A New Hobbie

John and I have taken up a new hobbie. Golf is something both of us have enjoyed but we've never taken initiative to do it. Yesterday we ventured to Nevada Bob's (a golf store in Nashville) to pick me out some golf clubs. John has a set for him already and he also has an old woman's set that I will use for now. For Christmas we decided that golf clubs may be one of my gifts. We found a great deal on a whole set of clubs and a bag. And, here's the best part, they are silver and pink. I am very happy with that! Also while we were there we purchased a golf glove for me and this very large golf net. Instead of paying to go to the driving range, we thought it would be smart to have the luxury of hitting golf balls in our own back yard. So we set it all up yesterday and had a ball. John enjoyed it more than me. My first few balls I hit didn't even hit the net, they by passed it about 5 yards to the right or left of the stupid thing. I got frusterated and left John to himself. After I did a bit on my homework I decided to give it another try and did a little better.

I can give one big sigh of relief for my summer classes being almost over! Only 4 more days of actual class then I have one final at school and one online. I will be very happy when it is over!

About the crockpot dinner #3..it was ok but we weren't to fond of the strange plum flavor for chicken. Tonight in the crockpot...dinner #4 beef stew, yum!

This weekend is our best friends Holly and Sam's bachelor and bachelorette weekend. John and I were both in charge of the weekend and we were determined to make it perfect for the both of them. Holly and the girls are going to The Old Spaghetti Factory to enjoy dinner together then to the Boundr'y for dessert and gifts! I can only imagine and also know all that Holly is going through this week. I know for me that the week before the wedding was the most frazzled and disoriented I had ever been in my life. It's been a lot of fun helping Holly with everything and we are looking forward to seeing how beautiful and perfect their wedding day will be next weekend. Holly & Sam, all the best and a lifetime full of love to you both. you are both very special to us, we are so blessed to have your friendship, and know that we love you two very much.

Video

We got our wedding video today. Let's just say it is amazing. It's just perfect, more than we could have ever imagined possible in a wedding video. It's simply beautiful. All of my pictures are now framed and around our home. There are a few that need to be hung but that's John's job. He enjoys doing that.

Update on our last crockpot meal: Chicken and Stuffing. It was really good and reminded me of Thanksgiving. John loved it and took the leftovers for lunch yesterday. All his co-workers will be jealous I'm sure, because it was a success. Tonight I'm making Chick Mu-Shiu. I have no idea how this will taste. It was even harder to prepare and so we'll see how it turns out.

I only have two more weeks left of summer classes and then I start my job again. I have really missed working, but actually really enjoyed being a housewife. I love cooking, cleaning, and making sure our house is a home. I have enjoyed it so much.

Let me brag...I am so blessed to have a husband that helps me so much around the house. He knows that I am no supposed to do everything myself and understands that when I get tired, he steps in and helps.

This afternoon I asked the Hines girls to come over and have a movie and junk food afternoon. We watched the wedding video and then watched Hairspray. What a fun movie! It's one of those movies I always wanted to see but haven't gotten a chance or even though about renting. We had a wonderful time together. We made chocolate chip cookies, ate candy, chatted, and enjoyed each others company. Those girls are so special to me. Today was their last day in the Children's ministry. I can't believe it! They are so dear to my heart and wish them all the best as they begin a new phase in their church.

Taking A Stroll

Every day I walk up and down our road. It's just the most perfect road to walk on and it is so peacful. John has started walking with me on his days off. The other day we noticed that our neighbors have horses so we welcomed ourselves to calling them over to us and we fed them apples. Our landlord has the most amazing green Grannysmith apples. They are too good. We thought we would share the yummy with the horses. John and the brown horse have developed quite the relationship now. It seems a bit obvious in their picture together!

A Few Of Our Favorites!

We just think our wedding pictures are so perfect; they are just what we wanted, so we had to share some more! Enjoy! And vote: Which ones are frame worthy? That's my assignment this weekend!

What's happening in the kitchen tonight? First of all SUCCESS on fried squash! After 2 times of scars and burns I finally had a successful fried squash night third time charm! So on for tonight...Crock pot dinner # 3! Chicken and stuffing! I'll let you know how it turns out!

Wedding Pictures

Visit www.pictage.com/475597 to see our pictures from the best day of our lives. It's where our lives began as one. Here's one of our favorites! Copyright of Jodi Richfield Photography. Please do not copy.

