Food for thought

Warning: this post contains ranting and my personal beliefs and opinions. I am NOT judging you if you do not agree with me on this subject.

The other day my future MIL was having casual conversation with someone when they asked about Garrett and I. After telling them about our December wedding and our job/school plans, they proceeded to say, "Well aren't they living together in Greenville already?" And she told them that no, we won't be living together until we get married. AND THEY GAVE HER A WEIRD LOOK. They went on to say, "Really??? Why not?" 

Insert rant: Since when is it considered weird to NOT live together before marriage???  It used to be the other way around. My fiancé and I were both raised in Christian homes. Our parents did amazing jobs of instilling in us the desire to follow Christ and live according to His desires. Genesis 2:24 says, "A man shall leave his mother and father and become united to his WIFE and they shall become one flesh." Notice this passage says wife; not girlfriend or fiancé. Garrett and I fully believe that by following this scripture and similar ones in the Bible, our marriage will be made even more special, intimate, and holy. 

I am not saying you are a bad person or non-religious if you choose to do this. I am just saying my blood boiled when someone considered it "out of the ordinary" that we are choosing to wait until marriage to live together. It makes me wonder where we are losing sight of God.. is it because of our obsession with politics, material things, instant gratification? Moral of the story: I wish our country would turn back towards God. Religion is so important and I truly believe it is the answer for so many problems in our country.

Life update!

It has been forrrrever since I have posted on this poor blog. Life has been nothing short of hectic these last 8 months. I am an aunt to a perfect 8 month old baby girl, I got ENGAGED to the most amazing man in this world, I got accepted into PA school, and I am building a house. Yes I am crazy for taking on all these tasks at one time. I've always been good at multitasking ;)

Wedding planning is so much fun. The only thing that has made me even slightly stressed is that my dream make-up/hair girl had a conflict [tear], but I fixed this situation and I know these girls are going to do a great job! I have so much already done: dream dress found, church booked, reception booked, amazing florist, BM dresses found. I am much more laid-back than I thought I would be. After all, in 15 years when I look back I won't remember the small details or what went wrong. I will remember marrying my soul mate and spending the day with all our friends and family. So why stress?!

PA school starts in a short 1.5 months. I will be totally honest: I am nervous about being a full-time student and being a newlywed. I am nervous that I won't be able to give my future hubs all the time in the world. However, he is 100% supportive and so excited for this journey. He always says he will do the cooking and cleaning and take whatever stress away from me that he possibly can. He is the best. It won't be ideal to be stressed up to my eyeballs for the first 2 years of our marriage but this is my dream and he is behind me all the way. Bye bye social life (or what little social life I have) for the next 3 years.

Our house!! Back in December my sister and I were joking about how neat it would be to live beside each other. Well it just so happened that the lot beside their house is empty. After some talking, Garrett and I decided it would be perfect to build beside them. Garrett and Colt can have man time, Keehln and I can have sister time, and we can watch Ella James grow up. It has been a learning experience going through the process of signing all the documents and meeting with our realtor. We are hoping to start building any day now in hopes of moving in right before the wedding. We will move all our furniture in before we get married but our first night living in the house will be our wedding night. We are so excited!

I am off to the beach tomorrow for 14 days and couldn't be more excited to celebrate the 4th of July AND my best friend's wedding weekend!

Xoxo,
O

My happy list

Some things that make my heart happy today:

-Fresh flowers
-Seeing my niece grow in my sissy's belly
-Pumpkin coffee being sold at Fresh Market
-Catching the right bus to campus
-Wedding festivities for 2 of my very best friends
-Cycling classes
-A good book [Jodi Picoult's 'Nineteen Minutes' to be exact]
-A new UNC t-shirt [you can never have too many]
-Amazing, thoughtful, selfless roommates


Have you ever sat back and taken a moment to think about how blessed you are? I am striving to do this more often... to take the time to count my blessings and realize how great life really is. I truly feel that I am right where I need to be. There are so many exciting things on the horizon and I am welcoming change with open arms! It is emotionally exhausting to constantly be in a negative environment. It is amazing how different life is when you are surrounded by encouraging, loving people. And I know God placed my new roomies in my life for this exact reason. I am so very thankful for positivity, friendship, Fall weather quickly approaching, and the exciting weekend plans for this semester! Cheers to senior year!

