madness

you know I can't resist sharing a good jam--especially when it comes from the most unlikely places. Muse's new song "madness" is just wonderful. and its name truly does the song justice because quite honestly, it's madness that something this good came from muse. (sorry I'm not sorry!) listen and enjoy and thank me later. 

also, I'm writing this post from my brand new iPad!!! I really do have the best fiancé ever. and I'm so thankful that he thinks I deserve gadgets like this...and that he likes to open Christmas presents very very early :) again--sorry I'm not sorry. 'night lovelies!

loving this song right now

i'll hopefully have a birthday update for you soon. in the meantime, enjoy...

an update--press play first :)

this post is to serve as a forewarning because december is quickly approaching and that means that i will be totally out of commission due to one crazzzzzzy work schedule! rooftop event spot, as of today, has 18 (yikes!) events on the books for december! i'm so excited because it shows that my hard work is paying off, but it also means that i will basically not have a life this holiday season. (*tear!) here's some of what's been going on in my life/what will be going on in the coming weeks!

i can NOT believe i was too lazy forgot to post about the florence + the machine concert i went to a few weeks ago!! my friend, erica, (who shares an obscene obsession with music like me) found pit tickets about two weeks prior to the concert for stupid cheap. we obviously couldn't refuse. erica, my bff amy, and i headed to the concert and had the most amaaaaazing time. i definitely got to cross off one of my concert bucket list items! here's some pics from the concert!

she was like a fairy goddess.

rock star.

me and the girlies!

i had my wedding dress fitting and i just know that everything is going to be perfect! the lady who did my alterations was just awesome and clearly knew her stuff. she was a little asian lady named, men, and was just a tiny little thing. call me immature (i am, sometimes...oops) but i could not stop laughing about how her name was men. no pics for this update--gotta keep the dress a secret for the big day. :)

christmas is coming up waaaaay too quickly and michael and i have only gotten presents for 3 people!! eek! also, if anyone has any cool gift ideas for soon-to-be-husbands, i'm all for recommendations! i will be juggling my events in december as well as finishing my christmas shopping...maybe i should start thanksgiving week....

benny-boy is doing just peachy. he's recovered quite nicely from the hair-cutting debacle and michael took him to the groomers this week to get beautified. he's just so cute. (benny, not mikey....juuuuuust kidding!) :) 

this post is already getting to rambly for me. gotta run!  

if you need me the week of march 17...

you will find me (and mikey) in paradise!

we booked our honeymoon to isla mujeres palace today! we'll leave the day after the wedding and get to spend 5 days in complete relaxation and paradise! i can't wait to celebrate mine and michael's marriage with my love! 

engagement pictures!

you guys! i don't even know where to start! as some of you know--and you may have to think reeeeeeeeaaaaaal hard since it's been a lifetime since i've been a "good blogger"-- mikey-poo and i went and got our engagement pictures done a couple of weeks ago. our amazing photographer, shelley walker, met with us on a day that was a) fighting off rain, b) colder than a usual september day, and c) coincidentally had perfect lighting (thanks to the almost-rain). 

shelley went to high school with michael and me (she is two years older than us) and has done several wedding/bridal/engagement shoots for my friends. long story short--she. is. awesome! 

mike was a champ and we seemed to get the shoot done pretty quickly. we were out at shelley's aunt and uncle's house where they have the most gorgeous land. there was an old barn, tractor, small pond, hay bales and more...basically everything to make a perfect rustic-type photo shoot a success! here's a couple of my personal favorites (complete with super-sappy-but-totally-true love quotes that i can't get enough of)! :)

on the way to the shoot. mike was clearly pumped about it. lol.

"he's more myself than i am. whatever our souls are made of,
his and mine are the same." -emily bronte

"anyone can be passionate, but it takes real lovers to be silly." -rose franken 

"in all the world, there is no heart for me like yours.
in all the world, there is no love for you like mine." -maya angelou

shelley- thank you so much for doing such an amazing job on our photos! you are wonderful and they turned out perfect!!

remember me?

so i officially am going down in history as the WORST blogger of all time. don't worry, it's not like i've just been sitting around smelling flowers and day dreaming. i'm been working my little tushy off! i'll spare you the details (which include a wedding from hell, an event that's making me resent church groups, and an all-day fall feast-ival that was less stressful than last year--read: i didn't have an all-day anxiety attack like last year), and just fast forward to today. 

happy halloween! my ever-consistant sweet tooth is rejoicing, and my eyes can't wait to see what catastrophic photos make it onto [fill in social network site here]. ladies--do yourselves a favor and put some clothes on this year. you look ridiculous in that lingerie masquerading as a bumble bee. last time i checked, bumble bees do not wear embellished push-up bras. 