Life So Far

Marriage has been such a blast. We just celebrated beeing married for 1 month. I can't believe it has been a month already. We were so excited that John took me out to a movie. We saw Dark Knight. We really enjoyed ourselves. We have really enjoyed being together and growing our new family with each other. It has been so much fun.
This picture is a collage I created of my 6th grade girls Sunday school class. Their last Sunday is this Sunday then they are off to the youth group. This last Sunday is a very big deal for them because it is their last Sunday in the children's ministry so I plan to make their last one a very exciting celebration.
This week has been mid-term week for me for my July classes. It has been really tough and I can't even believe it's time for tests yet. I take both of them today. I will be glad when they are over.

A Little Birdie Told Me

Last night I decided to attempt frying squash just like my granny. So I called my dad for a few quick questions and I was on my way. John doesn't like squash so while I was experimenting he was making his own dinner. Apparently I got the oil a bit too hot in the skillet and once I added the aquash to the skillet it splatted all over my wrists and my arms. So, little to say, it was my first cooking disaster...with wounds. But it's ok, i will eventually prevail and figure out how to do this.

Today I went to the grocery store. Before I left John and I looked through a cookbook to figure out what dinners we wanted for the week. We made a list, and I send him off to work and I cleaned the house and went to the store. I stuff for three crockpot meals this week, stuff for banana bread and the usual grocery's. I was pleased to know that I haven't completely lost my touch. I made banana bread and it was a great success. Besides burning my thigh on the stove..how? I don't know. But the bread tastes great besides my kitchen battle wounds.

Earlier today I was in our living room and all of a sudden a huge bang hit our front door. After I about jumped out of my pants I looked out the window and realized that it was just a bird and he flew to our birdbath and joined his friends. Look at all the birds in the bath! I just filled it up tonight and they love fresh water in there. Isn't God's creation just beautiful!

Chick Flick Night

Tonight I have a few friends coming over for a chick flick night. With John working till late occasionaly we thought it would be something for me to look forward to every once in a while. I went to Bed Bath and Beyond today to use a few more gift cards and got curtains for our bedroom, candles, some kitchen towels, and a room diffuser. Afterwards I visited with my grandparents for a while then got a few movies for tonight (Little Black Book and Raising Helen) then got some grocery's. That is one thing that I don't care so much about is grocery shopping without John. It's really not fun without him. When we go together we make it an event and we actually enjoy doing it. We figure well, if we're spending this much money on grocery's why not try to enjoy it right? I want to apologize for the stranger font color. I am working on it!

Confused

Alright, so last night after some deep research I came across the world of digital scrapbooking. First of all, great idea! Second, I don't understand! I can't find a free program to do all of this. I want it mainly for our bloglayout. If there is a site out there that any of you know about let us know! Because we want our blog to be up to date and just perfect for our viewers!

Our Mom's Should Be Proud

Hey good lookin', whatcha got cookin? John and I cooked one amazing meal together tonight. He grilled porkchops with rice in the middle, and I cooked macaroni and cheese, garlic cheese potatoes, sauteed mushrooms with home made cheese sauce, and peas. It was so fun cooking together and then sitting down to a nice romantic candle lit dinner. Of course, I turned on some music to make everything a bit more romantic. We enjoyed our dinner together. It's something we try to do as often as we can becuase when he works we don't get to eat dinner together. It is something that is extrememly important to us. It's a time where we turn off the world and enjoy one another. My horrid death class has Friday's off thank goodness or I don't know how I would deal with talking about death 5 days out of a week for two straight hours. Shoo...it's difficult! At this moment John is reading and I am still working on thank you notes. It's taking me forever. I know, I know, you will get them soon. John does back to work tomorrow so I plan on spending some quality time with my grandparents and venturing to Bed Bath and Beyond for a little bit more gift card spending. Any suggestions on something that we still need? Question of the night: What is one thing that John and I need that you think that we just can not live without? We are looking forward to your answers!

A Super Wayne Newton Weekend

Last weekend my friend Boober turn 21. For her birthday her parents bought her, them, and I tickets to see Wayne Newton at Harrah's in Metropolis. While there we and her parents enjoyed lunch in the historic town in Paducah, I ate oysters for the first time (which I regreted the next day), we saw Wayne Newton, got to stand beside one GIANT superman, and never quite grasped why people enjoy slot machines and gambling. We had such an enjoyable time and Wayne was quite charming if I do say so myself!
I started my summer courses on Monday and it will definately keep me busy and on my toes. I am enjoying them so far and we are staying possitive about them. Why are you trying to stay so possitive you ask? Well my campus class is entitled "DEath, Dieing, and Bereavment" and well, it's two hours of complete sadness pretty much but it will be worth it once it's over and I know it will be of help in my future.