Ella James update

I have been slacking on my baby updates. My niece's name is officially Ella James Page! We will call her Ella James. She is growing so big and I know she will be here before we know it! Keehln's belly looks like a basketball, it is so cute!

24 weeks



Dad's at it again!

A few of you might remember reading my post about my dad's bike ride from Greenville to Key West to raise money for the Boys and Girls Club. Well, he's at it again. This time from Greenville, NC to New Brunswick, Canada. He rode 230 miles yesterday... and will continue to do that until he completes this journey. Just the thought of that makes me tired. Please keep him in your prayers and follow his journey here: http://riding4areason.blogspot.com/

3 years: 3 lessons

In just a couple of weeks it will be mine and Garrett's 3 year anni! It feels like just yesterday we went on our first date and I had butterflies the whole time, then called my mom and told her he seemed too good to be true. Well, he is still as amazing as day 1. Me and my best friends were talking about relationships and we came to the conclusion that after 2 years of dating, things "get real". Up until that point you are still in the "honeymoon phase" where everything is new and exciting. Don't get me wrong, it's still great after 3 years, but things are more serious, your patience can get tested, and you learn each other's pet peeves and weaknesses. I have learned so much in the past 3 years, about myself and about life in general. The 3 main things I have learned in the past 3 years are:

1) His plans are greater than our plans. I am very Type-A and tend to think that the plan I have for my life is the best plan. Thankfully, God used our relationship to teach me otherwise. If you would have told G and I 3 years ago that he would not be playing professional baseball today, we would have both laughed in your face. My man is gifted at throwing a baseball. Like mid- to upper-90's gifted. He had plans of being a baseball player for a looong time. That's where the Lord stepped in and decided he didn't want me being lonely 8 months out of every year (thank you, Lord). 3 surgeries, elbow reconstruction, and many injuries later, professional baseball was not in his [our] future. I'm not gonna lie, he was heartbroken, I was heartbroken for him, and we both went through a semi-identity crisis. Baseball was his life for 22 years, then it was ripped from him without any warning. It sucked. Looking back, we couldn't be more thankful for this blessing in disguise. We had never known what it was like to spend the weekends together, we got a dog, and our lives did not revolve around baseball anymore. We see what a lot of our best friend couples go through that play pro ball and it is hard. I really feel for them and looking back, I do not think I could have lived like that. God knew this and was looking out for me :)

2) Distance makes the heart grow fonder. 3 years together, 3 summers long distance. 2 summers of G playing summer ball, and this summer he is living in Raleigh and I'm in Greenville. Distance sucks, but it does make us appreciate our time together more. The first summer we dated I only got to visit him once in Cape Cod. When he took me back to the airport, I bawled the whole way. And on both planes (I'm ridiculous). Now, when we are lucky enough to see each other every other weekend, we take advantage of our time and do not take our time together for granted.

3) Every young couple should get a dog. When we got Bella, we had no idea what we were in for. We knew it would be a lot of work, but we didn't really know how much she would change our lives. She taught us responsibility, time management, and team work. We could no longer leave for hours or for the weekend, we had to plan our lives around when she needed to eat and go out. But let's be honest, nothing is more adorable than seeing G and Bella cuddled up together ;)

Here's to many, many more! Xoxo

Bucket list

If you know me at all, you know that I am not exactly "spontaneous". I love a schedule and a routine. However, I find myself envious of people that decide at the last minute that they want to do something, and they just pack up and go without thinking. In 3 weeks I am moving in with 3 amazing girls for my last year of college (how is that possible??) and I am vowing to myself to make it the best year yet. Some of the things that are on my bucket list for the next year include:

• Go to Charleston, SC. I literally think that I am the only person in the world that has never been. (99% chance that Garrett and I are spending New Years there with our best friends Morgan and Greg, fingers crossed!)
• Spend a few many Chapel Hill afternoons on the porch at Bob's
• Become the best aunt ever (this will be happening on November 13 ;) )
• Go somewhere tropical with all the girls for my last Spring Break. It will be nearly impossible to top SB2k12, but I want to try.
• Spend a winter weekend in the mountains in a cute log cabin

I know I will be adding to this list, but this is what I have for now. Hopefully I will be able to check these off my list in the next 12 months!