Scripture Memory {Verse 2}

I have successfully memorized my first verse, hooray! I must say that I'm pretty proud of myself, since memorizing things has not always been my forte in life, unless it was choreography for a dance routine. Put on the music for a song I had a dance to in 8th grade and I can probably still remember most of the choreography...could I actually do it, probably not, seeing as how I am grossly out of shape and no where near as flexible as I was then. (side note: anyone else notice how much pregnancy diminishes your body's flexibility? No fair.) Anywho, now we are on to verse 2 and I am very excited about my new verse!

P.S. - In case you missed the explanation on what I am doing here...short version: I'm memorizing 24 bible verses this year in order to help me get more into the gospel and grow spiritually. Long version: Read my blog post about it here.

Now, back to my new verse. Of course, there is a long-winded story about how I came across this verse and why I have chosen it as one of my memory verses. However, I'll let you in on the verse itself first in case you aren't in the mood to read my extensive ramblings about how I arrived at it. Alas, my second memory verse for 2015 is John 13:34-35...

Story time! First you need a little back story here before we get to the verse. So my church had us fill out these "gospel transformation" cards two weeks ago where we made goals for how we wanted to be transformed spiritually this year. Also on the card, we were to list one thing we want to "quit" this year that will help us in our transformation. My "quit" for this year is negativity. I want to rid my life of anything toxic...people, thoughts, and experiences that make me feel negative. I'm so guilty of whining, complaining and judging others and none of these things ever make me feel any better, just more negative. Therefore, I want to try and be more positive about everything. To surround myself with positive people, flood my brain with happy thoughts and focus more on what is going to make life more of a joyful experience rather than always dwelling on the negative. It's easy to judge others, to complain when things don't go your way, and to just focus on the negative things that are raining on your parade. And I am sick of doing that. Why do I always let one little stupid piece of negativity block out the overwhelming number of blessings in my life? I have so many things to be grateful for and yet, one little thing doesn't go the way I planned it and my whole day is ruined. How pathetic. I'm notorious for letting a bad situation or someone else's negative attitude bring down my spirit, well no more. I want to be happy, positive and nice as much as possible, even when shit hits the fan. I know this is going to be very challenging and I know that I will by no means hit the mark even by the end of the year, but even a little progress is better than none. I want to try and try my best I will. 

Pardon the side road there, but that's important information regarding my verse. So here is how I came about it. I picked out my verse on Wednesday, the day before I had to submit it on the LPM blog because I'm a planner, that's what I do. I picked out a lovely verse (Philippians 4:6-7) and was all ready to go with that on Thursday morning. 

I woke up Thursday morning and opened my Bible app to do my daily reading (yes that's right, your favorite Bachelor-watching, wine-loving blogger also reads her Bible every day) and the verse of the day was: "Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen." (1 John 4:20 NIV) I felt very convicted by this verse as soon as I read it. I thought, yikes, they are talking about me. I claim to love God and yet there are plenty of people out there who I truly dislike and can't stand. Girl just got called out. Ah. So I continued my daily reading which coincidentally happened to be in the book of John that day and it all just kept coming back to the same theme, love and forgive others, no matter what. If Jesus can love and forgive everyone, then so can you. Hmm, well they do have a point there. Next, I opened up my Instagram and the very first picture that popped up was a graphic from She Reads Truth that said "Love each other. John 13:34", and the caption below had the entire verse from John 13:34-35. As soon as I read it, I knew that had to be my verse for the next two weeks. 

I have chosen this verse because I need the reminder, everyday, all day, to love others. It's easy to love the people that you actually like...your spouse, kids, family, friends, etc. It's not so easy to love the people you dislike...that annoying co-worker, neighbor, family member, acquaintance, "frenemie" (don't lie, you all have one), random person in the grocery store line, random person driving slow in front of you when you are late for work, etc. It's really hard to love those people because heck you don't even like them, and maybe they have even done something really bad to you which makes you feel like you have every right to hate them. However, Jesus loved everyone, even the people who betrayed him and murdered him. Now, that's impressive. Trust me, I'm not trying to compare myself to Jesus or claim that I can be like him. Yeah, right. However, I do know that I am capable of trying a little harder to love others. Let's be real, what do you get out of being rude to someone or talking trash about them? Basically nothing. I've noticed that when I'm negative towards other people (even just in my own mind) that I feel crappy and negative too. And when I'm nice and positive towards others, then I feel so much better and happier. Alas, my verse. I want to use it to fight off the negative thoughts in my head. When I see someone doing something that I think is stupid or ridiculous, I want to replace that negative thought with my verse. Who cares if some girl wants to post a billion photos of her baby on Instagram (guilty as charged), I'm going to love her anyway because she is doing what makes her happy. And why does it matter to me if some crazy girl wants to write ridiculously long-winded blog posts (also guilty) and think that she's cool enough for people to actually want to read that garbage, well I will love her too. Challenge accepted. 

