As Time Goes By (a.k.a. I'm A Slacker)

I'm a bloggy slacker.

 So, to the blogosphere,

 I'm Sorry!

 I started my new job

 (YAY)

 and so that has been taking up a lot of time

 with orientation

 and then actually being on the floor (eek!)

 but it's nice to finally be a "Real Nurse"

 (which is what I'm convinced RN really stands for lol)

 even though a lot of days 

 I forget that I'm not a student anymore.

I had a patient who found out I was married to the Air Force,

 and from then on every time I walked into the room he would raise an eyebrow and say,

 "Oh, look. Fly Boy's wife is back"

 LOL

 Made me chuckle.

 Things with the wedding have been going well - 

 I have kind of a dilemma though.

 I have a very good friend from college,

 who I had originally asked to be in the wedding last year,

 but she disappeared off the face of the earth a few months ago,

 and I figured we were at odds over something I was unaware of.

 I tried to re-establish contact, with no luck.

 I shrugged, and moved on.

 Suddenly, she contacted me out of the blue today.

 Problem herein lies,

 that I planned the wedding in the meantime,

 and since I never expected to hear from her again,

 asked other people.

 Sigh.

 What to do?

 BE and I have been busy lately,

 celebrating our One Year anniversary a little early.

 We went to Disney World!! 

 A first time for the hubs.

 We ate SO. MUCH. FOOD.

 Oh my word.

 It was ridiculous.

 But for anyone who ever wondered,

 October is apparently the best time of the year to go to Disney,

 because we didn't wait in a single line at any park over 30 minutes.

 It was bliss,

 especially since I've experienced Disney during the summer.

 Torture?

 Doesn't even do it justice.

 It was a wonderful trip and we enjoyed being together,

 being silly,

 and remembering why we're "bestest good friends".

 I can't believe it's been a year already.

 The best year of my life :)

 Hopefully that bodes more amazing years to come.

We went to the Magic Kingdom early one morning

 to watch Mickey come in on the train and open the park for the day,

 and I started crying when they played

 "When You Wish Upon A Star"

 and welcomed everyone in.

 And my wonderful husband just grabbed my hand,

 squeezed it silently three times for "I Love You"

 and was sweet enough to not laugh at me.

 What's your favorite anniversary memory?

Do you and your significant other have any special little unspoken tokens of affection like our hand squeezes?

 I hope you have a MAGICAL day :)

 

Scrimps and Wedding Surprises :)

We went with some friends of ours to the Shrimp Festival today

 (my husband calls them Scrimps)

 and I ate carnival food and crab cakes 

 like fat wasn't even a word.

 It was fab.

 I also saw tons and tons of pictures

 that people had blown up and had printed onto canvas

 and were selling for OBNOXIOUS prices.

 I mean, I know I'm not a pro or anything,

 but I have some pictures that I think are pretty darn good.

 Maybe I should look into that,

 selling some of them.

 Which brings me to another point,

 of the fact that I can't wait to decorate our next house.

 Our furniture was all hand-me-down

 and nothing matches

 and there's really no theme in the whole place.

 When we move again we hope to get new stuff

 and hang some of my photography

 and make it look more cohesive.

 I can't wait.

 BE and I are trying to plan a trip for our 1-year anniversary

 coming up soon!!!

 Sadly, there isn't a single cabin still available in Gatlinburg

 or anywhere close.

 Figures.

 So who knows where we will go?

 We've thought Disney,

 or Charleston,

 but we're on the fence.

 Also trying to figure out how much we can afford to spend,

 with me paying on wedding stuff.

 I may quite possibly have found my dress this week!!!

 EEEK!

 It's gorgeous.

 Taffeta, empire waste, buttons down the back and Swarovski crystals.

 AND POCKETS.

 I'M OBSESSED WITH POCKETS.

 Like, you don't even know.

 I almost have to buy this dress on principle. 

It's that bad.

 I also decided on navy blue bridesmaids dresses,

 white hydrangeas,

 and silver shoes.

 I think I am going to have fun making this stuff DIY :)

 It's kind of nice that this is our ceremony,

 and not our actual marriage,

 because there is so much less stress!!

 Who cares if it goes off without a hitch?

 That everything looks absolutely perfect?

 Nobody.

 Because they're coming to show their love for us,

 not to see us put on a show.

 I can't wait!

 I already have a SUPER SPECIAL SURPRISE

 that I'm going to do for BE at our reception,

 and he has NO IDEA.

 So glad I can share it here!!

 I play piano, and I am obsessed with a certain song.

 So I bought the piano score for it the other day,

 and I'm going to practice it when he's not home,

 so I can play and sing it to him before our first dance.

