Why I'm marrying him...

Because he's just so amazing to me :) These are the flowers I got for my birthday. I have the best future husband ever!

Blog Award

So I've noticed everyone on my blogger list doing this lately, so I figured I'd jump on. A while back my friend Lauren recognized my blog as one of her faves and my sister did it for me too recently, so I guess I should pass it on.

Here's the rules...
1. When given the award, you list 7 things that you love.
2. Pass the award on to 7 bloggers that you love.Be sure to tag them and let them know they've won. (You can copy the picture of the award and paste it on your sideboard.)

Things I love: (I'm going to copy my sister on this and say that I am assuming you all know that I love God, Justin and our dog Gizmo)

1) Girls Nights Out. I LOVE LOVE LOVE getting our small group of girls together to do things on our own without our husbands/future husbands.

2) Traveling. Nothing comes before traveling for me (well except for the 3 things listed above of course). I love adventure and traveling all over the US and the world. It's my life.

3) Climbing mountains. This kind of goes in with number 2 because most of the places we travel is to go climb mountains, but sometimes it's not. The feeling you get when you're at the top of a 14,000 foot mountain is indescribable and is hard to top.

4) The feeling you get when a prayer is successful. When you've prayed for something or someone over and over and you start seeing results and things start happening for the better, it feels really really good. Watching God work is always enjoyable.

5) NOT BEING IN BUSY SEASON

6) Working out. Sometimes it is a pain to have a normal workout schedule, but I love working out and running races, anything keeping me active. I always feel so accomplished after a workout!

7) New York City. I don't need to explain this. Most of you that know me well know how obsessed I am with the city.

Bloggers I give the award to:
1) Garrett and Lauren
2) The Smith Family
3) Amelia Strauss - My Wedding Photographer
4) Chase and Allison
5) Katie Hines
6) David and Heather
7) Pastor Pete from Nashville

Also, today is my birthday!! I turned 26 (gosh I seriously feel like I was just 21!) today and it's been a pretty good day so far. Justin is unfortunately working in Colorado this week so I didn't get to spend it with him. He gave me a gift card to Santa Fe Day Spa for my birthday. I've never had a professional massage before and I looked at their list of different massages and I have NO IDEA which one to get!! Suggestions are welcome!

He also apparently got me flowers that I haven't seen yet. One of our admin staff at work called my cell today to tell me that I had some flowers, but since I'm working at the client's office I can't see them :( My senior manager was nice enough to get them and bring them out here to our client when he comes out here. As soon as I see what they look like I'll post a pic. This is why I am marrying him. He's so amazing and thoughtful :)

Prayer Requests:

1) I only have one prayer requests but it is for 6 people. 6 people I know got laid off this week. Please pray for them and that they are able to find jobs. This economy is so bad and it's really not a great time to not have a job so please pray for their strength and their families strength through this difficult time.

Please pray for this family

http://beauandbrittanydaniel.blogspot.com/

The above link will take you to the blog of Beau and Brittany Daniel. Brittany was pregnant at 24 weeks when her water unexpectedly broke. She was able to hold the baby until 29 weeks, but then they had to deliver. Baby Gaines is in the NICU still trying to grow, since he was born weighing only 3lbs 2 oz. Please pray for them. They update the blog pretty frequently on Gaines' progress. Mom and Dad are going to need all the strength they can get so please say a quick prayer for them and baby Gaines.

My Kitchen Shower

I had my kitchen shower this week! It was my very first shower and may be a hard one to top!!! I had some of my favorite people hosting: Lindsey Owens and Lauren Kelly, two of my best friends for over 13 years now, and their mom Kelly Owens, who has been my second mom for over half my life, and Lissa Hines, my old neighbor when I lived in Trace Crossings. It was on Tuesday night (for explanation on why it was on a weeknight see previous posts) and it was A BLAST! We had a great turnout for it being on a Tuesday night and everyone was having fun. My wonderful hostesses did such an amazing job on decorating and the food and helping me do stuff (since I don't know anything about weddings). Lindsey Owens sat next to me and made sure to keep all my bows (apparently you do that) and made sure to keep the name tags on the gifts that came with them. Lauren took a ton of pictures with my camera because she knew I wouldn't be able to. Thanks so much guys! I love y'all!!!! Here's some pics:



Me with two of the hostesses, Mrs. Lauren Kelly and the future Mrs. Limbaugh (MAY 30TH!!!



