Luke & Leslie Beardall's Wedding Day!

Luke & Leslie are married!!!!! Let the good times roll. :P

It was a BEAUTIFUL, a bit warm in direct sunlight, but PERFECT wedding day for Luke and Leslie! And I now have a new sister-in-law...even though I've been calling her that since pretty much once they got engaged. :) We all were able to come together...which all of us kids haven't been able to do in 6 years, which was at my college graduation, and this time all of everyone's family was able to come!

Break down of the siblings duties...Luke was the groom...of course; Matt was an usher; Audra was in charge of the music for the ceremony (on an ipod player); and I was the program/confetti distributor. I liked my job the best...I got to greet everyone and they all smiled at me for telling them to throw confetti at the couple when they walked back down the isle. :) And my niece Samantha got to be the flower girl! Too cute.

Here's a slide show of the wedding and reception. It was awesome! It's now way late at night, everyone else is asleep in bed, my feet hurt and I just so want to get these pics posted and share the joy with everyone!

Now as a heads up....I didn't actually get to carry my camera around with me the whole time...so there are some pics that I would have loved to incorporate...but I was side tracked by all the nieces and nephews...I was on play/dance time. :) So if you view this and were there and don't see too many pics of you, I do sincerely apologize. But the wonderful memories are still embedded onto my brain and I will always cherish and remember the fun we all had together! If you have others you want me to post...send me the pics and I'll add to the show for all to enjoy!

Okay...now it really is picture time...and video time! Enjoy!

THE WEDDING

THE RECEPTION

Here are some videos to enjoy...the cake time, the first dance time and some karaoke time:









Hope you enjoyed! See you later!

Filling Time Before the Wedding

Here are some pics of Audra's family, Mom and I seeing some Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint sites around Independence Missouri of which I've never seen before. We were filling up the time before the wedding as we had nothing else to do. :) Enjoy! Wedding pics next!

Wedding Rehersal 5-22-09

Here are the pics of Luke and Leslie's wedding rehersal. If you hover over the pic there is a brief description. Enjoy! Wedding tomorrow...can't wait!

And here's a video I took of Sam practicing the flower girl duties:

Pictures Requested

Okay, so pictures were requested....so instead of taking up a huge blog spot, here's some slide shows of the different stuff I talked about in the last blog:

Okay, that's all for the older pics...onto the wedding!

Busy, busy

Life has been way busy lately and isn't set to calm down for a bit. So...just so you don't have to keep seeing Poor Boomer (by the way got him back and the bumpers are awesome! just can't do a brush car wash for 3 months to make sure the paint has time to cure. So brush-less carwashes or hand washes here I come), here's a quick update on what's been going on:

* My Aunt Elese and Cousin Kari came to visit for a week and we did some St Louis sites while they were in town. Have lots of pics to show...but are on my laptop at home and I just finally downloaded them there this last weekend...but didn't have time to post and share. May do later, or may not...all depends on my laziness. :)

* I've been busy working at the temple and subbing for people who are traveling...as it's summer this will keep getting busier I think. But this last Thursday I got to be the one to help a woman going through for her own endowments...was my first time and was awesome. And I was just fill in. It's kinda nice to know I can be counted on to fill in where ever I'm needed but at the same time also a bit intimidating...as even when I have no idea what I'm doing somehow it works out okay. Or so I think it does. :)

* I finally found time to do our first lawn mow of the season...and most of the grass was long enough to have gone to seed. So...the back took quite awhile. And honestly...it needs it's second mow all ready...trying to squeeze that in on Wednesday night, as I'll not have time to do it after that for a bit and here's why:

* This Saturday my brother Luke and his fiance Leslie are getting married! YAY!!! So Mom and I have been shopping to find dresses/outfits for the wedding. My sister wants to be a bit matchy to the wedding colors (chocolate brown and burgendy). There actually are a lot more brown dresses out than I thought there were. Anyways we finally found some...then went shopping for turquoise necklaces to get us all matchy together...per Audra's decision on her outfit.

* So do to the wedding, this Friday Mom and I are taking half days at work and will head over to Independence soon thereafter to make it for the rehersal. Then Saturday afternoon/night is the wedding. Sunday we head back, and Audra and Travis and their clan (4 kids) will be coming over to vacation for a bit and show the kids STL sites. Fun times! They'll be here for a week and a half, two weeks or so. Random days off here and there to spend time with them as much as I can. Be prepared for some family pics/videos and fun times with the nieces and nephews.

* Three days after they all leave, and Mom drives back down with them for the weekend, I drive down to Florida with my friend Ellen on Sunday, June 7. Her parents are part of a time share in Orlando. So we are going down for a week of fun and sun. Our friend Christel will also be joining us down there on Tuesday night. We will be hitting at least Disney World, probably Sea World as well. We are meeting tonight to sit down and schedule what we really would like to do while down there. We'll be buying our tickets and everything. So tonight who knows what time I'll get home as who knows how long planning with take. :)

* Got my hair done this last weekend...for the wedding and all. Have before and after pics, but again who knows if those will get posted. Once I'm home I just want to have a few moments of peace in front of the TV and get some cross stitch done...almost there!

