{my best friend's wedding}

Sunday, July 1, 2012 I had the joy of witnessing the beautiful matrimony of my best friend, Ana  and her college lover, Brayden! 

The special thing to me was that I have seen Ana & Brayden's relationship grow all throughout college! It's a beautiful thing to be an outsider and watch your best friend go from a date, to engaged, to being the most beautiful bride on her amazing wedding day! 

We have been looking forward to this day since they got engaged in March 2011! When July 1 finally rolled around it didn't feel real. My best friend was about to become a bride. 

We all met in Atlanta on Saturday for a beautiful bridesmaids luncheon. 

The bride with all of her maids!

Bride at her rehearsal dinner with her new last name! 

Since her wedding was on a Sunday, we had to have rehearsal the morning of {sans the groom of course}. When we pulled up to the site, it was the most beautiful place I have been for a wedding! A&B originally planned to have the ceremony outside in the gardens and then the reception inside. However, this was the week of 105 degree weather so they decided to have both ceremony and reception inside. Ana had been going back and fourth up until the day of her wedding. Did she want to just go ahead and have it outside? Around 2:00 it poured down rain, we even had hail! It was definitely God's way of saying "You all made the right choice!"

We all stared at the beautiful bride as she got her hair done in a beautiful side bun and her make up was flawless. We all got ready and played the waiting game. A&B originally planned to do a first glance, but because of the rain they didn't get the chance. This made it so special as she walked down the aisle toward Brayden. 

I held it together pretty well all day long until one special moment. As we were preparing to get lined up to walk down the aisle, Ana's daddy came in to pray with us. The second he walked in the door, I lost it! The way he looked at his beautiful daughter all dressed up in white melted my heart! I dried up my tears and said I wouldn't cry any more. Well, that didn't last! We all walked down the aisle and waited for the beautiful, blushing bride! When Ana came down the aisle I lost it again! My best friend was about to marry the man of her dreams! It was such a beautiful moment! 

As they said their vows, we were lead outside to complete the ceremony where they would release doves. As the preacher was reading a verse  there was a ginormous clap of thunder {nothing before and nothing after it happened} it was so insane! The preacher said, "Well I better stop there. I think that is God putting a seal on your marriage." 

We had so much fun at the ceremony and made memories that will last a lifetime! I know that God will truly bless this marriage and I can't wait to see what He has in store for my best friend and her hubby! 

Getting ready. I'm just a little taller than Morgan!

My gorgeous 'little'

Gorgeous best friend!

Gorgeous bouquet!

If you want to see more pictures, visit her ammmaazzinng photographers website: {here}

{small town u.s.a}

Some of you may know that my amazing, smart hubs recently was accepted in to medical school. Along with this came a lot of different decisions. We would have to move for him to be closer to school in order to study in to the wee hours of the morning. Thus, we began the house hunt. 

His school has a "classifieds" section on the website where former students or people in the area rent homes to the med students. For 2 weeks straight, I swear, every single house I called about that looked "perfect" for us was already rented out. I got very stressed and very distraught. Were we ever going to find a house? We finally found what we thought was the perfect home. Completely re-done in 2008, 2 br/2 ba blah blah blah...anyway long story short, the dude completely screwed us over {and I mean that in the nicest way possible}. Our hearts were set on this house. 

So, the search began once again. One day I was searching and came across a perfect, brand new home. We went up the very next day to tour and talk with the owner. It was absolutely perfect! Fenced in yard for Polo, 3 br/2 ba, wood floors, and brand new! I wasn't getting my heart set on it because I didn't want it to fall through. The guy originally wanted to sell decided to let us rent! We are beyond thrilled we will be moving next week! It's all happening so fast!

We will be moving to small.town.usa about an 1 hr 15 min from beloved knoxville. This means no Earth Fare, no mall, no neighborhood barre {don't get me started I might cry}, no restaurants {unless you are the Long John Silver type}. However, this will be such a fun season in our lives! It will be fun to experience a small town since I never have before, always living in big cities. We will get to experience the outdoors together, take Polo on hikes, have cook out with our "new" friends {don't know who these people are yet but they are there haha}. I am so excited for Dale as be begins this journey that he has dreamed of his whole life! I will be a proud wife standing by him every step of the way! 

We will keep you updated with pics as we get it decorated!

{hummus pizza}

My best friend and kindred spirit introduced me to the yummiest food that I've ever had!

 Hummus pizza! This stuff is 

to.

die.

for 

and so easy! 

