Saturday, May 29, 2010

Bachelorette Party!!

Last weekend was my Bachelorette Party!!
My sister planned an amazing weekend with all of my close friends at the Lakehouse.
We had an amazing relaxing weekend.
Everyone arrived on Friday.
After some direction confusion and an unexpected stop, the crowd from my hometown made it!
Megan came all the way from Virginia! 
As did my AMAZING cousin Sandra who I hadn't seen in forever!
It was soo much fun to catch up with everyone and just all hang out together!
Jan was soo sweet and left after work on Friday to get to the lake around 11!
I was so happy she made it safe and sound!
We played some bachelorette pictionary and they gave me a lingerie shower!
We all climbed into bed around 3:30 am after talking and talking and talking!
I slept with my sis and sandra and was woken up at 9 by 4 of my friends sweet smiles!
We got dressed to play on the lake, but unfortunately the skies opened up and it rained the whole day.
except for about 30 minutes, and we made total use of it by hopping in the giant float.
Ashley arrived on Saturday morning with wedding movies galore.
I'm so glad she brought those!
All we did the rest of the day was lay on the couch and watch movies.  and of course eat!
Mom came later on saturday and made us an awesome dinner of baked chicken and mac and cheese!
We painted our nails and of course talked some more.
We all fell asleep to the move "The Wedding Date" i forgot how much i loved that movie!
On sunday everyone loaded up and went back home.
It was sad to see everyone leave.  We had sooo much fun and i felt like everyone got along so well.
Jan said she was happy everyone could come so the wedding day will be more like being with real friends instead of meeting everyone then.  

Here are some pics of the weekend!













Sunday night, Dad, Charlie, and Rob arrived for the series finale of LOST!!!
Who loved it!!??
Cause I sure did!
and I loved the make your own pizza night that went along with it!

This week we picked out napkins for the cake table, ordered the guest book, finalized the programs, and of course continued moving in to the apartment!

I cannot wait to post the "before" and "after" pictures!  We have a few more things to do but its looking so good!  I can't wait to live there with my husband!!!!!

13 days!!!!!


Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Pray!!

Well after i posted yesterday Angie wrote on her blog about complications with her daughter Charlotte that she is pregnant with.  The doctors said that she would deliver Saturday, but she went to the hospital today and will be delivering Charlotte on her own birthday tonight! Keep her in her prayers and head over to Bring the Rain to keep updated and read her story about the last couple of days!

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

I won! I won!

A few weeks ago Kelly at Kelly's Korner was sweet enough to do a giveaway for three of Angie Smith's from Bring the Rain: The Story of Audrey Caroline books! Her book is titled, "I Will Carry You" and is about the loss of her fourth daughter and "The Sacred Dance of Grief and Joy".  
I have posted on here before how much i enjoy reading Angie's blog and if you have never read it please go check it out.  They way she writes is so lovely and her story and strength is truly amazing.
I received the book this afternoon and began reading it when I got in bed.
It is now 4:33 am and I am almost through.  It is one of the most powerful books i have ever read.
I wanted to share a couple of quotes from the book and some scripture that jumped out at me.
I really encourage you to pick up this book and read through it.  
During her story she goes through scripture and explains it in the way that she felt during that hard time in her life.  This is an amazing book for someone who has lost a child or for someone who has a friend who has and can't quite find the right words to say to be a comfort.  Angie explains every bit of how she felt in such a real way that it draws you in to every word.  
I am completely overjoyed by reading this amazing story of finding joy in the midst of grief.

I Will Carry You by Angie Smith: Book Cover

"We made plans for the forever, like you're supposed to do when you're a family.  We were so in love with our life that it was impossible to consider anything else.  Just love one another deeply and try ot make each moment count for something.  Run the race with joy, and it will be OK.
How could we have known?
And if we had, I can't say we would have done anything differently.  We loved without abandon, each day and night filled with the hope and expectation that we would always be together.  Whether nestled under a cozy quilt watching a movie or photographing the girls having a hose fight with the neighborhood kids in the backyard, one this was for sure....
We were a family, and everything was exactly as it should be."

"His ways are not our ways and we must believe even when we can't see a way out"

"The peace of God settled into our tiny apartment every night as Todd sang lullabies and I gently rocked the girls to sleep."

Yes I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.  You guide me with your counsel, and afterword you will take me into glory.  Whom have I in Heaven but you?  And earth has nothing i desire besides you.  My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
-Psalm 73:23-26

"I said the first thing that came to my mind, and I said it with much more conviction than I was feeling.  'I think my Jesus is the same as He was before I walked through that door.'  I looked him dead in the eye, willing myself to believe it."

