Peace Out!

Sorry I've been MIA again.  This will be my last post as a single woman!!! With all the craziness of the next few days, I know I won't have time to blog or post pictures of rehearsal or anything.  I PROMISE-when I return from my honeymoon, I'll post pictures of the rehearsal, wedding, and honeymoon! And I promise I'll tell you all about it!! :)

Have a WONDERFUL week and weekend guys!  Love you all!! 

Party Time!

I must say, I have the coolest sister ever!!!  I had my Bachelorette Party/Lingerie Shower this past Friday, and I must say that it was FAR from ordinary-so me!!  We started off for dinner at TGI Fridays, and ended up with one hilarious waitress, and then it was back to my house for totally 80's board games: Mall Madness and Dream Phone!  It was a BLAST!! Thanks Ashley for throwing one awesome party, and for everyone else for coming!!!

 

Onto the pictures!!!! They may end up out of order, because I'm too lazy to arrange them.  Sorry!

Me with my seester/aka the BEST Matron of Honor and sister ever!

Drink Numero Uno
Me with the rest of my bridesmaids (minus my cousin Amy-she's coming FRIDAY!!!!!) outside Fridays
Seriously-this waitress was hilarious
Until she brought me a shot and wanted me to take it with my hands behind my back.   Didn't happen.  I have NO skills in the shot taking department other than the normal way.  And it didn't help that they brought me a shot called a Blow Job, and everything I said was made out to be outrageously dirty.  I say this part of the night (even though she had nothing to do with it) was my sisters secret revenge for all those years I teased her about her boyfriends.  :-P
Gift time!!  And yes, I put panties on my head.  No, I wasn't drunk.  It was just a great way to put some humor into a somewhat awkward situation haha!
Pretty Card from my sister!!!
Mall Madness!
My "coolest friend ever" won a food token in the game, and called it her food stamp all night.
Trying to exchange  her food stamp for some real food.  My friends are pretty hilarious.
Dream Phone time!! Since the boys in this game are totally 80's, we decided to rock the side ponytails.

See?!

I'm hoping to become a better blogger when i return from my honeymoon-but hopefully I will have a few posts for you guys to let you know how the final week before I become a Mrs. is going!!

Jason James

After talking with my good pal, Christine today, I realized that not everyone knows my fabulous husband to be (in less than 2 weeks!).  So I thought I'd share some pictures with you all, as well as tell you a little bit about him, the way I see him.

Look how different we look!  We met 3 years ago, on a spring break trip to Gulf Shores.  I was seeing someone else, and looking forward to a week with my girlfriends.  He was there with a bunch of friends, and coincidentally knew one of the girls that I was with.  Thanks for deciding to meet up with all of our new friends Rachel!!  Who knew I would have met the love of my life on that trip?

What a goofball this one is.  I think his humor is what hooked me.  I was addicted to conversations with him, because he always made me laugh.  He LOVES cheesy lines, and can put a funny spin on just about everything.  He even used silly pick up line text messages shortly after we began seeing each other.  Thank goodness he wasn't serious!  If he's not laughing, or doing a weird dance, something is WRONG.  He dances to the beat of his own drum, and taught me to do the same.  
Don't worry about anyone else, do what makes you happy.  Be as you are, and those that are the most important will be glad that it shines through.  Thank goodness for these lessons.  He saved me from a lot of heartache from old friends with these lessons.  It doesn't matter who he is around, whether his boss, a parent, a friend, or a kid-Jason can only be Jason.  He has no idea how to mold into what people think he ought to be in certain situations, and I LOVE that.  And that's what so many people love about him.  
What a romancer he is.  Our first "official" date was June 16, 2006.  He took me to the top of a parking structure of our college, and we watched the sunset as he played music and danced with me.  We make the trip to that empty structure every year.  As weird of a date it was, it sure beat dinner and a movie!!

We have a TON of pictures.  He's so sentimental.  What a girl haha!  He LOVES taking pictures together, and I'm so glad we have so many.  Granted, a lot of them are the same pose as the one above, but we have a lot of different times in our lives documented thanks to his sentimental heart. 

He's also a HUGE softy.  He fell in love with our niece probably as quickly as I did (at the first moment we heard she was coming!).  He sat with my entire family that day, only to leave for a few short hours to take an exam.  He was there for her birth, and our first meeting of sweet Riley.  Too bad so many people gush over her, he doesn't get to hold her nearly as much as he'd like!!  But Riley likes to laugh at his funny faces.

He'll be a great Dad someday.  I always joke that we will need kids soon (but not too soon!) just so Jason will have someone to play with and watch cartoons with.  They'll love his love for board games, frisbee, and the toy aisle at Wal-Mart.  (Jason has started many stories with me by saying: "So today, I stopped by Wal-Mart to play and you will never guess what I found.")

There you have him.  My Boston born, southern raised, music lovin', 5 year old trapped inside a man's body.  I love him. :)

Could it be?

Yes, I think it can.  I'm actually, finally, EXCITED!  After being SO freakin' annoyed with certain aspects of this wedding planning, and my bittersweet lessons, I'm EXCITED!!!  I'm taking my bittersweet lessons, filing them under new knowledge, throwing the annoyances out the window and just saying whatever with it all.  Regardless of what has happened over this past year, the most important thing has remained constant throughout this whole process.  I have the man of my dreams in love with me and he actually wants to marry me.  And that's exactly what I'm gonna do.  I've always been excited about this part, and looked forward to it. Unfortunately, some things overshadowed it once in a while.  

