I'm Loving...

That my eating better/sleeping on a schedule project is yielding great results!  I have felt more energized over the past few days and have had much more energy.  I have been focusing on getting enough protein and I think this has helped immensely!

Ashton and I got the OPI shellac manis a few days ago.  She got a french and I got a bronze color.  I love them so far, and if they last as long as everyone says...I will be hooked on getting them all the time!

It's almost Valentines Day!  Thomas is going to get me some sewing stuff that I asked for!

We are also going to buy our wedding rings on the holiday!  One of the possible stores is having a sale, so why not save a little in the process!  I am going tonight to visit at least one more store before I decide 100% which one I want and where Thomas and I should go to look for his.  We went on one ring buying trip together, but let's face it...all the shopping around and looking in a million stores and pricing which rings I like and all that just isn't his cup of tea.  So, since he is beyond busy with school work and stuff I am going to price them out and between this weekend and Valentines we are going to make a decision and buy! 

I have gotten a good bit of sewing in this month, and I have 3 new items that I need to blog about.  I am going to get Ash to photograph me on Saturday so I can blog them.

Friday night is Thomas' sister Kelly's birthday!  She will be 18!  I started dating Thomas when she was 9 and I used to babysit her and we would play Barbies!  We are having a big bash that includes dinner out with the family and her friends, a ghost tour, and a stay at a swanky hotel downtown!  I am really looking forward to it!

Saturday, Ashton and Melissa (both bridesmaids) are going to the bridal salon to buy their dresses!  I am so excited for the girls day!!!  

Thomas is applying for a few jobs tonight and please say a prayer one of them works out.  He is currently going to a new university where he is studying Business Management...so he is working his student job, studying, and job hunting!  I just pray a job works out so that this cycle can stop!  His school is on one side of town, my school is on the other, and our workplace is in the middle, so two times a week when we have night classes, we carpool to work, I drive him to his school 30 minutes from school, then I drive 30 or so minutes to my school, we take our classes, I drive 30 or so minutes back to his school to pick him up, then we drive the 40 minutes or so home.  It is exhausting for both of us and I am really praying that one of these jobs pan out!!!  If you have a minute, please say a prayer!

I must get back to getting things knocked off my to-do list!  Talk to y'all soon!

Brain Dump

I feel so scattered lately!  As I said on my last post, I am not on a good schedule (working on that one!) and on top of that I have a million different things swirling around in my head! 

• Wedding stuff: We have got to get a full guest list together!!!! It is how many months until the wedding and I have been engaged for a year and a half, there is no excuse!!! I have a meeting with a wonderful graphic designer and invitation designer this week and am looking so forward to it!  I love when the paper products look polished and coordinate at an event! The link for who I am talking to is on my sidebar under Wedding Planning With..., it's Emma J Designs.  I have admired her work for a long time and really look forward to talking to her! I also have other little things to do like decide on a cake, book a DJ, and book a videographer, decide on decorations and tableclothes, etc.  Ashton and I were discussing the wedding this past weekend and I realized I still have a lot left to do! 
Source

• Thomas and I started discussing money this past weekend.  What a fun topic...not!  We were deciding who would mail off the bills (me), and who would be the main one to make sure we are staying on budget (him), and we agreed on our main goals and that we would sit down monthly and discuss our budget for the upcoming month and how we did the last month.  We also agreed on a Zero Balance Budget for each month, bascially the Dave Ramsey method, but we haven't gone through the class.  We are not planning to do an envelope method exactly, but it isn't 100% out of the question either.  We will see how it goes once we get married and start all of that.

Source
• We are currently trying to decide of where we are honeymooning.  The options are a 7 day Carribbean cruise or a 7 day Alaskan cruise.  We are both pulling for the Alaskan cruise, plus it is the cheaper of the two options.  However, it depends on our vacation time as we would have to take off 2 weeks in order to go.  It also depends on money (of course), so if certain items we have budgeted for are more than we aniticipate we might have to do a shorter Carribean cruise which is the cheapest of all the options.  Cross your fingers everything works out with the Alaska option because we both think it would be wonderful!  Also, anyone who has experience with Alaskan cruises, please let me know if I need a passport to go on one!  It isn't going to be going into or sailing out of Canada, so I am thinking I should be okay.  If not, I need to get a new one stat!!!  If we book it, I will definitely have to call the cruise company and make sure!

Source
• I am so glad my LAST semester of college is pretty easy!  I have 4 classes: one working as a Research Assistant to my professor again, Economics of Immigration, Intro to Sign Language (super fun!!!), and Intro to Crafts.  I am loving it.  My only econ class is that immigration one and we have NO tests!  We only have papers (one a week, 2.5 pages), so it is some work, but it isn't bad at all!  Plus it is with my favorite professor, who is my advisor, his wife is my wedding dress seamstress, and he is likely our wedding singer.  He is a wonderful person and I have really grown close to him through the last 3 years of having him as a professor. 

Happy Monday!  I hope you are staying warm!  I am so ready for Spring!!!

