house update...

WELL, I have talked to some of you already but we did not get the house. Our realtor called yesterday to tell us they accepted a stronger offer but if anything changes they are going to give us a call. I was a little disappointed at first, but I am very excited about continuing to look! And all that it means is that there is a much better house out there for us! I really can't wait for me and Nate to just be married and sitting in our house together with dinner and a movie, it sounds so wonderfull!

So, because I am thinking about houses right now I will post some pictures of houses and individual rooms I love, I found some of the pictures on HGTV, Apartment Therapy, Kristen Buckingham Designs and other sites. I also like to look on real estate websites at house that are so far out of my price range, but just to look...sometimes Fort Worth, but sometimes cities I think would be really cool to live in like Boston, Seattle, cities in South Carolina, upstate New York and others (you know, the really cheap places to live haha). I also see pictures of rooms I really love and save them to my computer because I think maybe I will be able to use some of the ideas- on a much less expensive level, a more realistic one, which is fine because I can not ever imagine spending what some people do on homes but I definitly do not mind admiring their houses :) I would love to be able to (someday a long long time from now of course...) move into an older home in Downtown Fort Worth that has some of its original features (obviously not too many because I am a girl in the 21st century) and a garage you drive into behind the house..maybe in the historical districts like on Elizabeth Blvd or some of those older homes near TCU, I love those old beautiful homes that have character, but they are fixed up inside a little more modern. Every year at Christmas time my mom and I go to FW to tour the Ryan Place homes, they are so beautiful all decorated for Christmas. They are just so classy, full of character and I can just picture myself having holiday partys and sitting by the fire in my old historic home... SO if I had an endless budget and could decorate my house with it then my house might look like these pictures.. :)

waiting...

So if you read my last blog you know that we decided to put an offer on a house. We found a beautiful 3 Bedroom house (technically 4 bc there is a study also), the master bedroom has bay windows, very larger kitchen-GREAT for entertaining ect... so we met with our realtor today to look over the contract and get everything into the bank before tomorrow. Here's the deal: It went on the market 7 days ago, there are 9 offers (including ours) on the house and the bank was supposed to decide on Friday but the person making the decision never got around to it (hopefully bc it is supposed to be our house!!) so we got everything in tonight and its fair game. He will look at all 9 offers and decide which is the best one, we are offering over the asking price but I think so are a couple others. Our realtor said realistically the chances are slim, the house is awesome, a one of a kind opportunity but we do have a chance. So we had people pray at church for it today, we are praying and if we do get the house it will be amazing! If we do not, then I know that there must be a even greater house out there :)

So basically now we wait....

I have tried to get my mind off it but I just keep picturing where all of our furniture will go (we have quite a bit-it's kind of surprising), what colors I will paint our room, which by the way would be the first change- it is bright yellow! Now, yellow could be great except I wouldn't know what to do with it. I keep thinking about having my niece and nephew stay with us after we get married of course because I will not be living there yet. I would be able to entertain there and cook for our friends and family!! Oh gosh, I should probably try and do something else not home related to get my mind off of it!

Well we will find out either tomorrow or Tuesday at the latest so I will definitely keep you all updated!

House Hunting

So today Nate and I spent the whole morning and afternoon looking at houses, we went to 7 different houses and about the 5th house in we fell in love! From the moment we went into the neighborhood we knew it was going to be a good one, the culdesac was kept up nice and the houses were just beautiful. So we walked into the house and we had gotten about 10ft in and both said we absolutely loved it! The floor plan was open and spacious, the master bedroom was a great size with 3 large windows and the master bath was pretty fantastic (it had this beautiful tile on the floor and in the shower.... also a large walk in closet! This is cool because I have never had a closet you could walk into at all) The living area and dining room were set up very nicely and the backyard was just as great as everything else in the house. Now to the best part... the kitchen was huge! The island in the kitchen was the size of a small table there was so much room and the cabinets were beautiful! Oh gosh I need to stop thinking about it, because we won't know anything until our Realtor calls us back to let us know if there have been any other offers on the house. So I am going to go try and get my mind off of this house and just pray that if we are supposed to be there it will work out and if not that we are not too disappointed. I had no idea this morning we would be putting an offer on a house, I thought it was just going to be a laid back day.... Things changed! Anyways, for anyone who reads this please say a quick prayer for us!!

Valentines Day!