But at the end of each day, I'm reminded why we've chosen to do this and that no matter what happens, we're going to stand together. If it's not a perfect day, it's just one for the "not perfect day" column in our book.  There will be more "perfect days" in our marriage than "not perfect days," so what does it really matter if Day 1 is perfect or not?  What matters is that day 1-infinity is happiness, regardless of perfection.  Our marriage won't ever be perfect, Jason will never be perfect, I will certainly NEVER be perfect, so why worry about our wedding day being perfect?  Something WILL go wrong, I'm sure.  It's inevitable.  But we will be Mr. and Mrs. at the end of it, so that MAKES it all perfect.

"We go through life

So sure of where we're headin'
And then we wind up lost
And it's the best thing that could have happened
'Cause sometimes when you lose your way
It's really just as well
Because you find yourself
Yeah, that's when you find yourself"

If you've never heard this song by Brad Paisley, I strongly recommend it.  It's called (what else?!) Find Yourself.  I found it a few months ago, and I love it.  It's really been a theme song of mine throughout this whole wedding situation, because I really feel that's how Jason and I ended up together.  I had NO intentions of finding someone when I met him, I had other plans. Somehow along the way, I lost that path and found myself and my new life in him.  It's also been a wonderful song for my bittersweet lessons.

I find myself being EXTREMELY sentimental these days.  My parents and Jason and I had dinner last week and discussed all of our last minute plans, and that turned into some sentimental moments.  And if you know me very well, you know that tears do not flow often.  You'd never believe that I cry ALL the time now.  When something is sweet, when I feel sad, when I get angry, and even when I'm happy.  It's all very weird.  I'm hoping it's just a "wedding thing" and goes away soon.   I HATE crying.

I'll leave you tonight with one of my favorite engagement photos:

I love that boy.

Happy Mother's Day!!

This is a picture of my Mom and I at a Keith Urban concert in Nashville.  How cool is that?   She's the greatest, it's really a shame for those of you that don't know her.  You are missing out!

Happy Mother's Day Mom.  I love you more than you'll ever know.

Weddings Make You Crazy

No matter what, you can't run from it. Weddings make you crazy, one way or another. Any future brides, or recent brides, or anyone at ALL that has any words of wisdom, it would be so much appreciated right now.

Many have already heard me vent about this, and if you have, I'm sorry. Feel free to skip this blog. Others haven't, but this blog is really for me to really process my thoughts, and to finally understand what I'm feeling. I always feel like I explain myself better in writing rather than to be verbal. Although I have tried to be verbal about it.

Why is it that big things have to happen before my eyes are opened? Why is it during monumental parts of my life do I really see things that have been there all along? Who knows.

I have learned to appreciate my dearest friends and family so much more. It's times like these, such as graduations, weddings, births, new jobs, etc. that I am always reminded of who is ALWAYS going to be there for me. However, I'm always surprised. It's rarely ever who I expect it to be. But I'm pleasantly surprised, and truly touched by those that I never would have expected to be there just to listen, or to jump in without me ever saying a word. It IS always odd though, when those that you would expect to be around for these monumental things don't end up being there. It's such a bittersweet feeling. To feel so lucky to have the ones you always knew you had, to have the ones you never knew you really had, but to realize you don't have ones that you thought you had. And I'm not just speaking from personal experience tonight, but also from watching others go through the exact same thing during different milestones in their life experience these same bittersweet feelings.

Although my wedding planning experience has been very turbulent with these bittersweet feelings, I can't be happier than I am right now. I'm finally less than 1 month from being married to the most wonderful man on the face of this earth. 25 more days people!! We met with our officiant today, made a definitive decision to write our own vows, and even got our marriage license today!! Getting our marriage license was really cool and surreal at the same time. This is REAL. I'm getting married. And yes, I've had well over a year to accept this, but I think it's actually finally hitting me. I'm happy and I'm sad. I can't wait to be married to Jason, but I'm also afraid of the unknown, and sad that my time in my house with my own room with my parents is about to change. They'll read this and probably be surprised that I am actually sadder about that than they think.

We've laughed over these past few days that I'm marrying someone just like my Daddy. He has such a huge heart, and wants to give to everyone that he possibly can. But we've laughed about their same rituals and habits when it comes to watching sports. From flipping between two channels to watch two games, and then watching every bit of the ESPN highlights (why? who knows, they just saw the whole game). And I HAD to crack up when I came to our house tonight. My Dad is the world's best at taking the trash out, and the world's worst about putting a new bag in the trash can after he's taken it out. I can't tell you how many times my mom and I go to throw multiple things away, hands full, only to realize there is no bag in the trash can. I came home, began making dinner, and had a few things in my hands to throw away. I walk across to the kitchen, and my future husband has done the EXACT SAME THING! He's taken the trash out, and forgotten to put in a new bag. He used the excuse that he forgot because he was anxious to come to my parents house and see me, but I see a pattern beginning. It was a GREAT laugh. But I love my Daddy, and think he's a wonderful man. So if I'm marrying someone that has some of his characteristics, I feel like I'm one of the lucky ones.

All right guys, sorry to make your eyes bleed with everything going on in my head tonight, but thanks for making it all the way through if you did!! And like I said, anyone with words of wisdom would be MUCH appreciated right now!