Married Life is Awesome!

That title was stolen entirely from my husband- my HUSBAND! That's JB! ;) And that's what he is now! It's just so fun to say!  But I have to say that I completely agree! Being married to your best friend is wonderful!!

Some of the ups!

1. Not having to go home! It's like one long sleep over with your bestie ;).. only he is a boy
2. Learning to cook- So far: green bean/ bacon bundles, fried chicken, and sweet potatoes
3. Wearing wedding bands!
4. Learning each other's quirks- amazingly we didn't know everything about each other! even after dating   for almost a decade! imagine that.
5. Deciding how to decorate/ arrange/ clean our apartment together!

Some of the downers...

1. We don't have a dish washer- but we take turns doing kitchen duty!
2. Our dinner plates from the registry don't fit in the microwave.. bummer.
3. Paying bills, which means we have to go to work everyday (but we are so thankful for our great jobs!)


We feel so blessed and completely "blissful" if you will, to be finally married. The wedding was wonderful and we were able to celebrate it with many people we love.  Now we are busy settling into the apartment, jobs, and living life together. And we are having a blast! :)

Me vs. Society

Tanning, teeth whitening, exercising, pedicures, manicures, makeup consultations, hair run-throughs, fussing over the wedding dress, practicing my walk in the wedding heels, learning to use hair spray with the hot rollers, practicing my gel eye liner, and researching the best lip gloss.... This has been my life lately!! And I feel so VAIN!!!  I think this is the way our society prepares for a wedding though. And I have fallen into the madness of it all. Well, I have decided to enjoy it as much as I can, and then never do many of these things again- Take that society ha!! (Except the occasional pedi- they are my fav... and I guess I should exercise too).  For some reason, I like being oppositional, even if they are things I would normally like doing occasionally. (Shout out to L.G.!) Just one of my many quirks I guess.

Seriously though, this past week has been such a blur.  Sweet family has come in town to visit and we are having a blast being busy together.  I can't believe this chapter of my life is almost over.  I am trying to enjoy every minute and not get stressed at the same time.  I am excited to sit back and soak it all in- hopefully I can get away for a little while between now and Saturday.  Because the reality is, this is a HUGE covenant. With my GOD, as well as JB. It is one of the biggest promises I will make in my lifetime.  Sometimes I feel like that movie- 13 going on 30. I feel like I'm still so young, just living in an older version of me's body.  Anyone feel like this too?

I can honestly say, however, that with my sweet Savior and loving husband-to-be, I am not afraid. I am conscious that times will be difficult, but I know with these two best friends, I will be able to keep my promise and be faithful to the Lord.  With HIM, I can live the "good" life, not according to society's definition, but according to God's.  And that, I am truly excited about! Serving with John is better than serving by myself any day.  Marriage- here I come!

Weird/Surreal/Exciting!!!

I have had weird moments throughout my day today. Moments when I had to remind myself that my wedding is only a week away! Here are some of the things that have dawned on me lately.

You know your wedding day is getting close when...

1. The big date is in the 7 day forecast.
2. The expiration date on the milk is after your wedding date.
3. You have to inform people your name will soon be changing and you will need to edit your profile/mailing info/personal info/ etc. in the near future.
4. You only have one more Friday/Saturday night as a "single" person.
5. When telling others when the wedding is, you simply say "Saturday" without having to specify the date! Because it's Saturday of THIS week!

AHHH! I am nervous and happy and excited and amazed that the day is getting near!!!

Christmas has arrived at our apartment!

Tonight I went over to the apartment to unload of few other things. My parents decided to go since they haven't seen the place unpacked.  So while my dad made himself comfortable on the couch and watched a hunting show, my mom and I took down all the tree decorations and started over! I am so surprised what a little garland, more lights, and glittery ornaments can do to a skinny little tree! 

A bow I made to go over our sink! I love this netting/garland!

Super easy wreath- I just wrapped the green garland around a twig wreath from Hobby Lobby ($5). I even added some pearls I found! 

Our tree!!! :) 

The kitchen/dining room.

Here is our antique rocking chair and sewing machine table.  Next goal is to purchase some curtains for the window and figure out a way to hide that ugly cord!! Ideas?

Our lovely stockings! Sorry Santa, we don't have a mantle. My little green chair will have to do!

Our living room so far! Hopefully it will be a little more decorated next time I take a picture of it :)

Now all we need is for John and I to move in after the wedding! We are so excited!

Life Lately

Whew! I have been so busy lately! Hence the lack of blogging. I have been able to put lots of checks in my Vera Bradley planner, however!!

I have taken a job teaching k-4 starting in January and just finished my five days of training! Looks like every day will be very eventful :) I am so thankful for a job, though, and good people to work with.

Last weekend I had a wonderful time with some of my bridesmaids at our bachelorette party! I absolutely LOVE these ladies and could not be more thankful for their friendship.   We sounded like a bunch of middle school girls giggling the night away, but we will definitely have some life-long memories from the weekend!

John and I started moving stuff into our apartment as well! All the big stuff at least- including our new couch! Which I am so excited about! It is officially the only piece of furniture in the entire apartment that is new, picked out by us, and impractical (due to it's light coloring, it's not very sensible, but I don't care! It's my favorite!).  We unpacked the kitchen and were astonished by how many wonderful utensils and gadgets we have received! So now my goal is to learn how to use them and be a wonderful cook!

And the best is last- we bought our first Christmas tree!!!!!!!!! And it's real! And smells wonderful! And we bought it from a Christmas tree lot where there were lights and a fire in a barrel! John calls me crazy, but I was so happy to have the "full experience".  So we picked the tree out at night, got it to the apartment with two of our very best friends, L and W, and decorated it with our genuine Wal-Mart ornaments.  John let me pick the colors (well, almost- he said no to pink) which were silver, lime green, and "snowflake" blue.  We realized, though, that we only had one strand of lights- and it was a mini strand, which means it wrapped around our skinny tree only 3 times, ha! And the ornaments are on the small size. And the tree has a rather large "hole" in it... Sooooo.. I'm going to see what I can do to spruce it up this weekend! I'll post pictures of the results!

Welcome December!

This morning I happily rolled out of bed, threw on my jeans and t-shirt, and thought to myself "Today is the perfect day to wear my University of Mobile Alumni sweatshirt".  So I threw it on and headed out the door to my closing seminar at UM, where we finalized paperwork and said goodbye to our sweet professors.  I can honestly say that I had a wonderful college experience there.  Transferring was one of the best decisions I ever made! And taking Bro. Craig's advice helped too :). He always said if made friends with/bothered the important people, they could find me scholarship money! 

So tonight I am sitting in front of a blazing fireplace with my family.  We just finished eating a special dinner my mom made in honor of my last official day. I even got to eat on our childhood blue plate.  This was a tradition when Brooke and I were growing up.  Any time we had a special day- it was our birthday, we did well on a test, received some sort of award, etc.- we got to eat our dinner off of the blue plate that night.  John thinks this is a hilarious family quirk, but I love it and plan to do it with my own kids someday.

Speaking of John, bless his heart, he has two, long, grueling weeks of school left.  Then he will be down to his final three engineering classes next semester that he is hoping won't be very difficult.  I am amazed that some of his teachers this semester have NO hearts, compassion, or understanding.  Throughout mine and John's college experiences, it has made me vow to be a good teacher.  Someone who is kind and loves her job.  I am determined to take pride in my work and do what's best for the whole classroom.  If I ever stop doing this, I will be quitting.  I don't ever want to turn into a teacher like John has this semester.  But on the bright side, in a few short months, we will both be graduates and have school behind us! Praise the good LORD.