Looking back on 2010

Tomorrow is the last day of 2010. We'll be ringing in the new year with some wonderful friends and we so look forward to that. It's been a BUSY year for us and we've learned and grown a lot. Here's my top ten list of things we've learned in 2010.

1. Weddings are fun, but incredibly stressful. We loved our wedding. We think it was one of the best in history. But the shit we had to go through to get to that day... we could have done without that.
2. Puppies are gifts that keep on giving. The second most life changing event for us this year was the addition of Lilly. We love her dearly and she's been a new challenge for us. She keeps on giving though... giving us lots of poop to clean up.
3. It's good to get away. We went on two trips this year -- our pre-moon cruise and our honeymoon to Hawaii. We LOVED both. And what did we learn from both of our tropical escapes? They are so necessary for us to have time to simply be with each other and reconnect.
4. Our cars don't know how to sit still. We've both been in school part-time this year while working full-time jobs (commuting 40 mins +). We are on completely different schedules and I'm not sure how we haven't gone crazy yet. We very rarely just sit around the house... we are constantly on the go when we are together.
5. Friendships are two-way streets. One of the biggest lessons we learned this year. I especially learned this and have been blessed by getting to know better an incredible group of people who understand this lesson. It's amazing that through our wedding we saw the true feelings come out about some people we would have bent over backwards for but they wouldn't for us.
6. Weddings aren't a race. This continues from the last lesson. Marriage is a big decision that you want to share with family and friends. It isn't something you go into lightly. When you are at a point in life that it makes sense and you are financially and emotionally ready then do it. Nobody cares who gets married first.
7. Home remodels are a pain. Especially when you are living in it day in and day out. We do not plan to ever live like that again. It was horrible. I'm not very good with chaos and I need my home to be in somewhat of an orderly disaster.
8. Family is a huge part of our lives. From the Granddaddy scare at the beginning of the year to other things in our life, we've found that we rely on our parents and family waaay more than we thought. My mom is my best friend and she keeps me grounded. Blake and his dad are super close and we see our parents all the time. We are blessed to live so close to both of our parents and know that will be a blessing.
9. Marriage isn't as easy as it looks. Marriage is a huge change in life. While we did live together **gasp** before we were married, actually being married is so different. I think the living together part actually helped us because we had already figured out quirks so we just had to get used to the married thing. And it's hard. Don't get me wrong... I absolutely LOVE my husband but marriage is constant work. And it's well worth it ;)
10. Let go and let God.  I wish I had truly learned this lesson. So many times this year we just needed to step back and trust in the Lord. He isn't going to do something that is going to cause us harm... He's too cool for that. But this Type A-OCD-Control Freak has a hard time not being in control but I'm learning how to understand His plans and work with that.(This should probably be up there at #1...)

We look forward to 2011 and seeing what life has in store for us. I'll be graduating (for the last time, hopefully!) in May. Blake will be switching over and beginning at ECU. Several friends are getting married in the Summer so that will be exciting to watch. Tons of new babies are arriving in the Spring. And we have a few surprises planned to keep life interesting... so stay tuned! :)

Our First Christmas

Our first Christmas together went pretty much like the Christmases before. Blake's parents joined us and my parents for Christmas Eve service... one of my favorite of the year! We went back to my parents' house and visited before calling it a night. We got up on Christmas and spent the morning with Blake's family and then the afternoon/early evening with mine.

We have spent SOO much money this year we didn't do gifts for each other. Neither of us are lacking for anything and it's pretty pointless to buy each other gifts just to open presents and have junk around the house. Blake's parents spoiled us as usual and we all saw my parents' gift to us about a month ago. One of the coolest gifts we got was a flock of chicks donated to the Heifer Project from my brother's girlfriend (and I guess him too...). We don't need anything so why don't you spend that money on something others truly need. And of course the puppies were spoiled with new doggy steps, treats, and tons of toys!

But one of the coolest things about our first Christmas together was the fact that today, the day after Christmas, the day most of us go back to our usual, incredibly busy lives, we are snowed in. I was totally planning on going to church and possibly shopping before (and after) to get all those awesome After-Christmas deals. But not now. And I think that's awesome. Nobody really has to be anywhere -- Blake doesn't go to work until tomorrow night. It's a really cool way for God to give us some extra time to make sure that we stay at home with our family and enjoy each other. We sure have enjoyed playing with the puppies outside and are looking forward to some exciting football this afternoon :)

From our family to yours...

Christmas cards were put in the mail today! I joined the tons of other families who have made it a tradition every year to send out cards... my mom was always just too busy to do Christmas cards but our first year together--I made sure we had something cute.

And now... (maybe) coming to a mailbox near you...

The back side says, "The gift of love, the gift of peace, the gift of happiness. May these be yours at Christmas."

Merry Christmas! :)

The Meaning of Christmas

So many people today have taken the focus of Christmas away from the birth of Christ to the point where we all feel obligated to give so many ridiculous gifts when we all know that we really don't need any material things. And many have made a point to bring the point of Christmas back to the true meaning--something I can really follow--most of the time...

The "Holidays" are a politically correct term for all the holidays that are celebrated from Thanksgiving through New Years. For Jewish people they enjoy Hanukkah and honestly in a way Christians should enjoy Hanukkah too (because if Christians have forgotten, Jesus was Jewish... just thought I'd throw that one out there for controversy). And then there's Kwanzaa, and New Years, and Christmas. 

Not to be bashing anybody but recently a favorite MIL (who I truly love so much!) came over talking about the fact that a recent sermon at church had been about the meaning of Christmas. She mentioned that Santa was actually "Satan" because it's the same letters just switched around..... really? I'm not a total expert but I'm pretty sure that the word Santa came from St. Nick... like SAINT Nicholas. Unless you want to completely discredit the Catholic church even though without them Christians wouldn't have a religion... (sorry.. rant.) And St. Nicholas was known for his secret gift giving. And nativities? Even though the Three Wise Men didn't go see baby Jesus together, nativity scenes are an important part of Christmas decorating. The cross hanging on my wall wasn't the actual cross Jesus was crucified on but it is a symbol to remind me of His sacrifices.

