• Life,  Wedding

    Wedding Wednesday?

    January 21, 2016

    I know, I know it’s Thursday but whatev. After my sad but real post yesterday I thought I d come here and write about something much happier – the wedding! I think I’ve mentioned before I was not one of those girls that had been planning my day for as long as I can remember or anything like that. To be honest, the last wedding I’ve been to I was the flower girl and I was seven. So to say I didn’t even know how to plan a wedding would have been an understatement. I didn’t even know exactly what happened at a wedding!

    Thank God I found this awesome wedding planning checklist which saved me so much research and stress. I printed it out and made a cute little binder and it’s been really helping me know what to do next. So I just thought I’d drop by and share a little bit about what I’ve been planning, the general theme (rustic) of the wedding and what we’ve done vs what we’ve still yet to do.

    To start I thought it’d be a good idea to share a “mood board” I believe they’re called.

    The more I plan, the more excited I get. Those are actually the bridesmaid dresses that I chose, they’re going to alternate colors and I just love that idea. I’m just so excited for the day to be here and all the planning to be done. So far I’ve gotten probably not as much done as I should.

    Venue
    Caterer
    Photographer
    Dress
    Bridesmaid Dresses
    Groom’s Suit
    Groomsman Suits
    Cake
    Flowers
    Centerpieces

    To see a lot of the BIG things like the venue, photographer, and my dresses crossed off makes me feel better but there’s still so much to do! We basically have found a caterer, we just need to finalize it and I have done a lot of research for the cake, flowers, and centerpieces so I’m happy about that. I can’t wait to be able to check off some more things for sure though. It’s going to be here before we know it. 4 months and 1 day!

    This post was actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be to write. I think I may just do it again sometime soon 😉

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  • Faith,  Life

    God’s Still At It (Part 3)

    January 13, 2016

    This is apparently becoming a little series that I think God wants me to document here and it’s becoming quite exciting to say the least. This is a continuation of sorts of basically my life lol but really what God is doing in my life.

    I first wrote about what God was doing here (part 1) when I wrote about how God showed up in a huge way and started leading Tommy down the path of working with his dad, learning to weld. Then I wrote again in September on this subject here (part 2) and shared about when Tommy actually ended up working at the quarry with his dad at night! And now I’m back to share some more news on the subject because God is just too good and I need to make sure I never forget how He answered our prayers.

    All that to say that Tommy’s dad let Tommy know yesterday that he should be able to start at the quarry at the end of the month! The waiting and praying is almost over and Tommy will finally be able to work full time with his dad (instead of just sometimes at night).

    This is super exciting because now Tommy will be able to do something he really enjoys while also allowing us to save more money for the wedding. I can’t believe the first time we really talked about this was all the way back in July and it’s now finally coming to fruition. I’ve been praying for open doors since then and I’m so happy to see how God really cares and answers our prayers.

    I’m so excited for Tommy to start on this new journey at the end of the month. If you wouldn’t mind, please pray for him to do well and to glorify God in the midst of the circumstances. We’re incredibly grateful for what He is doing in our lives.

    PS. I thought I posted this yesterday but just found it in my drafts haha so enjoy 🙂

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  • Life

    Year In Review : 2015 Part 2

    January 6, 2016

    Hi friends I’m back to finish recapping the rest of 2015 (sorry I’m a little slow). The rest of the year was super exciting 🙂

    July

    Every year Tommy’s whole family takes a vacation up to Lake George and this year I got to join them 🙂 We were up there for about a week and it was so much fun. I wrote a blog post about it here.

    August

    In August we got to take another vacation to the Bahamas! It was a graduation present from Tommy and my friend Kristin and it was the best vacation I’ve been on yet. It was so great just relaxing on such a gorgeous beach with Tommy. I can’t wait to do it again on our honeymoon soon, something tells me it’ll even top our Bahamas vacation 😉

    September

    I didn’t realize how much traveling I did in 2015 until I wrote it all out. My whole family took a trip down to Maryland and helped my cousin redo his roof. Those donuts are from the trip – there from a place called The Fractured Prune and they’re the most delicious donuts you’ll ever have. It was also my cousin’s birthday on September 20th and we got to celebrate with her by going out to dinner.

