2 days...!!!

3 freakin' days

Ahhhhhh, 3 days :)

Yesterday my co-workers threw me a lovely shower after hours in our office in Rock Hill. They are some of the sweetest women you will ever meet, not to go without mentioning the two guys we have on staff they're not too bad either. They gave us more than we needed and I am once again reminded of how God has blessed us with such wonderful people in our lives right now! Just a few pictures since I'm waiting on my mom to send me the rest but for now a teaser...

Lisa made me this incredible cake, and you would never know she taught herself how to decorate huh?

The food was beyond words! I got two recipes while there for a camel apple dip and cucumber sandwiches and I can't wait to make them for any party we may have coming up :)

I'm getting things marked off of my To Do list slowly and quickly really all at once, it's a process for sure. Tonight I'm meeting with Pastor Dennis to go over my nerves and over our vows and itinerary for the weekend. I'm hoping I get to see J tonight for longer than an hour. That's about how much I've seen him since Sunday.He's stressing with work, a lot of things have shifted over to him this week and he feels very stretched. Yesterday he started his day at 4:15 driving to a job site about 3 hours away from Camp Legune and then headed to Camp Legune to another job site. He didn't get home til 8:30 and since I'm not at the house I didn't see him. Please pray for him to have a great end to his week so he can relax on our honeymoon.

Tomorrow morning Mom, Allie and I are making the cupcakes for the wedding. Then once that's done I'm going to continue on with wrapping presents, finishing the slide show, filling salt and pepper shakers, packing, cleaning up our house and possibly helping my Mother in Law decorate for the rehearsal dinner if she'll let me. She kind of wants it to be a surprise!

I finished the itinerary. I've purchased buns, condiments and drinks. I've scanned a million pictures in for our slide show. I've worked two full days at work and made sure our wedding announcement is in the newspaper and applied for our marriage license! It's been a busy week and it's only Wed. BUT 3 days til I'm a married woman, I CANNOT WAIT!

I'm off to lunch now with my manager!

Wedding Week!

Wedding week is here bloggers! Just a quick run down of the week's festivities:

1. Monday night- buying the remainder of the food for the reception with Missy!
2. Tuesday night- my co-workers are throwing me one last shower :)
3. Wednesday night- wrap presents with J, pack for honeymoon and then meet with Pastor Dennis to work out any kinks we might have.
4. Thursday: Make cupcakes with Mom, decorate rehearsal dinner hall with the Mother in Law and meet with the DJ.
5. Friday: Decorate the reception hall and wedding venue, run to get Shea to fix my hair for the rehearsal dinner, head to the rehearsal then to the rehearsal dinner!!
6. Saturday: Hair, makeup, lunch, get dressed, pictures and then it's WEDDING TIME!

Hope that everyone had a blessed Easter Sunday. He is Risen, He is Risen INDEED! I love our church, we experienced Easter service in 3D yesterday at Elevation! They did a phenomenal job, the message was incredible! Pastor Steven preached on:

Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”


We decided that we're going to church next Sunday before we head on the Honeymoon as a great way to start our marriage :) The new series they're starting next week is called Mr. & Mrs. Better Half, we've very excited about it and to see what God has to show us!

After church and lunch with my side of the family, I dropped J off at Dana and Patrick's to help Patrick finish up staining their deck.

Buddy and Tucker FINALLY got to meet yesterday, they loved each other! Hopefully they'll have many more play dates over the summer :)

I  made Chicken Parmesan from scratch except for the sauce (from a jar) last night. I must say I was impressed with myself, J was thrilled since I've never made anything like this before!

Work is going to be crazy busy over the next three days but I've decided I can't get stressed about it, whatever I dont' get done will just be here when I get back! I can't wait to see all of my girls together this week and for the whole wedding to play out, God's going to handle it all for me and I'm praying for minimal stress!
Countdown: 5 days!

8 days

8 days... honestly this countdown is not helping me at all. I'm just ready for next Saturday to be here, yesterday.

