This past Monday, my sweetheart and I celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary. It was a wonderful day! We planned a day full of letterboxing!

We started out by planting 3 letterboxes. We have done a series called Tour of Clarksville and we added one box to that series and then a bonus box! I’m quite proud of both of these. (I carve all the stamps we use) Then we headed to Hopkinsville to plant the first letterbox in the town! (that we know of) We planted this one at a really cool park called Round Stone Literary Park. We just had to take pictures!

Matthew had to try to pull the sword out of the stone. Hehe.

The Round Table. It was HUGE! This picture doesn’t really do it justice.

We had fun.

After that we headed to Paducah where we tried to find several letterboxes, but it was getting dark and we were unsuccessful. But we still had fun!

When I had been planning out trip out I saw how close Illinois was to Paducah. So I insisted that we go, just so I could add another state to my list of states I’ve been to! After doing our circles (which we do on EVERY trip!) we ended up in Metropolis Illinois. It is the “home” of Superman! They even have a celebration every year! We are planning on going back for that!

After we left Metropolis, we headed back to Paducah and had dinner at Texas Roadhouse. It was yummy. Then we headed home and spent the night watching a movie and relaxing. It was a fantastic day!

Stay tuned for pictures from our trip to Gatlinburg, which we are on right now! We are attending the Strong Bonds Marriage Retreat that the Army does. We’re having a blast! Well, I gotta go so we can go find some more letterboxes!

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Going through deployment can be a very depressing time. You’re separated from your loved one, trying to get through life day by day. So I wanted to list some of the things that always make me smile.

1. Emails, Facebook, Twitter, or Skype messages from my husband. Any kind of communication from him is a blessing!

2. Friends. I have some of the most amazing friends who know just the right thing to say to me when I need to hear it the most.

3. Spending time with my amazing sister. She makes me laugh daily!

4. Watching a funny movie. While it’s not as fun without my hubby, they still make the time go by faster.

5. Blasting the music in my car. 99% of the time it’s Christian music, so I just praise Jesus while I’m driving down the road!

6. Chocolate. Need I say more?

7. Making new friends. I had lunch this week with a new friend who is also a military wife. It was so great for both of us!

8. Talking about the future with my husband. We love to dream together. Even from halfway around the world, he makes my heart beat faster.

9. Starbucks Mochas. Oh yeah!

10. Thinking about how incredibly blessed I am. I have the most amazing husband ever. He is so good to me. I am so in love with him. I think about him constantly!

What makes you smile?

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The year is coming to an end again. 2010 was good to me. I married my sweetheart. The year was also hard, because he deployed 6 months later. Nevertheless, it was good. I am excited for what 2011 will bring me. My husband will be home, we’ll be moving to a new duty station. Who knows what else the new year will bring. I’m open for anything!

I hope you all have a blessed and Happy New Year. It’s gonna be GREAT!

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I started dreaming of my wedding day when I was just a little girl. I always wanted to get married in the same room my parents did, the chapel in my home church. With my best friends standing by my side. All of my friends and family there to watch my become a Mrs. Every little detail would be perfect.

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When Matthew proposed, we knew he would be deployed at some point but we thought we had plenty of time to plan my dream wedding. The day after I got our personalized napkins in the mail we found out his deployment had been bumped up by 6 months and we would have to change our wedding date.

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We finally decided on January 16th, 2010. With only 4 months to plan, we had to move quickly. It also meant that a lot of our family and friends could not make it to our wedding. We invited a little more than 100 people. Which for some people is big. However, with the size of my family and the number of friends we have, we wanted to invite over 300!

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A lot of the small detail we worked out the way I wanted them. My flowers and my sister’s flowers. The colors we used. The paper lanterns in the reception room. The purple shoes with my lime green nail polish.

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One big thing that didn’t happen. My grandparents weren’t there. My dad’s parents have both passed away. My mom’s parents are still alive and very much a part of my life. Due to their health, they were not able to travel to my wedding.

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We had our ceremony in the foyer to the chapel. I loved how it turned out! The candelabras are the exact same ones that my parents used in their wedding.

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Matthew’s brother Keith was his best man. My sister Hannah was my maid of honor. Matthew’s daughter Callie was our flower girl. Our friend’s son Ty was our ring bearer. Matthew’s best friend Rodney sang for us. The rest of the guys Matthew asked to be groomsmen couldn’t make it. That’s why we decided to just have a best man and maid of honor. We did have ushers who were (from Left to Right) my cousin Eric, our friend (my “brudder”) Brian, our friend (My “brother”) Toye, and my best friend Josh. My best friend Kelly was my honorary Matron of Honor. I felt bad about not having my other bridesmaids stand up with me. I didn’t even get pictures with them. That’s definitely something I would have changed.

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These center pieces were EXACTLY what I wanted. My mom did such an amazing job with them! We only did half of the center pieces like this.

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I absolutely loved the cupcakes we had. They were adorable and SO yummy! Probably the best I’ve ever had! But I think I would have a cake at the next wedding.

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I had a vision of my reception being in a beautiful ballroom with chandeliers galore. I am very pleased with the way it turned out though. I think the only big thing I would change about the room itself would be: No Fluorescent lights!!

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Here’s a big detail I would change. We originally wanted to have our “guest book” be a signature picture frame. When we have our “BIG” wedding, we will do that.

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We decided to do a “unity candle” in our wedding. Since we plan on having a bigger vow renewal ceremony for all of our friends and family, we are going to do a sand ceremony. We didn’t want to do that for this ceremony since you can only mix different colored sand once! LOL!

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When I look back at our wedding, it was really the perfect day. There were things that didn’t go as planned. There were details I will change for our big ceremony. But the day I married the love of my life was absolutely perfect. I will never think differently.

