a whole lot of not much

Oh hey. I have been feeling extremely uninspired lately, which is why I haven't written in so long. I've been doing a whole bunch of nothing, while the hubster has been working outside helping build his sister's house. He's all tan now. The only thing more good looking than my man is my man with a tan.

Anyway, like I said, I've been doing a whole bunch of nothing. I did start watching Dance Moms, which I think is now my new favorite guilty pleasure. It's pretty hilarious.

In case you were unaware, my birthday is in 18 days, and Nicholas and his parents got me an early birthday present. A Kindle, to be exact. I am in love. I haven't purchased any books yet, since we have no income, and are getting ready for a rather pricy move, but I have downloaded my fair share of free books! Today, I finished Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell, which was one of my favorite stories when I was younger. And now I am in the middle of Twelfth Night. I definitely missed reading, so it has been good to get lost in different worlds instead of frying my brain watching billions of episodes of "House Hunters" and "Good Luck Charlie."

Speaking of Black Beauty, here are my three favorite quotes from the book:

"I have heard the commandments read a great many times and I never noticed that any of them said, 'Thou shalt be rich'; and there are a good many curious things said in the New Testament about rich men that I think would make me feel rather queer if I was one of them."

"Do you know why this world is as bad as it is?" "No," said the other. "Then I'll tell you. It is because people think only about their own business, and won't trouble themselves to stand up for the oppressed, nor bring the wrongdoer to light."

"My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt."

 My roomie and her Corey are moving to Missouri tomorrow, and I am so excited for them. Hopefully we will get to see them very soon.

Happy birthday, Harry Potter and Jo Rowling. Thank you for creating a world that has inspired a love for reading and writing in children and adults everywhere.

Annnddd. Since it is almost midnight, happy 7 month anniversary, Allison and JonJon!

Annddd since I have been reminiscing on Allison's wedding and then my wedding, here are some photos to close. I miss these people a whole lot.

roomie love

this pic makes me happy.

love yall!

some more roomie love after the rehearsal. Love this pic, Abbey!

Some things...

1. The hubster and I are in Missouri right now... Nick is helping build a house and I am... laying by the pool. And watching Dance Moms.

2. Today, we stopped by a thrift store named "Thrift Store". And everything was 50% off!! We got a small, oval frame that I am planning on painting white. And then Nick found the ultimate prize. Harry Potter Scene It for $1.46. ONE DOLLAR AND FORTY-SIX CENTS... !!!! We opened it up to make sure it had all the pieces and the dvd was in good shape. And it was. In case you didn't know, we are big Scene It people. We added it to our collection. So, if you like Friends, Harry Potter, or Disney, you need to come over... In Providence... and we can have a duel!

3. Speaking of Harry Potter, Blair, Nick and I joined hundreds of Potterheads for the midnight showing of Deathly Hallows 2. It was amazing. And we had wands. Sitting in a theater for 3 hours before the movie starts isn't that bad when you know Harry Potter is involved.

Weasley is our king.

The wedding: Bridal Attire

To my faithful readers: I am sorry I haven't posted in so long! We packed up our car last weekend and, after the midnight showing of Harry Potter, headed up to Missouri to spend a couple of weeks with Nick's family and to talk to people about supporting us in Providence. So far, it's been a great time.

And now, for the actual subject of this blog post: What I wore in our wedding! The attire portion of the wedding can be so expensive! It really can be disheartening for a newly engaged bride or her bridesmaids to sift through all of the possibilities and know that it is very likely that a bunch of money is going to be spent... Especially if you don't have that kind of money.
So, I wanted to try to be sure that I, my hubby, and my wedding party looked good but weren't stressed out about it. I will also post about the wedding party and my hubby at a later time.

The Dress:
I had decided even before getting engaged that I wanted my mom and grandmothers to make my dress. My Grammy had made my mom and aunt's dresses, so I knew it was a realistic dream. But, even though I knew where I wanted the dress to come from, I still needed to figure out what I wanted it to look like. So, I perused many bridal magazines and tried on multiple dresses at David's Bridal. It was kind of awkward going into David's Bridal, knowing that I wasn't going to buy a dress there. The sales women are very persistent and really want to make sales, so it's kind of hard to like something but refuse to buy it.

 My favorite style dress was strapless and A-line, with lots of ivory tulle. I fell in love with a dress on the cover of the current "The Knot" magazine. Unfortunately, it was Vera Wang and $6,000. Not quite in my price range. But what I loved about it was the simplicity of just tulle. There was no train and no added embellishments. Just a black sash tied into a soft bow around her waste.  I just couldn't get that out of my head. So, we decided to replicate it.
The making of the dress was a little more time consuming than picking out the style. My grandmother found a pattern she thought would work for the shell and measured me from head to toe. Then, we headed to the fabric store and bought thicker fabric for the underneath part and a ton of tulle for the top. Then, my Grammy got to sewing. And there were multiple sizing meetings. I probably would have had a total meltdown if she had finished and it didn't fit. But it did.

