Wedding weekend: Ordinary things

Wedding weekend started when work ended on Wednesday.  We signed our lease Thursday and I got my car inspected.  I loved this day, because we got to do ordinary things.

Adam and I got to go to the grocery store in the middle of the day together, and I wanted to tell everyone we saw in every aisle that we were getting married in two days!  I was pretty much dancing around Albertsons.  :-)

This excited look is pretty much how I looked all weekend, I think!  This was after we'd written some big fat checks and signed our names 25 times each, on three different documents.  That's a lot of signing!  I will post a photo of the house when we have some good "before" and "after" photos of the front.  It needs some major yard work, but we are so excited and thankful to be moving into a great little house!

Thursday afternoon I went up to help my mom, aunt and our friend Kathy decorate the stage up at church.  This is Kathy standing in front of the baptistry trying to make the lanterns work.  It was a fun afternoon!

That night, Adam ate with his mom, dad and brother who'd just gotten in town, and I ate with my parents and my dad's dad, Pops.  It had been three or four years since I'd seen him, and although he is much more frail, he is just precious.  

Pops' favorite thing is Blue Bell ice cream, which he can't get in Virginia.  Laura and Anna dropped some off for us about the same time Adam and his parents came over to see all of our gifts.  It was a great way to end the day--with my old and new family all in one room!

Our new room



Adam and I have been in total "nesting" moods the past few weeks.  We are cleaning out, cleaning up and clearing out lots of things in his place and mine.  I think this is how we both are processing a big change that's about to occur in our lives in oh...T-minus FOUR DAYS! 

Since I will be moving into Adam's apartment when we get back from our Honeymoon, last night we put all of our new bedding out and hung that big piece of iron on the wall.  {Really, Adam hung it.  I stuffed pillows and fluffed.} 

He was so calm when I said, "Ok, first we have to put on a dustruffle."  He quickly learned what a dustruffle was, and the we put it on.  I was running in and out of his room, into the den, grabbing sheets and pillows and jumping around.  I'm just a little excited to get settled, don't ya think?!  Adam is quite enjoying the fact that he can tell me how comfy the bed is before I can enjoy it, too!

I haven't moved any clothes, and I'd like to add a bedside table and lamp, but I'm just waiting until after we get back.  Who knows what the weather will be like come October, so I will just bring some clothes over then.  Then it's a month of "Camp Paulson," as we're coming to know it, before our leases run out and we get a place that the two of us can put together with each other.  I think Adam's quickly realized that this next phase will involve a lot of "honeydos."  :-)

We have one more day that's just the two of us before family arrives for our wedding weekend.  I was driving home last night thrilled with the idea that those days of 30 minute drives alone in the dark are almost behind me! 

Happy Wedding Week!

Crazy Dreams & a Week in the Life

This week, crazy dreams have started.  I thought I would share a few with you and also just for myself, so I wouldn't forget.  I am just so glad to be sleeping, that I will take any crazy dreams I have and funny things I've been doing...

• I dreamed that our awesome photographer showed up in waaay-too-tight black and white plaid pants, looking really unprofessional (totally not her style!).  When we got to the reception, no tables were set and the band was not there.  Patricia, our hotel wedding coordinator, was there blowing bubbles and singing kid songs to entertain the guests while I set tables. Ca-raz-y.
• I've dreamed that there were tiny little geckos in the kitchen of my and Claire's apartment.  As soon as I'd rescued one, several more would show up.  This has nothing to do with the wedding, but still strange.
• I'm also very slow to get sarcasm these days, I've noticed.  If someone says something that I know is supposed to be funny or sarcastic, I laugh, but it takes me a good five mintues to figure out why it's actually funny.  I eventually figure it out, but I'm hoping that this returns quickly after the wedding!

{Knox shows us his Vampire teeth}

Saturday night, Adam and I babysat our ring bearers, "The Boys."  They bypassed me and went straight to Adam.  I am just the girl who puts their food on the table. ;-)  Adam got hugged by Graham right away, and they were so excited to see him.  They got out their Nerf guns and swords and had a ball.  I wasn't bothered one bit that they like Adam so much.  In fact, I love it! 

Adam has also been working super-hard to make his apartment extra clean since I'm about to move in.  He's deep cleaning the bathroom, putting the lid back on his dryer that's been off for 2 years, and lots of other little stuff.  We are moving a chest of drawers over next week and bringing our new bedding over.  I'm really excited to finally be setting up a few of our new things!!  He's been working so hard and running lots of errands, and I wanted to make sure he knew I appreciated it all.  While he was down playing sand volleyball, I hid little bears around his apartment for him to find...

