It's Been A While

So it's been a while since my last blog. In fact, it's been 15 days. Want to know how I know that (other than using a calendar of course)?

Because we only have 15 days left!

So what have I been up to in the last 15 days you may ask? Well, a lot.

Carlee moved to Birmingham to begin her freshman year of college at Samford. She now lives 1.5 miles from me!

Carlee trying on her bridesmaids attire at dinner. What a trooper.

Therefore I shamelessly use her as my bridesmaids jewelry/dress/makeup/hair model. 

We bought a dining room table.

 

 

I never thought I'd see the day when I would get so excited about new furniture. But alas, that day has come.

I've figured out my hair style for the wedding.

This probably sounds silly and insignificant to some people, but knowing what my hair will look like that day and having the peace of time that it'll look good is a huge load off my shoulders.

Jason and I got to celebrate our upcoming marriage with all of our friends from Destin at our hometown gathering.

We were so blessed to get to visit with all of my family's nearest and dearest friends. We also got the pleasure of finally introducing part of Jason's family to my family!

I received my first gifts with my new monogram!

This may seem silly or insignificant as well, but when you've had one name your whole life and then it changes, that's a pretty big deal!

We've also:
Finalized our vows and the order of our ceremony.
I read one of the best books I've ever read, "Redeeming Love" (more on that later).
Experienced the first college football weekend of the year.
Completely reorganized and redecorated an apartment.


So, as you can see, we've had a busy two weeks...and the busy-ness will continue on for another two weeks. Thankfully, we have tons of help and lots of understanding friends and family.We cannot wait for our wedding day! We cannot wait to be The Morales'!

One Month Countdown: Our Story

So, in celebration of our one month until the wedding mark, I'm going to share our story with all of you (all of you who probably already know it, or watched it all happen...but oh well)!

Once upon a time, a girl told a friend that she'd go see his documentary screening at Samford -

- actually, let's back up a couple of years...

Once upon a time a girl went to freshman orientation at Samford University in the summer of 2007. All of the new kids got to stay overnight in the dorms and the orientation leaders put together a fun night for everyone. Part of this fun night was a DJ and karaoke. There happen to be a guy who was going into his senior year at Samford and he was in charge of the sound and music. The girl saw him at the beginning of the night, but as the night went on, she felt like she was seeing him more and more...and he got more and more silly. At one point he came right up to her and starting dancing like a crazy person. She thought to herself, "What a weird dude...fun...but strange." The next day she told her parents that the DJ guy was really odd, and that he danced by her for part of the evening (She didn't realize he was a student, so that made it seem kind of odd. But let's be honest - she told her parents because she was kind of flattered). Five and a half years later, the sound guy and the flattered girl are getting married!

...now we're getting ahead of ourselves, let's go back to the documentary screening -

So this girl, we'll call her Jessica, went to see a documentary screening for her friend. She was running late (kind of on purpose because she wasn't sure if she'd know anyone else there), and as she was walking across the quad, she saw a guy that she knew was mutual friend go into the screening room, we'll call him Jason. Jessica decided that she'd just slip in the back. When she entered the room, she saw that Jason had done the same thing. Boldly, she asked if she could sit with him. He said, "Sure, but can you sit over here {he motioned to the other side of him}? I have a friend meeting me." Jessica was sure it was a girl, maybe even a girlfriend, and this was about to get super awkward. Sure enough, it wasn't a girl...it was Jason's friend, we'll call him Kyle.

This was the documentary that started it all!

After the screening, Jason and Jessica talked for a little while. It was the first week of May 2010, and finals were fast approaching for those who were still in college {SIDENOTE: This whole time, Jessica thought Jason was a senior - but really he just worked at Samford doing freelance jobs and that's why she saw him there sometimes. She almost asked him if he was excited about graduation, but thankfully she didn't - that would have been embarrassing.} That night, a local church was hosting its annual Pancake Study Break, and Jason asked Jessica if she was going. She said, "Yes, it's actually my hall activity for this month," (she was an RA) and Jason said he'd see her there.

