Our wedding on the Wedding Unveiled blog!

Just recently Cheyenne told me that our wedding was featured on the Weddings Unveiled Blog. As an avid wedding blog reader, this was very exciting to me. It was also fun to read about the details from our wedding from someone else's perspective. Hop on over there and check it out!

Proof of Life

if one is smiling, the other looks crazy. always the case. always...

for an explanation of this series, click here

i give- entry into the ugliest sofa contest

ok, i give. there is an ugliest sofa contest on Pink and Polka Dot and i think i have been avoiding entering. you know when you are going through your clothes and there is that ONE sweater that you wore forever? it was so stylish in it's day, but now it is just faded with lit balls all over it and completely out of style? but you just can't bring yourself to get rid of it? that's how i feel about this sofa. except i never knew it when it was actually in style. but i can assure you it WAS. and i still have an attachment to it.

for those of you who don't know, my husband and i live in what was formerly his grandparent's house. they took most of the things they wanted to their new home and left us with some of the basics too. for example, this couch. it was actually a huge blessing b/c if not for this little beauty we would be sitting on the very cushiony carpet (with hardwoods underneath;) and so i'm attached. AND, this couch is still very comfy.

we just had a yard sale this past weekend and thought we might see how much we could sell the little buddy for. uhh... that didn't go over so well.

seriously $50! come on people.....

So we decided to bring it right back into our newly painted living room:) so here i am- this is my submission into the ugliest couch contest. i feel bad for saying that, like the couch can see what i am typing or something.

you've been good to us little buddy.

forever young... or something like that.

Sometimes i am shocked when i am reminded of my age. someone might ask or a hear another has a birthday coming up and it leads me to think of my age... the shock is not because i think i am old although i did have issues with year 25 (i'm 27 now), but more because when i think of someone in their mid to late twenties, i think.... adult. Really? Adult? Me? i literally still feel like i am in high school and as it turns out i don't think this will change very much. i say this because as i have talked to others, some older than i and some younger, they all say the same thing. they still feel very young. no matter how old they are. the most amazing realization to me right now is the fact that i am old enough to have children. NO, i'm not pregnant! just saying... it is crazy to think that i am not too young for it. in fact, my best friend who is my very same age, and i am talkin' born on the exact same day, has 2 little ones and is quite the super mom. this is all a bit strange to me.

that leads me to the reason for this post. birthday parties. because we are adult and all, we happen to be going to more and more kid's birthday parties. and we are not the ones getting treat bags! :( just recently, matt and i went to Nick's 5 year old birthday party and it was a blast. i was asked to take a few shots to document the party so here are a few for your viewing pleasure.

the police car was fun:) the siren? not so much.

big kids

Happy birthday to one of the cutest 5 year olds i know!

overwhelmed... but please come to our yard sale!

The YARD SALE is THIS Saturday, May 22nd!

We will be out there putting things out at 6am and officially opening by 7, but you can come earlier if you like:) For the past couple of weeks, it seems all we have done is work on getting prepared for this sale! I am so tired and overwhelmed but will be so happy when all that crap (yep, i said it) is out of my house! pheeww...

I know i promised i would post pictures of what we would be selling.... i'm gonna be honest, it's not going to happen. Sorry:( i should have take some pictures before we started piling everything into our dining room. The pile is getting close to the ceiling and definitely busting out into our kitchen and hall by now.

So PLEASE COME and make all this hard work worth if for us and the Moores! I promise you will find some treasures:)

If you would like to know our address, just leave a comment and will get in touch with you. I don't think i will post it for all to see. yikes!

Wedding Recap- The Bachelorette Party!

I have been meaning to write a wedding day recap for some of my closest friends that are overseas. Emails have been promised and not delivered- yet. But instead of writing a blanket email, i thought i would just share a recap on the blog since i know those girls read it. (you know who you are;) And i thought it might be fun for all of you to know just what went on leading to the wedding day and on the day-of, most assuredly the funniest (i know this is not a word), most exciting and most overwhelming day of my life...

The Night Before the Wedding: Bachelorette Party...
i had this dream or idea of having a girls night out almost like you see in the movies. but without the stripper bar and jello shots. really i just wanted to go dancing with my girls. for us to just circle around one another and have a good time! we ended up at a local bar/club downtown but when we got there we noticed that a band was approaching the stage.... and they did not look like they would be singing the Usher/Chris Brown style dance music we were looking for, since they were all dressed in black with spikes coming from... well, places.

Thankfully one of the bouncers noticed that Heather was from Wake Forest and pointed out that it was his hometown. So she went to him with her sweet self and explained our situation as well as our expectations for this cheesy bachelorette party. (yes, we wanted to be "those girls"). So he was nice enough to take us to a club on the next level and got us in for FREE. It's great to know people. Well, we didn't really know him but you know what i mean.