"I slipped into a part of myself I never knew existed.  There were voices, movements, questions, and the man I love- all of it.  But they were moving around me, and I couldn't figure out how to be present with them.  I really believe that the Lord held me together by shielding me from the reality of the situation.  I knew it was bad, but through a blurry lens."

I could go on and on!  Every word in this book is powerful.  I am looking so forward to finishing it tomorrow.  I want to end the post on a quote i saw the second I opened the book to a random page in the middle.

"Joy is not the absence of trouble, but the presence of Christ."

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Busy Weekend!

First off, thanks soo much for all of the Congratulations! I am soo happy to be done with tests and papers for a while!! It really is a great feeling!

On to the BUSY Weekend!!
Charlie's sister got my mom, me, charlie, jenn, rob, and her mom tickets to see Lady Antebellum and Tim McGraw in Charleston for Thursday night!
We drove down thursday afternoon after a meeting with the wedding planner and of course went straight to Jim n Nicks for the barbecue!!
Then it was concert time!!
We got down to our seats and they were SECOND ROW!
Caroline is literally amazing and always gets us awesome seats to concerts!
Mom was soo excited to be there and loved lady antebellum.
I was just as excited to see them as I was to see Tim McGraw.
They did awesome and I am officially obsessed with "Our Kind of Love" well the entire "Need You Now"cd i'm listening to it right now and it will probably play through over and over for the night!!
(taken from my iphone so its obvs not very good!)

Ahh another AWESOME song just came on! 
"Hello World"
seriously this is an amazing cd!
haha anyway...

Tim McGraw was next!
and i have to say he is one tiny man!!
He is SUPER skin-nay and quite short...
but very cute and muscular!!!
oh and his jeans were soo tight i thought they were going to bust right open!
But of course he was awesome!
I knew almost every song and i love to sing out loud and dance around at concerts!!
He sang the song, "If your reading this" and i have listened to that song a lot of times but never realized it was about a soldier dying...
I mean i guess i realized it, it just never sunk in before.
It was an amazing song and he had some awesome pictures of soldiers going while he sang.
It was beautiful.
and it brought a whole new meaning to me with charlie possibly going in to the military.
It made me sad, but also very proud of him and his courage, strength, and love he has for his country.
and for all of the soldiers and just how truly amazing they are to serve for our freedom..

k lets get back to the weekend!

Charlie's mom has always wanted to go to a Tim McGraw concert and it was on her "bucket list".
So she was definitely in her glory!
There was a catwalk in front of us and she and caroline reached out there hands as far as they could and tim mcgraw grabbed both of them!
So of course they both freaked out and the next time he came over there mrs. diez was waving a pen and notepad in the air for him to sign!
He didn't but she sure was trying!!!
It was soooo much fun! 
Oh and they each got a guitar pick!
After the concert mom and mrs diez drove back home and charlie, jenn, rob, and i stayed in charleston.
We woke up the next morning and started packing up things from my apartment.
It was really sad!!
I spent three years in there..but jenn will now have it all to her self and i get to come visit whenever I want!
Charlie and I also picked up our diplomas, which are HUGE!!!!!

Saturday morning we woke up at 9 to head to target for cleaning supplies for our big MOVE IN TO OUR NEW APARTMENT!!!
We are soo excited!
Its a two bedroom two bath in an apartment complex with an awesome pool!!
I took pictures before we moved everything in so i will post those soon! 
and of course the after pictures!!
Both families came to help carry a bunch of super heavy furniture up 40 stairs! 
another awesome song.."When You Got a Good Thing"
this is probably, no, its definitely my favorite song on the cd...
They were so sweet to work so hard to help us get all moved in.
If charlie and I had to do it alone.....
I certainly would still be pushing the washer up the third stair right now..
We are so thankful for them!
The moving ended around 7 when we ordered a pizza and waited for the furniture people to bring our living room set.
The guys were excited to sit back and eat pizza while other people did all of the heavy lifting!
Today we went back over to hang some pictures and it looks AMAZING!!
I feel like a real live adult!

We also picked out napkins and programs today so I am working on the info for the program!
27 more days..
I cannot believe it.
Before I know it I will be sitting on our pretty light yellow couch in OUR own apartment with a husband!
ahhhhhhh!!!!
<3

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Graduation Weekend!

