pig sooie princess

Friday night Kelly & I met up with HSC & Alexis.. who by the way has started a blog!.. necessarynesting We hung out with them for a while, but we had to get home early since we had a service project the next morning.

Jess & Alisa

Katy & Kelsey

Jimmy loves to paint

Katy & Kristen working hard

Dallas working the corners

cute sisk family

Team Carlson

Saturday we got up early and headed up to the church to meet the rest of our life group. Our Service project was with Youth Bridge in Fayetteville & Centerton.
The whole thing was a bit of an issue to begin with.. We were originally supposed to go and work on a farm for an organization that provides food to the needy. We they gave me the run a round and never really helped a sista out, so I called my contact at the United Way and she helped me to get the word out. They sent an email out to everyone they worked with and Youth Bridge was one of the ones to respond. They put me in touch with Margret and she was the best volunteer coordinator I have ever worked with. If you ever have a chance to volunteer they are a great organization and she was wonderful to work with.

After we got back I went to go see grandma. My dad was out of  town and we try to take turns checking on her. So I took her to the craft fair. Unfortunately we didn't have time to go to the good ones. But we walked around and found some interesting things...

By the time I got home from errands it was 630. Kelly & I did something we never ever do.. Made a frozen dinner. What? Don't judge me! I was tired and Bertolli looked way better than anything I could have made. But I got a wonderful surprise when I got home..HE put the tent up!! we have yet to camp in it so Saturday was our first night to use it. It was pretty cold that night so I got the sleeping bags out.

Obviously Callaway thought they were for him.

So I take those outside, grab another blanket and some pillows. Kelly scoffed at me.

"what do you think babe.. that we are going to get cold?"

Me: "Um yes, it is really stinking cold out!"

hubs: "NAH..(cue wink) we have our body heat to keep us warm"

He then comes to the tent in just athletic shorts..no shirt or socks...

Fast forward to 5am and there I am wrapped up in the blankets & there is Kelly shivering and clinging to Callaway for any type of body warmth he could get. Between teeth chatter I heard ppphhhlleeeasseee can we go in I am fffrreeeaazzingg.

Sunday we were hosting life groups at our house so I spent a good amount of the day getting ready for 15 people over. I made a fix it and forget it meal from the crock pot & potato soup.

other things that have developed...
I got my results back from the Dr.
Prognosis? Take vitamins, Say no, & get more sleep.. Humm good call. This week I have been home every night so far. That is a start right?


Work. I am currently a Market Research Analyst at work. That role had a defined job description when I first started in this role. Well like most jobs your role can change or evolve. We have a girl in our life group who has just recently had this very thing happen to her. I have had this happen to me, and for me it is a great blessing. This has allowed me to learn more about what we do and it has helped me to learn a lot of different programs and to be able to work on my word and excel skills. I am not gonna lie.. I need some help on my skillz with word & exel.

Crafts. Currently I am working on MIL Christmas present. That I can't post on here since she reads it! I am also working on SIL. She is a little harder.. I am not quite sure what I want to do with hers.
We have a bebe shower at church this weekend and Kelsey & I are in charge of the diaper cake. Funny that they gave the 2 girls that don't have kids the diaper cake! I was like a man in victorias secret. I was overwhelmed by all the choices. Distracted by all the colors. Confused by all the sizes. So I stopped some girl with a bebe strapped to her back and asked her to help the special kid. She helped me pick out some diapers so I took it home and set to work..
For the shower though I had to make some gifts.

Below is the trial tutu I made for Kim and her sweet bebe Kate.. she can now be the cutest little pumpkin for Halloween!

Here is the onsies I made for gifts. The Boss Hog one is for Alexis and HSC. They don't know what they are having so. I went with neutral.

The Pig Sooie Princess is for the baby shower this weekend. I want to make a tutu like the one I made for Kate. I hope to have time for it tomorrow.
JWOW let me use her sillouette to make it & WOW I am in love and I want one for Christmas...hint hint

Here is the finished product of the diaper cake

these are at my grandma's house!

Happy fall!

This is our fall treat...

just call me michelle... michelle wie

We had a busy weekend & I am still trying to catch up on sleep!
Friday night we had a family BBQ at my grandparents. It was a lot of fun and the food was SO good.
Kelly made my mema's day when he told her he loves my cherry dump cake, but he loves her's more! Sadly it was true though. Mema's dump cake is better! We took callaway too and I was so glad we did. The kids wore him out! They kept playing fetch and keep away with him. Piper, Jen's daughter is absolutely the cutest thing ever. She is 2 going on 13. Jen said she tells people that too. She took the camping light and ran around with it. Every time she would want to talk to someone she would turn the light on unaware that she was spotlighting and potentially blinding her conversation partner.

