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Hope you are having a great Monday!

Natalie

Here Comes the Bride...

There will be more to come from me when I am back in the states. We are sitting in the aiport, still in the Dominican Republic, waiting on our flight back to Tulsa via a transfer in Atlanta. I thought that I would drop a little note and leave you with this picture...
We are married! The wedding, the resort, the beach...it was all fabulous! I will fill you in on all the details with a ton of pictures when I get back.

Natalie

Pre-Wedding Rambling...

I am so excited and cannot even believe that 48 hours from now I will be on my way to the Dominican Republic! My best friend Tennyson and her husband Chris are going on the trip with us (I don't know if I have told you that before) and we are all so dang excited! Everyday for the past week when we talk on the phone, all Tennyson and I talk about is how much fun we can't wait to have on the vacation.

I only have a few more things to get for the trip. Luckily, I found the perfect linen shirt for Billy to wear during the ceremony. I had been having a struggle finding one that I loved and originally wanted the shirt to have long sleeves that he would roll up because I just love that look, but was not successful in finding one that I absolutely loved. We went to Dillards and were surprised to find that they were having a mega sale on most all of their summer clothes. We found the perfect linen shirt (short sleeved) for only $24 and it was regularly $55...I love it when I come along deals like that especially since I was not even expecting the sale!

I was excited to learn that the resort has some ultra fabulous entertainment at night! I became a fan of Dreams Palm Beach on Facebook and that has literally provided me with so much valuable information from people just returning from the resort. The website for the resort is informative, but it is always better to get some insight from someone that doesn't work there or have any obligation to the place-you know what I mean? People rave about the entertainment at night and one person even went on to say that one of the shows was similar to that of Cirque du Soleil, could this be a slight exaggeration? I think so...

Although I am sure that making a comparison to the entertainment staff and Cirque du Soleil is a slight exaggeration I am still excited! Any sort of acrobatics at all will be great especially since I had invisioned the entertainment to include a man on stage with a guitar singing traditional songs of the country, ha!

I am going to start getting together our stuff in preparation for the packing tonight. I am a crazy lady when it comes to packing. I like to make a list of what all needs to go then set out the outfits for each day that way I make sure that I have exactly what I want to wear and a few backups as well! I hope that everyone has a wonderful Monday!

Natalie

Blog Hop~Favorite Recipe

This is the one recipe that always has people coming back for more. Anytime that I have taken this to any function, everyone always asks for the recipe because it is so delicious! My mimi has made this for as long as I can remember...this is definately a down home dish that I love. I hope that you will enjoy this one as much as I do!

Cornbread Salad

2 Boxes Jiffy Cornbread/Muffin Mix
1 Large red onion
1 Can whole kernal corn
1 Package bacon (I like to use the precooked bacon)
1 Package mild cheddar cheese (2 cups)
1 Medium english cucumber
3-4 Roma tomatoes
1 Bunch green onions
2 Cups mayonaise (I never said that this one was low-fat!)
Salt
Pepper
Ground cayenne pepper

Directions:
1. Mix cornbread per the package instructions and season with a little bit of salt and cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper will give the cornbread a little "kick."
2. Bake cornbread in an 9x9x9 baking dish until you can remove a toothpick cleanly from the center. Set the cornbread aside to cool.
3. While the cornbread is baking, dice your vegetables. I make an effort to try to dice all the vegetables so that they are similar in size. I peel the skin and remove the center of the cucumber with a spoon leaving only the crisp outer edge. I also remove the seeds from the tomatoes.
4. Put all of your veggies, including the drained corn, in a prep bowl and season with salt and pepper. The salt will bring some of the water out of the veggies, so once all the ingredients are ready to combine you will need to drain off the liquids. This eliminates some of the moisture from the salad so that it doesn't get mushy ;)
5. Cook the bacon until crispy. Once the bacon has cooled, place it in a ziplock bag and crumble.
6. Crumble your cooled cornbread into a large bowl.
7. Drain and then add your chopped veggies to the crumbled cornbread. Next you will add the cheese, bacon, and mayonaise then stir to combine.
8. Once combined season with salt and cayenne pepper to taste.

You can serve this salad alone, but it is also delicious with chips. I love to have this salad as a dip with Kettle Cooked Original Lays.

This salad should not be spicy, but the cayenne adds that little bit of heat that will leave people wondering what spice it is.
Depending on how dry your cornbread is, you may have to add an additional 1/4c-1/2c of mayonaise. This salad should be creamy and have the consistency like that of potato salad.

I hope that you make this soon, it will certainly be a hit! Let me know if you do try it or if you have any questions in reagrds to the recipe.

Natalie

A few more pics...