They saw each other at the study break, but just waved from a distance. Jessica's 21st birthday was later that week and her friend who had the screening, we'll call him Taylor, said that he was coming to her birthday dinner and was going to bring Jason. When she found this out, Jessica's stomach did a little somersault, but she didn't know why. As it turns out, Jason didn't make it to the birthday dinner - he decided to play basketball with some friends instead (it's okay he redeems himself later on in the story).

Jessica's 21st Birthday Dinner

After Jessica's birthday, she "friend requested" Jason on Facebook. They did a little Facebook "chatting", and some flirting on each others "walls". One night, while they were "chatting", there was a bit of a lull in the conversation and Jessica wasn't ready to stop talking. So, she told Jason her computer battery was acting strange (he worked at the Apple store). He told her to download some diagnostic thing, but he said that he'd make her a Genius Bar appointment the next day when he got to work - "If you give me your phone number, I can just text you the times that are available when I get there," he said. So, Jessica gave Jason her phone number.

After that, the two began texting a lot. Jessica was studying for finals, and she quickly realized that Jason had been out of school for a couple of years (she realized it without embarrassing herself, thankfully). She liked to study at Barnes and Noble at the Summit, and Jason came to meet her there after work a time or two. Over the next week or so, they became really good friends.

The week of finals, Jessica began to realize that she kind of liked Jason - probably as more than a friend - and he maybe liked her too. But, she was about to go back to Destin for the summer, and liking someone who lived in Birmingham would make things complicated; so they just continued to be friends.

Jessica realized right off the bat that Jason was an incredible guy. He did things like help her move out of her dorm room (even though she hadn't asked him to), and other little things that people don't usually volunteer to do (he always offered to drive, just little things like that).

Soon, the day came when it was time for Jessica to go home for the summer. Jason was sure that their friendship would end, or at least lessen, but it didn't! They continued to text throughout the day, even though they were five hours away and both working. The friendship seemed pretty resilient.

Jessica had a wedding to attend in Birmingham over Memorial Day weekend. She decided to come up a few days before the wedding to visit her friends that were staying in Birmingham over the summer. Naturally, this included Jason, and he caught on to that pretty fast. A few days before she arrived in Birmingham, he told her that his friend Kyle was playing in a show downtown and he'd love for Jessica to go with him.

Jessica arrived in Birmingham and spent the first evening with her friend, we'll call her MK. MK was going out of town the next day though, so Jessica was able to make plans with Jason. So, they spent the day together just going around and running errands. Remember Jessica's computer battery that she said was messed up to keep the conversation going? Well, she'd kept canceling the Genius Bar appointments that Jason had made her because she knew nothing was wrong with it. When she came up for the wedding, Jason decided that they could go together to get her battery looked at. Not so surprisingly, the Genius Bar dude told her nothing was wrong with it - go figure...

That night was the show that Kyle was playing in. Jessica went back to MK's house to change and say goodbye to MK. Then, without knowing it, Jason and Jessica began their first date, which included dinner at Rojo, walking around Morris Ave. in the rain, going to see Kyle play at Matthews Bar & Grill, and hanging out with friends at IHOP after the show.

Jessica and Jason were able to one more date (they had established it as a date by this point) in before she had to go home for the rest of the summer. It was the most perfect date Jessica had ever been on - and Jason was pretty happy with it too. The next morning, Jessica headed back to Destin. Unfortunately, their fear came true later on that week, and their friendship started to fizzle out a little bit because of the distance. They both agreed that they really enjoyed each other, but it wasn't  wise timing to start a relationship long distance.

--------------

In August, Jessica returned to Birmingham for her senior year. Jessica was hopeful that she and Jason would be able to rekindle their friendship, even if they never went on another date. Thankfully, they ended up being around each other quite a bit because Jason was doing a lot of work at Samford and Jessica was on campus three weeks before classes started for RA training. They also had a lot of the same friends, and they went to the same church.

