We're Engaged!!!! Life Lately...

What a whirlwind of a few weeks it has been!! I haven't blogged since after the Fourth of July but to be honest... nothing much had happened. We had been saving money for our getaway trip to Mexico, staying home a lot, working hard... life has been good.

MEXICO

In all our years dating, we had not been on a single vacation as a couple where we take off on a jet plane, alone, exploring around and spending quality time together. I know, INSANE. I am so glad that we finally took the plunge, bit the bullet, and booked a stay. Let me rewind here though... I'm usually quite the planner of the household and coordinate things for us to do and organize it, etc. I did not book this trip!! Scottie did! It was quite the surprise when I was groupon searching, tweeting questions out, and got an IM saying, Viva La Mexico baby we're going Oct 5 - 10th!! It was so fun knowing that it was already taken care of, who is this guy!? So we saved, I booked our flights using our Southwest Rapid Rewards/Airtran points, and we were good to go!

We took off to Cancun early on October 5th, and I have to say I LOVED flying with Scott, so so fun. He has only flown within the Texas borders like from Lubbock to Dallas, Dallas to Lubbock.... so this flying experience was one for the books! We landed in Mexico and off we were to the Secrets, The Vine Cancun. What a beautiful resort right on the Ocean. We had an amazing experience and they even had a sports bar for us Fantasy Football addicts! If you know Scott, you know we instantly made SEVERAL friends the very first night, and continued to throughout the trip. I felt like by the end of our trip we knew pretty much most every couple there around our age, it was amazing!

OCTOBER 7th, 2014
WE'RE ENGAGED!!

This was our second morning waking up in the beautiful Cancun, Our balcony overlooks the ocean and in the mornings, we liked to open up the curtains, open the doors so we can hear the loud waves, and go back to bed a little longer just to enjoy it. I woke up to a very happy boyfriend kissing my shoulders and face waking me up and I was so giddy. I loved vacation!! Unfortunately, it was pretty cloudy and the weather radar projected thunderstorms all day long. We ordered room service breakfast with a bottle of champagne - my fault. I am a sucker for morning mimosas!

After breakfast, we didn't want to waste the day away (even if there were going to be storms) so we put on our suits and headed out to the pool. It was drizzling and a little cold, and we noticed our friends from the first night in the hot tub so we joined. BTW, Scott had come up with the best plan to remember all of our friends, by the place they live in. We thought it was pretty hilarious that everyone's names were states but ours was "Austin!" Yeah baby! When "Georgia" couple left the hot tub, there were other couples and friends coming in and we instantly started an epic hot tub party. More friends joined and we'd immediately ask where they were from (Okay mostly Scott did) and made so so many friends. Our waiter's name was Oliver and he was a riot! I blame him for my massive next day hangover. I had everything from a Miami Vice to Tequila shots to Corona Light's to Rainbow shots. Whew. Every five minutes I felt like someone was yelling "25 more shots!!" It was SO fun. Eventually we all decided to go play some sand volleyball and we had a blast! Once the long afternoon of drinking ourselves silly was over, we decided to go upstairs and shower and get ready for dinner. We REALLY loved the Blue Water Steakhouse restaurant so much the first night, that we went back the second night! This time was different though.

