A Lot of Unknowns...

I'm at such a weird place in my life and experiencing so many concerns that have never even crossed my mind that I'm not sure I can even describe it all.

Lately, i've been thinking a lot about my future, with S of course, and what the hell i'm going to do with my life.

I'm graduating from college in less than a month, and i'm scared to freaking death.
You might say that i've known that this day was coming for four years now, but it just recently hit me, as in knocked me down and took the breath out of me, hit me.

It all started last week when I went for my first big girl job interview and was turned down for the job. It hurt big time. And I know, I know, it was only one job interview but it was still the biggest blow I think i've ever gotten. I've spent the past four years working my butt off in school, work, and networking like crazy to graduate doing..... _________. I guess that I figured all this work would lead to me landing my dream job and being able to start the Monday after graduation. Crazy right? But that's really what I thought would happen and i'm starting to realize that it doesn't. That i'm graduating along with thousands of other people in the exact same boat that I am and we're all searching for what we want to be when we grow up.

All this is in conjunction with the fact that the lease on my apartment ends in July, i'm getting married in August, and WHERE the hell are S and I going to live? What are we going to be doing????

Yeah, so there are a lot of unknowns that are keeping me on the edge of my seat right now. I know i'm not the only girl to be experiencing all this, and thank God for my friends, family and wine to keep me sane during these next few months.

I've got a lot to figure out.

On Cloud Nine

I've been reading this book that my fellow bride friend, Sarah bought me that offers some amazing advice about getting married and the first year as a married couple. I've read about half of it, and it really has offered some great advice/prepared me for things to expect.

One of the chapters talks about brides and how they handle their special day. Every bride deals with their exciting day differently and the author of this book describes some of the emotions that you will experience.

As I told you last week, I had my first bridal shower this past Sunday, and I got a little glimpse into what this author was talking about first hand. My bridal shower was so amazing and surreal. I am still on cloud nine thinking about how much fun it was to be together with my close friends and family, and how I literally could feel the love surrounding me throughout the room. I spent all of last week giddy and excited and Sunday did not dissapoint. It's just such a humbling and unreal feeling to get to be around so many people who are excited and happy to be celebrating this special time with me.

As far as the shower itself went, it was a hit! My mom and future mother in law did an amazing job preparing everything from start to finish and they had some amazing help.

The theme was a kitchen and recipe shower, and everyone that was invited was asked to bring a recipe along with their gift. I can't tell you how excited I am to try some of these recipes. I know this collection of recipes will be one I will keep forever!

Some of the recipes I got included:
-Baked Chicken and Rice
-Chili
-Greek Style Roast Lamb
-Southwestern BBQ chicken
-Easy Cheesy Chicken
-Swiss Cheese Lasagna
-Chicken Casserole
-Artichoke Tomato Pasta
-Tex Mex Taco Soup
-Strawberry Pretzel Salad
-7-up pound cake
-Pecan Pie (my Grandma's famous!)
-Fudge Pie
-Cinnamon baked fruit
-German chocolate cake w/ coconut pecan frosting
-Chocolate Chip Cake
-Red Velvet Cupcakes w/ cream cheese frosting
-Orange juice cake
-Chocolate Toffee Bark
-Bumble bee break
-Broccoli corn bread (my mom's and my favorite growing up!)
-Carrot cake muffins
-Skinny Margaritas

I can't wait to try these, and i'm happy to share, so if you see anything you'd like to get the recipe for, send me a message and i'll pass it along to you.
***as you can see, as few of these I may need to wait and try AFTER the wedding so I make sure my dress still fits! :) ***


A few pics from the shower...

Parting gifts - home made oreo balls and peanut butter balls

Fun recipes!

My beautiful mom

My bridesmaids

My MOH, made this glass for me!

Thought of the day

Saw this and just had to post it.

Tough Days

So lately, i've been running into a few "woe is me" days. Sometimes I feel like i'm the only 20 something who is going through huge life changes, about to graduate college with nothing to do with my life, always worried about money and stressing about how much time I don't have on my hands, and then I snap out of it bc I see that EVERY other 20 something in America is going through the same thing that I am. It sucks, but it's just a fact of life. Some days you just have to keep fighting no matter how rough things may get. You have to look at the positives and push through.

If i've learned this from anyone, it's my mom.