The Fourth

Happy fourth of July everyone! Today I slept in a while and cleaned up around the house. Tonight was our traditional family fourth dinner, kickball, and fireworks. My aunt Beth's neighbors have amazing fireworks everyyear that last well over 30 minutes and we enjoy them as a family every year! This year Beth asked me to make a certain cake. Holly, the August bride, came over to visit for a while yesterday and she was a great assistant in the kitchen. Though she says that she would eat the topping more than help, she was a great helper! The cake turned out great, pretty and VERY yummy! That is one thing that I have learned that I love to do is cook! yah! I'm so glad, and I think John is too!
My friend Jenny, her parents and I are leaving tomorrow for a short weekend to see Wayne Newton for her birthday. They invited me along and I told her sure! why not!? More to come on that!
I begin my summer classes on Monday and they end the first of August. I'm looking forward to have a little routine in my days now! It will keep me busy! And I just love to be busy!

New Do With Skunk On The Side

On our honeymoon I told John that I was going to try something new. I'm one of those poeple who goes to restaurants and orders the same thing everytime. Well, with a new life I decided to try new things! So our entire honeymoon I ate different stuff when we ate out. And it was fun! Throughout the whole wedding planning process I was anxiously awaiting to try my something new with my hair. I have had the same long hair ever since high school and it was just getting boring for me. I hae never really done anything drastic with my hair or ever colored it. So John and I decided that we would go for it. On our honeymoon I called and made an appt. He was off yesterday and went with me for the drastic change. He ran erronds for the most part of the process and hung out towards the end. We both agree that it was a great desicion and we both love my hair very much! Especially me! I've never looked forward to fixing my hair everyday. It's cute short and fun!
Last night John and I ate dinner at our best friends Holly and Sam's apartment. I made a cake and was very thrilled to get to show it off on one of my new cake stands. Supper was great and their apartment is just too cute! We enjoyed the movie The Gaurdian and their amazingly large and HD tv. John and I was quite amazed! Once we pulled up at our house we noticed that something had gotten into our trash can outside...again. Not looking forward to cleaning up the trash we made our way into our house. As we got closer to the can we realized that the rodent was still in the can. I flipped out and ran back into the car and turned on the headlights. John jumped into our boat under the carport and got his bow and arrow. (LOL!) As we both awaited for a long 10 minutes in our spots there was no sign of the rodent. Finally I had the bright idea of knocking the can over with a golf club. So I delevered the club and scurried back into the car where it was safe! Eventually John knocked over the can and much to our surprise it was not a opossum, it was not a racoon, it was not a rat, it WAS a SKUNK! John flipped and immediatly started looking at me with the "shh" sign mouthing" don't move" for if I did HE would be the one to get sprayed because I was safe! Finally the nasty little thing mosied on around the front of the house and John escaped the boat to hunt it down. Finally, after chasing it slowly around the house, he killed it with the arrow...right in the face. I did not see this and did not want to see this. But I know it happened because I was watching him from inside the house with his bow, and I smelled the evidence afterwards. It was a pretty funny and eventful late night at the Maholland house if we do say so ourselves. This morning John woke up and said "I need to get my arrow back" and left on a big search for the skunk. He never found it so maybe, now, somewhere outthere is a skunk with an arrow through its head. But he deserved it!

Engagement Announcement

Several weeks before the wedding our engagement announcement was in the robertson county times and the ashland city times. I stumbled upon it online earlier! Just click the link and there we are! Note that we found it interesting yet amusing that we paid less for the Ashland City times and got a full color 1/4 of a page and all we got for the robco. times is a tiny black and white corner. http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080616/MTCN0303/80616004

I'm Really Married!

It's fun how each day John and I realize a bit more and more that we really, finally married! It is such an amazing time in our lives. We have loved every minute of it together! John had to work this weekend so I have been running nonstop putting things away, making exchanges, using gift cards, and just trying to get our house looking like a pretty home. I feel like it has been a success. Tomorrow John and I are spending the whole day together to fix a few things around here and there. I will take a few pictures to share of the inside of our home. It is completely transformed!
Photo note: My aunt Kim took this picture. I can't wait to see our professional pictures! I talked to the photographer today and she said we have a lot to look forward to!

