The things I've realized.

I have realized a lot, a lot about life, about love, about friends. 

I learned that, in life, it's not always going to be what you've pictured. 

I didn't think I was going to be engaged, I didn't think I'd be commuting from the school I'm at now. I didn't think I'd still be working at Gram's store, I really didn't think I'd have the friends that I do have. I didn't think I'd lose touch with most of them, I didn't think I would ever see them in public and not talk to them. Everything in life isn't what I had pictured. And yet, I love it. 

I love being engaged, I love commuting from school. Working at Gram's is a VERY hidden blessing. I'm glad my real friends stuck by me even though it's been two years since I graduated. I'm glad I let those people behind me so I could focus so much more on what is so important to me. I love my life.

I realized that love, isn't a fairy tale. At all. But it's all my own story.

 I learned that I wont feel overwhelming love every single day, but I'm glad, because I am able to fall in love with the same person over and over again. I realized that once the honeymoon stage is over, you will fight. You will fight a lot. And that's ok, as long as you can laugh at and with each other later. As long as you can talk it out and fix it, not walk away. I never knew I could love someone so much and want to literally beat the heck out of them at the same time. I never knew I could get so angry and then just burst out into laughter.

I learned that it's ok to not spend every hour of every day with each other, it's ok to not text one another all day every day, even though it's fun. I realized that not everyone can sleep all cuddled up. In fact, I can't even sleep facing him. I can not sleep any other way than what I'm used to. And it's ok to not know exactly what you are doing. As long as you are doing it together. It's alright to not know what move you are going to make next, as long as you are beside each other, always, talking things out, fighting together, for each other. Loving each other. 

I found out that I wont talk to my friends all day every day like I used to. I wont hang out with them as often, if at all. We have relationships, we have college, we have jobs, and other responsibilities. We faded. We lost most of our time together, we forgot most of our jokes and stories, but we remember each other. We don't forget those who influence our lives the way you did, we don't forget the feelings.

Even though it's not like it used to be, I still love them.

The thing I know now, more than ever, is that love drives everything we do. Without love, we wouldn't be happy with ourselves or with others. With where we are going in life. That life isn't always what we think or want it to be, but it turns into what is best for us, even when we don't think so. 

Crazy, hectic, and beautiful, I love it.

Sister Style: Inspiration

Here's a little style inspiration from the little miss!

Soon, I want to publish her outfits from each day once a week.

For now, here's a taste!

Obviously the gold shoes are her favorite right now and she loves army green!

Also, her and her friend obviously love peplum!

So do I, girls, so do I. 

He's my DIY-ing Honeybee

When the fiance gets a creative streak, let him run with it. 

While walking through Wal-Mart the other day, he decided that he wanted to make something. 

Be my guest, honey, be my guest. 

I can say that two times over, actually, since we found a wood burner for only $10. 

I'm gonna be a nerd here: Bazinga. 

So we got a block of wood, the wood burner, and he went to work.

The theme to the living room is rustic, so it was only fitting we do something to match.

It also helps that our song is such a country song: Honeybee, Blake Shelton. LOVE.

Before the wood stain!

P.S. Don't mind his "Dirty" hands, he's a welder. 

& After!

Wedding Advice from a Newlywed!

Today, my semi-newlywed cousin, Terra, is here to share some tips and advice with us engaged girls!

Seriously, how pretty is she?!

1. Create a budget (unless you are rich and have all the money in the world)

2. Research and get ideas for center pieces, invites, flowers (be creative and crafty and try and do them yourself to save money)

3. Get engagement photos - you can use them for date savers if you send them (we didn't to save money). However I did use the engagement photos to hang on the wooden frame that we made ourselves and had at the bridal shower and at the church.

4. This a big time big time tip, make sure that when you meet with someone, like the person making the cake for instance: Know what you want and have samples/printouts of what you would like the cake to look like. It saves you and the other person time if you are organized and have made your decisions before hand.

5. BE ORGANIZED. Get boxes or plastic totes to start putting your wedding stuff in. Designate an area to have everything in one place. Label the boxes so you know what you have in them.

6. Make lists of things you need or need to get done. I know from my experience I felt very overwhelmed and felt like I was forgetting things.

7. Take pictures of random things so you can put them in your wedding album or scrap book. I took a screen shot of Brent sending me a text that I thought was cute about seeing me at the alter. Another picture was of me putting the invites in the mailbox.

