Counting down the days...

So we are 53 days away from holy matrimony and I am praying the time continues to fly by!! Life has been CRAZY the past few weeks. I hate how professors pile on the work when students get back from fall break. I feel like I can finally breathe after two weeks of endless tests and projects. My brain is mush and it's not even November yet!!!

Speaking of November....this girl has a birthday coming up! On November 8th, I will be the big 2-1! Since I don't drink, it won't be different from any other birthday, but I'm still excited. Although, after this birthday, there's no other age to really look forward to. Last year, my mom threw me an AMAZING surprise party (well a halfway surprise party). I accidentally found out about it, but I didn't have the heart to tell her so she still doesn't know that I knew about it. It was amazing though! Needless to say, with the wedding coming up, this year's birthday will be recognized by a small family dinner and maybe a few gifts, which is just fine with me. I'm partied out from the billions of showers for me and for other people. I'm just excited to see what Steven is going to get me. It's a surprise and I had to make a promise not to be nosey, which is REALLY hard for me! November will definitely be an exciting month, filled with showers and last minute preparations for the wedding and for our house.

Steven is continuing to do a wonderful job painting our walls and putting up lights. I'm so proud that he's such a great handy man. Our sweet little house is coming together great and I am happy to say that all of the gifts I received from my first shower, which was A LOT, are all tucked away nice and neatly throughout the house. This past weekend, we bought table lamps and walked around Hobby Lobby (heaven on earth), picking out decor for our walls. Steven was so sweet walking through the store and showing me what he wanted for our walls, and I gotta say, he has pretty good taste. He picked up a sign that said "All because two people fell in love" and wanted it for our bedroom. It was precious. He's the sweetest :)

As time is winding down, and my tongue continues to have the taste of envelope glue, I am trying to enjoy all of the planning and anticipation. I don't want to get so caught up in rushing the wedding along that I forget about the here and now. Steven and I are continuing to grow in our relationship and we are working hard on communicating positively with one another. During this last stressful month, we are trying to make the best of everything and just laugh. He knows how to make me laugh, and boy does that ease the tension of planning a wedding and going to school. We make a pretty good team if I should say so myself :)

Showers of Blessings and dish towels!!

My fall break was very eventful to say the least. Friday, After hours spent searching for the perfect dress for my shower, I finally found a winner at the ever so wonderful Ross. From there, it was home to prepare for my meeting with our wedding pianist to plan out every musical note for the ceremony. Call it cheesy, but I teared up with excitement when she played the bridal march! It just made everything seem so real! After that, it was time for dinner and a trip to Lowes with Steven and his dad. With a full stomach of hibachi shrimp from Atami's (my favorite) up and down the endless aisles of home improvement bliss I went. Never in my life have I been so excited about curtains, curtain rods, light switch covers, and blinds!! Oh and don't forget glade plug-ins!! Apple cinnamon scent of course! We arrived back at our house where I insisted on screwing in every single outlet and light switch cover! It was an amazing feeling to step back and look at how much work has been put into our adorable little home. 

Believe it or not, I got off to an early start Saturday morning with a McDonald's breakfast with my sweetheart and ANOTHER trip to Lowes for MORE curtains!! YAY! As soon as we arrived back at the house to start putting up blinds, I realized we forgot to get a valance for the living room, so off to Lowes AGAIN! Since I was alone this time, and not being rushed by Steven who seems to think I wonder off whenever we go shopping, I decided to go ahead and grab a shower rod. It's so funny when you start working in your own house, how small things like a shower rod are so exciting! I am happy to say that after Saturday's work, most of our blinds and curtains are up and all the light fixtures have been replaced! 

Then comes the MOST EXCITING part of Saturday - MY FIRST BRIDAL SHOWER! After picking up my precious nieces, Bella and Marleigh, I was able to see what my sister and her husband have been up to the past few weeks. Whenever they decorate for a party, they DECORATE. They are super creative and I couldn't wait to see what was on the other side of our church fellowship hall door! When I walked in, it didn't even look like the same room! I don't even know how to really describe it! I will put pics up soon of their fabulous creation. I went home to get ready and I arrived back, a few minutes late of course, to a group of beautiful familiar faces of people who have been a part of my twenty years on this earth. It was wonderful seeing everyone, eating delicious food, and opening what seemed like an endless amount of household goodies!! Let's just say I have severe writer's cramp from writing about fifty thank-you cards! They showered me with TONS of beautiful gifts, with dish towels being a popular item, and ornaments for our first Christmas tree. The gifts that excited me the most were my bath rug and chocolate brown trash can!! I left feeling so loved and extremely blessed by those that I love. My sister did an amazing job and I feel so lucky to have her and the rest of my family who go above and beyond for me in so many ways!! One shower down, three more to go! Although I gotta say, my other showers have some pretty fierce competition with this one. 

My shower cake
The theme was "Carved out for one another"

Sunday, Steven preached a wonderful sermon on being a light in this world at Holly Springs. I am just so proud of him and how he has grown in the Lord. I love him so very very much and I know he will be a wonderful husband and father to our future children and not to mention a wonderful minister of the Gospel. Sunday afternoon consisted of lunch at Mamo's and a much needed nap before heading back to our home church for a prayer service. After service, we spent time with our wonderful pastors at their house for pancakes :)

Monday and Tuesday of fall break has been an endless case of writer's cramp with shower thank-you's, wedding invitations, and my dreaded homework. I am dreading 6:45AM because it's back to reality. I'm so ready for my reality to be 66 days from now!! :)

Self-Diagnosis

For those of you that know me well, I LOVE my sleep. Up until Monday, I've always thought my busy lifestyle was the reason I often doze off in class, chapel, church, while driving, and at any other time where I am required to sit still. In my human biology lab, while discussing the respiratory system, my professor asked if anyone breaths through their mouth while they sleep. My hand shot up because, if you have ever seen me sleep, my mouth stays wide open catching flies and Lord knows what else. I was so glad Steven didn't dump me after seeing me fall asleep for the first time because I am one ugly sleeper. He's gonna have to wake up to my wide open, drooling mouth every morning. Poor fella. But anyway, my professor went on to say that if you breath through your mouth when you sleep and you find yourself dozing off throughout the day, you may have sleep apnea. For those of you who don't know what sleep apnea is; It's when you stop breathing in your sleep and before it wakes you up, you start breathing again. Unknowingly, you don't get a good night's rest, causing drowsiness throughout the day. Suddenly it all made sense!! I have been waking up every morning feeling like I don't sleep a wink, when I've actually slept a good 7 to 8 hours. After thoroughly examining the symptoms, I am making a self-diagnosis for sleep apnea. I'm really not sure how you treat it, but I think some duct tape over my mouth will do the trick. Maybe one day I will find out if my self-diagnosis is accurate. It might be that I just have a severe case of the lazies. Only time will tell. Until then, caffeine and I will fight to beat this drowsy demon!

Our humble abode

After finding out last April that we were getting Steven's grandmother's house, it has been a project and a half trying to clean it out and give it a facelift. I am excited to say that our living room and hallway are FINALLY painted!! With some help from some great friends and family, we slapped two coats of paint on our walls this weekend and it is AMAZING how much difference a new coat of paint makes! My darling Steven has sacrificed a lot of his time after he gets off work to do even more work in our house. He has been pouring his little heart into that house and I'm ready to pour my heart into it by decorating!! We are making great progress and I cannot wait to see the finished project!! 

Our living room before paint with just the primer

After paint :)

Our hallway

Our bedroom...it's a little dusty from sanding. This is our next project :)

The "man cave" 

Our cute little kitchen