Last post as a single woman!!!

OK well technically I was never single, but you get the idea! I'm getting married on Saturday! Tuesday was my last day at work. I took Wednesday through Friday off because I had a bunch of things I had to do before the wedding. Yesterday I went to my mom's house to pick up some items that Debbie (future mother-in-law) thought we should go ahead and have at the church so that we wouldn't forget them later. We also did some last minute altering to my dress. I absolutely LOVE my dress. Everyone that has seen it says it is so me. I'm not an extravagant person so spending a ridiculous amount of money on a wedding dress was never in the cards for me. I like simple, but elegant, contemporary, but timeless. I think my dress meets all those qualities. It was the VERY first dress I tried on so I had to make sure to not look at anymore dresses so that I wouldn't have second thoughts.

Justin and I originally had an agreement to not do wedding gifts. He spent a lot on the honeymoon and I was spending a ton on the wedding so we figured we would just hold off on getting wedding presents for each other so that we wouldn't go totally broke. I was informed two days ago that Justin did not hold up his end of the bargain. He says he got me something and is going to give it to me on the wedding day when we see each other for the first time. I felt so bad and went on and on about how I don't have time now to get him anything and he kept telling me he didn't want anything but he just really wanted to get me whatever it is that he got me. Usually I have a clue about things like this that Justin tries to surprise me with. I truly have NO idea what he could possibly have gotten, but I'm really excited to find out! I have such an awesome future husband!

Today Justin and his mom and I went to the Club to see the room where the rehearsal dinner will be. It's absolutely amazing! Our room is the Vulcan room that overlooks all of Birmingham and happens to be the only room with a door to the balcony to go outside. I'm SO super excited! We also started taking several things up to the church; wreaths, decorations, programs, etc. Justin drove to Pensacola with his mom after leaving the Club so that they could attend his aunts funeral. Gordon (Justin's dad) and Jenn are already in Pensacola. They're all coming home tomorrow afternoon just in time for Justin and I to fit in one more Thirsty Thursday before becoming man and wife ;) I'm trying to convince Justin to go to Ironhorse after the game because a good band is playing that I use to go see in Nashville a lot. We'll see how that turns out though.

Tomorrow my sister, Jennifer, and her husband are flying in from Tampa. I'm picking her up from the airport at 10:30 AM and we're going straight to the nail salon with our mom to do nails and toes. I can't wait to see Jenn! I'm also picking up Justin's tux tomorrow morning. We had some complications at Men's Warehouse with the tux's, but everything is fixed now. I have no idea how people screw something up when it is the reason they are a business in the first place. I'm working overtime trying to get the house clean. Our friend Wade is staying at our house while we are on the honeymoon. I hear too many stories about people getting robbed while they were on their honeymoon so Justin and I wanted Wade to stay there (also because we needed someone to stay with the Giz).

Friday is actually the first day that I don't have errands to run, though I am sure that will change between now and then. Our rehearsal starts at 5:30 and then we're going to The Club afterwards for the dinner. Several of us are going out afterwards for a brief period of time, but none of us want to stay out too late because of how early we have to get up the next morning. The bridesmaid brunch is at my mom's house the next morning. My photographer will be there capturing us all getting makeup and hair done. We're carpooling from my mom's to the church around 1pm and start getting dresses on at the church. Justin and I have decided to see each other ahead of time to make the picture taking process much easier. We'll have our alone time around 2. After that is pictures GALORE and then the wedding starts at 6.

Justin and I are both a little nervous about having so many people staring at us during the ceremony. We will both be very ready to get to the reception at B&A!! Sorry there are no pictures with this post. My next post will have tons of pictures from the wedding and honeymoon I'm sure :) However don't expect to see them until we're back from the honeymoon. I'm definitely not going to be blogging from Hawaii! See you when I'm Mrs. Morris!!!!

Lydia Turns 1

Today was Lydia's first birthday party! Her actual birthday isn't until July 25th, but since that is also our wedding day, Lindsey planned the party for the weekend before. She looked absolutely adorable in her little pink outfit. Lindsey worked so hard on decorating the place and she did an awesome job. She was very creative when it came to the decorations. The party was a flamingo themed party. Everything was pink and green and the place looked fabulous! Here's a few pics. I wasn't able to take many because Lindsey had me taking a bunch of pictures with her camera so that she could have them.

****5 DAYS AND COUNTING TIL I'M MRS. MORRIS!!!****

Prayer Requests:

1) Morris Family - Please pray for the Morris family this week. Justin's uncle from Pensacola needs prayers pretty badly as his wife unexpectedly died over the weekend. Justin's dad and sister have already been to Pensacola to be there for the family and Justin will drive down as soon as they find out when the funeral is. Please pray for them as they go through this hard time.

