weddings, vegas & hotdogs, oh my!

Houston, Austin, Allen, Denison all in 4 days. Two weekends ago the BaylorBarretts' paths temporarily split for a few days. I flew North to sweet home Allen, Texas while Tate drove Northwest to Austin for a conference. He was joined by his bro, Tye. In the evenings, while he was not attending the Disney-themed environmental conference (wierd.), Tate and Tye filled the rest of their time with manly/brotherly things, naturally.  As far as I know, this consisted of swimming in Town Lake, shopping at every tri store in the 512, and indulging in the manliest week on TV: Shark Week.

I, on the other hand, did not take part in any of these tasks. I was looking forward to spending a few days at home and had a strict to-do list to tend to. Consider the to-do done. Proudly, I crossed off everything on my list, here see for yourself...


#1: Uphold Matron of Honor Duties 

4 months and counting people! Lynley is probably the most decisive bride in the history. And for those of you that don't have the pleasure of knowing Jan, my mom is probably the most efficient, organized, logical well I can't even think of a commendable adjective to describe her, so I will just tell you what we call her: Jan the Man: Supermom. You get the picture. These two are a machine of a wedding plannin' team! As MOH, I actually have it pretty easy. They have it all narrowed down, and I just assist in the smaller decisions. I was there to uphold my duties proudly, which included:

-Approve the seating arrangements which have been mapped out (to scale) on a display board including each table represented by circles of paper and each color-coded centerpiece...with a legend at the bottom so you don't get confused.

-Pick which invitation I liked best out of the three they've ordered and put together as examples. 

-Choose which place cards I prefer out of three samples they've made from scratch. 

-Decide how many candles to use in the centerpieces, which they've also self-arranged and put on a mock table that is set in our formal living room (see pic above)  

I can't pass judgement...I am guilty myself. If you haven't gathered from the Nicholson-Barrett wedding or from reading this post, us Nicholson girls like to DIO...do it ourselves. We've made napkins, centerpieces, name cards, thank you notes, invitations, table numbers, you name it we DIO. We don't exclude anyone either...that would be rude...we've roped many friends and now family into doing our "little projects" as well. Think of it as bonding. My Grandma Flo and Grandpa Lyn came in town to join in the "bonding"...aka measure for dance floor curtains and chandeliers. Here is a pic of Grandpa explaining the best way to do things. Don't question the CWO 

#2: Visit Miss Nicholson's Farm
This is Lynley's first year teaching! She is in the process of decorating her farm-themed Kindergarden classroom. We took a trip to Vaughn Elementary to check out the progress. I was super impressed! There was a mock fireplace, a clothesline, a big horse on the wall and a truck that reads, "Miss Nicholson's Farm" She already has the next sign, "Mrs. Tolleson's Farm" to switch out when the time comes. Gosh, she is so prepared...Jan the man in the making. Anyway, we all looked around and gave Dad some practice in reading his favorite book, Kakadu Jack. Despite being bummed when he found out the book was about a parrot, he is still planning on reading to Lyn's class sometime this year. Better get to practicing your "open, shut them, open, shut them, give a little clap. open, shut them, open, shut them, put them in your lap."

#3: Hang with Friends
Got to see Meg and Kels while I was home. It was a memorable experience, as always. What's better than free queso at happy hour? Um, planning a girls trip to VEGAS over free queso at happy hour! Duh. Afterwards I called Tate and said, "I need to talk to you about something." He said, "Good or bad?" I said, "good, for me mostly though." He responded with, "Ok, where are y'all going and when?" He's the best! Vegas Eleven. Details to come...

#4: Avacado Tart froyo
Delish as always, no details needed.

#5: Lake Trip

Tye & Katie P came in for the weekend and we were headed to the lake. Meg joined us there and almost broke her rain record. It's a joke (but a true joke) that every time Meg comes to the lake it rains pours! She has been going to the lake with us for about 13 years now and the rain drops never fail to follow her. The sun was out all day! We had a blast riding in the boat, tubing and stopping for a short swim when the August heat became to much. We thought the rain curse was broken, but once we pulled into the slip the showers came. We ended the day with a cookout and dinner on the deck. Oh and I ate my first HOTDOG in a YEAR! 

I know, with the Vegas plans and the hotdog news, I hope I haven't overwhelmed you in this little post!