Well I had a pretty great Valentines day, Nate had a whole day planned for us and wouldn't tell me anything except that I needed to wear shoes I could walk in. It started at 1130 (he said I have to be ready by then no matter what). He showed up at my house with a bouquet of roses which is so sweet and we drove to the TRE (Texas Railway Express) and rode the train to Dallas. The whole train ride he wouldn't say where we were going and I don't know how he kept it a secret because I asked him about 100 times what we were doing! So we got to Dallas and we walked to the front of the American Airlines Center where he stopped me and told me that he wanted to bring me here because it was there at a Bon Jovi Concert (lol of all places!) that he thought for the first time that he was going to marry me, he saved the tickets and gave them to me there. He said that he thought I would probably have wanted it to be more romantic or different but that night is when he really pictured himself marrying me. (So sweet) After that we walked to the west end and had lunch, then he took me to the Dallas World Aquarium which I also loved because I have always wanted to go but never got a chance! It was so great, there is shark tank and you can either walk through a tunnel and look up at the sharks or walk above the shark tank and look down at them! I am so afraid of sharks (BTW) but I also think they are very fascinating... So anyways we took the train back to FW, got ready and he took he to Cheesecake Factory for dinner!! It was a great night, he really went out of his way to make it a wonderful Valentines Day.

This is a Manatee at The Dallas Aquarium, I would definitely recommend going to this place if you ever get a chance! It was a great place, they not only have Manatees, Sharks, and other fish but Alligators, Penguins, and a Jaguar. You can also see the sharks and other animals during feeding times!!

Bass Hall/Maddox Muse Center

So I went to Bass Hall today to look at the building again and make sure it was big enough, I know it seems a little late to be checking that but I will explain why.... About two weeks ago, Rachael and I were going in the building on a Friday evening because she had not seen the inside. Well, there were people there setting up for a party ( I HAVE to mention that it was for a 9 year old, and the whole building was rented out!! My parties were at my house.... but if my parents had offered the bass hall I guess I would have said ok!! :) ) Anyways, we walked into the Reception room and there was a lady setting up and we got to talking, so I mentioned that I had invited a certain amount and she instantly goes, "oh, that will never fit in here." You can imagine my face, or the million things racing through my head like, what am I going to do, where will people sit, and just freaking out. Thankfully there was a bass hall employee there who assured my they seat more than that number all the time with a dance floor.Well I went ahead and stopped by today to take a look for myself again and talked to the event planners who put my mind at ease and even noted that they seat that many people with the bar and buffet in the room ( my bar and buffet will be in another room so even more space!) They assured me I would have a large enough dance floor and said that I have nothing to worry about.

While I was there, I got a few pictures of other weddings I thought I might add just so you can see what the building looks like!! *** Note-I am not decorating my wedding like these at all, they are just random pictures I chose. These pictures are just to give you an idea of the rooms, layout and I thought you might want to see some pretty pictures.


McDavid Studio ( 3 Below images are all reception room)

Van Cliburn (Wedding Room- pictures below)

Great Recipe!

So while I was reading someone elses blog (so yes, this is a stolen blog post...) I saw this recipe and thought it looked really good, WELL you have got to try it if you have time..
* I will give credit to the lady I stole it from though, her name is Elaine and she and her husband go to Nate's church (great couple!). So here it is...

Honey Bun Cake

1 box yellow cake mix
4 large eggs
2/3 cup oil
1/3 cup water
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon2/3 cup chopped pecans

Icing
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 Tbsp milk plus 1 teas. milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
Mix cake mix, oil, eggs and sour cream; pour 1/2 of this mixture in greased 12x9 inch pan. Mix together 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon. Put 1/2 of this mixture over batter in pan. Put rest of batter in pan, then other half of cinnamon and sugar mixture. Gently swirl batter with a knife.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

For the icing: Combine all ingredients and pour over cake as soon as you remove it from the oven.

Serves: 15

Enjoy!!

Wedding update!

So I met with the ladies who are decorating out wedding last night and it was great! They really seemed to understand what I wanted and were excited about it! I began by telling them the color I loved in bouquets and showing them pictures of the orange I loved. But I started by explaining that I didn't want a whole orange wedding...I didn't love the color for anything other than an accent in the bouquets and they loved it! They actually told me they were hoping they would get to use that color in wedding! So it worked out just great, they really understood what I want and I feel such a weight off my shoulders! So my bridesmaids dresses are chocolate brown, my linens will be brown with a brownish/bronzy organza overlay and there will be flower centerpieces and candles on the tables... there will also be lots of lighting in the room...candles everywhere!!! I am so excited!Wish I could give you more of an idea but that is too much explaining...