We had a private table on the rooftop terrace of this restaurant, overlooking the ocean. Now, the sun didn't come out today, so there wasn't really a sunset to be had - we came out when it was pretty much already dark. It was so beautiful. Full moon, stars all out. Ocean waves from the "storms" earlier the day were crashing hard and were so loud, I loved it! We ordered the Tuna Ceviche for the second night in a row too. Y'all. OMG. This appetizer was my favorite thing to eat the whole week there. It was like ahi tuna sushi marinated in cilantro and lime juice for days. So tender, juicy, amazing. We were sober by the time we got to dinner from our big day of drinking so now we were sitting there telling each other how famished we were, how big our appetites were. I was dying for some bread and butter!! Scott ordered us a bottle of Dom Perignon and it. was. SO good. I literally had no idea what this night would bring, I was just having so much fun with my best friend and enjoying the luxury of all inclusive (except for that champagne, goodness!) We actually ordered this champagne because we've always heard it in rap songs so it must be good right?! So here we are, laughing and me cursing like a sailor about how hungry I am and taking silly selfies of each other with my phone before dinner... and next thing I know he's on one knee next to me, telling me how much he loves me and wants to spend the rest of his life with me... and I was so surprised, excited, happy, I started crying and barely remembered what he said almost immediately I just said yes! yes! It was the single most amazing moment in my life. He was crying and smiling ear to ear, I was crying saying "Really!? Is it finally our time!?" We both lost our appetites, I barely ate any of my dinner (but I blame it on the abundance of bread I ate, the tuna ceviche, and the new big rock on my finger!) That's another thing! I remember glancing at my ring every other second and crying more saying "I can't even look at it! It makes me cry I'm so happy"... I did that for a good thirty minutes or so. We ended up taking the empty bottle of champagne (yes we downed it) and another unopened bottle of red wine back to our room for safe keeping. We freshened up and decided to go celebrate at the downstairs Piano Bar knowing all of our new friends would probably be there. We were right! What was crazy was that half of them already knew what was happening to me that night and just flew right over to me. It was the most amazing time! It was karaoke night at the bar, so we got a shout-out in front of everyone too about our new engagement. I took shots with people I didn't know, I danced with my new friends, I took blurry terrible drunken pictures with my new fiance. I was and am so so happy.

We woke up the next morning feeling like death but so happy we could barely stand it. I could finally look at my ring in detail and in awe and I would look back over at my future hubby sleeping and thank God I am so blessed to spend the rest of my life with this amazing man.

The rest of the week was so fun!! We did only one excursion which was a speedboat that took us to a snorkeling area in the ocean and I had a great time!

sitting on our balcony the morning after <3 perfection

Future Mrs. Owens!!

We left on the 10th sadly, as did some of our friends, and took a plane up to Chicago for our connecting flight. Way out of the way right? I didn't care - it was a long day of flying but I have been just living in bliss. I was ready for a Chicago Stuffed Pizza or a Chicago Dog. Sadly, they didn't have the pizza but you betcha I ordered the Jumbo Char Dog and Scott got a Chicago Style Italian Beef sandwich and it was DELICIOUS. We then went over to Harry Carey's for a few beers and a baseball game before our flight took off 3.5 hours later. We got home around 11pm to my best friend Suzy and my sweet Huxley greeting us at the airport. I also ran into Brittany and Micah which was awesome! We both were in the "just left paradise" depression and tiredness from flying all day, but so so good to see them!

Working this week has been soooo difficult. I feel like I have jet lag a week old, is that possible? I am so happy to be back, but I am so tired!

We haven't picked a date yet for our wedding, but I am truly hoping for 2015 to be our wedding year. We shall see!! Any wedding advice, short engagement planning advice, anything is absolutely welcome! I cannot wait to marry my favorite person in the world!!

2015 is going to be an amazing year.

Trip to see Raelyn

Morning, friends! Hope you all had a blast yesterday, and for those that worked - hope you had a fun night! We left directly after work on Tuesday evening to go visit with Scott's sister, Helen, her hubby Jonas, and cute little 6 month old Raelyn.

They live in way Southeast Texas around the Lufkin/Beaumont area, and it took about 4 hours. I love these little road trips because Texas is just gorgeous with all of the lakes, rivers, and trees.

A lot of you asked me to make sure I snap some cute pictures and videos, and I sure did! We took Huxley with us, and he was SO sweet with Raelyn, the only thing we even had to ask him to do is to stop kissin' her so much! hehe I am glad to know he loves babies/kids!

Raelyn is still learning how to crawl right now, but she is just the happiest baby. Always smiling!