I see that what started out as a blog post has now turned into a short novella, sorry y'all. However, this verse just really has me going here. I promise that this is last point that I am going to make about it, so hang in there. The final line of the verse, "Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples", also spoke to one of my gospel transformation goals for this year. To share my faith with others. I'm not a huge fan of people throwing religion into random conversations. I am not one of those people who is going to come right out and ask you about your church, or try to force mine upon you because I just don't feel like that is my place and I don't really even know how to approach that. So I have been looking for ways to share my faith with others without just randomly throwing something like, "Hey, so how 'bout that Jesus guy" into a casual conversation. I feel like this verse finally gave me a little direction in that department. It says that simply by loving others, I can share my faith with the world. Well, that sounds like a manageable task, even for me. Ultimately, loving others seems to be like a pretty good idea in my book so I'm committed to making more of an effort. Love to you all, and free hugs for everyone. (That one is for all my fellow Bachelor fans out there...here's your free hug, don't worry you can get a coupon and redeem it later) 

Have a spectacular weekend and go share some love :)            

Five Year Anniversary

Last Friday, Jared and I celebrated our five year wedding anniversary. I can hardly believe that it has already been 5 whole years since we got married. However, I will say that I does feel like it has been quite a while since our wedding, but not in a bad way though. I think this is mostly due to the fact that so much has happened in our lives in these past 5 years that our wedding feels like something so distant in my mind. Plus, we look so much younger in our wedding photos that I feel like I can even just see a huge difference in how much we have grown up.

When I walked down that aisle back in 2009, I never could have imagined that this is where I would be a mere 5 years later. I wouldn't have believed you then, if you told me that my dad wouldn't still be here with us now. I cherish that walk down the aisle with him more than anything else and I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to experience that moment with him before he was gone. I have way too many friends who will never be able to have their fathers walk them down the aisle, so even though I am sad not to have my dad here with me now, I am so grateful that he was there for me then. I never would have expected us to have to do IVF or to not already have at least one child born before our five year anniversary. Thankfully, that ended up working out better than I ever could have planned and I am so glad that Jared and I got to experience 5 years of traveling and being "just us" before starting a family. It was truly a blessing in disguise. I never would have dreamed that I'd be resilient enough to be a middle school teacher at an urban Title I school (now turned stay-at-home-mommy) or be awarded Teacher of the Year at my school at such a young age. So much has happened in such a short time. We can plan our lives out all we want, but only God knows the true plans that He has for us.

I am very proud of Jared and I for building such a strong marriage together in the midst of a lot of happy times as well as many terrifying obstacles. In a time where marriage seems to just be kind of a joke to many people (check out that divorce rate), I am proud to say that Jared and I both take our marriage very seriously and work hard at it. Just like everything else in life, you get out of something what you put into it. I want nothing more than to set a good example for Peyton of growing up in a home with a loving marriage. I am beyond blessed to have such a wonderful husband and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with him, watching him become the awesome daddy that I know he will be.

Jared and I are not big "gift" people. We don't really ever exchange gifts for any holidays. Instead, we prefer to have some sort of "experience" together. We go do an activity or go on a trip...basically, make a memory together instead of buying some more stuff that we don't need. While enjoying this activity or vacation, I'm all about the free souvenirs...aka: pictures. Yes, I own my fair share of crap that I've brought back from various European countries, but over the years I've noticed that my all time favorite souvenirs from any experience are the pictures. Which brings me to my anniversary gift for this year. Being the crazy photo-loving girl that I am, I came up with this idea (actually I sort of stole it from Pinterest). This was the only thing I wanted for our anniversary (and it cost absolutely nothing, so that's win win for all of us) so Jared was a good sport and cooperated with my wishes. In my eyes, no material gift could have compared to this. It was the perfect way to celebrate our 5 year anniversary for me.

   
We returned to the exact spot where we took our first photos as Mr. & Mrs. on our wedding day. I wanted to recapture the photos, now 5 years later, to show how much our lives have changed. I absolutely love how the photos turned out! Big shout out to my sister-in-law, Erika, for being our photographer. Location: The Casa Monica Hotel in Historic Downtown Saint Augustine, Florida.

5 Year Wedding Anniversary at 37 weeks pregnant

Cheers to many more wonderful years of wedded bliss!

