Pinteresting

I love, love, love pinterest!  I thought I would post a few of the things I've found on there that I like!

Love.

 Even though I now live in SC, I grew up in NC and I miss it so much!  I'm enjoying my new life here, but a part of my heart will always been in Charlotte :)

I think this one is self-explanatory!!  My blood runs orange for sure :)

I love coffee and I love reading.  When David and I get our office set up, I'd love to have a little reading nook area, print and frame this to hang where I read!

I love this verse and try to live by it daily.  I have always been strong, working on the dignity, and trying to to be fearful of what the future holds! :)

And I love this saying.  David and I have only been together for 5 years (for some people, that is a long time!) but I can only imagine that this is what our love will look like when we've been together for 50 years!

And this picture belongs to The Color Run that is coming to Charlotte in October.  It looks like so much fun and I can't wait to sign up!  

Destinations

I have inherited a love for traveling from my grandparents who spent a lot of time providing the grandkids with opportunities to visit different places and learn about different cultures.  I love seeing pictures on Pinterest of places I've visited.  I love the memories I have of each place.

 Beautiful Venice, Italy

 Brugge, Belgium

 London, England

The Ponte Vecchio in Florence, Italy

Amsterdam, The capitol of The Netherlands and home of Anne Frank :)

Crafts

 I want to frame one of our wedding pictures and surround it with lyrics from the song we danced to at our wedding :)

Home made magnets for the refrigerator! 

 

I made coasters for my mom and MIL for christmas :)

Humor

Some of the things on pinterest just make me laugh!

 This cracks me up because Jovie is the same way! :)

  

  And I love Harry Potter!  If I found out I was Dumbledore in someone's phone, I wouldn't tell either! ;)

 And being that my first degree was in psychology, this is self- explanatory!

On a completely different note, I received a "blog award" from Jennifer!

The Liebster Award is given to bloggers with less than 200 followers who are "up-and-coming".  With 11 followers, I think I more than qualify, ha!  Although I'm not sure I'm "up-and-coming"!!  I just blog for me! :)  But here are the rules:

Rules:

*Thank your award presenter on your blog {check}

*Link back to the blogger who presented you with the award {check}

*Copy and paste the award to your blog {check}

*Present the Liebster Award to 5 blogs that have fewer then 200 followers that you think deserve to be recognized {see below}

*Let them know by leaving a comment on their blog {doing that right after I finish this post}

I'm just going to tag you here instead of leaving a comment :)  And I don't have 5 blogs with less than 200 followers...woops?

Lauren

Michelle

Anna

Ashley- although Ashley's blog is private, she is a wonderful writer and has the cutest little boy :)

Honeymoon: Day 1

(I haven't figured out if I want to do a honeymoon post for each day or not.  I don't want to forget the details  of my honeymoon so I may...or I may just hit the highlights :)  But for now, here is how we spent the first day of our honeymoon!)

We left for our honeymoon on September 26th from Charlotte at 9:00am and made a pitstop in Dallas.  Our layover was about an hour and a half so we grabbed lunch at Au Bon Pain.  (Just a side note- have you ever been in the DFW airport??  That thing is HUGE and they have multiple restaurants and fashionable stores in every concourse!  It was just nuts.)

It took us about 12 hours total to reach Honolulu and by the time we landed, it was already 10:00pm back home.  We got "lei'ed" once we got off the plane and the weather was just beautiful.  It was 4:00pm Hawaiian time and about 85 degrees.

                                               

We grabbed our rental car and headed to our hotel.  Honolulu is incredible.  It's a city with a beach.  There was non-stop traffic at all hours, yet there were always hundreds of people on the beach!  When we got to our hotel, we weren't able to check in right away because our room wasn't ready so we went to the hotel bar to grab a drink and officially start our honeymoon!  We decided to go ahead and have dinner at Shor,  one of the hotel's restaurants.  We were so exhausted at this point we could hardly keep our eyes open, but dinner was absolutely delicious!  We had a lot of fun reminiscing about the wedding. :)

                                     

After dinner, we went back to the concierge only to be told our room still wasn't ready.  What the heck?!  We couldn't believe it.  It had been a busy few days for us, plus a long day of traveling and all we wanted to do was go to bed!  By the time we got into our room, it was 9:30pm and 3:30AM our time!  But half of our hotel fees for the week had already been paid for :)  The hotel was amazing and comped us for having to wait so long on our honeymoon!

Our room was nice, but our view was incredible.  Every morning around 6:00am the surfers would show up to "hang loose" and catch some waves.  David and I enjoyed sitting out on our balcony in the early morning hours and watching them.