Honeymoon

John and I left the wedding on the back of a 67 red Thunderbird and headed to Gatlinburg. This is the place that John proposed and we thought that it would be so fun to return to the spot that it all got started. Our cabin and the view was simply breathtaking. We really enjoyed our time together while there. We enjoyed a lot of stuff that neither of us had never done in Gatlinburg before. We saw shows, enjoyed the mountains and big rock creeks, enjoyed the shops, and most importantly enjoyed each other.
On our way home it started to really hit us that we were really married and that real life was about to hit us. We started to get really overwhelmed and then got really excited! Once we arrived home our family was dieing to see us. So we invited them over to help us open presents from the wedding. Let's just say that we could barely even see our living room floor. We enjoyed our time with them. They brought pizza and drinks which was perfect. Our first night in our new home was simply perfect.
John went back to work today so yesterday we had to put things into high gear and get a lot of stuff accomplished. We had a successful day. There are still many many things that have to be done this weekend and I'm beginning them today. I hope to have the house spotless and clutterfree from gifts and stuff today. Clothes...oh my are everywhere. I'm still not sure why I packed for a month for a 5 night honeymoon.

Our Big Day

Day: Saturday June 21. Wedding Day! My day began at 7:15 when April, my sister/matron of honour, arrived at my house to pick me up to head to the salon. We and the bridesmaids all arrived at The Salon right on time to get our hair fixed. I provided banana nut bread and sock it to me bread and waters for all the girls to enjoy that morning. It was before we knew it that all of our hair was transformed and we were all ready to head to the church. Once we arrived to the church the we simply enjoyed one anothers company, got ready, and began my perfect wedding day! I never felt so calm throughout a whole day before in my life. It was as if nothing could go wrong. And nothing did. It was simply perfect. We can't wait to see the video and pictures and we will certainly share those with you as soon as we get them! It is hard to sum up our wedding day in one word. It simply was perfect and so glamorous for us. It was a day that we got to share with all of our family and all of our friends. We were so humbled to see such an amazing turn out that day. We even had several friends and family come in from out of town. We want to thank everyone who worked so hard to make our day so perfect for us. We are so blessed. It was truly extraordinary and it was a day we will remember for the rest of our lives together.

Rehearsal-The Day Before The Big Day

Day: Friday June 20. I arrived for my day at the Spa early early that morning. It was 4 hours of total bliss. I had my first massage and it was absolutly amazing! After I got all relaxed and stress free I was on my way to the church to decorate. On my way I began to get a bit nervous. It was the first time I was alone for a while and it allowed me to think for a while about how exciting this time of my life is. Once I arrived to the church my family, dear friends, and future in laws all worked together to transform our church all set for wedding. The outcome was total perfection. Rehearsal went so smooth and it was a lot of fun. It was very exciting to hear and see how everything was going to all pull together. Tears were shed and smiles were beaming all over everyones faces. Dinner was incredible! John's family did a wonderful job getting everything together to complete a perfect night.

P.S.

I failed to mention a few exciting events that have occured in the past few days. I promise it is from the lack of sleep! On Sunday I oddly arrived to church way early to teach Sunday school. I arrived to find that my sweet 6th grade girls had planned me a wedding shower! Since Centri-Kid is the same weekend as the wedding a lot of them are going to camp and they wanted to do a little something for me. To sweet, I know! We had a blast. They are quite the little planners too! We had amazing breakfast and one yummy cake!
Last Saturday was Bryce's birthday party! Can you believe he's FIVE! I can't believe how fast he has grown! He is one handsome nephew!
Today I met John at where he works for one last wedding shower. I met all of the people he works with, they are very nice. They made us yummy food and gave us great gifts to put in our home!
On Tuesday John and I realized that we had to get a lot accomplished due to him working the next three days. So we decided to kick into high gear and get our house looking like a home so we'll have something nice to welcome us home from the honeymoon! So we ventured to our neighborhood greenhouse and bought some flowers. I planted and John helped then he mowed the yard. So now, our home is in ship shape! We also opened aaaaaallllll of our wedding gifts and set everything up. It was such a fun day together! That day, we truly made our little rental house a home!!!

Too Fast

With only a few days left life is smooth sailing in the Claytor household. Today was the first extreme stressful day that I have had and it WILL BE the last. I had an extrememly long list of odds and ends and too many phone calls to make not to mention too many to take, but I got it all done! The tuxes arrived today so there is a sigh of relief! They look wonderful! And let's just say I will have the cutest little nephew ever on Saturday. Now it is time to sit back, relax, kick up my heals and soak up every single moment from here on out! Last August when we got engaged people told me "Enjoy it, it will go by fast!" They weren't lieing! It has been a blast, but I just can't wait to be John's wife- Mrs. John Braxton Maholland!