babies and bedding

A lot has been going on in my life lately! So far in 2012, I got engaged, one of my besties had a baby, another one of my besties is having a baby in October, and ANOTHER bestie just announced she is pregnant. There’s going to be a lot of babies at my wedding which makes me happy! Don’t get me wrong if one of those beautiful babies starts crying during my ceremony, I will be giving the bridezilla look of death but I am definitely not one of those brides who doesn’t want kids or babies at the wedding. 

Also in 2012, we bought land! We closed on the lot last week! I am so insanely excited about building a house. I love looking on pinterest, dwellinggawker and blogs to find house ideas. Since we closed on the lot, I have kind of gotten into house builder mode and out of wedding planner mode. I know all girls dream about their fairytale wedding and this is supposed to be the most exciting time in my life but I would much rather daydream about concrete stain, paint colors and kitchen cabinets.

So far Clark and I have agreed on everything for the wedding except the music, so far we have agreed on nothing for the house except for the location. He says I am trying to make the house look really offensive homosexual term girly. I do have feminine taste but I haven’t been trying to put pink carpet or flower wallpaper anywhere! Here are some of my favorite finds so far, I’m going to need some back up on this so feel free to comment on how amazingly manly it will look. 

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I realize that the flowers on the nightstand and sunburst mirror are pretty girly. So exclude those but I lourve the striped walls for the guest bedroom. I have a white comforter on my bed which we plan to move into the guest bedroom after we get married, throw in some cream color pillows and boom, gorgeous!  (whoever tagged that photo on pinterest didn't tag the right page, uhhh)

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If C had his way, this would be the guest bedroom. Seriously. Our biggest argument has been having a Razorback room. Don't get me wrong this southern girl loves her Hogs but we only have one spare bedroom and I don't want our guests to have to look at a fathead of Knile Davis while they are trying to sleep. I have tried to compromise and let him have a razorback man cave on the back porch complete with a painted razorback on the concrete which will definitely help the resale value. We will have a huge back porch and eventually I would like to close it in so I feel like this isn't being to hateful. Also, his closet will back up to the porch so maybe one day we can add a secret passage like batman that will make all his friends jealous. 

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I adore this floor color and cabinet color together! We did manage to agree on stained concrete floors but haven't picked out a color yet. C said he likes light colored cabinets but doesn't like the distressed look. Seriously?! Who doesn't like distressed. We had a nice long argument conversation about his aunt's kitchen and her gorgeous distressed cabinets. He swore they were just cream with no distress and he really likes them. I swore they were distressed and he would love it in our house too. His mom solved the argument. One guess who was right (obviously it was me or I wouldn't have even told that story).  

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I adore this hallway. The stripes, the gallery walls, the color combo...perfection. C says it's too in your face. We will have a pretty small hallway. I wouldn't put this on a 30 foot stretch but we have maybe 5 feet total of hallway. 

I found this bedding at Bed, Bath and Beyond this weekend. Amazing, right? The comforter for the set is actually the same design as the pillow cases but I think that might be a little overkill, I love it with a white comforter. 

We've also disagreed conversed about a recliner. He says he needs one to keep his man card or something. I hate recliners. If you have a recliner, I am sorry, I just don't like them. Most of them are dorky, there are some very stylish ones out there but they are usually really expensive. Our house will be mostly furnished by FFO, I doubt we can find a stylish one there. 

I realize it's not just my house and C should be comfortable there too but I'm pretty sure there is reason interior designers are usually girls or gay.  I finally pulled the "so you think I have bad taste" line and it totally worked. Don't feel bad for him though, he pulls the "marriage is about compromise" line on me all the time. I am hoping our premarital counseling can start before the house building starts. 

Budget Nazi

Disclaimer: this is probably the most boring post ever but I hope you will stay with me. 

About a year ago, Clark and I took Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University class. It absolutely changed our life. If you have never taken his class, you are probably rolling your eyes as far back as they will go because I did the same thing before my “budget Nazi” days. I’ve always been pretty responsible when it comes to debt. I was always scared of credit cards; I only had 1 and never carried a balance. I did have a car payment on a really sweet Audi (I’ll address that in a sec) but that was my only debt. My big problem was saving money. I didn’t spend more than I made but I would spend every single penny, usually on clothes so I never had enough money for the essentials.

After the class, I traded in my really sweet Audi for a Jeep Liberty. It was heart-breaking. I went from having every option on my car to having power windows and cruise control and nothing else. It’s been almost a year since I traded it in and even though it was tough, I have never once regretted it. I dumped about $10k in debt with one signature! I also cut up my credit card and haven’t gotten another one since. I’m not bragging, it was really hard. It’s really hard to not go shopping once a week, to cut back on gifts, and to budget every single penny. It’s really hard but it’s been totally worth it.

If you google reasons for divorce, most statistics list financial issues as either the number 1 or number 2 factor. I am not going to list any statistics because I don’t trust anything I find on the internet but I think we can all agree that money plays a huge part in our relationships. C and I have arguments all the time, we don’t have arguments about money. I know we aren’t married yet so things will get a little more complicated when we start joining our money but we are completely on the same page. As soon as we got engaged, C put together a mock budget for us and we didn’t even have to have a conversation about it because I was in complete agreement with him.