We found a spot right across the street from our hotel that had a breakfront with minimal sea life (I'm all for that!) and tiny waves.  It was almost like a wading pool.  This is where we spent our afternoons once we finished our daily excursion.  David would sleep and I would people watch.  We had so much fun in our little spot.

Our day of travel was fun; it was the first time David and I had vacationed anywhere by ourselves and we loved the company. :)  It was, for the most part, uneventful and we have a fun little story to tell about our room.  But we couldn't wait to start the rest of our honeymoon and do all of the things we had planned!

Wedding Day!

Saturday, September 24, 2011 I woke up early for my bridesmaid's brunch and it was pouring down rain!  I was so excited though, it didn't phase me a bit.  And I'm glad for that! (It's good luck if it rains on your wedding day, right?  Let's just say I'm going to be REALLY lucky, ha!) 

*My wonderful bridesmaids :) 

  

The brunch was held at a place called Providence Cafe and the set-up was so pretty.  They had their own centerpieces for us and they were just beautiful.  We even got to keep them!  All of my bridesmaids were there as well as my helpers, Anna and Faith, their mom Wanda, my mom and soon-to-be mother-in-law, grand mom, and aunt.  We had a wonderful time chatting and I had a special gift for each of the girls.  I presented them each with a pair of teardrop shaped earrings that had a purple stone hanging in the teardrop. 

                                              * I love this girl more than life itself.

 I think they all wore them that night!  I also had written notes to my grandparents, aunt and uncle, and my mom so I gave out those as well.  I really wanted them to know I couldn't have reached this point in my life without their love and support throughout the years.  I also gave my mom a very special gift that she had been wanting for a while...and I wanted her to have something to keep her busy while I was gone!  So,she finally got the Nook she had been wanting!  I think saying she was pleased is an understatement ;)

Once brunch was finished, we picked up my wedding dress from my grandparents house, went home to grab a few things and then headed to Ballantyne to start getting ready!  I told the girls to be there around 3 so at first it was just me, my mom, my aunt, and Amy.  I really enjoyed getting to spend some time just with them :). Amanda showed up soon after and got to work on my hair and make-up and the other girls started arriving.  We played the cd's that David and my mom had made for me while we got ready...even Anna and Faith got to join the fun!  



*Getting my wedding present from David...a Nikon camera!  

We had our wedding video-taped so the videographer was around and our photographers Rick and Brian were floating back and forth between me and David getting ready.  Rick and Brian also got a shot of me and David holding hands with a door between us before the ceremony.  My bridesmaids were all watching this take place and Amy started crying when David walked up...so neither of us could look at her because she was making us cry!  

I really didn't start getting nervous until about an hour before I was supposed to walk down the aisle and the nerves ReALLY hit then.  The girls and I walked down and had to wait near the bar area so the boys wouldn't see us and wouldn't you know the bar had the Clemson game was on!  In order to get past my nerves I told myself I would walk down the aisle after Clemson got a touchdown...and they did!  I'm pretty sure I started cheering and everyone at the bar started clapping for me, haha!  My granddaddy came to get me and we started walking towards the entrance. 

*Oh my word, he his such a handsome granddad!

 I don't remember much of anything except telling myself to remember to breathe.  They opened the doors and everyone stood and looked at me and I tried really hard to hold it together.  Halfway down the aisle I took a deep breathe and I'm sure it looked ridiculous...haha, but I kept my eyes on David the whole time :). 

We ended up having about 180 people there so the aisle felt like it went on forever.  I couldn't see David's face when I first stepped in the room, but rumor has it he started tearing up...we'll see when we get the pictures back:)

*Cheering on my tigers ;)

The rest of the ceremony went by in a blur.  Dr. Mowrey spoke some beautiful words and we each got through our vows without stumbling or saying the wrong name (any Friends fans out there?!).  My cousins Scott and Amy read the passage for us and it was just awesome for me to have my family involved.  They did perfect!

      

The reception was amazing!  It was so beautiful, the cake was incredible, and our dj (Joe Larson, Diamond DJ's) was absolutely fantastic. 

 I think everyone had a wonderful time.  My mom and grandparents have heard from multiple people that it was one of the best weddings they have been to and that just makes me feel so good because even though this was "our day" we really wanted everyone to have great time and enjoy themselves.  

Everyone who was there has impacted our lives in some way and we wanted to thank them with a wonderful evening.

*I'm pretty sure I have THE cutest grandparents in the world!

As everyone says, the entire weekend of events went by far too fast.  It was a blur and I wanted to write down what I do remember from our day..although I can't wait to see from the video and pictures the things I don't remember! I spent the whole next day crying from exhaustion and the fact that it was all over! (I know...big baby!). But we had a wonderful honeymoon and that story is to be continued!