So here we are in a swanky club.. I mean SWANKY. You had to pay $300 just to sit in the nice cushioned area off to the side... We were happy to stay on the dance floor. Even when we weren't dancing. I also think it is important to point out that we were the only ones on the dance floor since it was only about 10:30pm. It's ok, it only added to our "those girls" status. We talked and danced and had a fun... I finally got the courage enough to go and actually request a song. I thought it wouldn't be a problem since we were the only ones dancing anyway. So of course i requested "YEAH" by Usher. This song was the defining pop song of our college years in the mid-2000's and i knew it would get even Sarah and Leah dancing. It did. We had so much fun and just laughed and laughed! From then on, the DJ played song after song that was popular during those years. As Amber pointed out, they were definitely just humoring us until the real clubbers got there. We were officially "those girls" and i loved it.

The guys (Matt and entourage) were just across the way going night-bowling and so we all arrived together and were planning to leave together. Had to have our boys close by! So i guess when they saw we were not in the first place they asked around and found out that the "crazy" bachelorette party was upstairs. Before we knew it, they all showed up on the dance floor! They stay around and danced with us for about 5 or 10 min and it was such a good end to the night! I know you are not suppose to dance with your fiancée the night before the wedding and at your bachelorette party at that, but it was the BEST memory i could have had:)

honeymoon! turks and caicos islands

I have been putting off this blog post b/c i have had the hardest time picking what pics to share from our honeymoon. Not because there is an abundance of great ones though. Mostly because most of the pics consist of matt and i holding out the camera and taking pictures of ourselves in front of..... the ocean, the pool, our room, a resturant, etc, etc, etc... Doesn't get more exciting than that;) But after many requests- here is the honeymoon post. Part I of it. Part 2 will be the story of Captain Bill's Outback Adventure- a crazy fun boat tour we took that deserves it's own post. We had an AMAZING time together:) So as i have done before, i will share some of our adventures through the pics. Hope you enjoy!

Here is the view from our balcony:) We got upgraded to an oceanfront room when we arrived and it was awesome! We only had it for the first 3 days b/c it was not available for the entire week but we were hoping it would become available as we week went on. It didn't. I'll share more about that later;)

the beach! the water was SO blue and it was amazing! We also got to take a miniature sail boat out on our own after a quick lesson from one of the guys at our resort. It seemed pretty simple until we got out there on our own! There was one point where we could not get the boat turned around for the life of us... this was a very stressful situation which led to our first almost argument as a married couple. But matt got in the water turned the boat around, and saved the day as usual. :)

me eating one of our homemade turkey&cheese sandwiches on the beach. we were trying to keep our lunches cheap since the restaurants for dinner were so wonderfully fancy but very expensive.

On our way out one night. love this shot:)

the pool! we got in a habit of getting up and going to the beach through lunchtime and then heading to the pool in the afternoon. then we would go back to our room for a nap! We also tried to do some sort of activity every day- we biked, snorkeled, did the crazy sail boat thing, got massages... and of course Captian Bill's Outback Adventure!

a couple of shots from one of those fancy restaurants:) We would usually split a meal b/c just one entree was around $50. I know! but it was enough for both of us and sooo yummy!!

We went to this cool ice cream shop after dinner one night and they had all kinds of fun stuff to play with!

Halfway through out trip, we had to move to a "beach view" room b/c the beach fronts were all booked up. Just a piece of advice- if you are going to get an upgrade, get it on the back end of your trip... It is no fun to be downgraded!

On our one week anniversary, which was also our last night we went out on the beach and watched the sunset.

Then, we went to a really nice resturant that we had heard wonderful things about. It was right on the beach and only lit with candles. The menus lit up when you opened them and it was so cool. I just knew there was a famous person at this place! We just couldn't see them b/c of the darkness.

Like i said, we went to some fancy places. Mainly because those were the only kind of restaurants avalaible but i didn't mind it! At almost every restaurant we ate at we would get some sort of " compliments of the chef" appetizer. Our last night we got cauliflower soup and a chip. The soup was great but a chip!? One chip? We found that hilarious! The pic on the left is what i ordered. Presentation was always so important!

Our honeymoon was such an amazing time! the best part? Just being together of course:) Stay tuned for part II!

transition in style

For Matt and I, this past weekend was spent painting... I woke up Saturday morning and immediately put on the paint clothes... we took a brief break for a birthday party (will post that soon) and then it was right back to painting when we got back home. Thanks to my mama for helping out! And so because of the painting and the constant moving of furniture from one place to another, our house constantly feels like a disaster. Every time i mention this to Matt he kindly reminds me that we are in transition and our house won't look like this forever. thankfully. I just keep thinking about all the newlywed stories we have been told about living conditions and working with what you have. I guess it is sorta nice to join the ranks:)

This is one of my favorite examples of working with what you have.

