(Not-So) Weekly Wedding Update

Time for a wedding update! I'm slowly but surely crossing things off the list. It's a little rough being your own wedding planner but I have a really clear vision of what I want so I wouldn't trust anyone else ;)

Next big thing...Florist! My mom and I met with Kirby at Bows and Arrows a couple of weeks ago.  I felt like she really got my vision and I left feeling pretty excited. I am very excited to have such amazing talent as part of the special day.

 

 You can check out more of their amazing work here. Not only will they be helping me out with the normal flower items, but they are going to help me with alter decoration as well...which will look something like this:

 With different fabric and flowers :)

Next up will be wedding dress shopping and I have to admit that in true girl fashion, I am SO excited. I spent a lot of time not really thinking about it. I'm a definite dress girl so I haven't been too obsessed about it, thinking that once I go I will find the perfect one pretty easily. I also didn't think I'd be the girl who sees a dress and calls around to see who has it. But alas, I stumbled upon exactly what I want. You never know what dresses look like on you until you put them on but just in case...I'm not going to post it on here since Kyle is one of my loyal twelve followers.

I know it's super trendy and time efficient to do a first look but no one has been able to talk me into it yet. I want that first look on the aisle moment.

 Word of the day : excited.

 

Balance

What a fantastic three day weekend. It came at the perfect time. I feel more energized for this week than I have in awhile.

I know everyone struggles with this but I have just felt blah lately. It's hard to be the perfect everything all of the time. There just aren't enough hours in the day. I'm (and by me, I mean everyone) supposed to be able to work out every day, work hard with tough kids every day, have  (healthy) dinner planned and made in the evenings, watch my shows, read a book, spend quality time with my fiance, d0 whatever chores need to be done, etc etc. Now I know I don't actually have to do all of those things every day but if I had my way I that's what I would want to accomplish every day. And I don't even have any children. Hats off to you that do.

My workouts were kind of blah too last week. If I'm not able to get to the gym by 4pm, it's not going to happen ( see long list of other things I feel like I should do above). I was gun-ho about waking up early last week and going before work but that didn't happen either. I need time to wake up and eat breakfast and all of that jazz or I'm worthless in the gym anyways. I did get my butt kicked by Jillian at home a few times though. Her videos are hard! 

 I put a lot of pressure on myself and I can get stuck in obsessive brain loops. I start feeling guilty if I didn't work out enough this week or if I ate too much junk. I feel guilty if I had too many bad sessions with students at work or didn't make enough real meals throughout the week. 

I'm trying to be better about finding balance. I know I don't have to read but it makes me feel less stressed if I find time for it.  It's something that I really love. It makes me feel good to get some exercise in for the week but I have to be okay if it's an off week. 

Kyle and I have both been trying to be better about what we can do at home to make our days overall easier and less stressful. We try to clean a little every day so that it doesn't build and overwhelm us. He's awesome about cleaning up the kitchen ( something that I hate to do) and I try to stay on top of the laundry. We used to be bad about letting clothes stack up in the bedroom but now we both clean up a little every night so that it's always clean.

The point of all of this rambling is that we all have to let ourselves off the hook sometimes. We can't do everything all of the time and be everything all of the time.

Current Events and Social Media

I'm a little exasperated.  

One of the biggest problems ( I believe) in America today is that we are too self absorbed. Honestly, that's why I think other countries have such strong negative opinions of us. Facebook and other social media outlets make us feel important and certainly don't help. We care too much about the Kardashians and Real Housewives and too little about what's going on in our country and around the world. We're distracted by abortion and gay rights ( although everyone knows those things are important to me) in elections to worry about things like foreign policy and budgets. 

Currently, the "truth behind Sandy Hook" video is spreading like wildfire and people just believe it. If somebody can put a video together or write about it on the Internet, it must be true right? I'd like to give you all the benefit of the doubt that you all are smarter than that. Something you should be aware of? How about the fact that the government gives billions of dollars in weapons to Bahrain, who in fact uses those weapons against their own people to keep them cooperative? Why would we do that? Because we need to keep Bahrain as an ally so that we can maintain our military base there.  Nobody even talks about that tragedy. In fact, they show "look at how great Bahrain is" on CNN without telling you that it's a paid advertisement. How liberal is THAT liberal media? 