Ingredients: 

Pre-made pizza dough {ours was from whole foods} or you can make your own

hummus {flavor of your choice}

onion

red and yellow peppers

mushrooms {if you like}

goat cheese

Directions

Roast your bell peppers in the oven at 425 for 30 min

take out and slice bell peppers

slice and chop rest of your veggies

spread hummus over entire pizza crust

 sprinkle veggies over pizza 

sprinkle goat cheese on top

bake pizza as directed on pizza crust directions

 {ours was 450 for 10 min}

Easy as {pizza} pie

{from drab to fab}

In the midst of finding a new home we have had to find lots of new furniture too! We are moving from a 1br/1ba apartment to a 3 br/2 ba home! It's insane how much more stuff we need! When we found out we would be moving, being the list maker, type-a, that I am, I made a huge to-do list of things we needed to buy. One of which was a new dresser. I searched and searched on craigslist and finally found one that I thought would be perfect. 

Original Color...sorry I don't have a better pic of the whole dresser! 

drawer in progress!

We were going to do our new bedroom in cool blue, green, and white. When we picked up the dresser {which we didn't have to buy} I knew the color blue was going to be way off. Plus, it didn't help that the dude who sold it to us said, "so are you going to be using this in a baby room?" Heck no! I HAD to paint it!
After asking people on facebook and talking to a lot of people who knew about painting furniture, I decided to go with Annie Sloan's Chalk paint and boy am I glad I did! This stuff is AMAZING!! They call it "a girl's paint" because it's so hard to mess up! It requires zero priming or sanding prior to painting the furniture! Just pour out the paint and brush right on to your piece! You have to buy a clear {or dark} wax to put on top of it because, well, it's like chalk and you have to seal it. Run to your nearest stockist and get this paint if you are painting any type of furniture! 

I used old ochre with a clear soft wax! 

 I have since changed my mind and we are going to use the new dresser in our guest bedroom! I am excited and I love how it turned out! I am still on the hunt for new dresser pulls! Let me know if you find any that are cheaper than $8/ pull!

Pictures of the finished dresser to come....

{pick me up}

Just in case you were having a "ruff" day. Here is an adorable picture to get you through the day! Little

Polo at 6 weeks! 

Happy Sunday Everyone! 

{year one}

oh. my. word. this first year of marriage has flown by!

we look back and think of all of the fun and incredible things we've done:

honeymooned in Antigua

went to HHI

lake trip

I started my first job as a special ed. teacher

many VOLS football games

vacationed in Naples, FL

diagnosed and treated melanoma

dale graduated from undergrad

dale got in to MEDICAL school

we got a puppy

wrecked my car

moved out of our first teeny apartment

got our first home

The Sharpe Family!

We have seen and accomplished so much in our first year of marriage and have enjoyed every minute of it. "They" say that the first year is the hardest but if that's true then bring on the next 50+ years.

I finally got to wear my wedding perfume again!

For our 1st Anniversary we decided to make it pretty low key since a) cannot do anything too extravagant because we have Mr. Polo and b) it was father's day and Dale's dad was in town!!

 Dale's aunt gave us a very nice bottle of Cabernet when we got married and said to save it for our first anniversary. It was hard because we loovee cab. but we did it! We took our anniversary cake, some wine glasses, our bottle of wine, a quilt, and a candle to a park by the river. We laid it all out and just enjoyed each others company while the sun set. After the sun set, we laid under the stars and watched hundreds or thousands of lightning bugs light up the field! It was beautiful and I would not change it for the world! 

Picnic by the river

  

Monday night, we went to a nice restaurant in West Knox. to enjoy yummy food and each other's company. 

I love my handsome husband!

{organic veggie packed pasta}

During the summer I like to eat 'light' dinners since we mainly eat outside and don't want anything too heavy. Last night my hubs wanted some pasta so my mind starting rollin...What kind of pasta  could I make that won't be too heavy? I went to the grocery and bought the 'goods'

-orange bell pepper

-asparagus

-grape tomatoes

-organic rotini pasta

{we already had some mushrooms and a yellow onion so I threw those in there too}

drizzled a little o.o. in a pan, threw all my veggies in {chopped of course} and sauteeted away! 

boiled the noodles as directed

once the veggies were sauteed, I mixed them in with the pasta drizzled a teeny bit more olive oil over and some s&p and waa-la! Super light veggie packed pasta!!! 

**can sprinkle some fresh mozzarella over top while it's still hot