Friday? Yet again. HIGH FIVE!

So this was my last FULL week of work before the wedding. Holy cow. I mean, is this real life?

Somebody pinch me.

BUT... seriously?!? This week flew and so did this engagement. Thanks for all of you who poured out your heartfelt advice back on this post. I seriously had the best time reading every single one! 

This week was a great one.

1. top left -- My MOH graduated from college last weekend. SO stinking proud.

2. top right -- This girl. She is an amazing person, and one of the strongest friends I know. I spent my whole Tuesday evening with her, crafting for 3+ hours straight working on....

3. THIS! well...it wasn't complete in this picture. BUT it looks FREAKING AWESOME.

4. This delicious white chocolate covered strawberry.

I only had about 2 bites it was so rich. & I NEVER say that.

5. (on the bottom left) Guys... we saw DAVE RAMSEY last night. What?!? Two of our generous friends got us tickets last year and we are HUGE fans. Caleb and I have taken Financial Peace University twice now, and we are really excited to apply it to our married life once the honeymoon is over.

Okay, am I allowed to have SIX favorite things about this week? Ummm hello. My new blog design is ROCKIN' thanks to my soulmate, Erin!! Love her to pieces. Please, if you are looking for someone to design your blog/make you a button - look no further.

*linking up today with the gorgeous Lauren*

A few other random things about this week...

-Caleb and I met with our DJ on Wednesday. What was supposed to be a 30 minute meeting, turned into 2.5 hours of us bonding with him and his wife. Talking about church, volunteering, and he even introduced us to HUNDRED'S of new board games. It was just a cool experience.

-New Girl season finale. Woohoo!!!! Anyone else was excited as I was?!

-Birthday shoutout to my girl Robin on her birthday!!!!! :)

-Me, my Nanny, and Lyndsie worked on the centerpieces for the wedding on Monday. They are lookin CUTE. Can't wait to show you all pictures.

-My girl, Becca, found her wedding dress yesterday. I was very sad I couldn't be there... but she looked STUNNING in the pictures. 

-I will be a MRS. in 8 days!! WHAT?!??!

OH... I don't think I've mentioned this on the blog yet. Tomorrow is my bachelorette party. AAHHH! I am so happy I get to spend an entire afternoon/evening with my favorite ladies on this PLANET!!!!! :)

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Single. Freaking. Digits.

I don't really know where the time has gone. One day, a long time ago... we had 9 whole months of engagement-ism (is that a word!?) ahead of us... and now... we have 9 TINY DAYS!!!

I truly don't know where the time has gone. Looking back over this engagement... it has been one heck of a journey. So I thought I'd share some fun moments from it, with you guys today.

-Getting fun, unexpected cards from people you love!

-Right after I asked my (future) sister to be in my wedding as a bridesmaid. She was so shocked. I would show you the picture of her face, but she'd probably kill me ;) so this will have to suffice.

-My silly, (un)creative ways of asking my ladies to be in my wedding. This was Erin's!

-Asking my MOH and another bridesmaid to be in the wedding.

-Showing off the ring every chance I got.

-Surviving the freezing winter with my fiance!

-Dress shopping with my flower girl.

-Getting the keys to our new apartment!!!

-Celebrating my first bridal shower.

-& trying not to die of embarrassment at my second one... ;)

-Receiving some fun RSVP's back!

-Dress shopping with some of my bridesmaids

-That feeling of being freshly engaged...ah, it's one I'll NEVER forget.

Overall....this engagement has been amazing. There were a few bumps in the planning, but that is what makes it memorable. All that truly matters is that at the end of this 9 day countdown... I will be a wife to the man of my dreams. Seriously, he cooks... cleans... and (sometimes) does laundry. What more could a gal want? ;)

I've LOVED getting to know my newer followers and I'm sooo thrilled you all find my "journey" to the altar an interesting one. This blog wouldn't be near as fun without you guys.

Guess what? Tomorrow is FRIDAY!

Help, please!

Totally honest right now? I had nothing planned for this post.

Then I started thinking... okay, my wedding is 11 (whaat!?) days away now. Everyone keeps asking "Are you getting butterflies yet?" and to be totally honest. I'm really not. I've never been more ready to marry Caleb then I am right now.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a little nervous. Mostly about everyone staring at me as I try my hardest to be graceful walking down an aisle. Or that something horrific will happen the morning of, but I keep reminding myself that at the end of the day, I'll be married to my best friend.

I'm going to keep this post short, but I leave you with one question... whether you're married or not;

What is one piece of advice you'd give me for the DAY OF my wedding?

Is it to be sure I have Advil? Starbucks? Extra lip gloss?