This book shelf was built by my friend Amber's husband the week they got married. It was my favorite piece of "furniture" in their little florida bungalow. They had to eventually retire the piece b/c of it's lack of stability, but it still inspires me to transition in style. Love it:)

Proof of Life

Watching Tom and Jerry

for a explanation of this series, click here.

more music nostalgia

Since i last posted about my South Lebanon nostalgia, i have continued to think about how music brings about feelings in me like no other. Some people are taken back though smell or taste or pictures... music is what gets me.

When I was living in Lebanon, towards the end of my time there matt and i started communicating more regularly. And i felt as if things were starting to become more. I kept getting on to Matt about not sending me any packages (packages are everything when you live overseas) and so he eventually decided to take the hint and send me a little something. The main gift was a burned cd. I was a little nervous when i got the cd b/c i am pretty picky about my music and so and i didn't want to cd to interrupt things between matt and i before they got started. It so didn't, only added to what i knew was stirring:) The cd was wonderful and there was one song on it that i absolutely loved. "When you com back down" by Nickel Creek. And so to this day, that song reminds me of how mine and Matt's relationship began. When i listen to it, it takes me right back to wondering how things would go, the questions and the butterflies....

Anyone else out there like me when it comes to music?? What songs take you back?

mantle aspirations...

Did you see these detail shots on The Schultzes Blog from our wedding??

If you haven't already noticed, the top left shot with all the buttons actually has our wedding rings in it too. i love it! and so... if we ever get out living room in order i would love to get that wrapped on a canvas to hang above our mantle. artsy yet personal.

thoughts?

Life in South Lebanon and Alli Rogers

Yesterday, i went through a period of major nostalgia. Let me set the scene... i was just up from a sunday afternoon nap. i had told myself all week that i would use sunday afternoon to clean the bathroom and so as i sat on the couch deciding what to do, as much as i tried to ignore it, the bathroom was calling out....

SO. i thought. i will check my blog quickly and see if anyone has commented on the wedding pics post. this was mainly an effort to avoid the bathroom, but it turned out that there was in fact a comment, and so i proceeded to read. check out this post to read it.... i loved the comment b/c it was from my friend kendra and it was as if i could hear her talking to me and getting excited about wedding pics. kendra is SUCH a special friend and i wish all the time that we could see more of each other. when i was living in South Lebanon- small town life for sure- kendra was my best friend. i did so much with her and her hubbie and her friendship was just so enjoyable. and accountable.

back to the bathroom... i had to do it. i began to scroll through my itunes for the perfect bathroom cleanin' music. for some reason i was reminded of Alli Rogers and began to play her cd. Immediately all the memories came flooding back... See, this was the cd i listened to endlessly while living in South Lebanon. And so as i was spraying and scrubbing, it was seriously hard to hold back the tears. The quiet life, arabic, the time with kendra, the home visits, even the struggle living alone.... i felt it all. Music does that to you.

there is one song on the album called Tanzania. i love it. and relate so much right now.

here are the lyrics:

It’s eight hours later in Tanzania.
When Jen lays down
Mary’s just opening her eyes.
Her child’s feet land on the ground
and dirt scatters,
And she feels left out in the open,
always left out in the open.
She says, “son, wear my shoes to school today”.
He turns and smiles and walks away,
and she thinks to herself…

Someday I will wake
where the earth is clean and safe.
My children have a place to play,
not here in Tanzania.
And someday I will live
in a house that’s built by
hands that hold the world.

It’s eight hours earlier in Chattanooga.
Mary sits down and Jen’s just put the coffee on.
Katie Couric is talking news and fashion,
and Jen feels pushed into a corner,
always pushed into a corner, she says
“Baby I know what girls at school are like”.
And her daughter rides off on her bike,
and Jen thinks to herself…

Someday I will wake
where my children get a break,
And there are chances that they’ll take,
not here in Chattanooga.
Someday I will live
in a house that’s built by
hands that hold the world.

Well it’s hard to be mother,
and it’s hard to be a woman,
and it’s hard to live in Africa sometimes.
It’s hard to be mother,
and it’s hard to be a woman,
and it’s hard to live in America sometimes.

But someday I will wake
in a body that won’t break,
On ground that doesn’t shake, not here.
And someday I will live
in a house that’s built by
hands that hold the world.

Tanzania... South Lebanon.... America.... it's just nice to know that someday we'll live in a house that's built by hands that hold the world.