State Games of Mississippi

Abbey had the State Games of Mississippi Softball Tournament this weekend in Meridian. We had to go Friday night for the opening ceremonies. All of the girls walked in and threw beads and candy. They had a fireworks show afterwards. It was fun and the girls had a great time. We had to be back in Meridian Saturday morning. Abbey’s teams ended up losing the first two games so we didn’t stay very long. They had a good time anyway. Her team went swimming at the coaches hotel afterwards and then we came back to Jackson. It was a very busy weekend but also fun!

2nd alternate.......

Mary Margaret got 2nd alternate in the Miss Teen Mississippi Pageant Saturday night. She was a little disappointed but it was very good for her first time. Hopefully she will be in it again next year.

Congratulations Miss Teen Dixieland!

Last night, Mary Margaret won her category. She did active wear. Tonight she will perform evening wear and then tomorrow night will be talent. Good Luck to her!

Good Luck Miss Teen Dixieland!

My cousin, Mary Margaret, is in the Miss Teen Mississippi pageant. It starts tonight and will end on Saturday. I will not be able to make the pageant but my family will be there to cheer her on. Good Luck!

Way Behind On Posting.........

I have been terrible lately about blogging. I have been extremely busy at work and after work so there has been really no time to blog. I will start this post with older pictures and work my way to now.

This picture was taken one day at the mall. It had been awhile since I had taken any pictures of them so I snapped one really fast.


Abbey had an awards program at school a few weeks ago. Dennis and I went and she received the all "A" award for the school year. We were very proud of her.


This picture was taken the last day that Rebecca worked for Southern Cross. She is very pregnant in the picture.


Rebecca had Anderson on May 28th. She weighed 7 lbs. 10 oz. She is so precious. I went to the hospital to see her. She has the prettiest complexsion and tons of black hair. I can't wait to see her again.



This weekend we went to Hattiesburg for an all-star tournament for Abbey. Her team did really good. While we were down there, we had to take Abbey to the doctor. She wasn't feeling very good at all and she ended up having strep throat. She is much better now though. Her last game Saturday night ended at 11:00 p.m. so we were very tired driving home. Well Dennis was. I ended up sleeping part of the way.


On the way to Hattiesburg, Brandon had on his spiderman sunglasses (which were broke). He thought it was so funny so he wanted me to take a picture of him.




We have had a pretty eventful week. We had to take Brandon to the emergency room the other night to get stitches. He was getting out of the bath tub and decided to step on the side of the tub. When he did, he slipped and hit his head. Dennis wasn't sure if it was bad enough for stitches but we ended up taking him. We also had our garage sale and we ended up doing better than we had thought. I am so glad that it is over.

Dennis' house is finally starting to look like a family lives there. Abbey has her own room now and she loves it. She stays in there pretty much all the time. She asked if she could eat supper in there the other night. It was too funny! We went to Miskellys and bought a couch, 2 recliners, 3 end tables, and a breakfast table. I can't wait until it all comes in. I have been cleaning like crazy. Dennis calls me a compulsive cleaner. I'm sure it will all change after a while though. I am just excited about it. Well I guess that it about it for now. Maybe it won't be so long before I post again.

A Little Internet Fun!

I was playing around on the internet and came across this. These are the American cities that would best fit me. Give it a try!

American Cities That Best Fit You:

75% Austin 70% Atlanta 70% Miami 60% Honolulu 60% Las Vegas

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

Abbey had a pretty exciting week. The week started off by Dennis and I telling her that she made the all-star softball team. She was VERY excited. She played on a softball team this year where a lot of the girls were new at softball so they didn’t win any games. I think they should have won a game but the scoreboard showed that it was a tie. Anyway, Abbey is a competitive person (just like her dad) and likes to win, but this year she had a great attitude towards things and it looks like it paid off for her. The all star coach watched her team play a few games and saw that Abbey was a great softball player and so he asked her to be an all star player. On June 15th and 16th, she will play in a tournament at the State Games in Meridian. I don’t know a whole lot about it but from hearing the coach talk it sounds like it will be a lot of fun for the girls. Today Abbey had an awards program at her school and she received an award for having an all A average for the school year. She is a smart little girl and we were very proud of her.

