Belated Thanks Giving.

There are some days when I just can’t get over how lucky I am in life. I guess the Thanksgiving holiday brought it up in my mind recently… and today after Hubby and I had a little “tiff” over money (it was really quite stupid, which is normally the case with us–haha) I felt the need to reiterate my gratitude to him. We may not have a lot of extra money (none, at times!), but we will always have each other. Which is incredibly corny to say, but it really is the truth. So many people don’t have a loving, supportive, honest, trustworthy, fun, motivated, thoughtful person in their life. On top of their money problems they also have a bad relationship, or health problems, or major familial issues.

A few things in my life are not what I imagined they would be (still working on them!), but I can honestly say that the man I married is far better than anything I ever thought he would be. When I was younger I had that idealistic idea of a “husband” in my mind… but I didn’t really know what I wanted or needed. I met and dated some great guys along the way, who taught me what I personally needed in a significant other. And I found it! Not everybody can say that, you know?

Just… we obviously have our days where it’s tough… where we might be thinking, “God, this sucks!”… but we always know that we’ll work it out, and always be together. Luckily, we both grew up with great examples of what marriage should be… a partnership, and not something to be frivolously thrown out because of some hard times or imperfections.

Ramble much? HaHa. I was just feeling the thankful/lovey vibe, I guess.

Kittens & Babies & Things

Kitten is watching The Princess Diaries with me right now. -giggle- She was laying on the couch in her usual spot, facing the back of the couch, but when I just turned to look at her she had rolled over and was watching the television. She’s “dorbs” as my bestie always says. I basically love her. Isn’t it funny how attached we get to our pets? We’ve only had Lillie for a couple of months, but I’m hooked for life. She’ll be my baby for awhile. Until Hubby & I decide to try for some little ones. Who else has little substitute children?!

Speaking of Hubby… we are still in the Great Debate of where to move next year. (Provided we can save up some cash to move at all!) It’s pretty much between Raleigh, NC and San Diego, CA… and it’s funny because we both have our favorites (I’m all for NC while he is all about CA), but we both also want to make the other happy so we’re kind of in this ridiculous dead-lock. I want to get what I want, but I don’t want him to be miserable. And vice versa for him. Isn’t it silly? I guess it’s good because that means we have each other’s best interests at heart, and we clearly care about what the other person wants to do. Isn’t that the point of being Hubby & Wifey? -giggle-

To change the subject, our best friends’ little one has his first birthday this Thursday! His party is Friday and I am very excited. It has been so awesome to see him growing up. Today I happened across a picture of said bestie and myself during the summer she was pregnant. We were laying out in our bathing suits and I took a silly picture of myself with basically just her torso in the background. It was so strange to realize that Little One was in her body at that time–the little bump was there from him growing and everything–it’s crazy that he’s going to be a year old! It makes me feel ridiculously old that some day he will be an adult… and hopefully he’ll know me and have grown up with me being part of his life… but he might not! I might just be one of those weird older people who tells him, “The last time I saw you you were just a baby!” I hope not. Either way, I’m very grateful to have been there for this part of his life, both for him and for his parents who are obviously special people in our lives! It has been very fun.

Mr. & Mrs. !

I’m married! I’m a wife!

That sounds so weird. I told Kevin that I think it will really hit me when a stranger asks me about my boyfriend or something, and I have to say, “Oh no, that’s my husband.” Or when a dude at a bar hits on me, and I’ll say, “That’s very flattering, but I’m married. See that guy over there? That’s my husband.” HaHa! So fun! I love it.

Well I wanted to write down some details about the big day so I don’t forget anything I want to remember.

First of all, I wasn’t nervous at all until all of my girls left our getting-ready area, and I was just standing there waiting to get the “okay come on over” call. That’s when I got a few little butterflies in my belly. Nothing major, though. Then Dad was sent over to get me, and when we were walking over to the ceremony site I expressed to him how hot it was, and he said, “Yeah I know. My nuts are stickin’ to my leg.” And I laughed. I called it, I knew he was going to say something like that to make me laugh.

When I walked down the path to the ceremony site I will admit that I got a little choked up seeing everyone, and seeing Kevin standing up there. But I kind of had to look down a little to make sure I didn’t trip on the grass, so it was okay. That made the tears keep back.

Kevin’s vows were light years better than mine, in my opinion. Plus, a little chipmunk decided to interrupt his by attacking our officiant (his oldest brother)! He scurried on over to us, and I noticed him between Christopher’s feet, then he jumped up onto his leg! I died laughing. Like, bent over with my hands to my face laughing.

I kept trying to not look right at Kevin when he was reading his vows, which he mentioned that he noticed. But I was trying to not make him cry! I knew if I was staring right into his eyes the whole time he would have been a blubbering mess. He did get choked up for a hot second, and there were tears. Which was obviously adorable.

