Wedding Website

Here it is! The debut of our wedding website! This took me a bit... probably because I'm pretty detail oriented and I like telling our story.

http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/JulieTurner&ChrisConnell

What do you think?

He's just not that into you!

Movie review! I promised and therefore I must produce. Here is the first ever movie review from Chris and Julie.


Chris:

Rating of 3 out of 5 stars. Pretty good.

"With a resolution and conclusion that made you enjoy and appreciate the movie more so than you did at points while watching it, He’s Just not that into you ended up even being a better movie than just the good ol’ chick flick. And that is coming from a guy here.
With as strong a cast as any in recent movie viewing, watching each sub-plot play out was like watching the week’s All My Children or Gossip Girl if you will.Hooks you right in and sticks with you until the end."


Julie:

I liked it! I thought the straight truth was funny and refreshing. Playing games in relationships is silly and this movie definitely showed us that. It gets a little slow through the middle, but it has a great ending. I say go see it - if not, rent it for sure. You'll enjoy it.

Happy Valentines' Day!

Oh love.

I have now enjoyed 26 Valentines' days... Lots were solo and you quickly learn how to fill those very single days with tons of different things. It's a day you can fill with love, with or without a Love interest. (Honest answer - the holiday is MUCH better spent with Mr. Right! It takes patience, so don't settle! When things fall into place, love overflows. I have never known anything so wonderful.)

Over all the Valentines, Chris keeps making them better and better! This year Chris cooked a yummy dinner for two and surprised me with wonderful treats. Lots of love... Just not too much just yet.

Showing off part of his hard work... (I could not ask for a better man! Chris is the best.)



Dinner was super perfect. I was a few minutes late (which is not a shocker), but Chris had everything ready! Chicken, green beans, rice, and rolls. I cleaned my plate. For dessert, we had Red Velvet cupcakes (love, yours truly).

More surprises!!! A beautiful dozen roses, chocolate dipped strawberries, beautiful earrings, a love cd mix, a perfect card, and tickets to a movie!


Self-portraits abound when you're by yourselves. We did learn that those lovely arm out photos are a bit more difficult with the larger camera... HOW FUNNY is this one?!

Gahh!!! How I love him...

My Valentine.

We found the timer...

The earrings...

The flowers three days later. They still look GORGEOUS!

Up close and personal.

Just a shot of the ring... I took this on Saturday.

Thank you, Darling, for a perfect Valentines Day! You are amazing...

Bailey's eye surgery

Faint of heart, watch out... This may be a bit graphic for you...

We found a small tumor growing on Bailey's eyelid. They said we'd have to remove it before it took over her eye... Mom took her for her consultation (we need to invest in doggie insurance) and they said she probably wouldn't have any stitches, one if any. The surgery wouldn't be too bad. Evidently, that tumor was more embedded than they thought. This is how Bailey looked after Mom picked her up (insert graphic warning):

She ended up getting three stitches, instead of zero. Talk about hard on your eyelid!

About four days post surgery, she's looking much, MUCH better:

Her poor little eye was all swollen up. Her actual eyeball was glazed over (as you can see in picture #1) so we were very glad to see her looking like her old little self.

Bailey is going to have the stitches removed sometime soon. Thankfully! Maybe then she will really feel better!

Eight days

There is an old wives tale that says you're to leave a candle burning until your solider comes home. It's supposed to bring good luck (and I hope safety). This is a picture of our 21st century burning candle... it may look a little funny, but it is very sentimental. My aunt Sonya bought it for my mom right after Ben was deployed. Since she gave it to her, we haven't taken it out of that window or turned it off. A "burning" candle that symbolizes our desire for Ben to come home. Safe and sound. To a family who misses him very much.