We have another busy weekend ahead of us. Tonight we are eating crawfish (yummy!) and tomorrow we will spend most of the day at the softball fields. Brandon has a game right before lunch and Abbey has 2 make-up games tomorrow night. We will definitely be squeezing Shrek 3 in tomorrow afternoon. I am so excited about seeing it. Shrek is my favorite kid’s movie so I have been looking forward to the next one coming out for awhile now.

Tonight is the last night in my apartment. I am SOOOOO excited. I have lived there over 2 years now and I was itching to leave. I will be living with Dennis’s sister for June and July and then my sister is getting an apartment in Jackson at the beginning of August so I will be a bum and live with her for a month. I can’t believe we are getting close to the end of May. The wedding will be here before we know it. I must start addressing my invitations because July is creeping up on me fast.

4 months!!!

The wedding is 4 months from today. It is 123 days away. Ok, so I’m not counting down or anything. I am getting very excited and nervous and the same time. I’m nervous that everything may not get done in time. There are still tons of things that need to be done. My invitations were ordered and have come in but I have not seen them yet. My mom is supposed to get them this weekend. I plan to start addressing them right away so that I won’t be totally stressed out when I have hundreds of these things to address a few weeks before I have to mail them out. I had my first alterations fitting yesterday for my wedding dress. It will take about 8 weeks to get it back. Let’s hope it’s not more than 8. I will be freaking out. My bridesmaid’s dresses also came in and I was very pleased with the way they looked. My sister tried hers on and it looked really good. Hopefully they will look good on the wedding day as well. We are taking our Engagement pictures this Saturday. I hope they turn out. Ok, so enough about the wedding. We had a busy weekend as usual. Abbey had softball practice and Brandon had a game on Saturday then we took them to the zoo. I thought my favorite animal was a monkey but I am slowly changing my mind. Every time I see one at a zoo it is doing something disgusting so I am thinking that I may need to find a new animal to like. Maybe one that seems to be a little cleaner. The zoo was fun and it was a great day to go. The weather turned out to be really nice.

Happy Birthday, Bethany!

We hope you have a great day!
We love you,
Stephanie, Dennis, Abbey, and Brandon

Happy Birthday, Brandon!!!

Today is Brandon's 5th Birthday. He is getting to be such a big boy. We love you, Brandon!

Random Pictures!

Finally!!!!

Blogger has finally let me post again. I've been trying now for over a week. Come of the pictures that I will post are a few weeks old but blogger wouldn't cooperate with me.

Chloe was in a little pageant a few weekends ago. So looked so cute.



The next few pictures are from a softball game Abbey had a few weeks ago. She is a good little softball player.

It was very nice having a long weekend. It was very much needed by both Dennis and I. Dennis laid sod all day Friday and Abbey and Brandon and I played around Jackson. We woke up Saturday morning and went to an Easter Egg Hunt at the Ag Museum. The kids had a lot of fun but it was freezing outside. I was so ready to go when the egg hunt was over.




Dennis’s mom took us to lunch for my birthday that day. His sister and her kids went and one of his cousins and her little girl were there also. If you will notice real close in some of the pictures below, Brandon is missing both of his top teeth now. He knocked it out on the corner of Dennis’s dresser. The tooth was already loose so it probably didn’t take much to knock it out. Saturday night Brandon had his first T-Ball game. If any of you need some free entertainment, this is the place to be. It was so funny. Brandon’s team was playing t-ball/football. They would all go after the ball and end up in a big pile with the ball under them. One little boy on the other team had to slide into home every time. He would look at his pants when he got up to see if he had dirt on them. It was so cute.



The Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy came Saturday night. The tooth fairy left Brandon $5.00. WOW!!!! The Easter Bunny was good to them too. There easter baskets are in some of the pictures. I tried to post pictures of them last week but I never could get them to post. Oh well. They both got an outfit and some other little toys. I hope everyone had a great Easter.

This weekend was very busy as usual. Dennis went to Hattiesburg Saturday for his fantasy baseball draft. My mom and I had a baby shower to go to and then we shopped around some and took care of some more wedding things. We went to Highland Village to a store called Turkoyz and I am obsessed with it now. It was great and I could have bought a ton of things. It is very cute jewelry at a very reasonable price. I will be visiting the store again quite a few more times I’m sure. I went and registered at Dillards. I only have a few more places to register at and I will be done with that. I figured registering would be fun, but it is a hassle to me. It was fun the first time, but now it feels like a chore. I know that it will be worth it in the end though. I got Abbey and Brandon’s Easter baskets back and I did take a picture of them to post, but I left my camera cord at home of course. They turned out really cute. Hopefully I will post a picture of them soon.