 I think it's going to be adorable

 if I can do it without bawling like a baby. 

Hope you like the song :)

YAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!

Today,

 I am stupidly excited.

 And girly.

 And I'm not girly.

 But today,

 I am caving in with a giant
"EEEEEKKK!"

 of unrestrained giddyness.

 And I'll tell you why.

 Last year,

 when the hubs and I decided we were in LURVE and wanted to get hitched,

 we had very little time to do it

 before he was supposed to report to OTS,

 after which he would be moving to Florida,

 and I couldn't go with him

 unless we were married.

 Stupid housing rules.

 So we decided to elope (pretty much).

 I was too stubborn to just go to the courthouse,

 but I was in the middle of nursing school and there was NO WAY a big wedding was going to happen.

 So we decided to go up to the mountains in Gatlinburg

 and seal the deal,

 just him and me

 and have our shindig later.

 My mother had other plans.

 Suddenly, we had about ten guests,

 flowers,

 a dress,

 and cake.

 Sigh.

 We couldn't win.

 So we went on with it,

 knowing that we still wanted to have a wedding

 where all of our friends and family could come

 and celebrate with us.

 I have been dreaming of said wedding since I was about 4,

 when I was a bride for Halloween.

 Fake bouquet, clip-on earrings and all.

 Welllllll,

 we have been trying to plan said event

 since our marriage last November,

 but every date ends up falling through. 

 Yay training.

 It got to the point where I was embarrassed to tell my girlfriends

 "so we think we may be able to do it ______"

 I think they probably didn't even believe me anymore.

But today, it has happened.

 We found a place.

 We booked it.

 We set a date.

 And I started planning.

 What my mother doesn't understand is why we still feel the need to do this,

 when in her eyes we had a "perfectly nice wedding" last year.

 The reason we feel we need to do it

 is because none of our friends got to be there.

 And then we left town and moved here,

 and haven't gotten to see many of them again.

 We want all of our friends

 in one place

 to celebrate our marriage

 and renew our vows

 because our lives are going to change so much in the next year.

 We don't even know where we'll be living.

 Yay training.

 Plus,

 I never got to do all the girly stuff.

 I never got to plan.

 I never got to pick colors and food and bridesmaids dresses and centerpieces.

 And I'm kind of selfishly excited about all that.

 And my husband loves that I'm a DIY girl :)

(p.s. if you follow me on Pinterest,
 I apologize in advance for the spewing of wedding junk
that is about to ensue on my page).

Lately

Man, I've been busy lately.

 Mostly busy not being busy.

 I need work to start now!

 (before I lose my mind in this house)

 because it can only get SO clean...

 my husband called me the other day

 and asked why I sounded out of breath on the phone

 (and probably thought, 'It's finally happened; she's cheating on me WHILE I'M ON THE PHONE WITH HER') lol

 he got home, bust through the door

 to find me on my hands and knees scrubbing the daylights out of our ugly linoleum kitchen floor.

 Our house STILL smells like Pine Sol.

 His response?

 "Oh. Well, you can cheat on me with cleaning products anytime."

 Men.

 My grandparents came down for a visit,

 which made my week because neither of them is in the best health,

and now that we live here it's difficult to see them.

 I got to see my little brother and his girlfriend for dinner tonight too,

 and that was great because he's old enough now to where we can talk like adults

 and that's a really great thing.

 I love how close we are.

 (even though he'll seem 8 years old in my head his whole life probably).

 So I've been blessed to see family in the past two weeks.

 BE and I are also into our group Bible study on Sundays too,

 dissecting Romans

 (the book, not the people)

 and it has been very enlightening for me,

 because sometimes when I read the Bible,

 I feel like an idiot 

 (not gonna lie)

 so it's nice to have a dense book like Romans

 put into terms I can understand.

 I found it much harder to really get excited about my faith

 when I couldn't even grasp what I was reading.

We are also into Lesson 2 of our Fireproof study

 and that one has been pretty eye-opening as well.

 I'm glad we can carve out a few hours a week for these things.

 I think our marriage has gotten better because of them.

 You get to learn a little more about the other person

 by hearing how they interpret things.

 I love the fact that Fall has finally decided to arrive in Florida.

 My house is decorated,

 the "Fall Leaves and Spice" AirWick's are in place,

 I baked a loaf of pumpkin bread today,

 and Buster is really enjoying getting to be out in the yard for longer than 5 minutes

 without me worrying about heat stroke.

 I absolutely LOVE getting to have the windows open all day

 and my air conditioner not kick on :)

 Now, as promised,

 some pictures from our recent adventures!