Half a Century

Oh yeah... and also I turned 25 this past Thursday. Birthdays have always been kind of strange to me. I feel like everyone wants you to be SO excited (and I kind of want to feel excited) but it always feels like just another day. Thursday was one of those days - I got up early and headed off to church to help with Vacation Bible School.

Pastor Ware with his Roman helmet and spear

After that I went to have lunch with my friend Andi and then went home and cleaned up around the house. When Casey got home we hung out and then went out to eat at Sake Kawa (my favorite restaurant in The Woodlands) and to my surprise (sort of) Chris, Jessica, Kelli, Andrew, Mike, and Amanda were there! The reason I say "sort of" is because Casey and I are HORRIBLE about surprising each other. We're just way to much of an open book to be able to keep things from each other. That's okay though - it makes for a wonderful honest and open relationship. :) Sake Kawa was AMAZING and we had a great time hanging out with our friends.







On Friday we went to get our Marriage License! YAY!


On Saturday we headed up to Huntsville to go to Blue Lagoon. Blue Lagoon is a scuba place, but you can go there to swim if you are with someone who is scuba certified. Chris and Jess came with us and we had the best time just hanging out and swimming in the crystal blue water.





All in all it was a pretty darn good 25th birthday. I can't believe I'm already 25 - where does the time go?

Rollin' with the Homies

NERD ALERT!

For those of you who were not aware until I was about 16 I had an intense passion for roller skating. Yes I was one of those "Rink Rats" that was at the skating rink 3-4 times a week. It started out with birthday parties and maybe going occasionally on Saturday afternoons with my dad, but it turned into a true passion. I started going Friday -Sunday to every session and when I was 11 decided I would try my hand at inline speed skating (the equivalent of speed skating in the olympics, but with inline skates instead of ice). I joined the East Texas Sprinters and for several years practiced 4-5 times a week and competed at meets all around Texas. It made me so happy, unfortunately it did not make my dad (or his wallet) as happy. I ended up getting burnt out and quit skating and took up golf (that's a WHOOOLE other story). Since quitting I have missed it constantly, but it's hard to find people who love skating as much as you and you never want to be the 25 year old creepy woman skating by herself at the skating rink on Saturday.

A month or two ago my mom gave me this pair of roller blades that her friend gave her but were too big for her (they were a 7-8 which is PERFECT for me!) and I decided I would start skating around my neighborhood for exercise. I thought it would take me a while to get back into the swing of things, but it was like I had never taken a pair of skates off my feet. For the past week or so I've been skating a lot and I have even included Riley a few times. He loves it because he gets to full out sprint while I skate behind him (and I can keep up) instead of him walking quickly when we got jogging. We just got done skating a mile and he is WORN OUT. Riley is currently laying on the hard wood floor panting and trying to cool off and I am about to do the same. Just thought I would share a forgotten passion that is being revived. :)

Bridal Shower

This past Saturday was the day of my Bridal Shower and I would have to say that it could not have been more perfect. My cousin and God daughter came down for the week to help prepare for everything and then my mom, best friends Leigh Anne, Sara Baker, and Jennifer Mawer Waddill came down on Friday. I had so much fun this weekend with my family and friends and of course Casey's wonderful family. Casey's Aunt Lorie and Uncle Ed (also his God parents) came down for the shower as well and I just adore these people. They are hilarious and just plain nice. Here are some pictures from the shower!

Gift opening

5 of my 7 Bridesmaids

Sara and I with our Ice Cream Suicides

The lovely spread

Me and my best friend/Maid of Honor Leigh Anne!

BPs and BFs

This past weekend I went home to spend a couple of days with my Mom and Dad before heading Mom and I headed out to Lubbock for my bridal portraits. Why Lubbock you ask? THIS is why Lubbock. The most amazing photographer EVER (Lauren Clark) lives there! I have been stalking Lauren since our friends Greta and Benny got married a few years ago. Lauren did their wedding and engagement photos and I was so wowed that I started following her blog and prayed that I would get to have her as my wedding photographer when Casey and I got married. After we got engaged, she was the first call I made to see what availability she had for 2010 and as fate would have it, she was only available on Nanny's birthday- August 21st, the day that I had always wanted to get married on. Perfection! When I went to schedule my bridal portraits, I was unavailable on the weekends that she was going to be in Houston and Austin, so I decided it would be perfect to visit one of my best friends Melissa McKay in Lubbock AND get my portraits done in the same weekend. Side Note: I love "kill two birds with one stone" situations. I had been meaning to visit Melissa and this worked out perfectly!

