Here we go...

It's already MAY!!... *MAY*.... Our wedding month! Holy wow.. 19 more days. I'm getting less and less sleep(obviously!). I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about things I need to get done. I have nightmares that something is going to go wrong. We spend our evenings discussing last minute details and day dreaming about how great it will be to be married. *SIGH*.. Only 19 short days left!

Luckily I have my new job to keep me busy! I'm still getting used to full time hours without school. Speaking of no school. Graduation was this weekend and it was amazing! Got up early Saturday for the 9:30 graduation, went to lunch with my amazingly wonderful family, came home took a nap, went to the mall, then.. SURPRISE! Stephen had planned a surprise graduation party for me! :) This was a first for him. He has tried to surprise me in the past and I always figure it out(except for when he proposed! I have managed to pull off a surprise for his last 3 birthdays, so the fact that he got me was awesome! I appreciate everyone who helped him pull it off! This weekend was perfect!

Sunday we slept in then enjoyed the day at the beach. We were wiped out so instead of cooking we went for Chinese then watched a movie at the house. Perfect ending... so we thought. We were just getting into bed last night when thanks to facebook we knew to turn on the news to see that Osama Bin Laden has finally been served justice. Truly a perfect ending to a perfect weekend. I will never forget that. I'm always proud to be American and especially to be engaged to an airman, but today I was even more so. I know this isn't the end. The war on terror is just beginning, but this was a huge victory for America and I am so grateful to all of our troops both home and away!
"Make it home, Make it safe!" I love that this happened on May 1st.. the start of Military Appreciation month! I appreciate my military, and if you don't... well you know what I say. "If you don't stand behind our troops, feel free to stand in front of them!" ;) God bless you all, you're always in my prayer(this counts for all you milspouses too! One of the hardest jobs in the military!)

Ok, definitley bed time. I've been going to the gym at 6 before I get ready for work, so I'm gonna need some sleep! I promise not to disappear anymore! I'm back in the blogging world, and plan to reveal my work blog soon which should be a whole new adventure! Happy Monday y'all!

Monday, Monday, Monday

Oh Monday you came again too soon! We had a fabulous weekend! Unfortunatley I am slacking with picture taking, but that's because I discovered my digital camera is broken. My sweet sweet fiance bought us a new one so we would have one for the honeymoon, and I can't wait for it to get here!!! :) He got a great deal on it from eBay too.. he also became addicted to eBay in the process which isn't so good! Haha

Today I was off of school and work(I know, crazy!!) It was so nice. Crossed several things off my list for the wedding. Finished a take home final, cleaned the apartment, got in a nice long work out, AND got to lay out with my sweet cousin, Mandy for a couple hours! Wonderful day!

Now my work week gets in full swing tomorrow and my last finals are Wednesday! I don't even care because I graduate on Saturday! Woo hoo! :)

My current major items to cross off the wedding list: Marriage license(pretty crucial, right?) and finding some really cute jewelry for my bridesmaids to go with their dresses.

Oh, oh, oh! I forgot we got our first 2 wedding gifts today! :) So exciting!!! I can't believe how close it is!!!!!!

Well anyway, it's sadly my bedtime already! I promise to catch up again soon, I know I have been a slacker!

Happy Monday y'all! :)

And now a bit early..

Not enough time in the day these days, so when I get a second, I'll just go ahead and write both! :) How is it already Thursday?!? Head over and link up with Nicole@ Flip Flops and Combat Boots for Thursday 5!!This week's words: Dazzling

Spectacular

Terrific

Perfect

Ecstatic

 

1) We went to see Disney on Ice tonight with my wonderful cousins and the show was Dazzling!! We had such a good time, and the best part was playing with sweet baby boy Trae! He is such a little doll! He definitley keeps us all entertained!

 2) (Other than this morning) The weather has been Spectacular!! Warm and sunny, but thankfully not too hot and humid yet! 3) I finished ALL of my undergrad assignments as of yesterday and it feels Terrific!! Just my finals now and I'm FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! 4) Tonight, I get off work at 5 and I don't have to work anywhere else! :) Perfect night at home with my almost hubby is what we have planned! I'm cooking a yummy dinner and then we'll watch a movie.. can't wait for quittin' time tonight! :) 5) Today OFFICIALLY marks exactly ONE month til our wedding!!! Words can't describe how ECSTATIC I am!!!!!  I know my Thursday 5 seems pretty redundant the last few weeks, but I promise my life will change soon! After next week, no more school!! So I'll be working full time and hopefully have more interesting things to talk about. And in just a month we'll be married so no more wedding talk, just newlywed stories! Bear with them.. I'm in the middle of some HUGE changes, but I'll be more interesting soon I promise!!  Happy Thursday y'all! :)

Just barely made it..

AGAIN!! My life has been so crazy this week that I just barely make it in time for my favorite link ups! And sadly, I haven't found time to write a real post... BAD! I will catch up soon, promise!! But for now, without further ado, What I'm loving Wednesdays!!

There's a LOT to be loving this Wednsday! 

I started my new job, and I'm seriously loving it!

I'm loving that I turned in my LAST under grad presentation EVER today!!(However, I'm not loving these last few finals standing between me and graduation!!)