Book Club

I haven't posted a book review here on the blog in quite a while now. Oh well, there's no time like the present, right? Over the past few months, I have not been doing a good job of giving myself time to read which makes me sad because I absolutely love to read. Well, I take that back. I have been reading, just not fun books. I've been reading articles about pregnancy, babies, reviews of products for babies, etc. It's literally taken over my life. Oye vey. I promised myself that I was going to get back into reading for pleasure, and lately I have finally had the time to do so. Thanks to my insanely swollen pregnancy feet, I have to take time out of each day to sit down, elevate my feet and relax. This is not something I am good at. I especially hate propping my feet up, it makes me feel so antsy and trapped. However, I have found that the only way for me to successfully relax is to read while I do so. It keeps me distracted enough that I forget that I'm antsy and that I want to get up an move around. So now for an hour or two each day, my swollen feet get some relief and I get to enjoy some quality reading time. Win win.

I have finally finished a book that I have been trying to read for a little while now, which is the one I am reviewing today. This book has saved my swollen feet and forced me to sit down and relax.

Today I am sharing...

Here is a synopsis/review of the book from Amazon: 

Marriage can be a real killer. 

  One of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong. The Chicago Tribune proclaimed that her work “draws you in and keeps you reading with the force of a pure but nasty addiction.” Gone Girl’s toxic mix of sharp-edged wit and deliciously chilling prose creates a nerve-fraying thriller that confounds you at every turn. 

   On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer? 

   As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?

   With her razor-sharp writing and trademark psychological insight, Gillian Flynn delivers a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that confirms her status as one of the hottest writers around.

My thoughts...

To say that this book is a psychological thriller is quite an understatement. It is dark and suspenseful in ways I could never have dreamed in my wildest imagination. It keeps you guessing and analyzing every single minute detail with the turn of each page. However, just when you think you have it figured out, each new twist in the story is more shocking than the last. There are so many clues and finite details to figure out the meaning and significance of and just when you think you have accomplished that, you find that those details simply cover up an even deeper meaning. I can't even begin to fathom how an author could write with so many complicated layers as Flynn did in this book. The main characters, husband and wife, are so complex and manipulative that you don't know whether to trust them, like them or hate them. My opinion of them changed constantly throughout the book. Just when I thought I had pinned down that character's personality or motive, another detail came along and changed my entire perspective. The story just became more intense and complicated as you peeled back each layer. I never in a million years could have predicted the ending of this book. In fact, when I first read it, I actually hated the ending. Then, the more I thought about the ending, the more I realized how brilliant it was. It's actually very difficult to articulate my reaction and comprehension of this book without spoiling it. Let's just say that when I came to the end and closed the book, I just sat there. Mind blown. This book turned out to be nothing like I expected, which is what I loved about it.

Babymoon

Jared and I went on a little babymoon this weekend. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this "babymoon" phenomenon, it's basically a second honeymoon before your first baby comes (aka: just an excuse to go on a trip and relax). While a babymoon is really an unnecessary part of preparing for the birth of your first child, I totally get it. That's not to say that once the kid is born that the two of you will never relax, or be alone or go on a trip ever again; however, let's face it things are about to change drastically. This is the perfect opportunity to get away and relax, to stop thinking about all the preparation that still needs to be done, and to enjoy these final moments of it being just the two of you.

Originally, I wanted to seize this vacation opportunity to go somewhere cool that we had never been before. However, I then realized that I wasn't going to enjoy a trip like that if I couldn't go full itinerary, local breweries and wineries, tourist-mode. My normal travel style is definitely not conducive to being pregnant. Therefore, I knew that a trip like that would not be relaxing and that I would just go-go-go the entire time and end up coming home exhausted and worse off then when I left for the vacation. If I truly wanted to relax, I had to go somewhere that I had been before and didn't have a bunch of historical, tourist stuff that I would be tempted to divulge in. Alas, we opted for a weekend at my mom's beach condo in New Smyrna Beach. There's not much to do there except relax by the pool or on the beach. Perfect. Plus, it's only like an hour and 20 minutes from our house and my mom owns it so this vacation would be super cheap. Just food, gas and boarding our dogs. This truly was the best option for us because we really have no business spending a bunch of money on a vacation when we have so much necessary baby stuff that we still need to buy.

Here is a recap of our babymoon...