My family and close friends often call me "Shay Bear."  It's always been my name.  Adam shortened it to "Bear" and it stuck.  It's actually rare that he uses my real name, and it throws me for a loop somtimes when he does.  :-)  So I played off of this and had lots of things that "Bear Says."

We are getting boxes and boxes of gifts each day at my parent's house.  It's unreal.  People are so generous, and it's been lots of fun to open so many boxes and find out what's inside. 

I have no photos of this, either, but last night AMP and I went up to Claire's school for dance practice and her school's game night.  She LOVED showing us her world, and we had a lot of fun watching her interact with her little fourth graders.  I'm so glad we got to go!

We are EIGHT DAYS away from our wedding, and we could not be more excited.  We are a little nervous (the good "butterflies in your tummy" kind) and we have most of the little details ready.  I am taking of next Thursday and Friday and then will be gone for a week after that for our honeymoon.  I'm so ready for vacation!

How We Spent Countdown Day 24

With 24 days until we're married, it was time to get our marriage license!  I had a meeting downtown, so I asked Adam to meet me there beforehand.  I felt like such the city girl, parking and walking a good ways down the busy streets to get to the records building. 

We discoverd that the key to getting through this quickly is to apply online, so that they already have your paperwork ready to go.  We were in there a total of 20 minutes, from the time we walked into the building, to raising our right hands and swearing all our information was accurate.  And of course we even got a photo in that short amount of time!  We're almost official!

After work, we ran errands and worked out at The Abbey.  My aunt and uncle have a workout facility in their neighborhood (what we affectionately refer to as "The Abbey"), and they gave us the code to use it.  I really love it because it's never packed and they have really nice machines!  I even go in there to workout by myself, which says a lot!

I stopped by my parents' house to check on any boxes that are continually left on the porch these days.  We stayed there and AMP grilled for us.  (Apparently we really like using other peoples' places!)   

The rest of the evening was spent addressing Rehearsal Dinner invitations and thank you notes.  Adam has been such a huge help with this!  He writes thank you notes like a pro, and it's so nice to share that responsibility. 

Almost caught up!

Happy September!!

Weekend Ten: Road trip to Iowa!

Earlier this summer, we decided to take a trip up to Iowa before the wedding to see Adam's family, ride in his brother's new boat, and I wanted to meet Adam's college pastor who's marrying us.  We also decided to drive.  Honestly, I was dreading this part, because 12 hours in a car (or truck) has never been my strong-suit.  In fact, we've never taken family road trips longer than 6 hours.  (I know, right?)  I always got carsick growing up, so car rides were never my favorite.

Much to my surprise, I actually enjoyed the drive!  We drove through the night (in true Paulson style), beginning at 8 p.m. on Friday night and arriving at Adam's parent's house at 8 a.m.  Exactly 12 hours.

Perhaps I'm young and in love and I would dye my hair purple or get a tattoo or do something else (like learn to run or go camping) if it meant hanging out with AMP.  (Sappy alert.  Sorry.)  But I did actually enjoy it!  The first 3 hours we had some really good conversations, I napped from 11-1 and 2-4, and drove from Kansas City to Des Moines from about 4-6:30 while Adam slept.  It was all broken up nicely, and we stopped for food and drinks and bathroom breaks in every state.

Adam was very sweet and made several suggestions so that I'd be prepared and ready for the car ride.  I think he might've been a bit nervous, because if we had a bad road trip now, the ones in the future could be miserable!

This was after a nap and a shower on my part on Saturday.  I was pretty worthless and totally out of it most of the day.  I slept from 9-12, then 6-7 (before dinner), and back to bed at 9 (after dinner), when Adam literally took me by the arms, walked me upstairs, waited while I got ready and tucked me into my bed.  I was kind of a mess.

{Adam loves his Shelby-dog.  Look how green everything is!!}

{With the bunny.}

{Four wheeling and gun shooting.  It's a boy's paradise!}

I did learn a few things for the next road trip, though, as I'm sure this was the first of many:

1.  No matter the time of year (Winter or Summer), pack layers.  Layers, layers, layers...because 80 degrees in Iowa is a lot cooler than 80 degrees in Texas.  Much to my surprise, it actually cooled down at night, and wasn't nearly as hot during the day.  (Then again, when I'm any where that's 30 degrees cooler than home, it's likely that I'll get cold.)

