Happy Halloween

Halloween has not always been a favorite holiday of mine.  As a kid, my holidays were ordered

1. Christmas (duh! obviously)
2. Thanksgiving (still not really sure why)
3. 4th of July (fireworks!)
4. Memorial Day (just kidding, although it is near my bday)
4. Halloween

You would think that since Halloween is the holiday of candy, that this would have been at least top 3.  Still not really sure why its not.  I don't know, I guess I was a weird kid.

But as an adult, I'm starting to warm up to Halloween.  I like the idea of dressing up, carving pumpkins, and eating candy til my teeth fall out.  Still not a fan of the Haunted House, but since you don't HAVE to visit a Haunted House to make it Halloween, this is quickly becoming a favorite holiday.  I even decorated for it this year.  So now my holiday's are newly prioritized.

1. 4th of July (love me some Summer and fireworks!)
2. Christmas (still a fan of the Lord's birth and family bonding)
3. Halloween

Next year (when we have a house), I'm thinking Halloween party.  Have a little pumpkin carving contest, strongly suggest wearing a costume (costume contest perhaps?), and throw in some close friends and family, how could we go wrong?  I'm hoping everyone is on board with it next year.  Until then, I'll just keep adding pics to my Halloween Pinterest board :)

Happy Halloween!

Wedding Flashback: CAKE!

This post might be out of order, but I had it written so I thought I would go ahead and hit the Publish button.  Enjoy! 

Much like the photography, there is not enough compliments in the world I could give to ABC Specialty Cakes.  I don't think they have a website, but if anyone needs their contact info, just ask.  After only meeting with her twice (both meetings relatively brief), and showing her my ideas, the cake of my dreams showed up that Saturday evening.

It was the most perfectly ruffled, 4 layer funfetti cake a girl could ask for.  Especially considering I'm not exactly a "ruffle" kind of girl.  It was topped with a sparkly brooch cake topper and monogrammed P, and cut into with this bowie knife.

Bowie knife? For a wedding cake you might be asking.....  Well, my dad is a horse shoer who moonlights as a blacksmith who makes knives on the side.  And for those of you who do not know, a horse shoer does just what the name says. He puts shoes on horses.  Because yes, horses need some Nike's too.

Not to be out done my 4 tiered, ruffled piece of heaven, Michael had this made:

What can I say?  My husband chose a Texas for his groom's cake.....we're two peas in a pod.

After admiring my cake for about five minutes as people crowded around, we finally got to the even better part of tearing into that bad boy and having a bite.

Honestly, I don't remember what it tasted like.  I'm pretty sure I ate a piece, but I'm still not really sure if it was good, bad, or something else.  I just don't remember.  Since I've had a few cakes from ABC Specialty Cakes and never been disappointed before, I'm going to assume it was delicious.  Plus, no one complained, and how can cake possibly go wrong?  Enough sugar, and anything would taste delicious. 

Wedding Flashback: Getting Ready

This post will be more picture heavy then word heavy.  There's not a lot to be said other then the girls (and I) had already gotten our hair done, and were working on our makeup when the photographer arrived.  She took a few pics of us doing that, then we jumped right in to getting dressed:

Brandi and Wendy helped get me into my dress:

Amy helped me put my belt on:
 

Wendy and Bridget laughed as I tried to put my boots on:

 

Wendy finally took pity on me and helped me out:

 

Oh, and a quick shot of my something old (Great Grandmother's bible), something new (the hankerchief), something borrowed (pearl ring), and something blue (blue garter).  And a sixpence in her shoe!

 

 And with that we were ready:

Meanwhile, the guys were lounging around downstairs, waiting on us:

 

Apparently enjoying cookies.......oh well.

Monotonous

 Not sure if I spelled that right or not......  This Friday I'll be (re)taking my high school general science content test, and hopefully this time I'll pass.  I'm actually quite tired of studying for it.  I'm really just tired of studying in general.  I miss all my free time and my little projects that I could be doing instead.  I've been putting them off, and opting to study (aka, stare at the TV with a book in my hand) instead.  So I feel like I've accomplished a whole lot.