Or to soak in every moment as much as possible? Only play a few slow songs?

Whatevvveerrr it may be, lay it on me.

I want the advice!

Sincerely,

This excited bride.

Fun friends, good food.

My weekend started out with a little pizza and fruit... I know, kind of contradictory... but its what my church provided.

Friday night was for all the volunteers to come meet at our old building and learn the dance moves to this years sports camp songs. Sports camp is an AMAZING thing our church puts together for our community... we offer an entire week FREE to kids K-5, to come play fun sports, dance a ton, and mostly... to learn about Jesus.

Oh heeey Caleb, I see you.

After that, I literally went home and fell asleep, since Saturday I'd be doing a WHOLE lot of driving.

Why, you ask?

To watch my best friend GRADUATE COLLEGE! I was so proud of her. I still can't believe I made the nearly 3 hour drive there at 6AM, and was back home by 5PM... but let me tell you, that did me in. I took an accidental 2 hour nap when I got home... woke up to eat, and fell back asleep.

But lets back track... this university is where I spent nearly 2 years of my life... I loved it there. Isn't the chapel beautiful!?

I was so proud of her in this moment! She has been through a LOT in the past 4 years, but has been so blessed in her education and I know she will do great things in her life!

It was really fun being back and seeing a ton of old friends, too!

After this I drove down to Columbus to have lunch with Lynds and her family at a really cute diner...where I enjoyed the most delicious cinnamon bread known to man, some incredible tea, and the waiter finished our meal off by saying at "I'm not sure if you're a mother...but if you are, happy Mother's Day"..... he's lucky I'm not easily offended ;)

Caleb was busy all day Saturday with his best friends (about 12 of them) enjoying his last HOORAH being "single" ;) yes...that's right. It was his bachelor party. I wasn't concerned at all...Caleb is a fantastic guy and so are all of his friends. They went to a Red's game, then to dinner and a bowling alley... but I did get THIS text from his brother (also best friend/best man) around midnight...

It's fake, I promise.

I think Caleb just wanted to get a rise out of me... seeing as in one of his favorite comedies, the dude gets this actually TATTED on his face. Yikes.

Sunday was spent at church in the morning, and then my cousin's last soccer game of his season. Sadly, they lost...but when they are still in the single age digits, they could really care less. It was a blast.

Then we spent the afternoon with my grandparents eating taco's and eating fresh baked cookies. (What wedding diet?!)

Hope everyone had a blast this weekend and a wonderful day celebrating the special women in your lives!

Letta's to my fella's

Does that even rhyme? I'm totally an idiot. 

Anyyywaayyys...

today...I am thankful.

Thankful for another FRIDAY, another weekend, and yet another day closer to marrying my dream boyyyy.

Saying the word dream boy made me think of my middle school crush;

Ahh Cory Matthews... those were the days.

I was so obsessed with both him and Topanga...I swore to my mom I'd name my first daughter after her....... that's totally normal, right?

Anyway... not sure how I strayed off topic there.

Today is set aside for "letters";

Dear Lyndsie, HOLY COW. You are graduating college tomorrow. I cannot wait to watch you walk across that stage and grab that diploma you SO deserve. It seems like yesterday we were in 7th grade, making our mom's take us to Steak & Shake, hoping to God our braces AND glasses didn't make us look dorky, and watching White Chicks on repeat while we ate marshmallow fluff with a spoon. I am SO incredibly proud of you, and who you've become... you are selfless, wonderful, and hilarious. So thrilled you'll be standing by my side on my wedding day to hold my hand...my bouquet, and to just be there like you always have. Love you!

Dear Caleb, thanks for the AMAZING home cooked meal last night. It was incredible. I guess it was technically the first meal you've made from scratch for us.... no microwave in your vocabulary ;) GO YOU! 

Dear carbs, why do you taste so good????

Dear Pinterest, I'm getting really sick of you motivating me to get my butt into shape... and then 4 seconds later, allow a picture of deep fried marshmallow oreos to pop up and leave my drooling on my keyboard. Rude!

Dear weekend, please last a long time.

Dear Miss Ashley, motivating each other to run lately has been fun. I am SO happy to have "met you" through this community of blogging months ago... lets PLEASE make this dream road-trip happen this year.

Dear Erin, making up new words for the dictionary was fun this week. Oh, also....e-mailing all day at the office makes my entire day, all the time. LOVE YOUR FACE!

Dear legs, thank you for carrying me those two+ miles last night. It's becoming much easier... :)

Dear photographers, can't wait for you to shoot our big dayyy!!

Dear wedding, oh hey... you're just like, two weeks ago. NBD!!!

Hope everyone has a GREAT weekend... enjoy every minute!!!