Warning: It's a l.o.n.g. one! I wanted to remember every detail!
On Saturday May, 8th I graduated from the College of Charleston!
My family came to Charleston for the weekend and we had an awesome time.
On friday, Charlie and I met up with his parents at Jim n Nicks and had some awesome cheese biscuits and fried chicken with macaroni and cheese and cinnamon apples!
It was ahhh-mazing!
My parents arrived that afternoon and we of course spent the rest of the day SHOPPING!
which is always oh so much fun!
We then met up with Charlie's parents at Hank's Seafood!
Yummy!
Then we took a stroll down the market and tried on some awesome glasses!
Kanye style!

And then we ended the night at Kaminsky's of course!
(oh and charlie and I so didn't go there the night before too..no way..we are NOT pigs like that..)
I got the best cake in the entire universe!
mmmmmmm!!!!

I spent the rest of the night packing up my clothes and straightening my hair.
I only really straighten my hair for special occasions because it takes like 2 hours and i end up dying of a heat stroke every ten minutes....but the end result always looks nice!
I finally crawled into bed at FOUR in the A.M. ...
My alarm clock went off like crazy at 7:30 and I began my graduation day!

The gates to the cistern opened at 8:30 which is when we had to be there also.
Our parents got in line at 7:30 and were already about 75 people back.
They ended up getting great seats though!
Oh and did I mention that our OUTDOOR graduation ceremony just had to fall on a record high day in Charleston?? i didn't? well it did...it was H.O.T.
After Charlie and I finished getting ready we met up with the parents for a quick photo op!
I felt soo bad for charlie having to be in all of those heavy clothes!
I was dying of heat and I didn't have on barely anything compared to him!

We then went to cougar mall to rangle (is that a word..? i dont think so, but lets just go with it..) our way thru a sea of white dresses and white jackets!
We picked up our flowers and hugged our friends!
Then we separated into classrooms depending on our major.
Since I switched my major pretty late in the game I don't really know that many people that graduated but i hung close to the one..well maybe two..that I did know!
Here are the Historic Preservation and Community Planning Senior girls!
And the HPCP guys! give or take a few!
and a group shot!!!
After our photo-shoot we lined up alphabetically and headed out the doors to prepare to walk through Randolph Hall.
We waited for about 10 minutes before it was time for the line to start moving.
Finally we went inside the building and went into the main room which is the Alumni room (or something like that!)
When we got in there i saw Charlie!
He ended up being in literally the same spot as me just in the other line!
We got to walk out of the doors together and then separated down opposite stairs.
This was the view of our side right when we walked out of Randolph Hall and before we walked down the stairs.
I ended up in the third row and called Jenn to see where they were.
I was standing up on stage on the phone with sis when they took this pic!
Being on the stage was a lot more laid back than I thought it would be.
We all talked to each other and got to whoop and yell when our friends walked across the stage!
Our commencement speaker was Marco (polo) from boeing of charleston.
He did good..but i felt like it was just a huge commercial for boeing!
Then the senior class president and another student spoke.
They did awesome!!!
It then came time to make our way across the stage!
I was in the third row from the front so i was lucky enough to be one of the firsts to walk and get it over with!
When we circled out of our seats to line up to walk, i got to walk past some of my really good friends that aren't graduating yet!
They were marshals for the graduation!
Here are the sweet ladies!  
Stephanie, Melanie, and Jan (one of my bridesmaids!)
I felt soo sorry for them, they had to stand the whole time and then come back in the afternoon and do it all again!
But they rocked it out and if they were not there no one would know what was going on!
anyway
When we lined up they had a photographer there to take two pictures of us and then another one took a picture as we walked across the stage!
The awesome lady with the awesome voice announced my name and i heard "get it girl!" from my lovely man!
And other yelling from my awesome family and friends!
I couldn't stop smiling!
The provost said that I had a huge smile and I must me very happy!
and I was!!
Caroline got an awesome pic of me shaking the President of CofC's hand!
It was awesome!
Then it was back to my seat to wait for Charlie to be called!
His name was finally called I stood up and screamed for him!
He saw me and just shook his head and smiled!
He was very good friends with the Vice President of Student Affairs and we got to shake his hand as we walked also!
But charlie, of course, went in for the hug!!!
The ceremony ended "Charleston Style" with some good old fashion shag music!
and we threw our fake diplomas in the air since we don't have hats!

We exited down off the stage and back out the doors of Porter's Lodge!

We ended up walking out together too!
Charlie and i walked down the street and waited for our friends and family so we could take pictures!







