this is my confession

Like my sister Carleygirl I'm not catholic. Also like Carl, I have some confessing to do.



I think Taylor Swift is a terrible singer, who looks uncomfortable on stage. I also think that she is America's sweetheart, so as you can imagine, thats pretty hard for me.

When Carley was a child I stuck a penny in her mouth, had her swallow it, then told on her.

I practiced my kissing skills on the post of the trundle bed in my room.

I pretend to talk on the phone at least once a day to avoid talking to a real human.

People wearing pajamas in public bugs me bad.

The first time I saw Ryan, I wanted him to be my boyfriend. I had a boyfriend.

I believe game day dresses and hair bows are for babies, not college ladies.

I like Big Macs better than most food on this planet.

I bought my 1st thong in 7th grade on a trip to the mall with the LHJH choir department. Callie & Hannah bought the same one. They said "Royalty" on them and we told each other when we wore them. We made a "T" sign with our hands when walking down the hallway. Time-out? Nope. Thong. (A secret for almost 10 years now)

good idea carl. so healing.

bye, say bye!

I'm Thinking

about some cheeeezzee bread that looks something like this.



and off-white slip covers. These off white slip-covers.



oooo and this movie. I saw it this weekend. So very sweet and so very good.



I'm also thinking about grace. Some days (not nearly enough days) I get overwhelmed with how much God has given me and entrusted to my care. I am so unworthy and continually disappoint. But hey, I try not to dwell on that too much :). It's just amazing how hard people try, how hard I try to impress God. Like seriously? He isn't impressed. Nothing I say or do impresses him, yet there He is, day after day, loving me. In all of my glorious stupidity. Jeeeesh. Whatablessing. That is grace. Grace for you and grace for me. There is nothing I can do to earn it or wow Him. It exists because He says so and because He offered it to people who can trust that. Easier said than done. I find myself starting over every day. Just something else I am thinking about. Its quite humbling (and not the way my dad says "umbling", but "humbling").

Hudson is waking up y'all and we are gonna enjoy some Play-Dough.

bye, say bye!

hd tv

I have been watching TV for 99% of my day today. This is gross and slobby slobbish. The thing is it was unsafe to leave my home. No, not because of the ice all over the metroplex but because I realize now more than ever that we just aren't safe out there. Have yall ever seen Law & Order: SVU? I decided to get into that today. My friends over in New York City work day after day, episode after episode to lock up the perps and the sexual predators... but can they ever all be caught? Not to mention the terrorists.. don't get me started on them. Either way, the state of safety throughout the city is no excuse for how many episodes of dark TV I absorb. Whoa, baby.

Its finally February again. I really do love February. Dallas' nastiest weather is here. My blog is nearly a year old... little toddler blog. I'm getting married in 4 months and 11 days. Ryan is going to take his CPA on Friday but just part of it, not the whole thing. He studies all the time, but I am ok with it. I have my dog Conroe, my babysitting jobs and my growing list on the DVR. Valentine's day is in 13 days. I love Valentine's day. This month I am trying to rid myself of all nasty habits. I sometimes bite my nails but the real problem is popping my knuckles. I just did it, like after I put that period in place. Baby steps.

January wasn't all that bad, either. I bought up all of the mercury glass in Dallas. I picked out some bedding and also 2 very pretty chairs. I had my first substituting job and successfully hosted business day in Miss Lampert's room. I've Wii danced with Zarah. I try to put my whole body into it because well, she does and when she dances it looks awesome. But she has flaws.. her mind and 2nd bedroom is cluttered. She cleaned it today, and could dance you under the table, so she still wins. She usually does. I met George W. Bush on Sunday and he signed my book and told me he loved me. Ok, that isn't true but he did say he had never met another Whitley and that "I'd be easy to remember". This is pretty much the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me, and something I have wished for a looonnnngg time. God Stop. Even if my Dad says it isn't. Do you think he will call and offer me a job?? I'd just love that.