Sleep

I have a confession to make...I am an oversleeper.  I drive people nuts about it.  Poor Thomas gets so annoyed at me when he comes to pick me up for work and I am not ready because I have only been awake for 15 minutes.  I try to get up on time, I really try.  I have set my alarm on the most annoying and infuriating ringtones, set it way across the bedroom where I must get out of bed to turn it off, set multiple alarms, had Thomas call me to wake up.  It never fails that I can get up, walk across my room to turn off the alarm, talk to Thomas is my most "awake" sounding voice, but then go back to sleep.  I honestly am in a haze of sorts when it goes off.  I am vaguely remember hitting the snooze button when I actually get up, but if seems as if it was just a dream.  I can remember sometimes that I was having a dream where I just was thinking that another 30 minutes of sleep is fine because I don't have to go anywhere until such and such.  It never fails though, I wake up and think, "OMG, I am going to be late" and then have to hurry hurry hurry to get ready.  I just am NOT a morning person.  It  really doesn't matter how late in the morning it is either.  I can wake up at 5, or at 8 and still not want to wake up.  I can go to bed early, but it doesn't seem to help either.  I don't really like to talk to anyone for about a solid hour after I wake up too.  I am the epitome of not being a morning person. 

So, this morning was one of those mornings.  It isn't every morning, but it is more often that not.  Still, today was one of those mornings.  I look like a hot mess (which honestly every morning I get ready in 20 minutes I do).  It was worse though.  Somehow, I didn't press snooze like I usually do, I hit OFF!  Thomas called me at 7 saying he was rolling into my neighborhood and I was in a solid sleep.  Like it could have been 3am for all I knew, I was dead to the world asleep.  I jumped out of bed apologizing on the phone in a haze.  I am so sick of doing this!  Recently I did this and overslept for something important too! It is out of control! 

BUT, I have not always been this way.  It is really a recent development (last 6 months or so).  I really do think I know what the issue is.  I am not on a schedule.  I know bedtimes are something that really shouldn't be necessary at this age, but this schedule for my day to day life of running to school, work, night classes, and trying to squeeze in wedding planning, friends, and time to be with Thomas one and one is getting to me.  I am tired all the time!  I wake up and wish I had gotten a few more hours.  I forget things like dates I have reserved to go out with friends, or the time I have a doctors appointment, or if I paid a bill.  I need to make myself go to sleep and wake up at the same time every single day!  No more sleeping until 10 on weekends and staying up until 2, only to have to get back into a 5:30 am wake-up call work week!  I am trying to get rid of this problem!  I swear, I feel like the way people describe when they had a newborn!  I must have "Baby Brain!" ha!  Have any of you ever had this problem when you had too much on your plate?  What did you do to get out of the funk?

A Developmental Opportunity

Yesterday, I had a huge experience that was wonderful for me professionally.  I have been working as a Research Assistant for one of my professors this year in his department when he studies regional development in the area.  I have been helping him collect data and get projects together, and through this I have learned so much and have had the opportunity to see how economics works in the professional world and the community.  One of those projects was an Eco*nomic Ou*tlook for the Savannah area for 2011, which was presented at the annual Cha*mber of Co*mmerce Eco*nomic Ou*tlook luncheon yesterday.  I was one of three students (all of us worked on the project) who were given the opportunity to sit at a table with faculty in our department, the department head, the Dean of the college of Liberal Arts, the President of the university, and many other high ranking administrators.  We were able to listen to a speech by the Dean of the Te*rry College of Business at U*GA, who spoke about the outlook for the state as a whole, and then my professor, who spoke on the outlook for Savannah.  He thanked all of us students by name in his speech and I was thanked afterwards by many professionals, including the President of the Cha*mber of Co*mmerce.  It was a fantastic experience and one that I am extremely proud and honored to have been able to have. 

P.S. I am using the asterisks because I don't want someone to google one of those words and come across this.  Also, I do not mean to seem braggy by talking about this opportunity, but I like to use my blog as a scrapbook of sorts and this is certainly an experience that I do not ever want to forget! 

Handmade Christmas Presents 2010

I am finally sharing what the gifts I made for Christmas this year are.  I know this is ridiculously late, and as Ashton told me last night, I haven't blogged in TWO weeks! Wow, I need to get on board with this.  It's bad when your best friend is asking you when your going to blog again! Ha! Okay, now that is out of the way, onto the gifts.  I decided that the little kids on my list would be receiving some of the cute handmade things I have seen online this year.  I have been brainstorming for months for this!

For my godson Preston

A lovey with ribbons on it!  He immediately loved it and carried it around putting his fingers in the holes. 

For my neices

Handmade Shirts for all and Tutus for Autumn and Sage

For Autumn

Princess and the Pea playset (given with the book).  This was inspired from Sewing in No Man's Land who blogged about this here.

For Sage

A lovey with ribbons on it...

and baby blocks with ribbons on it.  If you notice, I even cut up some far too small Lilly Pulitzer capris for the blocks.  Considering I hoard Lilly despite the fact that it may not fit, that's a big deal! If that isn't love, I don't know what is!  Both the tropical and the blue and yellow plaid are from Lilly capris I found at the local Goodwill.

Note: I know it looks like Olivia didn't get nearly as much as the other girls...but it was made up for with a purse, a wristlet, beauty products, and the game of Clue.

All the children loved their toys and handmade gifts.  This made me so happy!  As I was working on each one, I thought about how they would be loved and perhaps held on to like my mom has done with the handmade items I had when I was little.  I tried to make gifts that I thought the kids would really like, rather than something to give just because it is homemade.  I would never want to be that aunt/godmother that gave handmade gifts that no one really liked and they just brought out when she was around.  I think that they all seemed to really and truly like them!  It really was a wonderful Christmas this year!