wait a second...let's tap the breaks a bit here...i think i just became an adult. ...shit!

in honor of this most holy non-holiday, let's take a look at some of the costumes i'd like to see! cheers, all!

the coppertone baby--sooooo cute! (my personal favorite!)

sophia grace and rosie. some friends of mine actually did this
and it's so cute! don't know what i'm talking about? click HERE

either of the presidential nominees

honey boo boo child. let it be known
i STILL have never watched an episode.

any of the duck dynasty crew

happy friday!

happy friday everyone! my weekend is slated to consist of a going-away party (sad!), the dallas flea market (for potential wedding finds, perhaps?), and engagement photos (as long as the weather cooperates). i can't wait!

enjoy your weekend! 

p.s. i can't stop listening to this...i hated it when i first heard it, but now i'm obsessed.

the one.

good news, everyone. i reached a milestone in my wedding planning this weekend. i found THE dress! :)

saturday afternoon, my mom, sister, amy, and michael's sister, christi, loaded up and headed out to find my wedding dress. i had looked online at david's bridal and found several dresses that i knew i wanted to try on, so we went there first. amy said it best when i gave her "the plan." "it's really big, so it will give you a lot of options. and if we get there and it's too overwhelming, we'll bounce and go somewhere else." 

we arrived at david's bridal, checked in, and let the madness ensue. alicia, our trusty consultant, did an awesome job. she was so helpful and way on top of her game. she knew those dresses! after trying on several (read: TONS) of dresses, christi and amy started looking around to dresses they thought i'd like. christi ended up finding the winner!

of course, i won't post a photo of the actual dress, but i can tell you this...it's lovely. it's vintage looking and classic and wonderful. :)  

here's a sneak peak of some other ones that were front-runners but ended up not making the cut. 

i had to crop my head out of this one...i had one
gnarly facial expression going on. lol.

also, fear not. my work-out regimen begins today! fyi: "work-out regimen" is simply my way of saying "stop-eating-like-a-little-piggy-and-try-and-get-some-kind-of-physical-activity-in-each-day." people are only going to believe that my armpit fat is an extension of my overly-humongous boobs for so long. and i can't do the "hand on my hip" pose in every picture on my wedding day. in short, it's gotta go!

hope you all have the happiest week! and wish me luck on this torturous  new adventure to work out more. y'all know how i feel about working out. womp!

typical.

want to know what a typical night at the rouse-lee household is like? look no further. feast your eyes on this little jewel and take a look at just one of the reasons I love our little life together so much. mike's just relaxing, playing his mlb game; benny boy is sleeping soundly (as usual); and I'm just hangin' out watching a little tv. there's something so nice about the comfort of our sweet little life. i love it :)

feeling inspirational

brrrrr!

the high today is only 90 degrees, and the low is...wait for it...66 DEGREES!!! this is texas in august and right at this very second it's 70 degrees! it's been a long time since i remember having weather this nice, this early. i definitely do not hate it, though! 

in other news, i haven't been able to stop listening to fatboy slim lately. it just puts me in the best mood! **flash back to this little gem**

is it weird that part of me still desperately wishes i knew that dance?? don't lie, you probably do, too. ;) 

have a great wednesday!

wedding daze

well, i'm officially overwhelmed with wedding stuff and literally haven't planned a thing. neat. 

at the rate i'm going, this will be me on march 16. 

for those who know me, you know i'm pretty organized, especially when it comes to events. well right now, my brain feels like scrambled eggs. invitations, budget, food, dress, bridesmaids, hotel accommodations, blah blah blah. my mom's so sweet (and probably reading this) and is offering to help me with whatever i need, but to be perfectly honest, i don't even know where to begin. i thought i wanted navy to be the main color, but maybe not? maybe i like the ever-popular dusk-rose-tan combination better? no, no...navy is definitely the way to go...right? 

and bridesmaid dresses. all the same? different? well if they're different, do they need to have the same fabric? if they don't will it look tacky in pictures? i mean, these pictures are forever, right? i mean, i don't really know why i'm worried about it...show me ONE person over the age of 50 that looks back at their wedding photos and actually thinks they look like a rock star. okay, maybe this is only a fair assumption of weddings pre-2000. (the 80's were especially cruel, weren't they?)

oh god, and don't even get me started on the music. i'm not traditional. i like rock music. so what if i want to rock out to incubus (an acoustic-piano version, of course) as i walk down the isle? sue me. but butterfly waltz IS a classic, and so beautiful. maybe i'll just stick with that. wait a sec--isn't that what bella did in the most recent twilight? yikes! don't think i want to follow in those steps...i mean, what if it's a bad omen and i end up being turned into a vampire. i'm kidding, but seriously, can i (or anyone else) take my marriage seriously if i included items as cliche as a tween-movie phenomena? 