(Photo by Meredith Bacon)

The Veil:
It took me a while to settle on an idea for a veil. I found a picture online of something I wanted, but never found it anywhere else. So, the week before the wedding, Nick and I made my veil. Nick should be credited with most of it. I had the idea, he made it reality.
For the veil, we took leftover tulle from my dress and stitched it to elastic in the back. We added a little bit more tulle to cover the elastic. Then, we stitched on a piece of lace that came from my mom's wedding dress. I love how it turned out.

(Photos by Meredith Bacon and Bryce Hamilton, respectively)

The Shoes:
Since I bought my first pair of TOMS back in 2008, I have known I wanted to wear a pair of them in my wedding. I am not a huge shoe person, and I wanted to be comfortable. Nick is also a TOMS lover, so that worked out well. His first gift to me was actually a pair of TOMS that he splatter painted himself. 
After a lot of online perusing, Nick and I both decided to order Cordones to wear for the wedding.

(Photo by Meredith Bacon)

That's about it for my attire! Stay tuned for more wedding reflections!

6 months!

 This past Friday, the hubby and I celebrated 6 months of marriage! Compared to a lot of people who have been married much longer, this may not seem like much. But this is longer than we had ever been married before! So it was worth celebrating!
We headed to The Melting Pot for dinner. Nick had never been, and I had only been for dessert, so we were excited to try something new.

 The first course was cheese with bread and veggies. And apples. How did I not know people eat apples with cheese? This does not sound good to me. I like apples with caramel or chocolate. But we saved our apples for the dessert round.

 I must admit, the cheese round was my least favorite. I could do without it if we ever go again.

 For the main course, we got sirloin and shrimp, with potatoes, broccoli and mushrooms. The sirloin was marinated and so so so good. The only bummer about this course was that you have to wait for it to cook.

 And finally, we had dessert. Since Nick doesn't like chocolate, we ordered the white chocolate, that was mixed with some other yummy things that I can't remember. And then we dipped marshmallows and brownies and cheesecake and other lovely things until we just couldn't take it anymore. Or until we ran out. 

 I think my favorite was the little rice krispy treats. True confession: I ate the leftover chocolate with a spoon when we were out of things to dip with. It was delicious.

After our dinner, we got The Tourist from a redbox. All in all, I would say that Nicholas planned a pretty great surprise date night. He's pretty cool like that.

moooo.

Because free Chick-fil-a is worth it.

strengthsfinder

The other day, Nick took the Strengthsfinder test for Sojourn. I took it five years ago before heading to Baylor. I thought it would be fun to share both of our results.  The test nailed Nick. My little beaver/retriever. And, I must admit, it got me pretty good, too. It's been pretty fun to read through the descriptions.

Nick:
1. Consistency- "You are keenly aware of the need to treat people the same, no matter what their station in life..."
2. Relator- "You do not necessarily shy away from meeting new people... but you do derive a great deal of pleasure and strength from being around your close friends."
3. Responsibility- This theme "forces you to take psychological ownership for anything you commit to... and you feel emotionally bound to follow it through to completion."
4. Discipline- "Your world needs to be predictable... so you instinctively impose structure on your world."
5. Harmony- "You look for areas of agreement... there is little to be gained from conflict and friction, so you seek to hold them to a minimum."

Haley:
1. Competition- "When you look at the world, you are instinctively aware of other people's performance."
2. Activator- "Only action makes things happen... You make a decision, you take action, you look at the result, and you learn."
3. Belief- "You have certain core values that are enduring. They provide you with direction..."
4. Learner- "You love to learn... You are energized by the steady and deliberate journey from ignorance to competence."
5. Context- "You look back. You look back because that's where the answers lie. You look back to understand the present."

It's so fun to see this on paper, because it is so obvious in our relationship. Nick gets uncomfortable when I get too passionate about what I believe in, because he just wants everyone to get along. Where as sometimes, I just want him to openly disagree every once in a while. My Learner theme comes out very often, too, which drives Nick crazy. I ask questions all the time, something I had never noticed before we met. When I don't know something, or don't understand something, I ask about it. We were driving in Colorado, and I asked him why it was called the Arkansas River. He said, "I don't know... you are always asking questions, and I don't know the answers! And it scares me, because you always ask your dad questions, but he does know the answers! I don't know if I can replace that."
Nick knows the answers more often than he is giving himself credit for.

Anyway, aren't personalities fascinating? I love this stuff.