So I am all about saying, "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays" but I'm also cool with a "Happy Hanukkah" too... or even "Happy Kwanzaa." Because the "Holidays" have gotten to be so chaotic and PC that we really need to celebrate each "Holiday" individually as it comes.

For me, Christmas is the birth of Christ and is an important season in the year and life of a Christian. And it is an important time to press the pause button on life and stop to spend time with family. These two are the meaning of Christmas, not those presents that you insist on buying.

PWC

I did it! I did the PWC also known as the Post Wedding Chop. I've had short hair most of my life simply because it is so fine and thin that there is nothing you can do with it... it just hangs. But once I realized Blake & I would be getting married I started growing it out.

Now that we're married I wanted something different and wanted to get rid of the mess. So I visited one of the girls I went to elementary, middle, and high school with who is amazing with hair and she chopped off about ten inches for me. It wasn't really traumatic simply because I was tired of the length. So here it is, the new hair...

Yea I'm totally one of those middle schoolers who takes pictures of herself in the mirror and posts online but if that's how it has to get done...

I'm really happy with how it turned out. My students had a hard time with it for the first day or two and it has taken awhile for people to realize who I am but that's a good thing. I have to keep them on their toes :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

So don't think that I'm excited for Christmas or anything but our Christmas decorations have been up at our house for the past 3 weeks. I'm just now getting around to taking pictures to share (call me a little slack) but here they are :)

 Our table complete with advent wreath

 Tree #1 decorated for my Alma mater

 Christmas village so far... someday I want a complete village with a train running through!

 Our stockings this year... Paisley & Lilly's have their names on them. Please find Paisley's two pictures with Santa at Petsmart. This year will be interesting with 2 of them :)

 Willow Tree Nativity. An early Christmas present from my parents. I LOVE this!

Tree #2 - the "family" tree. We have ornaments from our travels this year and hope to keep up that tradition. Also have the ornament that Blake proposed with and some from our childhoods. 

May you all enjoy decorating for Christmas as much as we have!

College didn't prepare me for this...

In my year and a half of teaching I have found that as much as my professors taught me in college they didn't prepare me for teaching. Sure they drilled us on formative and summative assessment. And how to create lesson plans. We had one class on classroom management and learned a little about the disabilities our students might have. But they didn't prepare me for IEPs, interventions, disciplining, working with parents, motivation, meeting AYP, and so much more. And they sure didn't prepare me for last Friday morning.

I woke up and checked Twitter on my phone first thing. I saw that the local news had tweeted about a wreck that occurred near our school. And that a 13 year old girl had died. In my mind it couldn't have been one of mine... it had to be a private school student or a 7th grader. It couldn't have been one of mine. In the shower I had one name pop into my head and it wouldn't leave. Hailey's name would not leave my mind. I checked my email and phone but no one had said anything so I continued getting ready. I left the house and was on my way, talking to my mom when a co-worker beeped in. And that's when she told me Hailey had been killed. Call me a psychic, smart, or even psycho but God wanted me to know and to be prepared for what I would encounter that day. He wanted me to know that one of my babies was now with Him and that's why Hailey's name was stuck in my mind.

I continued on to school, making sure to ask for prayers wherever I could find them... we would need it. I prayed for strength for me at school. At our school we are teachers but even more often than that we are parents. A lot of our students didn't know about the accident until they got on the school bus or even to school. I will not forget the picture of those students coming around the corner as they always do, normally happy and energetic, but this time there was almost silence in the hallway. The teachers were scattered throughout the halls catching students who were absolutely distraught. We had put up a poster where students could write their feelings -- their first form of venting and grief. But besides that we had no idea what to do with them. We obviously couldn't go on like it was a normal day.

Later that morning we found out that another one of our students was still fighting for his life as well as Hailey's sister. Matthew was in critical condition. My heart was so heavy. One student said it best when I was talking with him and he asked, "Why would God do this to them? They were the best kids in the 8th grade." How in the world do you answer a question like that?!? By the grace of God I told him some answer that, I hope, comforted him.

This was one of my first opportunities to openly talk about faith with my students. Teaching in a public school I tend to stray away from the subject. But today we couldn't stray away from it--we had to explain the "whys." One of the first things we did Friday morning was to get in a circle as a middle school and pray. You could have heard a pin drop. It was one of the most amazing things I've seen done. We all held hands and our guidance counselor got in the middle and said, "You know guys, I don't know what to do right now and when I don't know what to do I pray. So here we go..." How awesome?!? To admit to all of us that even she--a guidance counselor--wasn't sure what to do. And that opened the doors for us to discuss things with our students.

When I was in college they prepared me for so much but never about dealing with the death of a student. The grief as a teacher is a much different kind of grief. I know what my students are going through--we lost several students while in high school. But as a teacher we are devoted to our students. I don't have human children so these are "my kids" and I pour my heart and soul into teaching them what I feel is beneficial. So to lose one of them and have another in the hospital is so hard. So hard. It is one of the hardest things I've ever done--comforting students when I'm grieving myself.

Throughout this we have had to be like parents for these students. Unfortunately a lot of them haven't received comfort at home and we are it. We have had to prepare the students for the funeral--a lot of them have never been to one. I'm not trying to sound racist but many of our Black children don't understand the customs of a White funeral... the cultures are just different. But the important thing is that they want to be there. And we are determined to make sure that happens. We polled the students and made sure that everybody who wanted to be there Friday had a ride because if not, we were going to take the activity bus to town and pick them up. College didn't prepare me to be the transportation coordinator too.