Dave says in most relationships, there are basically 2 types of people, “nerds” and “free spirits.” If you know me and C, I would be willing to bet that you think you know which type we are. Let me go ahead and shock you and say that I am the nerd and he is the free spirit. When we first took the class, I said just the opposite. I have since become crazy about my budget. I budget every single penny and check every day to make sure my budget matches my actual spending. Dave has a budget you can download online but it was pretty tedious to budget it all manually. I created my own spreadsheet for my budget and it’s all done with formulas so I never had to add or subtract anything, I just plug in the numbers that change. I created one for every month so I only have to tweak it a little on pay day. I get paid once a month which makes it even easier on me. I am putting the spreadsheet on here so you can download it for yourself. You’ll probably have to change the categories a little, Here is a link to Dave’s site, the “monthly cash flow planning” worksheet has the best example of all the possible categories. http://www.daveramsey.com/tools/budget-forms/

Download the excel file here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0An_oMtRews19dFIxNDR1R2l5dS01cy1ablA1cnhDVlE You aren't supposed to have to have a google account to access it but if it doesn't work, let me know, this is my first time sharing a file on the blog. Click on "file," "download as," and "microsoft excel 97-2003." Then you should be able to edit it however you want.

Sorry that was so long and not even a little bit fun to read but thanks for making it this far! I will never put you through that again!

Anabella

This past weekend me and my besties met in Dallas so we could meet Anabella Grace Smith. 

Anabella Grace

And of course, we were smitten. She is such a sweet baby. I made the classic, non-mommy mistake of ringing the doorbell when we got there and immediately remembered you never do that in a home with a baby. But when Kori brought Anabella to the door, she was still snoozing. 

Anabella is a very lucky baby. Her mom and dad are so in love with her and are going to be really great parents! 

Daddy, baby and Mommy. Anabella doesn't looked thrilled about her face being smashed.

Me, Heather, Kori, Brittany and Megan

Kori and I have been best friends since we were 4 when we bonded over a pink, glittery crayon in children's church and I guess you could say we were the founders of this little family we made for ourselves. We've been through pretty much everything together and even though we are spread out over 2 states and 4 cities, we do our best to see each other as much as possible.

Heather is expected a little girl in October and it's going to be so much fun to watch these little ladies grow up! 

Me and Heather "oohing and ahhing"

Weekend and wedding recap

This is the 2012 7A State Softball Champions! 

It was also the most exciting game the Lady Hornets have played all year. Most of the games would only make it 4 or 5 innings before they run ruled the other team. Bryant won 8-4 which is the most runs they have allowed all year.

On Sunday, we had lunch at my grandma’s house for my brother and dad’s birthday. I got dad a beach tent that we can use at the wedding next year!

Abby and Carter helping dad blow out the candles

Today has been a very big day for Clark and I! This morning we made an offer on a lot! We are so so excited about building the house that we will start our marriage in. My dad is going to contract it for us so we can build it for way below market value. The owner of the lot countered so we have to do some research and then we are either going to counter or accept tomorrow.

We also booked the house and photographer for the wedding today! The house is in Destin, FL and it actually turned out to be a much better deal than the house we had originally picked out in Navarre Beach. Not only is the house cheaper but it’s in Destin which has much more stuff to do than Navarre Beach. Also, the owner of the house owns a tent that he rents for weddings for quite a bit less than a tent company would. For those of you who want to look for places to stay around our house, the address is 115 Sarasota St Miramar Beach, FL 32550. The date is still May 4, 2013.

I am most excited about the photographer! It is Pure 7 Studios; you can look at some of their recent work on their blog, http://www.pure7studios.com/blog/. Clark and I both fell in love with them! We met with 2 photographers while in Destin. We loved them both and their price was barely different so it was not an easy decision. It was actually Clark who decided for us, he liked Pure 7 just a little bit more and I was happy to not have to make the decision. For any Grandma's that want to have portraits taken, let me know and I will get you a price list, their family sessions are just as amazing as their weddings!

I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my chest today! It feels so good to finally have things finalized. Hopefully, we will get to accept the offer on the lot tomorrow and then we close in 2 weeks! I will put any wedding news on our website/app. If you want to download the app, it's called "appycouple" and our wedding code is 02594 or the website is clarkandjessica.appycouple.com. 

It's Friday, Friday, Friday

This weekend is going to be great! As soon as C and I leave work we are heading up to Fayetteville to watch C's sister, Carly, play softball in the state championship. This is the third year in a row that Bryant has made it to the 'ship and hopefully this will be the third time they win the 'ship! The Lady Hornets have been ridiculously good this year and it has been so much fun to watch Carly and the whole team.

