At last

Being married is great. The best part, I think, is not saying goodbye at the end of the day. It's like a great slumber party every night. Not that we've stayed up late this week since work has started back, but it's a slumber party to me nonetheless. We had an incredible wedding and an amazing 2 week honeymoon as well. :) Part of me wishes we could stay in those blissful moments but I know good times are comin too! It's obvious I am a newlywed, but I don't care... I love my husband!!!

Wedding Fast Approaching

Daniel and I are getting married in FOUR days. I cannot believe how quickly time has passed especially since we've been engaged a year. We have looked forward to this for so long and I just hope and pray that the day goes smoothly. My house right now has a hussle-bussle atmosphere with Aaron's graduation, family flying in and all of the preparation for the 24th. There are times when everything seems so nerve racking but most of the time I am beyond exited and just ready to run off with Danny Boy! I am thankful he is so cool and mellow throughout all of this. That helps a lot. :o)

Limbo

I wish I were blogging under better circumstances but my heart aches for Daniel and his dad. His father is in the hospital with pneumonia and is not in such great shape. Along with that, he's frustrated to be in there hooked to the many wires and tubes. Who could blame him??

I know Daniel is a private person...but the weight of the world is on his shoulders and I do this in the sake of prayer and healing. So whoever may come across this, have faith with us.

Teaser

I love snow but snow doesn't love Alabama. :( By the time church was over everything had melted except for a few patches that still lay on my roof. If only we could get snow for more than just one day out of the whole year.

Valentines Day

Daniel and I decided to recreate a meal from one of our favorite restaurants, McGuires, for Valentine's Day. Usually we aren't terrible cooks but this meal was not up to par. I guess it went downhill when we decided to grill our steaks on a pancake griddle and make mashed potatoes without any instruments to mash with. Then someone caught a napkin on fire while trying to clean up the stove. But, oh the memories! We don't even have a dining table so we sat indian style at our homemade coffee table and tried to muster up the strength to eat the food. Even though the food was terrible, I had a pretty cool valentine.

The chef!

Something I dread..

So last weekend Daniel stunk. I say this lovingly. But he realized he hadn't washed his clothes in quite sometime so we decided to try out the neighborhood's laundry mat for the first time which is in walking distance from our new place. We walk in to see several middle aged bachelors who are all awkwardly standing there in silence staring at machines they are using. Occasionally the silence would be broken as one might say, "Bad day to wash clothes, huh?" or "Wonder if this guy would be mad if I pulled his clothes out?" We both would just chuckle in response and then give each other 'the eyes'. Like...let's get out of here as soon as possible eyes.

To our dismay all the machines are taken as we stand there patiently. We sit down and the machines almost lull you to sleep from the constant noise and boredom of waiting. We were so happy when someone would finally come in to remove their clothes. $1.00 to put a load in the washer...we wait..it finishes. The dreadful cycle starts all over again when we realize all the dryers are in use.
When one opens up we shove the clothes in..4 quarters and leave. We come back 40 minutes later and the clothes are still wet. One more dollar. Again we come back 40 minutes later and the clothes are still so damp.

We gave up and when I left that night poor Daniel's underwear, shirts, and socks were hanging all over the place to dry...on curtain rods, chairs, the sofa, the fridge, doorknobs, etc.

I know this is a long blog about absolutely nothing..but that was just plain ridiculous. I will never take my future washing machine/dryer for granted.

Oh happy daaaay

I am so thankful for all the help with this wedding. I've been feeling very spoiled lately as people continue to offer help, provide showers, run errands with me, etc.

I got a lot done with mom this week: ordering flowergirl dresses, buying candles and such, getting together the music list for the band, finalizing the guest list..I'm on a roll!

Anyway, I'm just really excited and truly blessed by all the support.

Our Venue: Madelyn's at the Grove

Peanut butter Blues

It stinks when there is a peanut butter crisis since it pretty much consists of my whole entire diet. There is nothing in the house besides peanut butter that could possibly kill me if I eat it. What's a girl to do?