As some of you may know, almost a year ago, my mom suffered from a brain hemmorage. When my stepdad called me and told me what had happened to my mom, it was one of the scariest moments in my life. My mom was airlifted to Charlotte, and thank God for my friend, Shannon, because I wouldn't  have been able to make that drive alone. It still brings me to tears thinking about that day. My mom was in intensive care for what seemed like forever after that, and I remember not being able to sleep or anything during that time.
It's been a year since that happened and my mom is still seeing the effects of her brain hemmorage. She suffered from short term memory loss. (She recently tested 15%... normal is between like 50-75%). She also stills gets frequent dizzy spells. Because of these two combinations, she still has not been released to drive by doctors. Anyone who knew my mom prior to what happened would know that this is hard for her. My mom has worked since she was a young teenager and was the most independent woman I've known. When my mom went for a routine catscan after this incident, the doctors also found a large mass on her thyroid that they said had to be removed. She's had one surgery, but they have to go back in to remove the rest next month. She also tore her rotator cuff in her shoulder when she passed out after her brain hemmorage.

I know it has been one of the longest years of my mom's life and she's got a long way to go, but she's the biggest fighter i've ever met. Everyday is one day closer to getting her back to her normal self. It seems so unfair that something this major has happened to her, but then again, there are so many things in life we just don't understand. We can spend our whole life questioning why certain things happen to us, or we can get up and change our fate.

My mom is my hero. She's had to deal with more in the past year than some people will encounter in a life time.

There's going to be tough days ahead, but I know we'll make it through.... my mom taught me that.

Fun Times

Everyone always thinks of Fall as being such a fun & busy time because, at least for me and my friends, every weekend is consumed with tailgating and football!

But it never fails, my Spring time weekends fill up pretty quickly with fun events too... This Spring has been no exception.

This past weekend, we had a blast at Carolina Cup. I got to see a lot of people I haven't in a while, and I even managed to see a horse! Here's a few pictures captured from Saturday.

I'm also super excited about my first bridal shower on Sunday. My mom and future mother in law have been busy preparing me a lovely kitchen & recipe shower back in my hometown and I am so excited to get to celebrate and spend time with my friends and family!

And as for my week this week, i'm just busy at work crossing things off my to-do lists as normal.

At night you will find me and S in the gym (we've made a pact to go 5 days a week now!) then settling down to watch our new addiction, LOST. We've been watching the seasons on Netflix and we're pretty much addicted!

I've just been having a lot of fun lately, hope you all are too! :)

What i'm loving right now.

So i've been a little absent from the blogging world lately, but I have a really good excuse. Oh wait, no I don't, I just haven't felt like i've had anything blog-worthy going on lately.

Today is no exception, I really don't have any crazy interesting things to talk about, so I figured I'd just share some things I'm loving right now.

I'm LOVING the healthier, skinnier me!

I am very proud to say that after starting Weight Watchers with my roommate KJ a few weeks ago, I'm starting to see REAL results. I've lost around 10 lbs, and I feel so much better in my clothes. I hope to keep this up because I'm secretly hoping that when I go for my first fitting for my wedding dress, it falls right off! :)

Since doing Weight Watchers online, i've found some awesome recipes and here's one I'm LOVING right now!

Greek Twice Baked Potatoes

4 small idaho potatoes
1 small container of plain Greek Yogurt
1/3 cup reduced fat feta cheese
Scallions
Salt and Pepper

Bake potatoes at 350 for around 45 minutes. Cut open and spoon out inside of potatoes creating a boat-like shape. Mix potato filling with above ingredients then spoon back into potatoes. Bake for an additional 15 minutes and enjoy! These delicious potatoes run you at about 8 WW points for each whole potato. Not bad, and they're deliciously filling!

Bed Head Superstar Queen for a Day Thickening Spray

I recently got my hair done by my amazing cousin. She always does an awesome job and introduces me to some fun hair products. She showed me this hair product, and i'm LOVING it! It adds such great volume to my hair and the name is just absolutely perfect.

SimpleSeating

This next blurb about what i'm LOVING is for all you event planners and brides to be out there. My best friend, PK just showed me this website where you can make seating charts and plan for upcoming events. Although I don't plan on having a sit down dinner at my own wedding, I am sure I will find this website handy for some other upcoming events.

This Weekend!

I'm LOVING that I have the next few days off to spend with my wonderful fiance! We've both been so busy lately, we don't have a lot of free time together. This Saturday, we will be attending the Carolina Cup in Camden, SC. The weather is supposed to be beautiful, and we have a full day of tailgating in our finest outfits ahead of us. I'm sure I'll post pics next week!

Hope you all have an amazing weekend too!