Sarah and Daddy Day

Every Saturday since we got married has unofficially became the day that Sarah spends the entire day at her parents house. Chris working on Saturdays has actually been a blessing in disguise. It has allowed me the time to be at home with my family and pretty much feel like I never left. Today started out differently than other Saturdays. Usually my entire family knows that I will be there and tries to stay home to be with me. Today my sister had two different birthday parties planned. One for her friends niece at lunch time and another for dinner in Huntsville for another friend's 20th birthday. Needless to say during the break she did have from one party to the next she planned to ride bikes with a friend all afternoon. My mom, with her big heart, picked up an extra shift at work for extra money until 8 tonight. Therefore it was only gonna be me and my dad. I soon found out this day was not going to be dull but EXTRAordinary.

Right after my mom and sister had headed out my dad took me to mine and his FAVORITE burger place. We talked the whole way there and the whole way through lunch. The lady even kept asking us if we needed anything because we sat there so long. When we pulled into the driveway my dad noticed my gas light was on and told me to remind him that we needed to get gas on our way to my apartment. Once inside my grandmother showed up to go through our wedding pictures. (If you have been married and had to go through wedding pictures you know this is NO small task. Wedding pictures are consuming my parents dining room table at the moment.) Shortly after I got a call from the furniture store that our replacement night stand had arrived. When the first nightstand was delivered it was bumped and received an annoying scratch (Some people may think "who cares just take the nightstand" but in my family we believe you should get what you pay for :) ) My dad and I rode down to our apartment to wait on the furniture company. They arrived and set up my nightstand within ten minutes of us walking in the door. We headed back home where I began sorting wedding pictures for myself and Dad worked on placing my video camera memory cards onto discs. We had been invited earlier today to go to my grandmothers church for a youth fundraiser. They were serving dinner from a local restaurant. My sister came in from riding bikes with her friend, helped me sort through a few pictures, took a shower, then headed on her way for party number 2.

Dad and I began to get ready to head to meet my grandmother. I walked into the laundry room to get socks because I had worn flip flops to my parents house not really intending on going anywhere big today. It also was beginning to get cooler outside and my feet were freezing. Getting socks seems like a simple task. But for me I walked in, picked up the socks, walked out, put on the socks, let the dog outside, turned to dad and said, "It's weird how little things still upset me." At the moments I burst into tears. Dad immediately understood what I was talking about and rushed over to hug me. It sounds so stupid but something so simple like picking up socks in my parents laundry room made me miss home. The other night I woke up and looked over my closet door and immediately burst into over not seeing the Finding Nemo picture that hung above my closet at my parents house. (Sometimes I really feel like I am losing my mind)

We finally left to meet my Grandmother just in time to receive a phone call from her wondering where we were. We met, ate, and talked for a while before heading home. At one point I laid my head over onto Daddy's shoulder and told him how much I wished Mom and Emma were there to join us. On our way we talked and laughed about everything! We had to pause to allow a car to pass by just before turning onto the road about a mile from our house. As we turned I noticed Dad began to slow down as I looked at him he reminded me when needed gas as we came to a rolling stop on the road. Yes, we were out of gas....We got out of the car grabbed our cups, keys and my purse and started the walk towards our house. At this point I thought it was completely hilarious. I told dad at least it would be a funny story to tell one day haha...and at least it wasn't snowing! We had full stomachs, walking half a mile, in the pitch black dark in somewhat chilly weather. About the time we turned the corner to see our driveway Dad remembered that his car is in the shop...Remember Mom is at work, Emily is in Huntsville and my car is out of gas down the road. Chris had a rough day at work and didn't feel it was the best time to call him. Luckily Dad had some gas in a can in the garage. We walked out to the garage and got the can. Once we walked out of the garage, I heard a "tink, tink, tink" sound on the roof...IT WAS RAINING! We rushed into the house and dad began searching for his raincoat. All the umbrellas are in our cars and therefore we were gonna be walking back in the rain. Dad grabbed a flashlight and said I did not have to go with him so that I wasn't walking in the rain. I told him to hang on that I had a umbrella in my closet. I rushed to get the umbrella and ran to the door. Dad was already at the end of the driveway and I began chasing after him. Still with a full stomach I am chasing my Dad down the pitch black dark road. I get close to him, figuring he had heard my footsteps behind him. I yelled, "You left me!" But before I could get out "You" dad jumped, nearly slinging the gas can into me. We walked the rest of the way to the car laughing about my Dad nearly having a heart attack, filled the car with gas, got in and drove home. I fed my mom's huge St. Bernard dog and sat down for a two hour talk with Dad, no TV, no interruptions, JUST US!

Today made me realize how truly blessed I am. I have an AMAZING family that I could not have been blessed any more for. I have realized that getting married did not take me away from my family. I still have the same relationship with them as I did before. My sister is still my Best Friend, my Mom is an amazing woman and friend, and I am still my Daddy's little girl. Everyone should count your blessing daily. I recently saw a quote that has stuck with me in my head everyday since, "If you could only keep the possessions in your life that you thanked God for yesterday what would you be left with today?" Be grateful for the lives you have and always remember to count your blessings every day.

Newlywed Life

We have been married a little over a month and I could not be any happier. I never would have thought that after almost 8 years of dating I would still be finding out new and interesting information about my husband everyday. I thought I knew it all but I was definitely wrong haha. When you are little every girl dreams of their perfect fairytale wedding, which in my mind I had completely, but no one tells you of the hard adjustment period afterwards. I am sure Chris and considered trading me at some points but I am coming to realize that I am not losing my mind but simply going through a transition phase. Chris is an excellent help and wonderfully understanding man about my hard moments. He helps me through each one of them and reassures me of how much he loves me and loves being my husband. No matter our hard times we are having more good days than bad. Everything about being a newlywed is new and exciting, even going grocery shopping is interesting to us for now. We are enjoying our time as newlyweds and continue to enjoy everything God is doing for us in our lives.

After we came home from our honeymoon our little town was hit with one of the biggest snow storms ever for our area. We all averaged about 10 inches of snow on the ground. We had a blast playing in the snow at my parents house with my family and our two dogs. Chris and I even made miniature snowmen of us at our new apartment. We had a great time being snowed in for a few days but were definitely ready to see it go.

We also just got our wedding video in from Awaken. It is absolutely incredible! If you have a wedding coming up I definitely recommend this company. They captured every moment beautifully! Hopefully our wedding pictures will be in soon. I can not wait to see all of them and continue to remember our special day. For now these are a couple of pictures that my Dad and sister snapped the day of our wedding. If you know my family one of us always has a camera in our hand. My dad has captured every aspect of our lives on camera or video camera which I am eternally grateful for. We had a wonderful photographer and videographer but there is no way my Dad would come to his daughters wedding without his camera equipment in tow haha. I am so blessed to have all these wonderful memories of our special day and even more blessed that he passed his loving of capturing memories down to me and my sister.