Work has been crazy busy and so have things at home. Last night Buddy was sick, again. He threw up everywhere in the living room since he's been eating more and more crap he's not supposed to. So, we decided I better sleep at the new house on the couch with him instead of going back to my apartment. Good thing we decided that, God knew what was going to happen, Buddy woke up at 5 throwing up again. Praise the Lord we have tile everywhere downstairs!

I feel exhausted. I haven't been sleeping well. Super strange dreams and the ridiculously weird weather have been keeping me awake. I sleep for about 3-4 hours and then I am wide awake.

Finally, if all goes according to plan my things will be moved out of the apartment tonight. This has been stressing me out to say the very least. I just want to get it done and be done with the apartment by Sunday night so that next week I will NOT have to worry about it.

I'm guessing that all brides felt like this the week before the wedding? Kind of that 'I'm so ready for this to be here and over' feeling. I don't by any means want to wish it away, but I do want it to just be here already so I can be married to my best friend and so the stress will go away. I'm ready for the honeymoon.

Mom framed our engagement picture for the wedding and my bridal portrait as well! They look fantastic, I can't wait for J to see my bridal portrait or me in my dress for that matter :) If you're looking to print off picutres look no further than iprintfromhome, they do fabulous work and the prints were to me within 5 days of my order processing not to mention super cheap, with shipping for the two pictures it was $22. I framed my bridal portrait and engagement portrait for $61 total, that includes the cost to print the pictures too! Thank you Ikea and iprintfromhome for making this possible! PS See my sweater up there? I love it, I discovered my dog ate the buttons off of it this morning when I tried it on to wear today. I love that dog, I swear I do...

10 days

Last night was spent putting together our programs, praise the Lord J knows how to use a paper cutter. I am terrible at them as we learned last night. I had a glass of the Big Fire Pinot Noir thanks to our friend Kasey, it was fantastic and I recommend it! It made me really sleepy though :) but I think that's a combination of the wine and how little sleep I've been getting! I ran out of glue while putting the programs together so I'll be finishing up the last of the programs this weekend.

 My SoleMates were waiting on me when I got home last night! I can't wait to use them on the wedding day, they're supposed to make it so that your heel doesn't sink into the ground/grass if you're wearing stilettos. Fingers crossed they're going to work! I got Mom some too since she's wear some pretty fancy shoes too :) I'll give you bloggers my full review after the wedding.

10 freakin' days! So, so, so exciting! It's been really hard to focus at work, even my manager asked me today how I'm able to do it. No idea, I'm just trying to sure up everything at work and what doesn't happen will be waiting on me when I get back.  My rehearsal dinner dress came in and so did J's shirt as well, CAN NOT WAIT FOR NEXT WEEK!

A few pictures from my Bridesmaid Rachel's Bachlorette party this past weekend... be proud, I was the DD!

11 days

I can't believe it's only 11 days away! J decided we're moving all of my stuff on Thursday of this week, I think he knows that I'm stressing out about moving.

Things I've learned so far while planning and things to note:

1. I suck at invitations. I wish I could have sent out an email invitation but that wasn't possible. It seems like there are so many steps, print them, stuff them, seal them, address them, return address them, stamp them... ugh. Not my favorite thing to do during the planning of our wedding.
2. Keep all of your wedding stuff in one place NOT in 3 different places, I can't find the Mother's presents right now!
3. Everyone needs a dog or a pet, something that loves them unconditionally. It really helps when you're stressed, believe me.
4. When you're husband to be says he wants to help plan the wedding, what he really means is that he wants you to make him feel involved but doesn't care what the wedding is about as long as he gets to marry you at the end of the day.
5. Picking out music is tricky for a reception.
6. Give your mom a project during the wedding that is strictly hers. Trust me on this.
7. Time flies when you're engaged, while at first it may seem like its dragging, plan, plan, plan, buy, buy, buy, finish all projects early. I can't believe it's been 7 months already.
8. Esty.com is a God send for people on a budget.
9. Learn to delegate. This is something I learned in college that has helped me out.
10. Buying things online is the best way to get stuff for your wedding- it's like Christmas morning every time you check the mail. I LOVE it. Speaking of, check out what came in the mail today....