 We then moved our attention to the doggie door and how we could get cousin Brodi through it?
It proved to be a very difficult task... I know we probablly should have stopped this, but it was SO funny.

This was as close as we got.

Saturday we went to watch the game with HSC & Alexis, Aaron & Christy, Derek & Alexia, & Scott. Kelly rolled up in his aggie shirt and annoyed the whole group. Thankfully his cheering was kept to a minimum. After the game HSC, Alexis, & team carlson went to Fayetteville to meet JWOW & Kyle for dinner at Hammontrees. We had to make a detour and drop the rest of the crew off at Jose's for Scott & Brenna's joint bachelor-bachelorette party.

After dinner we headed back to pick up the rest of the crew at Jose's. That is when we got the FABULOUS idea to make smores! So all 8 of us stopped at Walmart and loaded up on:
Campfire marshmallows, vanilla carmel marshmallows, graham crackers, reeses chocolate bars, carmel filled chocolate bars, and then the standard chocolate bar... They were some really good smores!

Sunday.. Kelly took me golfing.

Do we see a resemblance?

Well my first actual lesson is on Wednesday, so I wanted to refresh on the basics..

Monday I had a PAL--Running Scared 5k meeting.

The top right corner has a place on my blog for you to register if you want to participate! If you register to run in the 5k you get entered in to win a Brinkmann smoker. You also get admission in to the haunted house!!

Today was my Dr. apt.. Cross your fingers and say your prayers that they figure out what is wrong with me. Also, James a co-worker of mines dad is having some health issues and could use your prayers. D, another co-worker's brother was in a car accident and on the long road to recovery so pray for them too.

**Thursday is a fundraiser for Make-A-Wish @ Eddie Haskel's. A portion of the proceeds raised with go to grant a wish. So please stop by if you have a chance.



working towards a walker...

I guess yesterday caused some buzz with the blog. Amy (pretty good friends in high school.. got in to some trouble together.. not as close now, but we can hang out and pick right back up) sent me a message yesterday asking me about the test picture. "did you take all of those today???"
Me- "Heck no, I only took one but I googled pictures and threw the nasto pee stick away"
Amy--"GOOD, I was worried because all of those were positive and I wasn't quite sure how to tell you."
This made me laugh out loud...
Just so you know I went to JLO's house and took a nap again today..
So my SO sweet mother in law text me.. she is concerned for my health and tells me that she read my blog and is worried about me. Don't worry family I will be going to the Dr. next week.

I was thinking though yesterday after work.. I am an 80 year old in a 20 something body.
* I go to bed around 9:30 --if I had it my way I would be in bed by 9, but a majority of time I don't get that luxury.
* I go to the Library... I love to go to the library and check out books, as well as books on cd. I listen to those on the way home from work. On the way to work I like Mike & Mike in the morning.
* I heart the Farmer's market and I like to go on Saturday's with my daddy & grandma
* I have a miniature schnauzer.
* I like to eat dinner before 7pm.
* I talk to Callaway all the time.. in the morning I tell him bye, I love you, & have a good day.
* I love to sew
* Last but not least... I picked up my golf clubs today and will be taking lessons soon!

Tomorrow is Friday. TGIF.
We have the BBQ for mom tomorrow.
Sewing glass Saturday am--let me know if you want to go!!
Komen thing at the mall after that
Razorback game with some friends
Date night with HSC & Alexis &
CAMPING in our new tent!!!

nobebe nobebe NO!

Well the good news is there is no little carlson on the way yet. The bad news is that I have consistently felt like crap for about 2 weeks now.. which lead to the forced peeing on a stick.


I started feeling kind of bad the weekend of the Alabama game & no, it was not because the Hogs lost. Nancy (fabulous hairstylist who has known me since I was 15--and has loved every minute of the Kelly Cortney story since it start May 21, 1999) made a comment that I seemed stressed. Kelly (she only likes to do our hair when we are both there.. i think she enjoys our banter) jumped in immediately telling her that I have taken on to much and he told me to say no to some things... blah blah blah..

So for the last 2 weeks I have been going to bed as close to 930 as possible, with the exception of a few nights that hit the 1030 mark. I get up every morning feeling like I was run over by a MAC truck (symptom #1) I then drag myself through the first half of work and I am unusually cranky. Not to say that I am always Mary Poppins, but 90% of the time I am in a good mood. The other 5% is stress induced. The remaining 5% would be husband induced. I eat my breakfast, which is either cereal- Honey Bunch of Oats or Cheerio's or Activia light yogurt with oats and almonds. I eat this everyday,well I alternate cereal and yogurt, but the past couple of weeks, right after breakfast I feel like I may lose it. (symptom #2) Struggle to feel better throughout the morning and I then leave for lunch and if I do not have something on the calendar for that day I drive to the near by park and sleep in the back of my jeep... like a hobo.. for the next 59 minutes. (symptom #3).