Doesn't this picture make your heart melt!? Oh and by the way, the adorable headband pictured on her was made by Mrs. Mallorie Owens - and I've gotten a few headbands from her for Raelyn and my little Annalee (who is the 5 month old of our best friends). They are SO cute, high quality, and comfortable for the girls. You all need to check out her shop right hurr and get some for yourself or other cute babies you know:

Mallorie's Shop

Anyway, we spent the fourth just lying around the house, chatting, had some watermelon, made a 5 cheese lasagna, and watched movies - and watched Raelyn and Huxley play :-)

Oh, and did I mention how sweeeeeeeeeet it is to see Scottie with his little niece? He is so cute around babies. Scott's family has called him "bubba" since he was practically born, and he was on cloud 9 since Raelyn's first "word" right now is saying "bubba"... gosh I tried to get it on video but you know how babies are- they only do it when you look away/shut off the cam haha. It was so adorable though!

We drove back to Austin around 5pm, so as we were getting into town we saw fireworks everywhere! One of the many things I love about Scott is that he is SO fun to road trip with, he is always jammin out or singin his own version of something, he is teasing me or makin me laugh, it is just a great time and makes the trip go by super fast.

It was a fun fouth. Happy birthday America!

Just to remind everyone, the 100 Follower Group Giveaway featuring all your favorite bloggers including: Ruthie Hart, Finding Beauty in the Ordinary, Jenni from Story of My Life, Mallorie from Home is with You, Megan from and Here's to you Mrs. Robinson, Ashley from Luce Blog, Ashlyn from Let it Be Beautiful, and myself!!

So go check it out now! Over 500 entries already! 8 Winners & 8 Awesome prizes ranging from Business Card Design to cute baby bowties, to Starbucks GCs, to Ad Spaces, to a large summer tote filled with gift cards and goodies! Who's gonna win em!!?!? Giveaway ends in 3 days!!

Anniversary Weekend & Trip to Winnie, Tx!

Good morning, friends! First I just want to say how grateful I am to have such wonderful friends and followers here thank you so much for your kind words and comments on our Anniversary, it was perfect! To the main question of that night you're all thinking of, the answer is no, not engaged... yet! ;-) Although after a few Sake bombs and Martinis, we definitely had the "pleeeease, let's just runaway and get married right now!!" talk... So here are some pictures from our beautiful evening at the Domain in Austin on Friday night!

Scott playing me love songs as I rushed home and got ready for our date!

Dinner @ Flemings in Austin

Oh my gosh, how I loved this dress!! Not only was it sexayy but very comfortable! I received a generous amount of compliments all night (&& thank you to my sweet instagram followers!) 

To view the full amazingness of the dress, here is the link to the dress online!

To start, I had a Pomegranate Martini, Scott chose the Dirty Vodka Martini with some Sweet Chile Calamari served with banana peppers and sliced red peppers. Sooo delicious, and they were cooked perfectly.

For entrees, I chose the Shrimp Scampi in a Lemon Garlic Butter Sauce (to die for!!)

Scott chose the most mouth-watering steak we've ever tasted. A 16oz Prime New York strip.

Also for sides, the Chipotle Macaroni & Flemings Potatoes (we def took half of everything home but I was so impressed by the food and how amazing it was!)

Sake Bombs @ Kona Grill (also in Domain) for dessert!! My favorite!

A few games of pool at Sam's Boat (across the street from the Domain)

Oh, and I definitely won TWO games (Yay!) - free shots for me! Weird how much better I am at bar-games (pool, bowling, darts, shuffleboard) when I am intoxicated?? Hah who's with me on this!?

Scott was such a gentleman and so sweet all night. He defintely got a kick out of the manager @ Flemings walking by and addressing him as "Mr. Owens". hehe. It's nice to be treated like royalty when you go somewhere. We had a few giftcards too so we hooked up the waiter big-time as well.

Scottie unfortunately had to work Saturday morning (boooo!) so we called it a night and cuddled up with our little furbaby & watched some reruns of family guy falling asleep. I love my little family.

Next morning came bright and early, and as Scottie headed to work, I headed 4hrs to the middle of nowehere aka Winnie, TX to meet my mom & sister (halfway mark between Austin & Baton Rouge, LA)

When we arrived we checked into the Holiday Inn Express (it was suprisingly a new model and was extremely nice!) & decided to go explore for the day.