Things left to do:

1. Programs
2. Decorate ceremony site and reception hall
3. Meeting with DJ
4. Send list to photographer
5. Finish up the Itinerary
6. SAMS CLUB with Missy
7. Buy Fine Point Sharpie, twine and roses the day of

Overwhelmed

I have so much going on right now it's ridiculous. I have to take care of a lot of things at work before vacation which is kind of stressing me out to say the least. I have two HUGE deadline's that are hitting while I'm on our honeymoon and I MUST make goal for both of these pieces.

This past weekend J and I packed up more stuff from the apartment to take over to the new house, this included food so therefore I only have cereal at the apartment now :) And Buddy has officially moved into the new house as well, I was lonely without him last night. Tonight and Wednesday I'm packing up my clothes, shoes and other items for the final move into the new house this weekend. I'll be a gypsy for a few days and stay at different houses every night til the night before the wedding when my bridesmaids and I take over the house!

Mom and I made a list of stuff to finish before the wedding and the list is a lot longer than I anticipated which isn't good. It's just a TON of little things and getting things together before next Friday when we go and decorate. I still can't believe our wedding is next week! These past 7 months have gone by a lot quicker than I thought that they would. I think moving is stressing me out more than the wedding at this point since it's taken so long. Pray for me not to stress!

Life

A lot of life living and growing up has been happening the past few days and the wierd thing is that I haven't blogged about it.

Work: Had a huge 'faux' presentation to a big wig for online in our company and from what I've heard I nailed it! This has inspired me to be a better sales rep, it's sort of re-lite my fire, I know that our Honeymoon will also help this!

Wedding: According to my count down on my phone we are 16 days away from D-day haha.

J: He's heading to VA Beach again today, actually right now, for a meeting in the AM then heading back home! I'll miss him, so thankful that my dog can keep me company. I can't wait to marry J either, so so so excited!

House: We put in a ceiling fan and got a fridge this week! I found the fridge on Craigslist for $375, a steal since it's 6 years old and virtually brand new.

Ooo La La

Haley at Carolina Belle awarded me the Stylish Blogger Award this weekend :)

I was super excited to see that this morning, thank Haley!

1. Link back and thank the person who gave it to you.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Award 5 stylish blogs you read.

4. Contact them and tell them about their award!

7 Things About Me

1. I love my dog Buddy.
2. I can't not eat fries when I go out to eat, especially with Ranch.
3. I'm obsessed with checking Style Me Pretty and Etsy daily.
4. I'm an account executive for the newspaper here in Rock Hill although I'd rather be in Grad School.
5. I love our church Elevation, the only thing I wish is that they would put a campus closer to us.
6. J and I have been together for 2 years, 3 months and 6 days as of today! We're getting hitched in 18 days!
7. I love our new house in Rock Hill and can't wait to fully move into it!

I am tagging:

1. Sheila at There Sheila goes... with Cody
2. Amber at The Not So Average 20 Something
3. Stephanie at The Antisocialite
4. Stacey at Living on Love
5. Jessi at The Crippin Adventure



She sat right here on the sofa

Yesterday was a completely crazy busy day and today is shaping up to be about the same. I finished up the 'Thank You' cards and I printed out the rehearsal dinner invites and addressing them, they're going in the mail today! They look great, I'm very pleased with them :)

Nikki came over and we ended up going and getting sushi from the new Asian place across the street from Winthrop. Sushi was pretty good, the price was even better. It's no Red Bowl but when I have a hankering for sushi and not much money I'll be heading there. 

Buddy got his stitches out of his tail today but sadly he still has to be a cone head for the next 5 days. He's at mom's right now til I'm off of work. J comes home today and I can't wait to see him!!