One night after school began, Jason called Jessica and asked her if she wanted to go with him to shoot a video for a friend who was about to release a new album and Jason was making a video for him to promote it. We'll call this friend Bobby. So of course, Jessica wanted to go. They had a great time just laughing and joking around together, and it seemed like their friendship was going to be able to pick up right where it had left off. They hung out with together with their group of friends a couple of nights in a row after that.

Then, Labor Day weekend came and Jessica was taking some of her girl friends home with her for a beach trip. Jason texted her the whole time that she was in Destin, and secretly, she liked that a lot. She thought that maybe her "more than friends" feelings were coming back, but she wasn't sure yet. When she got back from Destin on Labor Day, she was planning on having dinner with Taylor because she'd covered for him at work (they were both RAs) and he owed her dinner. As she was waiting for Taylor to come out to her car, she saw Jason drive by, park, and start walking toward them. He went to dinner with them as well! After dinner (at IHOP), Taylor had other plans, so Jason and Jessica decided to continue hanging out.

Then the hung out the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and they've basically been hanging out ever since.

Jason took Jessica on a couple of dates that were very "them". One was a cupcake date in the afternoon to Urban Standard - cupcakes and coffee are two of Jessica's favorite things. They also went to dinner a couple of times - and a movie or two. On September 22, 2010 Jason took Jessica on a special date. He blindfolded her and took her to Davenport's pizza because it's square (she'd told him that she liked square pizza - like the kind from elementary school). Then he blindfolded her again, and he took her to a movie. After the movie, she was blindfolded again and he took her to Sonic (according to Jason, a boy and a girl have to be a couple before they can go there at night together - that's the classic Samford after-date place to go). Before Jessica could take off the blindfold, Jason took her phone, and wrote this:

Then he said, "Okay, you can look now," and she did, and she said, "Yes! I'll be your girlfriend!" Then he handed her pink roses and they became "Facebook Official".

Exactly two years later, on September 22, 2012 (one month from today), Jessica will meet Jason at the alter, and they will vow to love each other forever, as husband and wife.

This may be the end of this story for now, but it's just the beginning for the {almost} Morales'!

{to find out more about the upcoming Sansom/Morales Wedding, make hotel reservations, look at their registries, get directions, and more, go to their wedding website}

Bump It Up: Week 15

Thank you all of the overwhelming support that I received from my posts last week. Jason's Vimeo page has received tons of views and I won the photo battle! Thanks so much for all of the support - we are truly humbled.

The Martin babies are growing like little weeds inside Bethany's and Meg's cute little bellies. Here's two photos from week 15, day 4 of their pregnancies:

They're just too precious for words!

On another note, Jason and I get married in 40 days, 3 hours, and 57 minutes! I cannot wait!

Watch It! : A Where I'm Going Update

So, remember how I've always battled my weight and how I identified a couple of months ago that it's a mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual battle that I've had to deal with? Well, that's still extremely true.

When I was going into ninth grade, my mom joined Weight Watchers and lost a good bit of weight. Since she's the one who bought the groceries and made dinner each night, I learned a lot about the program and I lost some weight as well. Since then, I've tried Weight Watchers a couple of times, but I always have a terrible attitude toward it for some reason.

I think that I've identified that Weight Watchers is a strict program that actually works if you do it right, which is true. I think that in the past I've always blamed the program for my weight gain/battle rather than myself and my lack of self-control.

Over the last couple of years, a couple of people in my life (including my dad) have done WW and had some pretty significant success from it. Over the last few years, I've attributed the fact that WW doesn't take sugars/carbs into consideration as my reason for not getting back on the program.

Obviously, things have evolved from 2004 and now WW does take sugars/carbs into consideration. Even though I knew this, I've still used the same excuse for the last year or so.

Last Thursday while we were at camp, we were going around telling everyone (who asked) that our wedding is "three months from tomorrow [Friday]". Then at lunch, someone who I've worked with there told me that a whole group of girls that work for the organization are doing WW together and if I ever wanted to do it and needed a support group, I could join them.

