on my lap the whole time even when I am driving. Then he will fall asleep at the wheel, head on the steering wheel which is never a good situation. We got into Indiana Saturday night, we decided Sunday morning on our way to Church we were SO OVER the nasty cold weather. It was so cold and windy Sunday I couldn't get warm all day. But all that cold was made up for by all the love we get when we come home. Spending time with family and friends makes the long 12 hours worth it. It is so fun to see the kids and how much they have grown. I love to be around to hear all the crazy funny things that come out of there mouths! It makes you realize how much you miss out of in 6 months of not seeing them. I didn't get to spend that much time with my beloved Aimee this year.  The day I did get was great seeing her and little Jax! This year I didn't get to see my brother and his family at all. My poor sister-in-law got super sick that turned into rumatic fever! The whole family was cooped up in the house. She was so sick couldn't even get around on her own.
We headed back to Arkansas on Sunday. It is always nice to get back to a normal routine. It takes me a couple of days to get caught up. On Monday Deric and I realized our extra fridge out in the garage was not working.... come to find out we have a furry friend that decided to chew through the power cord all the way to the copper! So I called on to my wonderful Arkansas parents Ken and Marcia to come help! Ken saved our fridge and the food I just bought that morning! 

For New Years we went to the house of one of the girls I work with at the salon. She is also from Indiana... around Indy. She and her husband just got married in July. Becca is such a fun person. We have been doing a lot together. She is also a horse trainer and has 4 horses and a donkey! We hung out with Becca and Brian in the barn with the horses!  We played the famous northern game of Corn Hole in the barn and got beat by Becca and Brian. I probably was the worst.  Well I definitely was the worst player, which didn't help our game! But I pulled thru on boys vs. girls us girls almost won that game!!!  I mean, we only lost like 21-8.  
I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe new years!I wish the best to come for all this year!!!

-amanda

I Am A Nerd

Okay, so I am really bad about posting things on this blog. I think in the past year I made 3 blog posts. I guess I don't feel that my life is interesting enough to justify writing about it. I do really like to watch movies, and often times have feelings that I would like to put down in writing. I suppose I will allow you to read them if you would want. I didn't think it would really fit to include those type of posts on this blog. Therefore, I started another blog from whence I could pretend that I am a film critic. It probably won't be limited to posts about movies, but that will be the main subject matter. I guess winter is here and I need something to occupy my time while I am stuck inside. Hop on over to www.movieswithderic.blogspot.com and check it out sometime.

-deric

Been way too long

So most of you know I am now working at a new salon. After my Cancun trip I got all fired up about moving salons and getting out of a corporation. I didn't have to look too far.. actually I didn't even leave the house to find my new salon. Randy, the manager of T. Michaels Salon called me one morning and asked if I would be interested in visiting the salon and checking things out. Long story short, I loved it and I am so glad that I decided to move. Most of my clients have followed me to the new place. T. Michaels isn't far at all from JCP. In fact it is closer for a lot of my clients.
The stylists that I work with are so much fun. We all get along really well, which is very unusual. Most of the time there is ALWAYS drama at a hair salon. I have been there 2 months now and everything is going well. I could be busier, but so far I am doing quite well for moving to a new place. Here are some pictures of the new salon and my station. Also I posted pics of the flowers that my mom and mother-in-law sent me on my first day! Told ya ladies they were pretty!!! Thanks again!












Also I thought I would add in some pictures of the Halloween Party one of the girls at the salon throws every year! It was a lot of fun! Deric was Bobby Jones... and I was a Stepford Wife. My nickname at the salon is stepford so I had to go with it. How did I get this name you ask??? ONE time, I mean ONE time on my lunch break I went home and forgot my schedule book. I needed to see when my next appointment was so I called in to check. Come to find out I had a couple of hours between clients, so I told Randy I was going to take all time because I wanted to make apple crisp! When I got back to the salon I was Stepford. I take having a nickname as a high complement, because it means I have been accepted into the T. Michaels family!

