I Don't Wanna Grow Up

Rise and shine!! It's Tuesday!! : ) I enjoyed a fabulous day off yesterday that consisted of:

- Snuggles with the hubby

- Lots of crazy Lifetime movies

- A Sonic blast

- Wearing the same pajamas all day

- Crafting

- Catching up on blogs

Sounds like a wonderful day, right? That's because it was! If only I could have that day on repeat again today! You know how some people say that they could never not work because they'd go crazy with boredom? Nope, not me!! I could definitely be a stay at home wife!

A week or two ago, the beautiful {av} at long distance loving tagged me in a post. You can read it here! I am REALLY late on this post, but being late is better than never! Right?? Right!! Good. Glad we got that settled. All you have to do is write 7 random facts about your childhood! I really enjoyed reading {av}'s facts! It was so cute getting to see some childhood pictures of her! You will have to forgive me in advance...I do not have a scanner, so I had to take pictures of the pictures to post. Yeah...I'm creative.

1) I was a chunky baby. As obvious from the above picture. Several weeks after bringing me home, my mom was bathing me and saw something bright red on my neck and thought I was bleeding. Turns out, it was just a strawberry (a bright red birthmark). She hadn't seen it all those weeks because it was covered up by my "triple chins."

2) Bad words were NOT allowed in our house growing up (or even now). I said a bad word once to my older brother and he told my mom. That little snake. She didn't spank us, so instead she chased me around the house with soap, trying to "wash my dirty mouth out." By the time she finally caught me, we were both laughing so hard that she didn't even do it. Needless to say, I still do not say bad words!

3) My mom signed me up for dance classes when I was little. We had class every Wednesday. Magically, every single Wednesday I had a stomach ache and wanted to skip class. My mom begged me to quit since I obviously hated class, but I wouldn't. Several weeks later, I finally confessed that I didn't want to quit because I liked the pretty outfits that we got to wear. (I quit not long after that...even the pretty outfits weren't enough to make me suffer through class.)

4) I have a brother who is 3 years older and a sister who is 3 years younger. We were all born between November 22-28. November was always our favorite month because we got to celebrate three back-to-back birthdays!

5) I was IN LOVE with my pacifier. Also referred to lovingly as "paci." I would not give it up for anything. When I was 6 years old (yes, 6!), my mom took all of my paci's and told me that the Pacifier Fairy had come for them. The fairy left some toys in place of the paci's that she stole, but I still don't like her to this day. : ) I even had a slight lisp from talking with a pacifier so much! Thankfully, that cleared up on its own. I think. Right? ; )

6) I am left handed. When I came up to bat at my very first tee ball game, the coaches and parents shouted "left handed batter." Then, all of the kids shifted in the field. I hated that because I was the ONLY one that had to do that! I decided right then and there that I was going to bat as if I was right handed. And I did...all the way up through high school softball. (Guess I showed them, huh?) : )

7) One day while playing on the swing set in the backyard, I fell off the swing and hurt my wrist. It looked okay, so we just went on about our lives. Three days later, after gymnastics practice, all of the neighborhood kids were playing baseball together in the driveway. I was playing catcher. I stood up right as the batter was swinging and she hit me in the head with the bat. Did I mention she was three years older than me and super athletic?? Needless to say, my mom took me to the ER where they discovered that not only did I have a concussion, I also had a fractured wrist from my swing set fall! I'm pretty sure they thought my mom was abusing me.

So now you know a little bit more about me...along with some pretty embarrassing facts! The next part is just to tag a few bloggers to do this, too! I am going to tag:

Amanda from The Little Yellow House Blog

Shalyn from Laugh Until Your Cheeks Hurt

Lindsay from My Happily Ever After

Michelle from A Little Bit of This and That

Lauren from A Modern Day Wife's Journey

Carissa from Carissa Explains It All

Jenn from Peas and Crayons

Play along if you want to! If not, no hard feelings! : )

Hope y'all have a wonderful day!

Love, love!

Decorating the Home

Hey y'all! Hope y'all have had a great weekend! Sorry that I have been a little MIA lately, I have been working a lot! I'm about to head off to a night shift, but I wanted to show y'all some recent decorating that we have done. We decided to tackle the master bedroom and hang curtains and decor that I have had for...um, at least a year. Oops. Here we go:

The only "tiny" window in the master bedroom.

With new curtains...that I need to iron!

Instead of buying a treatment for the window, I decided to use a shower curtain that I already had that I loved!

Ta-da!!

The after! We hung up the curtains, the black frame, and the iron scroll!

Then, we did a gallery wall! Hubby did not understand it. Haha!

I love our gallery wall! The M was actually hanging on the door of the chapel that we got married in on our wedding day!!

This is a little something that I made recently...more on that to come.