(All quotes from Strengthsfinder 2.0 by Tom Rath)

trust.

I have been learning a lot about trust, lately. As we have begun the fundraising process for Providence, it is so easy to put my faith, and doubt, in man. Asking people for money is not an easy thing to do, and the fact that we can't go unless people give is really scary.
As I think about this, I am reminded of Lamentations 3:23-25:

Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, "The Lord is my inheritance; therefore I will hope in Him!" The Lord is good to those who depend on Him, to those who search for Him.

I can't put my trust in people to provide, because people will fail. I can and must put my hope in the only one who won't fail. And the best part is, because He is faithful, there is no need to fear. He will provide, whether that's through the Body of believers, or another way that will catch us off guard. Worry is a sin. The Bible is clear about that. And God has called us to Providence. He has broken our hearts for the people there, and closed all other doors. He will make a way. There is no reason for me to worry.

I have been so encouraged by the generosity and eager hearts of our family and friends! Their faith and sacrifice challenges me. We are so humbled to be a part of God's plan to further His Kingdom in New England. 

Today, I as I read Psalm 37, verses five and seven stuck out to me:

Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him, and He will help you... Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for Him to act.

I love that the Creator of the Universe, the Almighty God over everything, will help me. I need only to trust. That simple fact just blows me away.

birthday time!

I am now married to a 23-year-old.  Are you serious? I married an old man!
The day began with cake batter pancakes and bacon... and plenty of sprinkles! My grandparents surprised Nick with a lovely pineapple, and I bought him Reeses as a morning "gift".  To be totally honest, the pancakes were extremely dense, not light and fluffy. But they still tasted good.

 After breakfast, we went to play disc golf.  Nick loves disc golf. He plays very often. I, however, normally don't go with him. I can't get the disc to go as far, and it's really too hot to stand outside chasing a frisbee around for 18 holes. But it was his birthday. So I went.

 (I just realized that this picture looks like I have one giant leg. 2 legs, people, there are 2 there!)

 And I lasted 6 holes. No shame.

For lunch, we had Babe's Chicken to go. Talk about delish. We love Babe's!
Then we headed to Grapevine to meet some friends for dinner. But first, we stopped at Grapevine Mills. I took advantage of the 75% off sale at Old Navy and scored a pair of shorts for $6. Holler.

Then we met some dear friends, Bryce and Mike, at Baja's for some delicious Mexican food. But I was still full from Babe's. So I had a cup of queso. No shame. 

 Then Mikey came back to the house with us, while I made the birthday cake, they got snow cones and played fooze ball.

 Mike won. 

 And then Nick decided the best way to cut the cake would be with his teeth.

 Nothing like delicious angel food cake with fresh strawberries and creamy whipped cream!

 The next morning, Nick's gift came in the mail. LOST Season 1 on blu ray!

Independence Day weekend!

 Fourth of July has come and gone. Last year, we really didn't do much for this holiday, but we got pretty crazy this year. And by crazy, I mean we did more than just watching fireworks.

On Saturday, we headed to East Texas to spend time with my familia. But first, we stopped in Canton at First Monday. 

We did a lot of looking around, and I ended up getting a knitted headband and then a $1 frame. With a dandelion painting included. Oh boy.

By mid day we were ready to head to Grammy's house for some AC, food, and Dr Pepper.
My cousin helped me decorate Nick's birthday cake. He did a pretty spiffing job. Until he stuck the side of his face in it trying to get down out of the chair. It was pretty hilarious and quite impressive though.

This is another cousin. She is pretty awesome at making great faces for the camera. Or maybe just blinking at the flash. Either way, these pics make me laugh.

We went outside to visit the mules. I realize I shared this pic before, but I mean, come on, aren't her pigtails just precious?

These guys had a pretty good time together. Nick does an awesome Donald Duck voice, which Henry loves. 

After lunch, I took a nap on the couch, and then we headed to Plano, where we enjoyed delicious chicken and corn on the cob, grilled by my dad.

On Monday morning, we went to the Arlington parade with my aunt and uncle. It was pretty fun. Except for the creepy clowns and the unbelievable heat.

We got home from the parade and I ended up taking a 3 hour nap. The sun is not my friend.
 But then, I made cookies. Cookies with the best tasting dough. Ever. I just kept wanting to eat it. They were chocolate chip cake batter cookies, and I added sprinkles for fun. 

 The hubster was upset I used chocolate. Didn't stop him from eating plenty, though.

After some cookie baking and some patriotic grilling, we took a ride in my Papa's jeep and headed to watch some fireworks! My hair got a bit wind blown.

Since the Arlington fireworks were the night before, we decided to find a spot to watch the show after the Ranger's game. It worked out really well.

It was definitely a great way to spend the day. I hope everyone had a lovely holiday!