All of these things were brought to my attention by sweet lil JWOW. This in turn lead to the forced action of me peeing on a stick today after my car nap. When I say forced. The pitiful lil pregnant girl had to waddle herself to the closest Walgreen's and endure weird looks from the cashier as she bumped her 9 month pregnant belly on the counter as she was trying to pay for this test that I did not want to take. SO, I figure if she was willing to go through all of that I should at least man up and take this stupid test... and nobebe nobebe....Which I said lots and lots of prayers before taking the test that if it was meant to be I would accept whatever the result was. I was going to be terribly sad if Europe was going to be put on hold for a extended period of time!

The Harding meeting was good. They talked a lot about the new program they are having at the Bentonville campus. It will be a hybrid and classes will be 6 weeks long. Some will be on-line and you will be required to post & discuss 5 out of 7 days, the other will be meeting once a week for 3 hour at a time for the 6 weeks. Pretty cool concept. I am just praying for the day when Kelly is done... Looks like next Halloween will be a joyous time of the year.

After the HU meeting I was supposed to meet Ali, Kristy, & Amy for a COE meeting at Crabby's. Which brings me to something else. Seafood. I wish with all my heart that I could like seafood. My mom said when I was little I ate shrimp like it was going out of style. I also loved crappie.

 Now, no way no how can I eat it. I have tried on multiple occasions, but I just don;t like it. Once we went some where and I tired a bite of salmon. It was horrible, but it wasn't my favorite. So Kelly thought maybe I had been cured of my aversion, he immediately went out and bought salmon. Nope after like 2 bites I was done. I tired scallops once and those seemed to be ok. I don;t know if it is a texture thing or the taste of ocean that I get when I eat it, but something is stopping me from eating it.

Last night at Crabby's all the seafood sounded so good. I was even tempted to try some. But.. I stuck with the boring ole chicken sandwich. I think I need to do some assembly line taste test one day and just try all different kinds of seafood and see if I can find any that I will eat..

Revenge on Riordan

Today, despite still feeling like something callaway threw up.. was a very good day. I had a meeting with Mike Rush at Rush Running. He agreed to do a silent auction item for Circle of Life which was already great, but he also told me he wanted to buy a table... which made my day. Then dad called and wanted to go to lunch after we got to talking he had some people that may be willing to help.

Friday was the pink ribbon lunch for Komen. Honestly, it didn't even cross my mind that I needed to be there. Well sweet casey called me at 10ish to see what time I was getting there. Whoops. Turns out, when you are the Co-Chair you kind of need to be at everything PINK! I am so glad I went though. I got to talk to our honorary chairs Peaches and Coleman Peterson. Peaches was my college prep counselor and she helped me apply for scholarships for college. She was so sweet and gave me some of the sweetest compliment, which were much needed! I hope to get some pictures soon!

We had the reunion this weekend and I am still wiped out. I haven't been feeling the best lately and I am sure adding a long tiring weekend didn't do much to rehabilitate the immune system!

Friday night was the football game. Which was neat to go back to the old stadium... oh WAIT it wasn't the old stadium. They now have some crazy fancy stadium complete with a jumbotron! Ok, so I may be lying about the jumbotron.. but it might as well be! I was disappointed with the way the school handled the alumni portion though. We had given them about 4 months of notice that we were all coming about ended up selling about 30 tickets to the game and they roped off this TINY section.. which was for every other alumni there. So needless to say we didn't last long.


Saturday was Family day So we headed to Riordan early to set up for Saturday night. Nicole, Christie & I spent the remainder of the morning wrapping tables in black and gold.. and hanging memorabilia. Family day was fun.. I however was family-less so I missed out on all the showing off of how cute every one's kids are. Kelly has some HUGE project do for his MBA and I felt a little odd walking up to family day with Callaway. I think I would have been dubbed the crazy dog lady.

How cute is preggo mandy!!

Saturday night was a bit of a cluster. For those of you who thought about going to Riordan Hall in Bella Vista for any type of event. Let me help you.. DON'T.


I will spare you all of the massive amounts of drama that came with this, but it was bad. We were promised things and they never delivered. The events planner no showed on the morning of the event so I was not able to express my concerns to her regarding the things that were wrong. She then kicked us out 1 hour early for people being rude. Can you do that?


It was great to see everyone and it made me a little sad that it has been 10 years and most of the people I haven't seen since high school...
 