oh forget it. i'll just have michael do this during the ceremony...

juuuuust kidding! although i'm pretty sure our friends and families would get a kick out of it...especially the dancing. lol. 

anyway, i'm just griping and being dramatic and ridiculous and negative. it'll pass and i'll get my crap together. don't worry! ;)

snapshots

i have the most fun sister ever. her friend, marcia, is pretty bomb as well.

don't mind the lazy eye. i was trying to wink and was a little late. whoopsies!

lol. favorite.

these were taken at urban rio's grand opening party. so. much. fun. mojo dfw provided the photo booth for the event and if you're ever needing a photo booth, i highly recommend them! it is so much fun, ads a lot to any event, and is run by the greatest people! if you book, tell julie that rachel at urban rio sent you! :) 

cheers everyone!

domesticity

for those of you who know me well, and as i've mentioned before, i am not very domestic. even as i write this, sweet michael is preparing our dinner (pork chops, garlic & butter pasta and bread & butter--gotta love being from south).

because you all know how i despise domesticity, you should all be very proud to know that i, rachel rouse, made home made bread last night. and before you ask, no. michael did not help...not even once! i'm pretty proud of myself. sooooo, if you haven't put two and two together yet, the aforementioned bread we're having with dinner is my home made bread. i'm stoked.

one hour to go!

just call me mrs. baird.

by the way, we had to go to wal-mart to buy our bread maker. neat.

 

'texas native serves country by saving lives'

Seaman Christian Adkins, corpsman, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, Regimental Combat Team 6, crosses a canal during Operation Gospand-Sia in the Sangin Valley District, July 11, 2012. The Afghan-led operation was scheduled for 48 hours, but ANSF destroyed several IEDs and one weapons cache and cleared all of their objectives in less than 16 hours. Adkins is from Athens, Texas.

FORWARD OPERATING BASE JACKSON, Afghanistan – As a senior in high school, Navy Seaman Christian Adkins knew he wanted to serve his country. Two months after his graduation, he was on his way to basic training.

Adkins, corpsman, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, Regimental Combat Team 6, credits the drive to join the military to his mother and stepfather.

Adkins’ parents divorced when he was young, and after living with his father during his freshman and sophomore years in high school, he moved in with his mother and stepfather. They encouraged him to consider the military after high school.

“They knew just as well as I did that school wasn’t for me,” said Adkins, from Athens, Texas. “Not to say that they didn’t have faith in me, but they just knew I don’t do well in school. They wanted me to go into the military because they thought I would be successful in it.”

Adkins agreed that joining was right choice to make at that point in his life. He graduated from high school in June 2010 and was on his way to Navy basic training that August.

Adkins choose to become a corpsman.

“I wanted to do something in the medical field,” Adkins said. “I thought the Navy would be the best thing because there are so many options … Plus, being in the medical field is always something you can fall back on.”

Adkins said he would like to earn his nursing degree while still serving. He also wants to commission and becoming an officer in the medical field.

“There are a lot of programs in the Navy where you can go to school and get your degree,” Adkins said. ““I’ve wanted to become a nurse for a while and that provides me opportunity.”

As a corpsman, Adkins had two options who to work for. “Blue side” corpsmen primarily work with the Navy while “green side” corpsmen work alongside Marines. Adkins chose to go to the “green side.”

“The camaraderie with Marines is really cool. It’s like a close knit family,” Adkins said. “I worked as a ’blue side’ corpsman for a little bit, but the relationships you have with people are different there than here. You’ll always have life-long friends here.”

To cope from being away from his family, Adkins had his parents send him pictures of home.

“It helps me if I’m missing my parents or feeling homesick,” Adkins said.

Adkins has been on several patrols where they were fired upon by insurgents and has been in two firefights since arriving in Afghanistan. He has used his life-saving skills to help both Marine and Afghan patients.

“Here on the forward operating base, we’ve had two mass casualty events where we had to stabilize (Afghan) patients,” Adkins said. “A lot of trauma patients come in whether they are locals, Afghan Uniform Police or Afghan National Army soldiers who have stepped on improvised explosive devices or got shot. We do what we can to stabilize them.”

Adkins day-to-day tasks include looking after the Marines in his platoon and going on patrols.

“He looks after us and makes sure we’re all doing good. He’s a good corpsman. You can ask him anytime if you need any help with anything,” said Lance Cpl. Brett Sloan, team leader, 2nd platoon, from Pearland, Texas.