Friday
We drove down to New Smyrna and ate lunch at one of my favorite restaurants there on the ocean called Chases on the Beach. It has a fun, outdoor, MTV Spring Break kind of environment which makes me feel like I'm in college again. During our lunch there, we discovered that it is that time of the year again when Sam Adams Summer Ale is back on tap. This is probably my favorite beer ever. Jared ordered one and I smelled it...which sounds really weird, but since I can't drink one right now, just smelling it still satisfying. Only pregnant ladies of the world will understand that. I think that a Summer Ale might be my #1 request upon returning home from the hospital after delivering this baby. Go ahead and judge me.

By the time we made it to the condo, it was overcast and really windy out. Terrible beach weather. However, we trekked down to the beach anyways. We sat on the beach in our chairs, reading, for probably an hour until we couldn't stand being cold anymore and then went back to the condo. We hung out on the couch in the condo (thank you ABC Family for that Harry Potter marathon) until dinner. We ate at my absolute favorite restaurant in New Smyrna Beach, The Garlic.

Saturday
I forced Jared out of bed early because I could actually see a little sunshine out there! Plus, the weather forecast said that it was going to start raining around lunchtime so I wanted to attempt to get in as much beach time as possible before the storm. By the time we got ready and made it down to the beach, the sun was already gone. Fail. It was overcast and windy once again. Still we tried to make the best of it. We relaxed in our chairs for a little bit and then went on a 2 mile walk down the beach. It was windy and kinda chilly so I had to wear my cover-up. No tanning to be had here. We went back up to the condo around noon to eat lunch and that's when the storm began. For the rest of the day, it was a torrential downpour outside so we just hung out in the condo. I guess God decided that we should spend some quality spouse time together instead of frolicking on the beach. It was so very relaxing, doing a whole lot of nothing.

By dinner time, the weather cleared up so we went to dinner at The Breakers and enjoyed watching the post-storm pink sky fade away from their oceanfront deck.

Sunday
Sunshine! I was so excited when I woke up to sunshine! We only had half a day left to spend, so I wanted to get down to the beach as soon as possible. The weather was beautiful, except that it was still windy and the rain from the day before had caused the temperature to drop. However, I wasn't going to let that stop me from salvaging what was left of my beach vacation. Here Jared and I are on the beach in our chairs, in bathing suits, while everyone else walking on the beach is in sweatshirts because the temperature is in the 50s. Luckily, the sun was shining bright and there wasn't a cloud in the sky so it didn't feel as cold as it actually was. Ok, I was freezing. The temperature warmed up a little as the morning went on, but I was so excited to be out in the sun that I didn't care. We went for another 2 mile walk on the beach and then it was time to head back to the condo and pack up. By the time we had to leave the beach (around noon), it was finally the perfect temperature. Of course. I was very sad that we couldn't stay longer, but we had to get back in time to pick up the dogs from boarding.

I only managed to take two pictures (both on Sunday) from our entire trip because the weather was pretty much crappy the entire time and we didn't really do anything that exciting. Despite the terrible weather, which really pissed me off, we still managed to have a fun trip together. I guess the most important thing about this babymoon was the two of us relaxing and spending time together, which is exactly what we did.

5 years ago, we went on our honeymoon to the Dominican Republic and it rained majority of the time we were there. That forced us to basically hang out, with nothing to do and invent ways to entertain ourselves together. So I guess it's only fitting that now, 5 years later, we had the same thing happen on our babymoon. It's nice to know that no matter the circumstances, we can always manage to have fun together even if we aren't doing anything at all.  

I did finally work up the courage for a bare belly bump photo! 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I've decided that God gave us a chilly, rainy St. Patrick's Day today just for me. Since I am almost 29 weeks pregnant, I will not be able to participate in the splendid festivities of my favorite holiday this year. Typically, Jared and I go to the Irish pub down the road from our house for their outdoor block party every year. Obviously, we won't be going this year because there is no way that I want to sit under a tent in the cold rain and not even be able to drink. Pass. So maybe it's the fact that it's a Monday, or that the weather is yucky or the fact that I am currently a blissfully happy pregnant lady, but I am not the least bit upset about doing absolutely nothing for St. Patrick's Day this year. If anything, I might get myself a Reuben to-go from the pub, make a mock cocktail (maybe even bust out the food coloring and dye it green), and enjoy it all from the comfort of my living room couch. For now, I'm just looking forward to next year when I can parade Peyton around in a cute little green outfit, while of course enjoying a green beer.

More importantly, today marks the 8 year anniversary of the day that Jared and I met. You can read our story here. I wonder how I will ever tell Peyton the story of how her dad and I met...skipping class, sweet talking our way into a 21+ bar when we were only 19...not one of my finer moments, but looking back I'm sure glad I did it.

Rain or shine, I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe St. Patrick's Day today! Sláinte!