Dennis and I had a very productive weekend. We were off Friday so that we could get some things done. We took Brandon to get his booster shots Friday morning and he did AWESOME. He didn’t shed a tear and he had three shots. Dennis and I were very surprised. Dennis had been talking it up all week telling him that it will feel like a pinch and that’s it. He also told him that he could get a shotgun that he wanted from Wal-Mart if he acted like a big boy. Well he acted better than a big boy so we went to Wal-Mart and got the shotgun. I had to walk out of the room after they did the first one because I am terrified of needles and my stomach start turning so I thought I’d better walk out of the room before I embarrassed myself. We also started cleaning out Dennis’s house some. We cleaned out the closet that I will have once we are married and I brought over a few clothes. We are moving a few things at a time because it will be crazy if we try and move everything at once. I also bought Abbey and Brandon Easter baskets. They are being monogrammed right now so I will post a picture of them when I get one. We also registered at Belk. I picked out my china and one of my everyday patterns. We were planning on registering at Dillard’s but I was worn out after Belk so I will go back one day this week after work and register.

Congratulations to my sister for getting into grad school. She was picked for first round at Jackson State for speech pathology. She will be moving to Jackson in August to start school there. She was very excited and relieved at the same time. Jackson State has a great program and the school is off of Lakeland Drive.

Just a little update on the wedding plans. They are still going smoothly. Dennis and I decided to go to St. Lucia on our honeymoon. I’m not sure if I have already posted that or not, but anyway I am getting so excited. We are down to about 5 ½ months (169 days). We are going to pick out invitations in a few weeks so I am excited about that as well. I have decided that I am moving out of my apartment at the end of May. This is when my lease comes up. I will be homeless for a few months, but I am going to live with Dennis’s sister until the wedding. We are having a huge garage sale in June so I will be getting rid of most of my things. I am going to go ahead and put my clothes in my “new” closet at his house and pretty much live out of a bag for a few months. It will be worth it though. I will be saving money for us. We went and registered at Target the other night and we had lots of help. Abbey and Brandon wanted to scan everything for us. Abbey kept picking out stuff that we could register for. It was cute. She said, “Are yall going to get all of this for free?” Yeah right, I wish. I guess she thought when we were done they were going to load up all the goodies in the car for us to take home. We were walking past the electronics and she said, “Why don’t yall register for an Ipod or a Wii?” I started laughing and told her that people probably wouldn’t buy us anything if they saw those two items on the list. It was cute though. Tomorrow is going to be a BIG day for Brandon. He is getting his shots for school. The health department told Dennis that he would have to have 3 or 4. Yikes! I am terrified of shots so I don’t have any room to talk about being a big person about it. Dennis told him that if he did well that he would buy him a shotgun (a toy on of course) from Wal-Mart that he wants. After that, Dennis is applying for his passport and then we are off to register at Belk and Dillard’s. It is going to be a busy day, but we will be very productive which is what we were going for. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Abbey's 9th Birthday Party

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Happy Birthday, Dad! I know this picture looks kind of silly of him, but this is his normal self. He never seems to act right in pictures.

Happy Birthday, Abbey!

Happy Birthday, Abbey! Today is Abbey’s 9th birthday. Dennis and I are taking off this afternoon so that we can pick her up from after school early. She is having a party at Mazzio’s tonight and then a few little girls are spending the night at Dennis’s house. I hope she has a wonderful day and a fun time at her party. We love you Abbey!

Dennis and I met with the preacher yesterday afternoon and things went really well. I was a little nervous about going because I had no idea what he was going to ask me, but things turned out great. He wants to meet with us three more times and the last time we meet will be about the ceremony. We are at 184 days until the wedding so we are getting very excited. We also met with the florist last night to talk about flowers. I have no clue about flowers so I pretty much left it up to her as to what they will look like. I just basically told the lady how many of everything I need. She has done lots of weddings and I’ve heard nothing but good things about her so I am going to trust her with this. So far everyone I’ve talked to has been extremely pleased. I just hope I am able to remember to look at them on the day of the weeding to see what they look like. I’ve heard from several people that they didn’t even know what their flowers looked like for their wedding. I will have pictures of them if I don’t get to see them.

What an eventful weekend.....