The kids want to do something. That Friday we made cards for Katie, Matthew, and Hailey's family. We got a peace lily to send to Hailey's family... something that won't die like flowers do. We are in the process of creating a video with the students to show Matthew. I'm sure more will happen, it'll just take time. I'm planning on placing a box in the room with a zebra print bow (a Hailey signature!) with a slit cut in it. This box will serve as a place where students can write to Hailey when they are feeling down. I'll give the box to her parents at the end of the year. Just another way for us all to get through it. We're putting positives on things and helping the students come up with positive ways to honor Hailey not mourn her. Because the students do know she is holding hands with Jesus and watching over Katie & Matthew.

Today is Hailey's funeral. It's at the high school auditorium and I'm sure it'll be packed. And I'll be right there with "my kids" helping them deal with their grief as students, being strong and a source of comfort even as I deal with my own grief as a teacher.

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is our first Thanksgiving as a married couple. This time last year we were busy celebrating our engagement and preparing for a wedding. This year we are taking on a much more chillaxed day and we are spending it with our families.

We have so much to be thankful for and here are the top 6...

Our marriage

Our families

 Our faith

Paisley & Lilly

 Successful Jobs

 A few days off work

I'm sure there is so much more but I'm out of time writing this. We're off to celebrate our 4 year anniversary with a dinner at Longhorn.

Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not?

On this day a year ago Blake & I got married (oops! I mean engaged! That's what I get for not proof reading!) and our long journey to wedding was getting ready to begin. Looking back on the past year I have no idea where it went but I'm thankful we're through it. I truly loved planning our wedding and I would love to plan weddings for other people but not mine. I'm done.

Our four year anniversary is tomorrow (the actual date we got engaged) and I have no idea where those four years went either. It seems like yesterday that we first met and started dating. It's funny to look back and pictures of us together during our first year and we look so freaking young! Through our four years together I wouldn't change a thing. We've been able to go and do a lot and have gotten to know each other so incredibly well--that's something I've really figured out since we've been married... just how well we know each other.

I recently heard the song "Are you gonna kiss me or not" by Thompson Square and it really reminds me of our relationship. Being a very proactive, independent woman is difficult sometimes because I am a very "take charge" kind of person. And this song is very much me ... but that's not always a bad thing.

And I really like the part near the end --

"Are we gonna do this or what? Look at all the love that we've got.

It ain't never gonna stop.... 

I love you a lot. I really think we got a shot.

Are you gonna kiss me or not?"

Trash The Dress

I know I know... what in the world am I thinking?!? How can a bride take her wedding dress and trash it? I mean, of course my daughter will want to wear it just like I never wanted to wear my mom's. So first and foremost don't worry-- I did not trash my OWN dress... Just another girl's dress after she donated it to a local charity store.

And just what is Trash The Dress? All it boils down to is a fun photo shoot that gives you an extra opportunity to enjoy your dress. It's also a time to take all those pictures that you think would be so much fun but you don't have the guts to risk your dress... yea we did those.

So we hooked up with Maria Stalls, a family friend from Blake's childhood church. She's recently started photographing special events and we were excited with how these turned out. She put a lot of time into our shoot and we are so grateful for that. Check her out on Facebook!

Enjoy these shots...

Dating

Blake & I got married last month and you want to know a secret? We are still dating.

Doesn't that sound crazy? Well in a way it is because to most people dating is something you do before you get married. But we aren't dating other people, we are still dating each other. This idea came to us during pre-marital counseling and we both make an effort to go on a date at least every other week.

Think about your relationship when you first started dating someone. When it's right it's always so exciting and fun and you constantly find out more information about the other person. That's what our dating is about... and we have rules.
1) We make our dates just for us. We are so busy going in 20 different directions all week so it's nice to  have one evening where it's just the two of us together.
2) We don't cook. A date consists of getting out of the house for more than three hours. We don't cook, we have someone do that for us.
3) Others don't intrude on our dates. Cell phones don't become a distraction when we're on a date because it's our time to spend together.
4) We enjoy it!

I know, we're newlyweds without kids... just how difficult is it to spend time together? It's actually really hard. With our schedules I usually see Blake for about 2 hours a day during the week. And only on Sundays on the weekends. I know that schedule isn't permanent but it does make life a little hard right now.

So we're married and we're still dating and I'm loving every minute of it!

And I remember why we're here... to surrender and believe.

It's amazing how we can be rolling through the motions of everyday and all of a sudden something happens to catch your attention and reminds you about the important stuff in life. This happened with me last week when (on one of my hour-long drives home) a song came on. (I find it so cool to find parts of songs that I can really use and apply to my life.) Lady Antebellum's Hello World truly struck a chord with me...

Too often we are so busy enjoying life that we forget why God put us here... to surrender and believe.

If you haven't already, listen to the song and watch the video. It's really touching.

Cooking, what's that?

One would think that being a teacher would allow so much extra time for cooking in the evening, spending time with family, etc. because teachers get off when the kids leave, right? Wrong. Teaching is a 24/7 job (more on that in a later post) and I've found it very difficult to find time to cook anything even remotely interesting.

I have been persuaded by several people in my life to eat more organic and natural foods. It is crazy what they do to foods today and it's amazing how much better simple changes like this can make things... more on that later too. So this makes it difficult when trying to make dinners that are yummy and fast. I also have the problem of going to the grocery store when I'm hungry and simply buy whatever I feel like... I then check out and spend lots of money which will not fly with our new budget.

I've started a menu that works really well for us. I sit down and for a month at a time I create a menu. I spread out Blake's favorites like hamburger gravy and Chicken & Pastry. I then go back and fill in with different yummy-sounding meals that I find online or in cookbooks. I've made many duds that haven't gone over well and a few that Blake really likes. I take these and add them in for the next month. When the weekend rolls around I go through the meals that are planned for that week so when I go to the grocery store I only buy for those meals. It's crazy how much money we have saved doing this and it makes it so much easier when I'm leaving for work in the morning so I don't have to think about what to get out of the freezer.

Just a new method that works for us and may work for you :)

One Month

We've been married one month today and this is what I woke up to on my phone...

We celebrated with a date last night and a trip to the grocery store. (so romantic!)

