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!

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 Nine: Adam comes to BSB

Baylor Summer Bunch weekend is jam-packed full of family, friends and fun.  It is always fun to catch up with these friends.  This year was a big deal for me, because I got to bring Adam.  I was super excited for him to be a part of the weekend...I pulled photos of all nine families from Facebook so he could see that he'd already met half of them.  (Clearly, very excited.) 

I was so excited that I didn't really put myself in his shoes until we walked in the door to my parent's lakehouse and all the moms turned and gave a high-pitched, "Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!"  I thought he might just turn around and leave--ha!  Everyone was excited to meet him, and Adam hung in there and met all 40-some-odd people. 

After the initial shock of meeting all these new faces, Adam settled in and learned all about the BSB from his buddy, Gerald.  We have three scrapbooks ('80s, '90s and '00s) with birth announcements, wedding photos, Baylor Homecomings, Christmas Cards and BSB trips.  (I know...we might be slightly over the top.)

Because of this crazy heat wave and lack of water in the lake, we spent a lot of time indoors.  Not everyone stays at our lakehouse (we rented a few more nearby), but it was the hub of all the activities, so it got quite loud sometimes.  At some point througout the weekend, most everyone had to go outside and collect their thoughts, I think.  It was just SO LOUD! 

We played games Friday and Saturday night.

We hung out and played with the new babies.

We boated.

We tubed.

We played more games...this was the "Minute to Win it" night.

This was everyone hanging out Saturday night in the den.  That's a lot of people.

More "Minute to win it" games.

We ate a lot of yummy food and all hung out and chatted.  Adam stayed until after dinner Saturday night before heading back home to go to work the next morning.  He was such a great sport!

Sunday mornings, we have a little singing and devotional time.  Troy played the guitar this year while the three Deily sisters sang.  They did great.  :-)

We also celebrate the high school and college graduates and pray for them as they "launch" a new chapter in their lives.  Scott was the youngest in the group, and he's starting at Baylor today!  The photo above is the first "launchees"--Lauren, Laura and Allison, and the last, Scott. 

Our parents have said once Scott was launched, the kids aren't invited, and they'll all go on a cruise instead.  We'll see how that plays out next summer!  :-) 

Then we pose for group photos.

The Dads.

The Moms.

The girls.

The boys.

And Laura and Allison with their newest additions, Emma and Madeleine!

Loving the bows.

Emma and Madeleiene.

Whew.  Just looking throuh these photos makes me tired again!  The fun part is that normally we see these friends again at Baylor Homecoming in November, but it was fun to say, "See you at the wedding!"  :-)