My sis drove up from Tuscaloosa to be there



My future in-laws! This is Jennifer Gault (Justin's sister and one of my bridesmaids) and his mom Debbie



My second family



Carina, me, Lindsey, and Allison Williamson





All my gifts....thanks so much to everyone!!!


Lindsey and Lauren put all the gifts on the table to get some good pictures of them. Thanks guys!! I really appreciate everything you did :)

I had such a blast and Justin and I got so much stuff for our kitchen. I get made fun of a lot because I am picky when it comes to food, so when I opened most of these gifts people laughed because I didn't know what some of them were used for. Lauren caught a great moment on video and I've put it below. It's hard to hear, but I opened one of my mom's gifts which was a spice rack and my sister (who is the number 1 person to make fun of me for my taste in food) talked about using the spices to spice up chicken fingers (because that's my favorite food).

A 15K, a wedding, and a year anniversary

It's been a busy busy weekend so far!! First off, Justin and I ran the 15K Statue to Statue race on Saturday morning. It was a total of 9.4 miles and IT WAS A KILLER! We didn't realize until last week that it was nicknamed the "toughest 15K in the south". We knew why when we ran it. The first 5 1/2 miles weren't bad, but then it got into Mt. Brook where there were HUGE hills. There were two hills in specific where NO ONE ran up them because they were just too steep. My knee starting giving out at about mile 8 but I still crossed the finish line. Justin said it was much harder than the Mercedes half-marathon, which makes me feel pretty good! Justin did it in 1 hour 28 minutes and I did it in 1 hour 43 minutes.



After the race we went home and pretty much did nothing since neither of us could really move all that well after running through hills for so long. Me and Justin's year anniversary is on Sunday, April 19th and we went ahead and exchanged gifts on Saturday because there's a lot going on Sunday. All he wanted was shirts for fishing....he's gotten into this fishing hobby. I don't quite understand how that is enjoyable, but it gives me the house to myself for a few hours every other Saturday, so no complaints here :) I was TOTALLY surprised by what he gave me. He knows how in love I am with New York City so he bought me this:


It's a framed painting of the Brooklyn Bridge....one of my FAVORITE spots in NYC. Not only did he give me the painting, but he's allowing me to replace the Auburn picture above the fireplace with this painting! Although, he's forcing me to wait until after we're married to replace it. I guess he just wants 3 more months of THINKING he's in control :)

Saturday night was Tiffany and Trevor's wedding. I DO NOT cry at weddings. But at their wedding, I was swimming in tears. Even Justin said "you're not like other girls...you never cry. Why are you crying?". I have no idea why I was crying!!! I don't know why I got so emotional. There is no telling what kind of basket case I'll be like on our wedding day. I love these two and I am so happy for them! All my pictures are on facebook so I'm not going to put them all on here, but I'll put a few of my favorites up.

What do you do when you're bored?

Well, I was INCREDIBLY bored at work yesterday and today. Since the 15th is past us now, some of us have nothing to do at work. I'm scheduled on another audit starting on Monday, but yesterday and today have been very slow when it comes to work (we have Friday off...thank GOD)! But that's a good thing! I've done a lot of wedding stuff that I wasn't able to do before. I started doing our wedding slideshow, which TRUST ME, will be highly amusing! And I also pretty much planned our itinerary for our honeymoon. Justin and I already agreed on all the activities we want to do so I started looking up websites and which days what activities are open and the hours and literally made a rough draft of our itinerary!!! I doubt any of you actually care to see it, but it's gotten me SOOOOOOOOOOO excited for Hawaii so I'm posting it anyway! Here's what we've got so far:

Sunday, July 26th - Our flight leaves Birmingham at 7am and lands in Honolulu at 2:05pm (with a layover in ATL). As soon as we get to Honolulu, we're renting our car (yes, we are renting A JEEP!!!). Because we will have been on a plane most of the day, we're relaxing our first day there. This day will probably be spent laying at the pool and the beach at our hotel.

Monday, July 27th - We're going to see the USS Arizona Memorial (if you don't know what this is, go watch Pearl Harbor). We'll also be riding to North Shore which is where the surfing contests are, but we'll be spending the day snorkeling in Turtle Bay.

This is a picture of Turtle Bay. It's where all the huge sea turtles feed, hence the name.
Tuesday, July 27th - This is the day we leave Oahu to fly to Maui. Are flight is at 1:50 so we'll spend most of the morning packing what little we had unpacked and laying out by the pool or beach again. Once we get to our hotel in Maui, we'll rent a car there (yep, A JEEP). Grand Wailea is our hotel on Maui and it covers 40 acres of land. So since we're getting into Maui mid-afternoon, we'll probably just spend the remainder of the day walking through the hotel and enjoying it's gardens and views. At night, we'll be going to the luau at the Westin.