2.  Next time we get there in the morning, have a delicious breakfast and want to head straight up to bed for a nap, I'm going to shower first.  I woke up and felt so disgusting!  Next time I'll be ready for whatever's next on our agenda.  :-)

3.  Stay longer.  I wish that I didn't have to go back on Monday night.  I was planning on staying until Tuesday, until I realized that I was running a meeting for volunteers Tuesday morning, and I could not miss it.  So I had to fly back.  (I know you're thinking this was part of my grand plan not to drive back, but I promise it was an honest mistake!)  Not only did it take me a long time to recover from the weird sleep schedule, we were so busy this weekend that we had to cram everything in to a very small amount of time.  By Monday morning, I was just bummed to be leaving his family and sad to miss the road trip back with AMP.  Guess it didn't take long to make me a road-trip girl!  (However, I will admit that flying sure is a time saver.  Sometimes you just can't beat that.)

Sunday afternoon, we drove about 45 minutes to a nearby lake and put David's boat in the water.  He'd just gotten it earlier this summer, and looooves to go fast.  We got up to 50 and 60 mph.  It was fast.  I even got to drive, though!

I like to refer to this as the Big-A boat.  It's 25 feet long. 

{Aunt Kyle (also visiting this weekend) and David}

{The most spoiled dogs!  Mike grills delicious pork loin.  If I was a dog, I'd be beggin' too!}

 Sunday night, Adam's parents had several neighbors over, as well as family to celebrate our upcoming marriage and so that we could all meet.  It was so great to finally put names with faces, and I really enjoyed hearing stories about their families growing up.

{This is one of Aunt Kyle's three dogs that came to visit (for a total of 5 in the house!)  She was such a sweet, sweet pup!}

{This is the only pic I have from the party.  Bummer.  But it was fun, and we laughed a lot!}

{Sweet love.}

Then it was time to leave...just as I was getting caught up on my sleep!

Life Lately From my iPhone

Today marks one month until our wedding!  People in my office think it's so funny that I can rattle of excatly how many days until the wedding.  :-)  It's a combnation of sheer excitement, knowing what all needs to be finished between now an then, and then taking a vacation that has me counting down the days.

Friday I took  half day off so we could go to our last tasting for the reception food.  Then Adam and I went to get his wedding band.  We decided he looks quite grown up with a ring on his finger!

{Getting a caffeiene fix and showing off our latest purchase}

Next we looked at a tux to rent.  They want you to pick a vest color from a two-inch square of fabric.  Ha.  Thankfully they offered to order a few options for AMP to try on, which meant another trip to Al's on Tuesday.  We finally got it figured out, and he will look quite handsome on our wedding day!

We also looked at a rental house on Friday and spent less than five minutes in there.  Yikes.  We need to be moved in somewhere by November 1, so we're kind of in that time of 30 to 60 day notices being up.  It would make me feel a lot better if I was able to picture where we're going to be next, but that's just part of the process.  I know it will work out.  Patience just has never been my strongsuit in these types of situations!

{Bachelor Pad--before}

I am really glad to know that we will live in Adam's apartment for the month of October.  To make it more "ours," he's really working hard to clean stuff out and make room for me.  He's always had a clean place, which I appreciate, so it's nothing gross or anything.  We took down the framed posters that I helped him hang last August. 

We spent a good chunk of Friday night trying to find studs in the wall and hanging these shelves up.  I watched a lot and helped when needed.  :-)  I've had them since college, and they've lived under my bed for two years.  I was really excited to have a place to hang them again! 

{After}

Saturday we met the Wharton boys up at church to ask them to be in our wedding and practice walking down the aisle.  They will be so great on the wedding day in front of a big group of people, but they were just all over the place on Saturday!  It didn't bother me at all, because I know it won't be perfect, but that'll be what's so cute!

We had our Couple's Shower on Saturday night, which was loads of fun. Adam and I felt so honored and loved.  I'll have to do a separate post on that because it was just so fabulous!

Yesterday, I lost my wallet.  {Turns out it had fallen out at home.}

I wear my hair in a pony tail to work about half the time these days {A sign that I'm too tired to fix it}

My room looks like clothes exploded,

and until yesterday when Adam cleaned it out, my car looked similar.  {Thanks, AMP!}

Thankfully I have a lot of help with wedding planning and with life in general, becuase I need it!  :-)



Weekend Eight: Take a deep breath

Friday, I got home from almost a week in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  Unfortunately, it was for work, and the view of the beach is pretty much all I saw of it until the last night we were there.  Fortunately, though, I did get to hang out a lot with Amanda, since we get to work together.

