So I'm married..... now what?

It's been a few weeks since the wedding and the hype seems like it's officially died down surrounding it. We're business as usual, both back to work and school for me in a few weeks. I tackled the dreaded name change game- driving back and forth and all over town to the different places to submit name change forms..... don't even get me started on the waiting game I had to play at the smallest Social Security office IN THE WORLD just to change my name on my card. I told Lewis he needed to be thankful that he didn't have to change his name and go through any of this madness I had to endure.... ish was for the birds. I digress.

After all that "excitement" was over, I was just sitting on the couch one afternoon and I found myself thinking:

"So..... now what happens?"

What is my next step as a wife? Where do I go from this point? Silly me thought there was this checklist that all new wives get tucked into their wedding bands to refer to. Nope! So I guess that means I'm wingin' it, right?

Since there is no special protocol to life after your wedding, I think I am just going to update my life. Yea, that's what I'll do! I need to anyways, and what better excuse to do that than getting married! What I plan to do is pick out a few areas in my life that need updating and make them part of my personal goals for the rest of 2013. I'll make it a series here on the blog to stay motivated and try to get as many, if not all of them updated before the year is over.

Time to shake things up..... 

Back in action

We are back from our honeymoon! After spending 4 amazing days on the water and a bomb ace day on the beach it's back to reality for us here. We ended up going on a cruise and I recommend it to anyone who likes all you can eat food, hundreds of activities and jam-packed pool parties:) I think we made a good decision by choosing a cruise as it was relatively inexpensive and full of stuff to do.

So now that the wedding and the honeymoon are officially over it's time for us to turn our attention towards making new plans and setting new goals for our first year as husband and wife! I'm so excited about beginning this journey; I couldn't ask for a better man to do it with!

I feel as though the Lord has some BIG stuff planned for us- I just feel it.

Lewis is back to work and I return later this week.... too bad we can't just lay around and bum it up for a little while longer lol

I am cooking up some good stuff here on the blog so stay tuned!!!!

Wedding Stuff: Planner

When school let out for the Christmas holiday back in December I was super pumped to have extra time on my hands to start back up the wedding planning. As I restarted the journey I began to realize that there was still SOOOO much to do and not alot of time for me to give everything my full attention. Then there was the fact that I was planning a wedding almost 6hrs away from where I currently reside and although we have family and friends there, I didn't want to throw that huge load on them. Oh, and let's not even mention to endless questions EVERYBODY seemed to fire at me about this or that...that I could barely answer "What are the colors again? What kind of shoes are you going to where? When is it again? Have you picked out flowers and decorations? What about favors and food? DJ? How do I need to dress? Who's in the wedding? What are they wearing? Can my cousins-baby-daddy-little-sister-neice come too? Where is my invitation, I better get one, right?" 

Needless to say I was overwhelmed and increasingly anxious by the end of the year about if I could or would get any of it done in time and without giving anybody attitude or suffering a panic attack. Right after we got engaged, Lewis suggested that we hire a wedding planner and just let them do their thing since I'm in nursing school...... But at the time I was just really excited about being able to plan a wedding MY WEDDING and I didn't want to turn that over to anyone. I've never been wronger.

At first it seemed like the date was too far off to really began any real detailed planning like napkin designs, table decor, flower arrangements and all that so I focused on bigger tasks like finding a dress and browsing bridesmaid dresses..... But up until this past Saturday..... that was all the ish I had accomplished, in almost 6 months lol. I'M SUCH A PROCRASTINATOR!!!

With our wedding date closing in 6months and counting I was starting to get the sweats about planning it AND being fully focused on my last year of school so I bit the bullet, told Lewis he was right which he loves and I hate and started searching for a planner. I am thankful I ran across a local planner in the East TX area that is fairly priced and has just the greatest spirit EVER! We met with Mrs. Deanne Robertson of Simply yours by design over the weekend and she gave me that reassurance that I was seeking about the rest of our planning. Thanks ma'am :) I know our wedding is in great hands with her!

It just feels like a ginormous weight was lifted off of my shoulders now and I can really re-focus on school. I still will have my hand in planning but I won't feel overwhelmed with resposiblilty for it.....

Thank God for wedding planners.

To my married ladies: How did your wedding planning go? Did you need a planner or you took the bull by the horns? Any crazy stories to share?

