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!

Back in the Groove

Hi!  We're baaaaaack!

We spent last week in Maui having a lot of fun exploring the island.  There were numerous beaches to walk, waves to catch and sunsets to see.  We ate some really great food, laughed a lot and enjoyed our week of uninterrupted time together (although, I think we both have to admit that it's a great thing, it will take some getting used to!).

One of my old bosses gave us a card at the reception letting us know that they were buying us dinner one night at their favorite restaurant in Maui.  I just texted her to let her know what night would work best, and she made the reservations on the outdoor patio so we would be sure to catch this beautiful sunset.  It was a very thoughtful and practical gift, and we enjoyed it immensely!

We arrived back in Dallas one week later and spent Sunday afternoon at my parents opening 35 more gifts.  It took us almost two hours to open everything.  We grabbed a few items to put in Adam's (our) apartment for the next three weeks before we move into our rent house. 

Praise the Lord we know where we're living next!  This was a huge weight off my shoulders to have a contract signed on Thursday before our wedding.  (Yes, two days before our wedding, we got my car inspected and signed a rental contract--talk about being a practical grown up!)

My mom was so right when she told me I wouldn't want to go back to work on Monday.  I'm so glad I took her advice and didn't go back yesterday.  We spent it doing laundry, Mom and I got to catch up at lunch, then she came to visit Camp Paulson, and we took her over to peek through the windows at the rental. It was so fun to just relax and do normal things! 

Last night after trying out our new waffle maker, we made a trip to Home Depot, TC's Shaved Ice and made a big haul at the grocery store.  We have three meals planned this week and food for it in the fridge.  This makes my little try-to-be-organized heart happy.  :-) 

I have many posts from the wedding festivities to catch up on.  I keep replaying the wedding and reception in my mind, and Adam and I continue to talk about how much fun we had.  I am beginning to dig out from vacation mode and am slowly but surely returning phone calls from friends and hearing what all I missed this last week. 

Amanda has recapped the weekend from her sweet point of view on her blog here. 

Our photographer, Jess Graham Barfield has given us a teaser of the fabulous photos that are to come on her blog here.

I think Adam and I have already learned a lot about each other in the last 10 days--quirks we didn't know we had and funny things we say.  So far, it's been great.  We are learning to laugh a lot and we are already shocked at the amount of free time we have since we don't have to go home at night!  I'm sure we will fill up that time soon enough, so for now we are enjoying learning about married life together.  :-)

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!

Weekend Eleven: Couples' Shower

August 20th, we had eight hostesses give a wedding shower for both of us.  It was such fun to have Adam around opening gifts and seeing people, and I loved getting to see tons of my absolute favorite people.  The house was decked out in a picnic theme, with red and white checked table cloths, dasies, sun flowers and photos of Adam and me. 

One of our BSB friends, Vicki, made my favorite chocolate chip cookies.  We used to go on vacation with the Billman family, where she'd let us help make cookies.  We got to eat chocolate chips when we did math problems.  Her son, Brett, is infinitely better at math (he's an accountant now) always did better at these problems, but I beat him in spelling.  Makes sense, now, huh?

I'd like to point out that this was a seated dinner for 70 people.  Yes, 70, and yes, seated.  Everyone had a spot.   Because what's worse than to eat pulled pork sliders and have corn on the cob roll off your lap? 

Delicious food.

Vicki C., Aunt Laura, Sue and Kelley (BSB friends)

These dads preferred to sit in a pow-wow circle instead of at a table.  Whatever floats your boat.

This is where AMP and I sat for approximately 20 minutes to eat.  We enjoyed chatting with our friends at this table, but then it was time to make the rounds to our other 60 friends all around the house.

Papa and Claire became buddies when they were both in the Christmas program at Prestonwood last year.  I love this fun fact very much.

Molly and Nathan came and knew just about everyone in the house.  They are just so Baylor-y.

Megan and I are becoming good friends because she knew Amanda in Waco (who came up to visit for this!) and Molly worked for Amanda as an intern in Waco in college.  Did you catch all those connections?  If not, that's ok.  Just know we're mutual friends.

There was much laughing and mingling.

Tom and Susan opened their home up for this party, and he gave a little welcome and blessing for us.  The eight hostesses went to great lengths to make this such a special evening.  They had lots of special touches, and handed out these pretty prayer cards to people as they left, with specific verses to pray for us. 

This is when they were talking about us, before we started opening presents.  I have no idea why we were laughing, but there was a lot of that going on that night.

Smoo was there with her iPad taking notes as we opened presents for an hour and a half.

Handmade aprons for each of us!

Adam was so excited about all the tools he got!  His reactions were priceless, and I'm fairly certain he entertained the whole room.

The card for this read, "Every fireman's house should have an ax."  He couldn't agree more.

SMoo just working away!

Baylor friends!!

Troy was still in town, so he came too.  I'm so glad!

All of our loot.

Sweet hostesses.

So excited about their Crate & Barrel boxes

Here I am laughing, and Adam rolling his eyes. 

After everyone left, Adam went and pulled out some of his new tools. 

Mom was checking them out, too.

It was such a fun night!  We got in the car, exhausted, and realized that's what we're going to feel like after our wedding, but even more tired.  I did dream the other night, though, that we didn't get to dance or eat at our wedding because we were talking to people the whole time.  Hopefully that won't happen!

My first shower was really fun, but I really enjoyed having Adam there to open gifts, too, and really experience how excited everyone is for us.  We both felt very loved, and had a great time. 

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!