Happy Graduation Adam!

Back in college I took a job with a family where I pretty much hung out with a boy with autism. His name is Adam and he was 12 years old at the time. I was majoring in Psychology at KU. I ended up loving working with Adam and switched my major to Applied Behavior Science with an emphasis in Working with Children With Autism. I owe where I am today not only to Adam, but also to his mom Linda who guided me in the direction I have taken in life. After working with Adam for 2 1/2 years I learned to be patient and to find humor in things that nobody else laughs at. Some of my favorite memories that I still talk about today is when he told me, "Go home Lindsey, I hate you, you are fired! (while throwing an action figure at me.)" and when he told Matt that he was a "Bloated Beanbag." We still laugh at these today. Adam loves Batman and video games and I bet he could be anyone at Mario. We loved going swimming and going to museums. We would even take trips to Walmart where I would give him $10.00 and he would buy a Batman toy, and pay for it with the money I gave him by himself. He is an amazing boy and I love hearing from his mom how he is doing. He is a success story.
Last weekend Adam graduated from Free State High school in Lawrence, Kansas. His family is moving back to Omaha, Nebraska where hopefully Adam can volunteer at the zoo. I am so excited for him. Best wishes to him in life AFTER high school! Here are some pictures of him.

Playing at the Natural History Museum. One of our favorite places to go!

Fishing!

The last picture I took of us before I moved :( Look how big he had gotten!

New Music Discovery

Like I said in a previous post, Matt and I just started a subscription with Netflix. Because we didn't have enough to watch on TV, we decided that we we needed a new TV show :) We have always said we wanted to watch 'Rescue Me,' a show that plays on FX about a firefighter and their fire house. It is pretty much a guys version on Sex in the City or another form of Entourage but in a firehouse, with lots of colorful language and scenes that push the limit of what should be shown on TV. Needless to say, Matt loves it. We are now done with season 1 and are hooked. While watching, there were some scenes with the most beautiful music and I failed to write down lyrics so that I could Google them like I do. Instead I had to search for 'Rescue Me' music and listen to every song from season 1. Boy I am glad that I did that. I found that the two songs that I was in love with were by the SAME artist. His name is Tyrone Wells and he is amazing. Acoustic guitar and beautiful harmonies. If you get a chance, listen to the songs "When All is Said and Done" and "All I Can Do." You can also find him on MySpace (which is a great tool for finding new music) but these two songs aren't on there. I promise you will LOVE him! Enjoy!

Bachelorette Party!!!!!!

Weekend Itinerary:

9:45 AM Saturday: Abby, Kim, and I get in Emily's car and drive the 1.5 hours to Table Rock Lake11:20: Pull into the lake house and find Dacia, my mom, Kendra, Sally, and Joanna.
Give hugs and put on swim suits11:45: Drive down to the dock and get in the boat. Boat batteries are dead and we have to wait until the battery is brought back to us. In the meantime, we move the Pontoon out of the boat slip and tie up so that we can be in the sun.
12:30: Boat batteries are back, charged, and put back in the boat. We take the boat for a test drive and then sit in the cove and get some sun.
1:30: We decide that we need to move the boat because we keep being blown close to land. We move the boat a few coves down from where we are.
1:45: Arrive at the cove and park.

1:55: Realize that we are drifting once again too close to shore and try and start the boat so that we can move it. BOAT DOESN'T START!

Kim paddles and makes sure we don't hit a tree.

Joanna ties a rope onto the tree to keep us from drifting into the rocks on shore.

2:15: Boaters near by offer to give us a tow to our dock. It takes a while to get the right rope and get a knot tied.

Then we got towed by a fishing boat to get us to Dacia's mom and dad at the marina for them to see what is wrong with the boat.


Its okay because we were still ALL SMILES!

3:00: Bob checks out the boat and turns the key and the boat STARTS! So we head really fast to the boat dock, park, and clean everything up.
4:00: Get back to the house and everyone takes turns in the shower to get ready for the evening.
7:00: Reservations at The Outback. We enjoyed dinner and the start to our evening of good drinks.
9:00: Headed to Throttle Down to continue our fun evening together. When we got there we got drinks and sat in the back. People from the bar brought me shots and gave me advice, some good and some very interesting.

Later I got to see my cake that Kim made. We cut it and it was amazing! Thanks Kim!

1:00 AM: The evening ended and we headed back to the house.

It was a great weekend filled with some of my best friends that I absolutely love. Thank you so much for making this weekend so special!

STL Wedding Weekend

I spent this past weekend in St.Louis hanging out with my family and friends. One of my best friends from High School was married on Saturday afternoon at St. Peter's Church in Kirkwood. It was a beautiful Catholic service and Sally look absolutely stunning. She is the first out of our high school friends to get married. I am next :) hehe. The wedding was at 1:30 and the reception at 6:30 so in between everything my parents and I headed to Kemoll's to do a taste test for the reception. It was a jam packed day but was filled with great friends and family!

