Moving....again...

Alright boys and girls have I got a surprise for you. We are moving, again.

"What? Why? Didn't you just move??" Yes we did, and we aren't just apartment snobs who can't say in one place... WE FOUND OUR HOUSE!!!

I know I said previously that we were planning on building and we were. We found the perfect little Centex home and we started picking everything out. We picked our lot, we picked our brick color, shutters, carpet, cabinets, everything. We were at the last stage of the Centex home buying experience: putting all this together and telling us when we could move in. And that's where it all came tumbling down. As everyone knows one of the biggest motivators right now to buy a house is the $8000 tax credit you receive when you are a first time homebuyer and you close on your house before December 1st, 2009. I talked about it on my last house post here. As we were talking with our agent he started using words like "should" and "could" and "might possibly" when referencing whether or not our home would be completed before December 1st. While, he said, there was a great possibility it would be done, he just couldn't guarantee it. Woah Nelly. Hold on right there partner!

We talked at length about our options such as closing in escrow, moving us ahead of non-first time homebuyers, and he refused to budge on any of it. It looked as if we could take the chance to get it built in time or walk. We walked. And it was the best thing we ever did.

We spent the rest of that night looking at a little website called http://www.musiccityhomesearch.com/, which by the way is GREAT for finding a home in the Nashville area. We wrote down the addresses of about 4 homes that we liked the look of and set out the next day to see them all. It was like Goldilocks, some were too small, some were too old, and some were too far out, and one was just right. We scheduled a tour and put the contract in the very next day. The sellers accepted our FIRST offer and we were officially first time homebuyers! So this post has gone long enough without some pictures!

This is the front of our house (duh lol)

The kitchen and that beautiful hardwood (!!!)

The foyer has a high ceiling that lets in a ton of light!

Living Room with fireplace

Master bedroom on second floor with trey ceiling :)

It is more than perfect. It's a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath house with hardwood on the first floor. It has a precious mudroom coming from the garage and an office off the foyer! I've even already planned where we will put our Christmas Tree!! I will have tons of pics once we move in and get everything all settled! We close July 13th and we are sooo excited! You think it's a bad idea that this is the day after M's Bachelor Party and my "Destination Unknown" Bachelorette Party? We shall see!

I feel like poo :(

Poor little me is as sick as could be. My little throat has been kinda sore for the past couple of days and last night I woke up in the middle of the night like someone was stabbing me in the throat. I can't breathe, I can't talk, I can't swallow without massive pain. It's no fun at all. Especially seeing that my job involves nothing but talking. I called first thing this morning to get an appointment and the best thing they had was 10:30am. Boooooo. So I've been sitting in misery since I woke up at like 6:00.

What's no fun is that I have plenty to do. It would have been glorious if I could have used this day to run errands, schedule our Engagement pics (which HAVE to be done before this week is over with), and start to pack up this apartment again. <---There will be more on that later. Bentley needs to go to the vet for his annual checkup, M's car needs new tags, seriously the list could go on and on.

But I'm stuck, in this bed, feeling like utter poo not able to do any of it. Excuse my pity party for a few minutes...we will be back to regular blogging in no time :)

My Something Blue

Q: So what was better than my man coming home from Las Vegas in one piece?

A: My man coming home from Las Vegas in one piece...with a present!!

I have to admit that M and I don't have many secrets, I'm honestly having a hard time thinking of one...except for the occasional shopping trip I go on without his knowledge! And I eventually cave on those too! He tells me when girls hit on him, he tells me when he goes number 2 (gross I know) and he can't ever seem to hide a gift from me. But I really thought he wouldn't spill the beans on this one...

I have been hinting very lightly since we got engaged that I wanted my gift from him to be my Something Blue and I wanted it to be in a ring form...and made by the wonderful David Yurman. That's not asking too much is it (haha)?! I pointed to it in magazines, I talked about it everytime we passed a jewelry store, and even sent him a picture of it so he would see exactly how pretty it was! I had a feeling he might have picked up on the hint, but he then started asking me about how I felt about pearls and my dream was crushed. I got over it and started looking for my own Something Blue with no luck.

