i've moved

hello everyone.

just in case you haven't seen on facebook i've moved my blog. i felt like stuart deserved some credit and wanted to share more about our life together...

www.alyperkins.wordpress.com

visit me there!

alyson

Rollin' on the River

May 15

Stuart and I have some pretty fabulous friend here in Memphis. We live walking moments from each other, great at times although us girls get in trouble with our "girls nights", that happen ALL the time!

For our upcoming wedding our friends decided to throw a party for Stuart and I on a Mississippi Riverboat. It was dinner cruise and so much fun. The night started with a couple of appetizers at the Myers then we went to the river to board the Memphis Queen for a BBQ dinner. We had our own reserved table complete with "I Love You"balloons! Yes, see below:

The girls introduced me to the Miami Vice cocktail which I'll talk about in a later blog. Also the World Championship Barbeque Cookoff was in full swing as we traveled down the river. The Memphis Redbirds were playing only a few blocks away from the river and we were even treated to a fireworks show. The night was awesome!! Nights like these make me not only appreciate our friend family, but also living in Memphis. Memphis in May is truly one of the best months of the year! I could go on and will, in a later post. :)

Memphis Riverboat dinner cruises are a blast! Rollin' down the Mighty Mississippi, live music, cocktails, BBQ...nothing says Memphis more than this! (If you're interested in booking your own Riverboat cruise click Memphis Riverboat above). Needless to say when the boat arrived back to port we were begging for more and the band gladly played one of my favs Mustang Sally for one last go-round!

Here are a few more pics from the night!!

Jessie B, Lindsey, myself, Gail, and Meghan

Phil and Gail. Yes, Gail is holding a Miami Vice. yum!

Stuart, Rob, Lindsey, Landon, Chad on the boat deck

Rob and Jessie B

Lindsey, Meghan, Rob

Bachelorette

Bachelorette Weekend

May 7-8

Where my girls at? HaHa! When asked what I wanted to do for my Bachelorette Party all I could think of was relaxation! It may sound crazy but I really did not want to bar hop with a condom laced veil atop my head. All I wanted was some good quality time with all my favorite girls and that's EXACTLY what I got! (Well, there were some folks that couldn't come...I definitely understand and missed you!!!)

Friday night the festivities began at Flight Restaurant and Wine Bar which is the perfect place for ANY celebration! I actually opened one lingerie gift there without any embarrassment! We ate way too much food: Crawfish dip to start, some had the Beef Flight, Tuna Flight, and some mixed it up. Most importantly were the drinks: Northern Exposure, A Patio Party, and Tiny Bubbles when down well with all the dinner flights. After dinner we definitely had to have dessert, well dessert drinks! That drove a few of us to the unique Molly Fontaine Lounge were I had a couple Cosmo and so did my cute new romper! Ugh! I'm such a klutz!!! The girls had to order my second one in a wine glass which is appropriate because I'm more skilled with that choice in stemware. (Seriously, who invented the martini glass. They are cool and modern but so difficult).

Saturday was pretty fabulous tooooooo! Brunch at my new favorite locale for mimosas, The Majestic Grille. The food is good, but the hot deal on the mimosa is even better. $14 for a bottle of Barefoot champagne and carafe of orange juice! Seriously a steal!!! We sat on the patio and the weather could not have been more perfect! We then headed to the pool with margaritas and Bud Light Lime. A few hours in the sun was ahmazing! I think all of the girls needed a little sun therapy! That evening Sarah made us a little mexican feast, we ate, I opened lingerie (I won't go into details but that was WAY fun!), and just has such a ball!

Thank you girls that were there!!! If you weren't I missed you much!!!!! You only get one bachelorette party and I'm so thankful for everything you all did! Sarah, Gail, Brooke, Sarah, Lindsey, Meghan, Liz, Carey, Paige, and Helen a big thank you from the bottom of my heart!!!!

the new Mrs. Hicks catching some rays

gail, sarah, and i

myself and lindsey myerman

carey and i, yea!

Ahhhh! wish i could do this EVERY weekend

THANK YOU!!

7th Annual MIM Crazy Crawfish

May 1, 2o10

For 7 years we have thrown a crawfish boil the same weekend as Music Fest, somewhat protesting the rain that always comes with the festival but also because we have a group full of

wanna be cajuns. This weekend has special meaning to Stuart and I in that we met this weekend 7 years ago.

In 2003, Kelleigh, Shawna and I had driven up from Little Rock to spend the weekend with Marlene and go to Music Fest. I think this was the last time it DIDN'T rain during Music Fest. We arrived Friday evening and met Marlene at some boys' apartment which turned out to be Stuart, Landon, and Rob's place. Everyone was meeting there and then heading to listen to the music. I don't remember all the details but we piled in a limo and were dropped off at the front gate of Music Fest. Now I know Stuart didn't make it in the limo and he was so mad!

Saturday was the birth of the annual crawfish boil. The sun was actually out and the day was beautiful! Stuart and I sat in a circle with several others and talked for a while. I was immediately drawn to his carefree attitude and just how fun he was! We had camping chairs, a keg, crawfish, some guy named Lunchbox, and lots of fun.

