Sleepover at the Dunlaps

Three of my little cousins, Blakely, Amberlyn, and Sydney came to Atlanta for a week to what they called "Camp Aunt Jacki." I was on one of my many business trips so I only got to see them on Friday. Mom took them to the GA Aquarium, American Girl Store and Bistro, Painted Pottery, and went swimming every day. I drove out to Lawrenceville and had dinner with Mom and the girls after work on Friday. We then went to Mom's house to create a scrapbook of their week in Atlanta. I thought it would be fun for them to come to my house and spend the night. So after we completed the scrapbooks, we all went to my house for a sleepover.

When I got off work, I did a little shopping for the girls. I wanted to surprise them with something and what would a sleepover be without matching pajamas? So of course, I get them cute pajamas. They loved them and as soon as I showed them they had to try them on. We proceeded with a photo shoot of them (that was the theme of the week, I was informed) then hung out at the house. Russ was busy writing his paper for Law Review so he was no fun but the girls still managed to go bug him (which he secretly loved).


I finally got them to bed at 3:00 AM, I have no idea how they were able to stay up so late. The next morning they wanted to make Russ breakfast so while I was outside planting plants with Dad they made Russ eggs. Russ entertained them that morning so I could get everything planted. Sydney did help me take out the plants out of their containers for a bit.

Russ took them to the park and of course they got bored in about thirty minutes so Russ took them to lunch. I think Russ enjoyed having them so that he had an excuse to go to McDonald's for lunch!

Landscape Design

Back in May, Russ and I had a landscape designer come out to the house and create a landscape design. Besides the basic yard maintenance and grooming of all the weeds and ivy, we have not done much to the house. The people before us just let every grow so we had to do a lot of cutting back and clean up just to begin making the yard look presentable and we still have a lot to do.

The great thing about a landscape design is you can take pieces of it at a time to implement. A couple of weeks ago, Dad and I had a Father-Daughter Day and went looking at plants for the first phase of our landscape design and concrete pavers for our future patio. After looking at numerous places we finally found a great place, Northside Nursery. They took great care of their plants and the prices were just right!

We bought plants to go underneath the new bay window and couple to go along the front of the house. I was not thinking that I would not have time to plant them since I would be out of town for the next couple of weeks so I had to make sure either Russ or I would water then daily.

We finally got a chance to landscape the front of the house, unfortunately it was during the hottest weekend in Atlanta so far. Dad and I were outside working from 9:30 to 2:00 in over 100 degree weather. Needless to say, we put the remaining landscaping and patio work on hold until September or when it cools down.

I cannot believe the difference it has already made to the house!!! I cannot wait to work on another phase.

Below are pictures of the before and after...

Way Behind

Sorry for the lack of blogs lately. I have been traveling none stop over the past month and have not had time to write a quality blog (basically means, random story with pictures). I am going out of town again this week but once I return I will begin blogging again. Here are some blogs to come:

1) Birthday Celebrations
2) Paschall-Taylor Tennessee Wedding
3) Landscape Design
4) Sleep-over with Russ and Brittany
5) 4th of July Weekend in Gatlinburg

A New Russ - Part 2

In case you were not able to see the differences on Russ here they are:

1) Summer Hair Cut (in everyone's language: he got it cut really short)

2) New Wedding Ring - We finally replaced his wedding band since he lost it a couple of months ago. Though, it is not the exact same one it will do for now.

3) No Facial Hair - That's right he finally shaved off his goatee. Russ is getting ready for internship interviews at the end of July and thought it was time to let go of his "youth."

4) Smart Guy - Russ got his grades for his first year in law school and did an amazing job! (OK, I know that is nothing to do with the "New Russ" but I had to brag for a moment....)

A New Russ

Notice anything different about Russ?

Sheryl's Last Fling Before the Ring

One of my good friends and roommates from college is getting married this weekend. She has been dreaming of this day since she was born! Sheryl finally met the man of her dreams and having the wedding she always wanted. But...

before she can tie the knot she has to have one last fling with us girls!Some of us girls made a pack back in 2006 that after we graduated we would get together the first weekend in June every year....no excuses! Last year we got together for Melinda's Bachelorette Party in Gatlingburg and this year it was just us girls in Asheville for Sheryl's Bachelorette Party. Next year we might have another Bachelorette Party for the First Weekend in June if not we will plan a trip together somewhere!!!