My little list of joys.

Before I dive into my absolutely random post for today, can I just say how many times I was overwhelmed with joy at all of your sweet emails, texts and comments from yesterday's post? Too many to count. I mean for real. You all are the BEST. It's so refreshing to see bloggers open up about their REAL feelings and heartaches sometimes. I hope my post helped at least one person out :)

Speaking of joy... have I mentioned how awesome you all are lately? Uhh...cause you are!

The other day I came home from the office...and found a package lying on my bed with a note on the fed ex box... 

Look what my girl Kaitlyn sent me!

Does it not SCREAM "me"!??! :) I could not be more excited. I already know exactly where to hang this in our apartment. Can't wait until she can come visit and SEE for herself. ;)

Today I'm going to talk about a few other simple things that make me smile... like I was getting to yesterday, no matter WHAT you are going through...try to remind yourself of the good things in your life!

Always. Even when its tough.

So what makes me happy?

-The first blooms of summertime through your bedroom window.

-Waking up in a good mood, for no reason at all.

-When your cat understands your personality.

-Seeing a couple cross the finish line holding hands.

-THIS picture of my man, holding the fishing record for biggest catch in his family.

Not to mention he looks super hot.

-Looking back on my "Happiness Project" sentence journal.

-This hilarious cat gif.

-Umm the countdown is down to 17 days. OMG.

-Thanks to all my girls on twitter, I've decided not to get an aisle runner.

-I still need to find a "something blue" I can wear on my wedding day. Any ideas?? Get creative!

-Dole has these new Chia & Fruit Clusters (mixed berry!) and I'm kind of obsessed. Super nutritious, too!

-I actually woke up early, got myself ready...and TRIED to look cute for the office today. Woo!

Remember folks...stay happy.

& please join one of my favorite link-ups, today! Shanna is such a sweetheart!

Some simple truths.

 Its pretty crazy to think if it weren't for ONE decision being made, our entire lives would be different. Have any of you ever thought about this?

Last night...I received quite a few bits of bad, sad, and just wrong news. I could choose to let these things get me down...but I am choosing to look on the bright side of things.

I know my blog is mainly a few things;

-happy

-fun

-yellow

-more yellow

...but today, I want to let you in on some of the more real aspects of my life.

Here we go...

My parents got divorced when I was 9. I was forced to grow up immediately and take care of my baby brother, who was only 3 and had no clue what was happening. This forced me to become more independent.

I had two jobs as soon as I turned 15 and a half... my mom, grandparents or cousin would drive me to work 20 minutes away because I wasn't even old enough to have a license yet. I was working nearly 40 hours a week all throughout high school. It's because of this I learned what hard work means.

I paid for everything on my own. Food, clothes, driving school, doctors appointments, you name it. This made me appreciate the value of a dollar.

I was ripped out of college mid-semester my junior year because my family couldn't afford it. I was embarrassed, mortified, and heart broken. I had to pack my bags, say goodbye to my friends, and leave with a car full of everything I owned. I was going back home...this felt like failure...but through this heartache I realized I had something better for me waiting back home. A real job. One that would help me with my education, one that would lift me up, and encourage me.

I went through a very rough relationship a few years back, there were high's and lows...and when I say low's I mean low's. We both made stupid decisions, heck...we were only children. However, it was through this relationship I found who I really wasn't. It was also through this relationship that I found who I was. I was a better person than I gave myself credit to be...and I realized I was lovable despite my unfortunate past.

I really debated on even sharing this one... but it is truth hour, right?

My mom went on vacation to Hawaii last February, and never came back. I miss her and our relationship every single day. I struggle with my emotions on this topic on a daily basis, but I DO know that every single thing happens for a reason, one way or another...and it is not about me. I do know that through THIS heartache especially, God will bring something amazing. I have that faith in Him.

 I don't share that last one especially with you for any sort of pity, but for any of you to know that us bloggers ALL have "things" going on, even when the surface may seem so clean.

We are all a little broken... but I think that makes us beautiful.

I'm thankful that through my past, things worked out all the way they should.

If I hadn't had to leave college...I wouldn't be marrying the man of my dreams in 18 little days.

If I wasn't the daughter of a divorced couple, I may not have the steady head I do today.

If I hadn't worked so hard in school to support myself, I may have ended up drowning in debt.

I'll never know "what could have been"...but one thing is for sure.

God had a plan for me..

that plan was Caleb.

I am so thankful for this community and what it brings to my life...I can't thank you all enough for coming back to read my rambles on a daily basis. I truly appreciate EVERY single comment you leave, email we exchange, and story that is told. 

This is one of my favorite verses, and I truly believe it.

Have a fabulous day, friends.