We got our pictures at the gardens, and then moved on to the limo bus. We had a great time on the bus, obviously! All day I just kept thanking my lucky stars that we had such a great group with us. Our wedding party was phenomenal–we are incredibly lucky/blessed!

The reception was practically perfect for us. I did wish I had more time to really chit-chat with everyone, because I know there were quite a few people we didn’t get a chance to talk to. But it was beautiful (we had an amazing florist!), and from what I hear everyone had a fantastic time. The food was great, the music was awesome… we just had a ton of fun.

All of the planning I did, all of the stress Kevin had from money worries, it was all well worth it. Am I itching to ever do it again? Not a chance. But, it turned out to be a great day, and all of the hard work paid off. I got to marry the man of my dreams, the sun was shining (except a little bit before the reception I guess it rained where the banquet center is, and I hear a little rain on your wedding day is good luck! not that I think we need it.   HaHa.), we had no drama to deal with personally, and we all had fun. Success!

Living in Life’s Present Moments

I don’t know if everyone is this way… but I am a person who has always been anxious for the next step in life. In middle school I couldn’t wait for high school and to have a boyfriend. In high school I couldn’t wait for college & to move out of my home town. In college I couldn’t wait to find my person & graduate. The entire time I’ve been dating Kevin I’ve been really anxious for marriage and to start a family. We were clearly not trying to start a family, and I knew that it wouldn’t have been the ideal time three years ago… but in the back of my mind I was always really anxious for babies. I was constantly wanting to fast forward my life to the point where we were settled, and ready to start a family.

Then he proposed, and I’ve obviously been quite busy planning the wedding (23 days left! Ah!), and my eagerness to start a family has almost completely gone away. I am not at all wishing I could fast forward my life or skip ahead to that point. I know it will come, and I’m not really concerned with it all that much. It’s so weird though, because I was basically obsessed with wanting babies! Obviously I still want to have them some day (don’t worry Mom & Karen!), and I don’t want to wait until I’m 30 or anything… I’m just not thinking about it anymore.

My conclusion is that my eagerness for that next step in life was replaced with the whole getting married & moving out bit. So I wonder if after we’ve been married for a few months that little ticking of the biological clock will start up again… hmm… I don’t think so. Especially since we plan on moving out of state next year (REALLY. Next year. Not TWO years. NEXT year.). I think the biological clock is on pause for quite awhile. Which feels kind of nice… to want to really enjoy what I’ve got going on presently in my life, and not be worried about what will happen next. I dig it!

I Can See the Finish Line

Wedding plans are moving along nicely still… getting to the finish line… already! Gah!

I honestly can’t believe that 3 months have gone by. I’ve been engaged for 3 months… crazy talk. Pure crazy talk. I mean, it’s only 3 months, but it seems to have gone by more quickly than a regular, unengaged 3 months would have gone by. HaHa. That’s what having a constant to-do list with at least seven items on it will do, I suppose.

We (potentially) have a place to live. Big “yay” on that one! Not that living with his parents is awful–quite the contrary. They’re great, and I love having his mom around to “girl talk” with all the time… oh yeah, and we’ve been paying for zilch! Kind of a super huge bonus. But, I’m ready to go back to paying stupid bills, and stupid rent, and having everything be mine… in my own space. You just always kind of feel like an intruder if you’re not paying the bills, you know?

So, place to live. Check. Wedding plans in order. Check. Life figured out. Well no not really, but where’s the fun in that? I think we’re too impulsive to ever have life figured out completely. It’s more like a general outline.

Love & Marriage

I feel like I’m pretty good at planning a wedding! HaHa. So far so good, anyway. We’ve got all of the big stuff other than… I guess just decorations! We know what we want to do, we just haven’t purchased everything we need yet. But that’s something we do still have time for.

It really is crazy to think about all of the time, effort, and cash that goes into planning a wedding. It’s one day! Granted, it’s a very important day… but it’s still just a day. I feel like quite often people worry more about having this big, fabulous wedding than making sure they’ll have a long, fabulous marriage. All of those shows on television where the flowers alone cost $100,000… or the bride has a $40,000 custom-made wedding gown… and then barely a year later they’re already divorced… what a waste.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m having TONS of fun planning the wedding… and I’m very very excited for the celebration and to just have fun with everyone… but I’m not so concerned with the party that I forgot what I’m really excited for… that I get to spend the rest of my life with a fantastic man (the best, in my book) who I love to pieces! In this day and age of frequent divorce you kind of don’t want to jinx yourself by saying that you’ll be together forever without a doubt… which is really sad, but it’s true. But I just can’t help but to feel like we’ve got the magic formula. I guess I’m a little bit biased, huh?