Our first month has flown by! Being married is wonderful but I just hope the rest of our marriage doesn't fly by as fast as the first but we have been really busy tying up loose ends from the wedding, traveling, and getting into a rhythm of life.

First Big Purchase

When most people get married their first big purchase is a new car, or a house, or some other big ticket item that a normal singleton probably couldn't afford. Us? Well our first big purchase was a vacuum cleaner. The one I bought 2 years ago died. So much for "paying for quality." It served us well for about six months before deciding that it didn't want to suck any more so I was looking forward to the day I could buy a new one... but I had to wait another year and a half.

This weekend we went to make use of some of our gift cards and went to Lowe's. (Fabulous gift idea btw!) After prying Blake away from the lawn mowers (which will be our second big purchase...) we made our way to the vacuum aisle. This time I came prepared. I did my research and I knew what I wanted -- either a Dyson or the Bissell Healthy Home. Of course they had to make the decision hard... This Dyson was on sale... like super clearance...


I've always heard amazing things about Dyson. And there's this whole you pay for what you get mentality so I really don't mind paying a little more for something if it's going to be amazing.

So we, like the crazies we are, spent too much time trying out the store models. In the end we went with the Bissell Healthy Home... and so far so good. We brought it home, put it together, and you wouldn't believe what it picked up. (Maybe I shouldn't put that out there for everyone to read...) It made our carpets look new. And when paired with our new Bissell SpotBot (ahhh-freakin-mazing!) we got out all those stains from a little puppy who shall remain nameless.

Maybe in a few months I'll give a different review of this vacuum but for now I'm loving it. 

And for being such a good sport, Blake bought himself a leaf blower. Amy gets a vacuum and Blake gets a leaf blower, don't we sound like fun.

Post Wedding Funk

I have it. And I think it's something like SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). For the past 10 months our lives have completely revolved around wedding. Everybody would always ask about wedding plans and we all had something sooo amazing to look forward to. But now it's over. And we're married which is great but it's also taking some getting used to. The whole concept of our relationship has changed and we have to get adjusted to that.

Our lives are incredibly busy. I see Blake for about 2 hours a day during the week since he works nights and then on the weekends. But the weekends are usually pretty crazy because we have football games, church, and then the families always want to see us. PWF is simply going to take time to get through (just like SAD) and I'm hoping it'll be a lot sooner rather than later.

We have TTD (Trash The Dress) pictures scheduled for Saturday so I'm stoked about that. I'm hoping they'll turn out to be absolutely amazing!

Favors

Wedding favors are one of those things that seem to be a complete waste of money. I've gotten all kinds and you know what happens to them? They end up in the trash. Really. They do. Except for the koozies - I keep those because they are handy when we have parties. Everybody just ends up with someone's wedding around their drink.

We did a few favors - the first one we planned was a monetary donation to Stop Hunger Now immediately following the Haiti Earthquake in January. I went to Haiti in 2007 and the people there captured my heart. My brother had just gotten back from Haiti about a month before the earthquake struck. We donated one meal for each of the people who would be attending our wedding.

The second was a candy buffet. I LOVE candy and thought this would be neat. Apparently it was a hit because we had NO candy left by the time we got to the reception. Literally. None. And I hear it wasn't just the kids eating it all...

Our final favor were koozies. I didn't think they would be as big of a hit and I wanted to make sure that I didn't have 100 left over at the end of the night so I ordered 150. These were gone by the time we got there. None left. Apparently I should have ordered another 100.

Our favors were just small tokens of our appreciation for everybody who came to the wedding. We hope you enjoy(ed)! :)

An Aloha Honeymoon

3:00 am the day after your wedding is not a good time to try and wake up. I didn't even drink anything and I felt like I had the worst hangover ever. And we had a 5:30 am flight. ugggh!

It all worked out though because we were soo tired that we just slept through all our flights. We landed in Charlotte and had enough time to grab some breakfast -- our first meal as a married couple: Burger King in the Charlotte airport! And the lady found out that we had just gotten married so she gave us the Senior Discount and 2 free cookies! It was awesome!

The flight from Charlotte to Phoenix wasn't bad. We didn't get to see any of the major landmarks like the Mississippi River or the circle fields but we saw a lot of the back of our eyelids. The flight from Phoenix to Honolulu though -- that sucked. It was 6 hours of ocean below you. Nothing cool to look at and by this point we had caught up on sleep. We couldn't watch the movies because we didn't have headphones and we were bored. bored. bored.

But we got to Honolulu, got our bags, found the car rental bus and got there. The guy asked us what brought us to Hawaii and when we said Honeymoon he totally gave us an upgrade -- instead of a dorky Chevy Malibu we got a Ford Mustang Convertible for the week! sweet! We almost had a disaster when we left the Car Rental because the GPS couldn't find a satellite. We decided to just drive and we'd find our way. Well then it started raining and we couldn't figure out how to put the top up! So here we are in a "foreign" land having all these issues. I was about ready to go back to the airport and come home. But, being the level-headed people we are, we pulled into a neighborhood (that looked pretty ghetto), read the owner's manual (a ha!), and got the top up. Right about this point the GPS found us (and we were 4800 miles from Hwy 264, so we couldn't go home) and we were able to figure out how to get to our resort.

We got to the resort which was absolutely amazing. It had everything we needed -- we didn't even have to leave there! We settled in and began a fun and relaxing week.

We did a self-guided tour of Oahu. We basically "conquered" (saw all there was to see) in about 4 days. We drove through the mountains, saw the amazing coastlines, visited the pineapple plantation, saw the surfer towns, climbed Diamond Head, visited Waikiki, went to a luau, and shopped. It was amazing. On Wednesday we took a trip to the big island of Hawaii and had a tour of Hilo (a town there) and Volcanoes National Park.

