MY SISTER IS HOME

As some of you know, my sister has spent the summer in Casco, Maine as a counselor at a summer camp. Well her plane landed this past Monday night at 10:23pm and we were there to welcome her back home! 

She had gone all summer without Chick-fil-A and requested that be her first meal back in Tennessee, so my parents stopped and picked it up on the way to the airport to surprise her with it a little early.

My two youngest sisters made her a sign and her two best friends made her a sign as well. So sweet and such a fun touch to welcome her home with!

Her welcoming party lol 

hugs for everyone!

She shipped most of her luggage home last week, but we still had to get a cart to carry her carry on bag because she packed it FULL. So since there was room on the cart and we had a long walk I caught a ride ;) My dad wasn't able to get his workout in that day anyways so pushing her bag + me counted as his workout, right? 

Welcome home, Mady!!!!! 

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MY SISTER IS HOME

GIRLS TRIP

Back in 2009 when we all turned 16 my best friend's parents took us all to the beach for our birthday that summer. We left bright and early and spent a wonderful week in Panama City, Florida.

 Also, didn't even realize it but, we left for our Florida trip 7 years before our wedding to the exact date!! lol. Little did we know exactly 7 years later we would be standing beside each other on my wedding day!! SO crazy!

It truly was one of the best weeks we've ever spent together and we have been trying to plan a girls trip like it every since! We didn't get a senior trip together, over the summers we have all had odds and end jobs that didn't really allow a lot of time off, and last summer was just crazy busy since two of us were planning a wedding. So now that we all have big girl jobs and have some PTO built up we are going on a girls trip!! We are SO excited and so thankful our husbands/boyfriends encouraged us to go. I honestly felt guilty about going at first, but Matthew talked me into going. I know that we aren't getting any younger and soon there will be babies in the picture (definitely not for us anytime soon lol) so this summer seemed like the best time to take our girls trip! 

My sister and her best friend are going as well, so in a few months the five of us will be heading  to HILTON HEAD, SOUTH CAROLINA!!!!!!! 

None of us have been there before so we are all equally thrilled and counting down the days! We'll leave on a Thursday morning and come back the following Monday. My sister is about 4 years younger than I am, but she without a doubt one of my very best friends. When your two best friends are around practically your whole life they become just as close to your family as they are to you, so they are all really close with my sister as well. In fact my sister works with one of my best friends. I am SO lucky to have such a close relationship with my sisters and that they are close with my best friends!

We booked a cute little place right on the beach and got a really good price for it, and it also helps that there are FIVE of us going so that cuts the cost down a good chunk! We've all been doing a little bit of research on our own, but once it gets closer to our trip we'll plan all the small details out. My sister has already made us a playlist to listen to on Spotify lol and I love it! 

The four of us + my sister's best friend are so ready to be here...

I know many of you have been to Hilton Head before, and I love reading your posts about your time there. I really enjoyed reading Erin's trip to Hilton Head recently, and reading her post made me even more excited for our trip! So some of you Hilton Head regulars, I need all your recommendations and tips for vacationing in Hilton Head! Any have-to-see places or have-to-eat-at restaurants?? Send them ALLLL my way, please! 

Linking up with Amanda today!

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GIRLS TRIP

Bee Rock and Good Workouts

Whew! I feel like life is flying by and I can hardly come up for a breath. The past week has consisted of: Wedding Planning Spending time with family Some REALLY good workouts Some good times with friends and of course, some REALLY good food ;) Wedding planning is going well! I went this past weekend and picked out our flowers with my aunt. It was so surreal, a lot of this wedding planning has me feeling that way. It seems like it was just yesterday we were picking out his suit to wear to senior prom and boutonniere for senior prom and now, these past few weekends, we've picked out his suit and and boutonniere for our WEDDING. As in what he will be wearing when I walk down the aisle to him and we become HUSBAND and WIFE. My emotions are just through.the.roof.

I got to see most of my family this past weekend. The kids had their annual Easter egg hunt while I enjoyed some chocolate ;) My mema mad a huge lunch on Sunday and, of course, it was delicious. Her ham and potato salad are to die for...and calories don't count on holiday weekends, right? ;)

Last Monday we had a GOOD workout. I'm talking about the kind where you push yourself and feel amazing afterward. Love workouts!! We didn't go to the gym everyday, but I still did some workouts at home! I went to bee rock with my sister and best friend. I had never been there but Matthew's brother, Nathan, talks about it all the time so we went! It was well worth the drive, too.

 Also, campus is SO pretty right now!

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Bee Rock and Good Workouts

My sister's last formal

This past weekend was my sister's last DBS (high school sorority) formal. She has gone the past three years, and it's been fun watching and helping her get ready for them. 

She borrowed the dress from a good friend since she is going to her senior prom next month...dresses are EXPENSIVE!

She went with her boyfriend of almost a year!

The group she was going with went to one of their friends house to make pictures since it is GORGEOUS! It was raining most of the day but the front porch was big enough and made for a great place to make most of the pictures! Seriously, beautiful white porch. 

Mady asked me to do her hair. I thought at first she just wanted to curl it and put it half up, so I agreed. Then she said she wanted to wear it up. It turned out better than I thought but I was definitely nervous about it!!

We actually practiced the weekend before to make sure we found an up-do she liked  and if I could do it lol. We tried on up-do and it was just not working...at all. So we went with another one and it turned out a lot better. I told her she couldn't lay down for the rest of the week until her formal so it would last ;) It was a good thing she chose to do an up-do because the weather was gross on Saturday! Now, I just need to learn how to do this on my own hair and we will be set!

We ended up going on Sunday to get her prom dress...it is so cute and she looked great in it! 