I think it's been since college that we've been able to spend that much time together at once.  It was really a treat!  {I have a few pics of us out at the beach, but they're trapped on my camera--I can't find the charger.  Boo.}

Claire was in Jamaica all week on a mission trip, and I didn't feel like going home to an empty apartment, so I came home and spent the night with my Aunt Laura.  We addressed wedding invitations (the first time) Friday night and Saturday morning.  She and I did get to catch up when she got home, though.  We spend a lot of time in these spots on the couch, talking and watching Gilmore Girls.  It was so nice to catch up, and hear all about her experiences in Jamaica with other teachers.  They gave a teacher conference all week to better equip Jamaican teachers with resources they're typically unable to receive.  

Saturday afternoon,  Adam and I finally got to hang out! He took me out for a steak dinner at the Yellow Rose Steak and Chop house, and we got to catch up in person.  He'd been in Colorado for his Bachelor Weekend with a buddy from home.  They hiked and camped and explored the mountains. Colorado was, of course, nice and cool, so I know he hated to come home to Texas in a massive heat wave.  

I don't have any photos of this weekend, and I honestly can't remember what I did, other than that.  I remember telling Adam that this was pretty much the last free weekend we had before the wedding, which was now exactly two months away! 

I know this wasn't a terribly exciting weekend post, but since I'm documenting the rest of them, I didn't feel like I could just skip it.  :-)  So stay tuned for the next weekend, which was the opposite of this: loud, busy and crazy!  But fun!

It's official: invitations are mailed!

{Feeling a little relieved, excited and disbelieving about getting these into the mail!}



Of all the things we're doing for the wedding, the invitations proved to be the most challenging, I do believe. 

I finally decided on invitations after visiting 3 or 4 times...I really can't remember.  Then we had to get the type and spacing "just right."  We went back and forth with the printer about 4 times as well.  But designing invitations and programs are something I really enjoy doing, so it was kind of frustrating to me that I couldn't just do it myself and get it right!  :-)  But we did, eventually get it juuuuuuuust right.

Aunt Laura and I addressed all the invitations, and she did waay more than half.  We couldn't have done this without her. 

When Mom picked everything up from the store, she noticed the inner envelope wasn't lined.  They told us we'd have to insert them ourselves (what a pain), and they would be delivered in a few days.  Well, we went on our merry little way, addressing inner and outer envelopes (Adam wanted to know why we needed two, and then changed his mind.  I'm glad, because I'm not sure I could provide an explanation for this strange phenomenon.)

Mom went back to pick up the liners, and it turns out they misspoke, and they had, in fact, shipped envelopes with liners already included.  So Laura and I re-wrote all the inner envelopes, just in time for a stuffing party.  {The people at the paper store felt awful, and gave us several discounts to make up for this mistake!}

These sweet girls came over, and they had all the envelopes stuffed, stamped, sealed an alphabetized within an hour.  Often times I don't like to ask for help because I don't want to bother people, but I asked anyways, and they came right on over.  I was so grateful!  And we had a fun time catching up over brownies and sangria.  :-)

{Claire, SMoo, Mom, Anna, Sarah

Lyndsy and Me}

Then I went out of town, and we were still gathering some addresses and whatnot. It's been almost three weeks since the stuffing party, and we have now triple-checked the invitations three times to make sure we've not missed someone. 

Last night after dinner with my parents, Adam and I dropped the invitations off at the post office.  It was rather monumental!

Dad thought I looked rather June Cleaver-ish.  {Adam agreed.}  Thanks.  And he also kept referring to us as "the kids," as in, "Where are the kids?" or "Where are the kids' plates?"  I found this quite humorous. 

Finally,  we headed to the post office....

Very focused on getting the invitations in the mailbox.

Here we go!

This was most definitely a team effort, and I'm so thankful for all the helping hands we had along the way! 

Only 45 days to go!!!

Wedding Details: Flowers, Cake & A Gift

On Monday, the actual Fourth of July, I ran some errands, worked out at the Station with AMP, and got to stay for dinner.  Several of the guys were asking me if I'd freaked out about wedding plans or if I was really stressed or anything.  Honestly, I haven't been (yet), and it's my goal to try and stay as calm as possible about things.  I think they're just waiting for me to crack!  