Thats pretty much what it looks like to meet your hero.

Goodnight and go look at Carl's blog. You'll love it. To the right... click aptitude.

Bye, say bye!

the most wonderful time of the year

December is here!!! Its actually been here for 14 days or so, but I am just now showing this joyous month some love on my bloggy blog. Typs me to be so tardy. I always have and always will LOVE this time of the year. Ahhhh visions of Dallas food, hot chocolate, christmas lights, and Lisa's festive sweaters dance in my head. Ya know what else? You can always count on something good happening in December. Babies being born, acing all of your finals, even a surprise proposal at your favorite pizza joint. Ok, ok, I'll get to the point- I'm engaged y'all! 9 days and still going strong. So exciting, right? I'm really loving it so far, besides school constantly being in the way of me constantly wanting to celebrate. And celebrate we have :) Backing up. How about I tell you guys how he asked me?

I was in Fort Worth visiting Jennifer and Caitlin, two of my ladies about to graduate from TCU this coming weekend (Congrats!!!!) Its Saturday night and there I was, just minding my own business and having a marg with Jennifer, chatting it up about life, love, and Ryan (our usual topics of conversation). Need proof that I used to be a normal girl before I turned into a fiancee? See picture below.

My mom texted me asking if I would want to meet my fam at my favorite restaurant Eno's before heading back to College Station the next afternoon. I of course said yes because it is very stupid to turn down gourmet pizza and I am not very stupid. I wake up in Fort Worth, take the advice of Jennifer not to wear a t-shirt to lunch, and head to downtown Dallas in my little black sports car. I called up my boyfriend Ryan so he could tell me just how jealous he was that I was having his favorite pizza, which he did. Upon arrival, I made my way to the upstairs of the restaurant only to find Ryan sitting at a large table all by himself. Surprise! Of course instead of acting so excited to see him (which I was), I started asking ridiculous questions such as "What are you doing here?", "Where is my family, what did you do with them?", and "Wait, why are you even here?" The truth is I had a pretty good idea of what he was doing there, was thrilled to pieces, but in my excitement apparently thought he had done something harmful to my family members. He tried to calm me a bit, said a few sweet words, and got down on one knee! I said "Yes!" as I continued to look around to see if the other people in the restaurant enjoying their lunch were looking at us, or rather to make sure they were looking at us. We just got engaged you guys, put the breadstick down. To my great relief my entire family, including Stars, was safe and arrived shortly after with Ryan's parents. Then we all ate together- my very favorite thing to do :) I don't have any pictures of lunch but my brother Peter posted several on Facebook for your viewing pleasure.

The rest of the day was a big blur of fun fun fun and celebrating- my fave things. We came home to a living room full of sweet lady friends, Bret, Cameron, and Marcus, too! I loved it and loved how sweet and excited everyone was for us. Dixie and Charlie arrived with beautiful flowers, and Craig arrived with his beautiful fam. Oh yes, and my beautiful ZIL arrived just in time, too. Whatatreat. It was just so fun, y'all! We even had champagne, which I'm pretty sure is a first ever at my home in Dallas. Jan and Scott love to party. Who knew? Unfortunately we had to leave the la-la-land of Dallas and return to our real life in College Station as a newly engaged cup. We both had papers to right, soooooo glamorous. Lucky for me, I came home to my shrooms, more champagne, and a "Mrs. Nemec" banner. We left it up a few days so I could get used to it.


Enough about us. Well, for the next paragraph or so. Big BIG news- Megsy and Range had their baby! Claire is here in live and living color. She was born December 7, 2010 and is very beautiful, trust me on this one. Babies are just such a miracle and I'm so happy for the Ewings to have a miracle of their very own, right here in College Station. I don't have any pictures on my camera yet, but this cute one is of Carl and Em just 6 days before Claire came out of there.

Love Ranger, Megan, and Claire lots and lots. You know who else I love lots and lots?