About to head to a meeting for work, fingers crossed the client buys!

Big Fire

So, I've narrowed down almost all of the music for the wedding and I'm happy with my choices. Stephanie gave me some recommendations that I really liked. She's a music fanatic in a good way, check out her blog and you'll see what I mean :) I'm lacking two songs 1.) Song to play during communion 2.) song to play as the wedding party exits the ceremony. Suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Today has moved really slow. Come on Thursday, bring me Friday!

My hand is probably going to fall off, I'm going to finish up the 'Thank You' cards and address all of the rehearsal dinner invites tonight. Wish me luck.

I really need to grocery shop but since I'm in the midst of moving and such so it's hard. This weekend I'm packing up my kitchen, bathroom stuff, book shelf and decor from the rest of the apartment and taking it over to the new house. I figure the next weekend I can pack up most of my room minus my bed and few essential clothes. It's kind of weird to be moving out of the apartment, it's the longest I've lived in one place since I went to college.

I went to dinner with some fabulous ladies at Six Pence Pub in Baxter, I had the Bar Nacho's. They were incredible and I had enough left over to eat for lunch today. They were so sweet to take me out to dinner to celebrate the wedding, it was very relaxing and also fun to be able to talk about the wedding with people and just gush about how excited I am! Kasey even brought me some red wine called 'Big Fire' haha, she wanted to find a bottle that would be romantic and wedding type and she and an older lady in the store thought that 'Big Fire' represented it well :) I'll let you know how it is, it's Pinot Noir I've never had it!

Disaster

While most of York County was still experiencing a power disater of their own all day yesterday, my disaster didn't start until after work... this is kind of how things went down:

1.) I walked into the house to let Buddy out only to find this- Our Laundry room and all of it's contents demolished by our dog's teeth. He ate the BRAND new blind's J had installed a few days prior.

2.) So after I was able to take in the laundry room, I let Buddy out to potty and he drug me through the mud in my Black High Heel Pumps to see our new neighbors. I literally came out of my shoes has he drug me since he weighs almost 1/2 as much as I do.

3.) While loading everything into the car except Buddy (he had mud on his paws), Buddy decided to jerk me to see the neighbors again and I dropped my phone and it demolished the screen. My screen looks like a spider spun a web on it... I cried, a lot. (Side note: J came to the rescue and took me to Sprint and I'm getting a new one today when I get off, he always takes care of me.)

There were a few other things that happened which made the day even crazier but my night was not the fun night I had thought it was going to be. No wedding stuff got done at all. When we got home, I took some night time medicine, made J some dinner and went to bed praying that today would be better.

So far so good today, but then again it's only 11:09 am. J left this morning at 4 for his business trip to Savannah and Virginia Beach. He'll be gone til late Friday night. This is the first time we've been apart since he got the job at here at home. It'll be strange without him for the next few days.

Pray for us, things are stressful right now and there is a lot going on with work, wedding, dog and a house. I can't wait til the wedding gets here and we get a vacation! 24 days :)

Power Outage

At 2AM I woke up to the weirdest noise and when I finally completely woke up I figured out that my blinds were crashing and thrashing back and forth because the wind was ridiculous. I went to close the window and saw there was a thunderstorm out and my first thought was, "Why hasn't Buddy woken up already since it's so loud in here? Andddd... tomorrow is going to be a rain boots kind of day for sure." Well, I forgot Buddy slept at the new house with J, so I was all alone. Luckily the storm didn't freak me out and I went back to sleep quickly.

Power lines in River Hills in Lake Wylie- right across the street from my office.

Thank you heraldonline.com for the photo.

On Tuesday's we always have our sales meetings in Rock Hill so I wasn't aware til my Mom called that the power was out in York, Clover and Lake Wylie. This storm definitely did a lot of damage. Clover Schools are shut down because of no power. My poor Dad went to work without a shower and my Mom might be be heading to our new house to shower in a bit. My office in LW doesn't have power, so I'm working out of the York office today which has totally thrown off my schedule I had in mind for today.