    Tommy also started working with his dad at the quarry this month! This was super exciting for us because at one point we were unsure of if this was where God wanted Tommy and that made us unsure if we were able to really move forward with our relationship. But God led Tommy to this and it was so exciting to see him provide for us in this way. An update on this situation now – Tommy will hopefully be allowed to work full-time with his dad pretty soon and we’re both super excited for that.

    October

    Nothing exciting happened in October but we did go apple picking and made the best apple pie ever 🙂

    November

    In November we celebrated Thanksgiving with both Tommy’s family and mine. It was fun and filled with yummy food!

    December

    engagement ring

    December was the best most yet because I got engaged!! (Which I just realized now I never posted our engagement story yet – oops. I’ll have to get on that this week.) Tommy and I went to a holiday lights festival and he proposed afterwards. I still can’t believe I’m engaged to the greatest guy I know. God is just too good.

     

    It looks like this year was full of family trips and my relationship with Tommy growing exponentially and nothing makes me happier than those two things. I’m so excited for what God is going to do in 2016! I love the fact that I have this little blog to document the big and little things. Thank you to everyone I’ve interacted with and for following along with me 🙂

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  • Life

    Year In Review: 2015

    January 2, 2016

    Even though I haven’t been blogging all year I still want to take the time to recap the last year – mostly to have as a reminder of what 2015 was to me. I can’t believe that I’ve been blogging for 6 months. I’m the type of person who starts things and then once the initial excitement has worn off I usually end up quitting whatever it was. I’m really happy that blogging wasn’t like that though and I hope that through 2016 God can use me to show others who He is. I’m also really excited to document Tommy and I’s first year of marriage together on this little blog too. But enough of that, let’s look back on 2015. (Btw I have a terrible memory and the way that I’m doing this is by going through pictures in my phone and whatever I remember from that I’m going to recap.)

    January

    IMG_5180

    In January we celebrated Tommy and I’s birthdays. Tommy’s is January 21st and mine is January 22nd. This year Tommy turned 21 and we went out with all of his and my friends to a bar called The Shepard and the Knucklehead and we had a ton of fun.

    I also bought my first dirt bike this month and rode it for the first time so that was really exciting too.

    February

    IMG_5311.JPG

    Tommy and I celebrated our first Valentine’s Day together. We actually went off roading down a small trail by my house and ended up getting stuck, which was funny. After we went back to Tommy’s house and he made me this awesome dinner. It was really sweet.

    I also took a trip to Florida in February. My grandma got really sick and had to have open heart surgery and they weren’t sure if she was going to make it. My whole family took a trip down and it turned out to be a nice little trip because my grandma’s surgery went really well and she recovered 🙂

    March

    IMG_5384.jpg

    I don’t think anything exciting happened in March. Tommy and I celebrated National Pancake Day though 🙂

    April

    IMG_5691

    In April, Tommy and I attended Supercross for the first time, which was so fun. We watched most of the season on tv so it was really cool getting to see it in person.

    dirt bike

    It also started getting warmer out and I started to get to ride my dirt bike and started to really like it. I think I went for my first real ride with Tommy this month also.

    May

    IMG_5775

    I graduated college in May! My cousin and I both graduated from the same college actually with the same major (Psychology with a minor in Sociology). It was so fun to get to share this experience with her by my side.

    IMG_5807

    Tommy also got to do his first race in May! This was honestly so much fun, getting to see him do something he’s always wanted to do and it was so special getting to be apart of it. We’re really excited for the next season of races to start and getting to go to more of them this year.

    June

    June was kind of a big month. I took a trip to visit my cousins in Maryland. It was my twin cousins 2nd birthday so that was really fun. We also celebrated my brother graduating from high school by going out to eat and to a homemade ice cream place. Lastly, June was the month I wrote my first blog post. You can view that here, in case you’re interested. It’s still one of my favs.

    This is getting quite long so I think I’ll stop here for now and I’ll finish some time during the week. I can’t believe how much has happened even in the first part of 2015. I can’t wait to recap the second half!