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This was prompted by Mama Kat’s Writing Prompts. “If you could do your wedding over, how would you do it?”

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We had so much fun this weekend at the marriage retreat. We learned a lot about communication and how to love your spouse in their love language. Even though we’re newlyweds, I think it was great for us to go because we learned that stuff early!

We also loved where we stayed, the Chattanooga Choo Choo. For those of you who don’t know, it is a historical train station that was turned into a hotel. It is so cool! They have all these train cars that they turned into hotel rooms, as well as 3 hotel buildings. They have several shops and restaurants, including 2 restaurants that are in train cars. Most of our meals were provided for, except for Saturday night which was “date night”. So on Saturday we ate in the “Silver Diner” which is one of the restaurants in the train cars. It’s a pizza place. SO good! My parents just happened to be staying in Chattanooga this weekend too, for a business conference, so they ate with us. We made it “Double Date Night”. Hehe.

We also went into this awesome little scrapbook store that also had souvenirs and other things. While we were in there we were talking to the owner about stamps and we told her that we use stamps for letterboxing. She said “Have you found the one I have here?” We looked at each other and said “NO!” Then Matthew proceeded to RUN back to our hotel room to get our letterboxing bag! Haha. We were so excited! It was also cool because my parents were in there with us so they got to see what we do with letterboxes. My mom has gone with us to find one, but my dad hadn’t before this weekend. He started to talk about a stamp he wants me to make. I think we found a new letterboxer! (Or at least a stamp designer!)

We went letterboxing after our last session was over, on our way home. We found 3 outside a museum on the river, one on the Riverwalk on the Tennessee River in Chattanooga, one in a civil war cemetery and one at a rest area on the way home. We also found one at a former abortion clinic in Chattanooga that was bought by a Christian organization. They have a Memorial for the Unborn garden in honor of miscarried children. It was so beautiful!

Well, here are some pictures we took this weekend. It was so beautiful there! Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of the gardens at night. They had flames lit up and down the garden walk at night but I didn’t have my camera with me on Friday night and they weren’t lit on Saturday because of the rain. Boo.

(Ok. I LOVE the gallery option for showing pictures! Just figured this out. I’m slow.)

Well, we had a blast. I’m so thankful that we were able to go. What was your weekend like?

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On the way home from my parents house tonight, my husband and I were talking about my blog. I told him I wanted to do more with it. Up til now it has been mostly just a journal of my life. Which is great! I love reading personal blogs about people’s day to day life. But I also love reading posts about other topics.

So I decided that I want to come up with some topics that I will write about on a consistent basis. I would love for you, my readers, to help me come up with some topics that you would like to read about on my blog. Now, don’t get me wrong. I will still be blogging about my personal life. Trust me. With my husband deploying in a few months, it will be necessary! But what are some things that you would be interested in?

Another goal I have for this year and beyond is to make my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I’m sure you’ve seen/heard of these lists. A lot of my friends are doing them. I have been wanting to do this for a while now, I just haven’t made my list! I’ve started it!! But I still have a few dozen things to add! LOL! So be on the lookout for my list!

Well friends, it is getting late. My husband is getting ready for bed, so I must finish up here. Its time to snuggle with my love. *happy sigh!*

Much Love,

Hello Ladies! For those of you who know (or don’t!), I am getting married next August. Well, Matthew wanted me to pick out my own ring because he knows how picky I am. We had been looking at rings for a while, and every ring I tried on just didn’t look right on my finger or it wasn’t princess cut. I have ALWAYS wanted a princess cut ring. I thought I wanted a princess cut solitare, but when I tried one on, it looked horrible, made my finger look fat, just didn’t look right.

So I started looking at 3 stone rings, solitares with small side stones rings, etc. Even tried some with very elaborate settings, (ie: the prongs holding the large stone had teeny tiny stones on the sides!).

I have a point. I promise.

What is my point, you ask?

WE GOT MY RINGS TODAY!!!

A friend of mine told me her husband was doing contract work at a pawn shop. (He’s a jeweler.) She told me that I should go look at what they had at the pawn shop. Even if I found a stone that I liked, he could put it in a different setting if I wanted. So I went to look. I honestly wasn’t expecting to find ANYTHING. But I did! I found the most gorgeous ring I’ve ever seen. It’s a 3 stone, princess cut ring in PLATINUM! That’s right ladies! The middle stone sits higher than the side stones. The detail on the side of the prongs is really pretty. They criss cross. I’m not 100% sure of the total carat weight of the diamonds, but I think it’s close to 1 carat total.

I also found the wedding band that goes with the engagement ring. It is a platinum band that has 3 round stones and 2 baguettes alternating. They are very small so the band fits very close to the engagement ring, which is exactly what I wanted.

Now, normally, each of these rings would retail for over $1200. I was trying to find something affordable that would look good on my hand. Up until this point I had no such luck. Everything was over $3000!

Who can guess how much we got my rings for?!

$350!!! TOTAL!!!

YAY!!! I love good deals. Especially when it comes to jewelry. So we got to pick my rings up today. They have to be sized. They only fit to my knuckle!! LOL! But my friend’s husband (the jeweler) is going to size it for me. Right now, I’m wearing them by my knuckle. Hehe. They’re SOOOOO pretty!

Now, I won’t have them for long. Matthew is going to keep them until he officially proposes. He wants to ask my dad for permission to marry me before he proposes. And he has been waiting to do that until we had the rings. Even though my parents and most of my friends already know we’re getting married. We haven’t made any official announcements or anything. We just decided to start planning so I can get everything done that I want to. I plan on making a lot of stuff.

I’m rambling now. I’t s 1am. I’m tired. I will post pictures as soon as I can. I can’t get good ones on my phone.

Much Love,