In a nut shell, I've just managed to waste a lot of time not studying.

I'm starting to feel very bored, as well as a nerd (some science knowledge has sunk in).  The last fun/decorating thing I've done since our wedding was our Halloween decorations.  And those were a few things I bought at Hobby Lobby and put on a shelf.  I need to get my creative juices flowing again.  Unfortunately, they'll have to stay stagnant a few more days as I cram as much science knowledge into my brain as I can so that I can finally pass this b*atch.

Wish me luck!

Wedding Flashback: Reception Details

I realize that I already had one post about The Details, but those details were mainly just my crazy ideas.  These details are more about the flowers and table decorations.  Plus, I finally sat down the other night to look at my pictures, and in doing so, I gained an entire new appreciation for my photographers at Dawn's Photography.  The detail photos that I found waiting there were WAY better then anything I had thought we would get.  I'm so thrilled to have gotten them, especially since I didn't even ask for them!  So here are some of the reception details that were captured on film that I just LOVED!
 

The tables in general was something I thought turned out really well.  I particularly liked how the succulents came out:

As well as all the china plates that I collected over the year.  I thought that it all came together really well.


A surprise hit was the jam!  Half way into the dinner, when I was running around talking to everybody, I can't tell you how many people stopped to talk about the jam that I had canned and placed at every place setting.  It was a bigger pain in the ass then I initially thought it would be, but it turned out pretty cute.

And another surprise, was the mason glasses.  I honestly wasn't sure if people were really going to put their name's on the glasses, but they did!  They also looked so cute sitting on all the tables.

I also must admit how surprised I was all the monogrammed stuff, including the head table runner.  This looked really awesome I thought.  But then, I'm a little biased I guess.

It took a lot of work, but I'm really happy with the way it all turned out.  If you had asked me five years ago what my wedding would have looked like, I never would have imagined it being so detail oriented.  But looking back now, I wouldn't have had it any other way.

An Overdue Camping Trip

It's been so long ago, but if you remember, at our rehearsal dinner we distributed our bridesmaid's and groomsmen gifts.  You might have noticed that we still had one member of our party to gift - our ring bearer:

Photo courtesy Dawn's Photography

Remember him?  My cute, adorable cousin Wil?

I racked my brain long and hard for this one.  After tossing aside the ideas of a random toys, a pocket knife, and some sort of nerf gun, Michael and I decided that we would skip the traditional "gift", and give him a camping trip!  Granted, I still had to buy him something, so I went with camping gear!  I was able to buy Wil a chair, a combination air mattress and sleeping bag, flashlight, and a little lantern.  I topped it all off with a fishing pole for his birthday that happened to fall between the wedding and camping trip.

So after patiently waiting asking about it every time we saw him, we were finally able to go.  We loaded up the truck with the dog and the cousin (who by the way, had to share the backseat), made a quick stop at Buccee's for a few necessities (firewood, ice, and a Blue Raspberry Icee), and headed north!

That's Wil with his Icee, surrounded by his stuffed toy necessities; Sam the snake, Cedric the puppy, and Icee the Angry Bird.

We only went for one night, but had a blast.  Wil learned how to pitch a tent, make a fire, and beat level 12 of angry birds.  Just kidding.  I'm not for sure of the level, but he did play angry birds for about 30 minutes while we finished putting the finishing touches on the campsite.

 

We also were able to go fishing twice, once that evening and once in the morning before we left.  But alas, no fish were caught.  I think that was probably because Wil liked casting more then he liked waiting for a bite.

He also liked turning his fishing pole into a gun as well.  Oh well, he seemed to have fun.  While Wil was fishing, Sarah was free to roam off her leash.  Without her leash, she turned into a wild dog, running all over the place.  She finally collapsed on the rocks, pooped.