I feel like so often, people are spoiled… or told too often that they should be happy all the time… so when they come upon a bump in the road in the marriage… or they’re having one of those periods of less-than-enthusiam for their significant other they act impulsively thinking, “This is no fun!” Which granted, we all deserve to be happy… if you’re legit miserable all the time in your marriage & can’t stand the sight of your husband/wife, you should probably end the marriage… but it seems to me that people take the easy way out. They get to that point where you realize that the other person isn’t perfect, not at all, and they want perfection. So they end the relationship thinking they will find perfection in someone else… they meet someone new, get all excited, probably marry them impulsively too… and then realize that just like the last person, they aren’t perfect. And so often it seems that people just don’t want to put the effort forth. Or maybe just one person tries… jumping through hoops to fix the problem… but if only one person is doing it, it’s basically pointless.

I’m not saying I would never get a divorce… I’m definitely not opposed to divorce being an option. Both of my parents went through divorces, and they both had good reason to. Because if you try, and it’s just not working out… or if you’re in an abusive relationship… or if something changes the dynamic of the relationship and you just can’t get it back to being right… or if maybe you were a bit too young/immature & got married too early… you shouldn’t have to be stuck there for the rest of your life. I’m just saying that it seems that a lot of people take the easy way out… or they just don’t take love, marriage & that kind of a relationship very seriously.

I suppose I simply feel very lucky. Kevin and I both have our faults individually, and we certainly have our faults as a couple… but at the base of our relationship is intense love, respect & admiration and a willingness, determination even, to put the required time and effort into the relationship.

Goin’ to the chapel…

Sorry Facebook peeps… I know you already saw this when I posted it Sunday, but everything I post to my actual blog automatically posts to Facebook again. So just ignore!

Okay so I’m not actually going to the chapel for but…

I get to marry Kevi!!!! <3

Okay so this is how it went down… LoL.

I had the weekend off & we decided to go to home to see my family. We haven’t been there in a little while so it was no weird thing when he suggested it. Today (Sunday) we were on our way from my hometown to a nearby town to go get pizza with my family — Mom, Dad, & Jarred — and Jarred was in the car with us while Mom & Dad were in front. We stopped at a gas station so the boys could get something to drink. While I was in the car Mom called me to say that my best friend’s mom had called her to ask if we were still in the area. She said that Rhonda (bff’s mom) had said that their neighbor out at their lake cabin had called to say that a suspicious person was wandering around the cabin, and Rhonda wondered if we could stop by & check it out, make sure no doors were busted into or windows were broken.

So I tell Jarred & Kevin that we have a mission. They got all excited & were saying how they felt like spies or mercenaries or something… LoL. Then my bff calls me & says, “Your mom called me… is something up?” I figured out that she wasn’t with her parents so I assumed she didn’t know what was going on, so I told her & she thanked me for filling her in & we hung up. Tee hee.

We get to the cabin (remember, it’s a beauuuutiful sunny day) and Jarred goes around the house one way while Kevin & I go the other. I’m all serious, checking the door knobs, telling Kevin to check out the glass to make sure no windows are busted or messed with. I say we should go down by the lake to the boat house to check that. While we’re down there Kevin says, “You know, I was thinking… we’ve been through a lot… ” I say, “What, you mean like when we broke up?” “Yeah that… but not just that… driving 2 hours to see each other for those first 3 years & everything… but you know what sticks out the most?” We had moved up to the yard right next to the boathouse… I ask what stuck out the most… he says, “How we met.” I say, “Yeah, right here!” (On July 3rd, almost 5 years ago, my bff & I had been sitting in deck chairs at that spot in the yard when I waved him over from his bff’s cabin & he introduced himself to me.) “That’s why I picked this spot.” “What…?” He gets down on one knee and pulls the ring out & says, “Jashana Cheree, will you be my wife?” I tell him to shut up & giddily ask him if he’s serious (while I pull off my promise ring & eagerly give him my finger!) and he obviously says yes, he is serious. So I obviously say yes, I will most definitely marry him & be his wife.

So…. basically, couldn’t be more perfect!!!! And surprisingly, I was totally oblivious to the whole thing until he said that’s why he chose that spot. I legit thought we were going to find a robber at the cabin. HaHa!

So that’s how he did it, for everyone who is curious! (I really didn’t want to type all of that out 18 times to everyone individually! HaHa.) Now, wish us luck planning a wedding in like, 4 months. !!!! We want to get married this summer because we plan on moving out of state early next year & we’d like to have the big shindig before we move away, obviously. Also, this summer July 10 is on a Saturday… and that will be our 5 year dating anniversary! And, my dad’s bday! That’s just a fun little bonus.