The day we met, St. Patrick's Day 2006

Happy Valentine's Day

In case the obnoxious amount of mushy posts on your social media did not already alert you as to what today is, it's Valentine's Day. If you have been reading my blog over the years, then you already know that I am not the biggest fan of this holiday. However, as a married woman I suppose that I am obligated to celebrate it anyways. Don't worry, nothing has changed this year. Jared and I spent exactly zero dollars on each other for Valentine's Day, but that doesn't mean that the sentiment was lost.

I decided that instead of getting Jared a card and letting Hallmark do all the work capturing my feelings, that I would just do it myself. So I wrote him a letter. I am absolutely terrible about verbalizing my feelings, which is something that Jared is actually good at. I'd rather just be quiet than say how I am really feeling. Hence the reason we opted for the generic vows at our wedding. You think I'm actually going to say my feelings out loud in front of a room of 120 people...uh no. On a cold day in you know where. However, I have always been really good at illustrating my feelings in writing. Hence, the blog. If you ever want to really know how I am feelings about something, don't ask me because I won't tell you. Read my blog. There you will find my true feelings. In the past 8 years, I have opened up a lot more about my feelings verbally (Jared has forced me to, darn him), but still if you really want me to pour my heart out, let me write it down.

So back to this Valentine's letter that I composed last night. It is 3 pages long. Typed. And it is a tearjerker, let me tell you. It took me probably an hour to write and I cried most of the time. Pregnancy hormones make something like that perfectly acceptable these days. It's pretty lovey-dovey-mushy, but don't worry there's a little sarcastic wit thrown in every now and then. I know you didn't think I could honestly make it through three whole pages of writing without making a few smart ass comments. Not possible.

I left Jared's letter on the counter for him to read before he went to work this morning. He also left me a letter, which was not nearly as long as mine, but equally as sweet and thoughtful. What can I say, I'm a long-winded writer...but if you read this blog regularly, then you already know that. I blame it on the fact that I spent my entire college career writing 30 page papers. If you can write a 30 page analysis of Steinbeck, then you can write 30 pages about anything. English major problems.

This made me realize something funny about Jared and I and how completely opposite we are in our communication styles. Ask Jared to talk about a topic and he goes on forever. Foooor. Evvvv. Errrr. (Kudos to those of you that picked up on that Sandlot reference) Just ask his Kappa Sigma brothers who had to sit through chapter every Sunday when he was President. Sorry guys, but oh you gotta love him for it. However, ask him to write down something and you get one very concise paragraph, straight to the point. Hello, where did that come from? I, on the other hand, am completely the opposite. Ask me to speak about a topic and you will get 3-5 concise sentences, straight to the point. Heck, it used to take longer to get 150 girls in the room and seated at Phi Mu, then it took for me to conduct an entire chapter meeting when I was President. However, ask me to write about something and you'd think I was publishing a novella on the topic. Case and point right here, I started writing this blog post to tell you about the sweet gesture Jared did for me this morning and here I am on paragraph 5 still not having made my point yet. I promise, I'm getting ready to land the plane y'all.

When I woke up this morning, I found my letter from Jared and three roses from our rose bush in my bud vase on the kitchen counter. How on Earth we managed to have blooming roses on our rose bush in this freezing weather, I have no idea. While my tiny rose blooms hand-picked from my yard may pale in comparison to everyone else's $50 florist arrangements today, I am overwhelmed with emotion when I look at them. I am not even sure if Jared actually realizes the sentimental value behind this gesture for me, so what drove him to do this, I have no idea. Must have been someone up above. I cried when I saw these roses because I immediately thought of my dad. My mom and I share similar views on Valentine's Day and floral arrangements in general. Every Valentine's Day, my mom would always tell my dad not to waste money on store bought flowers for her, so instead he would pick roses from the yard and put them in a bud vase on the counter for her. When I was a kid, we didn't have our own rose bush in our yard so he would go into our neighbor's yard and pick them. (Don't worry we were really good friends with our neighbors, my dad built their house, they didn't mind our trespassing.) Once my parents moved into the house that my mom still lives in now, my dad planted a rose bush in the yard so that he could pick blooms to put in the kitchen for her anytime. I am still in awe that despite the freezing cold outside, three little roses managed to bloom just in time for me on this holiday, carrying on a very special tradition. I couldn't imagine a more perfect Valentine's Day gift.  

I don't typically take photos on Valentine's Day because I don't normally do anything spectacular or worth documenting. However, I did manage to find this photo from Valentine's Day 4 years ago and don't worry, the cuteness factor does not disappoint. Here I am with my little Valentine, Lola, when she was only 2 months old. I want her to be this tiny again. Adorable.