Wednesday, July 29th - We're going on a half day sea kayaking/snorkeling tour. It's a 5 hour tour where we will get our own boat and kayak Maui's coast and stop for frequent breaks where we'll snorkel to see sea turtles and dolphins! In the late afternoon, we will be going for a "Twilight Scuba Dive". We will go to a spot and scuba at 4pm so we can see it during the day time and then we'll come back to the same spot and scuba at night and watch certain animals feed. This is the spot where we'll be diving:



Yes, we will probably see sharks :) SO EXCITING!
Thursday, July 30th - This is our Big Island day! We will fly to Hawaii's big island and go to the summit of Hawaii's largest mountain, Mauna Kea. We'll also go to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and I'm hoping to squeeze in a 3 mile hike to a waterfall that you can walk behind!


This is a close up so it doesn't do justice for the waterfall, but it's over 150 feet long...it's HUGE!
Friday, July 31st - I think this will be my FAVORITE day by far! We're going zip ling that morning. It's a half day activity and you zip line through the rainforest over waterfalls and through mountains. The views are UNBELIEVABLE!



This is a video of another couple doing one of the routes on the tour. Just gives you an idea of how amazing the views are!

After we're done with that, we'll take an hour long helicopter ride over all of Maui. My favorite part of it will be in the mountains though. Looking at the pictures on the website makes me feel like I'm in the TV show Lost!


Saturday, August 1st - We have no plans this day. It will be a relax day :)

Sunday, August 2nd - We're waking up at 2:30 am to meet a group of bikers at 3:30 am to go to the top of a crater to watch the sun rise. After the sun has risen, we bike our way down the mountain seeing some amazing scenery on the way down. We've heard several people do this and say it was incredible. We're not big fans of waking up that early, but we'll do it anyway. Needless to say, the remainder of the day I'll be asleep by the pool, margarita on standby :)


Monday, August 3rd - We're doing some horseback riding through the rainforest and spending the rest of the day probably snorkeling or doing some water activity. I'm hoping to take surfing lessons, but we'll see how that goes.

Tuesday, August 4th - This is our last day in Hawaii :( We'll spend it probably by the pool and walking around the hotel one last time before our flight at 9pm.

Well there you have it. I'm absolutely positive some of that will change. People say not to have an itinerary, but this is our honeymoon and Hawaii offers so much and we want to make sure we have time to do it all!!!

I get to have a life now!

Yes....It is officially the end of busy season today!!! What better way to celebrate than a girls night out! Me and some friends are going to meet tonight at a mexican restaurant for dinner and maybe some margaritas! I'm so excited, I haven't seen much of my friends in the past 4 months. Not to mention that I get to have a NORMAL workout schedule again! No more going to the gym after getting off work at 9pm!

Lots of stuff is going on in the next week. Tonight is my girls night that I am SO excited about. Tomorrow Justin gets back in town from Louisiana (which makes me happy not just because I get to see him, but because Gizmo will go back to sleeping in his room and I won't have to split my queen size bed with a 90 pound dog). Friday is my day off work! Our firm gives us the Friday after April 15th off as a "tax holiday". So Friday I get to run all the errands and do all the wedding gift shopping that I didn't get to do this month to prepare for the rest of the weddings happening in April and May. Justin and I are also going back to Montgomery on Friday. We're going to see Tom Neville, the guy that Justin bought my engagement ring from, and pick out Justin's wedding ring. I want to see my wedding band but Justin refuses to let me see it before the wedding.

Saturday is a big day for us too. We're running our first 15K (9.33 miles) from the Vulcan statue to the Miss Liberty statue. Justin recently did some research on this race and found out that it is nicknamed the "toughest 15K in the southeast". We have GOT to start researching stuff before we sign up for it! Anyway, also on Saturday night is Trevor and Tiffany's wedding. I cannot WAIT for their wedding. Justin and I love Trevor and Tiff and don't really know what we'd do without them. They have quickly become our best friends and I am so excited for them. Pictures from their wedding will be posted next week.

