Tag: Steve

Franklin Rehearsal Dinner….Aloha!

Well, it’s finally happened!  I’ve kept my word, and the pictures I said I was going to share with you have finally come!

This past week and weekend we have been very busy bees!  Tuesday night, Steve went out with Rustin and his friends for a bachelor night full of……..well…..whatever it is that bachelors do….minus the strippers.  All I know for sure is that Rustin most likely did not remember the entire evening.  Or probably most of the entire week, for that matter.  He had a “bachelor week”, and much to my delight, Steve only participated in that one evening instead of the entire week of bachelor madness.

So, getting back to the rehearsal dinner, which took place Friday, May 27th.  It was Hawaiian themed, and the first things I noticed when we got there were these awesome centerpieces.  Live fish!  Now, granted, this type of goldfish usually don’t last more than a month or so before they die, but when I was little, I remember keeping one alive for at LEAST a year.  I know.  Impressive.

Here’s Jen, one of the 3 bridesmaids.  Doesn’t she have beautiful, blue eyes?  They draw you in!

Steve was in the wedding too.  One of Rustin’s 5 groomsmen.  Isn’t it usually the bride who ends up having a hard time narrowing down who the bridesmaids are gonna be, and eventually ends up with more attendants than the groom?  Well not this time apparently.  He’s got beautiful, blue eyes too. 🙂  Please, Lord, let our children get his eye color, but my 20/20 vision!  That would be awesome!  Thanks for listening!

Here’s where the ceremony took place.  Ceremony and reception were held in the lovely backyard of Rustin’s parents, Eric and Wendie.

Look at that happy groom!  But then again, he is always cracking jokes, so this is nothing new.

Back up, sista!  Rustin can never be serious…….as I mentioned in my toast at the wedding. 🙂

Can you guess what Rustin is doing here?

How about now?

That’s right.  He’s dancing down the aisle.

We all danced down the aisle.

Shake that booty, Steve!

Yes, even I got in on the dancing action!  Hey, it’s what they wanted, so I obliged!  Note: There will be no dancing down the aisle at my wedding!

Elizabeth didn’t dance.  She’s the bride.  She can do whatever she wants!

So we ran through the ceremony only one time, I believe, and we didn’t really even go through the whole thing.  We just practiced where we’d stand and when Elizabeth would hand me her bouquet, etc.

Then we practiced walking out.  I didn’t get to walk out with Steve, unfortunately.  And it made it a little awkward, because on the day of the wedding, I was wearing 4 inch heels, so I was significantly taller than Eli, the best man.

Here’s the beautiful bride, Elizabeth, with Krista, another bridesmaid.

Bride and maid of honor.  In about 40 days, those rolls will be reversed! 🙂

The bride with all her bridesmaids.

Then, of course, Steve being the class clown that he is had to come and jump into our picture.

Then one by one, each bridesmaid’s hubby came and took a picture with us girls.

Can you guess which man belongs with which lady?

Ah yes, the Dr. Evil shot.  Don’t ask me why we did this pose.

Rustin had handed out some victory cigars.  Victory for what?  I’m not sure.  Getting through the rehearsal?  His last day as a single man?

Yes, you’re all very cool.  But I don’t think you’ll make it into the mafia.

See that pool in the background?  Just keep that in mind for a future post. 🙂

Best Friends Forever!!!  I can’t believe I’ve only known Elizabeth for a year, and already we are so close.  I feel like I’ve known her my whole life!

Love you, girlfriend!  <3

The Smokey House Rehab (Part 4)

We’ve made some good progress on the Smokey House rehab.  For the past few days we’ve been concentrating on painting the ceilings and some of the trim.  Boy has that been a painful task!  Painting ceilings is super hard on the neck, shoulders, and arms.  But the transformation has been incredible!  See for yourself!

It’s a little hard to see in this picture, but Steve painted the ceiling on the left, which is above the living room, and the ceiling on the right (over the dining room) is unpainted.  You can tell that the ceiling on the right has more of a yellow tinge to it.

This might be a better picture to show you just how yellow the ceilings were.  See that area around the base of the ceiling fan that’s really brownish yellow?  That’s what the entire ceiling looked like!  It’s amazing what some paint can do.

Here’s what Steve’s face looked like after a day of painting ceilings. 🙂

And here’s what Steve looks like after a day of painting ceilings, while holding Lazarus, and without a shirt on. 🙂

He also painted this door.  You don’t realize just how yellow all the doors are until you paint one of them white.  Incredible.

Here I am painting the trim, which also had a yellow tinge.  Maybe I should have named this house the Yellow Tinge House instead of the Smokey House.

(Holy Cow!  After seeing this picture I can tell how badly my roots have grown out!  I need to make a hair appointment quick!)

Here’s a great before and after picture.  The door frame on the right has been painted, the one on the left…..obviously has not.

It’s just amazing that this is what smoking in your house does.  If that’s not a reason to quit smoking, or at least to smoke outside, I don’t know what is!

We discovered a leak in the laundry room.

It started out as just a tiny bit of water around the wall below the hot and cold water pipes that the washing machine connects to.  We didn’t think much of it because a little water had dripped out when we removed the washer, so we thought that was what it was from.

But when we returned a couple days later, it had gotten much worse.  Luckily we found a plumber at a VERY reasonable price that will be fixing a leaky toilet, sink, and this leak in the laundry room.

It’s been a very tiring and painful couple weeks….

But at least I have this handsome man to keep me company.

Steve’s 5 Minutes as a Politician

Steve and I went to a sub-committee hearing for the Tennessee Agriculture Committee in downtown Nashville today regarding the sale of electronic cigarettes.  Since we are the owners of an electronic cigarette company, of course we wanted to be in attendance.  The bill was originally written to ban the sale of electronic cigarettes, but fortunately the committee amended the bill so that it would only ban the sale of e-cigs to minors.

This was great news for us, since if the bill went through without that amendment, we would have been out of business.  Steve had spoken several times with the assistant to Rep. Dale Ford, the chairman of the committee, prior to this hearing, and was allowed to speak a few words regarding electronic cigarettes.

Here’s the link to the video:

http://tnga.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=112&clip_id=4110

To skip right to our bill, click on Bill #HB1729 on the left under the video.  Rep. Armstrong speaks first for a few minutes, then Mr. Hill for another minute or so, and then finally Steve is allowed to speak.

If only this was on CSPAN!  He’d be famous!  Haha.

Here’s the Chairman, Rep. Dale Ford.  He looks grumpy, but I know he’s probably a teddy bear at heart. 🙂  His assistant Michelle, whom Steve spoke with several times, was very friendly.

I was so proud of him for speaking in front of all those men in suits.  My little public speaker!  My heart was pounding for him the whole time.  It was as if I was the one speaking in front of everyone!

After Steve finished speaking and sat down, Rep. Armstrong came back up but couldn’t answer a question one of the committee members asked, so Steve came back up to the podium to answer.  What a good helper.

All in all, it was kinda a scary but fun experience.  We got to listen to a couple bills before our bill was heard, and one of them was just retarded.  It called for owners of aggressive dogs to be required to purchase liability insurance for their dogs in case they bit anyone.  Umm, lame!  We do not need any more government control!  But that’s all I’ll say about that.

Spread the word about electronic cigarettes!  They’re GRRRRREAT!!

P.S. Our website is puresmoker.com if you wanna check out our e-cigs.

P.P.S. CLICK HERE to watch a video The Wall Street Journal did on our company.