I'm loving that I finally made myself decide on shoes for my bridesmaids! One thing to mark off the wedding check list! Which is good since we're officially at 30 days!!

 

And of course, I'm always loving my sweet, sweet boys!!

 

Happy Wednesday y'all! :)

Quick Monday hello!

Hello all! I know I have been M.I.A. since Thursday(very BAD on my part!) But I was in Panama City Beach all weekend working for my dad at the SeaBreeze Jazz Festival with my cousin, Mandy. It was a loooong weekend of working, but we did manage to sneak in some fun! :)

Got home late last night and had to be up early this morning... started my first day at my NEW job!! (YES, I did get the job I interviewed for last week!! :)) I'm so excited! The people are so nice, and I love the work so far. Also, I got good news when I went in this morning that they decided to pay me more than they initially had said! The downfall is now I have to quit my current job. I'm going in the morning to put in my 2 weeks and it's going to be sad. I really loved the people I worked with!

I finally talked Stephen into moving the month after the wedding so I'm already in the process of looking at houses.. I love starting fresh in a new house! :) On the same note, we're now just over ONE month away from our wedding! WOW! So much still to do.

This is my last week of classes, just one presentation and 2 finals seperate me from graduation next Saturday! Since I was gone all weekend I'm in the process of catching up on some cleaning, laundry, organizing, and homework/wedding stuff. Needless to say I'm one more thought away from a mild panic attack! So I apoloize in advance I will probably be M.I.A. again this week since I work everyday until Sunday and need to wrap up homework and last minute wedding details.. hopefully I'll have a more interesting post soon.. i'm almost DONE!! :) Happy Monday y'all!

 

And since it's now Thursday..

Here is my other favorite weekly link up.... Thursday 5!!

 A huge thank you to Nicole from Flip Flops and Combat Boots to hosting this one every week! :) LOVE it! This weeks words:DeliciousExcitingAwesomeRewarding

Priceless

1) Tonight I copied my mom and made one of Stephen's favorite dinners. Pork tenderloin, fried(mexican lol) rice, and green beans. It was Delicious! So glad my mama's such a good cook!

2) I had a very Exciting job interview the other day and I feel like it went very well! Still praying it works out and hoping to hear back very soon! :)

3) The weather here has been Awesome!! So warm during the day for getting tan, but cool at night. Stephen and I actually ate our dinner outside on our balcony tonight.. soooo relaxing!

4) Graduation is just over two weeks away now! It's so Rewarding now to look at a class syllabus and see that everything is done but taking finals! Oh how I will NOT miss undergrad!

5) Got a phone call tonight from Trae baby.. he's little voice is too cute! He's growing up so fast and these little moments are Priceless!! It's so funny to see how much he's grown up already! :)
   isn't he a doll?! I just love him to pieces!

It's been a wonderful week and I can't believe it's already Thursday!! Long weekend ahead working for my dad at the jazz festival in panama city, I will be sure to take pictures and will try to post again when I get a chance.

Happy Thursday y'all! :)

Barely made it in time for WILW...

So, I was laying in bed, the future hubs fast asleep already, when I realized.. I hadn't posted my What I'm loving Wednesday post! Ahhh! It's one of my two favorite posts for the week! So just in the knick of time, without further ado, here you go: :)

I love that Jamie @ LittleDaisyMay hosts this every week!

I love that I finally went grocery shopping today! (Boy, did we need food!) I love that I found this awesome tabouli mix so I could make homemade tabouli salad! One of my favorites! Unfortunatley for the guy that ones Four Winds market, I won't need to go in there to buy it anymore because it's way cheaper and just as delicious to make it myself!

YUMMY!!

I'm loving that we finally decided on, ordered, and are now currently waiting on Stephen's wedding band!(Good thing too since there's only 37 days til our wedding now!! Eeeep!)

I love it, because I think it's different! :)

I love, love, love that Stephen's been making the drive home every night in stead of staying on base and we've been able to cook/eat dinner together and watch our favorite shows! Pretty much my favorite past time! :)

I'm LOVING the awesome weather we've been having! Gorgeous, sunny, and warm all day and clear and cool enough to have the windows open at night! My skin sure is loving the tan!

I'm loving how LAZY my Natty dog is!

I'm seriously LOVING the fact that we've already gotten so many RSVPs back for the wedding! My mom called me tonight to tell me that she checked the mail today and had 18! 18!!! (They just went out on Friday), love that people respond so quickly! (Mom was excited but I think it secretly stresses her out a bit too, it's amazing how quickly weddings grow! ;)

I love that's already Wednesday and this week is already almost over.. next week is the last week of actual class then a couple finals... LOVE that!! Hello graduation! :)

LOVE life! Happy Wednesday y'all!

Bridal shower, 21st birthday, job interview, OH MY!!

It's been a few days since I've posted anything, but boy has it been a whirlwind around here and it's only Tuesday! We had quite a weekend and it really hasn't slowed down since, so I will attempt to catch everyone up...