This weekend was full of many obstacles. After work on Friday, Dennis and I ran a few errands and went to eat at a Mexican restaurant. We were going down Hwy 25 towards Dennis’s house about 9:00. It was dark outside and on this particular part of the road there are no street lights so all you have are headlights to see by. I was behind Dennis in the right lane and all of the sudden he slammed on brakes. I had to lock my brakes up behind him and all of the sudden I ran over a pile of tree branches. I came really close to hitting him. Thank goodness he didn’t come to a complete stop or we would have had a 3 car pile up. The car behind me swerved in to the left lane and the lady said she barely missed me. All I saw was smoke from her tires as she went by. I was glad that Dennis was in front of me in his SUV because I would have messed the whole front in of my car up if I had hit them first. Dennis broke them up when he ran them over. Dennis called me right after it happened because he wasn’t sure which car I was. By this point, I was crying and he asked if I was ok. I told him I was and but that something was wrong with my car. He had pulled over and asked if I could drive up to where he was. I told him that I was on the side of the road so he pulled over and walked to where I was. When I got out, this is what I found.

I have no idea how it got wedged like that. I thought the branch had stuck through my plastic bumper. After jacking my car up, we saw that it had hit the perfect spot right in front of my exhaust pipe. There was no major damage to my car just some paint that is cracked and is chipping off. We all got very lucky that night to say the least.

Dennis and I went to Vicksburg Saturday to look at flowers and a photographer. I had an appointment with the florist at 2:00 and when I got there the place was closed and nobody was there. I was very mad. I could not wait to get to work this morning to give her a phone call. She said that she had written my appointment down on a ticket and it had gotten moved. She apologized and asked if I would give her another chance. I am meeting the preacher tomorrow afternoon so she agreed to stay open until I get there. Maybe this time she will actually be there. We booked the photographer so that was a good thing. He is going to take our engagement pictures as well sometimes in April. We were also able to get an idea of china, flatware, and some everyday patterns. The planning is still moving along. Maybe we won’t have anymore bumps in the road. (yeah right!)

Brandon had his first tee-ball practice Saturday. He is in the 4-5 year old age group and they are all so funny. Most of them didn’t even know which way first base was. Brandon did good though. Below are some pictures from the practice.

190 days........

The wedding is in 190 days. I know that sounds like a lot, but it’s really not. It will definitely be here before we know it. The planning is still going strong. I found a dress this past weekend as well as bridesmaid dresses, a junior bridesmaid dress, and a flower girl dress. I am glad that I found them because they take 12 weeks to come in. If they need to be altered, that will be another 10 weeks. With all that said, they should be ready about middle August. Let’s hope they come in early and the alterations don’t take quite that long. I will really be nervous if they aren’t ready by August. Dennis and I picked out tuxes. I didn’t really do much picking. I went along mostly for support, but he did a very good job. Those all have to be fitted by July 8th. As you can see, my calendar is already filling up and this is just the beginning. We also decided on where we wanted to go on a honeymoon. We booked the trip to St. Lucia a few days ago. I am so excited about going. I wish we were leaving tomorrow. We booked it through Sandals. Go to www.sandals.com to see more about the resort. Don’t forget to keep checking the wedding website. There should be a few new updates soon. I am going to look at flowers and a photographer this Saturday so maybe I will have good luck this weekend as well.

Wedding Website

The wedding website is up and running now. All of the pages don't have information yet, but it will be updated as the planning continues. I went dress shopping this weekend. I found my dress, the bridesmaid dresses and the flower girl dress. I am really glad that I found everything. Just less stress on me. The address to the website is below.

www.harrelsonandsteed.com

Feel free to browse around and email us. It will continue to be updated as we know more about the big day.

A date has been set!

