Girls Get-Away

When you have a bond with someone that time and distance are no measure for, it feels just like coming home when you are finally together again! That's exactly how it is with my girls. A place where we are 100% ourselves. A place where we can literally tell each other anything. A place where there are no judgement no matter the topic religion, politics, no matter our size or our place in life...I always feel accepted by these women. It doesn't matter where we are, I love being with them. I love that no matter how busy we get we always make time for a girl's getaway because it is so needed for the soul.

The past few years several of us made the long drive to Florida for an entire week and it was glorious! We just couldn't quite make it happen this year because of work schedules, but that didn't stop us from a girls weekend. We booked a lake house is Hot Springs, loaded up the boat with our floaties and made some memories. The best part of the weekend was sharing it with friends that don't normally get to attend the whole week in Florida.

So what are the components that make up a perfect girl's weekend?

 flamingo straws and fruity drinks

 personalized cups and enough junk food to gain a few pounds each

 pretty braids and the best hair stylist in the world

strawberry pie, caprese salad and friends that make you your very own gluten free cookies

boat rides. swan floats, sunsets

old school rap music and dance parties on the boat

And the best friends a girl could ask for.

We swam. We sang. We enjoyed the sun. But most of we laughed and laughed and laughed some more. These girls are the best medicine.  Can't wait till our next one, ladies!

Our First Home.

I wrote this post weeks ago but I'm a bit superstitious so I didn't want to post it until it was official...so here is the big news...

Our home in Benton has SOLD!!! WAHOO! After sitting on the market for roughly about 8 months, we could not be happier that we have an accepted offer on our Arkansas home. As of yesterday, it is closed, done, official, sign on the dotted line, OVER.

It was never our intention to own two homes in different states especially when my husband is totally changing careers. But God had a plan to get us down to Ruston quickly so we listened. Provided the inspection process goes well, we will close on that house in one month. You know what that means, right? We will be down to only ONE house payment! Hallelujah! Praise Jesus! 

While we were in Little Rock this weekend, we went by our old home one last time. We walked around sharing all the memories the two of us made in our first home. It was definitely a bittersweet moment. Buie even pointed out where the dogs would run over and over along the same path wearing a trail into the grass...the trail was gone and the grass had grown back. It was like the dogs had never even been there at all. When he said those words out loud, I got a gut wrenching ache in my belly because it pained me to even think about losing all of the wonderful memories made in that home. It saddened me think that the future residents of this home will always just refer to us as the future owners. They might even complain about the chipped paint and the nails we left in the walls. They won't know the wonderful friends that enjoyed a burger on the back patio or the countless foster animals who played in our backyard. 

This was the home we brought Scooter home to and later Charlie. This was the home where Buie and I buried George around the side of the house. I will never forget seeing the rare moment of my husband crying as he dug a hole and placed his body, still warm and slowing growing stiff, down in the ground. As we walked around the home, Buie and I said goodbye and looked at the spot where he is buried. The next owners won't know where he is buried because of the ivy that has now grown over the grave, but we will always know. 

If a house had a memory, what would it remember the most about us living there for four years, I wonder? That house might not remember us but we will never forget it. 

It was a wonderful first home. 

Weekend Review:: Birthdays and Best Friends

Another whirlwind weekend in Arkansas has come and gone and exhaustion doesn't begin to cover what I am feeling today. My Saturday was filled to the brim with my favorite clients and my fabulous friends. After shooting six family sessions on the most beautiful day of the year at Pinnacle Mtn. State Park, I jumped in the shower and spent the evening with my favorite ladies, including my little Lady dog. (Which I am realizing as I am writing this that I haven't even blogged about our newest member of The Buie's Zoo! Yup, that's right, we adopted another pup.) 

