Crazy life changes

I have been amiss & I have lots of things to tell you about.
First of all, I went sky diving. Whatttt?! I have no pictures to confirm such a tale, but it is true. It was the most amazing experience of my life. My brother convinced me by berating me for being old and boring (I am 23 by the way!) and then telling me we needed more sibling bonding time before I got married. Time out. I don't want to hang out with you when you are being so mean!!!
Regardless, I made it up 13,500 feet and managed to shimmy over to the door with a man strapped on to me. We hung out of the window while he counted to three and then the world moved around me quite quickly.


In addition to all that craziness, I got a new job. I am a high school English teacher and it was the weirdest mix of emotions to be getting a new job so close to the start of the school year. Overall, it will be a great move for FI and I. We will be closer to our families; I will move in with my parents for six months while he is away working. After saving money for the next six months, we will (hopefully!) have the money to purchase our first home.

BIG posts to follow!

Adding Character & FI's Personality to our Wedding

We are getting married at a golf club. A beautiful golf club that has more character than just a large room with a dance floor, however, it was not my FI's dream. His dream was to get married in an old barn and I love that dream.

Well, we couldn't afford the barn wedding of our dream, and we decided the money would be better spent on oh I don't know having food at the wedding? hahaha. So we are adding some other things to make it more "us."

The first thing we are doing is having FI build us the arbor for us to get married under. I think this is the greatest idea ever. We had decided this awhile ago, but then I saw Ms. Husky's fiance made her one for their wedding too. I was so excited! I just love the idea of getting married under an arbor; it is so sweet and romantic. I want him to carve in the date so we can put it up in our (non-existant) garden. It will be so beautiful. FI has already built us a coffee table for our living room. Here is a sample of his GORGEOUS work!FI and I sitting down behind our new addition to our tiny apartment!
(Photo taken by FMIL. )

He used a variety of different woods including old American Chestnut from a barn he is working on now. It is absolutely magnificent.

He also wants to build us the table we sit at for the reception. *Sigh* I am not sold on this idea. I love the cute little round couple table and he wants to build us a big sturdy dining room table that we will use and have forever. He wants us to eat at this table during our first meal as a family. *awwww* really cute sentiment - still not sold.
I can't wait for him to start work on these projects so I can show you all pictures!

What do you all think about the dining room table idea? Am I being bratty by not letting him have this one desire? How did you add character or your own personality to your wedding?

Here's the Mail!

I was on vacation for two and half weeks and I had ordered myself a few gifts to welcome myself home. Without further ado, I give you the (wedding) mail I came home to.

First, I received the purse that I had won from babbsboutique (thanks Monica!). Check out her shop here: Babbsboutique. It is a tres chic clutch with white and champagne colored pleating. I posted it earlier but here it is in person! I am thinking rehearsal dinner or bridal shower accessory. What do you think?(Ignore the stamp on the side I will get to that).

I also received these super cute stamps from zazzle.com. I cannot afford fancy stamps, but they were having a super sale and I bought a bunch for my save the dates. I thought I had ordered fifty - I ordered 100. Whoops.


The final thing I came home to was my first purchase off of etsy! I bought it from lovetocreatestamps. I bought a stamp with a tree (to go along with our motif) to stamp the backside of the envelopes. I can't wait to use them! FI loves it too which is great.
(I cropped out the last line).


Next up is the creation of the Save the Dates. Of course, first I need to create them. Can't wait!
Have you gotten anything in the mail lately that excited you? Do you love mail as much as I do?!?!?! Who doesn't?!

Oh My Blog Award! Thanks Jessica!

So one of my followers gave me an "Oh My Blog" award. I had never heard of such a thing but I felt so special to have been mentioned on her blog and thought it would be great to give it away to three of my followers too. So thank you Jessica.

A) Get very excited that you got the coolest award EVER!

B) To accept the OMB Award, choose ONE of the following options:

1.Get very drunk and blog for 15 minutes straight. (or for as long as you can focus)

2.Write a "Soundtrack of your childhood" post.