Right now I got:


Amanda Faubus painting


Chucky Cheese


Razorback basket


Alberto Culver basket


Rush Running


Tano purse-Masons


Photography session with Sweet B's


Lost Springs gift certificate


Harps -cakes


Junior League-Cookbooks and Winter Dreams tickets


Lane Fuller Coleman-Custom furniture
If you see get a chance to shop at any of these places, or use their services.. DO cause they are sweet and donate to charity!



Then he told me the really good news... He got me golf clubs!! I played when I was younger, but haven't played much since then. Dad keeps telling me he will teach me, but he never does.. so... He GOT ME LESSONS too! Yeah. I asked the golf pro if I would be ready to play PineHurst when Kelly & the Carlson men go.. he told me if I was as good as my dad says he sees no problem in that!

Tonight we have a meeting with Harding about there MBA program coming to NWA..Do we think they need a teacher? I know a cute one that looks like McDreamy?

The first step is admitting you have a problem...

Just say no!

Ok that is what I will do from now on when I feel like I am taking on to much.

I also promise to try really hard to read the warning signs when I am getting close to taking on to much.

This weekend is the reunion. After that I can take a small baby breathe and recharge a bit.. before Voyage & the holidays! I think I just get in my mind that since the events are spaced out.. I will  be okay to work on a bunch of different things. Besides, I like to be busy right?? WRONG. I knew I had a problem when last weekend Kelly looked at me and said.. "I miss you being home"

Last weekend was the Charity Challenge. Kelly & went to the Dinner on Friday night with my new friend Amy & her husband Matt. They moved here recently from Atlanta. They unfortunately are Alabama fans, but I won't hold that against them.. Kelly & I won a tent. and he tried very very hard to buy the black lab that they were auctioning off. He even had a name for him.. Birdie. 1 because it is a bird dog & 2 because that is what his favorite thing to do when golfing, which he justified would go great with Callaway. Who got a new dog bed I might add..

It was  a long day cheering for the Razorbacks

Good morning my Love BUG!

Who needs bebe's when you have the sweetest bebe already!

I tried very hard to get Kelly to put the tent up the night we won it, but he said midnight was no time to pitch a tent. He did apease me with the promise of camping soon. So next weekend we are going with HSC & Alexis!!



Saturday night we had the Party at Eddie's. Allison, Kristy, & I worked the door.. Could have been cooler if we had ear pieces and walkie talkies, but what can you do? Love these girls they are fabulous. Can't wait to hang out with them again!

Kristy, Ali, & I

For some reason everytime I save this picture it flips it.. GRR..

Do we like the hat? Kelly hates it. I think i even heard referance of "Michael Jackson" come out of his mouth.

Also,
The laptop broke. After 10 good years it was done. So Kelly tells me HAVE to go get a new one. He first tells me that we are getting an ipad.

I do some research on this and find there are several reasons why we do not in fact need an Ipad. I present him with these facts & my research and he agrees. Good. Laptop price has now dropped from 800 to 400.

He then tells me we need a netbook.
I once again present him with the facts on why in face we do not need a netbook. He also agrees. Good..

Laptop price raised from 300 to 500. Not my favorite, but it is better than trying to blog on a bebe netbook. I am not getting any younger here.. One of these days when I do actually need glasses I am not going to want the bebe screen.

So we head out to shop. I tell him that I would like to price shop. I thought this would deter his spirits.. what was I thinking? I just gave him a present. Hours of wondering around the electronics aisle, yes please. I then realize my opportunity and seize it before it passes. "We can go to all of these store, and while we are out we need to go by Hobby Lobby and I need some fabric." I then strategically place it in the middle of the stores, so if he loses interest quick I still have the other stores and my threat.

Well as soon as we walk in I can tell I am losing him, so I promptly give him a project of finding me patterns. He is digging through the file cabinet for me, retrieves the assigned number and meets me at the fabric cutting counter. Where he begins to politely whine. Only to be cut off by some women we go to church with. They then proceed to dote on him about what a sweet husband he is and how sweet it is that he comes to help me and supports my passion.. Of course... Kelly is playing it up for all that it is worth like this is just a typical Saturday of him accompanying me to Hobby Lobby, next we will go see a romantic comedy, I will pick the restaurant, and the evening will end with me getting a back massage and a bubble bath... UM NO.

I wanted to laugh and tell them the real reason he was there is because he was about to get a new 500 dollar toy and knew he needed to be on his best behavior, but I let it go. Now I am sure he will be the talk of the ladies bible class on Thursday mornings as they are crocheting.. "oh that Carlson boy he is just so sweet.. he goes to hobby lobby and everything" Which don't get me wrong he is great, but he was pretty much stomping his feet as we were walking in to Hobby Lobby so I found the whole situation quite amusing!