Let's get to know each other

I have a few minutes before I'm off to take a bunch of pretty pictures (hopefully)!

Kylie from Living in a Mitten tagged me in this fun little game today and I'm always excited to participate in things like this! Enjoy!

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The Rules

1. You must post the rules. (And link up who tagged you.)
2. Post eleven fun facts about yourself on the blog post.

3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you've tagged.

4. Tag eleven people and link them on your post.

5. Let them know you've tagged them!
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11 Facts About Me

1.  I wasn't born with my curly hair. It all fell out when I was 2 because of a high fever and grew back in the way it is now.

2. I was home schooled most of my life.

3.  I'm an aspiring journalist.

4. I'm the oldest sister of 4 kids.  I have 2 sisters and 1 brother and they make my life better.

5.  I'm getting married in less than 9 months, to my boyfriend of almost 5 years. He's my favorite thing in the whole entire world.

6.  I complain about having nothing to wear, but I really don't like shopping all that much.

7.  I'm a super fast reader.

8.  I can only cook if I have a recipe to follow.

9.  I would rather take a road trip then fly somewhere.

10.  I live in the Salad capital of the world.

11.  I would much rather drink a beer than a mixed drink.

Questions from Kylie

1.  Who was your favorite band/musician as a child?

That would have to be Point of Grace. I loved them when I was little.

2.  What is your favorite restaurant?

I love eating at Chilis, but in Salinas it would have to be Cozumels.

3.  If you could spend your life living in any other place, where would it be?

It's pretty much always been North Carolina.  I'm super excited that I get to move there in less than a year.

4.  Your weirdest dream/nightmare included (finish the sentence):

I don't really remember my dreams ever! I remember something about a giant tank of water in one of my nightmares though.

5.  What do you think you will be like 30 years from now?

Hopefully pretty much the same as I am now, just a better wife and hopefully a mother.

6.  Who is your FAVORITE celebrity?

I don't really have one!

7.  Who is your LEAST favorite celebrity?

Charlie Sheen...gross.

8.  If you HAD to choose a totally different career path, what would it be?

I would probably go back to my dream of wanting to be a vet.

9.  What would be your biggest fear?

Losing everyone that I love.

10.  One word that describes you?

Outgoing.

11.  What is your favorite thing about blogging?

I love having an outlet to write and being inspired by other bloggers.

My Questions for the Bloggers I Tagged
1.  What is your favorite childhood memory?

2. If you could only eat one kind of sandwich for the rest of your life, what would it be?

3.  What is your favorite book?

4.  What is your favorite Christmas song?

5.  What inspires you?

6.  Who is your favorite historical figure?

7.  What movie could you watch over and over again?

8.  What is one lesson you've learned from your parents?

9.  What is your dream vacation?

10.  What is one item on your "bucket list"?

11.  Why do you keep a blog?

Bloggers I am Tagging:
(I apologize if you've already done this in the past)

Becca @ An America Honey

Amanda @ Captive Creativity

Sarah @ From Lettuce to Potatoes

Krista @ Life is the messy bits

Hannah @ Life through my windshield

Candace @ Living Happily Ever After

Sarah @ Momma's Musings

Corinne @ My Free Therapy

Amanda @ walking a day in my sandals

  Krista @ Krista Lynn

Leave of absence

I probably shoulda done this a few days ago,

but you know how it goes, I just got sidetracked.

Leave and wedding planning have been consuming my time and blogging and the internet just have to take a back seat.  I will say that venue shopping is way more enjoyable when we're together and not looking at this on the internet.  Tomorrow we're taking our engagement pictures and Saturday is our engagement party and I'm just so happy I think I could burst.

I will be back to my regularly scheduled blogging program in a little while.

Thanks for being patient, especially if you're a new follower!

Have an amazing weekend lovelies!

Oh please...

Better late-in-the-night then never right?

1.  Peace of mind.

2. To see this movie

3.  Actual winter weather!

For California that is

4. The perfect wedding shoes.

Got the dress, now I need the shoes that won't kill my feet!

And nice tan legs wouldn't hurt either...just sayin'.

Hope everyone had a great Wednesday! 

Go link up over at Bright Wishes and let Brooke and all the rest of us know what you're wishing for.

The written word,

Meg always inspires with me with her posts and today was no exception.

I don't know where she finds some of her material she posts, but it's amazing.

If you want to read the whole letter, you can find the original here.

I'm just gonna post the three paragraphs that made me cry and brought me comfort.

"Don’t lament so much about how your career is going to turn out. You don’t have a career. You have a life. Do the work. Keep the faith. Be true blue. You are a writer because you write. Keep writing and quit your bitching. Your book has a birthday. You don’t know what it is yet.

You cannot convince people to love you. This is an absolute rule. No one will ever give you love because you want him or her to give it. Real love moves freely in both directions. Don’t waste your time on anything else.