My best friend, Alicia, turned 30 yesterday and Saturday night we tried out the new restaurant South on Main and it was FABULOUS! Everyone raved about the food, simple and Southern and so scrumptious.  It's strange to think about all (or most) of us being 30 now. When I met most of these ladies we were at some weird self-searching stage in our lives. I met Jessica D. our Freshman year when we pledged together at college. Although we weren't the best of friends DURING college, I always thought she was fun & super sweet. Little did we know that post-college, we would be roommates and become so much closer! Jessica A. & I met when she pledged the class right under me. We have about a million memories together working at camp together, floating the river and being roommates during the summer in college. Alicia, Andrea & I didn't meet until the last semester my senior year and I always say that was the best semester of college. Not pictured is Christen who is Andrea's older sister. It's funny because for months and months I always just knew her as "Andrea's older sister," but now I consider her one of the girls. We bond over our love of photography, DIY projects and all things crafty. :) (By the way, Christen is the one who took our wedding pics and did an AMAZING job!)

Together we have been through a lot and I love that we are still friends. :) I have a few other best friends from college but they live in Texas and I don't see them as often. I'm lucky enough to have a few childhood friends who live in Shreveport and surrounding areas. My Arkansas ladies are only a short road trip away. They always lift my spirits and make me regret moving to Louisiana just 8 short months ago.

Cheers to the best friends in the world.  

Here is a shot of me & Buie at the restaurant. This is officially my new favorite iPhone pic of me & the hubs. He's pretty darn cute, is he not? ;)

I hope you had an equally amazing weekend and even if your friends aren't as cool as mine, it's okay... there is someone out there who needs YOU as a friend. So go out there and make a new friend this week. :)

Our Arkansas Mini Vacay

Since B is a grad student once again, our schedule revolves completely around LA Tech's class schedule. They are on a quarter system instead of the more traditional semester system and so far we like it! Buie is a full time graduate student and is not working at the moment. We decided to go this route so he can fully focus on school and get out faster. If everything goes on track, he should be done with his Masters at the end of 2014.

Buie finished up his first two classes this summer and as the quarter system goes, you get two weeks off inbetween 12 week classes. We had tossed around the idea of going to the beach or to our favorite city, New Orleans, or perhaps both, but we ended up going back to our home, Little Rock, to visit friends. We stayed for several days shopping, eating, and relaxing with our best friends. It ALMOST made us want to move back to Arkansas... ALMOST. ;)

Here are just a few pictures from our trip::

We stayed with Alan & Jessica for a night and with Brian & Alicia for a few nights. We love our friends in Arkansas and didn't want to leave. I had a checklist of things we wanted to do and people we wanted to see. It's funny how much more *quality* time I feel like we get to spend with our friends when we are here for a few days as opposed to when we actually lived here. On our list of things to do: Visit our best friends. We saw a lot of our friends while we were here. I think it's impossible to see EVERYONE we want but we do make an effort to see most of our close friends and family, including Buie's parents. We usually stop in Rison on the way up to Little Rock. We stayed for one night there and they enjoyed seeing our doggies.

Other things on our list included: Eat at David Burgers. (We actually ate there twice.) Shop at Midtown: Pottery Barn, William Sonoma, James Avery, Container Store, Ann Taylor Loft. Eat at Big Orange. (Yes, we ate a lot of burgers while we were in Little Rock.) We even managed to squeeze in a couples massage for us while we were in Central Arkansas which was much needed. It was Buie's first professional massage ever and he's already been asking for another. I may have started something. Uh oh! ;)

We are getting ready to start another Fall quarter full of history class for B and fall family photo session for me! :) If you would like to book a Fall family photo session in North Louisiana or Central Arkansas, please email me at carabethstudio@gmail.com. I would LOVE to take your family's pictures this season.

Weekend Review: Road Trip to Arkansas

We moved to Louisiana, my home state, and never thought I would be homesick for Arkansas but boy was I ever! Arkansas we have missed you. It was so great to return for a few days!

Sometimes all you need is a roadtrip with your other half

to a place that is familiar and comfortable

to see friends that you just can't live without.