Although I could really care less about this holiday, I can't wait to celebrate next year with our baby girl! Even though I will no longer be Jared's only Valentine, I am so excited to do all the fun kids stuff. Holidays are so much more fun when there are kids around. I can't wait to dress her up in a cute little outfit and take pictures of her and make little Valentines to send out to everyone from her, maybe I will actually become a real fan of this holiday after all. Until then, I better enjoy my last husband and wife only romantic Valentine's Day while I still can. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend! Happy Valentine's Day!

Four Years

Today, Jared and I are celebrating our 4 year wedding anniversary. I can't believe how fast the time goes by. We have faced a lot of difficult challenges over these few short years of marriage and I have to thank God everyday for blessing me with the perfect companion to stand by my side. Many of these experiences have not been easy, but they bring us closer together and make our marriage stronger.

On this day four years ago, my dad walked me down the aisle and gave me away to the only man he knew would be able to take care of me the way that he did. For those in attendance, this was probably the most memorable moment from my wedding. My dad crying like a baby and the rest of us laughing hysterically because it was the most unexpected and adorable thing we had ever seen. Initially, Jared and I were both nervous that we were going to start crying as I was coming down the aisle, but once we saw my dad we couldn't stop laughing. I guess I have my dad to thank for breaking the ice and calming my nerves in that moment.

I love looking back at our wedding photos because I feel like we look so young. We have come a long way over the past 4 years and it's fun to look back and remember where we started. I can't wait to see what the future has in store for us! Here's to many more years of happiness together :)

I've decided that rather than rewrite the same things on my blog every year, here are links to the posts I have made in the past about my wedding day...

Three Year Anniversary
Bridal Guest Blogger
Wedding Cake
Today Was A Fairytale

Our Other Anniversary

I like to say that Jared and I have two anniversaries. We have our wedding anniversary on May 16th and our meet-cute anniversary on March 17th (aka: the day we met). Yesterday, we celebrated our 7th anniversary and St. Patrick's Day together. I hope that everyone had a fabulous St. Patrick's celebration!

St. Patrick's Day 2013 

St. Patrick's Day 2012 in Dublin, Ireland

St. Patrick's Day 2011

St. Patrick's Day 2010

I don't have any photos of Jared and I from St. Patrick's Day in 2009, 2008 or 2007 because he had to actually go to work on that day instead of skipping class and going to the bar like Casey and I did :)

St. Patrick's Day 2006

The day we first met at Ken's Tavern in Tallahassee, FL

Mike & Emily's Wedding

Our sweet friends, Mike and Emily, got married this past weekend. You may remember them from my blog posts about Emily's Bachelorette Party or their engagement in Key West. I have been looking forward to this wedding for months because I knew that Mike and Emily would put on a good party and a beautiful wedding. It surely did not disappoint.

 Mike and Emily are married...yay!

The wedding took place at 4:30 in the afternoon on Saturday, February 9th at Club Continental here in Jacksonville. The ceremony was outside under a canopy of oak trees with a backdrop of the St. Johns River. It was absolutely beautiful. There were so many fun, creative touches that made the entire wedding extra unique. I loved these little burlap "yay" flags that we all got to wave as the newly married couple made their way back up the aisle at the end of the ceremony. 

My hubby with his BFF Mark...both rockin' the beards

 The ladies that belong to those two handsome gentlemen above. Lucky us :)

This is probably my favorite picture that I took at the wedding. I love the little girl in this picture just staring in awe of Emily looking like a princess.

 My hubby helping the groom with his bow-tie. We all know Jared is quite the connoisseur of bow-ties.  

 The bride with Mike and all of his Kappa Sigma fraternity brothers.

The Kappa Sigma wives club. Welcome to the club Emily!

I had to snag a photo with the beautiful bride!

My sister-in-law, Erika, was a bridesmaid in the wedding.  

 Don't get too excited ladies, all of these sexy gentlemen are taken. Sorry to disappoint :)

 We had such an amazing time at the wedding celebrating Mike and Emily!

Kudos to Mike and Emily's photographer Scarlett & Stephen. Here is one of their beautiful photos from the wedding...

Best Wishes to Mr. & Mrs. Hall!

Engagement

I have a lot of friends who are currently engaged, which gets me thinking back to when I was simply a fiancée and not yet a wife. Now, I am 5 years wiser with 4 years of marriage under my belt. So obviously that makes me qualified to give all sorts of advice on engagement and marriage. Not really. However, I can say that my husband and I have had to endure some tough life experiences that many couples don't see in their first 20 years of marriage, let alone 4. Therefore, I am dedicating this post to all of my engaged friends out there. The best is yet to come.

