sam's birthday

last saturday, december 18th, was my birthday!
and for all of you that don't know. i LOVE my birthday.
why?  i have two main reasons, which are..
-it's MY day. so i get to do whatever i want. :)
-i'm another year older which is much better than the alternative. [death]


so, yes. my birthday is my favorite day of the year. 
but i think from now on, our wedding anniversary will probably be my favorite day of the year. 
birthday will definitely come in 2nd place, though.


earlier last week, charlie told me he thought he most likely wouldn't be able to make it on my birthday because of stupid work.
i cried.
ya ya ya make fun of me. but all i wanted was to spend my favorite day of the year with my favorite person :)
luckily!! he was able to get the whole weekend off! [now that's love right there ;)]
and i was supposed to work on my birthday, which was fine. but i found out the day before i didn't have to go in because a lot of people cancelled their appointments yadda yadda yadda.
i was one happy girl that, a) charlie got the weekend off and b) no work!

sooo, what did i do on my day?
i slept in, wrapped christmas presents, went to lunch with the fiancé to chili's, relaxed, opened presents, had dinner and banana cream cheesecake with my family, charlie and a few friends, played apples to apples and scattergories, and then went bowling. fun day :)

p.s. i'm lucky to be marrying a man with good taste in jewelry...

i love my locket. thanks, charlie!

slideshow

here's a little slideshow of some of our engagement pictures.
we're very happy how they came out & we can't wait to see what our wedding pictures will look like!
*photos by Terina Matthews

getting into the christmas spirit

charlie and i made gingerbread houses the other night!
we were both pretty excited about it.
and we agreed, this was our "practice" round.
we're making bigger and better ones on christmas eve.

charlie's mini gingerbread houses

sam's mini gingerbread houses

p.s. 19 more days 'till the big day. [not like i'm counting down or anything...]

comfy cozy

this is our new couch..like it? wink wink.

[p.s. sorry for the poor picture quality. it was taken with a phone]

[p.s.s. real pictures of the couch all set up are coming soon!]

steal of a deal

we thought we would be kitchen table-less for a little bit when we first move in since we couldn't find a decent kitchen table under $200. and since i'm a stubborn one, i wouldn't buy a table that wasn't
a) dark wood
and
b) in good condition
that's not too much to ask...is it? :) 


luckily my wonderful fiancé told me about this website. most of the items for sale on this site are in really good condition & have a great price due to military members either deploying or moving and needing to get rid of their stuff asap.

this is the table we found..
dark wood? check
good condition? check
and for 40 bucks? we'll take it!!

we love it!

so much to do..so little time

[warning: i will ramble on and on in this post.]


december seems to always be a crazy jam packed month as it is, but this year it's extra packed [all in a good way]
my mind has been going a mile a minute with every single detail i need to fit in the schedule.
and if you know me, i'm a list maker but i can't even make lists lately because i would have, ohhh about...32497 random papers with chicken scratch on them with all my random thoughts and reminders.

here's a little snippet of what's goin' through my noggin this very moment...
-work work work almost everyday [which is a blessing, so glad i have a job that i LOVE]
-uhh hello WEDDING PLANNING. luckily everything is pretty much done.
-christmas gifts to buy everyone. with what money? who knows. someway, somehow.
-my birthday. [am i even doing anything on my birthday? oh yeah, working. boo.]
-charlie being gone on some training thing again till the 20th. [enter sad face] hoping to see him on the weekends. ohhh life with a marine fiance :)
-fitting in extra clients in my free time.
-decorating the apartment slowly so it's done by january 1st. haha who am i kidding. it won't be done by then.
-exchanges/returns for shower/wedding gifts that we got double of. the pile is sitting next to me. if i look at it long enough i get angry that i haven't done it yet.
-trying to spend some play time with my nephew everyday. he's so fun :)
-i would like exercise every day like i used to and maybe loose a few pounds before the wedding. we'll see if that happens. gosh i need to be more motivated. charlie, help me with this, please!

blah blah blahhhh see what i mean? my mind is a mess right now.

can it just be the end of the month now so i can marry the man of my dreams? that would be awesome.

thanks for letting me vent a bit. i'm sure i lost most of you in the middle of the post. sorry 'bout it. sometimes a girl just needs to ramble :)