Since we live all over and we wanted as many people to come that could we decided to do it in a neutral location and made the drive as short as possible for all of us so we went with Asheville. (Rachel came from Wilmington, Sheryl and Amy came from Murfresboro, Melinda came from Nashville, Avery from Houston, Laura from DC, and I came from Atlanta)

Rachel and I both arrived before everyone so that gave us time to decorate the room before our Bride-to-Be showed up and set up everything. I made goody bags for everyone that included a bottle of wine (Two Buck Chuck) and a monogrammed polk-a-dot glass!The rest of the girls showed up later that night and we quickly got into the wine and having a good time, some how we all managed to stay up to 4 AM. We caught up with each other, shared interesting "ice cream" stories, and played Apples to Apples! it felt like we were all in undergrad together again. The next day we went to the Biltmore so Sheryl could see "The Big House.". We took a picnic lunch with us and found a place to have lunch together. We then toured the beautiful house and took lots of great pictures! We went to the winery to do wine tasting and took an additional glass on Red Wine and Chocolates. Avery came up with a great idea to buy champagne and go enjoy it in the gardens at the Biltmore. Well on our way over to that part of the estate, the champagne bottle decided to explode and nail Avery in the face on top of going all over the car. Thankfully Avery is ok and we didn't loose too much of the champagne. We enjoyed the gardens and took some more great picture of us all!Saturday night was the main night for Sheryl. We went to dinner at Bistro 1896 which was on the square of downtown Asheville. The atmosphere was perfect and the food was amazing! We went back to the hotel to dress up our Bride-to-Be for her night out on the town and showered her with sexy lingerie for her honeymoon. Of course, it would not be a complete lingerie shower without Sheryl receiving a Moo-Moo from Rachel! It was priceless...

We went Saturday night and had such a great time and our Bride did as well. We ran into other Bacherlorette Parties and our Bride was decked out so much better than the others! Sheryl was nice and shared her shots with them. After a fun night in Asheville and a crazy taxi ride home, we continued our party in the hotel and once again stayed up until 4AM. I do not know how I managed that, I am usually in bed by 10PM.

Sunday was a sad day, our weekend was coming to an end and we all had to head back to our towns. We made one last stop together for Brunch at Moose Cafe (recommended by Southern Living) and it was delicious! After our goodbyes, we headed home with lots of memories and great pictures!

The great thing about all of our Bachelorette Parties they all have been something different and so much fun! I had the traditional one night Bachelorette Party, Melinda had a joint one with Jonathan and rented a cabin for the weekend in Gatlingburg and Sheryl had a Girls' Weekend in Asheville.

I love any excuse to get together with my friends. I am so glad Sheryl had a memorable weekend and cannot wait to share her Wedding Day with her. She will be such a beautiful and happy bride!

Walking In Memphis

One of Russ' fraternity brothers got married the last weekend in May so we decided to take a trip out to Memphis to visit some friends and attend their wedding. The only time I have been to Memphis was my sophomore year in college I home with Becca one weekend to visit the lovely town of Atoka, TN. They took me to see the ducks at the Peabody and some of Beale Street so bits and pieces of Memphis.

This trip we had our own tour guides, Bill and Kat. We flew in on Friday night and Bill, Kat, and Becca picked us up. Russ really wanted Memphis BBQ, so Bill took us to his favorite place (The BBQ Shop) to get BBQ. It was soooo good! My family owned a BBQ restaurant in Fayetteville, TN so I am very picky about my BBQ but this passed the test! Later that night, we hit Beale Street. Boy was hat an interesting place. I did like how you can walk around with your beer and just hang out but the crowd was nteresting....

Saturday we had lunch at Gus's Famous Fried Chicken, apparently they have the best fried chicken in the US. It looked like a dump from the outside but once you got inside it was completely different. Once again, we had a very good meal. Since the wedding was in Selmer, TN and we didn't want to drive two hours back, Mitchell's parents built a cabin between Memphis and Selmer, so Bill, Kat, Russ, and went to hang out there. On our way, we stopped at Jerry's Sno Cones to get ice cream. It was shaved ice mixed with soft serve. The place was not in the best part of town but all these nice cars were there. Once again, we enjoyed our food! We later had to get gas and since Bill and Kat were letting us use their car to go to the wedding we wanted to pay for their gas. Russ got out and filled up the tank and we headed on our way... half way there Bill noticed the gas cap open and the gas cap missing. Russ forgot to put the gas cap back on after he filled up, and he is in law school.... We went to AutoZone and bought a new one and twenty minutes later finally got to Micthell's parents.

We headed to Selmer for Clay and Emily's wedding. It was beautiful, I loved all the decorations! They had their new monogram everywhere!!! The reception was at her parents' home which was gorgeous as well. I love weddings, its like a reunion since everyone comes to them. It was so good seeing all the Betas. We had a great time and left once everyone ended up in the pool but us so we thought it was a good time to leave.

Sunday we headed back to Memphis and ate BBQ for lunch (Central BBQ), once again good food! They had the best BBQ Nachos. Bill and Kat showed us all around Memphis, we drove everywhere. We saw the parks, shopping, downtown, etc... I could not believe all the places that were boarded up. Memphis is a great town to visit for a weekend. Before we caught out flight, we went to Germantown for amazing homemade desserts. We had homemade banana pudding, chocolate pie, and coconut creme pie. The Dabbs sure do know the best places to eat around Memphis! They dropped us off at the airport and we headed home.

We did not need to eat for days after that trip. The food was great but the best part of the weekend was seeing all our friends and spending time with them. We are the only ones in Atlanta really so we really miss seeing our friends and love every moment we can get with them.