Dearest engaged friends,

Enjoy every minute of your engagement. I know that you are probably counting down the minutes until your wedding day, but don't forget to enjoy simply being engaged. You will never get the opportunity to be a fiancé/fiancée again (hopefully), so live it up. I know that planning a wedding can be stressful, but you have forever to be husband and wife. Twenty years from now, you want to be able to look back on your engagement fondly and remember all the fun you had embarking on this new journey together.

Your wedding guests love you and they will have a great time at your wedding no matter what. They don't care what songs the DJ plays or what kind of food is on the buffet. The wedding is about you, don't forget that. They have come to your wedding because they want to see you happy, not for the free bar tab (ok, maybe a little bit for that, I mean who doesn't love a free bar tab? Just kidding).

There is no "right" way to be engaged or have a wedding. Do whatever you want to do and f*** everything else :)

The people in your wedding party are there for a reason. Use them. Their job is not just to stand next to you and look pretty on that special day. Delegate the wedding tasks and have them help you out. Don't be afraid to ask for help. They agreed to be in your wedding party because they love you and they want to help you.

Don't feel pressured to stick to the status quo. Just because you get married doesn't mean you have to buy a house, start a career or have kids right away. Take the time to enjoy being husband and wife. If there is a trip that you always wanted to take, kids and a mortgage can wait. Seize the opportunity to have a really cool experience with your new spouse.

Don't lose your identity. You may have gained a spouse, but that doesn't mean that you have to lose yourself. Spend time apart from your spouse. Spend time alone. Spend time with your friends. You don't have to do everything together. Find activities that you enjoy doing together and activities that you enjoy doing apart.

Things will not go as you planned. And while this might seem tragic at the time, it will make for one hell of a story in the future. Control the things you can control and let go of the things you cannot control.

Take advice from your parents. You can learn so much from them. Whether you learn the things you want out of marriage or the things you don't want out of marriage, they have a lot of wisdom and experience to offer.

Do something for your fiancé/fiancée even if you don't enjoy it simply because you know it makes them happy. Marriage is all about compromise and communication, so why not start now?

It might feel like you can't imagine loving your fiancé/fiancée any more than you do right now, but trust me, you can and you will. It only gets better from here.

If there is anything that I have learned in these past four years, it is to spend every possible moment with the people you love. Tell them that you love them every single day. Our time here is short, so we might as well spend it with the people we love. Best wishes to all the engaged couples out there :)

Our Anniversary

Today, we are celebrating our 3 year wedding anniversary! I can hardly believe that 3 years have already passed since our big day.

I wrote a blog post all about our special day on our anniversary last year, so if you want to read a little flashback to our wedding day here it is: Today Was A Fairytale

These past three years have been absolutely everything I could have ever hoped for and more. Mind you, not every single day is rainbows and sunshine, but overall I would say that I am a very blessed woman. My husband and I are not one for spending money on each other, we just go do something fun together instead. So in lieu of a four dollar Hallmark card, I decided to dedicate my blog to my awesome husband today.

Here is an entertaining little thank you letter I wrote to my husband on this, our anniversary...

Dear Jared,
        Thank you for being a wonderful husband. You take such good care of me and you are always so sweet and loving. After all, someone in this relationship has to be romantic and we all know that it's not going to be me. Thank you for being a great father to our puppies - cleaning up their gross kennels when they barf in the middle of the night, taking them hunting and showing Sadie love even when she is bad...which is all the time. Thank you for always cooking dinner for us, simply because you are faster and better at it than I am. Thank you for attempting to teach me how to eat healthier, even though I fiercely reject it.  
        Thank you for accepting the fact that if it is 100 degrees outside, I am going to stay in the truck and drink beer while you go stand in the heat for four hours just to watch FSU play football. Thank you for not getting mad when your non-iron Brooks Brothers shirts are all wrinkled because I forgot to take them out of the dryer. Thank you for giving me and hug and handing me a glass of wine when I come home from a bad day at work. Thank you for listening to my crazy stories about my students. Thank you for always offering to help me grade papers. Thank you for jamming out to my really bad music choices in the car with me because you know it makes me happy. 
        Thank you for understanding that when I get together with my sorority sisters, we are going to act like stupid 18 year old girls all over again. Thank you for always pointing out everything you see that has a quatrefoil on it and buying every piece of home decor that I find with a quatrefoil on it. Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to practice my motherhood skills on your drunken fraternity brothers. Thank you for not playing video games in our house because you know I detest them. Thank you for accepting the fact that everything in our house is going to be monogrammed. Thank you for always doing the math for me. Thank you for buying me a china cabinet full of china that I never use just because I felt like it was an integral part of the dining room. 
        Thank you for accepting my blogging/crafting addictions. Thank you for always putting on a smile and posing for a picture with me, just because you know how much I love to take pictures. Thank you for always being silly with me and making me laugh. I'm sure that my parents would take this opportunity to thank you for taking me off of their payroll and removing my messy self from their house. Thank you for always loving me, supporting me, appreciating me and just being the best husband ever. xoxo

