This last month...

It has been a busy month, but it has been lots of fun seeing friends and family and planning the last minute details of a wedding.

On September 17th, my running partner in crime Hannah and I ran a 5K in Gower, Mo., (her hometown), for a lady who died last year and taught with Hannah's mom. Hannah did such a great job in the race, and her brother, Lance, and I ran pretty well and I got an even better time than I have before. I have one more race before the wedding on October 9th, and am excited to share some results from the last 6 months of running.

Hannah and I at the Donna Ruoff Memorial 5K Race

Possible bathroom vanity and sink

The next weekend was Todd's bacehlor trip to Bennett Springs, Mo., so I stayed behind and worked on some house projects and went to a wedding of one of my college roommates. I painted one wall purple in our bathroom and am debating on painting the rest as I don't want it to be too dark in the room. It doesn't have any windows, so I thought I'd keep the painted wall as an "accent" wall and paint the others a soft beige color. Todd thinks this is so silly, but when I tell my girl friends they think it's perfectly acceptable. Hmmmm....I also want to take on the whole bathroom reno this winter with a new tile floor, updates to all the lighting and fixtures and add this new beauty with an oval mirror/medicine cabinet above it. The one I'm looking at is a bit larger than this, but same color and everything.

I had a wonderful time at Danielle's wedding seeing lot of Theta sisters I had not seen since college plus spending time with Danielle and her new husband, Tyler. I got lots of ideas for my wedding, too. On Sunday, my good friend, Robin and I, used my Groupon to venture out on a beautiful day to the Jowler Creek Winery located about 10 minutes from my home. It was a fun outing before our Junior League social and great to sample their delicious wines. If you ever get the chance to come to our neck of the woods, first let me know, and then I'll take you on some wine tours at our fabulous wineries around Dearborn/Weston.

Robin and I at Jowler Creek Winery north of Platte City, Mo.

Robin and I then went to the new Charming Charlie's store in St. Joe for a Junior League fundraiser. I had a blast picking out gifts for our wedding helpers and it helped our League. I hope we do it again in the future.

Finally, this catches us up to speed of the last week of September. I am trying to wrap up large work projects before the wedding, plus finish a wedding, get ready for school to start again, and continue my projects for Junior League. Oh, and I am so so so busy with Mary Kay right now, which I absolutely love and am very thankful for!

This is Hwy. 59 leading into Atchison. The area is still so full of water and it is devastating to see the houses and farms that this flood took.

I went to Atchison (THANK YOU FOR OPENING THE BRIDGE!) on Friday and got our paperwork started for our marriage license. I then stopped in one of the best places to grab lunch, remember Willie's? I grabbed lunch there and it was so good as always. I did some shopping at Nell Hill's which you've all heard me talk about too and got some great gifts/wedding decor. This will be another winter project I am going to tackle...isn't it awesome?! It will go great with what I hope we can find for a new sectional.

This is a burlap/antique license plate ottoman

Todd was gone again this past weekend as he was in Wyoming with Jared hunting antelope. I stayed behind and worked on crafty stuff Friday night, had to work at the Josephine Expo Saturday morning and had my bridal shower on Saturday with Todd's family (That's another post later this week!). It was such a beautiful, fall weekend and am so excited it is now October and the countdown is really on...now I just hope the leaves stay and are even more pretty in 10 days!

Finally, here is Todd's trophy from his hunt. It is the largest antelope he has shot thus far, and he was pretty proud of it.

Todd's Wyoming Antelope

Can't wait to catch you up on all other things soon!

Happy Birthday!! The Big 2-9

Today is Todd's birthday! I thankfully spent 45 minutes with him today (unlike most days) so I could give him a little smooch and a birthday present. I wanted to surprise him just as he did me on my birthday last year (ok, so his way of going about my engagement ring was one of the best jokes EVER!). I got him a hilarious Hoops and Yo-Yo card that referenced "getting a great catch" which I think I certainly have with him. We are also going on our float trip tomorrow so I'm pretty excited about some trout fishing with my new pink fishing pole.

Oh, yeah I was talking about Todd's birthday, not fishing...I found this awesome Case/Farmall t-shirt that had a vintage look to it with the state of Missouri in the background behind the Case logo. I thought it was a pretty sweet throwback to the state I now live in and Todd loves dearly. I then gave him what he wants...a duck band wedding ring. You may be asking, "what is that?"

This is a photo of a true duck band ring.

This is a photo of one similar to the one Todd got. His is a bit
smaller in diameter but has the same wording with our
wedding date and names.

Well as all the websites have said for the hunter who has everything, which Todd really does, this is the best gift. He has said he wanted it for his wedding ring. It can either be a real duck band that comes off a duck or goose from the field that has been tagged, or you can have one made with your wedding date, initials, names, whatever you want on it and it still looks like a duck band. I opted for the later. Here is a picture of what it looks like from the artist (not really his ring, but you get the picture). Pretty cool, huh? At first I was like, "Oh no, that is going to look so hideous in our wedding pictures," but I came around and remembered that Todd spent some time looking for and money buying the type of ring I wanted, so I wanted to do the same for him. I'm kind of excited about it now. As I said in the card, it should be a reminder of our faith in each other but also his first love, hunting.

I hope he really likes it!