Just In Time

Nick wrote the last blog and although he did a great job, the post was very short and it didn't included any details about our adventure together so far!

So here goes. The honeymoon was amazing! It was absolutely unforgettable and very relaxing! We left our apartment on Monday morning at around 5:45 to get to the airport with plenty of time to make our 8:10 AM flight from RDU to Atlanta. Going through security at the airport I was a little pissed off at myself when I was told I had to throw away my curly hair gel. I was so mad at myself for not packing it in our check luggage, I knew better! After waiting at our gate for about an hour, we learned that the flight was delayed by 2 hours, we would not leave RDU until 10 AM. We were a little upset upon hearing that news, but we weren't going to let it bother us, we were on our honeymoon! My husband asked the attendant at the counter if we would make our connecting flight in Atlanta to Montego Bay, he was told, "yes. you should have about 40 minutes to make your connecting flight, but there are no more flights on any airline to Montego Bay for the day." Nick came by and told me what he was able to find out from the attendant. We were both immediately panicking, what if we didn't make our connecting flight??! We would have to stay overnight in Atlanta! our flight from RDU to Atlanta took off at 10:30. We landed in Atlanta at 11:45. Our flight to Montego Bay was scheduled to take off at 12:10. We had 25 minutes to catch our flight! Once our feet landed in the Atlanta airport, we checked the computer flight board to see if our flight was on time. We spotted the words "ON TIME" at the same time and we both yelled, "IT'S ON TIME." We started running! Nick had our 2 carry on bags, we were both running! I was about 10 feet in front of Nick the whole time, poor guy was struggling with our carry on bags weighing him down! We literally ran from terminal A to terminal E. The whole time we're running I was saying, "please God let us make this flight!" We arrived at the gate completely out of breath! The lady at the ticket counter said, "I'm sorry. We just closed the doors, we paged you, we waited as long as we could." Feeling completely exhausted from the long distance running we just did, I collapsed on the floor. When then went to the Delta flight/ticket change counter to see if we could change our tickets for a flight that would leave that next morning. I went to buy us bottles of water while Nick handled the ticket change. I turn around from buying the water bottles and I see my husband about 400 feet away, looking frantic, frantically searching for me. I raised my hand and flagged him down. Full of excitement, Nick says, "they're holding the plane for us, if we go now we can get on the plane." My reaction, "WHAT??!" So we run, again! We were able to get on the plane because there was a malfunction with the check luggage latch. We were relieved that we made the flight and that we made it to Jamaica! Our check bag did not make it to Jamaica until the next day around lunch time. We were happy and relieved once our bag made it to Jamaica! I had done all the packing for our honeymoon and I did not pack pants, toiletree items, or sunscreen on our carry on bags. Had our checked luggage not arrived, my husband would have not had any pants!

Since the honeymoon we have been adjusting to married life. We are buying our first house!!! The house that will soon be ours' is 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms on .73 acres! We are super excited about our first house! I am most excited about the extra space the house will offer us, the wonderfully large and relaxing master bath we'll have, and the reality that we will raise our unborn children in this house! Gosh I cannot wait to make this house our home! I have been busy looking at and buying furniture off Craiglist. We have bought 2 couches, a dining room table and chairs, matching hutch, and a matching coffee table and end table all from Craiglist. I am the newest biggest fan of Craiglist! Not only have I been buying, I have been selling items on there as well. I have sold some of our furniture and some left over wedding items. With all of my recent purchases, our apartment is getting smaller and smaller. The lack of space is really bothering Nick and stressing him out. For that reason I have agreed to stop buying large, bulky items, like furniture until after we move. After all, marriage is all about compromises!