I can't pick out just one part of our trip that was my favorite. It was all amazing. I enjoyed getting away from school, work, and life. Even though we were still connected because our phones still worked (which was very nice) it was just Blake and me. After all the excitement and craziness that was our wedding, it was nice to immediately get away and enjoy being with each other. I think it was the best decision we made for me to take a week off school and get away together.

And we're already planning a "post-moon" to visit Hawaii again :)

Our Perfect Day

Our Day actually began the night before at the Rehearsal & Dinner. The Rehearsal wasn't quite as smooth as I had hoped because the rain and flooding kept people from arriving on time. But everyone got there and figured out what they were supposed to do. Afterward we had an awesome Rehearsal Dinner (that had a few kinks in it... like the food was late!) and the Fellowship Hall was beautiful. Blake's ECU Stadium Groom's Cake was absolutely amazing. We went out for a drink after then parted ways until we were to meet at the alter. I last talked to Blake about 12:05am on the day of our wedding and didn't talk to him again until I saw him at the alter... that was amazing.

So I got up early the morning of the wedding (because I definitely couldn't sleep in today!) and my dad made me French Toast and bacon. Daddy knows how much I love my breakfast in the morning and it was a tradition for him to make breakfast every Sunday morning. So I ate my breakfast, checked in for our flight to Hawaii, then momma dropped me off to get my hair done. It was cool to have all the girls together getting their hair done and it was very relaxing because we didn't talk wedding--just girl stuff. We left the salon for the church where we got ready. You would think that getting to church at 12:30 for a 5:00 wedding was plenty of time but I still feel like we didn't have enough time for pictures! Allison Dameron did my makeup (which was awesome!) and my mom's, Blake's mom's, and Julie's. The girls got dressed, took a few pictures, and then it was my turn to get sewn into my dress. It really took about 20 minutes for me to get into the dress. Once that was on it was time for pictures. I didn't have any time to be nervous -- I think all the girls expected me to be crying and nervous but I wasn't. It was amazing.

One of the special parts of the day was my gift from Blake. He gave me a new Bible with my new name on the front. It was incredibly meaningful to me because it will be a tool I will use all throughout our marriage and the raising of our family. My gift to Blake? A trip to the Big Island of Hawaii to tour the volcanoes!

After our pictures, Beth came back and fixed up my hair (thanks so much!) and the girls just hung around. Soon after that my Girl Scouts started arriving and coming back to hang with me. That was really cool too because they have meant so much to me that I wanted to make them feel as much a part of the day as possible. They left to be seated and soon after my bridesmaids left to line up. So here I was, hanging with my daddy, waiting to go down the aisle.

The rest of the day was pretty much a blur. I remember seeing Blake at the alter, I was focused on him and when I first saw him he looked so nervous but as soon as he saw me I could tell he was a lot more comfortable. When we got to the end of the aisle my dad messed up his only words -- instead of saying "Her mother and I do" he said "I do." OHHH!!! I nudged him and made him fix it... everybody laughed which made me laugh and put me at ease. We had a wonderful service. God touched that service so greatly. The beautiful weather, amazing music, wonderful guests... The homily was perfect. (From what I remember of it.) The only snafu was that I got wax on my dress while lighting the unity candle so I picked it off during several of the prayers. Communion went better than I thought and I think everyone thought it was a cool addition to the ceremony. (And for those of you who are wondering--no I didn't dip my bread into the grape juice because I was afraid of spilling on my dress.)  This was the only part of the ceremony where I even remotely noticed who was there -- if I didn't see them during communion, I had NO clue who was there or not. (I hate it, but it's the truth.) So we said our vows and were off!


There are so many pictures after the ceremony but you really don't have a lot of time to do them. We went as fast as we could but we've heard we still took forever. I think we got some really amazing shots and I'm excited to see them.

And then we got to the reception. Apparently we were late so there were issues about the food... but I didn't care. Nobody was going to mess up my day! We were introduced, danced, blessed the food, but never really ate. We enjoyed going around and talking with all our family and friends who came to celebrate. I'm sorry if we didn't get a chance to get to your table, but know that we were trying! We planned on 250 people at the reception and ended up having 320. We were so excited to share our day with everybody and are so glad that they wanted to share it with us!

At the end of the night we did a bubble send off and went off. We were both completely exhausted and 3 am was going to come very early...

The week before

Saturday before the wedding was the Bridesmaids' Luncheon. I imagined a really nice morning brunch with my four bridesmaids, mom, mother-in-law, and wedding planner. It was a really nice morning and we had a good time but geez.... nothing went right. The food we ordered was wrong, the service was less than stellar, and in the end I was just ready to be done with it. So I shrugged this off as what was going to go wrong with the wedding -- we went ahead and got it out of the way early. I still think everyone had a good time and I (hope) they loved their gifts.

Monday morning before the wedding it started to rain and it rained all day. Tuesday morning it was still raining. And it rained all day. Guess what was going on Wednesday morning? Yep. It was raining and it continued this way until Friday about noon. The entire week. It rained so much that school was canceled Thursday and Friday because the rivers had gotten too high, roads were flooding, and the sewage system at school was down. It was pretty funny watching me and my dad run into stores to pick up his suit & tux, then watching me and my mom dodging rain drops while picking up flowers and ferns for the church. We also had to take all the reception accessories to the City Hotel & Bistro in the rain. What fun! I was so scared that it was going to rain on Saturday ... I mean I did ask God for no hurricanes and for a beautiful day MONTHS. He sent rain the entire week before and a Tropical Storm. He's a pretty funny God.

I was so glad I took off Wednesday - Friday before the wedding. I had a chance to chill out, clean up the house, and run errands with the family. I was not nervous during these days... I was really excited and sat around finding random things to do to fill up the time.

Oh and by the way, the rain began again on Sunday morning as we were flying out of Greenville.

Getting back to it...