Since 2003 we have grown this get-together to a rather large back yard/garage party! We've had 2 parties in the side yard of the boys house, one in the backyard, one in Allyson's backyard, and now 2 in the Grey's garage! Here are some pics of years past and from this year. If you haven't come to this shin dig consider your self invited next year! Be prepared though

...as the beer goes down the crawfish get hotter! My honey can boil some crawfish!

Crawfish 2010:

Chad lovin' the boil!

Nick, Will, Phil, and Rob 3 enjoying a little brew!

Table full of hot crawfish, garlic, potatoes, corn and sausage.

Some other things we've boiled: eggs, green beans, mushrooms (which is my fav).

Crawfish 2010. We hired this "one man band" (haha...inside joke) to play some tunes for a few hours! It was awesome to have live music! Definitely booked him for next year!

A Peek at one of our older boils:

Not sure what year this is but it was during the time that all the boys did was play Texas Hold 'Em. They even pulled out the cards at the crawfish boil!

Jared, Chad, Barry, and Stuart examining a boiling pot of crawfish.

If you have pics from other years email them to me and I'll post them here!

Alyson

Sinking...In more ways than one.

First last weekend. I'm going to be brief but it was interesting.

Friday: i lost my iphone

Saturday : leak in roof

HUGE sink hole in backyard (see pics below)

Sunday: Stuart has to be at the airport REALLY EARLY

truck will not start

Stuart arrives in Philly - luggage however did not

We're not sure who we wronged, but it was a LONG weekend. Thankfully Stuart and I were able to laugh off the entire weekend because there really wasn't much we could do. I got a new phone, the sink hole was fixed, Stuart's battery was just dead and was able to be jumped, and thankfully his luggage arrived on Monday! These catastrophes were a reminder to not sweat the small stuff. Laughing about all these small mishaps was the best thing we could do!! We even got new sod in the backyard so really it turned out to be a WIN!

The fence suspended in air!

Spring

My grandmother, mom, and aunts all LOVE gardening, or as they call it "playing in the dirt." The gene has been passed on and I love it too. This year however I decided the flower beds and planting would have to take a backseat to wedding planning.

I am going to enjoy what we do have though! Several years ago Stuart and I planted azalea's, hosta, and elephant ears in his flower bed. I wanted to share how georgeous the azalea's were this year!!

It's sad that their bright pink blooms are already gone! The quick disappearance of blooms has served as a reminder to me how quickly this season of our lives is going to pass.

Fortunately though there are so many other blessings to bloom in the summer! My elephant ears have not popped up yet and they are my favorite! They are SO INCREDIBLY big and majestic! They stand up so tall! We can't wait to start our marriage in the same way! Standing in front of our family and friends!!! Stuart and I have been going to pre-martial counseling which I pray serves as the nourishment that we need to start and grow a strong marriage - like the stalk of an elephant ear! :)

This is my favorite hosta. Most people like the verigated, but the unverigated what I love! The deep green colors and the way the water beads on the leaves when you water them is so pretty!

This is bloom from a gorgeous jasiman plant in the back yard! This photo is overexposed but I love how yellow this bush is!

Zooooooooming Forward

I haven't been a very dedicated blogger so I'll zooom through the events that occured from December 26th (our engagement) to the present. So here's what we've been doing: Work, work, work, winter weather, crazy snow days of pulling our 30something butts behind a golf cart and four wheeler, watching a new house being built only an arms reach out of our front door, planning, planning, and more planning. We've celebrated Stuart's 31st birthday in our usual style in Hot Springs, had our annual Music Fest Crawfish Boil, and here we are now....a little more than 2 weeks away from the BIG DAY! Here's some pics from some of the above events:

Lindsey and Landon's house on a random football day!

Snow Day!! This pic was taken after Landon pulled us behind the four wheeler! We all sat on an old truck bed liner tied a string on through a hole we made in the liner and attached it behind the 4 wheeler! Gotta love farm boys!

Stuart's 31st Birthday in Hot Sprngs!

Not sure what Jared is doing here, but I think this picture is so funny!

I'll post more picture soon now that I've figured out how to do it!

Alyson

The Past, Pictures, and PAIN!

So since my last post...in Novmeber...SO SO SO much as occured. I may have to break this up in several posts. First, and most importantly, Stuart and I got engaged!!!!! It was such a wonderful surprise as you can image after 6.5 years of dating. Yes I did use a 0.5...I'm a nurse...things are not 1/2. One reason I haven't posted in awhile is I was hating how blah my posts felt. What a bummer I was!! I felt down the dumps a lot at the end of last year, I know mostly from the anticipation/desire of getting engaged and being married. It took me over!!

Another reason I felt so blah about the blog (haha) is I had no pictures to share, well...problemed solved by my wonderful pa

rents who gave me a Nikon

DSLR camera for Christmas! I still have a lot to learn about this thing...but lucky me my bestie is a pro! (Love you Sarah)! Here are some pics from our engagement and Christmas.

PAIN!!!!! Today is now 05/06/10, I wrote the original post on 4/12/2010...I became frustrated with the speed of my computer and I could not figure out how to post pictures. This has been super annoying so I hope it works this time! Here goes...

The ring! I love my ring! In 6.5 years I never gave Stuart a hint of what I would want. He did it all on his own!!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

The Happy Couple...we really are happy! Stuart hates my new camera! :)