Most things will be okay eventually, but not everything will be. Sometimes you’ll put up a good fight and lose. Sometimes you’ll hold on really hard and realize there is no choice but to let go. Acceptance is a small, quiet room."

Your book has a birthday. You don't know what it is yet.

No one will ever give you love because you want him or her to give it.

Acceptance is a small, quiet room. 

"We've got bonds baby, just try and break them"

The internet has not been my favorite thing in the world lately and unfortunately that means I've been neglecting my blog and writing about my psalms. I'm still not feeling all that into it, however; like this print said, everything will be alright eventually.

It's already a million times better because of the people that have come alongside us with their love and words of wisdom.  I truly have the most amazing group of men and women in my life.  The ties and bonds between us are something that will never be broken and our lines of communication will remain strong for the rest of my life, no matter what.  My family is my life. My parents and my siblings are amazing and I'm so proud to be their daughter and their sisters.  My soon-to-be-husband is my world. Without him there would not be near the amount of love and joy in my life that there is now. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with him.

I promise I'll get back into the internet eventually.

Have an amazing week everyone.

1.

Psalm 1

1.  What does it say?

For tonight I'll just post a link to it: here.

I chose The Message version, but you can read it in whichever version you prefer. 

 
2.  What does it mean?

I think this Psalm is clearly laying out the difference between good and evil, life and death, and showing us what happens when we chose the right way and to avoid the ways that lead to ruin.

3.  What does it mean to me?

For me this is a good start to this challenge and a great reminder of the way that I want to live my life.

I want to live my life to be a witness for Christ and these verse gave me cut and clear ways to do so. 

Wednesday Wishes!

Brooke is back to doing her Wednesday Wishes posts and I'm so excited!

So here we go!

1.  This banner for my engagement party and pictures.

via

2.  A cold, Dr. Pepper.

Today marks two weeks with just one soda. I'm dying.

 

via

3.  These sheets...for when I get my big bed back.

 

4.  A wedding exactly like this one.

5.  A birthstone ring.

I never find citrine set in silver! I love this one!

This new challenge

On Sunday Corinne and I were inspired and challenged to read our Bibles more.

So we decided to hold each other accountable and to make it into a fun blog series, like our previous 30 Days of Thankfulness and our 30 Days of Blogging.

When we were in high school we learned to ask 3 questions when reading the Bible

and they are:

1. What does it say?

2. What does it mean?

and

3.  What does it mean to me?

These are the three questions we'll be thinking about each day and blogging about.

I'm excited to take on the 150 day challenge with my bestie! I hope we get a lot out of it and you do too!

Words by which I will live by until September

By the time our wedding rolls around I feel like I will be a party planning expert.

I'm super excited to get the ball rolling on our engagement part, pictures, and our wedding.

Now if only I would remember to keep calm and not to stress out!

I think maybe I should print this picture out and hang it in a place that's always visible.

Have a wonderful Tuesday lovelies!

Talented group of ladies

I got to be a part of an amazing photo shoot a couple of days ago.

The idea and vision came from my friend Cassie and my sister was the one who captured all the photos.

To see the rest of the shoot become a fan of Candace Mann Photography's

Facebook page.

Quiet.

This morning I woke up before anyone else in the house.

Even the dog and cat were still sleeping as I made my way downstairs.

It's been nice. I've made coffee and toast and caught up on some blog reading.

There's something extremely different about this house when it's quiet.  Normally there's way too much noise on an everyday basis and it doesn't feel right to have it be this still.

Even though it's strange, I think I'll keep on enjoying my quiet morning alone.

Happy weekend everyone!

First Week Happy List

Since the first full work week of 2012 has been so great and I've been in such a good mood,

I thought it deserved a happy list!

1.  Lots of giggles and laughter.

2.  Always holding hands in the car.

3.  Family and their genuine excitement.

4.  Seeing 3 movies and apparently saving the best for last.

Go see "We Bought A Zoo"!

5.  North Carolina in the winter time...a whole different place than I'm used to, but I love it.

6.  Country music on the radio all week.

7.  Neighborhood shopping.

8.  Sweet tea, sweet tea, and more sweet tea.

9.  Fun photoshoots with my sisters and good friends.

10.  Vampire Diaries nights that are back in session.

Chasing the sunset

Taken this past weekend at the river.

On my way back to my least favorite coast last night, I got to watch the sunset for over an hour.

It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. The sky went from dark blue to light pink and I got to watch it change slowly until the full darkness of night was all around. There's something wonderful about sunrises and sunsets, if only more people would stop and pay attention to them.

Hello!

Happy New Year (5 days late)!

I've been without a computer for a week, so this is the first time I've been able to get on this little blog of mine.

I hope that you had a wonderful New Years Eve and that your year is off to a productive and fun start like mine is!  This year is shaping up to be one of the best years ever.

I can't wait for a lot of things and I'll be sharing them on here as the months roll on by.

The biggest thing I'm excited for is to become...

In 9 short months!