Winnie is very Southeast by the coast (close to Beaumont) so we drove to the Peninsula & rode along the beach and soon enough we were at the end where the Ferry meets to take you to Galveston. So we did it & headed to Galveston for dinner and drinks/watch the sunset on the beach!

Love this picture of my mama, isn't she gorgeous!?

It was so nice to be back at the hotel close to Midnight (ferry takes like an HOUR to get all the lines of cars from the island back to the peninsula)

Morning came and we had a good ole complimentary breakfast. I had some rice krispies (plus a few cheerios) with a side of English muffin Egg Sandwich

Mom headed back to Louisiana and Maddie and I decided to take a little day trip to see my girlfriend Suzy in Conroe, TX just about an hour and a half away.

It was so much fun! Suzy & I had a glass of box wine and we all played games and watched movies, ate at Buffalo Wild Wings while picking up her boyfriend Taylor at the Airport. We always love getting to see her!

Finally around 10pm we got home & immediately hopped into our PJs, grabbed Huxley & a blanket, and watched "He's Just Not That Into You" before going to bed. Gosh I love that movie so funny and cute.

Huxley was soooooo excited to see his Aunt Maddie again!!
This whole weekend was just SO much fun but also draining & I'm exhausted today! 2nd cup of cofffeee please!! The next 3 weeks will be such a blast w/ Maddie here in town!

What did everyone else do this weekend!?! Fill me in! :)

Linking up with A Good Life, Finding Beauty in the Ordinary, & Life Rearranged

Trip to D-town

Happy Monday, friends! I am so glad to be back and no more traveling for at least a few weeks, phew! This past week if you caught up with my last Monday's randoms... I went on my first ever biz trip with my new job to the Hilton Anatole (formerly the Lowes Anatole) to meet up with dozens of groups of small business owners (in the IT field) and also all of the vendors that we work with.

This hotel is just absolutely beautiful... When it was the Lowes Anatole, they had a theme to the hotel of a Singapore so there were huge sculptures and in one of the main hallways there are life-size elephant statues. Pretty cool!

During the day were 8 hour long trainings in a very cold meeting room, but the speakers were incredible and it was very interactive so I got so much out of it!

 

By night time, we were partyin' on the Vendors dollar! Look at these entrees I completely overinduldged in.....

 

The first night we had a "Mad Men" themed poker party! Mustaches and all....

 

 

Second night we were served the Salmon you see above & the dessert, alongside some Calamari and these small flatbreads that were just soooo mouthwatering good!

Every night the Vendors and youngsters like me were up til about midnight (or 1 ish ha) drinking and networking... let's just say by the end of this trip everyone decided I fit riiiight in & loved me!- it was such a blast to meet and get along with all of these successful people!

I can't say enough how even just last month I was stressing and working my life away just being miserable... and this new job has been a life-changing experience so far, feeling so blessed and free now to be a 23 year old Austinite EVEN when working a full time job! So I'm linking up with Heather as this 1/2 Cup Full is definitely how I'm feeling lately! God is so good.

By Thursday though, I was soooo happy to be coming home to this little man...

Hope all of you Mothers and Fur-Mommy's like me had a wonderful Mother's day! Scottie surprised me with a bottle of my favorite Dolce Wine and our besties Ashley and Justin came over and I grilled some Fajitas for us... Annalee also decided to join us :) I can't get enough of this cute little gal...

By the way, look how adorbs Annalee looks in this headband I got from Mallorie a few weeks ago!

 

This girl is so talented you should always get your baby headbands from her!! You can see her whole shop [[here]]!

Anyway, I didn't get to spend Mother's day with my mom this year, but I definitely made sure my other siblings pampered her to the fullest! I miss mama tons, but I'll get to see her on June 9th as I make my way to Winnie, TX to pick up Maddie and we're having a girls night at a random hotel there. Should be fun!

 

What did you do for Mothers day?? Were you pampered? Did you get to do something fun with your momma!?