Idle Chit Chat

*We are back from our little holiday trip to East TX! We tried to keep it as low key as possible by really only seeing a few people (besides family) while out there..... Lewis didn't want to stay as long as I thought he would which turned out good for both of us! You miss your bed when you aren't in it! Lol

*I am officially back to square one with a food menu for the reception. We were supposed to meet up with one of the managers at a restaurant we we thinking of going with, but it never happened. I asked Lewis if he still wanted to go with that place and he says "nah, I don't really want that". (side eye) It was HIS idea in the first place.

*David's Bridal are talking about discontinuing some of the bridesmaid dress styles and colors for the season.... It worries me because none of my BM have ordered their dresses yet. The day is long way off, but I will be super pissed if we have to go back and pick another style or I have to change one of my colors because somebody didn't get their dress in time.

*I may need to go get a corrective relaxer. Okay maybe not a corrective, but I definitely need to go somewhere and let them put my relaxer in on my next go round. My hair is very under processed; it's only really manageable if I flat iron the roots.....and I don't want to continue to put heat on my hair to get it to cooperate (I'm only 5wks post). Actually rethinking the entire self-relaxer movement I started. It's just IMHO the price of getting a relaxer is  getting more and more expensive and I just really don't want anyone trying to coerce me into cutting my hair.

*Since the holiday is over, I have an exam every week til school is out to look forward too....... This shall be interesting.



The plan for the rest of this sunny Sunday is to study a bit and lounge around.....

Let's chit chat!
Got anything you want to talk about? Share any plans? I want to know :)

Schools OUT

Well.... at least for the rest of the week! I took my last final yesterday morning and I did my thing on it, said my have-a-good-weekends to my classmates then bolted for my car at 9:25 a.m! I was sooooo glad to be done with my classes..... you guys know (somewhat) how I've felt about this flex so there is no need to get into detail about it lol. I am proud to say that even though final grades have not been posted, I am confident that I made B's in all of my classes! I know to the scholarly student that's pish-posh but to a strong C nursing student (like myself!) that is a milestone! I'm ready to pop bottles damn near lol....... I kid, I kid. But I am very deserving of these grades; I worked hard this flex!

Since I've been out of school since basically this time yesterday, I've had an array of things I want to do/get done while I have this bit of time on my hands. There is re-organizing the wedding planning, finish cleaning the house (did most of it yesterday after I got home), I thinking about rearranging the bedroom, doing a little craft project (or 2), and running some errands. I really only have today because tomorrow I go to work and Saturday I will be tied up most of the morning and some of the afternoon at a women's conference.... 

So the question is: Why the hell am I still in bed? 

Seriously you guys, I've only gotten up like twice: once to pee and the other time was to warm some breakfast up and grab my laptop....then it was right back in the bed for me! I feel like lounging all day, but I can't! Ugh. On the bright side though at least I don't have to study for an exam or do a project; I should embrace this little time I have lol

Looks like I'm about to get my day started...... I feel bad about being in bed now that I've just told the world wide web my list of to-dos and I haven't made a move yet lol

Back into the swing of things....

School started back yesterday for me! To be honest.... I'm super excited about this school year for two special reasons:

1) I am halfway through my RN program come October and I'll be completing my last 2 1/2 semesters this school year and then I'm done! By next October, if God says the same, you can call me Nurse Bee- RN!

2) Next July I'm getting MARRIED!!!! No extra comment needed.

These very important future instances have put an extra jolt into how I handle the next 10 months. I gotta go ALL IN! No holding back. So I expect myself to be the best student in all my classes, and finish planning this wedding like a BOSS.

I got this.
I think......
....... I hope......

Also I'm coming back strong with posts, I had kinda fallen off because I didn't know what to post or if anybody would even come check me out after I did post. Now though that doesn't matter to me, I'm going to post regardless so stay tuned :)

Guess I'll go study a little. See ya!

Wedding Stuff: Bridesmaid dresses

Since our wedding is in the dead of the summer next year, I don't want my poor bridesmaids to hate me for making them wear long, airflow resistant dresses that will smother them once they start moving around! I've narrowed down the dresses to these bad boys right here for them to pick from:

I think this style is perfect for a summer wedding and my BM will definitely thank me for it. I really like the last 2, but it's up to all of my BMs to give the most votes for one. 

Which one would you choose? 

Might need a job......

So since school is out, I basically don't have much to do but plan my wedding.......  but this problem is already beginning to be a good AND bad thing.

 Good thing: I have all day and night to pick, prod, fantasize, and put together the most important parts of my special day without much interruption.