Saturday was my bridal shower! (I'm sure everyone remembers me counting down to it!) It was awesome! Lots of talking, laughing, and catching up with my family and friends. We played that clothes pin game where you steal other people's if they say a certain word but this version involved stealing the person's pin if they said the groom's name. Needless to say, mine was gone with in minutes. Some of my cousins were great at tricking other people by asking leading questions to get them to say Stephen's name. Too funny!
I didn't really get that many pins...
Me with all my WONDERFUL bridesmaids!! :)
We got TONS of great things, we're truly blessed!!!

It was an amazing time, and I'm so blessed to have so many amazing people in my lives and I'm truly thankful for everyone that came/helped with the shower!! THANK YOU!!

Three generations of mothers and daughters! :)
**Cool side note, my mom's friends from high school threw my shower, they were MOM'S bridesmaids.. how cool is that?!

As if, that wasn't enough for one day my cousin/best friend FINALLY turned 21!! So we had quite the night celebrating with her out at the beach! So glad she's legal!! :)
All 4 cousins.. all grown up!

Me and the birthday girl!
Me, my love, and our favorite little one, Trae!!

Happy birthday Mandy!! Welcome to the over 21 club! :)

Sunday naturally required some sleeping in! Then we went to have lunch with two of my best friends, Lisa, Whitney, and Whitney's sweet baby girl, Annisten! Then we made the trek into Pace to visit Stephen's grandparents and get all the details on our awesome vacation(AGAIN, SO blessed and grateful for this great opportunity!!!!)

We'll be spending a week in the Bahamas and Stephen's mom and grandparents have been down there a few times so they filled us in on all the do's and don'ts of the trip.... so can't wait to be here:
 The crazy thing is we will be there in 1 month and 9 days, and I'll be Mrs. Lauren Volheim :) Whoaaaaaaa so exciting!

Yesterday was less exciting.. class, trying to get them wrapped up. Only a week and a half left until graduation and I couldn't be more excited!!

Today, I went to my pilates class then had what I hope to be a very promising job interview. I won't say too much about that right now until I find out for sure.. they said I would know at the end of the week so until then prayers are appreciated! :)

Now to wait on the future husband to get home and hang out! Finally a quiet night in... I think lol. Hopefully just dinner and some chill time.. we still have a dining room table full of bridal shower gifts that need to be put away!!!

Hope everyone else is having a wonderful week! :)

Thursday five... Wait Thursday already?!?!?!

Yup, believe it or not it's already Thursday! I'm not entirely sure where the weeks keep going! But I'm not really complaining! I love weekends(well the weekends that Stephen is off!) because we can stay up past 10 pm, go to the beach, and just enjoy hanging out together! I also love that now I only have THREE more weeks of school left til graduation.. that's just CRAZY! It also means we're at the 6 week mark on the wedding countdown! WHOA!(In fact, we're coming up on the first anniversary of our engagement :))
But I digress, back to my original reason for this post, it's that time of the week again! One of my favorite link ups, it's time for my Thursday 5! I love linking up to this creative post by Flip Flops and Combat Boots, so you should get creative, grab the words and the button and link up too!

This week has a fun little twist. Nicole chose to use Boston slang words. I had to laugh when I read them. Being that I'm from the deep south and most of these words I've never used in my life, this one may prove a little tricky! But here goes nothing!

Wicked (definition: very)

Mint (definition: excellent!)

Pissa (definition: cool, good)

Fresh (definition: describes any undesired behavior)
Wicked Pissa (definition: something is so cool there's no words to describe it)

1) As I posted above, I am Wicked excited about the next several weeks! Time is flying and there is so much to countdown right now!

2) Some of the most Mint people ever are throwing my bridal shower on Saturday and I'm beyond excited! :)

3) After many missed dates, I will finally be hanging out with my long lost friend, Scotti tonight. I'm thinking that making a Pissa dinner here at the house and having some wine will make for a relaxing evening! (Orrrr maybe 99cent margarita night at los rancheros.. ya never know! ;))

4) So my apartment complex managers thought it would be a good idea to resurface our balcony ceilings. I think this idea is more Fresh than anything and it is really getting on my nerves!

5) So I just wanted to say this morning that my mom is Wicked Pissa!!! She always has been, but she's been super incredible with all this wedding stuff! Seriously, without her nothing would be done! She text me this morning to let me know the wedding invitations went out today.. Eeeeeekk! I can't wait til people start getting them and we start getting our RSVPs back!!! :D

**Side note: I'm laughing because when I link up and Nicole, or anyone else actually familiar with Boston slang will probably laugh at my ridiculous attempt at the words! They were amusing if nothing else! :)

I know I post about wedding stuff all the time(and i'm sure that gets a little old!), but I rarely post about the real reason for the day. I'm beyond ecstatic to be marrying my BEST friend! Seriously, he makes me laugh like no one else, and he laughs at how truly goofy I am. He's one of the few people I feel so comfortable letting my guard down completely with and just being the complete goober that I am. I love that we both love cooking dinner at home, then spending the rest of the night on the couch watching movies or jeopardy because we're both big dorks! :) He really is my other half and I'm SO thankful to have him! :D

Ok enough being mushy for today! Time to go get something done.. remember it's Thursday only one more day to the weekend.. so smile!!