The Ussery Update

We received this picture in the mail today that was snapped at our last Rangers game. We just wanted to share - hope your Saturday is great! Until we meet again... Riley & John

TGIF - yippee!! I am really ready for the weekend. So much so, I thought I'd list a few things I'm looking forward to this weekend. It's nothing MAJOR, but I am easily pleased and it's all about the little things in life... HELLO it's the weekend...meaning the end of another week -ready for a break! Buying groceries and running a few shopping errands tonight High School football starting in Texas Sleeping in Saturday morning and then making a yummy breakfast DATE NIGHT Going to church and serving as Worship Leader Rooting for John (#5) and the church softball team at the game Sunday night Working on ranking NFL players for our upcoming Fantasy Football draft Catching up on several things on my "to do" list around the house Phone calls to family Last, but not least spending quality time with my guys... Those are just a few things...wow - lots going on this weekend. It will be full, but fun! I hope you have a wonderful weekend. September starts next week ...

In the little hallway where our "guest quarters" are, we have a small wall of crosses. We enjoy receiving them and buying them. Each cross on our wall has a story or a special meaning - they aren't just casual purchases. The oldest one we have, I received as a gift for high school graduation - so it's about 12 years old. We love the beauty they bring to our home, but also what they symbolize - our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and the amazing sacrifice He made for us! Here is a picture of the wall... We have about 20, but hope to hang many more - all with a special meaning behind them. Our newest cross is this one is hanging on the upper left - directly to the left of the "BLESSED" sign. It's this one... This cross was handmade by dear friends, Fred & Martha Camarillo. As you can see, it is made from nails and the circle represents a crown of thorns. Isn't it amazing? It is such a treasure to have this cross made by them. Their son, Freddy, was a...

This post is about a week behind, but the weekend before this last one...Riley's Dad came to visit us. He arrived Friday afternoon and went home Sunday afternoon. We had a great time just the three of us (and Calvin too). Oh and in case you were curious, Kristin was on a trip with Aunt Karin. We ate too much (don't we always??), played games, watched the Rangers, visited about lots of things, gave him his birthday gift, toured the new Cowboys Stadium, enjoyed Starbucks, played guitar...just lots of fun! Here are a few pictures from the weekend... Thanks for a wonderful time Dad - enjoyed having you here! Until we meet again... John & Riley

Notice anything different? Well, we decided to give our blog a "facelift" and brighten it up some! We really like the new design and hope to add a few more touches to it. We hope you've had a great weekend...we sure have! We have been productive, but have had some fun as well - looking forward to a new week. Until we meet again... Riley & John

Summer is coming to a close and school will begin very soon! I personally enjoy "Back to School" time because there is a new crop of fun supplies ready for the picking. I LOVE office/school supplies....cannot get enough!! Each year after all the kids are back in school and their supplies have been bought, stores will put the rest of the supplies on clearance and that's where I come in, haha! I've actually already bought a new package of markers for $1 - whoo hoo! Can you tell I'm easily pleased? Anywho, while I could go on and on about my love for all that is "supply" related, we are actually wanting to wish our nieces and nephews a great school year ! We have 10 nieces and nephews (4 nieces and 6 nephews) and all but two of them are headed back to school...some today and some next Monday! Hillary (12th grade), Bronte (9th grade), Jacob (5th grade), Ariana (4th grade), Issac and Alyssa (3rd grade), Brody (2nd grade) and Seth (1st grade)...we hope...

We wanted to wish our nephew, Brody a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! We love you... :) Aunt Riley & Uncle John

We just wanted to wish Dad a very Happy Birthday ! We had such a great weekend with him. There will be more pictures and details to come on our weekend together. Hope you have a great birthday and we love you lots! Riley and John

Well, today the NFL Pre-Season starts. It's not the most exciting of times, but each pre-season game just takes us one step closer to the regular season. Excited and thrilled doesn't even describe how we are feeling with football season fast approaching! Tonight the Cowboys will play the Oakland Raiders out in California. It'll be a late start (9pm), but we look forward to watching a little of the action to see what "The Boys" look like. They are having a really good camp - drama free thus far so that's awesome! The Cowboys play the Raiders on Thanksgiving...so this will be a good little preview. There are other pre-season games on as well so we'll be checking in on those also. We are really pupmed because this weekend we are going to tour the new Cowboys Stadium. We've gotten an outside look at it when we've gone to the Rangers' games this season - it's massive. Dad (Riley's) is going to be in town this weekend so the three of us are ...

Today is August 8th - our un-anniversary ! (Thanks "Alice in Wonderland") It's actually exactly our 6 1/2 anniversary - so silly, we know. In February, we celebrated our 6th anniversary (in the picture) and six months from today we'll be celebrating our 7th. We are all about milestones and celebrating ALL of the special days in our marriage - there are many of them as we are sure you will see highlighted in blog posts to come. We even took a little weekend getaway trip on August 8, 2003 after we had been married 6 months - hee hee! We completely enjoy married life and thank God for all of the blessings he has given us in each other. Thanks for letting us share this mini-milestone. "I found the one my heart loves" ~ Song of Solomon 3:4 Until we meet again... Mr. & Mrs. Ussery

Well, it's that time again - time to share another part of our wedding with you. It's reception and honeymoon memories today! We had a VERY simple, but really nice reception. It was in the church Fellowship Hall and we had the traditional cake, punch, coffee, mints and nuts. We were able to enjoy those things and make the rounds visiting with all of the wedding guests. Our wedding cake and John's groom's cake were very delicious - enjoyed by all! I loved our wedding cake...and John still remarks to this day about how yummy his cake was! Here is a picture of us cutting the cake! We also had the best man (John's brother, Jason) and the Maid of Honor (my best friend, Carianne ) gave a toast. I would have posted a picture of that, but I had the "ugly cry face" and trust me, you don't want to see that! It was really beautiful though. Carianne gave me a copy of her toast and I have it in our wedding box! I loved our cake topper. We wanted something special ...

We had visitors last weekend - our family from Arkansas. It was John's Mom and Dad (Mark and Karen), John's brother Jason and his wife, Angela, and their boys, Jacob (10) and Isaac (8). We had them (different people at different times over the weekend) from Thursday evening until Monday about lunch time. It was a full weekend, but fun-filled! Mark also got to spend some time with his sister Wanda, that lives in Dallas and another one of his sisters, Lillie, and her family in Burleson. We were able to spend time with everyone and even got to spend some alone time with our nephews - which was wonderful! We did all sorts of stuff...LOTS of cooking/eating and talking of course, but there was also Wii and PlayStation playing, baseball card trading, Calvin snuggling, games of catch in the backyard, camping out in the living room, bowling, laser tag, go-cart riding, eating yummy sno cones, board game playing, tv watching, a little bit of shopping, looking at pictures, a Rangers game (...