All of the girls + Sally

The Ladies of the evening


Her centerpieces

Since I am planning my wedding, I have enjoyed looking at other peoples centerpieces. One of Sally's family friends did her flowers and centerpieces and I thought they were beautiful! Sally is also 7 months pregnant and we are looking forward to meeting her son in the beginning of August. Hopefully he won't come until after the wedding!

Documentaries to Watch

Matt and I just joined the Netflix community last week. We have movies of our "Queue" list that we have picked out to watch either instantly on our Wii or computer. Our movies range from Rambo to Cool Runnings to Autism: The Musical. BUT my favorite thing yet is that I get to watch documentaries. I love it.
Some people may not know this about me, but I have always had a passion for the country Africa. I have never really talked about it much. There is something about the country; the hurt, the sickness, the BEAUTY, the SPIRIT, the belief of a higher power even when everything else seems to be going wrong. The people are beautiful inside and out and the fact that they can still dance and sing amazes me. I sprung it on Matt the other night that I want to adopt a child from Africa, I think it kinda freaked him out haha. So we will just have to see what the future brings us and what kind of decisions we will make.
As far as the documentaries that I have watched and totally recommend here they are:

War Dance.
"Set in civil war-ravaged Northern Uganda, this Best Documentary Oscar nominee follows the lives of three youngsters who attend school in a refugee camp and find hope through a rich tradition of song and dance. Coming from a world in which children are abducted from their families and forced to fight in the rebel army, these kids give it their all when they travel to the capital city to take part in the prestigious Kampala Music Festival."

This documentary is so inspiring and has one of the best messages I have heard in a while. Watch this film. There is a reason it has won and been nominated for a bunch of awards.



The next Documentary is: I Am Because We Are

"On a journey to the African country of Malawi, where the AIDS epidemic has orphaned more than a million children, Madonna guides viewers through a series of gut-wrenching stories, offering her unique perspective of the events along the way. The documentary, both a detailed portrait of poverty and an urgent call to action, also features insights from experts such as Bill Clinton, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Jeffrey Sachs and Paul Farmer."


Children orphaned because their parents die from AIDS. Children taking care of children; what a selfless act. There is something that each one of us can learn from listening to what THEY have to say.

Pride & Joy

I wanted to share with everyone where the title of our blog came from. One of Matt and I's songs is Pride and Joy by Stevie Ray Vaughan. It has the best rhythm and lyrics and Matt is a
bluesaholic which makes it even better. So take a listen to it sometime, but in the meantime, here are the lyrics:

Pride and Joy
By Stevie Ray Vaughan

Well youve heard about love givin sight to the blind
My babys lovin cause the sun to shine
Shes my sweet little thang....shes my pride and joy
Shes my sweet little baby....Im her little lover boy

Yeah I love my baby....heart and soul
Love like ours wont never grow old
Shes my sweet little thang....shes my pride and joy
Shes my sweet little baby....Im her little lover boy

Yeah I love my lady....shes long and lean
You mess with her....youll see a man get mean
Shes my sweet little thang....shes my pride and joy
Shes my sweet little baby....Im her little lover boy

Well I love my baby....like the finest wine
Stick with her until the end of time
Shes my sweet little thang....shes my pride and joy
Shes my sweet little baby....Im her little lover boy

Yeah I love my baby....heart and soul
Love like ours wont never grow old
Shes my sweet little thang....shes my pride and joy
Shes my sweet little baby....Im her little lover boy

Auntie Lindsey's BRAG

Look who came to visit me at school yesterday! Marisa and little Macie came during my lunch time to hang out. I got to hold and brag about the sweet little girl. She is about to be 4 months old, holding her head up, rolling over, and possibly starting to teeth. We love her to pieces!

Macie Jo and Auntie Lindsey

Just A Start

So I am sitting here, trying to put together a blog for Matt and I. We have a blog currently that is linked with our wedding website, but since we will be getting married in 3 MONTHS (panic in my voice ha) I decided that we needed something else. Quite a lot has been going on in the past few months. There is a lot of wedding planning going on, which is progressing. Our invites just came in the mail yesterday and I am so excited about how they look. It is so "official" getting those in the mail. No, I'm not freaking out at all, ha ha. There is still a lot to get done and I am getting more and more excited for July 24th and especially for the Riviera Maya that we will be heading to for our honeymoon. This is where we will be http://www.secretsresorts.com/silversands/photo.asp# - look at pictures at your own risk :) I am so ready to be there.
Other than wedding planning, I have also been coaching girls lacrosse here in Bentonville, AR. We have girls from all over the Northwest Arkansas area playing. It has been an exciting year with a LOT going on and there will be some changes for us in the future. I have also joined a gym with Matt's mom, Debbie. We go 4 times a week and are seeing some great results... YES!!! I am just hoping that I still fit into that wedding dress that my aunt is making for me.

Matt and I have been trying to hang out with friends and family as much as we can. Work takes up a lot of Matt's time so we take advantage of each free moment. Here are some recent pictures of us. We will get some more posts up soon!

Matt and I at the "Walk This Way" Fashion Show

The Tanner Family, Christmas 2009