3.Make your next blog post a video blog. (talk to the camera about anything)

4.Take a picture of yourself first thing in the morning, before you do anything else (hair, make up, etc) and post it.

5.Write about your most embarrassing moment. Since the first ones are not going to happen, I suppose this is my choice.

Okay here we go. I will choose to just narrate my most embarrassing moment. I guess it was also one of the best moments. So, I was in college and I got a little tipsy/drunk. My best friend at the time had to carry me up to the hotel. We were in Daytona, FL and he was/is my best friend in the world. We were there with another couple also. Apparently my pants were falling down as he was carrying me too, classy. Anyway, we were laying in bed that night and our friends were engaged so he was sharing the same bed (no big deal). He was rubbing my back, because I was sick (shocking). I turned to him and told him I was madly in love with him and always would be. Nice work. He told me I was drunk but I proceeded to try to kiss him. He rejected me over and over until I passed out.

Super incredibly horribly terribly embarrassing the next morning when it all started coming back to me. Well, the rest is history as we are engaged. I guess it was both super awkward/embarrassing and the best thing ever. Go figure.

C) Pass the award on to at least three other awesome bloggers.
1.) Lauren for her honest writing style, really cool DIY ideas & just all around great wedding blog
2.) Tove for her really witty blog name, great bookmarks (which I hope she will show me how to make) and cute blog which I can't wait to keep reading.
3.) Ceamoste for her dedicated commenting on my blog, her great blog layout and a super beautiful wedding dress style!

A Healthier Lifestyle

For the past eight years I have struggled with finding a comfortable weight. This is the heaviest I have been, and throughout our trip I HATED having my picture taken. It was horrible, and I hated the way I felt. I am dedicated to losing some weight. It is going to be really hard especially with the start of my second year of teaching coming up (I really enjoy stress eating).

So I need you all to keep me in check. Keep me honest. I am going on a healthy eating diet and I am going to regularly exercise. No gimmicks or crash diets - just good honest healthy living. The first thing to go is soda & fast food. I don't eat fast food often (minus my recent road trip where there was little other options sometimes), but I am a coke addict. Coca Cola of course. Ever since I started being friends with my FI, he has got me hooked on coke and caffeine.

I always say I am going to start my diet tomorrow. Well, I am starting my diet right now. This is about feeling good about myself and feeling sexy again. My wedding is also a good motivation for doing well with my diet.

Thanks for your help in advance! Make sure to keep me honest!

Home Sweet Apartment

I am back from the craziest adventure I have ever had. We had such an amazing time seeing the country. It was UNREAL everything we did and experienced. I may just have to refer you to my other blog if you are interested in hearing about all our exploits:


It is too much to sum it all up in one short post. I can show you some awesome pictures though!
This is us in front of the Grand Tetons. Aren't they magnificent?
This is us in front of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It is also called the Artist's Paintpoint because it is the most photographed place in the park.


This is the "weeping wall" which is run off from the melting snow and glaciers on the mountains. This was located in Glacier National Park.

On to the animals! We saw 13 bears in one day! You need to be pretty careful about food and hiking in Glacier. They have a very healthy number of bears. In Glacier we also saw some Bighorn Sheep REALLY up close which is uncommon because they keep to themselves & a million mountain goats. We also saw a wolf in Yellowstone which are very rare to see. There were Bison everywhere and we definitely got caught in a few bison traffic jams. Damn animals just sit in the roads!There were many elk in Rocky Mountain National Park as well as a few coyotes and we saw some Bighorn Sheep here too. There were plenty of deer and antelope throughout our entire trip. Oh ew. We saw two rattlesnakes in Theodore Roosevelt Park. GROSS!
Everything was truly amazing though and although FI and I had some tiffs - camping can be stressful and a lot of work - we enjoyed each other's company IMMENSELY. It was really a very rewarding trip.
And you know what? I have hardly thought of wedding planning at all. I am off to read some great blogs and catch up on everything I have missed.