He works hard for it honey!

Jerods deployment date is about a month away and he has recently stopped working to spend more time with friends, family, and me of cousre. He has been also trying to get projects done around the house. He is currently working on my office and the wine cellar, he is ruffin' it in all by himself and I am pretty impressed!

Wine Cellar
Future Office

WIP

Since we moved in we have been slowing working on the house and decorating. Since Jerod is leaving fr Iraq we decided that we were not buying that much new stuff because with him being gone it just wouldn't feel like our house. So we have picked out a lot of stuff we are going to buy when he gets back and we will register for a lot of stuff. Luckily we both have a ton of stuff already and we did buy our bedroom set, so here are some picks to show our Work in Progress!

This is the bedroom, we are going to paint and hang pictures, but this will probably wait til Jerod gets back. This is the dresser, we are still waiting to order some more pieces, and of cousre TV.

Living room...Its getting there very slowly.

This is the down stairs, we already have pick out a really pretty sectional for here we wil order when it gets closer to Jerod getting back. But this is Jerod Favorite spot because it has his "man TV"

Beginings of a Mizzou Bar!! Go Tigers!

Kitchen

Yay I got my washer and dryer. I am still thinking of what to put in here.

Thats it for now, we will keep you posted as well start to add stuff to the house.

All you need is Love...

So the last couple of years I have become one of those people who cries when I see good things happen. I cry when I am happy…I know I am turning into my mother. I just got done watching a re-run of Extreme Home Makeover and I think there is no way I could ever have that job. I would be crying EVERY freakin day at how awesome the Human Spirit can be. That is part of the reason why I love being a counselor. You get to witness to amazing capability of humans to excel and survive and that is beautiful. You see people at their worst and best, and learning to redefine progress has been one of the greatest things I have learned this year. I have faith that in everyone is the ability to be great, sometimes they may need some help along the way to discover that “greatness” possessed inside. In the end, I just love people. My greatest hope is that one day we will treat all people as equals regardless if we agree with their lifestyle or not. The bottom line is we are all humans, we have the same blood and bone in our bodies. We share the same emotions of grief, happiness, and sadness. We love the same, and the closer July 7th comes I realize how powerful love really is. The Beatles had it right a long time ago, All you need is love… :)

Have a Happy Day…as Ashley says, even the bad days ain’t that bad.

Wedding Magazines can be a waste of money!

There are a TON of wedding magazines, but what I have realized is that they are expensive and I get little to NO ideas from the Mags. I found on that I really love and its Wedding Style Magazine, its expensive compared to most BUT it is so worth it! This is my favorite Magazine to steal ideas from! I live in a small town or Village as my mom calls it, good 'ole Columbia, MO. However we have had two wedding featured in this magazine, of course they were the Wal-Mart Kids. Although I cant afford a 10 million dollar wedding like Paige Laurie, there are little details that you can steal! Also you can view most of the Mag on the website so you don't need to really buy it! Weddings are expensive enough with out having to buy all these magazines! :)

http://www.weddingstylemagazine.com/
Click on Real Weddings on the right

Another good Magazine that you just need to buy once is
Real Simple Weddings
http://browse.realsimple.com/holidays-entertaining/weddings/index.html

Memorial Day!

As you all know yesterday was Memorial Day. It means so many things to many people. So I just want to say thanks babe for serving our country! I am starting to realize how quickly July 7th is coming and realizing that 13 months is a long time and I will miss him very much! Jerod favorite song is Chicken Fried and I have a favorite verse that I sing to him anytime it comes on:

"I thank God for my life
And for the stars and stripes
May freedom forever fly, let it ring.
Salute the ones who died
The ones that give their lives so we don`t have to sacrifice
All the things we love"

Thanks Jerod, I LOVE YOU!

DJ, Photos, Flowers Oh MY!

The thing about Jerod is that he is a VERY involved Groom. This is difficult because he is leaving for 13 months on his activation. He wants to be involved in every aspect of wedding planning so we have been meeting with vendors and honestly, I feel like I am putting together MY DREAM TEAM! I don’t want to jinx it so I am not going to say who they are yet! Until I have time to go back to Dallas to sign the contracts. Jerod has been super amazing and has great ideas. Nevertheless, it was really awesome the florist just whipped together some examples of centerpieces from pictures I sent her, I forgot to take pictures of the large ones, but they were beautiful. I am starting to get pumped about planning, but as you know I am taking it slow!

Here are some of the low pieces! (These arent the colors, but these are in season.)

GRADUATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My sister and I both graduated the same weekend, I figured since I have already had one and will have one more I should go and support my sister. The morning of her graduation we woke up in her apartment with all her friends and they were blaring Good Morning by Kanye getting ready for their big day. They all were emotional and it was so cute! I loved being there for that moment. It was the first time the realized that everything is different after this day and they were all going in different directions. It was very sweet and it was fun getting ready with them.

USC has a different kind of graduation its GRANDIOSE! First off, Arnold Schwarzenegger was the Commencement speaker over the large group and he was good I was surprised, but it was really good. Then her satellite graduation for the school of communication was the President of E! Entertainment and THEN they even fed us after! This is where all her tuition dollars are spent, my dad made us eat as much as possible as if he was trying to get his monies worth! Haha! My sister is phenomenal and I am so proud of her! Now she is off saving the world in Uganda and I will miss her during the month she is gone. But YAY for graduating!

Engagement Pictures (Photographers Faves)

Jerod and I just got our engagement pictures done and the photographer got them up super fast! These are her favorite pictures. We flew to Lubbock Texas because we really liked this photographers pictures and she was so worth it! We wanted pictures with a Texas feel and that is exactly what we got. I am so excited that they turned out wonderful because we were super tired!! The day before we met with four vendors and the day before that I was in LA at Nicolette’s Graduation and Jerod was working our 3 day garage sale and going to Drill all weekend. So, it was a long 5 days. Anyway, these are some of the pictures…

Sneak Peek!

So WE have been SLACKERS! With graduation, traveling and a three day garage sale we have had little time! Anywho, we took our engagment pictures yesterday and here is a sneak peek of more to come...this is Jerod in his Dress Blues!