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!  

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

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. 

memorial day 2012

forgive me, as this post will be long. however, it's also filled with the best things in life--friends, family, love, celebrations, and lots and lots of pictures! first and foremost, though, i want to give a big thank you to the former and current members of our military to help defend our freedoms! especially my little brother, christian, who is currently serving in afghanistan as a medic for the marines. christian- i love and miss you!!

one of my favorite past times is going to my friend, amy's, lake house on lake cypress springs. so many of my best memories with my friends involve going out for a day on the lake at amy's house! we even talked about all of our "good ol' days" in jr. high with amy's mom, nancy, when we would take the boat out and think we were just the coolest thing. little did we know, our moms/friends of nancy would keep a distant eye on us at all times. it was really funny coming to this realization this weekend because looking back, i don't think any of us had ever felt as free/grown up/cool as we did when we would take the boat out at amy's house. 

i headed to mt. vernon on saturday morning to begin celebrating memorial day. michael had to work a double on saturday, so he couldn't come with me. bummer. at any rate, i decided to go visit my papa and his wife, mary lou, first thing because i hadn't seen them in such a long time. we got to be lazy and talk about weddings and work and friends and plays and concerts--all great things! we also had the best lunch! papa and mary lou started their own little garden and i got to make the freshest garden salad with veggies straight from their yard! i must say, i felt like quite the little hippie...and loved it. 

rachel's freshest. salad. ever.

-fresh garden lettuce
-fresh garden cucumbers (these were sweet, crisp and delicious!)-cauliflower (from the store)
-sweet bell pepper (from the store)
-strawberries (from the store)
-fat free raspberry vinaigrette
-seven grain toast

you guys. this salad was absolutely amazing. you should make it and be amazed (and super healthy!). papa, mary lou, and i got to have a great visit and i got to relax in front of this. don't think it gets too much better! :)

we got to watch the birds and ducks near their dock, too!

once we finished with lunch, i headed just down the road to amy's house. take a look at the shots below to see what we were up to on saturday!

first off, i was greeted by this little nugget.
meet mallory, amy's niece. my heavens
she's adorable!!

loved getting to catch up with my girls! from left to right,
that's kim, leigh anne, me and amy. you can hardly tell
(because leigh anne has the best body ever) but sweet
little layton is under that grey cover up. :)

leigh anne (+ layton) and kim on the boat relaxing

the 40 lbs. of crawfish we got after. we didn't put
much of a dent in it, but man did we try!

wild bill, tom, amy and jake getting down on some mudbugs!

kim, me and amy with our dinner. let me just tell you,
were it not for the several cocktails i'd had that day,
there's no way i would've been able to peel those crawfish.
i have issues with food that looks the same
dead as it did when it was alive. ick!

winona and tracy even made an brief appearance.

jill's summer brew of genius

-3 modelos
-tequila to taste (we used blanco and it was delish!)
-diet sprite
-fresh lime juice
(mix it all together and enjoy the wealth. thank me later.)

evening booze cruise with jill, jake, amy, tom and wild bill. 

beautiful sunset and the perfect ending to
another successful holiday at amy's!

sunday morning, we woke up and nancy fixed us some delicious pancakes and bacon. i headed back to plano around lunchtime so i could be home by the time mikey got off of work. we decided to take it easy sunday night and just watch some movies. there's a blockbuster close to our house that is going out of business, so we thought we could go by there and get some cheap rentals. much to our delight/surprise, they were no longer renting dvds, but had almost all their movies on sale for $0.49-$2.00!! to put it lightly, madness ensued.

we have problems. lol. and this isn't
even all of the movies we bought.

we enjoyed the second season of lost on sunday night and got up monday morning and hit up the outlets in allen. mike wanted to try and find a new swim suit and i ended up finding some super cute coral, linen pants and some fabulous printed shorts. (i wore the pants today and they are amazingly comfortable!)

headed to lunch with some friends at pluckers.

we ate with a group of our close friends and then headed to our house for a relaxing day by the pool. 

i write all of this when i really just mean to say: it was a great weekend!