Fast-forward to the present: Last night I went to pick M up at the airport. He had been gone for 4 whole days and it was the longest we had been apart, ever. It's safe to say I was missing him hard core! We spent about an hour looking through the pictures that he took with his camera and phone and laughed at some of the silly happenings of his friends and the Groom to be, that's a post all in itself I'm sure! After we had gone through all the photos, M let me know that he got me a small present. As I closed my eyes I pictured Vegas t-shirts, statuettes of the Eiffel Tower casino, and all the cheesy presents you get when your loved one travels.

I opened them and saw this lovely thing staring back at me in a pretty lil Saks box:

I gasped, I squealed, I was surprised! He just couldn't hold it in! My eyes got as big as saucers and I immediately put it on! I have a bad habit of wanting to wear my wedding band around so he knew this would be no different! Apparently he walked all the way down to Saks on his last day there and even inspired one of the guys on the trip to propose to his current gf! But he has tucked it away in a hiding spot I know nothing about and it will come back to me in 2 months exactly, on our wedding day as a combination of my Something Blue and his gift to me!

I think I was more excited about this than ANY of my shower presents and it might rank right up there with how much I love my dress! Did any of you receive a present that was supposed to be a secret? Also what are you guys wanting for your Something Blue?

Blog Fun!

So one of the most fun things about blogging is getting tagged to do all the cool surveys and getting bloggy awards! And while I was MIA I had a few...so I will do them now!!


On My Way to Being a Healthy Bride! has tagged me to share my "5 Things I Love About Summer". I love summer and love her blog! I'm always inspired by people who want to eat better and are committed to doing what it takes! So here goes:

1. Vacations! Usually we head to the beach every year but this year we get to go somewhere other than the FL coast... we get to go to Hawaii!! Who wouldn't be excited about that??

2. Traffic... weird to say, I know, but traffic here in Nashville is always lighter when school is out and it means that I can sleep later and get to work at the same time...SWEET!




3. Warm Weather!! I despise the cold! 70 degrees is chilly to me and I love it when you walk outside and there is a warm breeze blowing. Cute clothes come out and there is no need for bulky, nasty sweaters...Hallelujah!





4. Daylight stays longer! It's purely psychological but if feels like I have more of a life when the sun goes down later. I can just do so many more activities!! :)


5. Wearing Flip-flops... Like I said earlier, I hate the cold, I hate being cold. So you think my feetsies like to be chilly in the winter...oh no! But they get tired of being cooped up in shoes all the time so when summer hits, I bring out the flip flops! I'm one of those ppl who has the same thing in many colors and these are no exception, but Rainbows happen to be my flippy floppy of choice! Yay summer!!

I actually went to the Rainbow Factory in San Clemente to get mine!

Army Brat Bride was so kind enough to give me the One Lovely Blog Award which I am pumped to receive! She has the cutest ideas and I love her style. My favorite was her recent "Dear John" letter...check it out! It's not what you think!

So now I have to tag 6 people who I think have Lovely Blogs! If you've already received it forgive me, I just couldnt search through everybody's awards!!

1. The Answer is You

2. New Beginnings

3. On My Way to Being a Heathly Bride!

4. Sarah Elizabeth

5. Think Happy Thoughts

6. august15bride

It's gonna be a long weekend ladies! M and some friends are in Las Vegas until Sunday for Mr. H's Bachelor Party from Think Happy Thoughts. They are already having a great time but it's strange not having him around! Even Bentley doesn't quite know what to do!! Hopefully M will take some pictures that I can share with you guys when they get back! Ta Ta!

Love me some Trader Joe's!