[from DVIDS website: http://www.dvidshub.net/news/91648/texas-native-serves-country-saving-lives#.UAmZ8Y5Q8UX]

story by cpl. mark davis

i am beyond proud of my brother, christian. by default, i refer to him as my 'baby brother,' but i suppose that is not appropriate anymore. he's turned into a man overnight, it seems, and he's a man that i respect and value so much! happy weekend everyone!

just another day at the office...

let me begin this by saying i love texas country music. there's just something about sippin' a cold beer, kickin' back, and listening to some good ol' texas country....and two steppin' is always a good time. 

so i'm sitting at work a couple of weeks ago, and i get a call about a launch party for a new wine called thorny rose. 'thorny rose?' you say. don't worry. it's not some weird brett michaels brand. (get it? thorny rose? brett michaels? every rose has it's thorn? hahaha. i crack myself up.) it's actually a new, millineal-targeted brand that's coming out in the next few months! constellation brands and republic national distributing company were planning a launch party for the new brand, and wanted to have the party at rooftop! the event was monday, and overall, everything went awesome!!


and now on to the most important item...my two cents on thorny rose wines. thorny rose is not only affordable (retails for around $14 per bottle!), it's trendy, cool-looking (because that's the most important thing ever), and delish! (i got to sample some! the sauvignon blanc was my favorite!)


the other amazingly cool thing about thorny rose? stoney larue is currently the 'face' of the new brand! he was also at the event and did an impromptu concert! he sang 'oklahoma breakdown' (my personal favorite, featured above) and a single from his new album, 'velvet.' 


here's some pics of the party! (see! i have been busy doing something...i don't just neglect my blog willingly!) oh yeah, and sorry for the kind-of crappy pictures. all i had was my phone. anyone want to buy me a ballin' camera like this one, hook it up!

entry way!

merch. table

photo opp area

centerpieces

buffet table decor (catering by urban rio) 

tasting table

acoustic concert time!

a word to the wise

and just so you know...the old, cynical rachel would've posted something that said, "life's a bitch, then you die" or something equally ridiculous. i'm improving people! have a nice wednesday!

an overdue 4th of july post

okay, okay, okay. before you start scolding me for being, like, the worst. blogger. ever. i have to make excuses tell you--i'm just so damn busy! while i'm still obsessed with blogging, i'm really struggling with making time to do it. i mean, even as i write this, i'm juggling client emails and setting up appointments for later this week! 


so anyway, fourth of july was great! michael and i headed down to mt. vernon on tuesday afternoon. on the way, we stopped in charelston and visited my aunt anna and uncle shayne, which is always a good time. we talked weddings and new apartments and old times and laughed and laughed and laughed. i always enjoy getting to spend time with them! they also got to meet benny-boy, which i know they were extremely grateful. :) 


we then headed into mt. vernon, where we went and visited with michael's dad, scott, and his sister, christi, and her son, rylan. he is such a chunk and the cutest little thing everrrrr! my sister also was in town, so we (me, bec, mike, and christi) went and ate at the best place in mt. vernon. it was, of course, fabulous. after dinner we headed to anna's mt. vernon house to spend the night. christi headed home later on and mike, bec, and me popped some fire works. (illegally...oops!) 


the next day, we got our things together and headed out to heaven amy's house. :) we spent our fourth of july getting funky on bunky by eating tons of delicious food, enjoying some ice-cold brewskis, and getting our tan on. not a bad way to celebrate freedom. :)

hangin' out at anna and shayne's house. not sure what's up
with that scowl on mikey's face, though.

mike with his sparkler (i made him buy these.) he's so
nice to me. :)

always love my sister time!

becca, me and amy. again, always love my sister time. :)

the following videos are of our rebellious firework-popping activity. we thought it was pretty funny. the first one scared the crap out of us because we didn't know what it was going to do. on the second one, mike assured us that "it wouldn't be that loud" because we were worried about being in the city limits. riiiiiiight. 

relaxing

i've been cuddling with this little angel all night tonight. we've watched forest gump, one of the best movies ever. i have been a real bum about blogging this week, so don't worry...i'll post about july 4th soon.

nighty night!

oopsie...

well, in trying to be frugal because i've decided we need to save money, i opted to give benny-boy a haircut myself. it could've gone better. next time, maybe i'll skimp on 'name brand' diet coke and take benny-boy to the groomers. it's not that bad, right??


the shots below cover the before and after, as well as the mound of hair he lost. poor baby.

before.

during.

after.

glimpses of a grand opening

i was a a bit of a busy bee at wednesday's grand opening party, so i didn't get many photos. long story short, it was fun and amazing and fabulous. mom, tray, bec, and her friend, marcia all came to celebrate. So much fun!