Brad Paisley is by far my favorite country music singer, EVER.  I had the chance to touch him, yes, TOUCH HIM.  Yeah, it may not be the same as actually meeting him, but it was pretty darn close.  I was so excited that I touched him, that I started tearing up and Brian was laughing at me!

Brian and I at Brad Paisley:

up close and personal:

I also had the chance to talk to Big Dave from B105. Big Dave has known my family for years.  We talked for awhile, catching up on daily life and he introduced Brian and I to Chris Carr and Company, the morning crew on B105. These guys are by far the funniest guys I’ve ever heard.  I listen to them on my way to work and I laugh so hard that people are probably driving by me, wondering why I’m laughing, by myself, in my car…alone.  

Big Dave, Stattman, Chris Carr, and Maverick:

Brian and I went away for Memorial Day weekend. It was a great, great time to get away, not have our cell phones or the internet to distract us.  We went to Jenny Wiley State Park, about 3.5 hours south of here.  We enjoyed hiking and a lot of relaxing!

The girls wanted to show you something:

That’s right! We are putting the floor down in the bathroom.  We have all of our items bought for the bathroom so once we get the tile down, we can start putting the remaining items in to make it complete! Brian painted the living room and bathroom last week so things are coming together!

Can’t wait to show you the room in a couple of days with tile down! Here are a few more pictures.

Three years ago I married the man I was meant to be with for the rest of my life. God has surely blessed me and I thank Him every day for that day after church when Brian asked me out.  You know how you always hear people say that they just “knew” so and so was the one for them after their first date? I was one of those people that really didn’t believe that could happen. Until I met Brian. 

Brian and I seem to have one of those great relationships. We love each other, we talk with one another, we really lean on the other when times may be tough. We are silly together, he makes me laugh so hard that I sometimes can’t catch my breath. He lets me cry when I just need to be a girl and cry, (Girls, you know what I’m talking about, or do you? Ha!) he always has the right words to say when I just need to hear the truth.  He can read my mind before I even speak and I know exactly what he’s thinking sometimes too. He loves my family and I love his.  We can sit together and not say a word for hours, or we can talk and talk until we can’t talk anymore ( I know, that’s hard to picture, but it happens sometimes! ha!)

These past 3 years being married to Brian has been the best 3 years of my life. I am PROUD to be Brian’s wife and I am blessed to have my best friend by my side for the rest of my life.  Brian, here’s to many, many, many, many more years together – this is just the beginning! I Love You!

 We are slowly getting our house together. We have my uncle doing the mudding and taping so hopefully that will be done this week.  We will be painting soon, laying the tile down and finally getting our washer/dryer hooked up again. (We bought a NEW frontloader washer/dryer!) You never realize how much you would miss your washer/dryer until it’s gone and you have to lug your clothes to your inlaws or your parents house!

I think I’ve been pretty patient on the remodeling process but I’m really, really, really, really (Get the point??) ready for my house to be put back together.  As much as it’s fun to have a “U” shaped couch (Both couches are in our other living room), where we have plenty of seating for guests, I’m ready for our new room! Not too much longer though! (Let’s really, really, really, really hope it’s not much longer!)

Since I can remember, my family have always been Reds fans.  For anyone that knows my dad, they know that he’s the reason we are Reds fans! I have always loved going to the games, even if they weren’t the best team in the world. (Hey, we still love going to the Bengals games, and look how THEY are!)  I remember going to the games, begging my dad for an ice cream sundae in a baseball “hat” cup.  Adam and I would try to collect as many “hats” as we could, but we always ended up getting the same ones (they never seemed to have anything other than the Reds, NY Yankees and Pittsburgh Pirates).  As slow as the game of baseball is, I still enjoy going, sitting in the hot sun, eating a hot dog and cheering on the Reds.  Oh and watching the “Kiss Cam” is pretty entertaining as well.

This year for Brian’s birthday, I bought him really good seats at the stadium. For the price of the tickets we could eat and drink as much as we wanted to.  We had great seats, overlooking the entire stadium. It was the Civil Rights game and they had a ceremony before the game that honored players such as Willie Mays, Chuck Harmon, etc.  Before the game, I took Brian to the Reds Hall of Fame for his first time.  (I have been before, remember, my dad is a huge Reds fan) Chuck Harmon, who was the first African American who ever played for the Cincinnati Reds was there, signing a book that was written about him.  This guy was someone who I had never heard of before, but it was pretty neat to meet this man.  He was a man of a few words, but you could tell he was enjoying himself.

The Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday, making them 1/2 game behind the Cardinals. If they beat the Cardinals on Sunday, they would be in first place! Brian and I had so much fun at the game Saturday night, that we ended up going to the game on Sunday with Adam & Stephanie.  And much to our surprise, they WON! Cincinnati was in 1st place! Woot Woot!!

Brian and I at the game Saturday night:

Mr. Chuck Harmon:

Us with the newlyweds (Kind of hard to take a picture of all 4 of us – good try Brian!)

Blurry picture but FIRST PLACE!!:

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the pictures from Steph Carson.  She did an exceptional job, like always. I will just share a few from Adam and Stephanie’s big day.

All pictures by Steph Carson Photography

Click here to see a few more.

So Steph Carson is just AMAZING.  Most of you know she has photographed our wedding, my brother Kirk’s wedding, lots of pictures of our nephew Sean,  Philip’s senior pictures…the list just goes on and on.  She photographed Adam and Stephanie’s wedding and I am waiting, very patiently Steph, to see the rest of them.  She is just AMAZING. I can’t say it enough. 

This picture is just hysterically funny to me.  She even mentioned that this picture would be one of the first pictures on her blog - she stuck to her word! A family picture + Adam’s face = priceless.  I can only imagine what he’s thinking…..

Well, the drywall is complete, and we’re “patiently” waiting for the mudding and taping to be done.  After that, it’s paint, tile, and floors, with bathroom fixtures, and we’re done.  Sounds like a lot, but it’ll go up quickly once the paints on the walls.  Here are a few pictures of the drywall and a before and after of the tree.

Before (Obviously)

After (Obviously)

See the tree to the right of our house? It came down on Friday. We finally had it removed after 4 years. Half of the tree was dead and some of the branches were falling off, landing in the driveway of our neighbors. We thought it would be smart to cut it down since we worry about it everytime it storms.  It makes the side yard look open now.  Here’s hoping we don’t fall down any steps because we did this!

Short story that I’m sure will be a long story: Betty, the lovely lady that lived in our house previously, grew her family up in this house along with her husband. They were the 2nd owners of this house. Every single time we do something drastic to our house (ex: tearing apart a room, re-wiring the entire house, removing a tree!) one of us falls down the steps. I’m not talking about just tripping off the last step either. I’m talking somersaults down the steps, falling half way down and breaking a toe, falling down the basement steps and breaking a leg and fracturing a head….. We kid around about it because we know that she probably doesn’t want us messing up her house! Nothing drastic has happened (yet!) since we’ve remodeled our room now.  She is a sweet ghost, I’m sure, that wants this house to stay the same as when she raised her kids.  But if she only knew, we were making this house even better for our family, and not changing the layout of the house at all! We know she loves us taking over her house, she just tries to show her love by throwing us down the steps!