Tuesday that feels like a monday, but glad it's not day

Today was pretty uneventful. Watched the inauguration this morning before class and then a documentary about chimerism in humans..pretty weird. In rare cases, women who have had children were told by doctors that their child did not have their dna..really strange. If you don't know what it is, check it out.

Later, after learning how to count painted beans in my 'teaching math for primary grades' course (really...do I honestly need this class?) I headed over to eat at Casa with mom.

And now, for some shots of Riley who tries to steal my art supplies and who happens to be one of the reasons I never get things done. But, ah..isn't she cute while doing it?

Squirrel Hunting

Just by saying the word "squirrel" Kipper excitingly runs for the door to go out...


He thinks by biting the trees, he can magically shake the squirrels lose

A sap-covered Kip scopes out the branches

Heart of a champion.

Let me tell you what I like about mondays..

Today is an icy, wanna stay in bed, have to thaw out my car, wear a new scarf, eat chicken pot pie, start a new painting, remain inside kind of monday.

(Firewood in backyard)

Happy New Year!

I'm sitting here dilly-dallying before I have to go to class :( Boo to school. It snuck up on me so fast.

So yesterday I was cleaning out my room and preparing boxes to go over to Daniel's. I came across the funniest stuff because I've kept up with journals since I was eight...maybe even before then.

Entry of eight year old Holly in a Lisa Frank journal (excuse spelling errors):

"Well, I'm on the airplain right now. It's going to take 11 hours to get to Oregon. Long time, huh?

Not even a movie or radieo. And it's so cold my mood ring is turning light green. Well talk to you later! Holly"

For most of the earlier entries I refer to my journals as people. Like "I'm sorry I haven't written in you a while!" or "Bye! See you soon." ...What a cute little weirdo.

Anyway, it's the new year and some of my goals are as follows:

• Try my best not to worry so much


• Embrace things I cannot change


• Spend more quality time at home since I only have a few months left


• Eventually, be a good wife


• Be patient!

It's a beautiful daaaaaay

Today was my favorite kind of day because work didn't call me in to sub. I enjoyed randomly walking around target and then stopping by BAE to visit Daniel. This is always fun because I get to interact with the crabby desk lady, see his very talkative but nice boss, and learn about fun nerdy things that I would never know how to do. But Daniel dominates.



Daniel pretending to work as I take his picture

Sushie time :o)

Our good friend Dwight

To muse.

So today I've been thinking how amazing it will be to be married. I will no longer have to call my fiance on the cell phone throughout the week when I can just see him at home. I wont have to fall asleep by myself, or lay there wanting to tell him just one more thing about my day. And I wont have to say goodbye all the time like when he drops me off after a day spent together. I guess I just feel it's about time that we get hitched. And I find it so cool that this is the stuff we talked about when we were only fourteen and fifteen..and it's now turning into a reality.

Everyone says "growing up is hard" ..but I feel like I've had a pretty easy growing up. Now it's all about adjusting and the transition of the months to come. I feel emotional at times about flying the coop but then I think about the one person who can make me smile with one word, or better yet a look. That person who gives you chills, infuriates you, and then makes you want to wake up and do it all over again. This would be my Danny-Boy. So those are my thoughts for now... :)

Realization

I am procrastinating. I SHOULD be working on the many projects I haven't started for my education class. But alas, here I am working on a blog that only Daniel will probably read.

This week has been really hard. I've had so much school work that I've found myself constantly whining and wondering why I'm even doing what I'm doing when it makes me so unhappy.

I had a piece of humble pie when I was at work the other day. I was subbing in a fourth grade class and there was this boy named Andrew who come to find out has a tumor behind is eye which affects his learning greatly. He actually is at a kindergarten level. As I was helping him write his history essay he started telling me about his fall break and how much he practiced his reading and writing. His attitude was unbelievable. He wanted to do this on his break!

It made me realize just how much I take for granted and that things wouldn't be so bad for me if I would just shut up and do it.