Thanks for reading...sorry it's short! I'm late for work! Hope y'all liked our bedroom decor!!

PS: Don't forget that tomorrow is the "this blog rocks" link up day! Think of your favorite blog and write up a quick post about them, then link up and share it tomorrow! : ) I hope y'all participate!! Take this picture to use if you want!

Love, love!!

One Sweet Boy

I just wanted to start by saying THANK Y'ALL for all the sweet comments and amazing blog love lately!! Seriously, y'all have become my hearts and y'all make me smile every single day!!

PS: Notice that I'm still spelling y'all right?!?! Have no idea what I'm talking about? See here!

This past weekend, we got to go and visit with my friend who just had her second baby...that precious baby boy that I posted about last week! Justin got to meet that doll for the first time! Plus, we just had a fabulous best friend reunion! I have 4 super amazing best friends from college. Three of them still live in our college town. I moved a few hours north and the other one moved a few hours south. We lived together, in a dorm, for 4 years together...so leaving them was HARD! We try to get together as often as we can, but it's not nearly enough!! The first few pictures are from his actual birth. The rest are from this past weekend!

The precious new baby and his adorable parents!

Loving my new nephew!

The new mommy...not looking at all like she just gave birth!

Their whole fabulous family...with big sister giving the new baby a kiss!

Reunion time!

So blessed to have friends like this.

She even put him in a fireman outfit in honor of meeting Justin!

And he was smitten! (I'm smitten over both boys!)

My precious hubby!

To all of you fabulous pregnant women out there, look at that bundle of joy that you are about to have!! To all of us non-pregnant women (with possible baby fever), stay strong and don't look into their eyes...or they'll get you. ; )

By the way, I am totally overdue to have a giveaway. I meant to do it at 200 followers, but I still need to take the pictures and get it all typed out. Soon, my loves, soon!!

Hope y'all have a great day!! : ) Oh, and thanks to the lovely Alison for giving me this fabulous award! Check her blog out if you haven't already...she is hilarious and stunning!!

That's all I've got for today!

Love, love!!

Wednesday, Wednesday

Hey y'all! It's Wednesday...time to link up with the lovely Jamie! I always look forward to reading everyone's posts on this day! Link up here!

Today, I am loving lots of things!!

-- I am loving that I got to spend this past Saturday with my best friends in the whole world, my hubby, and two sweet babies! Can life get any better?

-- I am loving that today I am doing my FIRST ever guest blog at Michaela's! Go check it out here! Thanks!

-- I am loving this yarn wreath that I made for Valentine's Day! It makes me smile!

-- I am loving that several people participated in my "this blog rocks" link up yesterday! Thank y'all SO much!!

-- I am loving looking at my hubby holding and feeding a baby! Baby fever, yes please!! (Just please don't tell my hubby)!

-- I am loving ALL of my new followers and ALL my "old" faithful followers! It's amazing how much I look forward to blogging every day! If you're new, please leave a comment or at least link your blog so that I can check you out, too!

-- I am loving that some sweet friend gave me another blog award, except I forgot who it was. Oops! SO sorry, please forgive me! : (

-- I am loving my sweet hubby and the 117 days that we have been married!

I hope y'all are having a wonderful week!! Link up and share your loves! I can't wait to read them!

Love, love!

Our Love Story, part 3

Hey y'all! Hope y'all are having a great day! Here's part 3 of our love story!! : )

(If you missed it, read part 1 here and part 2 here!)

So, I had been out of town for several nights. It had finally HIT ME that I liked this man and wanted to date him, but I didn't want to tell him on the phone or through text, so I was waiting until I got home! On my ride home, we texted back and forth constantly. I tried to "play it cool" as if nothing had changed, but I'm sure that I gave it away a little bit. I told him about what time I was going to get home and told him that I wanted him to come over. He agreed...yay!!

When I got home, I walked in the door and the first thing that I saw was this:

What a sweet welcome home surprise!

I should mention this: he had the keys to my house because he was taking care of my dogs.

After I saw my surprise, I called him right away to say thanks and he said he was pulling into the driveway. I let him in and we hugged...and I almost spilled the beans right there. I held it in though. We sat down on the couch and he started asking me about my trip. I was telling him about the concert and then I just stopped and said, "I really missed you." Y'all...his face LIT up. It was the cutest thing that I have ever seen. He said that he had also missed me and then it got kind of quiet. My heart was beating SO fast that I thought I might pee my pants (or something like that).

I said, "Remember before I left when you asked me that question?" His response? Of course, a dumbfounded look. (Men, they just don't pay attention sometimes)! So I said, "Remember you were asking me about us dating and all that?" (NOW he remembered). He looked a little scared and he muttered out a "yeah what about it" type of sentence. This was the moment that I had been waiting for!!!!!!!! I said, "Well I thought about it and I'm ready...like right now." He looked shocked and said, "Like ready? Really ready? Right now? To date me??" (So adorable)! I smiled and said, "Yep, so when you're ready to ask again, ask away."