So now it's time for me to give some encouragement to our readers and fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Literally right after we got back from our honeymoon we started our house hunt. We made our lists of must haves and likes, but negotiable items to have in our house. We saw about 5-10 houses a week for about 4 weeks. We saw one house we liked, but we decided not to pursue it because the upstairs was not permitted and the house had changed owners rather frequently. We keep looking and we found a house that gave us that "feels like home" feeling. We really liked the house, it was warm and inviting, plenty of space, nice backyard, seems like a great neighborhood, etc. We were excited and put in our offer. Up against two other offers we decided to make our offer really good, we wanted the house and we didn't want to risk losing it to someone else. Our offer was accepted, we were under contract. About 2 days after we're under contract we find out that DOT has plans to put in a major interstate within 1/4 mile from the back of our property. We decided not to worry about it because we liked the house. We had the inspection, nothing major was wrong with the house. Put our repair requests into the seller. The seller took more than 3 days to respond to our requests which made us concerned. Beginning of May we both started to feel stressed out about the house, reality set in and we started wondering how we're going to be able to afford this house. The stress builds when we realize that we would always have to be a 2 income family. Then we find out that there was a possible lien on the house, meaning the contractor had not been paid and if he continued to not be paid then he could go in and rip out all the work he had done on the house. We spoke with our realtor and decided it was best for us to back out of the contract and not purchase this house. Our main reason for deciding not to purchase this house was the finances, the numbers were not appealing and as much as we liked the house we did not want to lose sleep at night wondering how we were going to be able to afford the mortgage, groceries, etc. Realizing we were back to the drawing board, back to house hunting, we were not excited. We were trusting that we had made the right decision, but it was hard to convince ourselves of that because backing out meant that we would NOT receive the $8,000 tax credit. I decided we should go back to a house we had liked before but were worried about the un-permitted space. We saw the house for the second time. We loved it. The space was still un-permitted so we decided to keep looking in hopes that we would find a house that we loved more and had no major concerns going into buying. We never found a house we loved more. We went back to visit the house a third time, we still loved it. We put in our offer. Our offer was countered. We countered their counter, they countered our counter and we accepted! Since we've been under contract, the square footage has been updated for tax purposes so no worries. The inspection went well, no major issues. We were nervous about starting the loan process over again, but to our surprise, we got a lower interest rate than before with the previous house and we received money back from our lender from the previous house! I tell you this loooong story to put out that God was looking out for us all along! God knew that there was a better house out there for us and he made sure we were financially taking care of. The house we are buying is 347 square feet bigger and the lot size is .11 of an acre smaller than the other house, so more space inside but slightly smaller lot. We will be saving roughly $38,000 during the lifetime of the loan by picking a house with a lower asking price and smaller loan amount. We have absolutely no hesitations about this house and it feels so good!

We have learned so much within the last 2 months of marriage! Throughout our house hunting and home buying we have had to make major decisions together and because of that we have grown closer together.

Long Time No Updates!

Holy cow! It's been too long since an update was posted here.

We've changed this blog to reflect the two of us, not just one of us. We got married back in March and it's been great so far! The honeymoon in Jamaica was wonderful! We had an adventure getting there but still enjoyed the trip.

We're buying our first house, which is exciting. The apartment has just gotten a tab too small. Can't wait to move in and have more space.

Well, that's about it for now. Hopefully we'll keep this more up to date.

-N

73 Days to Go!

Whew! Man are we busy! We have a lot to get done this month! Nick and his groomsmen are getting fitted for their tuxedos this Friday! I can't believe we're already at that point in our wedding planning! These past three months have gone by really fast, I guess the holidays will do that to you! Speaking of the holidays, we had a wonderful Christmas! On Christmas Eve we went to his parents' house. His mom and sister made us a delicious lunch and then we opened presents. His mom made me a stocking with my name on it and put all kinds of goodies in there! I was really impressed and touched by their generosity. Then on Christmas Day we opened gifts together in the morning. It was really nice getting to spend Christmas morning together! This was the first year that we were able to spend the whole day together! We went to my aunt's house to celebrate Christmas with my parents and my mom's side of the family. I tried to prepare Nick for the large amount of gifts I knew he would receive, but I think he was still overwhelmed! My family is really good about getting almost all, if not everything on your list. We got so many useful things to start our life together, it was really exciting! Now that Christmas and New Year's Eve have come and gone, we're back on top of wedding planning! There's still a lot left to get done, but we're really organized, maybe too organized for some people. I've made a list of things to get done each week and monthly deadlines since I know things come up and we can't always meet our weekly deadlines. Self-imposed deadlines are wonderful for me, it makes me feel more confident and in control. At the end of the week, when Sunday night rolls around, I know there's four things we can cross off our list! It's so exciting when I get to cross things off! It means we're one step closer to being done with wedding planning!

I could write a book on all the things not to do and things people don't tell you to be prepared for when planning a wedding! I will say, although we haven't had the greatest support, financially or emotionally, it has made us depend on each other and has made us stronger as a couple. Now we're able to have better discussions and make decisions together. All the lessons we've learned about each other through the process of planning our wedding make me happy because I know they'll make our marriage stronger. Had we had a wedding planning or moms helping us each step of the way, I know we would not have learned as much as we did about each other. It also makes me happy knowing that Nick and I have made every single wedding decision together. The only thing I've bought on my own without his input was my wedding dress. Not many brides can say that. Since I didn't have my wedding planned out before he proposed, it's been very important to me to have his opinion and to know that we both love every aspect of our wedding. I feel sorry for the grooms that never get asked their opinion on things because though they may not admit it, they care and want their bride to ask for their opinion. I'll get off my soap box! I know everything will come together, even if it's last minute. I can't wait to marry my best friend!