Later that evening, I caught up with Anna, and then went to see fireworks in Plano with the Flaggs and my mom.  Anna and I had a slumber party that night, and I learned about music on GrooveShark while she cleaned her room.  Occasionally, we like to keep each other company while doing this task.  I think we both inherited the I-don't-pick-up-my-clothes gene in our family.  {I'm hoping this magically disappears when I get married.  Ha.}  Laura made me a smoothie the next morning, which was a treat.  I keep telling Anna how lucky she is to have someone make her breakfast...I definitely miss that from being at home!

Tuesday was fun because we got several wedding things knocked out.  Mom and I spent two hours with a florist.  I so wish I had a photo with the 75-year-old, yellow pants and toupe-wearing man that we visited with.   (I realize this may cause some alarm as to what my flowers may look like, if the man I just described is designing them.)  He is truly so creative.  I started to describe what I wanted, and he began to draw.  It was unreal to me how he knew what I was wanting before I even finished.  I am so excited to see how things turn out!

That afternoon, Adam met us at Stein's Bakery for cake tasting.  We got to pick four flavors to try, and then we decided how the cake will look.  

Adam saw Mom in action firsthand, and said later, "She's really good at this whole thing, isn't she?"  Yes, she's a great question-asker/get-things-done person.  We are having a lot of fun planning the wedding together!  

They had this super-cheesy wedding cake setup that we all decided to pose in front of.  Gotta love the fake flowers.

Our gifts are being shipped to my parents, just because they have more space.  I brought our first gift with us so we could open it together.  :-)  

Here we are with our very own little canister.  

(That sounds sooo sappy.)

Hooray for long weekends and wedding planning.  Only 77 more days!

Ten Reasons.

Adam and I came up with this list last night in honor of our 100 day countdown.  

100 days to go!

Graduation Lunch

Friday for lunch we celebrated a friend's High School graduation.  The "Birthday Group" is a bunch of my mom's friends that are all like second moms to me.  They celebrate anything and everything, and it's especially fun to be on the receiving end of the celebrating!  

We had a moms-and-daughters lunch at Rise, a souffle place in Inwood Village.  The desserts are absolutely delicious.  I came from work, and the girls said, "Shay you can sit with the moms or the kids--whichever you want."  I decided they'd appreciate it if I sat with the "kids."  :-)  {I'm the oldest of all the girls by about five years, but I've known them all forever.  They really don't feel young, even though I babysat almost all of them!}

The girls were about to start her senior year, a new high school graduate, and one who just finished her freshman year in college.   We talked about boys, bedding, summer plans and college.  If you'd been on our end, some of the conversation might have sounded like this...

• "Shay, are you SO ready to be married?"  When I answered, "Yes, only 106 days to go!" They said, "Oh my gosh, I love that you know the exact numbers!"  {Well of course I do...ha!} 
• In talking about dorm room bedding, I mentioned that it's a bit trickier when you have to pick bedding that a boy can live with.  They all started to giggle and then said, "Oh my gosh.  You're going to live with a boy! Giggle, giggle, giggle."  This probably cracked me up the most.
• And I think we were finishing up the bedding conversation and one of them said wistfully, "Oh, I just can't wait to be married!"   

It was so fun to sit and catch up with them and hear about life from their worlds.  Crazy to think that I was in their shoes not too long ago.  We had a great time, and I would highly recommend the bread pudding souffle!  

Engagement Photos are up!

Jess posted a few of our engagement photos on her blog today!

On Monday, Adam and I had our engagement photos taken by the fabulously talented Jess Graham.  I went to Baylor with her, and knew her before she even knew that she wanted to go into photography full-time.  Her availability was one of the reasons we chose September 24th for our wedding date!

The weather's been really stormy here, and we'd already rescheduled because it was quite windy the first time.  It ended up clearing up Monday afternoon, and even though the skies were gray, I think it added a dramatic touch...

Jess posted about 10 photos that capture me laughing a LOT.  I only had one fit of giggles, and she happened to post most of them!  I loved seeing these, and I can't wait until next week when we can see the rest of the photos.  She took close to 700!  Crazy.

I love that she captured us so well.  In the last picture on the bottom right, she really got Adam's dimple on camera.  It.  Kills.  Me.  :-)

Today marks 150 days 'til our wedding!