Yummy Yummy In My Tummy!

So in the last couple of weeks I've been cooking more. I made some yummy banana nut bread.

I made some yummy chicken with broccoli and potatoes.

                                     

Just wanted to post some pics!

Much Love,

What to do with a Naked Wall?

I've never really noticed it before. But with the light of my laptop shining in the dark, it's very prominent.

I have a naked wall. Bright white. Shining in all it's glory. What's a girl to do?! I can't paint it, because we rent. I can't put furniture there, because it's right by my bed. I need some type of wall art.

Any suggestions? I'm open to anything.

Much Love,

Twitter Gone Mad!

I'm not sure if it's Twitter, or Blogger, but my Twitter feed was showing someone else's tweets. And they were NOT nice. Cussing out the wazoo! Has someone hacked into my Twitter?!

Much Love,

Lemons

I just saw this on a message forum I'm a member of...

When life gives you lemons...squeeze them in to your sweet tea

and thank God you were born a Southern Girl!!!

I LOVE this!! Hehe. Gotta love the South!

 

Much Love,

LOVE THIS!!!

Much Love,

THIS IS SO FUNNY!!!

Much Love,

My Favorite Things blog swap

This post is really delayed, but I wanted to post about the items that Koren sent me for the Favorite Things blog swap.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Great stuff!! I love that she put notes on everything telling me why she loves those things. So thoughtful! Thanks Koren!!



Much Love,

WE HAVE A WEDDING DATE!!!

That's right people. After much discussing, we have decided to get married on our 1 yr dating anniversary. I am so excited. It's a very special day. Not just some random date on the calendar. No one's birthday (no one that we know anyways!), not a holiday. Just our day.

I am so happy.

However... That's only 2 months to plan! Thankfully, we're just doing a small ceremony this year. Matthew's deployment got pushed up by 6 months, and his family wouldn't be able to get out here for the wedding before he deploys. So, just some of my family, and a few close friends will be at this ceremony. Then, when he gets back from the desert, we'll have our big wedding. My dream wedding.

My wedding planning blog will have more stuff on this. When I get a dress, I will NOT be posting any pictures online. I do not want Matthew to see it. But, I may be willing to email some. Just ask. ;)

Much Love,

My Heart is Sad

I am sitting in a concert, right this second. Point of Grace and Mark Shultz. Love them both.

I have been a fan of Point of Grace (POG) for 10+ years. Literally. Their voices mold together as if they were meant to be. One of the best acapella singing in the world. They have had 24+ #1 singles. (I say 24+ because they have an album called "24" which is all of those together.) I have always wanted to be able to sing like them. They have been musical role models to be.

Until now.

This concert has disappointed me beyond belief. They have started going country. It makes me so sad. They can do so much better! You can't even hear their voices as much now. They have always been known for using their voices more so than the instruments in the band. Not anymore.

This may seem like a dumb post, but I have admired them for so long. Pure, poweful, christian music. Songs that make you feel the presence of God.

Tonight, they sang "Thank God I'm a Country Girl", etc.

ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!?!?!

Don't get me wrong. I love me some country music. But if I had wanted to hear country music, I would have gone to a COUNTRY concert.

So disappointed. I feel like part of my history has died. I just want to cry.

Yes it is dramatic. But music is my PASSION. Can you blame me?

I'm gonna enjoy Mark Shultz now. Check him out. He's awesome.

So is POG's old stuff.

*sigh*

Much Love,

My Husband-to-be Rocks!

I love my sweetheart. We have both been really stressed out lately. Trying to figure out what to do about our wedding, and the deployment coming up, etc. Even with all of that, he still shows me he loves me. Last night he stopped at the store on his way home from work and bought me a wedding magazine. :) SO sweet. 

Much Love,

ENGAGEMENT PICTURES!!!

So my sister took some pics of us today, at various locations. Here are a few of my favorites.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

  

 

 

 

I love these! There are a lot more, and we will be taking even more. But these are the ones I really love. And I edited some of them. I will do more this week and get them up here too. YAY!