** The best part is (and anyone who has really talked to me about the wedding knows this is how I feel), I had wanted to have orange (or colors in the orange color scheme) in the bouquets, I did not want to have a huge orange wedding but the right amount in the bouquets with green, white and a little red is beautiful I think. Everyone had given me weird looks when I tried to explain it though, but they got it and when I showed them this bouquet they loved it even more!! So we will see how it turns out!

On another note, tomorrow morning Nate and I are meeting with a Realtor and looking at houses so hopefully that will be fun!

Well I think I will leave a picture so you can see the bouquet we are tying to have for the wedding and hopefully I will update soon.

Save the Date!

So I forgot to upload the picture of our Save the Date so here it is!! I really do love it, and thanks to my awesome future mother-in-law we got them for free!!

busy busy day!

So today was a very busy day! It was one of those days when you have so many things to do and there just aren't enough hours in the day to even get half of them done ( feels like everyday is like that recently) I had class from 9-430 today and during my break I had meeting with the Tx Wesleyan Alumni Association about a project Iam working on for them, it was very exciting because they are going to use my ideas and I can't wait to see the final product (even though it is fundraising and development of the alumni association so really it is not something where you see results in a short amount of time) but still very exciting! After that I went to the hospital to visit Katie, she is such a trooper she is a very strong woman and she is going to be a fantastic mother!!
After I got out of class I sent out the rest of the Save-The-Dates for our wedding, then went straight to our wed night couples class. Nate and I are taking a class at his church based on the book Love and Respect. It is a wonderful book for anyone who is engaged or married it focuses on the relationship between men and women, their differences and how to build a better relationship (I know all couples classes/books do but this book has a different perspective about it.) I definitly reccomend this to ANYONE who is in a relationship. Nate and I have had alot of fun working on the homework together and learning the differnt ways we each handle conflict, friendships, and other daily happenings!

wedding pictures I like!

I really love this centerpiece, no matter what colors I choose I think I am going to use this idea for some of the tables.

These are very tall ceterpieces and I don't want them all to be this tall but I kind of like this look for the reception... Gosh its hard to decide on colors (and the wedding is 5 months away!!)

I love this bouqet, it is so beautiful!! Not how suer it will look with brown bridesmaids dresses so I am going to have to see what the decorators think, but I do love the colors in this bouqet.

Me and Nate decided we want to leave in a yellow cab for our hotel after the wedding! We don't need a limo to go two blocks away and we think this would be so cool! (my mom says it is weird but we love the idea, Im going to call the cab place and specify that it has to be a yellow cab like in New York City!!)

I love this picture, the brown and red look great in the picture but I never thought about putting those colors together.. it seems like an odd combo but it looks so good in the pic. (Im very torn about this...)

update!

Ok well apparently I am HORRIBLE at updating this, I was so excited when I started it but then I never wrote again! So I will update those who read this (if anyone does at all!). I am back in school for my last real semester of school!! yeah that is so exciting I thought I would never get there, but I am! It is so crazy though, I am taking on alot with school and I am working with Texas Wesleyans Alumni Association to help get the Alumni more involved and increase donations, I am also in IABC our student chapter (Im president!) that is exciting and stressful because we are starting the organization right now so I am trying to figure out how to lead that and still do everything else, and on top of that I am still working my actual job. And of course the most exciting is wedding planning! On Thursday I meet with our decorating ladys and talk specifics (so maybe I will decide on colors finally!). Since the last time I posted I have chosen a caterer, bought my dress, chosen a photographer and I think I have decided on the dresses. Maybe if I can figure out how I will post pictures of wedding stuff.

On a different note, yesterday was Nate's birthday and I got him a couple presents... well first let me tell you that we are total nerds and I realized it after I got him his gifts that we were both very excited about. I got him tickets to the Dave Ramsey event in March (he is coming to Dallas), I got him some coins for his coin collection and a wireless mouse for his new laptop! haha I know we are such nerds.

Well I cant think of anything else right now but hopefully I don't wait two more months again to update!