My Cancun trip

So yea... I have been really bad about not posting anything about Cancun. So most of you know I won the trip to Cancun thru JCP. Around Christmas time last year we had a contest and then 2 stylist in the region won a all inclusive trip to the Farouk Conference. This is the company who makes the Chi products and flat irons... AKA my hair heroes!
So I went to Cancun all by myself. Never even been out of the country and now I was going by myself. I don't think Deric was very happy with this idea, but it was a one time chance... I had to go. I was all about it until I got in the car to go to Tulsa Airport and then I was getting scared. I got even more scared when I got myself lost on the way to the airport! I had no idea where I was going in the first place. So right then and there I vowed to myself I was NOT leaving the resort, that is all I needed was to get lost in Mexico! I made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare and it was safe flying all the way to Mexico. We all got to Moon Palace Resort about 7:00 that night. We check in and then had to wait forever to get on a bus to take us to the other side of the resort... yea it was super big. While I was standing out in the freaking humanity filled air for almost 2 hours I met some really nice ladies from Mississippi. They took me in! I was so glad... I had no idea who anyone was there. So I hung out with them the whole weekend.
So the conference was really neat. The first thing in the morning Farouk always had a mini hair show, which was provided by different countries.But noon we left the conference and put ourselves at the pool! I couldn't sit in a dark room with 5,000 people knowing there was a awesome pool and beautiful ocean and I needed to see. If I was in Cancun for free I was going to take full advantage of it! We had lunch pool side and dinner ocean side one day. The service was unbelievable the employees treated woman like queens every day. I was weird when I would go to sit at the table for a meal and the chair was pulled out for me and my napkin was placed on my lap!
For most of the conference we sat at the pools and walked the seashore. We all got pretty good at just sitting around and people brought us what we wanted! Brenda and I painted by the pool, I painted a tea light candle holder... I was very impressed with my abilities...much better than I remember!
The last night we were there was the formal night. I wore the dress from my sister's wedding. It worked out perfect. We had a beautiful dinner and then there was awards for the educators for Farouk Systems. We were all sad to see each other go. I didn't want to leave my new friends that night! But I needed to get to bed because I had to get up at 4 the next morning to get to the airport.
So I got off with a okay start the morning.... until I got Tulsa. Once again I get myself lost. I never get lost... I hate not knowing where I am going and I feel as if I have a good sense of direction. But I fooled myself. I got so lost, I was lost over 60 miles before I even knew I was lost! I pulled over after about 2 hours to get some gas. As I looked around nothing looked familiar, the huge McDonald's bridge going over the interstate gave me the idea that I was very lost. As I pumped my gas I started to get really freaked out. A sign of God showed up.... a state trooper! I asked him as soon as he got out of his car
"Um, Sir.... I think I am lost. Where is highway 412?" He says with a slight laugh " About 60 plus miles back. Sounds like you need some help."
So I get in his car and look at the Google map to find my way home. Now let me tell you... it should only take 1 hour 45 minutes to get to Tulsa. Now my plane landed in Tulsa at 1:15 I got out to my car about 1:30. I didn't get home until 6:00. Yea 6:00!I was so worried I wasn't going to make it home ever. But on the plus side, I got to see the town Carrie Underwood grew up! But very disappointed that she wasn't standing on the street somewhere looking for me. Let me tell you I was so happy to our house. I have never so happy to be home.



My room


Brenda and I first picture at the pool!


Dancing with them after dinner.

What Happened in Las Vegas

So we have been back from Vegas for a while and I haven't even wrote anything about our trip. First off we had a WONDERFUL time. We left out of AR on Monday August 4th to go to Vegas..... we had a layover in Dallas that wasn't too long. We were heading back to our gate in a hurry Dallas after getting some food to eat and I don't know what happened..... My feet went out from underneath me and I fell right on my butt in the middle of the airport!!! It hurt so bad but all I could do was laugh. I was so embarrassed. So the trip was not starting off the greatest.
When we got to Vegas airport things starting looking up. Even though my bum was numb. We got our bags off the carousel and headed toward the shuttle when Deric spotted Iliza Shlesinger, from Last Comic Standing. Well Deric got her attention and we got our picture taken with her. Did I mention that Deric is practically in love with Iliza so he was on top of the world!


After we told Iliza good bye we headed to Tahiti Village, where the Bidwell's own their timeshare. We met up with Linda,Jerry, the Terry's and the kids. The very next morning we all headed out on a bus tour to the Grand Canyon with a small stop at Hoover Dam.

The rest of the week we just either hung out at the condo or went down to the "strip". We did see a really cool magic show that all of us went too. We gambled a little but didn't win anything.... we almost broke even. One day Kim,Brent, Deric and I went out in the morning to gamble and take a gondola ride. We had a great time doing that.

We also went down to Fremont Street for one evening. Here are some random pictures of our wonderful trip to Vegas!!!




Jerry and Linda with the Terry kids, Nick, Nikohl, and Nate



So Brent had to eat at Fat Burger when he saw that there was one on the strip! He couldn't resit himself, he had to get the King Fat Burger.... by the way that is a pound and a half of meat!!!



And YES he ate it all!



We can't wait until our next trip there!! Thank You so much Linda and Jerry!!!

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!