Much Love,

Once upon a time...

Sometimes, when I think about my beloved, I am brought to tears. I think about how much he loves me. More than any other man has loved me. (besides family) I think about everything he does for me.

I am so blessed.

I can't help but think about those first few weeks. I wish I had journaled more back then. But I still remember how it felt.

We first met in a chat room. We were both bored. That's probably an understatement. I was literally sitting there, staring at the tv. Bored out of my mind.

For those of you who don't know, I had been single for over 3 years at that point. I was beyond picky about any guy I talked to, much less dated. Usually, I knew within the first few minutes, if I wanted to even continue a conversation with a guy. So for me to actually talk to him for more than 10 minutes was an accomplishment on his part!

I didn't go out anywhere. Ever. Except to church, or to have girls' night with my sister. I had no interest in any of the guys at church. They were all either way too old, way too young, engaged, married, or I had grown up with them. And I wasn't going down that road.

So I reverted to my old habit of Yahoo chat rooms. I stuck with the christian or TN rooms. Unfortunately, Yahoo had become so much worse over the years. It was all spam-bots. It became almost impossible to even find real people! And then, the few actual people I found were all older, perverted men.

I told myself that I wouldn't talk to anyone over 30. I like older guys, but not TOO much older. Guys my age are just idiots.. LOL!

When I started talking to Matthew, it was kinda like something clicked. He was charming and funny. He was sweet and genuinely interested in talking to me.

And he was 34.

*GASP* I know. But I was SO bored that I didn't care. I thought, "Its not like I'm gonna date the guy. I'm just gonna talk to him so I don't bore myself to death."

Hours later, we finally signed offline. The next night, we did the same thing. Chatting for hours. I didn't care that I had to get up early for work. He didn't care that he wouldn't get any sleep before PT in the morning. We just wanted to talk to each other.

The next night he called me. I'll never forget it. It was Veteran's Day. Since he's a soldier, I told him "Thank you for serving our country." He said "You're welcome. Can you believe you're the first person who's told me that?" That was a long night too. We talked about so much. Happy, sad, funny, serious. You name it, we talked about it.

My heart was very guarded. I had been hurt too many times. I didn't want to be hurt again. He was worried about me hurting him. I assured him, he had no reason to worry.

I didn't want to fall in love. I have the habit of falling much too quickly, which is how I ended up hurt so often. So I was literally scared of it. But the longer we talked to each other, the more I felt drawn to him. Connected to him.

We met for the first time 5 days after that first conversation online. I was nervous, and wanting to be smart about my safety. So my sister, roommate, and my cousin (who is marrying the roommate in a few months) went with me. Matthew drove an hour to see me. *NOTE: This is the FIRST man who has come to see me. I always went the distance to see other guys.*

Since I wasn't 100% sure he wasn't like a serial killer or something, I didn't give him my address. We met him at McDonald's. LOL. He got in Amanda's car and we went to Olive Garden. It's his favorite restaurant and we all love italian. He was so funny. Had us all rolling throughout dinner. (Eric, I haven't forgotten the almost food showers from you laughing!)

After dinner, we headed to the movie theater to see the new Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. Now, this part gave him MAJOR points. He didn't just pay for mine and his ticket. He paid for my sister's too! Those of you who know me, know that she's one of my best friends, and one of the most important people in my life. So that was HUGE! And it was a total surprise. I swear, I almost had tears in my eyes, it was so sweet.

The drive back to his car was kinda awkward. I felt like asking him to come back to our house to hang out longer, but I didn't really want to do that on the first date. So when we got to his car, we all said goodbye. I didn't even hug him or anything. *yes, afterwards I was kicking myself for not doing so!*

We got home, and I was on cloud nine. I LIKED HIM SOOOO MUCH! I couldn't stop smiling. Amanda had a hayday with that. She was very excited about it.

We talked all night that night too. And every night that week. Two days after our first date, he told me he loved me. (he hates that he did it that soon and will probably be mad for me writing about it. I'm sorry baby! I love you!)