Then, he popped the question...not THAT question! He said, "Will you be my girlfriend?" I, of course, said, "YES!!!!" (Cheesy alert)! We hugged a million times and then we kissed. It was magical, I tell you, simply magical. I know that y'all have felt that before. There was excitement and anticipation in the air! (Cheesiness ending here)! Oh, and yes, we are "those" people who ask the girlfriend question, instead of just dating and it becoming implied. We became boyfriend/girlfriend on October 5, 2009!

So there it is...all out in the open for people to laugh at and think we are silly! That's okay though, because it happened just as God had planned it out for us! I do feel bad for making him wait and probably hurting his feelings along the way, but I know that I wasn't ready yet, so it worked out perfectly! By the way, is it creepily weird that I can seriously remember exactly what we said this day? Please tell me no.

Here are a few pictures from our dating life:

Baking Halloween cupcakes.

Carving pumpkins.

Yes, we wore gloves...we ARE a nurse and a fireman, after all.

His first time meeting my college besties and little Miss Savannah!

Loving on the puppies...so sweet!

Being my hero...in more ways than one!

Our first Christmas together!

Happy New Year!

Celebrating grandma's 80th birthday!

Valentine's Day surprise at work...tulips are my favorite!

Thanks for reading if you made it to here! : ) Y'all always make me so happy with your sweet words!

Our Love Story, part 2

Remember part one of our love story?? Oh, you didn't read it? Well then, go here.

All caught up? Okay, good! Let's continue the story...

So after hanging out all weekend with Justin, I went to visit my best friends from college. My friend, Melissa (the one who just had the baby), had just had her first baby that summer (2009), so we were all meeting up to hang out and just spend time with our new baby love.

All my besties with baby Savannah.

I honestly can't remember what exactly happened, but something inside my head FREAKED out while I was away from home. I started feeling like things were already moving to fast with Justin and that he was already wanting to become "official." I felt like there was no way that we could just be friends and let things develop slowly...we had such a connection that I knew we were going to be serious right away. While I was still out of town with my friends, I told Justin that I was not ready to date and I just wanted to be friends. He was pretty upset, just because he felt like I had shown a lot of interest, but he said he understood.

So, I went back home. It was late August 2009. Justin and I talked every now and then, but really not a whole lot. He would text me sometimes, but I honestly don't think I ever initiated any conversation. (I still can't believe he put up with me through all this). We remained friends, but that was it. No more dates. I even went on dates with a few other guys (gasp)!! I stayed busy working and hanging out with my friends. It's not like I quit being interested in Justin, I just wasn't ready to be serious with anyone.

Around mid September, Justin and a bunch of his friends were going to go mud riding. He asked me to go and I told him I wasn't sure. My coworker, the one who introduced us, really wanted to go. Her husband had had a terrible accident earlier that year and was still in a coma. She had literally not left his bedside for months and months, but she finally felt ready to hang out with a few friends. I decided to go, mostly for my friend. We drove about an hour away and had a blast! It was truly one of the most fun days I've ever had!!

Our first picture together.

Rawr.

After that day, we started talking and texting a little more. Every time that he would ask me to do something that sounded like a date, I'd say no. I did ask him to come over one day to help me bathe the dogs...how romantic, huh?

Gradually, we were talking more and getting to know each other a little better. The first weekend of October, I went to a concert in Alabama, called Bayfest, with my friend Alyse. It's a huge outdoor festival/concert with ALL types of music. We only went for the country portion. Side note: we are literally obsessed with Gary Allan. We have been to see him about 8 times.

Long car trip with my friend, Alyse!

Gary Allan <3

What are we talking about again?? Oh yeah, our love story. Sorry, Gary distracted me. It's okay, my hubby knows. : )

Right before I left for this trip, Justin had asked me, "So, do you think you'll ever be ready to date me or be my girlfriend?" I had told him I wasn't sure, but definitely not yet. I was gone for three nights while on this trip with Alyse. Justin and I texted back and forth a lot while I was gone. On the second night that I was gone, it hit me hard. What hit me?? REALITY!! I realized that I was already head over heels for Justin and I was comfortable getting serious about him!! I didn't want to tell him this over the phone or in a text message, so I just decided to wait until I got back home. Oh y'all, it was like having a huge secret. I was dying to tell him and I literally was giddy at the thought of actually dating him!! I also wanted to kick myself for taking a month and a half to figure all of this out!!

Next up, my return home and how we became "official." Hooray!!

Thanks for reading all of this if you're still here. : )

Love, love!

Edit: Click here for part 3!