So on Sunday morning Mom and I loaded up her Volkswagen Beetle Convertible and headed to the Great Red West (haha). It took us about 8 hours, but honestly the drive was not bad at all. We had a great time hanging out as both of us love road trips. Sunday night we hung out with Melissa and her handsome cotton farmer boyfriend Zach and his parents and ate amazing sushi at this little place in Lubbock. I had never heard of sweet potato sushi, but it was AMAZING.

On Monday we got up and headed to the mall to go shopping and then had lunch at this adorable place called Stella's. After that it was go time. I felt like a crazy person running here to get my hair done, then across town to get my makeup done, then across town again to pick up my bouquet and then finally back to Zach's house to put my dress on and head out the door for photos. I'm really glad I got to do that though because I felt like it prepared me a little better for the day of the wedding. We met Lauren at Starbucks and then headed to a ton of different places to take photos. I LOVE how creative she is and how she really knows how to direct people in order to get the best looking photos. We got to see all of the photos on Wednesday and I am truly amazed at how beautiful they are. She is definitely one of the most talented artists that I have ever met. I wish I could post one of the photos on here, but unfortunately Casey reads "our" blog sometimes and I really don't want to ruin his surprise.

After heading back from Lubbock on Tuesday I picked up my cousin Jen (also my matron of honor) and my adorable God daughter Abby. I think I drove a total of 13 hours that day but honestly, I had such great company the whole time that I really didn't notice how much time I was in the car.

On Wednesday we headed to the pool early and hung out for an hour or so. Abby loves the water and it was so much fun getting to play with her. Here are some photos from the day:

Me and my cousin Jen

Me swinging Abby :)

The rest of this week we have just been hanging out and now I'm waiting for my mom and best friend Leigh Anne to get here for my bridal shower weekend YAY!

Americana

This weekend was our 3rd annual 4th of July party and I'm just going to go ahead and say it - it was by far our best for many reasons.

Reason 1: I actually bought cute tableware and set everything up beforehand so I wasn't super stressed out the day of the party:





Reason 2: I really liked the outfits I wore this weekend. Yes both of them included Chambray, but I really can't get enough of that stuff right now.



Reason 3: We had a slip and slide...




Reason 4: Our friends brought a TON of a fireworks...




Reason 5: My cupcakes turned out great..




and the final reason....

My neighbor busted out a huge blow up water slide about 2 hours into our party (he rents blow up bounce house things) and almost everyone at the party changed back into their bathing suits and played on that thing for hours...




And that my friends... was a 4th of July party to be remembered.

Happy Independence Day everyone!

Singin' in the rain

Here is my first attempt at a fashion centered blog entry. I have been wanting to blog some of my outfits because I am really passionate about fashion and want to be able see some of the things I wore during the "2010s". It's also nice to see how one's style can evolve. I am giving credit to Alyson for inspiring me - she has been blogging about fashion for a while now and I love her blog. Keep up the good work!

First things first - I found my bridal shoes! Here they are in all their glory. After spending a rainy day scouring eBay and the sale racks at the Galleria for a pair of expensive designer shoes (I really wanted this pair of Louboutins), I walked into Baker's on a whim and found these:



Hallelujah! I thought I would never find shoes that I was happy enough with to wear on my wedding day, but alas - here they are. Casey appreciated the price tag of these beauties- they were on sale for $59.99, which is much better than $595+ for a pair of designer shoes.

Now, back to my original post. I got up this morning to more rain. It has been raining or threatening rain non stop this week because of Hurricane Alex and while I usually love rain, the grayness is starting to get to me. When I wake up to rain, it makes me want to lay around in my pajamas all day and watch movies. I have a bajillion things to do so this is not an option. I went into my closet to find an outfit that was practical, but would also cheer me up. I planned my outfit around my trusty pink rainboots and I did my hair in a messy braid with my bangs pulled back which is perfect for a rainy day.




And here's a synopsis of my outfit:

Grey striped shirt: purchased my sophomore year of college from Goody's
Jeans: Simply Vera by Vera Wang (Kohls) - purchased for $15 (I love a good sale!)
Rainboots: Claire's - circa 2002
Pink Sports bra: Fruit of the Loom
Pink belt: Forever 21
Leopard umbrella: Target

Also - you will notice that I belt EVERYTHING. I am a serial belter.