I don't know what really was the exact straw that broke the camel's back, but something did. I could just feel the door opening for me and God pushing me through it. I could feel Him telling me that this is a weapon I can use in this spiritual battle that I have been fighting for the last 15 years. And it just so happens that the sign up fee for a three month WW online subscription was waved through the weekend.

I asked Jason for this thoughts, and he obviously said he thought it was a good idea if it's something I feel like I need to do (he's the best). So, starting this past Sunday, I'm a Weight Watchers online member :)

I have to admit that it's been a tough couple of days, especially while we were traveling home 8.5 hours. Anytime I start something like this its hard, and it even becomes emotional for me because this is a mental/emotional/physical/spiritual thing. Over the past couple of days, I've doubted, I've wanted to eat my feelings (and I did until I finally stopped myself), and I've been ashamed.

I was ashamed that I'm not happy with myself three months before my wedding. As each month goes by, I want to feel more like I'm closer to looking/feeling the way I would like to look/feel on September 22nd, but so far I haven't. I'm ashamed that I'm having to start something new so close to that day; so ashamed that I almost didn't write this post today.

But I realize that I need prayer and support. This blog has served as an avenue for me to receive just that. It's also served as accountability for me over the last few months, and I'm definitely a stronger person because of all of you reading this thing.

So, as I embark on this little adventure over the next three months, I am hoping that you'll keep me in your thoughts and prayers. If you find good WW recipes, send them my way! And if you've had a WW success story (or know one), send that my way as well!

Asheville Wedding Weekend Recap

Source

Well, hello everyone! I am back after my little vacation/blogging hiatus.

I appreciate all of the prayers from last week for Rock the Block. We had such a wonderful time sharing Jesus with all of those little kiddos. As I mentioned last week, Jason and I taught the lesson on Wednesday. It went really well, but those kids definitely kept me on my toes. Great responses were given and good questions were asked. What else could we have asked for?

We also had a guest "speaker" that day. Jude (age 11) came to share his testimony and lead the group in worship. Jude's dad, Jim, is the owner of Steel City Pops and a friend from our church. He surprised us all and broke out an awesome stash of pops for the whole Rock the Block group!

Jim handing out popsicles.

Thursday we headed off to camp at Shocco Springs. Jason had been hired by the Alabama Baptist Children's Homes to shoot b-roll and some interviews for foster parent promo videos. I used to be an intern with their organization, and I still help out at the Children's Homes doing communications. So, I got to help out with social media and shooting some photos at camp. I always forget how much I love being a part of the Children's Homes until I'm back in the thick of everything. Jason and I also loved working together! We hope that maybe someday we'll be called to do just that...

The lake at Shocco Springs

After we left camp, we stopped for dinner at Sonny's BBQ (a.k.a. Jason's favorite place in the world) on our way to Atlanta. Jason stuck to his usual BBQ chicken, while I hit up the pretty amazing salad bar.

When we got to Atlanta, we didn't waste any time...we went straight to IKEA (a.k.a. one of my favorite places). Jason said that since we'd both worked really hard all day, we could spend up to $100! We came out with some really great ideas, a couple items, and we only spent $50!

What I would like our kitchen to look like someday.

What I would like our bed to look like...we bought the curtain and curtain rod!

After IKEA, we went to Jason's best friend from childhood's house. She and her husband live in such a cute little home in Atlanta. We had a great time visiting with her, and we're so thankful she opened up her adorable home to us.

Friday morning we hit the ground running. We were on the road by 9:00 (Atlanta time...so 8:00 to us) after a brief search for a Dunkin Donuts (COFFEE).

I drove most of the way to Asheville, NC, which actually ended up being really fun. I don't know why, but sometimes I just really really enjoy driving and then other times I hate it. I'm weird, I know...

We arrived in Asheville and went straight to Men's Wearhouse to pick up Jason's tux for the wedding. We had to hang around that area for a little while because they had the wrong size pants for Jason (try six sizes too big)...but that was okay with us. After we were done there, we drove around Asheville a little bit and snuck into a Sheraton to use their public restrooms to change for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner (hey, at least it was clean...that's all I've got to say about that). We attempted going to the Biltmore...but after seeing the $60/person price tag, we decided we'd come back when we could make a day out of it (we only had about an hour and a half).