Trader Joe's has to be my favorite place on the planet! I first discovered it in California while visiting my aunt and fell in love with a local wine there called Charles Shaw also called "Two Buck Chuck". I thought my dreams of having good ole Chuck make an appearance at my wedding was too far-fetched, how would I get my friend from California to Tennessee? Luckily Trader Joe's has since branched out and has made it's way to the South...could Chuck now make an appearance???

Absolutely and I was willing to break the law for it (I think)! This weekend while attending our dear friends shower in ATL we stopped by Trader Joe's and hoped for the best. We saw exactly what we wanted and ended up buying 9 cases of wine: 4 of White Zinfindel, 3 of Merlot and, 2 of Chardonnay. The cashiers question puzzled me but I answered it without thinking. He said "Now you won't be carrying this over the state line will you?" and I quickly said "Oh...no, we have a wedding tonight". WHAT A COMPLETE LIE! I have no idea why I couldn't take it over the state line but just the way he asked the question, I knew I had to say no! So we carried 9 cases from GA to TN and I still don't know if that was bad or not. We even bought a few extra so we will be enjoying Chuck for quite some time!

So while I may or may not have broken the law, we now have all the wine for our wedding! Have any of you had "Two Buck Chuck" and plan to serve it at your wedding?

2 Months to Go!

Alright guys it's time to get my butt in gear! I recently spent the second half of my weekend with some great friends who are also getting married (see Think Happy Thoughts) in ATL and realized something. I have let living with M ruin my eating habits! I had to be near forced into a bathing suit and now I super regret it. I think the pictures taken finally made me realize I HAVE to start eating better and get back in my workout routine. But since it's Back to School season at Dell I'm pretty busy and my days keep getting shorter and shorter.

Enter: The 30 Day Shred!

Yes I caved in and bought it. And I want to thank the blogland for introducing me to it! I did my first workout last night and it KICKED MY BUTT! M laughed at me for quite a while but I didn't care. It felt good being active again and I would recommend it to anyone. She's a toughie but I can already feel the burn! My legs, chest and abs hurt already today, which is great! Jillian and I are gonna be great friends...I can already tell. Let's see how much I can "shred" before my Bachelorette Party in less than 30 days!! Woo freaking hoo! Anybody have any luck shredding out there?

I'm still alive!!

Wow, so I'm sure most of you think that I up and abandoned this pretty little blog! Luckily I did not... and I'm back with lots of stuff to say! Lets start with the fact that I have 67 DAYS until we get hitched!! And is it bad to say we still don't have musicians to play at our ceremony?? Ehh little things, little things...haha!

But we do have one big thing scratched off that To Do List, the invitations!

Here they are all done and ready to be sent to family and friends! We had a nice little assembly line going on. M took the RSVP envelopes, attached the stamp and put the return address label on them. My job was to stuff those pretty little envelopes and write all our loved ones names on them... and then they were handed back to M where he sealed those bad boys. I can't believe he licked 116 envelopes! What a trooper!

I guess because I didn't really do these DIY, I feel they didn't take as much time as I thought they would! I split them up and said we would do 25 per night and they were done in less than a week! Definitely a good idea so you don't overwhelm yourself. I wouldn't have done it any other way... and having M to help was wonderful! Now for the daunting task:

Thank you notes! We had our first shower this weekend and we racked up! I did my best not to stalk my registry but I couldn't help myself! But there were still some surprises in store for us at our beach themed "Poolside Dinner"! We got both of our bathroom sets (YAY!), lots of towels, a set of knives, and one of our GORGEOUS platters! I'm super pumped!! M even got some gift cards to Home Depot. All much needed stuff and I can't help but thank all the ladies who helped put the shower together. I didn't take any pictures of the set up but I do have some pictures of us opening presents and the invitation!

How cute are these? One of the hostesses made this herself! How sweet!

I think maybe you can tell I was excited about our toothbrush holder! Well that's all for today folks! I promise the next post won't take so long to get up!! Thanks for still reading :)