The hottie in the middle, thats who! Emily is the 3rd musketeer to this Shroommate trio at HDCDS(no, I'll neveeerrrrrrr tell you what that means). She is also one of my best and dearest friends, who is now 20 years old. What can I say? These girls keep me young. Her birthday, December 8th, was filled with delicious soups, cupcakes, and Christmas lights. Don't tell her, but I will miss her quite a bit next semester as I leave these passy-babies behind and plunge into the competitive world of substitute teaching. Here's to you Embily!

Before I go I just have to tell you about the weekend we had in Houston. You get to say "we" when you are a fiancee because people know exactly who "we" is. For example, "Yes, we will be there" or "I'll see what we have that weekend" or my favorite lately "We are really really excited!" Back to our weekend. Ryan and I went to Houston Friday night for an Engagement/Nicci celebration. Ya see, we originally were meeting with friends that night to celebrate Nicci's 1st semester of PA school coming to an end, and then Ryan proposed and I accidentally kind of stole her thunder forcing our lovely hostess Audrey to turn our get-together into an engagement celebration. My bad,gf. We managed to celebrate both and the evening was a huge success. Luckily this time I had my camera ready...









If you have never been engaged, I really recommend it. So far people just keep making a big fuss over us, and we don't hate it. I can't speak for Ry, but I am so very excited to be marrying such a wonderful, good looking boy. I'm talking about forever, baby! For-eh-ver. Feeling so thankful and feeling so blessed.

Many thanks to everyone that stopped by and made us feel so very loved and very popular last Sunday and to our sweet friends in Houston on Friday night- We love our peeps!

Bye, Say bye :)
Whitley Gillis

tuesday bluesday

Why do I have the blues? Because it is Tuesday and not the weekend. Particularly this last weekend. Thats the weekend I have the blues for. This past weekend was f-u-n. I am always craving a good weekend. Less school time. More sleep time. Less reading. More Ryan. This past weekend I even had less work and more friends. In college station! This was a special special treat and thats for sure. I convinced my nerdy friend Nicci to come in town on Friday even though she would rather be studying than having fun with her peeps. Luckily I know what is best for her. Here is old Nitch in the flesh. Of a chicken.

We met up with our friend Ellen. She is a land-lady now. Not like a land-lord who is a lady, but like a person in charge of an oil company. Quite the executive. She calls everyone baby. Its hilarious, actually.


The weekend consisted mostly of dancing, tailgating with all of my favorite Ags, avoiding Pauly Pocket,gawking at less than tasteful halloween costumes, and running into all kinds of people at Logan's. I for one did not dress up this year. Not on Halloween, anyways. I have been wanting to dress as a gothic person for a few years now, because I think those disturbed and darkly dressed teens have got it going on. But every year I am the only one who thinks this idea is funny at all and it is becoming evident to me that I am not confident enough to do this on my own. Whatawimp.

Kind of the look I am going for. He has got her on a leash. I need a man like that.

"OMG Whitley you didn't dress up at all??" Chilllll guys. The shrooms, Ryan, and I had a fantastic group costume on Wednesday for our Whoa-its-Wednesday dinner group party. Ryan and I dressed as Ranger and Megan, my friends and business associates. Carl and Embily dressed as their puppies. Everyone thought it was hilarious because well... it was!


Halloween was on Sunday- a holiday I am a big fan of. Sure, I don't love it as much as some people do who decorate their yard with freaky, spooky, tacky stuff, but I love trick-or-treaters! After seeing the movie The Town (goooooooo see it. Twice) we made a trip to Walgreens to be charged doubly for a few bags of treatsies for the hoodlums of our neighborhood. We had a few large groups of cuties and some not so cute teens, and it was obvious everyone liked our house best. We win! BOO!


Big shout out to the Sassy 7 and to all my peeps that came in town this weekend- loved seeing you guys! Come back soon!
Bye, say bye!