The rehearsal and rehearsal dinner were fun and beautiful. It was great for Jason and I to see a lot of friends.

Jason and the groom.

Sarah and Cameron practicing their "I do".

Jason and I at the rehearsal dinner.

Samford groomsmen picture with the groom.

Saturday was the big day! Jason met up with the groomsmen at the mall in Asheville, which was 100% okay with me since that meant I got to shop! I found some great deals on what I'm calling "cruise clothes" (basically shorts, shirts, and dresses for our honeymoon cruise). I got Jason some "cruise clothes" too! His swim shorts ripped last time we were in Destin, so I found some on sale while I was shopping. They are the "Speedo" brand, but they're just normal board shorts. You should have seen Jason's face when he heard I bought him "Speedo" swim shorts :) I also got a pair of sandals for $3...how can you beat that? You just can't.

It was time for the wedding! I'll just sum up the whole thing with a couple of bullet points:

• Sarah looked incredibly beautiful
• Cameron is a super blessed guy
• Jason looked awesome in his tux (even if it was a little big on him)
• The food was good
• The friends were great
• I'm overly excited for The Free's! 

Being at Sarah and Cameron's wedding made me realize that my wedding is getting super close! I spent a lot of time on the phone with my mom this weekend going through decoration ideas and wedding plans. She even made all of the boutonnieres (along with a bunch of other really cool stuff)!

Red burlap boutonnieres for the guys.

Aren't they awesome?!

Monday, Jason and I went to our first pre-marital counseling session. I was really excited about beginning this phase of our engagement, and it definitely lived up its expectation. We really loved it and are so thankful for Pathway's Professional Counseling and their services in providing Christian counseling to Alabama. I can't wait to go back next week!

And with all of that said...GUESS WHAT?

Only 87 days until I'm Mrs. Morales!

Takin' Care of Business

WHOOHOO! We are in the double digits, people! After weeks and months of 100's of days until our wedding alerts, this makes it feel like it's actually within my reach! Using a race analogy, we're not quite to the sprinting point, but we're definitely picking up the pace because the finish line (or in this case, the beginning line) is in sight!

As excited as I am about this, I have to admit that it makes me a weeeeee bit anxious (I refuse to be stressed). While we have all of the big stuff booked, there are a lot of little details that we (I) still have to get in order before the big day. Looks like I'll be creating a to-do list like no other.

But it looks like this milestone day has come just in the nick of time. Last weekend, my family was in town for my sister's orientation and my parents were able to get a lot of wedding stuff done. They were able to confirm the order, drop off supplies, and talk to Olexa's about our cake. They were also able to figure out the bridesmaids brunch and our bouquets. This weekend, some of Jason's family is in town so we're figuring out the rehearsal dinner, figuring out the tux/suit situation, and shopping. Today, I ordered my dress for the rehearsal dinner.

So, as you can see, things are coming a long nicely! I guess I really don't have any reason to be stressed...or uh...anxious, right? We're takin' care of biznuss!

As fun as all this wedding planning is, I'm ready to experience a wedding other than my own. Next weekend Jason and I will be headed to beautiful North Carolina to see two of our friends get married. I am beyond excited for them and overly ecstatic for our little mini vacay!

Before I end today's post, let me take a moment to express my sincere gratitude for all of the fathers out there. Father's Day is a very special day. Not only do I have a wonderful dad, but I am also very blessed to be able to spend this Father's Day with my future father-in-law. Jason and I are so very blessed to have two amazing men in our lives who are there to guide us spiritually, physically, financially, and prayerfully through this new phase of life. My dad has never had a son before and Jason's dad has never had a daughter...I think we're both equally excited to officially become part of each others families in September!

Well, I better quit rambling and get to working on my to-do list! Have a great weekend everyone! Enjoy the sunshine & Happy Father's Day :)

“The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.” - Proverbs 23:24