So obviously it has been awhile since I blogged and I've thought about all the blog posts I need to do... Over the next few days I'll update cyberspace on our wedding and the awesomeness that was October 2, 2010. And the last minute mishaps and married life after wedding. Enjoy! :)

17 Days...

I swear the last time I looked at the ticker on The Knot we had like 130 days until the wedding. And now all of a sudden we have 17 days until the big day! I'm so excited but so completely stressed out. School is keeping me busy during the day so I don't have the time I'm used to to get things done. After school I'm busy working on Graduate School assignments, making dinner, and spending what little time I can with Blake. I really wish I had more time to update the blog but I just don't.

Next week will be really big for us as we are getting together with the vocalists, musicians, photographer, and DJ. Ahhh! And all the emails with final payments coming due are arriving!

Say a prayer that I can make it through without too many (more) breakdowns.

And we're off to my Bachelorette Party in Myrtle Beach this weekend. I'm stoked! :)

Something Old, Something New..

We've all heard this tradition over and over again but I really hadn't given it much thought until recently and decided it was time I figure out what I was going to do.

Something New -- well that was easy. My dress is new, my necklace and earrings are new, my shoes are new, I mean that's easy. We easily got that covered.

Something Old -- This was hard. I really don't have anything old and what my mom has old didn't fit with my look for the day.... that was until she went jewelry digging. And she found a ring my Nana had given her to give to me when I was grown. Of course I automatically loved it because it was my Nana's (who was the greatest woman ever!) even though it was dingy and dirty from sitting so long. It fit only on my pinky and desperately needed some work. So I dropped it by our favorite jeweler to see what they thought. Within four days I had my something old back --

So the picture's not the greatest but you get the drift. I am excited to have something of my Nana's with me at the wedding.

Something Borrowed -- We're real original here... I'm borrowing a handkerchief from my mom for all those tears.

Something Blue -- I made a blue garter from some lace that I bought at Hancock. It cost all of $1 so I'm stoked.

And today is the official one month countdown until the wedding. From here on out Blake & I can say... "This time next month we'll be married!" We are stoked. And can't wait.

Programs! Programs! Get Your Program!

This is one part I was really hoping to save some money. I was going to do these all by myself and we weren't going to spend all that much on them. But like most everything else with this wedding... I was WRONG!

I created the first program and it was nice, but it was lacking color. So then I was going to cut out some colored cardstock and glue it up there like a border. Yea, like I have time for that. So then we were going to color copy the programs on cardstock. Um... not for $1.09 a copy!

Soooooo while we were at Meghan & Tyler's wedding (and I woke up early one morning freaking out over it!) I thought about checking out Michael's to see what they have. Well they had the exact purple with ribbon that matched and coordinated perfectly! So we found as many 40% and 50% off coupons as we could possibly find and cleared Michael's out. And the one at the beach.

We ended up spending more on the programs that I had originally thought but we're still not too bad since we were able to get them for 40% off. Now I just need to get some child labor students to help me put them together.

Back to School!

Summer is over and I definitely didn't accomplish all that I wanted. (I mean, we REALLY didn't think I'd get everything done, huh?) But we have had a very productive summer. The house has been totally renovated and complete for almost two months now. I'm loving it, I just wish I had more time to clean and keep it looking all nice and new. Most of the wedding stuff is in place. I have all the presents wrapped, plans have been finalized on the reception and most of the music. I have started packing up boxes to take to the City Hotel for the reception & to the church for the ceremony. And the programs have been bought, now all we're waiting on are finalizations on the musicians so we can print the inserts. (Programs are another blog...)

So this weekend we have some big decisions to make -- what music we want/don't want at the reception, what songs we want played as we walk down the aisle, the timeline for the wedding weekend, transportation from the church to the City Hotel, how we're going to get luggage from one place to another... and probably even more that I haven't even thought about! We're going to buy Daddy a new suit for the rehearsal dinner (which is a big deal seeing as how he hasn't had a new suit since he married my mom!!) and I'm excited about that.

I am back to teaching full time now and in school part time. My weeks are full of lesson planning and research on middle grades students. There's very little time for wedding planning but that's ok. Right now, my students are the most important thing in my life. The wedding will take care of itself (wow... that's definitely not like me to think that!) and I've delegated some very responsible people to take care of all the little things that are going to go on.

We're Legal!

Blake & I went today and got our marriage license!! I know we're still 52 days out but since that's something that we have to do TOGETHER during the hours of 8 and 4:30 before the wedding.... we decided to go ahead and get it done before school starts back. There's no way I can get back to Greenville before 4:30 and that's prime sleep time for Blake. So we went ahead and got it all done. Now all we have to do on October 2 is say the vows, get it signed, and we're legal!!

We also finished up pre-marital counseling today and I guess that means we got the go ahead to get married! yay! We talked through the ceremony with the minister, selected our scripture, and worked out some of the details.

Final decisions were made about the reception and decor on Monday when we met with the florist and reception coordinator. I'm glad those things are done and everybody's on the same page. Bridesmaids and Groomsmen gifts have been purchased now we just have to get them wrapped. We're now down to the little details like greeters and such.

We leave Friday for our beach getaway and to get Meghan & Tyler married! We're so excited and can't wait to share their special day with them!! :)

New House - Final Update

So we've been done with the condo renovations for about three weeks and I've failed to post updated pictures. Remember this? Yea, not so fantastic. But now... how about this:

Master Bed & Bath -- Didn't do much to the bath, just new shelf objects

Guest Bath - After a few fiascos with paint, we ended up with the same color

Guest Bedroom/Office/Wedding & All Else Storage Room

You like Blake's transition to the city with his deer? At least it's not in my living room. As soon as we have a big house, it's going in the man cave. And like my MOH dress? T minus 12 days until Meghan & Tyler's wedding! :)

And now for the biggest transformation...

The Living Room (Without a rug... a big transition for Paisley)

The Kitchen

Look at that granite!Dining Area - LOVE that rug!Blake's new toy. My wedding staging area near the guest wing

Right after the furniture was delivered. Paisley & Lilly immediately made it their own!