I was shocked. Not really that he loved me, I could hear that in his voice. I was shocked that he said it that soon. Or that he said it first. I had always been the one to blurt it out first. But I was determined to not do that again. So when he said it, it kinda took me offguard. But at the same time, the wall around my heart was struggling to not fall. Like I said, I was scared to death to get hurt again.

It was really late at night when this happened. Amanda was still awake, so I told him I would call him back and I ran to her room. We talked it through and I admitted that I loved him too. Yes, it was fast. No, we didn't know each other that long. But we knew a lot about each other from the all night long conversations. I felt like I had known him for years.

I didn't tell him on the phone. He came back down a few days later and we had our first alone date. Sitting in his car, before he walked me back to my door, I told him that I loved him. It was the best feeling. He kissed me and held me for the longest time. (he's a GREAT kisser. Just thought I'd mention that! Hehe.)

And we have been inseperable ever since. Granted, we lived an hour away from each other for the first 7 months, but we were always on the phone, and he would drive down to see me 2-3 times a week. He came to church with me every week. My parents even let him stay at their house on saturday nights!

I think I knew I was going to marry him on Thanksgiving day. It was only 2 weeks after our first date. My mom and dad let me invite him over for dinner. He hadn't been able to go anywhere because he had to work. (That's the military for ya!)

Now, my parents had never let any guy come over for holidays or something big like that. So for them to let him come over for Thanksgiving dinner was a big deal. I think my mom felt sorry for him when she saw how upset I was that he was all alone.

It was the greatest day. Everyone got along great. We had so much fun together! That is so important to me. When I saw my family getting along with the man I love, I knew it was meant to be.

He truly is the love of my life. I have never doubted his love for me, or mine for him. I have never had doubtful thoughts in the back of my head that something bad might happen to end this. Its just meant to be. This is the man that God made for me. I have no doubt.


Well, now that I've talked your ears off, I'd love to hear your comments. Tell me about your significant other. When you met/fell in love with/knew they were the one.


Much Love,

My Husband-to-be Rocks!

So, today my amazing husband-to-be took me on a date. It's been a while since we had a real date. (since the kiddos were here!) We went to Chili's for lunch and had their 2 for $20. It was so much fun. Although, he FORCED talked me into a White Chocolate Molten cake for dessert. It's like their original Chocolate Molten Cake, but it has a white cake and white chocolate inside and on top, with berry sauce drizzled over it. It was good. But NO WHERE near the amazing-ness of the Chocolate Molten Cake! LOL!

After that, we went to Dillard's to register for wedding gifts. Like our CHINA! The pattern I convinced him we loved we picked out is SOOOO pretty!!! It's very elegant. I am crazy about it. We picked crystal that was in the same series, but a little different. He We both liked it better than the one that matched the china. We also picked the silverware that matched the crystal.

The girl that helped us with the registry was so funny. She got married 5 months ago, so she was still kinda in the planning mode. LOL! She went around with us on and off, saying "OOH! You should get this!" and "OH you HAVE to have this!" She made it so much more fun! Especially, when we were having trouble deciding what colors to go with.

After Dillard's we went to see "Julie & Julia". SUCH a great movie. We both liked it. After it was over, we headed home and talked about finding Julia's AND Julie's books! Hehe.

When we got home, he hugged me tight. He asked me if I had a good date night. I smiled, looked into his eyes and kissed him. "Yes."

So great. *Happy sigh*

Much Love,

This SUCKS!

So, you know how I've been dreaming of my wedding for most of my life? And you know how I've started planning the wedding for August 2010?

Well NO MORE! Matthew's upcoming deployment got bumped up 6 months. So he'll be gone before August.

He called me this morning to tell me that. Of course, he was out of town for TDY and I felt so horrible. I cried. I called/texted my friends. Didn't get to talk to Matthew again until he got home. (Like 30 mins ago)

We haven't made any definite plans. We're thinking we might to a JOP ceremony and then plan the big wedding for after he gets back. Which would mean we would have more money for it, and I would have more time to plan it.

I'm not sure. Updates to follow.

Much Love,