You probably read the subject as "eight days" and you may have wondered what that was about. It's about trusting God through all the days we don't hear from Ben. Fortunately, we hear from him roughly about every 4 to 5 days. Sometimes sooner, sometimes later. That's the average. However, about two weeks ago, it took him eight days to be able to call us. Eight LONG days. Through those days, it is a constant battle of your will to give your worries over to the Lord, to stop your mind from wondering away and not trusting that He is in control.

When he finally called, Ben was able to tell us about the new base they had created overnight. He's apart of the team that is securing a main road, out of the hands of the Taliban. In order to take everyone by surprise, they built a small base (a large fort if you will) in one night. Ben didn't think they were going to be staying there, but they did. It has no running water; it only has water out of bottles to drink from. You can imagine how all of those guys smell... They pulled 30 hour shifts and probably were all loving life. Anyway, it wasn't until he made it back to his regular (still small, but larger than the new base) that they were able to call home and assure those they love they were okay. Praise God they are okay! And thank goodness, he called. I do believe if there was any way, my mother (and the rest of us) would be on our way over there to make sure he was alive and well.

We get sooo excited to think about him coming home! The other night Mom and I were watching a video of this group of Marines that just got to come home. The video was of them coming in and greeting the ones they love. It was wonderful! One girl had jumped on her solider (in like a koala bear position) and was just so excited! Another mother found her son and was just crying on his shoulder. When the son tried to pull away to hug his dad, the mother just held on tighter, determined not to let him go... The son just laughed and his dad came in for a big family hug... Everyone was crying, including Mom and me... It was wonderfully precious. Ben will be home soon...

Anyway, there's part of an update on Ben! He's alive and well... Seeing things no one should ever have to, but he's apart of a big picture. I am very proud of him.

The KEY of all keys

"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 16:19a. That was Jesus, but Chris told me something like that on Sunday night.

"Oh, here! I picked up this for you today."

There it is. Can you guess what that beautiful key unlocks? Maybe you've already guessed ... It's the key to OUR house! Chris gave it to me on Sunday and I was sooo excited! Granted, the house is not really ours yet, but he wanted to make me feel like it was.

Oh, how I can't wait until it is our HOME!

More photos of the surprise bash!

Beth and Katie - Pretty girls!

Johnny and Scott. Scott had my camera for a while!

This was when Chris was announcing the engagement of Jeff and Emily. You can't see Em here, but look how excited Jeff is!

Scott followed Jenny to the bathroom. He wanted her to know how a celebrity feels...

Jason, Anna, and Abby!

The happy couple... So glad it's Chris' day of birth!!

Look at all the *sparkler* candles!!!

Blowing out all those candles!

Beth and Chris. They're friends.

Fowler, Matt, Chris, and Jared!! The Friday night movie crew...

Abby and Chris:

Sibling love...

Jason won BEST DRESSED for the evening rocking his Rolling Stones tee. Check out Anna's Ed Hardy gear...

Group shot!! Jeff, Cam, Chris, Andy, Hunter, and John. So glad you guys came!

Posing in front of the Smoky's sign...

Happy Birthday, Chris! Hope you loved it!!

Atlanta or Bust

Round trip to Atlanta. In one day. Sounds exciting, huh? Chris and I love road trips... this one turned out to be one where your sides hurt the next day.

Family. Friends. Relationships. We both have GREAT people in our lives. People who continue to bless our lives over and and over. During the past year+, I have been honored to get to know the family and friends that Chris loves. Those are the people who got to love Chris even before I knew who he was. It's been easy to get to know them. Right off the bat, I could tell just how good at building and sustaining relationships Chris is. Amazingly, his family/friends (some friends don't know they're not family - and I love it!) have welcomed me with open arms. Many are the kind of people you feel like you've known forever. Jumping in right behind Chris to help love on his people has been a joy. Even as I write "his people" I am realizing just how much they've really become "our people." Example for today: Andy and Cameron.