Bad thing: Remember when I mentioned before that while I was in school I had a work-study job on campus? It was a convenient little job in the student writing center where I worked about 10hrs a week and we got paid twice a month. On top of that I could still file for unemployment compensation 2x month as well...... So I'm good, right?  NOPE. Sadly, because I won't be taking at least 6hrs of summer school I can't work at the writing center this summer AND I just realized that my unemployment benefits are about to be dried up come next month.......

Which is about to leave me in a tight crunch money-wise. My fiance` is bringing home most of the bacon so I don't technically HAVE to work, but I do feel the need to contribute to the wedding savings. I don't want him to be the only saving, ya know?  I would set aside money every pay period to put in the savings acct. just to feel like I was doing my part. Pretty soon I won't be able to so easily and that don't sit right with me! I'm thinking maybe I can get a little part-time job for the summer or maybe do little temp jobs here and there to make a little change and just put it all towards the wedding? Or cross my fingers that I receive a call back soon from one of the hospitals I interviewed for to start a on-call position. Until then, I'm going to be even more conscientious about what I'm doing with my little money :(

Dang, there goes my new shoes.........

Out from under my rock

I am done with the spring semester of school! But unfortunately..... I'll have to repeat one of my classes. I really struggled with being able to process all of that information in enough time to be successful on my exams but it just didn't happen. I can be upset about it but....what can I do about it? Just taking my loss with a grain of salt I guess. My instructor gave me some insight on what I need to do to be successful in retaking it.... and I'm going to make sure I do just that. I heard that they want to offer the class this summer for retakes only if they can get at least 15 students to sign up for it. That would be awesome for me cause I can just go ahead and tackle it now instead of waiting til school starts and falling behind my starting class! All I can do now is hope they open the summer course up.

Since its officially summertime for me, I am sort of switching gears and getting into wedding planning mode. Lewis and I had a little chit chat over the weekend about how much we wanted to spend on the entire wedding [not including the honeymoon cause he won't tell me where we are going] and where most of our money would be going to. We haven't come up with a set budget but I'm sure we are about to find out in the coming months! I'm excited and nervous for what is about to happen :) 

Let the planning commence!

Wedding stuff: Real Wedding Inspiration: Guest Book Tree

Since studying wasn't working out too good for me I decided to start browsing some wedding stuff. Ya, know get the mojo flowing and scope out some inspiration look what I stumbled upon:

 It's a guest book tree! Instead of having the tradition guest book with plain lines for people to sign their name and give formal "congratz" next to it... you make this and have your guest make personalized notes on there! Heart-felt congrats as well as advice *Raises eyebrows twice* ::I can only imagine what my friends would put on one of these...eeeek!:: I think it's a wicked idea and definitely getting stashed away in my wedding folder..... that I haven't started yet Lol.

What ya think?
Here's the link to check out how to create the guest book tree:
My DIY Wedding Day: Real Wedding Inspiration: Guest Book Tree

Wedding stuff- Who's being difficult?

It's been a while since I talked wedding stuff.... with school in full swing, the planning had sort of taken a back burner- until now.

I've been trying to sprinkle wedding ideas in with my conversation to Lewis for the past couple of days. Asking about groomsmen, talking up the colors and what all we want in the wedding. Well, we also ended up having an issue too. I had it in my mind that I would be doing the bulk of the wedding planning cause for 1) it's cheaper and 2) that's what normally happens-right? Well he thinks that I should just hire a wedding planner and be done with it; like not even worry about the planning part.

*Little kid voice* "But I don't wanna!!!!

I WANT to experience the excitement and stress of planning our special day. To be able to look back and say that it was the biggest and best project I ever did...... not say to somebody "Oh, my planner did everything we just showed up." I know planners do everything that you want them to do, but where is the fun in that for me? I'll be honest, it is a tad bit overwhelming but I think once I really sit down and organize my thoughts I should be fine. I will say that I might consider going to a consultant or at least somebody who has dealt with weddings before to help me organize and give a me a little guidance, but I'm not sure about the full fledge planner thing as of now.

Not to mention we got 479 days to prepare for the wedding altogether, not including the day of.... yep, plenty of time.

In the end Lewis just told me do whatever I felt, so I'm going to take a good hard swing at it and see what happens. If come the end of the summer it looks like I bit off more than I can chew, then I'll definitely look into my options..... until then, time to start planning :)