All in all, it was a good trip.  Next time Wil says we will have to bring my brother's canoe.  We'll have to see about that.

A Toast to Politics

So, I'm not sure how many of you tuned into last nights debate, but Michael and I knew we had to spice it up a little bit after watching the first one.  For me, I tend to tune out the more the moderator gets involved, and Michael tends to get a little revved up when listening to that other guy, so we decided to make it a little more interesting.  We only do this because 1. we already know who we'll be voting for and 2. we want to still watch the debate to at least stay informed of what each candidate is saying.

During the Republican primary debates, we came up with a drinking game that kept both of us interested and glued to the TV.  We each came up with a list of five words that the other person would have to drink to.

Michael, unfortunately for me, came up with the better list of words which included Jobs (hello? drank my first beer within the first ten minutes) and Taxes (which used up my second beer within the next twenty minutes).  Taking these two words into account, coupled with the fact that we only had 4 16 ounce beers left from our camping trip, I was out of beer before half the debate was even over.  Which was probably for the best since I had to work today.

Did anybody else play a fun game while watching the debate?

3 Months

Wow.  Can you believe it's already been 3 months?  Or rather, it's ONLY been 3 months?  I feel like so much has happened.

July 14th - got married
July 28th - moved 250 miles south
August 15th - started my new job as a teacher
September 6th - went to Vegas
September 12th - quit my job as a teacher
September 17th - Michael got let go from his job
September 24th - I started a new job as a permanent sub
October 14th - HERE WE ARE!

I feel like so much has happened in our lives, but it hasn't changed us for the worse.  We remain optimistic and open minded to the changes that have occurred.  We've been thru this before, and are more prepared then ever.  Luckily for us, we're just about debt free, we can continue to pay our bills on my sub salary without dipping into our savings account, and Michael has already had a few interviews that seem promising.  We're still on track to buy a house next summer, so hopefully the puppy will have somewhere to play. As long as we remain frugal (which, come on, we're the two cheapest people ever!), we'll be ok.  The trick is staying that way when he does get a job so that we can save even more!

I love watching the savings account number go up.....

Halloween decor: Pinterest Inspired

After telling myself that I wasn't going to decorate for Halloween, Pinterest lured me back in.  I couldn't help myself.  I'm still a little diy'd out after the wedding, so I knew I didn't want anything too intensive.  I didn't want to paint, sew, or mod podge anything together.  I'll save that for next year when we have a backyard....hopefully.

So a quick trip to Hobby Lobby and $40 later, voila!  Love it.  Enjoy!

 

Wedding Flashback: The Details

I had every intention of setting up all my crazy ideas myself, plus any volunteers. I figured there would be a couple. But when it came down to it, most of the work was done by Michael, my brother, and Cristy (the flower lady, who happens to be a friend of my aunts). Throughout the day, I received texts asking "is this right?" or "what did you want done with this?", which would then be followed by a picture, usually with my brother modeling in some ridiculous pose.

I only had to stop by for an hour or so in the afternoon to put the finishing touches on the drink bar. And, just like that, everything came together.

The drink bar (above) was my favorite "detail".  If you remember, I started with a vague idea of what I wanted, and was lucky enough to find the two whiskey barrels.  It was AWESOME!  And everybody seemed to love it!

The coffee station (with the vintage tea and coffee cups):

The vintage place settings for the tables:

The "Come as you are" chalkboard sign stating there was no seating plan:

The window chalkboard drink menu and tubs that held the beer:
 

 

Honestly, some of these details where just thoughts that were jumbled in my head so it took a little fiddling around with to get the look I wanted.  The good thing was that I had pictures of what I wanted where, which really helped.  I was able to send a pic of "inspiration" to Nathan and Michael, and they were able to make it happen.  My brother even MADE the drink bar table Saturday morning.  (He was SUPPOSED to have made it the week before, but as he reminded me, beggers can't be choosers.  Therefore, I got it Saturday morning after many threats.)

Up next, getting ready.