So what do you think? We are enjoying it so far. It's definitely the last of any remodel/redecoration in our near future. We're not renovating again until we buy our real first home. For now, at least we have more of a grown up house instead of a just thrown together college apartment :)

"This Ring ain't something that I mean to give you and then take back.."

Blake & I went awhile back to pick out my wedding band and since the price of gold keeps going up we went ahead and bought it. So I've had my band sitting around staring at me and every now and then I'll go play dress up just like I did when I was a kid.. :) Picking out my band was the easy part because it matched my engagement ring. None of the others even looked right with my e-ring because of the way it curves down. Now picking out Blake's ring was another story. We looked once and left. We looked again and left. And finally on the third time I told Blake that he HAD to pick a ring. He put them on and off and on and off and on and off... omg! He finally picked a ring and I love it! It is really fitting for his personality and (if it ever gets worn) it'll look good. (It's normal to me for men not to wear wedding bands, my dad hardly ever wore his growing up because of his job.) So it'll definitely be an adjustment for Blake come October 2 (and I doubt he'll play dress up with his ring) but we have another  check off the list!

my ring and then my ring with the engagement ring

Blake's band.

DIY

Because I am one awesome bride (and because I've planned this wedding aka stalked The Knot since I was 14) I already had tons of DIY (Do It Yourself) things planned when Blake proposed. Well ... life got in the way and I realized just how long all of these projects would take so many went by the wayside. But there were a few projects that weren't too time consuming that I attempted. I've finished most of the projects (because they HAVE to be done by the first day of school!) and I thought I'd share...

Card Box ... and the smiling girl does not come with. That's just how full the guest room is!

The beginnings of the Candy Buffet. Still on the hunt for purple candy.... hmmmm...

Ooopps! Too lazy to switch it around but the goody bags for the candy buffet.

Letters for the church doors.

Bathroom Baskets

My Garters. The blue one is my something blue and to toss (for now) and the ECU one... well that's self explanatory.

Soo that's pretty much all I have done so far. Hopefully this weekend will be productive in the wedding category. Tux fittings and bridesmaids alterations! fun fun!!

You've Got Mail!

Invitations arrived last Wednesday so I've been anxiously waiting for the cardstock to arrive to print out directions cards and get these suckers in the mail... well we're done now! The better part of my Tuesday and Wednesday went into getting these invitations stuffed, sealed, and hopefully soon delievered! There's a lot more that goes in to these things... like printing out close to 200 envelopes each with a different address. And then stuffing and placing things in the envelopes in the correct order. And stamping the reply envelope and the outer one.. whew!

This is what my coffee table looked like --


And no I didn't lick each and every envelope. I'm smarter than that -- I glue sticked them close! And hopefully everybody will be able to still open them...

Pre-Marital Counseling

ohhh that title freaks me out a little. I mean really... we haven't even gotten married yet and we're in counseling?!? Being the daughter of a family law attorney there's one thing I know... marriage isn't easy. It's definitely not something I go into lightly because I know it's a lot of work and we both have to be dedicated. She's always told me that the two major things that break up a marriage are a lack of communication and money. I've always valued these things most in my relationship with Blake.

Soo we are required to be counseled before we get married. It may sound weird but it's definitely important I believe. We decided to meet with my minister, Paul, who has been at my church since I was 6. He's also marrying us. I feel it's more important to meet with Paul instead of some random old white guy because he has a vested interest and has seen me grow up.

Right before walking into church tonight Blake said, "I don't know how I'm going to like this." I told him to be honest--it's a lot easier to be honest than to lie and have to constantly cover it up. So we met and discussed how Blake & I met, what our normal lives are like, and our conflict management skills. The number one thing that came out of the meeting was that it was incredibly important for us to continue "dating." This means to go out on dates together at a specific time, preferably weekly. We do this a little bit but it's not a set in stone thing. As life goes on it will be more important to have our dates because as kids and life gets in the way, we can't let that affect our relationship. Our one hour session was over quickly and as we left Blake said, "That wasn't so bad."

"Never Let Your Praying Knees Get Lazy... And Love like Crazy"

Growing up one of the no, the number one thing I was looking for in a husband was that he was a Christian. (And then he had to be a baseball player, had to love sports, had to look good, had to treat me like a princess, and love my family... I'm not demanding at all!) So one of the first things established between Blake & me was that Jesus Christ was our Lord and Savior and that we lived our lives for Him. (I remember one of our first phone calls.. because that's how we rolled... Blake said something about winning the lottery and the first thing he would do would be to give 10% to his church. I knew I had a winner!) It's really no surprise that when planning our wedding that our ceremony--the part where we witness before God, our family, and friends of our love for all--would be the most important. And here's some of what we've decided...

-The ceremony will be long. Not Sunday worship long but longer than the "zip zap we're married." Expect to be there about 45 minutes. After all, this is the part where God's putting us together as one, do we really want to rush that? And we're having communion. ALL of us! Jesus Christ died for all of us, not just Blake & me and not just our wedding party. He died for all of our sins so that one day we can be with Him.

-We will be corny and play the corny Canon in D. It just gives me gooseeeybumps and I love it!

-Continuing with the cornyness, one of our scripture will be the Corinithians' "Love is patient, love is kind..." It just explains what love is.

-We have two people who are really important in our lives singing -- a college friend of mine and a family friend from Blake's childhood church.

We're still working out all the little details but the big stuff is done. I've been working on the program today (only 5 pages long so far!) and I'll make those sometime before the October 2.

The honour of your presence is requested...

After a few delays and discussions we've ordered the invitations. They will be simple yet elegant (the theme of this wedding) white with pearlized border. The inner invitations will have a purple liner that gives the little bit of color that I wanted on the invitations.

What do you think? I mean, without all the blackouts to protect what little bit of privacy I have. And the Post Office is sooo good to come out with the most perfect stamps just in time for my wedding.. I mean obviously someone must have told them that purple love stamps were an absolute necessity...

How freakin' perfect?!? We ordered like a million of those to use for all the stamps that we'll need in the next month or so.