Love, Jacki

Happy Anniversary to me! Here's to many, many more :) 

Ireland Trip - Day 1

I am so excited to share my trip around Ireland with y'all! Since there was so much to see and do, I am splitting up my posts about the trip by day...there will be seven in all. While we were on our trip, I wrote about each day in a travel journal so that I wouldn't forget anything. Therefore, all of these posts are being copied directly from my journal which was written in the midst of our travels. I hope you enjoy reading all about my trip! Here we go...

March 17th - Dublin, Ireland

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Our overnight flight arrived in Dublin on Saturday morning. After making our way through customs and grabbing a quick breakfast in the airport, we made our way to the city centre of Dublin via taxi. Luckily, we were able to check into our hotel early because the St. Patrick's Day festivities were already in full swing.

Jared and I were overwhelmed with excitement that day for two reasons: #1 - St. Patrick's Day is our favorite holiday to celebrate together because it also happens to be the anniversary of the day that we met. #2 - I, like so many other people, have a bucket list. And one of the items on my bucket list is to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Ireland. Needless to say, I couldn't wait for this special event!

Jared and I were even lucky enough to have our own personal tour guide for the occasion. One of Jared's co-workers is a originally from Dublin and his brother, Ian, still lives in the city. Ian offered to be our guide for the day and we were thrilled to experience St. Patrick's Day as a "local".

The first stop on our journey was the St. Patrick's Festival parade. The streets were a sea of green. Everyone, local and foreign, was looking festive for the celebration. Over 600,000 people were present in Dublin that day for the festival. About 10 minutes into the parade, it started raining. Goodbye straight hair. Boo. Since it was raining, we decided that this would be a good time to duck into a pub for a pint. Thus, was my first experience was Guinness. Fun fact: Guinness in Ireland tastes completely different than Guinness in America. So if you have had a Guinness in America and didn't like it, trust me, it is so much better in Ireland. At first, I was put off by the color because the beer is literally black. However, I was shocked to discover that I actually liked it.

The rain stopped after about 15 minutes, which is apparently typical in Ireland. We ventured back outside to watch some of the parade. The floats in the parade were pretty weird, not gonna lie. It literally looked like a bunch of drunk people got together and tried to make the craziest thing they could imagine. There were also street performers and marching bands from America all throughout the parade. I was especially surprised to see that the parade had absolutely nothing to do with St. Patrick or your typical St. Paddy's Day regalia. I was expecting to see dancing leprechauns and shamrocks, but it was more "artsy" instead.

After the parade, we walked through the city to Grafton Street. This area of town is full of good shopping, restaurants and pubs. There are around 1,000 pubs total in the city of Dublin. We sat at an outdoor table and enjoyed a pint at one of the nearby pubs. This proved to be an excellent front row seat to all the action of drunken debauchery. Within 10 minutes, we saw 3 different drunkards arrested and hauled off by the "garda". These people were not going peacefully either, which made their arrest particularly entertaining for us bystanders. The Irish definitely lived up to their reputation on St. Patrick's Day, and I loved every minute.

Not only was March 17 a National holiday in Ireland, but it was also the day of a very important sporting event. At 5pm that day, Ireland played England in rugby. Important side note: when it comes to rugby, the Irish hate/loathe/despise the English. Ian took us to a pub where the locals go to watch the rugby matches and it was quite an experience. The pub was absolutely packed and these fans are real serious about their rugby. Ian explained how to game worked as we watched, and by halftime I was actually understanding the sport. Rugby is a sort of mixture between soccer and American football. However, it is a lot more physical and fast-paced than American football. Even though Ireland ended up losing the match, we had a blast watching the game with the local crowd.

After the rugby match, we grabbed some dinner and headed back to the hotel to call it a night. Between the jet lag and only getting a few hours of sleep on the plane in the last two days, we desperately needed to go to bed early. I'm sure that the rest of Dublin was partying late into the night celebrating their Patron Saint, Patrick. It was the perfect way to celebrate our special anniversary, plus, I finally got to check it off of my bucket list!