117 Days To Go!

I'm really excited! Our wedding is really starting to come together! These last 2 weeks, Nick and I have gotten a lot of wedding things done! This past weekend we went and looked at two tuxedo places, we found the perfect vest match, when I held the bridesmaid dress swatch up to the vest we couldn't tell where the swatch started or ended because it matched perfectly! We also finalized the layout of our reception, that was a huge thing for us to accomplish! I never would have thought figuring out the layout of our reception would be so stressful and overwhelming, but it was! Now I can rest easier knowing the layout of our reception and what else we need to buy for our reception. Today I made the tuxedo measurement appointment for Nick and his groomsmen. And some other great news, my brother has agreed to be an usher for our wedding which means he'll actually be coming to our wedding and he'll be wearing a tux! We've also been brainstorming ideas for our rehearsal dinner, actually, I think we're pretty close to finalizing our plans. We're 4 months away and as we cross things off our list I get more and more excited! For all you non-engaged couples out there that are anxious about getting married, prepare yourself now, planning a wedding is stressful, frustrating at times, and more times than not, filled with drama! If you have a very helpful, supportive, understanding fiance like I do then you'll survive the wedding planning! I tell you these things because no one prepared me and I wish someone had! Movies and TV shows glamorize the whole wedding process which gave me high expectations about how things would be once I got engaged. The greatest part about being engaged is being able to continue get to know your future life partner as you plan your future together and by that I mean how you plan on decorating your house together, many kids you want to have, what vacations you'll take, holiday traditions you'll have, etc. not planning the wedding! I'm not a bride that wants fancy silverware or an elaborate ceremony with a huge bridal party. I just want my wedding dress to make me feel beautiful, my groom to find me breath-taking, and a day that neither one of us will ever forget. I don't want us to remember how fancy or magical everything was, I want us to remember the moment we lock eyes as I walk down the aisle and the vows we say in front of all our family and friends. Other brides may hope to remember more from their special day, but I don't, after all, that's what pictures are for!

Love and Marriage

There I go again, leaving you hanging. I'm sure my two faithful readers are wanting an update on my life. Sadly, nothing majorly exciting has been going. Oh, Nick did add me to his cell phone plan! If you want my new #, holler at me. Even though I didn't get a fancy Iphone or Blackberry, it's still pretty exciting to have a new phone!

131 Days till my wedding day! We have sooo much left to do! I made a list of things we have left to do and it was overwhelming so I'm not looking at the list anymore! We did decide on our wedding favors though. I'm really excited about it! We're doing a candy buffet!! It's a growing trend at weddings these days, however we decided on it because we felt the need to add color and fun to our informal, dining hall reception vendor. It was either that or matches that said, "The Perfect Match." I'm still waiting for my wedding dress to come in. I ordered it back in....July and I'm starting to think it's going to take the whole 18 weeks to get here like the bridal shop said it would. It wouldn't be a big deal if it wasn't for the worry and concern I'm feeling that I won't fit into my dress! I tried my dress on in my size and it fit me perfectly, maybe 2 inches to spare and now I'm worried I may not fit into it! I've tired staying away from sweets and telling myself I'm not hungry when I just ate 2 hours ago, but apparently I don't have enough self-control like I thought I did because that hasn't been working for me. I keep telling Nick that he's the cause of my over-eating problem - 1) he's a great cook, I love every meal he makes, 2) he loves my body and refusing to think I'm fat, and 3) he loves dessert more than I do so there's been a few times where he's eaten chocolate in front of me and said it was ok for me to have some when he knew I was trying to resist sweets! Oh well. I guess I'll just try the dress on when it comes in and if I don't fit into it then I'll go a crash diet like, Slim Fast or the all fruits and veggies diet.

We had our first of three counseling sessions this morning. The church we're getting married at requires at least three pre-martial counseling sessions with the pastor that's marrying you. It was really good, I already learned something. We're going to working through this workbook called, " Getting Ready for Marriage." I'm not usually a fan of workbooks, but this one looks promising. Nick and I talk about EVERYTHING! We were best friends before we started dating so when we finally got together we were comfortable enough to be ourselves around each other, I mean farts, poop stories, bad breath, and inappropriate jokes. In going to counseling, I don't think we'll discover things we haven't talked about, however I do think we'll benefit from hearing advice from our pastor, someone who's been married for 15 years. Nick and I didn't have the greatest examples of marriage growing up so we're really interested in learning and talking through how to make God the center of your marriage and household and how to argue fairly. There's something to be said for us knowing what things we don't want for our marriage and what mistakes we've witnessed in parents' marriages that we've learned from. I think most couples we know haven't talked about that yet or didn't talk about that before they got married. We're not naive in thinking marriage will always be blissful with a few arguments over the years, no. Marriage is hard work, as one of my best friends put it best when he said, "everyday you have to decide to love that person and there will be days when, believe it or not, that will be hard."

