Shower Weekend Day 2

Saturday was our work day as we spent most of the day working on wedding projects and crafts. When I say "we" worked, I mean my mom and bridesmaids worked while I talked to them, played with Beckham and avoided work in general.

All of the bridesmaids but Julie (who had a baby 1.5 weeks before) got fitted for their b-maid dresses and they looked great! The lady who made them is incredible. We sent her a picture we printed off from David's Bridal's website and she made dresses that are exact replicas...without a pattern...and for 60% less! She's amazing! We'll get Julie fitted a little closer to time for the wedding, but since this lady made 4 dresses in a week, we're not worried at all.

Speaking of Julie and her baby, Grayden, I got to see both of them on Saturday! It was SO wonderful to meet the little guy and get to hold him. I do mean LITTLE...he was only 6 lbs and was precious!

Especially after holding Beckham earlier that day (17 lbs!), Grayden felt light as a feather! I loved getting to see Julie and her brand new baby, brand new house and brand new car. Lots of excitement! What really took me by surprise was the fact that as I went to hug her goodbye, I lost it. I started crying and couldn't get it together.

It just hit me all of a sudden that I live so far away and I won't get to see her baby grow up and just felt sad to be across the country from her! This emotion continued to sneak up on me all night...including during my recipe shower that night. I was also very tired and getting sick by this point, so I think I was just completely wiped out.

My throat was KILLING me during that recipe shower and I knew I was getting the flu. Ugh! Really?? The timing was terrible...but I pressed on! The cool thing about the recipe shower is that people give you a recipe, an ingredient for that recipe, a kitchen utensil and a piece of advice for marriage and for cooking. Unfortunately, you're supposed to read the name of the recipe and the two pieces of advice out loud to everyone at the shower.

It hurt bad enough for me to just talk, but everyone was talking so loudly I was having to shout and my throat hurt so bad I wanted to die. I have never been in that much pain from my throat, but I put on a fake smile and tried to make the best of it. It really was fun to get all those gifts and see friends and family, but my body aches kicked in about this time and I was so emotional, I knew I needed to get to bed soon.

My wonderful b-maids packed all my gifts for me, thankfully. We left the shower to go clean up the room at church we worked in all day. I also got to open our gift cards from our Amarillo gift card shower that was held a few weeks before. We were INCREDIBLY blessed from that shower and got a ton of gift cards! The best part was that they travel easy and we get to pick what we want: win-win!

This is a good time to mention that we have 5 wedding showers, plus a lingerie shower for me! It's overwhelming how many people are loving on us and giving us awesome gifts. Getting married is SO fun! :)

Friday Five

I decided to jump on the bandwagon and do a Friday Five post this week. No promises that I'll ever remember to do it again, but here it is for this most exciting of Fridays!!

1. I got today off work! Sadly, I don't get paid because it's a mandatory furlough day, but I'll still take a day off happily. It's a move by the State of Oregon to hopefully save money by closing offices for a day and sending workers home without pay...and I hear there are more of them coming next year. Oh well--more days off!

2. I'm heading home to NM this weekend for a girls wedding weekend extravaganza!! I'm SO excited :) I'll get to see all of my bridesmaids (and meet two of their babies!), my mom/aunts/cousins/grandmas, and Kory's mom/sis-in-law/grandma and I know it will be so fun. We'll also do wedding craft projects, have 2 bridal showers, get fitted for my dress and b-maid dresses, do a hair and make-up trial, check out the venue and make many plans for the wedding that is only 2.5 months away.

3. The weather in Artesia this weekend is supposed to be in the 80s and I am beyond thrilled about that! It hasn't been above 50-55 in 6 months here (ok...maybe that's not exactly true, I'm no meteorologist) and I am LONGING for some sunshine. I plan to soak up some sun this weekend and enjoy wearing Spring clothes.

4. I have to drive 3 hours to get to a major airport here in Oregon and I have to drive 3 hours to get to my parents house from any major airport I fly into and that makes for a LONG trip. The flights alone are usually 7-8 hours with a lay-over and then 6 hours of driving just makes me feel like I should be arriving in another country after all that travel.

5. Babies!! I am SOOO excited to meet Beckham Crawford & Grayden Washichek this weekend! One of my main goals for this weekend is to hold those babies a LOT and get lots of good cuddle time with them. I promise to return next week with great pictures of me holding them, as well as all the other fun events of the weekend!

Picture Update

All pictures in this post are stolen/borrowed. My poor camera has not seen any action in quite some time now. I will attempt to remedy that as soon as I find something in my life that I deem picture-worthy.



I CANNOT wait to get my hands on this happy little guy next month!!





I am obsessed with these granola bars. I have at least 1-2 of them every day at work.



I love this show, but the drama this season is really wearing me thin.

 

Since getting engaged, I have received an e-mail from this website almost every day...weird.



Kory and I are reading this book together as a part of pre-marital counseling. Really good so far!

Random Thoughts

I got sunburned a couple weeks ago and my skin is just now peeling. The skin on my arms is coming off in pretty big chunks and while I know it sounds disgusting, it is actually quite cool!

When I was younger, I remember thinking that an office job had to be really easy and I didn't understand how people could be so tired after working in an office all day. For my job at least, I can say that it is mentally and emotionally draining. It's not physical labor or active work, but I still find myself worn out by the end of the day. While I really love my job, I know I wasn't made to spend my life in an office. Anytime I'm away from work (weekends, vacation, etc.) and I find myself outside during the daylight hours, I am so happy to see sunlight and to know what life is like outside these 4 walls. My dream job would be to NOT work. I'm so ready for retirement already!

I always had a hard time remembering which ocean was the Pacific and which was the Atlantic, but now that I live in the Pacific NW, I can finally keep it straight.

Almost every sentence I type ends with an exclamation mark. I just read back through this post and deleted multiple !'s where they weren't really appropriate. I am trying to use them sparingly so they will really show excitement when they are used. I don't think I'm the only person who overuses them, however...my time on social networks proves that most girls use the ! WAY more than necessary.

Although I haven't completely given up on Dr. Pepper, I am definitely drinking less these days. Amazingly, I've found that if I don't buy any, I don't drink any. If all I have to drink is tap water, then I will drink tap water and be satisfied with that for the most part. As with the exclamation points, if I drink them less, I find I enjoy them more when I do have one.

I now have one close friend with a baby and two more friends who are pregnant, so I think it's safe to say I'm in the life stage where all my friends will be having children. That is craziness to me...we surely aren't old enough for that!

Kory will take 18 teens to church camp this next week, so I'll be getting in lots of time with Veronica Mars while they're all gone. Onto Season 2! Rachel will arrive the following week and then my parents after that, so I have a lot to look forward to. I can't wait to show them this beautiful place I get to call home!