Since the storm has thrown me off and all of my meetings have been cancelled since none of my businesses have power I'm in full on wedding mode right now. I'm trying to find an online company to print my bridal portrait and engagement portrait for the wedding. Start working on the programs and filling out the sheet Sheila sent me oh so long ago to give to everyone. I'm actually writing out everything that has to be done that I can think of and praise the Lord, the list isn't as long as I thought it was going to be. It's just a lot of finalizing everything. With how busy we've been with the house, I haven't done much work on the wedding in the past few weeks. Thankfully, I did a lot of planning WAYYYY a head of time. Wish me luck as we're getting so close, I don't want to stress out and I don't want to be bridezilla!

Progress

So, I started on my seemingly endless list of 'Thank You' cards last night. I got about 15 done and then J brought me some Chinese food and that was the end of the cards for last night. I'm going to start on the rest of them tonight and tomorrow. My hand hurts today from writing so much already.

Over the weekend I feel like we got a ton accomplished on the house. Friday night was a lazy night of family time with my mom, grandma and Carson. They brought us BBQ and we all enjoyed our tester cake for the wedding as a dessert! It was fabulous :) I'm so pleased with how it will look and taste. We watched The Pacifier and J passed out on the couch. Saturday, bright and early, J and I headed to Lowe's and picked up outlet and light covers, a new fan for the living room, gas can and mirror for the powder room. The mirror for the powder room completed the look we were going for in there and we've decided not to change out the pedestal sink and save a few dollars. Saturday night we ended up at Dana and Patrick's to watch some of the Final 4 basketball games and which was a lot of fun since I got to hold Baby Whit for a while! Don't get any idea's, no babies for a long time. We're not ready even the slightest little bit. Sunday we went to church and learned about God's Purpose, watch the sermon online at www.elevationchurch.org. After church we headed to get the trailer from J's parents house to pick up our new washer and dryer and furniture from my Grandma's. Well, I didn't help with the furniture since I was at Rachel's Bridal Shower! It was so fun to see and meet all of her family and close friends, she got all kinds of goodies. Can't wait for her wedding in September! We did yard work in the afternoon and J became better acquainted with our new neighbor Alan, he helped rip up our bushes and sawzaw our Leland Cypress trees. We have a whole NEW yard now, it's ridiculous! Can't wait to plant grass in the fall and get some flowers planted.

This past weekend didn't fly by like normal which was a nice change honestly, I think God knows I've wanted time to slow down for a while now. 3 1/2 weeks til I'm off of work for the wedding! Happy Monday to all you bloggers :)

29 days

We got our Paula Dean Pots and Pans in the mail yesterday from Target, only problem is that I don't know who sent them to us off of our registry? Weird but hey they're super nice and I can't wait to use them!

I can't believe today is Friday already, I swear yesterday was just Tuesday. I'm thankful for the busy and productive week with work but I've been slack about wedding stuff. I need to address the Rehearsal Dinner invites and send them out and I need to design our programs and put them together, with the little things I've become the queen of procrastination.

This weekend we don't have much planned which is nice so maybe we can continue putting the house together like we want it. My Grandma and mom are bringing us dinner tonight and coming to see the house, I'm really excited since Grandma hasn't seen it yet she's the only one that hasn't  been able to.

I'm supposed to go see Dana, Baby Whit and Carey after work today! I can't believe Whit is already two weeks old... why is time going so fast?

Buddy is doing well, eating like he should and the vet was pleased with his progress. I ran into one of the nurses at the tanning bed today and she said they all loved him up there and he was very well behaved. We're so lucky to have him I'm biased of course in saying we have the best dog ever haha I wanted to squeeze him to death kind of like the little girl did in Despicable Me when she said "It's sooo FLUFFFYYYYY!" So glad he's home, it was strange without him for four days.

Question of the day: What to buy for my Dad and Father in Law for the wedding? Thoughts?