The one moment of my wedding day WAS when my father and I were standing alone waiting for the song to start and us to walk around the corner and down the isle. At that moment I got butterfly's in my stomach and looked at my dad and he said, "are you ready" and as we started to walk and when I looked up and saw Brent, this overwhelming feeling came over me. My Husband-to-be looked so handsome and I couldn't get over how lucky I felt to be marrying him. It truly was a magical day and one I will never forget.

REMEMBER:

The process of getting everything together for the wedding goes so fast. The day of the wedding goes even faster. I had a friend tell me something that I thought was very informative. She said "Stop and enjoy the day, try and remember things because before you know it, its over," Oh, she was totally right.

Here's a little inspiration from her wedding!

Christmas Eve Engagement!

Hi everyone! Tonight, I have a very special guest blogger who is here to talk about her engagement and wedding planning so far! Please feel free to comment/message me and I will have her answer any questions you have for her! So, welcome Taylor!

Hi Girls!

I am very new to the whole blogging thing but Diana has asked me to kind of give a background on what my fiance and I have been up to and how the wedding planning is going!

My fiance, Daniel, is from North Carolina. He is an Exercise Science major and I am a Communications major. Him and I met each other at Liberty University. We have been together for a little bit over a year now. We are planning on living in North Carolina after we are married. We are both graduating a year early just so we can start working right after the wedding!The engagement happened on Christmas Eve! Daniel and I had planned for him to come up to PA to spend Christmas Eve with my family and I and the day before Christmas Eve he told me he would be working all day Christmas Eve and would not be able to make it. During dinner that night with my family, my dad got a call from someone and he told us that he had to leave the house. Well, my dad came back to the house about twenty minutes after and asked us if we were ready to open our Christmas presents. Of course, we got excited, and my dad asked me if I wanted to open my gift from Daniel because he told me Dan had my gift shipped up to PA. I sat down and opened my gift and to my surprise it was an Ipad Mini!!! My dad told me there was instructions that came with it so when I opened the Ipad there was a video on the screen. I pushed play and it went through this whole story of how I was the treasure and the engagement ring was the key to the treasure. In the video Daniel gets the ring stolen by his friends which in the movie were zombies, because we love love love The Walking Dead! At the end of the movie he finally gets the ring back and he walks to his car and the video said 5 hours later... which is the amount of time it takes to get from Liberty University to my house in PA. Then a picture of my front door appeared on the video and as the door opened in the video Daniel walked through my front door! I was so surprised and crying and he came over to me and got down on one knee and said, "Taylor I love you so much, I want to grow old with you, I want to have a family with you, and I want to serve the Lord with you!" Then he asked me to marry him! I was so excited. I love the ring so much. He did a great job! ;).

Wedding planning is going great so far. The wedding will be May 31st, 2014 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The resort we are having the wedding at is The Breakers Resort.
So far we have our venue picked out, our menu, the DJ, I picked my dress out, and we have our centerpieces and colors figured out. Daniel and I are starting to think of ideas for our save the date picture, and we have the guest list pretty much done. The only thing I am really worried about is the photographer. I have a couple of people in mind but I have yet to pick one. Our wedding will only have about 125-150 guests. Most of the wedding guests are our family or friends from school. The wedding party is 8 bridesmaids and 8 groomsmen. We are having one ring bearer and two flower girls.

That is most of the planning we have done for now! 

If any of you girls have questions about planning feel free to message me or contact me! 

Thank You Taylor!

Fall Food!

One of the things that I love the most about Fall is all of the baking and cooking. Not even just Thanksgiving. My favorite things to make are the sweet or salty stuff. Definitely not the stuff that's good for you!

This year, we did something completely new at home and then I did something completely new. 

We decided to make Caramel and Candied Apples. Sticky, messy, and yet oh so delicious! 

They were a lot easier to make then I thought they were going to be. 

We just needed to get: Apples, Caramel Squares, Candy Mix, Wax Paper and Popsicle Sticks.
Obviously, we had to wash the apples first and break off the stem!

 

 I did the classic elementary school trick: 

Each twist shows how many kids I'm going to have. Six? I don't think so.

I shoved the Popsicle sticks in the center and heated up the caramel and candy mix in their own pans.

Until they melted, I crushed some peanuts for on top. Once the caramel and candy were all melted, we just dipped the apples in, covered them, and laid them on the wax paper to dry!

YUM! 

Then, after we finished carving pumpkins, I decided it was time for me to learn how to make my own pumpkin seeds. I've only ever eaten my mom's pumpkin seeds and I knew I would need to learn how to make them myself someday. Super easy!

You can find my favorite recipe here!