Bells and Bales

My next few posts will be about events from the last month or so. We've been so busy with work, school, traveling, and wedding parties I am just now beginning to catch up on it all.
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On March 27th my future sister-in-law, Brenna, had her bridal tea. It was her first shower. We were happy to be in Brewton to share in the excitement. The shower was a brunch complete with initialed cupcakes.

Brenna graciously opened her gifts. She received lots of beautiful things.

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Brenna with her hostesses

Being the super star planner that she is, Brenna had already printed a few beautiful pages she had made to record gifts. I helped her with that task while she opened each present clearly unaware that my picture was being taken.


Her sweet niece, Aly, helped too. I think she knew she was having her picture taken, don't you?

After the shower, Judd, his parents, and I all went out to the farm to feed the cows. This is where the "bales" part of the title comes into play. Terry, Judd's daddy, needed to take them some hay.
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Judd's parents own one farm (the one with the cabin as posted about here) and they lease another in order to have a place to switch the cows to and from as needed. The cows are currently at the leased property--The Lucas Farm. Terry has farmed on this property for years. It is a beautiful place. Notice the Spanish moss hanging on the tree limbs. It doesn't get more deep south than that. This was the first really warm weekend we had so the leaves on the trees had not come out yet. I'll have to take another picture of this tree next time we go down. I'm sure it's beautiful now with green leaves.


I love seeing the Langham men on the old blue tractor. One of the first times Judd went home to visit his parents when we had first started dating he called me while driving. I asked him what he was doing. He told me he was following his dad, who was on the tractor, to a repair shop. He was driving down the main street of town. He laughed and told me Terry was just grinning and waving to everybody. I knew then, that Brewton, AL was a place I just had to visit. A place where tractors can drive down major roads. A place where drivers don't get road rage for having to wait. A place where people smile and speak to you as you creep by on your old blue ford. It's such a sweet small town with such a pleasant pace.

Terry got off the tractor and Judd hopped on to help.



After the cows had been fed we walked to the creek on the back of the property. I love all waterfronts in Brewton. The shore is always white sand. The water is always clear. This creek is no exception.


Overall, our weekend of wedding bells and hay bales was great fun! Sometimes going to Brewton is like stepping back in time. There is room to breath and time to take in all that life has to offer.

Hug From Taylor Swift

(photo from http://www.ahugfromtaylorswift.com/)

When watching the local news this morning I heard a story about Taylor Swift making a surprise appearance in Auburn, AL. I didn't catch the whole story. I wasn't sure what had made the star decide to make a trip down to the plains.

When I got to work this morning I noticed that my colleague had forwarded me the rest of the story. You can read about it here.

Some Auburn students completed a series of challenges set by Taylor in hopes of getting a hug from her. Her requests were vague. She left it up to the students to decide how to meet the challenges. The video below is from the first challenge. She asked that they help an elderly woman cross the street and to incorporate her favorite number "13" into a task. The students exceeded her expectations. The way the students met these challenges truly embodies the spirit and hearts of Auburn men and women. Taylor was so impressed that she made a surprise appearance and gave a quick show. Judd and I are so proud to be a small part of such a wonderful place.

War Eagle!

Easter Bone Hunt

This past Easter was a little different for us. For the past 6 years we have spent Easter weekend in Judd's hometown. This year, my brother's fiance's lingerie shower was on Good Friday. Thus, we stayed in Birmingham for the first time in our married lives. I am not going to be able to make it to some of her other showers because of conflicts with my brother-in-law and other future-sister-in-law's parties so it was important that we stayed for it.

To make things even more strange, my parents went to my grandmother's house in Rome, GA for Easter weekend. We were all alone. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad Mom and Dad went to spend time with my grandmother. She doesn't travel as easily as she used to. None of us wanted her to spend Easter alone. It was perfectly fine. Things were just a little different for us.

Judd and I made the best of it. The weekend turned out to be really nice. The weather on Sunday was incredible. We went to church first thing Sunday morning. The sermon was one of the best Easter sermons I've ever heard. It was really great!

When we came home we decided to take a picture via Judd's iphone in our mirror of us in our Easter clothes. It was kind of strange to take Easter pictures alone too. The mirror seemed to work fine. Ha. Note the fine photo quality below {insert sarcasm}. In fact, note the fine photo quality throughout. Our camera batteries were dead so everything below was taken on the iphone.


Then we decided to give our dog, Cole, his treats from the Easter bunny. The weekend before, Judd's mom had given us a huge bag of bones for Cole's Easter basket. We got the great idea to have an Easter bone hunt instead of an egg hunt. (Yeah, I know we need a real child in our lives in the worst way.) We'll have to wait a few years for that one though.

Cole was in his fenced kennel while we hid the bones. He realized what we were putting down and was intently watching. We hid them just like eggs.

Then, we released the hound.

His sniffer was working really hard. The hunt was on.

He found a few around the fence and in the flower bed. Then he headed over to the patio. Crunch. He ate one he found in the corner.


Afterwards, he walked up the steps in search of the next egg er...bone.

Judd had hid it on the lip of our planter. (Please disregard the fact that I am married to a landscape architect yet have an empty planter.) I had just pulled out all of my herbs that were in it the day before.

Mommy had to help him find the bone.

He used his nose and mommy's help but knocked it off into the dirt. No problem for a big 'ol lab. He slurped it up all the same. Consider the dirt sprinkles. :)

After our big fun with the Easter bone hunt some friends of ours from grad. school at Auburn came over. (That's Adrienne on the left and Judd on the right)

They brought over some friends for Cole as well. Our friends, Adrienne and Scott Burton, brought their fur babies Duke and Hatchet over to play.

(Below-Scott, Duke, Hatchet, and Cole playing by the pool)

It was all fun and games until Hatchet pee peed in the pool. He was real embarrassed. Don't worry, we changed the water immediately. The he jumped right back into the water.

Duke thought Hatchet's accident was hysterical. He came to tell us about it.

All in all, our Easter holiday was great. We also managed to wash both cars after church and work on our tans for a while in the yard. Plus, Adrienne brought over the ingredients to make homemade Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs. YUMMY! We had a great time making them.

Parties, Parties, Everywhere

The wedding festivities are in full swing. For those of you just joining us, both my brother and Judd's brother are getting married in May. You can read more about it here. Two weekends ago was Brenna's bridal tea. (I'll do a full post on that soon). Last weekend was Laura's lingerie shower. This weekend is Brenna and Colby's couples shower and Brenna's lingerie shower. Whew.

There's plenty more still to come. When I got home from class last night I found what you see above spread out on our kitchen counter. Judd checked the mail and put out all of the invitations that have come in the last two days for me to see. For a girl who loves pretty papers and cards, getting the mail has become pretty exciting.

We are thrilled to be a part of these special events for our brothers. I'm sure many more posts will follow about all of these gatherings.

Fab's Gone Global

(Picture from my bachelorette party in December of 2004)

My sweet future sister-in-law included my besties in her latest blog post. You can read it by clicking the link to her blog below.


Brenna's Blog - A New Start For the Fab


I'm convinced we're taking over the World Wide Web. Ha.


You can also read more about my besties - aka: The FAB - by clicking here.