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  • Faith,  Life

    Overwhelmed

    December 30, 2015

    Do you guys ever feel like you have one of those days where literally everything is wrong? Either there is something causing major stress in your life or a combination of bunch of small things that all feel so overwhelming? Well yesterday I had a combination of both of those things and to say I had a bit of a meltdown would be of an understatement.

    I am currently going through some family issues regarding my brother that is a major source of stress, along with the stress of planning a wedding, and having to find a new job come March of next year. All of these things got to me at the same time and I was feeling a bit overwhelmed to say the least. I admittedly took some of that stress out on my poor fiance – although he’s a saint and handled the situation amazingly, showing me how much he does love and care about me in the midst of my weaknesses. He’s honestly such a blessing to me, I can’t get over it.

    Honestly, even though I couldn’t help my feelings – I felt guilty for feeling all of the stress too. I felt that since God has blessed me so abundantly by allowing one of my biggest dreams of starting my own family to come true that  I shouldn’t be feeling stressed about anything and just should feel thankful. I feel like this is a common thing, I’ve heard other bloggers admit the same thing and I want to reassure anyone who may have felt the same way too that God is not mad at us when we feel that way.

    I’ve come up with a few things that I want to do to accept these feelings and also reduce them.

    • Accept the Feelings: I really believe that God does not desire for us to beat ourselves up when we do the wrong thing or choose the wrong attitude. Sometimes we are going to feel things that are messy and that we don’t think we should be feeling but God already knows who we are and He just desires us to go to Him with these feelings rather than keep them from Him and beat ourselves up over them.
    • Cast Your Cares: Which brings me to casting our cares on God. He sees us and cares about us more than we realize. He is near to the brokenhearted and desires to take those pains away from us –  but He can’t unless we allow Him too. What I realized today was that I was going to God with my feelings but I wasn’t trusting Him with them. I have no problem turning to God in my mess, it often is my first response but what I forget in that moment is that He cares. When I go to God and lay my worries at His feet, I need to leave them there. Not just turn right back around to pick them up and continue worrying about them. We can trust Him with our worries guys – He is good.
    • Live in the Now: I realize this is much much easier said than done but I want to be more diligent about living in the now. Not worrying about tomorrow or next week or next month. I think it’s helpful to plan for those things but when they become sources of stress for us this was never what God wanted. One way I want to reduce the stress of this is by recognizing the blessings in my life – to realize that God has given me things to be enjoyed now and realize I don’t need whatever it is I’m stressing about to be happy. I also want to get better at planning so that there isn’t much to stress about in the future.

    I know a lot of these are way easier said than done but I want to be more diligent about them to try to reduce the amount of breakdowns I have haha who’s with me? Does anyone else have a solution to those moments when everything just seems so overwhelming? I’d love to hear from you.

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  • Life

    A Little Life Update

    December 14, 2015

    Hi friends. I just wanted to stop by and share a little bit about what I’ve been up to since we got engaged. I still plan to share our engagement story – I actually wrote it all out in my journal and just need to copy it into a post but I’ve been so busy.

    I really do have good intentions to start writing more often but I think I just need to postpone those goals just a bit until I am not so busy especially with planning a wedding now.

    What I’ve been up to:

    • The Monday after we got engaged I had my ring re-sized and they said it will take 2-3 weeks 🙁 I’m really hoping it’ll be back by Christmas so I can show my family.
    • Tommy and I have set a tentative date for the wedding – around May or June. We originally wanted to get married in June but the venue we are interested in only has the end of May open so that’s fine with us.
    • We visited the venue on Saturday and we really like it. We are going to go back next Saturday and hopefully set the date and book it.
    • Tommy and I both played hooky Friday and all weekend (shh don’t tell anyone). It was tons of fun and so sad to be back at work.
    • We started setting up our wedding registry! This has been the most fun. It’s so much fun getting to envision how our life will look once we’re married.
    • Oh! and Tommy bought a car yesterday!! Finally – we’ve been looking for one for him for months. This one is a really good deal so we’re really excited.

    I didn’t even realize how much we’ve done since we got engaged until I just typed it all out. This time in our life is so so exciting – I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy. I am incredibly grateful for how God has showed up in this time and continues to amaze me in all the ways he’s providing for me and showing me how much he cares about me.

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