We finally started the long hike to lunch!
We walked to East Bay Street to eat at Southend Brewery!
On the way there the Carriage would see us and explain to the riders about CofC's graduatio and everyone would say congratulations!
It was kind of like being a "P" list celebrity! 
bad bad bad joke...
We finally made it through the sweat and hottness to the restaurant!
I ordered the best Pizza everr and everyone had a wonderful time relaxing and cooling off!
After lunch we went back to mine and sis' apartment.
On the way there these two sweet boys told us congratulations!
They were too cute!
We finally got back, changed and ate some yummy cake!
We ate and relaxed and mom, dad, and sis left for the lake!
After they left I laid down on the couch and took an amazing two hour nap.
It was perfect!
We had an awesome night, which I will recap when my friends post the pics!
I cannot believe I graduated from college.
I feel kind of lost and weird, like i dont know what to do!
But im sure things will get back to normal soon!
.....
I take that back..We are getting married in ONE MONTH!!
after that things should settle down a bit!

Charlie and I kept saying what a perfect day it was.
I had the most amazing day and weekend with the fam!
I posted on facebook that morning a line from "I'm not gonna cry" a graduation song by Corey Smith!

"Sure we made a little trouble, but i learned from every mistake, so there's no regret, we've done the best we could..these are the best years of my life, so I'm not gonna cry...now its time to celebrate, its our GRADUATION DAY."-Corey Smith

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Happy Mother's Day!!!


"My mom is a neverending song in my heart of comfort, happiness, and being.  I may sometimes forget the words but I always remember the tune."  
~Graycie Harmon 

I am so blessed God chose to give me the most amazing and perfect momma.
She has shown me what it is to be a wonderful mother and wife.
She taught me to love unconditionally and to help others in every possible way you can.
She has shown me to live by your heart and I pray that my heart is half as big as hers.
I say that every time i speak of my mom, but her heart really is the purest and most wonderful giving love filled heart.  
Jenn and I are so lucky to be able to call her our mom.
She is not only my mom, she is also my dearest friend and a wonderful advisor.
She speaks from her heart and everything she says has a meaning behind it.
I wish that I had her ability to think about things before I say them instead of shouting out everything on my mind!
I look forward to the next month as we prepare together for the wedding.
I have so enjoyed spending this time with my mom and am so happy to be moving back 5 minutes from home so I can eat her yummy food and hug her anytime i want to!!
I love you momma with all of my heart and am so thankful for you and all you have done for me.
There is no gift I could ever give you to repay you for the wonderful gifts you have blessed me with.
You are my true angel and I am so thankful for you!
There are so many other wonderful women who have influence me in my life.
I am thankful for each of them and for showing me how to be strong, driven, thoughtful, loving, and caring.
I would never be who I am today without all of these role models in my life.
I am so blessed to have so many wonderful ladies guide me and help care for me.
I wish all of you a Happy Mother's Day!

"A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts."
 ~Washington Irving

Monday, May 3, 2010

40 days till the Wedding and FIVE days till Graduation!!

I have officially completed my papers, tests, and exams.
I am officially (almost) a graduate of College of Charleston!
WHOO!!

Today I turned in my final take home exam, completing my exam week!
Then I found my graduation dress:
Seascape Dress

At CofC the girls wear white dresses and the guys wear white dinner jackets in place of normal graduation robes.
I think this is such a classic touch and unique to CofC!

In five days i will be walking across a stage in front of this building accepting my degree from the School of the Arts in Historic Preservation and Community Planning:
The Importance of Place

I am soo excited!! But soooo sad at the same time!
It is going to be surreal to not have a school to go back to in August.
I cannot believe that I will not be in Charleston everyday for most of the year.
It is just going to be a huge change.
I am excited for the next few days before Graduation when we can go to the beach and just enjoy this amazing city we have grown to love so much.
Charleston has become a part of me and I will never forget it or all of the amazing memories i have had here! 

Anyway!
This past week has been spent in the Library preparing for exams....
I had a break from thursday to today and all I did was sleep!
I was up soo late every night last week and the only thing that kept me going was triple venti soy mocha lattes, apple jacks, sour patch kids, and of course my study buddy!
who also gave me this awesome side braid:
Yes, dad, we did also got our work done! I promise!

Tomorrow Charlie has to be up at 3:30 in the a.m. to drive to Jacksonville, Florida.
He is going before the boards for the Army's Officer Candidate School.
It would mean a lot if you remembered him in your prayers as he makes the drive down there and back in one day, and as he interviews.  
Its a long tedious process and we are just praying the Lord will move in our lives and help guide us in the direction we are both supposed to take.

FORTY DAYS TILL THE WEDDING!!!!!
we are still trying to find a christian song for our soloist to sing during the wedding.
Any suggestions would be sooo helpful!


Hope all of you have had a fabulous day!