Sunday is April 19th and it holds two different special occasions. First is Lindsey Owens' bridal tea at the Bryant's house in Riverchase. The second is me and Justin's ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY! It's also the last anniversary we'll celebrate in April :) We don't really have much planned since the timing is bad with all the weddings and stuff going on, but we are taking a trip in May just the two of us to wind down from all the wedding craziness so we can just enjoy eachother and enjoy marking highpoints off the list :)

Today's Prayer Requests:

1) Please pray for my friend Lillian's dad. He has some major medical issues and Lil's family is afraid that he may not be able to walk her down the aisle in January for her wedding. Please pray to give him the strength he needs to be able to give his daughter away and please pray for Lillian's nerves as she is so worried about him.

2) Please continue to pray for Justin's grandfather. He is fine now, but he had to be rushed to the emergency room last week for heart problems. Please pray for him.

Wedding developments and a bachelorette party

Now that I'm winding down from busy season, I have time to do more wedding stuff! I haven't done much of anything the past 2 months because I've been too busy to. We finally got our save the dates in!!! They're being mailed today. Here's a pic:

It's a magnet and we kept going with the brown and green theme :)

I also got my very first shower invitation in the mail this weekend. My first shower is hosted by some amazing people. Mrs. Hines lived across the street from me when I lived in Trace Crossings and we were great friends with their family. The shower is at her house. Mrs. Owens is the mother of the 2 people I've known longer than anyone (besides family that is). She's been my second mom literally half my life! And her daughters (2 of my wonderful bridesmaids) are helping host as well. It's a kitchen shower (because God knows we badly need kitchen stuff) and it's on April 21, 2009.

Yes, it is on a Tuesday. Several people have asked about that...there is a reason!! When we lived in Trace Crossings was when my mother met some of her best friends to this day. It was through the neighborhood Bunco group and they meet once a month on Tuesdays to gossip (they don't even play Bunco anymore). Anyway, since these are the ladies I've grown up around, they decided to use this month's Bunco to have a shower for me instead of playing/gossiping. So that's why its on a Tuesday. Here's the invitation:



You can't really see it, but you get the gist. VERY CUTE!! I loved it!

And now on to more playful things....we had Tiffany's bachelorette party this past Saturday. We started at a family friend's house doing gifts and then moved the party to Twist and Shout and then to Nana Funks. It was a BLAST! We had so much fun! I'm only putting up a couple of pics, you can see all of them on my Facebook page.


Me and the bride before going to Twist and Shout


I love these girls :)


Everyone


Weird old guy wanted to dance with her


And then we got her on stage to do a little dance :)

Vote for Lillian and the Craigger!!!

Lillian just emailed me the link to a blog of a photographer that is very well known in Nashville and he got a hold of several pictures and is holding a contest. One of the pictures in the contest is Craig on one knee proposing to my Lil :) Their photo is number 1 and I ask that if you don't mind too much, please go to this site and vote for them. The winner gets a free couples shoot! All you have to do to vote is leave a comment saying that you're voting for picture #1 and why, though, you don't really even have to put why as some people that voted are also not putting a reason.

http://photographix.bigfolioblog.com/

I miss Pete....

When I was living in Nashville, I went to a church called CrossPoint. It was pretty much the best thing that ever happened to me in Nashville. Pete, the pastor, keeps a blog and I check it frequently to keep up with the series that he does. I loved what he posted recently and it's something I think about all the time so I figured I'd copy the video over if you want to watch it.

If not, I'll sum it up for you. It's about prayer. How often do you pray? What time of day do you pray? Is it only once when you go to bed at night? I use to be this way before I was saved again. I did pray, but I made it a consistent "do it before you go to bed" everyday. Nothing changed from day to day, it was the same prayer over and over again. After I was saved again I started working on the way that I pray. In the video, Pete talks about his reminders to pray everyday and I even have some of the same reminders. My favorite one he talks about is the ambulance. If more people did this, people that are in serious condition on their way to the hospital could get SO MANY prayers uplifted for them! Every time I see an ambulance, I automatically pray for the person in it. I pray that God gives them the physical strength to heal from their wounds but also the emotional strength to be able to go through the healing process.

A while back, I started making sure that I pray continuously throughout the day. If I know that someone needs prayers, I don't wait to go home and do it because chances are, I'll forget! So I make a point to pray ALL THE TIME. Pray for someone that hasn't asked you to pray for them. Pray for someone that you don't even know, because we all need help. None of us are perfect. Pray for the current administration of the United States (even though some of us don't agree with it) because this is our country. Pray for the souls of our country. Pray for the men and women overseas. Pray for family and friends and even your enemies. These are the things I try to pray for everyday.

Happy Praying :)

Pete Says Hell_3.29.09 from on


Oh and the whole "Pete Says Hell" thing isn't as bad as you think....it's at 4:25 for you to see yourself.