Marriage is not based on feelings or hopes that they'll never change or will change, it's based on a commitment you make to love that person till death separates you. I know that during our lifetime together, Nick will change, his desires, wishes, and dreams will change, maybe his bad habits or hobbies will change, but one thing will remain the same throughout the years, I will love him. I will love him when he's old, when he's stubborn, when he's sick, when we're arguing, when he feels alone, and even when no one is looking, I will love him. There's no one else I can see myself loving as much as I love Nick. Loving Nick is easy. I know there will be times when it may be hard for me to love him, but I will always choose to love him. I can't wait to build our lives together!

2 Year Anniversary

Nick and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary a few weeks ago - September 16th! It's hard to believe it's already been two years! I have such a great memory and I often think about the past that it seems hard to believe it's been 2 years, time has gone by so fast! We have been through so much together - graduating from college, applying for grown up jobs, getting real world jobs, losing jobs, 2 deaths in Nick's family, arguments with our parents, paying bills, and becoming adults together - learning from one another's mistakes and successes! The greatest part of all is all of those things have brought us closer together. Those events whether big or small, sad or happy, they allowed us to learn more about each other, to lean on each other for support and encouragement, and to become a team. The most valuable lesson we've come to appreciate is we will always back each other up when it comes to dealing with other people. Whether it's our parents, our friends, co-workers, neighbors, or strangers - we will always build the other person up and support the other person. I came to realize how truly great it feels when you know your future husband, your best friend, your soon to be life partner, stands beside you, no matter what you say in front of others. To me, that is important and invaluable! How horrible it would be if we argued in front of his parents or my co-workers simply over having a difference in opinion. There's something to be said when you're united as one and are not afraid to show that whenever you're in front of other people. Another valuable lesson we've learned is to pick your battles. A few months into our relationship we had our first argument, I couldn't even tell you what it was about. That started a long string of arguments because I like to argue - I'll admit it. The funny thing is I like to resolve arguments quickly, but I love picking arguments. Well one day we just had both had enough of arguing, we were sick of it! Over time we learned to pick our battles. I grew up hearing that saying, but I never knew what it meant. It doesn't mean I don't get mad at Nick or that we don't argue anymore. For us it means, we try to think more before we speak and we try to ask ourselves - "is this going to matter in the morning?," "is this going to bother me when we get married?" Answering those questions before you start arguing can really help! Several times I've caught myself getting worked up, but then I calm down and decide to postpone the conversation or just simply say to him, "it's not important to me anymore that we talk about this. Can we stop talking about it?" Some topics or problems that come up aren't worth arguing over. It's like growing up when your brother or sister had a toy that you wanted and you threw a fit to have it then suddenly you realized it wasn't worth the effort, you'd rather just play together or you no longer wanted the toy?! Anyways, those are just a few things I've learned along the way, I'm not an expert on love though. It's been a great 2 years, 2 weeks, and 3 days! I love Nick more than ever before and I can't imagine anyone better to spend the rest of my life with! I'm going to enjoy life with my best friend forever!

General Update on My Life

I'm a busy gal lately! I started my second job last week working as a teacher's assistant in the one-year old classroom at Connections Preschool. So far I looove it! I can already tell it's going to be a rewarding experience to watch these children learn and grow. Already I have been amazed at how eager preschoolers are to learn new things! My favorite time of day with them is when we take them out to the playground. I just love watching the interaction between 2 preschoolers as they wait their turn to go down a slide or as they try to learn how to shovel sand by watching another preschooler use the shovel. Before I started working in preschool I didn't think about just how much a child can learn in such a short period of time. Now I realize that a lot of things they're hearing and doing are for the first time, it's neat to watch them try to say new words or try new things.

Wedding planning is coming along. Tomorrow I'm going to 2 different bridal shops to look at bridesmaid dresses. No one's going with me and I'm excited about that because too often I find myself being influenced by people's opinions. We're also in the process of scheduling consultations with cake vendors! We'd like to meet with about 3-5 cake vendors before we make our final decision just to make sure we're making the best decision for us. Speaking of wedding cakes, we're going to my good friend, Michelle's wedding on Saturday! Michelle and I have talked a great deal lately and have come to realize that our experiences in being engaged and planning a wedding are way too similar! Since I feel like I know firsthand the kind of stress and emotion she's been going through in planning this wedding, I'm really looking forward to Saturday! Oh & of course I'm going to take lots of notes and pictures at her wedding in hopes that my creativity will be sparked and ideas for my own wedding will start flowing!

Today's high: Realizing how many people from my church love Nicholas! I'm learning to embrace the feeling of being blessed whenever someone complements my fiance.

Today's low: Letting my thoughts get the best of me.