I'm in love

With a Bride's Book

        If loving this is wrong, I don't want to be right.

After almost 6 weeks of waiting, my Brides Book finally came in yesterday!!! It was the one thing I desperately wanted to have--it has pages for all my shower and wedding guests, as well as keepsake pages for the invites, info about our relationship, etc. It's handstitched and gorgeous. Like I said, I'm in complete love, thanks to the folks at Weddings, Etc in Homewood!

Also in the news.......

Me and Keith's newest obsession:

A little hinderance to the ol' diet, at times.

Which makes me feel:

Happy Friday :)

Spring Break ?

pring Break has come and gone, folks- but that's okay by me. I enjoyed my time in Oz with the family, getting lots of wedding related issues handled, and taking our engagement pics with Mrs. Darley (i'll post some when I have them!) in Downtown Dothan. It was a really fast week, but isn't that how it always goes.

So pretty- downtown Dothan near where K and I had our engagement pics taken.

Lorilyn was home for most of the break, too. On Tuesday we met up with Grammy to help her shop for a grandmother of the bride dress....

The sweet lady with my gorgeous grandmother is the owner of  a "ladies shop", Leon's Ladies Fashions, in  downtown Enterprise. She and my mom were best friends in college at Montevallo, and Mrs. Linda helps Grammy pick the best outfits for every occasion. (Just fyi, Grammy is not sporting anything from Leon's in this picture....they actually do match their clothing!) It is truly a personal shopping experience for Gram when she goes to Leon's....Linda had a dressing room waiting with outfits all picked out for her to try.  Lorilyn and I even found some cute things from jewelry and accessories to tops. It was a fun afternoon by the boll weevil :)

I am on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster with the wedding stuff.....ups, downs, laughs, tears- I experience them all, every day! God knew what He was doing matching me with Keith- he is so patient!! He came down Thursday night for our pics Friday...we had such a good time hanging out together in the Wiregrass. Ozark makes me very sleepy, but it's all good.

 On Sunday after church, we met up with my cousin, Eric. He is a freshman at Troy, so we met up at Sister's.....which is not very diet friendly, but I tried! HA! Here's a little group picture (maybe one day I will learn to sit up straight....) Mom, Keith, Me, Lorilyn and Eric (Dad behind camera)

Sorry about the blink, Dad. (Dad, Eric and Lo...with some ridiculous sunglasses.)

I have 8 more weeks left of work until I'm done for the year. It has been a super fast year....I don't really know why, but it has been a good one. Can't believe I will start my 5th year of teaching in the fall, and my 4th year at Briarwood. Wow. Grad school has been frustrating this semester...one professor who makes his class much harder than necessary and one professor who is so flighty I don't think she even knows any of our names. And there are only 10 of us. I am tired of giving my Monday and Tuesday nights to Montevallo :( It will be worth it when my paycheck increases, though!

For the first time since I was 18, I will be moving home at the end of May. Yes, home to Ozark. Thankfully for everyone involved, it will just be until June 12th!! All my "stuff" will already be at Keith's, so it'll basically be like i'm on an extended vacation....in Oz. HA!

My first shower is coming up next weekend- I'm ecstatic. I can't wait to see everyone and let people know how much I appreciate their love and support for Keith and I. It's finally becoming.....real!

y'all, seriously.

I am the quintessential example of a sad, sad, southerner who knows not what a real wintry snow is like. Every time the weatherman here gets the "S" word in his vocabulary, I get giddy. I follow the most accurate (in my opinion) forecasters tweets and blog, searching for a glimpse of hope during the winter months. This comes from 27 years of life lived with very little substantial snowfall. What people in Birmingham refer to as "The Blizzard of '93" was only the "ice storm" to those of us near the Florida panhandle. On my 6th birthday, as my Mom was pregnant with my baby sister and Christmas was 3 days away, enough snow fell to play with during the morning, but then melted by dinner. That's my previous experience with the stuff. Living in Birmingham the past 4 years, I have thankfully not ALWAYS been disappointed, as I was during my youth in South Alabama. It has at least dusted the ground once a winter since i've been in the area.

For the past 6 days I have been hearing, "maybe snow Tuesday.....". I checked my phone compulsively for the alert from my employer telling me to stay home safe in my bed from the moment school was released last night, so you can imagine my disdain when I peeked out of my blinds in the wee, small, teacher hours of the morning and saw only drizzly, cold rain.

Oh, the injustice of it all.

Now that my whining is over, let's see how the wedding checklist is coming along....

• I have a teacher-friend here at school who owns a stationary business and has agreed to print and design my wedding programs...it will be great to work on these with someone I can see everyday....she does awesome design and printing work- check Holly out at http://www.papercutsdesign.com/
• This alleviates my run around with Michael's craft store. I have purchased a "print yourself" set (try 5 sets of 40) of programs which then ended up being not big enough for all I want to include...and then I remembered I threw the reciept away. Word to the wise, when returning $150 worth of anything to Michael's without a reciept, they will gladly accept the return......and take 20% off of the total that you originally spent with them. Sad day.
• I am very blessed and proud to have several bridal showers scheduled...in fact, each weekend of April is booked and even a couple in May...Now, the real question is what in the world am I going to wear? I am on the lookout for sale stuff as we speak.
• I have thrououghly enjoyed buying flower girl and ring bearer gifts. I got dumb stuff like a locket when I was a flower girl, so I'm trying to think of the children. Really, I am.
• I'm wondering about a little spray tannage for the wedding. Please note the picture below:

I am the ghost/ghoblin hovering in the background. No, I am not a vampire, I do not shimmer in the sunlight but would perhaps use this picture as motivation look a bit more lifelike at my own wedding. Sorry Lily. Also, I plan to wear heels that I actually keep on my feet. Long story. Tall Heels. Oh, look- students. Time to cut this short....