the past vs. the present

After chatting with an old friend today who has found complete happiness, I have decided to post about some things that have been going through my head lately.  For those of you who know me well, my road to married life was not easy.  I had never wanted anything so much than to just find "the one" who I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with.  This quest consumed me and made me look like a fool many different times.  I was the girl who always thought she'd finally found "him."  That girl realized every time that she shouldn't put her heart out there so easily but couldn't help doing it over and over again.  That girl and I begged God for the next one to be our soulmate.  So, after praying constantly and reading a lot of Christian books that are supposed to help girls accept being single, I gave up.  The summer of 2010 was probably the most fun of my summers so far in life.  I wanted to have fun and started to actually date around.  This was something I had never been able to do and somehow finally managed to succeed, not without a few false hopes though.  Anyway, that summer was carefree and fun for me, and ended with the beginning of the rest of my life.  I met Kyle at the end and things kicked off so quickly and wonderfully.  He pursued me and fought for me.  You can imagine the shock when I started to question whether or not I was even ready to give up single life to let this beautiful thing run its course!  Obviously I gave in, and here I am a year later....MARRIED!!!  Never again will I ever have to worry about being a third wheel during a group date.  Never again will I ever have to worry about being the only one without a man to snuggle with while camping on a cold night.  Never again will I ever have to dwell on failed relationships and what I did wrong.

Never again will I ever have to question God's reasoning for making me wait so long...

Enjoy these pictures from the best day of my life...

blog depression

I think I've been in a sort of "blog-depression mode."  I have wanted to write but I just haven't felt like anything in my life was worth blogging about!  I have still been reading the ones I follow but I haven't had any motivation to write myself.  So let's make an attempt and see if I can pull myself out of this funk!

I went back to my "big girl job!"  That being said, I have been doing nothing but pre-service meetings since then.  I have decided I'm ready to apply for a lead teacher position.  It's killing me during this back-to-school season.  I haven't been able to shop with my students in mind.  I keep being haunted by the idea of having my own classroom and wanting to set one up that's MY OWN!  It's time...

Okay, got that off my chest!  So here are some wedding pictures!

Me walking down the LOOOONNNNG path to see Kyle for the first time!

I was starting to sweat.  That dress was not easy to carry!!

Almost!!!!

Stay tuned for the first glance!!!

wedding costs and nightmares.

I just woke up from a rough night's sleep.  My husband hasn't heard about my dream yet because he's still in bed but as soon as he wakes up, I will be demanding a comforting hug!  My dream had to do with him telling me he couldn't tell me he loved me because he wasn't a liar.  There's a bunch more to it but man, that dream was horrible.  Anyway, it was JUST a dream and I'm pretty sure I get to spend the day with him because we're both off today!!!

Now, moving on.  I have been asking my mom to add up all of the expenses for the wedding so I could know if my wedding was as cheap and simple as it felt.  She gave me the grand total of......   $4,000!!!!!!  I had no idea that it had been that cheap!!  I've heard most brides say that their budget was $10,000 and had a hard time staying within the budget.  I am so happy but I'm wondering how in the world I did it!  I know my dress was less than $500 and in all actuality I'd purchased two of them...more about that later..haha.  My photographer was $2000 and that was definitely overpriced considering the end result!  Anyway, I just really wanted to share that because of how in shock I was when my mom told me that.

Here are some more wedding pictures!  These are of Kyle waiting to see me for the first time.  This moment was a big reason for our choosing this site!  I don't know if these pictures will even do the view justice but I could see him waiting for me out on the end of this cliff in front of the cross.  I wanted pictures of him looking out across the valley below and waiting for me.  That is exactly what I got!

This one is kind of dark.

This is the "aisle" from the ceremony too.  I had to walk a long ways to see him for the first time!  This is one of  my favorite pictures!!!!