Sometimes you need to indulge

relax

and make memories.

Sometimes you just need reminding how much you are loved in this life 

and to spend a weekend with those who love you the most. 

The House on Longhills

This past weekend was officially the end of our move. Our whole moving process has more or less been one big learning process. Having never moved before, we made some big mistakes that we will never do again, like trying to pack some things ourselves. We thought we'd just let a moving company take care of the heavy furniture and we would do the rest. I'm telling you, the money that you MIGHT save doing it this way is NOT WORTH the headache and the hassle in the end. Buie and I both are suffering from aches and pains, bumps and bruises. So after one moving company, one PODS, and two Uhaul trips later, I can finally say we are 99.9% moved out of our house in Benton. The .1% is for the few things in the garage that we honestly had no room for but I don't care if I never see them again. 

This weekend we loaded down a Uhaul and Buie's truck and said one last goodbye. We walked around the backyard sharing memories. We stood on the brand spanking new patio that we technically only used like 3 or 4 times. We never even had our friends over to enjoy it.

There were so many things we loved about this house and still do. Buie and I have sacrificed many things that we loved about this house in order to move to the house we are in now but we know in our hearts, it's the right move. And because we are king and queen of doing things backwards in this life, this house in Benton, AR is for sale. That's right, we bought a house in Louisiana before selling our former home. We didn't plan it that way but that's the way the cards fell on the table. So, it would be awesome if this house sold. We have a few renovation projects in mind for our current home that we can't wait to get started on... but until then, let's get this house SOLD!

To check out more about this property, please check out the listing. This house is listed by Cara Wilkerson at The Property Group. There is an Open House scheduled this coming Sunday, February 24th so be sure to drop on by and see the house!

Christmas Highlights: Part 1

B and I are blessed to come from two pretty amazing families and luckily our parents only live about 2 1/2 hours away from each other. We spent the first part of this week in South Arkansas and the later part of the week will be spent in Northwest Louisiana. We had such a great time with Buie's mom, dad and brother the past few days. I didn't take that many pics but here's a glimpse of our Christmas with the Buies. 

Highlights of our time in Rison: 

• spending more than 24 hours with B's parents - Because of B's FORMER job, he only got Christmas Day off. Now that he is no longer working in retail we enjoyed three full days at his parents home, something B hasn't done in over 6 years! 

• wearing our matching pajamas - Yes, we have become one of THOSE couples! ha! 
• watching old Mr. Bean movies and laughing so hard I do the uncontrollable breathing and I literally sound like I dying walrus. It's rather embarrassing when I really get going. 

•  being entertained by our fur babies. On B's side of the family, the only grandbabies are the dogs so they get the royal treatment which really is no different than the way they are treated in their own home to be honest. :) But they do LOVE going to see their Granny & Pappy because they usually sneak them a little meat. Yum!

• the food is always a highlight as well. I swear I could eat a whole plate of Mrs. Carole's dressing & gravy and over the course of the three days, I'm pretty sure I did! 

• Another favorite thing to do when we go to Rison....absolutely nothing. There is no pressure to be anywhere or go see anyone. We put on our (matching) pajamas and lay around. We might even drift off to sleep once or twice throughout the course of the evening before getting up and going to get in bed. Ahhh... so nice.

• SNOW! This year we had a white Christmas all over Arkansas! In most parts of Central Arkansas, where we live, they had as much as 12 inches! Rison only got about an inch or two. But that was still plenty for Conner & Scooter to play in.

which brings me to my last highlight of our time in Rison...

• watching Conner & Scooter play in the snow - I swear if we moved to Colorado tomorrow they would be the happiest dogs ever. They LOVE the snow! Scooter eats it and Conner, well, he just makes it a goal to get as dirty as possible. 

This was taken about 2 minutes before we threw him into the bath tub. But I think it was well worth it...at least I think Conner would say it was. ;)