Whit

Happy November to everyone reading this blog! Especially Sallye. Sup Sal? Excited to be blogging today for I have many beautiful things to show and tell you. Let's start with the most important of these things- the new, young, and hot Mr. and Mrs. Gillis!

This particular pic was just a practice run, but now they are husband and wife! Campbell and Zarah tied the knot on October 23, 2010. The wedding and rehearsal dinner were lovely, both with fully stocked buffets. Zarah was the most calm and beautiful bride in the entire world, and I was very impressed. She is such a lady. I am beginning to see where she gets it from, too. Sarah's mother Karen was present and beautiful at each wedding event after undergoing an appendectomy just Thursday morning. What a soldier. Thanks to everyone that came to both parties- especially if you stayed during my Dad's speech. God Bless You.

The microphone is his best friend


My handsome date for the weekend... well pretty much every weekend, actually.

I happen to have a lot of great looking cousins.


formerly the Fab 4- now the Fierce 5. My mother is really into cliques so she is always naming us. Feeling left out? Too bad, so sad.


Miss America? Miss Teen USA? No, just Mrs. Gillis! Love you, ZIL.


Cousin Stephanie and CarlsBad at the reception. Looking alright, you two.

I have close to 200 pics from the wedding, so if you are craving more feel free to browse my facebook album, or even my sister Maribeth's because she is a known picture thief. I will post about Halloween/ Best Friends Weekend tomorrow. I am very busy looking at cute babies in halloween costumes on fb for now.

Bye, say bye!

Whitley A. Gillis

Shame, Shame.

That is how I am feeling... shameful. Why? For letting down all of my faithful reader peeps for so long. Want to know whats been happening? I will get right to it.
The rest of September was far from dull: my bff Callie Gitt had her 23rd birthday, and so did Laura, David, Hogan (14) and probably some other young professionals across the world. Happy birthday to YOU guys, love you lots.

There have been several parties thrown in order to celebrate Campbell and Sarah (who get married THIS weekend)! I have thoroughly enjoyed traveling to Dallas and back. Such wonderful people. Such wonderful food. Food that trumps the pb&j I am eating as I type made with strawberry preserves instead of jelly. I now know that this is not a suitable substitute. What a shame. Back to my point: the Gillis family is getting pumped up to welcome Sarah into the family and make it official. She is such a lovely girl with such lovely style and will make such a lovely addition to our Christmas card.

People are really swell when it comes to weddings. Ladies getting together to throw parties with delicious, cheesy finger foods. People don't even have to know you that well to do such a thing! They just have to like your mother alot. Lucky for us (well... for Sarah really) everybody loves Janpie. Who can blame them? Being apart of a wedding party of a wedding isn't all that bad, by the way. This is my first wedding to star in, so I'm not quite "numb" to it yet :) (HDCDS... holla!). And no, thats not counting my dear Aunt Kris Ann's wedding in which I played the flower girl. I was just a kid! My bad, Kris. Here are just a few perks of bridesmaidness:

1. I don't have to pick out what to wear to the wedding. Sarah is having us all wear the same thing.What a smartypants!

2. VIP passes to all of the cheesy finger food parties. Pass the cucumber sandwiches, please.

3. Front row spots at the wedding. And by front row, I really mean court side, I guess? I am not really sure, I have never sat court side at a basketball game and this is definitely a much more distinguished affair.

4. Spending the day with the beautiful bride, enjoying the perks of the wedding day entourage: Nails, make up, hair. Whats up ladies!? Not to mention a sneak peak of the bride in her gown. Green with envy yet??

5. Best perk: the honor of serving Captain Sarah this Saturday. If you are reading, ZIL, we are blessed blessed blessed and lucky lucky lucky to have you. Thanks for agreeing to marry Campbell. He is for sure the luckiest belly boy to ever have lived.

Now lets get this party started. I'll be back soon, and probably with pics of the wedding... ooOOoooOOoo!!
bye, say bye!
Whit

(I realize it is now two days AFTER the wedding but I created this come-back post before it and forgot to post).