Nobody talks about the provision in NDAA ( National Defense Authorization Act) that now allows the governement to detain anyone suspected of terrorism for an indefinite amount of time without trial. You're thinking, HELL YEAH THIS IS AMERICA! LETS GET THOSE TERRORISTS! But who is that really a strike against? Journalists. You want to talk about the little step that snowballs? It's not the cracking down on gun control. ( oh more background checks? Sounds good. Stopping the loophole of unregulation at gun shows? Sounds great.) it's the fact that a journalist can speak the truth about atrocities and be labeled a terrorist. No ifs, ands or buts.

All I'm asking is that you take the time to open your world up a little. Read a book.travel. Step away from your Facebook, twitter feed and Instagram. Walk a mile in someone else's shoes. You're worrying about your guns being taken away, or your show not coming back on for another week. Someone else is worrying about not having clean water or the tear gas that is going to drop on their village in fifteen minutes. We are not AMERICA FUCK YEAH. We are citizens of the world. We have responsibilities to each other as humans. You need to take in all of the information that you can, but you need to filter it and know that EVERYTHING is skewed. You need to use your brain and your heart at the same time. 

I truly believe that the ultimate empowerment is education. 

Settled In Sunday

A quiet weekend around here. We did some errands yesterday and I had to go to work for a little while. Kyle was feeling pretty bad yesterday and overdosed on Nyquil, so we had a  quiet evening. However.....We DID get the Christmas tree down today, amidst it's plea to triumph on as a Valentine's Day Tree, St. Patrick's Day Tree, Easter tree, etc.

I meant to do a Wedding Wednesday post this week, but just didn't get to it. Last weekend we met with and booked our wedding photographers! We are very excited to work with Kelli and Brendan at Nine Photography! You can check out their work here! Engagements coming in March!

I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to describe my wedding "style" and I still don't know. I know what it's not. There are so many cute wedding themes out there floating around and while I recognize their adorable-ness, some are just not me. There will be no chic rustic, no burlap and mint pinterest  do-it-yourself, and no green and pink southern plantation.

There will be stripes

 

And gray and pink

 

You can check out my pinterest (on the right bar) for some more wedding planning extravaganza!

That's it for me tonight. Please remember:

Mayhem will keep an eye out for you until next time....

So This Is The New Year....

And I feel a whole lot different....

I saw a great idea about creating a new year's resolution on another blog that I frequent. Instead of making a list like "lose weight!" or "No more cokes!", she decides on a verb for the year. I think that is a fantastic idea that I will now steal.

I actually couldn't pick just one, so I have two: create and push.  

CREATE 

I feel the most me when I can use my creative side and I have some great opportunities to use that this year. I want to keep creating on this blog. I love this little outlet of mine and I think it's doing a great job of creating itself. When I started writing it, I wasn't sure what it's "niche" would be but I'm okay with it just being me for now. I am a whole lot of things. 

I am also really excited to create a fantastic wedding that really shows who Kyle and I are. The immediate planning process felt really stressful but now as I have begun starting to check things off the list, I have moved back in to the exciting realm. We are so excited to get married and have a really fantastic party that shows our families and friends who we are and celebrate all of you who have shaped us along the way. We are going to create a great time!

PUSH

This year I want to push myself in all things. Challenge myself whenever I can. I also want to push myself to be the most me that I can.

I will also be pushing myself career wise this year. I have decided to join my mom's real estate team (to be created when I join :) ) Right now I will still be working at my current job but we have slow times of the year where I have plenty of free time to be doing more. So starting this month, I will begin the process of getting my real estate license and then will be working for my mom part time.

So there you have it folks, my verbs for 2013. Here's to lots of health, happiness and good fortune this year!