Trip to Paris....Paris, TN

We had our last college tournament on June, 24-25 in Paris, TN. Paris is about 2 hours from Nashville so Jenny got to come see me! So of course we did all the tourist things to do in Paris.
Like see the Eiffel Tower

And visit the local winery

Jenny's bottle is in the shape of the Eiffel Tower

 Eat yummy Mexican...which I miss so much!

Paris, TN home to the world's biggest fish fry

giant catfish

 I really enjoyed getting to see Jenny and we had such a fun weekend :) Here are some other random pictures from the weekend.

View from the room

Me Making Curtains???

As most of you know I love pinterest!! I think one of the first things I pinned was No Sew Roman Shades. I was hoping to make them for the kitchen. After a very busy fishing tournament season I finally got around to making them.....well at least starting them.

Getting ready to cut the fabric

Just need to add trim :)

Yellow trim to finish it off

I just have to let it dry tonight then I can put it up tomorrow :) I really like how they turned out!!! I have two more windows to do in the no sew then a couple of big windows. Hopefully we will get the kitchen all decorated out before to long. I'm excited the house is coming together! More pictures to follow.

House Update

It's been a while since I have updated everyone on the house. We have been so busy that we haven't done much. When I was gone to a tournament in June Jackson stained the back deck :)

Before

After :)

We are not quite done with the deck but hopefully in the next month or so we will get it done. I pinned a pin like forever ago and finally got to do it tonight!! Rubber Door Mat Wall Art is a very simple craft to do. I have been looking for the perfect mat to use and got one last week.

Before

After I painted it

New home in the half bath :)

All I did was spray paint the mat white then used some sandpaper to give it a worn look. I have a another pinterest idea to add something on each side. I only have two more trips in the next three weeks so after that we should get lots done to the house. We will keep yall updated as we get it our house in order.

Mommy + Daddy + Three Brothers= Thomason Family

I was blessed to do Summer Missions for two summers in Beaufort, SC. I made a lot of great friends while in SC. Today I'm going to talk about sweet Mary. She was my old roomie at Mrs Pat's house. We got to spend one summer together. I got to see her get married and hope to meet her kids soon.

July 4th at Paris Island

Sweet Mary is needing your help. Mary could not have children so God blessed them with 3 brothers to raise. But they are not officially theirs. They are in a court battle with the birth father. You can read all about it on her blog Thomason Trio. Here is the latest update on their situation.

Mary-You may be surprised to know, but our adoption is not final. The boys are not officially Thomason's yet. We are not officially their mommy or daddy. We need your help to make this happen! We are fighting against an abusive birth father and this takes attorneys. Attorneys = money. If you, your church, a friend- whomever would like to help- you can go to Thomason Family Fund to donate. This is a mission helping 3 little orphans- a life changing possibility. Will you help? No donation is too small. We have over $2,000 to raise in one week. Go. May the Lord bless you as you minister to "the least of these."

If you can not donate please pray for this sweet family.

God's Timing is Never Off

Last weekend was the last stop on the Texas Team Trail before the Championship. It was on Lake Lewisville. If you don’t know the BoatUS Collegiate Championship has been on Lake Lewisville for the past 6 year…..the 7^th was at Pickwick Lake about two weeks ago. I met most of my new co-workers at Lake Lewisville last year. Someone said to me ‘Hey Beth this is where is all started’ as we stood at Sneaky Pete’s. This is only kind of true. It all started about 8 years ago well about 27 years ago before I was born but we will skip to 8 years ago. ¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11. It’s fun to look back on life and see how God does bring it all together for good! 8 years or so ago my sweet mom was watching WAFF 48 news when she saw a scholarship for Native Americans and wrote down the number to see if I could get it. I filled out the papers and got it! I was going to school at Wallace State at the time and had one more year there before I transferred to a 4 year school. I was blessed with some great friends at Wallace. I had one friend that was about to go to UNA in Florence, AL. I had never heard of UNA. I finished up my last year at Wallace and decided Lindsay was at UNA I will go there with her.  Lindsay was really involved in FCA even though she was not an athlete. I met Jackson at FCA because I went with Lindsay.

Me and Lindsay.....so young

 I also got the Trail of Tears scholarship again! I then got to meet Alison Standfield who worked at the Florence/Lauderdale Tourism office and was helping with the scholarship. I then began going to Florence Baptist Church with her. 

Sweet Alison

  I started college wanting to be a PE teacher then I thought what was I thinking! I changed to Recreation and Marketing. I had to do a 200 hour internship before I could graduate and got lucky that the Florence Tourism Office fit perfect. Then I was the perfect fit and got a job right out of school. 

We got engaged a couple months later and since I had a good job got married about 6 months later. 

Lindsey Holt worked with me at the tourism office and did the Sports Marketing which means a lot of fishing tournaments. She got a lot of great tournament to Florence. Lindsey was blessed to get pregnant with baby Cooper and left the office to be a stay at home mommy. I took her job doing the sports. One of my first tournaments was with CarecoTV doing the Big Bass Bash. 