Carly ALWAYS smiles in softball, there are so many pictures of her catching and hitting a ball with a huge grin on her face. Carly and I are a lot alike, Clark says it's because we both have black hearts and no souls, but she is so unlike me when it comes to softball. First of all, she is good. But mostly it's her attitude. I had the WORST attitude when I played high school ball. I didn't even play for a real team, I went to a tiny private school and there weren't many other private schools for us to play. I would get so mad if I messed up, my lowest points were smacking a girl on the other team with my glove and hyperventilating in the dugout. Carly always has a good attitude, I'm sure she gets down on herself sometimes but she doesn't let it show. 

The only really awful thing about going to Fayetteville is that we have to miss Clark's brother, Grant, graduating from college. For those of you who know Grant, you know that this degree is a long time in the making and we are so upset that we have to miss watching him get it! I made C decide on his own which one we were going to go to and he has been so torn up about it. It's going to be streamed online so we plan on watching it from the game. Grant promises that he is going to go back to school so we will not miss his next graduation no matter what! 

I'll let you know how the game goes! Happy weekend everyone!

a reveal and engagement party

This past weekend was so much fun! On Saturday afternoon, we gathered at Heather’s parents’ house for her baby gender reveal. I won’t steal her blogging thunder by giving away all the details but I am SO excited for her and Adam and can’t wait to meet baby girl Fite!

Heather, Adam and Gussy dog

Brittany, Me, Heather and Stephanie 

Saturday night was our engagement party. C and I are so blessed with the best family and friends that love and support us! Brittany, Heather, Stephanie, Rebecca, Debbie, and Elaine (who already had plans to go out of town and was missed!) hosted the party and it was a blast! It was at the Back Porch Grill in Hot Springs which I definitely recommend.

Brittany, Me, Stephanie and Heather

C and Me with our yummy cake!

After everyone ate, some people told stories about us. My favorite story was about C wrecking his mom’s car since he has always told me that he has never had a wreck. Heather’s mom told a story about me and Heather sneaking out of Heather’s room one night and leaving our muddy shoes on the windowsill which I thought was hilarious since I had just been thinking about that night at Heather’s reveal and wondering how many times she will catch her daughter sneaking out.

We also announced our date and location plans for the wedding which have subsequently fallen completely apart. My parents, C and I went down to Florida a couple weeks ago and I fell in love with a house in Navarre Beach. It was perfect and actually in our price range. I found the house on VRBO which is usually a fantastic place to find great deals but the owner of this house is a total liar. We originally just wanted to rent the house for 5 nights but he wanted us to do 7. We agreed to rent it for 7 nights but it had to be Sunday to Sunday. Well he demanded that we rent it Saturday to Saturday or rent it for 2 full weeks! Long story short, I told him that was not happening and either we got it for the dates we wanted or we would look somewhere else to which he won’t respond. 

So we are back at the beginning when it comes to houses. I promise I have seen every house on the Alabama and Florida Gulf Coast. I’m so frustrated and exhausted; I really thought we would have a house booked by now. I’m pretty much stuck until we book the house and we are having a much harder time than I thought finding what we want.

We are still planning on May 4, 2013. I am hoping that we can have the house, photographer and planner booked by the end of this month and at that point it’s just working out the details. I realize that this is still a year away so it seems like I should have plenty of time but doing a destination wedding means everything has to be done a few months earlier than usual.

I’ll keep you updated on the progress but for now here is my favorite contestant and performance from this years’ The Voice. I loooourve her! 

Destination unkown (aka justifying a destination wedding)

I know that this shindig is our wedding so we could get married in Alaska next to a polar bear if we really wanted but I don’t really like the way Alaskans talk. Instead, we decided a while back that we wanted a beach wedding. At first Clark was a little against it. He is much more of a people pleaser than I am and was worried that people would be upset if they weren’t able to make it. I just reminded him that it’s OUR wedding and having our closest family and friends there will be enough. 

Growing up, I always thought I would have a huge wedding where hundreds of people could look at me and tell me how beautiful I am. But after being in and going to that exact wedding about 30 times, I realized that isn’t really what I want. I’m not trying to bash anyone’s wedding, I don’t think there is anything wrong with having a huge wedding; it’s just not what I want. And if you can only get exactly what you want one time, it should be on your wedding day.

I’m not really into surprises so before we got engaged, I sat down with a calendar and we came up with a plan. I didn’t tell him when or how to propose (I tried but he wouldn’t allow it) but we did both agree that if we were going to get married 9-10 hours away, we wanted everyone to have at least a year to save money and vacation time so that isn’t an obstacle. We aren’t thinking anywhere crazy, probably Destin or Gulf Shores, definitely somewhere close enough to drive. We are also going to try to plan it when most hotels and condos have their “mid-season” rates, usually in between spring break and Memorial Day. We are planning on either April 27 or May 4, 2013, we haven’t booked anything but I am hoping that since it's over a year away that one of those dates will be open. 

I hate that we have to wait that long but it’s worth it for us to have the perfect day with the people we love the most.

And just for fun, here's is a video of what happened on the way to Destin last year...

I can't wait to see what memories we will make with both of our families on the next trip!