4th of July Recap!

Every year for the 4th of July, we go to our friend’s Lake House in Crockett, Texas.

The lake holds a special place in our hearts because 4 years ago…..

We got engaged here!

We look forward to this weekend every year when we are all together and catch up.….and there are always new announcements.

THIS YEAR, Ashley and Dub announced they are pregnant!! We are so excited for the two of them!! So...what was the OBVIOUS next thing to do?

…..write on her belly with eye liner and set-up a photo-shoot! Dub was thrilled!

One of the highlights of the weekend was going to the new Crockett steakhouse in the town square. Yummy!

Then we headed over this not-so-classy establishment…fully equipped with a stripper poll on the stage. We were offered free shots upon arrival from the under-aged waitress/future poll dancer. We’re pretty sure they were just trying to suck up to the soon-to-be orthodontist in the group….clearly, most of the patrons in this bar/club/pool hall could benefit from a good retainer for the few teeth they had left.

I shouldn’t be so harsh, everyone was very welcoming. The Owner/DJ/Bartender/Dad even asked Taylor if she wanted to get up on stage and dance! Of course, she was flattered, but respectfully declined the invitation. We were all a little sore from hanging onto our rafts all day in the lake. Maybe next year.


"Jim" (my husband's Crockett nickname) and I were in charge of Saturday dinner.....and the Second Annual LEEBIRDS’S Burrito’s….complete with Freebird’s tortillas, sauces, and those circle metal plates to fix them on. Don’t ask me how I got those.... Just be sure to tip your burrito maker and extra dollar next time you are in a Freebird’s establishment. Slowly, but surely…we will pay them back! Maybe next year, I can get an actual steamer for the tortillas.

LEEBIRD BURRITO NIGHT!!!

Other than that, we watched the fireworks at the Country Club…

Andy and James solved the world’s problems.

Wait, let’s be honest…they were probably complaining about how their wives spend too much money and how they don't understand basic finance.

We made flag themed desserts....

Sang the National Anthem to these desserts.


Made the famous frozen drink - the “Crockettini” only to be used in the personalized “Crockettini” Styrofoam cups.

Then there was a dance party....


….where I quickly realized that I need to watch a few more YouTube instructional videos on the “stanky-leg” dance. It’s more complicated than I thought.

Note: I can’t tell if this picture is from the dance party or when Dub was trying to dry out the aloe vera on his back…….his moves are the same for both.

We took our yearly group pictures.....


Note #1: To all the single ladies out there, the two handsome gentlemen in the yellow shirt and navy shirt are single. Email me if you want their number!!

Note #2: I’m pretty sure JIMBO was perusing the plethora of gossip magazines that the girls brought up to the lake. As you can see in this picture, he has been practicing leg posses and what angles work best for his body type.

I AM pleased to report that there were NO INJURIES throughout the weekend. Some might remember Jimmy Lee’s finger incident two years ago when he was throwing an empty beer can from his float to the dock and cut his pointer finger. While I was worried whether this deep cut would need stitches and when his last tetanus shot was….JIM was more concerned that he just ruined his whole identity because he would have a scar in the middle of his fingerprint. This was not his first beer can of the day. If there is one thing you learn in Crockett, it’s to always fill up the empty beer can with lake water before throwing it back onto the dock.

There was really only one this missing from this year’s trip……

R.I.P “MEMBER’S ONLY, PRIVATE ISLAND”

We had some fun times with you last year. We tried to patch you up, but you were not salvageable. We’ll always remember the girl’s days and the high pours. You were good to us. Know that your memory was present throughout the weekend through the personalize sunglasses.

What you readers do not see…the glasses actually had “Member’s Only” written on one side and “Private Island” on the other.

A special thanks to our hosts for the weekend:

I figured this picture would be appropriate just in case they want to remain anonymous.

The countdown for next year begins!

Nicknames

As I started writing out my next post, I felt like I needed to clarify a few things for those who did not live in the Pi Phi house at A&M from the years 2000-2002. If you did, I’ll go ahead and let you know that you can probably skip over this post.

While living in the sorority house, we got in this permanent habit of calling everyone by a nickname. Some of the nicknames were given out of necessity. Having two Allison’s in the house got confusing, so we became “Bradley” and “Lynch”. Some of the nicknames were given just because they sounded better when you yell down the hall. That’s when Tiffany Rogers (now Mendenhall) became “T-Rog” and Laura Mercy (now Dawson) became “L-merc”. My parents actually thought T-Rog was my good Indian friend for several years…not realizing it was just a nickname.

Liz Lozier (now Farrar, but not legally..long story) became “The Loj”...Well…There’s really not cliché to explain this name. After many late nights of delirious studying and old high school pictures, she became not just “Loj”, but “The Loj”.

On one hand, yelling these names down the hall kind of made you feel like you were in a sports locker room calling out to a fellow teammate. On the other hand, it sometimes made you feel like a gangster rapper…especially if you yelled in a deeper voice, cupped your mouth, and leaned back a bit.

It was not uncommon to come home from class fully dressed in an old date party shirt, LLBeen monogrammed backpack, hair in a high “messy” bun usually with some pearl earrings …and hear a fellow “sister” yell “BRADLEY” in her deepest gangster voice possible. I usually gave a fist pump or a “wha, wha” back. (Note: This was before the word “holla” was popular or I probably would have used that too.)

All in all, not something you would typically invision in a sorority house in the south. That’s maybe why it was always so funny and stuck for so many years. In fact, we STILL use them today, and there have been several occasions when I have forgotten the person’s actual first name…or at least how to spell it. I tried to get our wedding calligrapher to use their nicknames for our invitations, but my mom nixed that idea. Little did she know, I used them in our “thank you” notes and wedding album.

The following people will be making cameo’s on my blog from time to time. Therefore, I would like to introduce them to you and review their nicknames.


The girls from left to right:

• Robyn Reams (now Robertson) – Reams, Reamsy, cReams, Cookies and Cream, Cookies
• Katie Lemmon (now Norwood) - Barcardi Lemon, Bacardi, or Martha "f''ing" Crocker
• Liz Lozier (now Farrar, but not legally) - The Loj
• Laura Mercy (now Dawson) – Lmerc
• Tiffany Rogers (now Mendenhall) – T-Rog
• Allison Bradley (now Lee) – Bradley, the Braids
• Allison Lynch (now Assunto) - Lynch