My sweet friend Jessica was getting married that weekend so I did not get to spend that much time with everyone. After the tournament and everyone seeing how awesome Florence and Pickwick Lake they wanted to move their Championship from Lake Lewisville to Pickwick Lake. I got to fly out to Dallas, TX to announce that Florence would be getting the Championship. I enjoyed working with the CarecoTV crew and learned about a job in San Antonio with them. After a couple of months we were off to San Antonio to interview and see if we liked The Tonio. Then a couple more months later I was off to The Tonio and a new adventure. Of course the decision was not easy. We just bought a new house, we have great jobs, and our friends and families are here. But it felt so right working with them in Dallas. Jackson got transferred in Jan and we sold the house in Feb. We also made a profit so that was a blessing. It was all God’s perfect timing. We are really enjoying San Antonio and the new life we have here. We miss everyone in Alabama but now yall have a place to stay and we will show you The Tonio!

Say Cheese

One thing I was so excited about was while in Alabama we were going to get our pictures taking my the wonderful Sarah Cooper and Anne Deegan with Maple Leaf Photography :) Now that we have a house that we are staying at I wanted to actually decorate. I have lots of picture ideas but no really good pictures to use....that are recent. I was so glad that we could work it out while we were there to get our pictures taken!! They turned out so good!!! Here are a couple of my favorites.

You can see all the pictures at http://mapleleaf.zenfolio.com/ or at Maple Leaf Photography FB

Thanks again Sarah and Anne we love them and yall!! Can't wait to start some of my Pinterest photo ideas!!!

Trick Puppy..that Tricky Puppy

If you know me then you know I love animals!! We got to puppy sit last week for our friend Cole. I had to leave Thurs for another tournament but I got to see him for a couple of days. Here is picture of the sweet Trick

playing in the backyard

Since we have a big backyard he got to stay outside and play while we were at work. Trick is about 6 months and as you see a beautiful black lab. Now I really want a puppy!!! Maybe I will get one soon...wink wink Jackson. There is a great park at the end of our street so we took Trick for a walk and to check out the park. It is a really nice and big park so we had so much fun.

time for a walk

On one side of the park it had like trails that you could walk or mountain bike then the other side had paved walking trails.....we decided on the trails. It is so weird here in the big city you see deer everywhere! I have lots of deer by work and I enjoy getting to on walks to see the deer. We saw about 10 deer on our walk.

Deer :)

And some pretty flowers

We had a good week with Trick and hopefully we will get to see more of him soon ;)

Grace Ann's Wedding and Georgia Aquarium

One of the reason I stayed and Jackson joined me was our sweet cousin was getting married June 2 in GA. Let me start my saying she was the most gorgeous bride! Their wedding was so beautiful! They used candles instead of flowers and it was perfect (loved the cross in the middle).

Love it!

Her dress was also so beautiful!! She will be on Say Yes to the Dress sometime soon. The crew was at the wedding getting some more footage for the show. It was fun getting to catch up with some of the family that we only get to see at holidays and special occasions.Every time I go to a wedding it reminds me of our sweet wedding :) I'm a blessed woman!

the back

the front and pretty Grace Ann

They are the cutest couple and we wish them a happy marriage!

After the wedding we stayed in Kennesaw since we were flying out of Atlanta. Before we left we went to the Georgia Aquarium which we have never been to before. Jackson's parents came with us and it had a great time.

Dinner :)

Time in Alabama

I was lucky enough to get to work from Florence the week after the Championship. Jackson joined me in Florence the last day of the tournament so we got to "spend" the week together in Alabama. I enjoyed staying and seeing everyone but two weeks away was a little much. My sweet mom came up and got to stay with me at the Marriott and see me in action the last day of the tournament. I think she loves weigh-ins as much as I do.....she always came to all the tournament when I worked at the tourism office. I split time between Florence and Cullman so I could see my parents and some high school/college friends :) It was good to be back and see everyone. I stayed most of the time with Alison and sweet Caleb every night wanted to know when I was coming home....love that kid! Jackson stayed with his parents and enjoyed getting back on the river. They had some really good days on the water.

Jackson with a good one

I was so glad that it was First Fridays when I was there. I enjoyed working on FF and was so glad to see it doing so well. There were tons of people out and a nice cold front so the weather was perfect. We went to eat at Ricatoni's and it was so so so good! We have FF in San Antonio but have been to busy to go yet hopefully we will get to soon.

It was fun to catch up with old college friends, family, my old co-workers, and friends. We will be back in Bama for Thanksgiving but hope to see everyone at Joe and Leah's wedding in September. They are so cute and will have a wonderful wedding and marriage!

2012 BoatUS Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship

A little late but I have been so busy! We had a great 2012 Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship in Florence, AL! It was nice to be back in Florence and Alabama :) I mean it's hard to be this kinda of beauty.

Everyone from the Tourism Office, the City, Marriott, Conference Center, Police, and Fire Department were so great in helping make the event perfect. I enjoyed getting to show my new co-workers where I came from. We hit all the good local spot like Dish Cafe, 360 Grille, Ricatoni's , City Hardware, and of course CASA :) I think they all enjoyed the local food. The one thing we all did not enjoy was the early mornings! It gets light about an hour earlier in Florence so we got up at like 3 am Thurs. and Friday during the tournament.

I would like to Congratulation the 2012 BoatUS Collegiate Bass Fishing Champions Ethan and Ben from NC State

They had 45 pounds of Pickwick Bass in two days!!

I can't wait till next year! It will be even bigger and better!!!

For more pictures visit BoatU.S. Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship Series Facebook Page