2) Carina's grandfather - One of my bridesmaids grandfather has recently had surgery. He went through the surgery and is fine. He is actually already back home, but please pray for his continued recovery.

My Lil got a blog!!!

YAAAAAAY for Lillian joining the blogging world!! One of my wonderful bridesmaids and Nashville BFF, Lillian, just recently got a blog. Check her out at:

http://abrideinboots.blogspot.com/

The title is SOOOOOOOOOOOO a Lillian title! Love ya Lil!!

Building houses, scuba diving and an engagement

It's been a funfilled 4th of July weekend!!! First, Justin and his dad with a few others from the church got back from Mexico on Thursday. They all went there on a mission trip to build a house for a woman living there. Here's a few pics:



This is the group of guys that helped build the house. Justin went with his dad and brother-in-law and 2 others from the church.







They took a picture with the woman they built the house for.

Justin had a really good time in Mexico. They were under the impression before leaving to go down there that they would be staying in a hut with no air conditioning. He was very pleased when he got there to find out that the hut did in fact have air conditioning.

On Friday, Justin and I went diving at ABWA, the place in Pelham where we got certified to go scuba diving on our honeymoon. This was the first time that Justin and I got to dive together because we both had to get certified separately. We took some great pics and videos:



This is Justin playing around on the 10 foot deck. There were a lot of fish around, but not many of them were at this deck. We did another dive at another deck where ALL the fish were.



This is over by the Brim beds. There were a bunch of old beer cans and stuff at the bottom because this is a place where people use to come party back in the day. I wonder how long this Mt. Dew can has been there???



This is the other deck on the other side of the corey. There were much more fish over here!



I liked doing our remaining dives off of this deck because there were SO many fish!

Here's a couple of videos we took. The visibility here is about 10 feet. One of the places we're diving in Hawaii, Molokini Crater, is known to have visibility in excess of 100 feet. WE CANNOT WAIT!





And finally, to round out the great weekend, AN ENGAGEMENT!!! Our friends Bonnie and Andrew just got engaged last night! They've been dating for about 6 years now, so as Justin says "it's about time"! We love Bonnie and Andrew!!! They are our travel and hiking buddies. Here's to them!!!

Other things to mark off my list

So I had a couple of other things to mark off my 101 things to do in 1001 days list but just haven't blogged about them. Here are some more I have completed:

26. Get off myspace - I recently removed my profile from myspace. I never get on there and I like facebook much better so I just deleted it along with the twitter account. Twitter was just a little boring for me. I learned how to work it, which was all I wanted to do in the first place, but at the end of the day, one social website is enough for me!

83. Buy new frames for the engagement pictures - I have a few set up in our house and at work. I only framed a couple because I'll probably end up framing more wedding pics than engagement pics.

85. Get a pedicure - I really have only gotten one of these in my entire life and it was for prom my sophomore year in high school. I went on May 30th, 2009 with Lindsey Limbaugh and her bridesmaids and friends for her wedding the next day. I'll get one again for sure before my wedding day. Maybe I'll actually take a picture then :)

None of these were interesting enough to take pictures of or anything like that, but I figured I'd go ahead and cross them off the list anyway. So..........I'm getting married in 23 days. I'm freaking out! There is still so much to do! Having my mom's help has been HUGE in this whole process so shout out to her for all her wonderfulness! Thanks Mom!

We have a meeting with our DJ tonight to go over music and lead out and all that fun stuff. Next week is a big week for wedding related stuff. We have a meeting with Amelia, our photographer, on Monday to go over the timeline of the wedding day and kinds of pictures we'll be taking. Then Tuesday is our LAST shower given by my work :( Sad, I loved the showers, though they took some getting use to. I'm not a huge fan of people staring at me while I open gifts. Wednesday we are having our final meeting with the cake lady to go over the bride and grooms cake. You guys will love the grooms cake. It is made special for Justin and I. Our cake vendor has never ever done a cake like we are getting her to do Sorry, can't spoil the surprise!

It still hasn't really hit me yet that we're getting married this month. Probably because I'm too stressed dealing with the small things to relax. I can't tell you how many times I have daydreamed about our honeymoon in Hawaii. I want to go NOW! We are both incredibly excited to do all the things we're doing. Justin gets home from his mission trip to Mexico today and tomorrow we're going diving at ABWA for the first time together. In between the dives we're doing, we'll be booking our "activities" that we're doing in Hawaii. I don't even think I could tell you which one I'm the most excited about. They're all going to be AMAZING!