After all that...I think we'll be calmed down for a bit. Maybe. The mowing season has definately arrived...shucks. Then comes gardening. Need to empty the gutters, we still have to paint the bay walls in the kitchen...that won't get done until way after all these trips.

And until then I still have my laundry to do before this weekend, visiting teaching to get done, lawn to mow, main floor to clean up and organize/file all my mail and bills, clean my bathroom, baby proof the house for my niece (that one we may not do and just wait and see what it is she wants to get into once she's here. we'll see how that works out)

Let's see if I can just keep my mind straight for now. Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend and early June! I'll make sure to post pics of the wedding and family stuff while they are here!

Poor Boomer

So, a couple of weekends ago I was heading to a church enrichment activity with mom and my Aunt Elese and cousin Kari and was stopped behind at least 3 cars trying to turn left into Selvidge Middle School's parking lot. Raining out mind you. I've been stopped for at least a full minute, if not longer...when I hear this screeching of tires not getting traction to stop.

I look in my rear-view mirror...and see the car behind me is pretty close and I see a few other cars behind him...feel sorry for that poor person who is sliding their car and I hope they are able to stop before they hit someone...all of a sudden there's a loud BANG sound and my head is whipped forward. Yup, I was that poor car that got rearended. Sigh.

The boy (and I mean boy...in high school heading to work) said he looked off to the side, then looked forward and hadn't realized we were all stopped. (Yeah right...this is not some hill he just came over...he would have had to have seen us all stopped at least 200-300 feet back if not more.) He slammed on his brakes but...there was slidding and screeching. When I saw the car close to me in my rear-view mirror that was literally seconds before he hit me...didn't see the car swerve at all, and when I looked didn't appear to be moving but either I looked to quickly, or time stood still.

As my head was whipped forward I look in front of me and all of a sudden realize that my right foot has automatically lifted off the brake...and I'm heading towards the vehicle in front of me. I slam my foot down...but still collide with them. Darn it.

So we all turn into the schools parking lot and examine our cars...in the pouring rain. No damage to the car I was pushed into...so she goes off with my name and number saying she's not going to do anything since nothing happened to her car. My front bumper though is cracked down the middle...edges still connected so it's not hanging off or anything.

I then go to the back of my car (Boomer as I've named him)...my back bumper not too bad, but I can tell right away my trunk is askew and the other cars license plates numbers are embedded into my trunk. Now luckily my trunk is vinyl is luckily popped right back into shape after I was hit. Small things that made me feel better.

The car that hit me only had the front Make emblem broken off his car. Ugh...so in a 3 car accident...I'm the only one with damage really and all 4 of us in the car have whip lash. Fun times.

Sorry, totally forgot about taking pictures of the accident. But overall when you look at my car it didn't look too bad...mainly because my bumpers popped back into shape. But the estimate from the other drivers insurance has the damage costing around $2500 to repair. So, since Monday my car has been in the shop getting back to it's original Boomer glory. I hope anyways.

Repair was estimated to be done today, but I have to wait to hear from the body shop to now for sure. I've had a Chevy Cobalt as a loaner...cute car...smaller than mine and definately sits you up higher inside the vehicle. I took pictures of this one...but alas I keep forgetting to download the pics.

Hopefully repairs will be completed today and I will get my baby Boomer back. My poor baby.

So, to make this a little but more fun a post...here's the story behind the name, Boomer:

When I got my car I just kept calling it my baby. Not kidding. This was my first vehicle that I purchased...and I loved it...I got everything I wanted for a pretty good deal. But Baby is just not a good name for the car. So that weekend after I get it I'm driving to meet family, I think my dad and brother and his family, out in Chesterfield Valley for dinner...and I've turned the radio up to enjoy the music as I like to do. As I'm driving along...I realize that even though the bass from the radio is perfectly balanced...when I turn up the volume the bass is so strong my rear view mirror is pumping/shaking along with the beat...and it's really not up that high in volume.

Now me...I love the loud/strong bass of songs where you can feel the beat vibrating you from the inside out. Seriously...love that feeling...and with low volume and still getting that 'boom' was really cool. So at that moment...that name kinda entered into my thinking.

Then...as I'm driving home....I just keep thinking...I have a Boom Baby! Which then leads me to think of that line from "Emperors New Groove" from Disney when the emperor likes to enter a room, or he wins an argument or something....and he yells. "Boom Baby!" Hehe....I'm liking Boomer even more for a name.

But when I got my license plates the name was firmly cemented for my car...the letters on the plate they gave me were....



wait for it....




TNT.



Hehe. TNT (dynamite) goes Boom...so yup, my baby was now named Boomer!

April 23, 2009 - Dad's Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

This is a picture of him back when he had 'color' in his hair. :)

As far back as I can remember Dad has always been a salt and pepper colored hair kinda guy...now a little bit more on the white side. :) I can tease as his genes have also made me have gray hair...starting when I was 18.

I hope you have a happy 56th birthday dad! I think you may have finally earned those white hairs. :P

A more recent picture of him...see the white?!

Love ya!