It was a busy weekend but we had a good time!!

I can't believe she is a senior and will be starting COLLEGE next year. Next month she turns 18! #proudbigsister

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My sister's last formal

My SISTER has a blog!!!!

A couple of months ago my sister started a blog! She has been tweaking it and learning along the way how blogging works. Recently she has been blogging periodically. She's a senior in high school and always on the go. I'm so sad I didn't think of blogging while I was in high school. I would have LOVED to look back at my high school posts!! A couple of days after I got engaged she surprised me with a sweet gift and she has written a post on it to share with y'all!

 

So here she is!!

Hey yall, my name is Madison from Initially Yours, MK. I was ecstatic when Shelby asked me to do a guest post on her blog! This is my first guest post so I decided to write about the engagement basket I made for my sister, Shelby.

So I got the idea from Pinterest and I tweaked it a little bit to make it fit the needs of my sister.

I started out by buying this basket at Walmart for $1.

I then picked out two wedding magazines for her to flip through and get ideas from. $5.99 and $6.99 a piece.

I bought a spiral notebook for her to write down any wedding notes down in. $2.47

I bought a cute chevron note pad for .88 and Paper Mate Pens for $4.97. Next I bought sticky note tabs for Shelbs to mark certain spots in the magazines for any ideas she likes. $1

My mom helped me pick out a cute little sign just to put in for decoration $5 and a bottle of relaxing body wash $5.97.

To top the basket off I picked out a candle $3.00, sticky notes $1.27, and Essie nail polish $8 because the bride to be's nails must ALWAYS be painted perfectly when showing off her ring. Also I placed a bottle of Welch's Sparkling Grape Juice in because I know it's her favorite and it's non alcoholic of course!

She was really surprised and loved it!

It was really exciting to see her reaction when she received the basket. And I cannot wait for her wedding!!!!

Any ideas about what else can be added?

Initially Yours, MK

   

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My SISTER has a blog!!!!

November Goals

I haven't made goals in a couple of months. I've let this little blog of mine be put on the back burner since the semester started back in August and to be honest, I miss it! Hopefully I can get back in the groove of things and stat blogging more than once or twice a week.     - Start blogging more (obviously) ;)   -Work on Christmas shopping I have already picked up a few things for some family members but I really need to get on this and FINISH by November 15th (a previous goal was to have it all finished by November 15th)   -Continue working hard on something that I have coming up! I can't wait to share with y'all what I have been working on almost every single day. I have been researching and jotting down any ideas that come to mind. I have never done anything like this so I am pretty excited but definitely nervous at the same time.   -DOLLYWOOD In one of my posts last week I mentioned about a surprise for Matthew and how I was giving him hints all week about what we were going to do. Well, the weather stepped in and messed up our plans and we had to cancel last minute. I had already given him all his hints because I needed to know what his opinion on going would be, with the weather. We all decided that ultimately it just would be safe and almost miserable. I am SO glad we decided not to go to Dollywood this past Saturday. Gatlinburg ended up getting 22 inches up in the mountains, and Pigeon Forge, where Dollywood is located got snow as well. Not as much but still, who wants to ride a roller coaster with snow hitting them in the face?? So everyone is good to go this weekend!! I am SO excited and the weather is supposed to be better ;)   -SOC formal I am beyond excited for this. This is the first year the SOC has ever done one of these and I am all excited. I was kinda bummed that I only got to go to one prom and that was my senior year of high school. Most of my friends went to prom their junior and senior year, and went to multiple formals. Even in college a lot of my friends go to sorority formals and since I'm not in one I was afraid I would never be able to get in a pretty dress and attend something like a formal. When I found out we were doing one I was THRILLED. It's this month in a couple of weeks and I found my dress this past weekend while I was home. It's going to be very low key and nothing too fancy but all the girls have decided to wear formal dresses.   -Enjoy the moment I get so caught up with being busy and always on the go that I forget to just enjoy what we are doing, where we are at, and who we are with. Time is moving SO SO fast. In just 40 days Matthew is going to graduate and be moving away from Cookeville. Everything is going to change. Sure, he will still come and visit often, because I am going to stay here, all of our friends are here and the SOC is here, but we both know it's going to be different. So I just want to really enjoy this last little bit and cross off some things from our Cookeville bucket list we made awhile ago. Now excuse me while I go cry wahhh :(     and because I don't like posts without any pictures... My sister went to a masquerade ball this past weekend and I got to help her get ready! I did her hair and makeup. She wore my dress from my senior prom! Seeing it out again brought back all the memories from prom, so many great memories!

  It feels good making some goals again. Happy Monday, friends!! Make today a good one!

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November Goals

Weekend: 3 things

This past weekend was good. So good an of course I didn't want it to end! Just like everyone else, I can't believe it's already September!! I feel like it should still be February or March. This year is flying by and in a way I am sad to see it go and in a way I am excited. There are so many exciting things coming up.   1.  My parents were out of town for the holiday weekend, they made their annual anniversary trip to Gatlinburg. So it was just a sister weekend. It was fun and a relaxing weekend at home! It consisted of : Disney movies milkshakes "sleepovers" naps laundry crafts   The youngest two call it a sleepover when I come home. They think it is the best thing ever to have a "sleepover" in their own home an usually in their own beds lol.

  2.  Also, this weekend I worked on cornhole boards for the SOC. One of the post grad guys made them a couple of years ago and they look great! I took them home to paint them and put the SOC logo on them.

I'm so excited to finish them this weekend!!

 

3.  I finally caved and ordered Spark...

I have heard only good things about this drink and so far I am LOVING it!

I ordered it in fruit punch flavor and it's great! I'll definitely post more about it later!

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Weekend: 3 things