Now off to play (run errands) in the rain!

Summer time and the living is easy...

Update time!

I have been a lazy, lazy blogger, and while I seriously doubt that anyone reads my blog enough to notice, I still feel like I should be updating more often. So here's what's been going on in the life of Sarah, Casey, Riley, & Zac (our new official spelling of his name):


1. Instead of going to New Braunfels for the weekend after the flooding that happened, we opted to make it a day trip and ride up to New Braunfels with Casey's parents to show them around that area (neither of them had ever been) and then to drive up to Austin for our wedding food tasting. On Saturday we took the Pages to New Braunfels and showed them around. We made our first stop at Naegelin's, the oldest bakery in Texas. This is always a must when we go to New Braunfels for 2 reasons. 1. We love supporting family owned small businesses. 2. Everything they make is incredibly delicious and very affordable. We ended up buying them out of kolaches so that we could take some back to the Chagla's who weren't able to take their family trip this year due to the flooding. After Naegelin's we went over to check on Heidelberg and were very sad to see that they were hit pretty hard with the flooding. All of their downstairs lodge rooms were flooded so all of the rooms were being gutted and repaired. Hopefully they will be back up and running by the time Casey's bachelor party rolls around in a few weeks.

2. I have been subbing at TWYLA and am loving it.

3. The weekend of June 18-20 I went to Nacogdoches and was lucky enough to be asked to help plan my best friend's proposal! James proposed to my beautiful best friend Leigh Anne on June 18th and it was perfect. I also got to hang out with my other best friend Sara Baker! Here are some pics from the weekend:






4. Upon getting home from Nacogdoches we celebrated Father's Day with Casey's family at Shannon's house. We got Casey's dad a bunch of miscellaneous gifts and among them was this book. I HIGHLY recommend it as it has made me laugh harder than I've laughed in a LONG time- WARNING: it obviously uses very explicit language- use discretion if you are offended by curse words. After getting home from Father's Day festivities we had Casey's (dog) Father's Day from the boys:




4. We went to Longview this past weekend to help my dad with some stuff and go to my cousin Lily's 5th birthday. Later that night my mom helped Casey and I give the pups a hair cut. Here are some pics from the party and also our hairless hounds:

Our God daughter Abby crawling all over me

My cousin Jen & I

Ms. Lily opening her gifts!

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

5. I've been missing some things lately... I really miss cooking, fashion, and photography. I used to be so passionate about all three of these things and I've really let my passion for these things go by the way side. So in addition to planning a wedding, trying to stay fit, helping my best friend plan a wedding, keeping the house in order, and working part time, I am going to try to also put some effort into bringing more artistic and creative endeavors into my life again. What this means for you blog readers is that from time to time I might post an outfit, photograph, or meal that I have cooked and that I am proud of. Whether these things will truly hold any artistic value will remain to be seen, but they will be things I am proud of and this blog is about self expression and finding myself so yeah... lol. Here are some meals that I have made that I am proud of:

I may have blogged about this dish before, but it's my signature dish and something I make all the time so I thought I would share. I call it Italian Flag Pasta (because of the red green and white)

Italian Flag Pasta:
-Any pasta - I usually use angel hair or penne and I mix 1/2 whole wheat pasta and 1/2 regular for texture
-Cherry or Grape tomatoes - quartered
-Chopped fresh basil (does not work with dried basil)
-Kosher salt (my secret ingredient in everything)
-Fresh cracked black pepper
-Olive oil
-Lemon juice

I usually add shrimp that I have sauteed in olive oil and fresh minced garlic, but you can have this as a side dish (I'm planning to have it as a side for our 4th of July party) or you can add grilled chicken or shrimp and have it as a main course. It's SO easy and so yummy! It's a perfect summer dish.

This is a pasta recipe that I got from HEB Cooking Connection. It's pasta with this amazing imported tomato sauce with chicken sausage, fresh basil, and parmesan cheese. You can really do this with any pasta, tomato sauce, and chicken sausage. I have been adding basil to everything because my basil plant is thriving - yay!

Okay so I think I have successfully overloaded this post and it just might be the LOOOOOOONGEST post ever. More later!