Mr. & Mrs. William Lee Cowart, Jr.

I can't believe it has been over a month since I last blogged & for that I am extremely sorry.  A lot has happened over the last month to keep us busy, both good & bad things.  A few times I meant to come & put a post up just to check in & say what we've been doing & that I would be back to post later, but I never got around to doing that either.  I will be back-dating all of my posts so that the date they show up on my blog reflects the date around when the event actually took place (for example: I wrote this post 7/19 but am backdating it to 6/27), but keep checking in to see what we have been up to the past month.

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First, one of my best friends since Middle School, Erin Killion, got married!  I was honored to be one of her bridesmaids & had such a fun week of wedding festivities with her, hubby-to-be, BJ, & the rest of their family & friends.  We started out on Thursday by getting lunch & then manicures & pedicures!  Then later that night we went to Collin's house on Dog River for a 'Stock the Bar' dinner & cocktail party.

Erin & I

All of the bridesmaids with the bride

Friday, we all met at the Mobile Museum of Art's Palette Cafe for the Bridesmaid's Luncheon.

Friday night was the rehearsal and then Rehearsal Dinner at the Original Oyster House on the causeway.  Everything was great!  Look at this adorable crab cake (it tasted delicious, too):

Ben & I

group shot

the bride & groom

Saturday was the BIG DAY!!! We started getting ready at the hotel at 10 AM even though the wedding wasn't until 7 PM.  We enjoyed hair & makeup before pictures, the ceremony, & then the reception.  I took SOOO many pictures this whole weekend but here are just a "few":

I hadn't had my hair curled since I was little & my momma did it... 

Bridesmaid's bouquets

Beautiful bride & I all ready to go

Delicious cake

momma & daddy came too

dancing w/ Ben

Newlyweds: Erin & BJ

farewell! 

they are both police officers & had this awesome getaway car

Congratulations Erin & BJ!  Y'all are such a wonderful couple and I am so happy for the 2 of you.  I was grateful to be a part of your special day & wish you a long, happy, blessed marriage.  

To see the rest of the pictures I took from their wedding festivities go to the Flickr album here.

yum-o

I had a fabulous, and probably not too original idea, but I was still really glad I had it.  Ben & I had "chicken fajitas for 2" at the Mexican restaurant saturday night & I decided to get our leftover chicken/onion/peppers in a to go box.  Normally I just let them take it away.  Actually, last time I made fajitas/tacos at home, I just threw the leftovers away rather than keeping them.  Then I had a GREAT idea!!!  KEEP that yummy stuff, put it in a wheat tortilla with cheese, and make my own quesadilla at home!  DUH! I bet all of you do this all the time, but I have NEVER made my own quesadilla, EVER (I have also never popped my own popcorn or made my own grilled cheese.... I know, the basics just aren't my thing)!  Well, Monday this was my absolutely delicious, better than a restaurant, lunch (atop my new beautiful tablecloth, I might add)!

Sweet Caroline

Ben & I were so glad not to have any plans this weekend & were looking forward to a relaxing weekend at home with no plans!  So... When my wonderful college friend & bridesmaid, Caroline, called & offered to drive down from Birmingham for a visit while she was between jobs, I was SO excited that we were actually available and going to be in town!  I also, however, warned her that I would probably be boring, we wouldn't have anything exciting to go do, and we would just have plenty of time to talk, catch up & spend quality time together.... luckily that was exactly what she was coming to do! :)

Caroline drove down on Friday afternoon and we chatted the afternoon away until Ben got home from work.  Then we had some cocktails and the 3 of us went to dinner at California Dreamin'.

Saturday we were going to head down to my beach house & see my family, but their plans changed & were going to be leaving by the time we got there so we stayed here instead.  Ben went to lunch with us, and then we dropped him off at home to watch baseball & soccer games, while we went to the movies and saw a matinee showing of Date Night.  After the movie we went shopping for a while.  Caroline & I are so similar; we both love shopping at Ann Taylor LOFT & got tons of great stuff at their weekend SALE, and even have the same Tory Burch flip flops that we wore all weekend :)

After relaxing back at home on the couch for a while, the 3 of us ate Mexican & had margaritas for dinner!  Sunday, after sleeping in of course, we took Cari to Felix's Fish Camp for lunch for some local flavor seafood before she had to head back home!  