I cannot believe that we leave for the Dominican Republic in just 9 days! I am so excited and I am more and more thankful everyday to have found such a wonderful guy. I am so lucky that he has choosen me to be his wife. I can't wait to spend the rest of our lives together and see the many blessings that God has in plan for us!

Hope that everyone is having a good Monday!

Natalie

Engagement Picture Preview

Billy and I got our engagement pictures done on Sunday of this past weekend. Man was it hot! I was so worried that I would look like I had run a marathon in all the pics! I have seen a couple of the proofs so far and I thought that I would share this one with you...I think that it is super cute! I hope that everyone is having a great week...I am so glad that it's Wednesday! We are halfway there...does anyone else feel like they find themselves always living for the weekend?

Natalie

Please tell me that you love this as much as I do...

I am totally in love with this song and just love that most of Kenny's songs remind me of the summer. Not to mention the fact that I get even more excited when he mentions me...yeah right, I wish, but he does give a shoutout to all us girls from Arkansas! For my birthday last year, Billy (hubby-to-be) got my sister and I tickets to the Kenny Chesney concert when he came to Tulsa. Let me just tell you that this was by far the best concert that I have ever been to ever and the best birthday present by far to this day! He is such a wonderful performer for sure-we sang our little hearts out and had so much fun! In fact, I sang a little too hard because I was hoarse for almost a week afterwards. I think that secretly I was trying to pretend like I was in the band that night-ha! If you'd ever heard me sing you would certainly laugh at this thought for sure. I'm sure that it wasn't pretty but it sure sounded good in my head.

If you have never seen Kenny in concert and have the opportunity to go I promise you will not be disappointed. On our way home, my sister and I were laughing at the option of traveling from show to show because it was that much fun!

I hope that everyone is having a super fun Friday! This week has seemed to drag on forever so I am so excited for the weekend. I have a ton of stuff that I want to do to start getting things together for the trip since it is now only 19 days away!! I have officially launched into super planner mode...keep me in your prayers that all will come together as planned!

Natalie

Don't Miss Out on All the Fun...Join the Blog Hop!

This is the first week for me to join the blog hop and I am super excited about being apart of it! This will be a great opportunity to meet other bloggers and share your favorite photo with a caption. Here is my favorite picture...I just love it!

The caption for this picture should read, "Two Silly Sisters" because that is definately what we are when we're together. This picture is of me and my sister Lindsay...she's on the left. I am lucky that my sisters both live in the same town as me, so we get to see each other frequently and I am so thankful for that. My sister Lindsay is married to a wonderful guy, Charlie, and has 3 beautiful kids that I absolutely love to pieces. When I see this picture it makes me super happy that I have such a fun, beautiful, and silly sister!

Now, all you have to do to join in the fun is click on the MckLinky link below to get the code to add to your blog!

Holiday Weekend Recap!

Whew, did that weekend fly by or what? I totally think that every weekend should be a 4 day weekend...I think that it is that extra day that makes it really feel like you had "the weekend" off. I was off on Friday and very much enjoyed my day! I met my BFF, Tennyson, at the bridal shop and we were able to find a dress that we loved that fit like a dream-a definate blessing for sure! I was so excited since the weddingmoon is so close and I still had not narrowed down my dress choice.

Speaking of the wedding being so close, have you seen the ticker at the top of my blog? 23 Days!!! Are you kidding me right now??? I am so excited that I can't even stand it!

In a mere 23 days you will find me here...without a single care in the world!

Billy and I did a little shopping this weekend to pick up a few summer outfits. I ordered my bathing suits from Victoria's Secret online, but Billy wanted another pair of board shorts and we were surprised to find that all the bathing suits are pretty much gone by July 4th weekend. This is kind of strange to me since I hardly condsider July 4th weekend to be the end of summer! He found the one that he had previously seen in his favorite store online, so we will just have to order online instead...oh well, at least he was able to find the one that he wanted ;)

We wanted to lay out and get some sun this weekend, but the weather had other plans for us. It was super cloudy pretty much all day Saturday until late in the afternoon when it cleared up a bit. I was so thankful for the clearing because it almost didn't even seem like the 4th of July looking so dreary outside! Billy and I went to my sweet daddy's to watch the fireworks that night. My dad lives on top of a huge hill so this was the perfect spot to see all the fireworks, it was so beautiful! Our Sunday proved to be just as dreary as the day before so we pretty much just hung out around the house and did some cleaning, then we watched the movie 17 Again. It was so cute-if you haven't seen it you really should!

Well, I hope that everyone had a great weekend...now to just get through this work week!

Natalie

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July! I hope that everyone has a great, super fun weekend!

Natalie