Dennis and I have finally set a date. We are getting married on September 8, 2007. The planning seems to be going good so far. It has been a little stressful, but we have a church, a reception place, and a band. Hopefully all the planning will be less stressful in the next month or so. I am going to look at wedding dresses this Saturday and hopefully start thinking about my bridesmaid dresses as well. My sister and Abbey are going with me so hopefully they will be able to try a few on. Let’s hope I find the dress that I want so that will be one less thing to think about finding. I didn’t realize how much work planning a wedding was, but now I know exactly what people are saying when they say it is stressful. There are way too many decisions to make. As a little girl growing up, you know exactly what you want you’re wedding to look like and then when it comes time you have know clue or at least I don’t. Dennis is working on a wedding website for us and I will be sure and post the link as soon as it is done. He is very good with that kind of thing so I was excited when he told me he was creating us one. Abbey seems to be really excited about the wedding. She is at the age where she knows what goes on a wedding. Brandon on the other hand has no clue. We were eating at Dairy Queen last night and out of nowhere Abbey said, “On yalls wedding day, Daddy is going to be standing there and when you walk in the door he is going to be looking at you with a smile on his face.” She said, “And when you walk in that door, you are going to be staring back at him with a smile on your face.” It was so cute that I couldn’t help but laugh. It amazes me that little girls already know exactly what goes on in a wedding. We girls start thinking about that at a very early age. I will continue to update my blog as more and more things get planned. I can’t wait until September 8, 2007!!!!!!

First Comes Love, then comes.................

Marriage! Dennis and I are getting married. He proposed to me last night at his house. It was a sweet proposal. We are both very excited about this. We are still working on a date. We will know more in a few days after we get a church and a reception place booked. We are both very excited. I will have a lot of work to do over the next few months, but it will be worth every minute of it. My ring is beautiful and I absolutely love it. He did a great job with everything. I will be posting more details as we started finalizing all the plans.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

I hope everyone is having a great day. Dennis surprised me with a Jane Hollinger necklace that I wanted. He gave it to me last night. I bought him a new wallet. I have washed his twice in the last month so I figured I owed him a new one. Maybe I won’t wash this one. We are going to eat at Char after work. I am excited because I never eaten there at night, only at lunch one time. Have a great day!

I love the new Karma necklaces. My mom is getting me one for Valentine’s Day. I can’t wait to have it so that I can wear it. If you don’t already have one, I would definitely go out and get one. They are so cute.

I posted this picture of my sister’s car tag a few months ago because she had two year stickers and no month sticker. I laughed at her for awhile about this one. Sometimes I think her hair should really be blond. People say that about me too but I’m not that bad. Anyway, I had forgotten about it until my sister calls me this morning at work to tell me that she just got pulled over for her tag. She said that the policeman walked up to her car and was laughing. She asked him what was so funny and he replied, “Did you know that your car tag has 2 years and no month?” She laughed and said, “Yes!” He asked her if her friends had laughed at her about this. She said, “No, but my sister posted it on her blog.” He told her not to worry about it because she will be getting a new tag next year but that she could go to the courthouse and see if they would give her a new month tag. I wish I would have been in the car with her because I would have probably been rolling around in the floor board laughing so hard.

Long Time No Blog!

It has been a while since I have posted. Not much going on right now. Nothing exciting at least. I love crawfish and Dennis and I went and ate them last Saturday. They were so good. I am still on my diet and it is going good so far. I have lost some weight which is good because it makes me want to keep trying. I only have about 15 more pounds to loose. I still have the swimsuit that I want hanging up in my cubicle. Hopefully they won’t sale out of it at Victoria’s Secret before I reach my goal and can order it. If so, I have seen plenty more that I would like just as well. I love to buy swimsuits. I only have about 10 right now that I wear.  I think I need a few more to add to my collection.

Dennis, Abbey, and I laugh almost every night now when Brandon plays his game boy. It is so funny because he gets into it so much. He plays Pirates of the Caribbean (Canibean to Brandon) and he makes the funniest faces with his mouth. I don’t think he realizes he is doing it but it is hilarious. Once we start laughing he stops but he starts it up again shortly after. He starts smiling because he knows what he is doing. It is really cute. Just another reason why I love him.

And the Winner Is...................

Contestant #6, Mary Margaret Roark. This weekend my cousin was in the Miss Teen Dixieland Pageant in Laurel. This was her first pageant to ever participate in. My mom, Abbey, and I went to see her. I am so glad that we did because she won. She looked really pretty and carried herself very well. She is only 16 years old so I can’t imagine what she will look like when she is 20. In June, she will come to Vicksburg for a week and compete in the Miss Teen Mississippi Pageant. Good luck to her this year as she represents Miss Dixieland in 2007.

Rebecca, a friend from work, found out today that she is having a sweet baby girl. She thought all this time that it was a boy and I kept trying to tell her that she was having a little girl. The Chinese calendar was right again. It's going to be a beautiful baby because she has beautiful parents. I can't wait to meet her at the end of may. Let's pray she will be little so that Rebecca can deliver her easy!

Happy New Year!!!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful new year.