We definitely got plenty of relaxing in, and also a lot of visiting and catching up & making up for all the time we don't get to see each other!  Luckily we can pick up right where we left off & its like no time has passed at all.  THANK YOU so much for coming to visit, Caroline, & for being such a good friend!!! As soon as you left, Ben said you are welcome back any time! :)  Good luck with your new job! LOVE YOU!  

busy busy bees

You will never guess what we did this past weekend... Went to a wedding?  You are getting so good at this game!  Last weekend I don't think we stopped moving all weekend long!

Friday night we went with our friends John Wade & Mandy (who are expecting a baby girl in the beginning of October like my sister is) to the 1st annual St. Paul's vs. UMS alumni rivalry football game.  This was absolutely hilarious to see guys anywhere from 22 to 60 years old out on the football field for the 1st time in years!  St. Pauls (my alma mater) won 10-0 and despite many bruises, cuts, and sore muscles, I think the actual injuries were kept to a minimum.

Saturday, after Ben played golf (his new favorite thing to do), we went to our friends Andrea & Mac's wedding shower shrimp boil (hosted by Austin & Stephanie).  We weren't able to stay long though, because we had a wedding to make it to!  Ben's classmate & longtime good friend Emily married J on a rainy, humid, June afternoon in Mobile.  The rain came pouring down right as they were walking out of the church but finally decided to stop so that everyone could make their way to the reception.  Natalie & Stephen were there too.

Sunday morning we had the honor of attending our good friend William's (& Fay's) son's Baptism & brunch afterward.

WILLIAM ELLSWORTH BARNES V

the boys (great friends from high school):

Garrett, little William & daddy William, Ben

Ben & I with little William

After that weekend full of celebrations, we went to see my parents & didn't get home until late so we were exhausted & needed to get to bed early to prepare for the next busy week!

Our Memorial Weekend

We had a whirlwind Memorial weekend.  Normally we would just go down to the beach house & veg out, relax, eat, swim, etc all weekend long.... but this time we had a wedding to go to Saturday night back in Mobile so we were only at the beach Friday night & Saturday morning.  We made the most of the short time we had.

Here's a photo overload of Ben & I playing with Bennett Friday afternoon with the ball MiMi & Doc found & gave to B, the cutest child in the world:

Looking at "Doc's Fishin Boat"

And then Saturday we got our swimming, sun bathing, and shrimp boil on!  We wrapped up the day by celebrating RACHEL'S BIRTHDAY before Ben & I had to leave.... (happy b'day rachie)

My good friend since childhood, classmate, and God-sister, Jennifer, got married at my home church & had the most beautiful wedding reception I have ever been to, at a museum called Space 301.  We reunited with so many friends from high school & danced the night away until the bride & groom left on their moped!!!

One of the reception rooms

Jennifer & Will cutting the cake

Katie, me, Rebecca, Blair, & Loren

Katie & I (& Jody)

Ben & I 

High School Friends w/ the Bride

At the end of the night I was able to snag Jennifer & asked Ben to take a picture of us & this is what he took.... good thing he knows how to ZOOM.... oh well, she looks beautiful :) 

The rest of the pictures I took are in my flickr album here.   

Sunday night we had friends (Austin, Stephanie, & William) over  and had wine & cooked ribs, veggies, & corn all on the grill!  

Then Monday we relaxed, had a lot of rain storms off & on (made us feel better about not being at the beach), watched AVATAR for the 1st time (very long, different, interesting, beautiful, & cool movie), and then I drug Ben to go see Sex and the City 2 with me (haha, he did NOT enjoy it) & then dinner.  The 1st part of the weekend was hectic, & the last part was relaxing. 

I hope you all enjoyed your Memorial Weekend & we appreciate everything our service men & women do for us & our freedoms.