Cut to Sunday, January 25th where Chris, Andy, Cam, and I have all decided to take a day trip to Atlanta. The main priority of the trip was to love on a dear friend and hopefully be an encouragement to him. (See the previous paragraph. Great relationships.) Priority number 2 was to laugh as much as possible. Both priorities succeeded. Who can spend 6+ hours in a vehicle with 3 other people and say we all talked and laughed the entire time?! We can! Evidently, we're the kind of friends where anything goes. You can say anything - nothing is off limits. Even your BMs. Relationships are really good that way. 6 or so hours in the sweet Acura, two Starbucks stops, and one for gas gave us lots of interior car time to talk. After my second hot chocolate (no whip please), I decided it was official - Chris' love for the ol' Starbucks was rubbing off on me. I even requested that we go there the next weekend. It was shocking for him, but secretly, he really loved it.

Life is exciting. Every moment should be as good as you can make it. To continue reading about our little road trip, please see Cameron's blog - http://twobroomes.blogspot.com/2009/01/where-players-play.html She is much more prompt regarding her blogs than I am... Hope you enjoy!

Mr. Connell turns 28 years old!

How do you really celebrate and love on someone you love so much? You get creative.... Umm, perfect idea - a *SURPRISE* party! How do I pull off a great surprise party?! With lots of help. But I had no idea where to start. It wasn't until Chris called me roughly three weeks ago to ask if we could celebrate his birthday the Saturday before with just the two of us. He wanted to visit the very restaurant we went to on our first date. A perfect, little restaurant called Smoky's, set in the historic town of Dandridge. That was it! We would have a perfectly quiet dinner for two - I just happened to invite 30 of his closest friends and family!! Chris deserved it.

Luckily, the restaurant had a "Gathering room" that provided a great atmosphere for the event. It was cozy, quaint, and intimate. Just perfect!




Chris loves to surprise me and rarely can I pull a surprise over on him. He actually classifies me and Katie, his sister, as the worst "surprisers" ever! I just get so excited that I spill the beans. This time, however, was going to be different. Chris Connell was actually going to get a surprise party!


Throwing a great surprise party dinner required a few things: 1. People 2. Cake 3. Decorations. Beth helped me pick an evite to send to people. (Evite = online invitation sent to everyone's emails.) Within days, we had several people respond that they would be there! Here we go! It was really happening now. We had people coming!!


On to the decor! A cake - which may be the biggest part of the whole birthday! Who to do it... I searched far and wide until I found her - Lindsay Mizell. Baker extraordinaire. Thankfully, I found her before I was forced to call Food City or Ingles and beg them to make me a cake. Not that Food City or Ingles don't make good cakes - I just knew it wouldn't be the rockstar quality that I was looking for in regards to creativity. Here's what Lindsay created:




The cake in itself created quite the drama in getting it to the party. My mom, sister, grandmother, aunt, and I had been to a baby shower Saturday morning. The plan was to pick up the cake on our way home, right before they dropped me off with Chris. Three speed bumps later, I wasn't sure about leaving this cake I had just paid dearly for. I just knew the ride home would be disasterous! My whole family laughed hysterically every time we would hit a bump. I would throw my hand to my chest or throat and just pray it was okay! Thankfully, I have the best, most helpful family in the world though and that lovely, beautiful, delicious cake made it to the party! Thanks to the one and only sister BETH and her assistant Abby! Beth even went to Ingles and picked up the 28 balloons. That is a feat. But she did it with grace, I'm sure. Beth and Abby even put up the name tags I created for everyone and lit all the candles sitting on the tables. I thought the whole event looked beautiful. It would not have happened the way it did without them.


Here you go. The guest of honor. The birthday boy (and me!) at his party. He is so handsome.



[Please note, my swollen eye. My contacts were out of control that day and somehow my eye swelled up. Chris offered to take me by my house on the way - what he didn't know what I had already contacted my sister to bring my lovely glasses to the party.]


More dinner partiers:

This is only part 1 of this birthday blog. I will add more pictures of more beautiful people soon. I'll also add more details to this party and more details on Mr. Chris Connell. Stay tuned.