Sooo for now we're waiting until the invitations are printed then mailed to us. I'm hoping they'll be here by the first of August so I can get them out by August 4th. That's my goal date. We'll see how we do!

What's For Dinner?

Momma & I went to the City Hotel the other day and sat down with the event planner to discuss the menus and decor for the reception. Of course after absolutely being shell-shocked by the price of everything (I mean, Blake & I don't spend $35 per person for a nice dinner... why would we spend that for our wedding?!?) we finally decided on a menu for our buffet (yes, not a seated dinner, sorry kids)...

Tossed Greens Salad, Chicken Breast Forentine, Broccoli, Bacon & Cheddar Salad, Sweet Pea & Carrot Salad, Twice Baked Potato, and Green Bean Amandine.

Now, I was looking at most of the stuff on the menu we could choose from and had no clue what it was. I know if I didn't know what it was there was little likelihood that Blake would know what it was much less eat it. And now that wouldn't be cool would it?

The one entree option serves two purposes: 1. It's cheaper but 2. It cuts down on the amount of food wasted. I can't stand to see food thrown away and that's what would happen because people would put it on their plates and not be able to eat it. I hate that.

The Twice Baked Potato is in honor of Blake and his love of potatoes. And the salad is in honor of my mom... because basically that's all she eats.

So come hungry ya'll! There'll be plenty of food and drinks... yes drinks. More on that later :)

Bridal Portraits

Thank God it didn't rain today. When I first checked today's weather (like 10 days ago, thank you 10 Day Forecast on weather.com) it said there was a 60% chance of rain. And then it was 40% and then 20%. I mean 20% is still a one in five chance but come on, this is Eastern North Carolina. And it's summer. And I'm pretty sure that every summer day in ENC has a 30% chance of rain. So to sum it up, it didn't rain today and I'm grateful.

I got started early and had me some Bojangle's because we all know that's what brides should be eating to fit into that dress... and then went to have my hair did. My hair is not very cooperative being it is super fine and thin and does not agree with humidity. It took 3 hours to do my hair which put us super late getting to Bath. But we got there and Aunt Sylvia and Mrs. Dawn helped me in to my dress. Momma was sidelined but did her best to capture pictures. Ginny was fabulous and went with Aunt Sylvia to find places to take pictures.

Have I mentioned how much I love Ginny? She's great! We took some pictures next to a weeping willow tree (how much more Southern can we get?!?) then in a beautiful yard, by an old church, and then at the point looking out on the river. OHHHH! And then we took a picture next to Uncle Jamie's tractor. Blake had the idea to get me on my daddy's tractor but the logistics just didn't work so Uncle Jamie's was easier. But all the adult women (yea, I'm not an adult yet) thought it was just horrible for me to get on a tractor in my wedding dress.... so we compromised and I'm in front of it. I think they might be some of my favorites.

I can't wait to see the pictures but it's definitely a big secret to keep them from Blake.. he's going to love them!

Cake, Invitations, & More!

I feel really productive this week! We've done well getting the house together and I've actually gotten some wedding work accomplished!

Monday after I left school (and signed my contract for another year with BCS!) I met Mrs. Dawn to look at invitations. We found one we both loved pretty quickly but finding the font was the hard part. After a few discussions and phone calls to The Momma, we agreed on the wording and hopefully the font will turn out beautiful. We're waiting on the samples to be sure of exactly what we want.

Blake, his mom, and I met with Aimie of Aimie's Sweet Treats in Robersonville Wednesday morning to discuss our wedding cake. I'm a plain and simple kind of gal (really? My mom begs to differ.) so we're going to have a pretty plain and simple kind of wedding cake. It's going to be white cake (who dislikes that?!?) with white icing. There will be 6 layers (yea, I'm a little extravagant) and each one will be decorated with a different white icing piping design. Daddy has to build us a pedestal that we will cover with a table cloth and adorn with flowers and maybe lights. What got me was that the pedestal has to be able to hold at least 100 pounds! OMG! Over 100 pounds of cake! Ya'll better come with your sweet teeth in hand to eat all that cake!

Then we went to Smithfield (because I mean, I needed to spend some more money after the cake and invitations this week...) where I found the jars for our candy buffet. I'm pretty stoked about this. As much as my daddy and I love candy, I had to throw in the candy buffet. We'll probably be hanging out over there instead of at the actual food buffet.

"New" House Update

We are almost two weeks in to our Complete Condo Renovation 2010 and we can kind of sort of see some progress. Sort of.

It's really hard to see progress when your main living area looks like this...

and this...

But we have the two bedrooms painted and I LOVE them! We painted the Master a light sage green on two walls then a gray-creamy color on the other two. We're not exactly interior designers but it's not overwhelmingly green. It will go beautifully with our new bedspread and bed. The guest room is a very crisp, clean blue gray.

 And do you notive that white crown molding up next to the ceiling?!? How about that! A childhood friend and neighbor of ours came over yesterday and put up the molding in the two bedrooms. We are so excited about that! He did a great job and we think it really makes the room.

My dad came over Tuesday afternoon and worked with Blake on our BEST addition so far... 

OMG! I am SOOO excited! When we first moved in I didn't think a microwave over the stove was a possibility because there wasn't already one... and I mean why would people NOT want to save countertop space? Well, 2 years later I finally got Blake to buy me one... so bye bye old yellowed microwave that doesn't rotate..

and HELLO more counter space and Kitchen Aid mixer! I'm soo excited...

So let's visit the check list..

Paint Master BR ... check

Paint Guest BR ... check

Order Carpet ... check

Order Countertops ... check (plus more to come on these!)

Crown Molding ... check

New Microwave ... check

Measure Carpet ... check

Install Carpet

Measure Countertops

Install Countertops

Buy Blake's TV ... check

Install Blake's TV

Buy Furniture ... mostly check

New Water Heater

Potty Train Lilly so she doesn't mess up the new carpets .... 1/4 of a check :/