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This is a blog to keep our family and friends up to date on our lives even though we all live so far away from each other!

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Thirty Five

Ahhh we lived, we lived! Haha :) It has been a tense week here with the soldiers. You can feel the nervousness in the air. As Christmas is drawing nearer, you can tell things are getting a bit better. They have officially let the soldiers start drinking again. As we all can assume, most are very happy about this! Haha
I am so glad all this is calming down. It has definitely made the days long and stressful.
I am getting very excited about getting to see my little brother soon! Bradley is coming to stay with us on Christmas Eve morning. Joshua is working an all day/overnight shift on Christmas Eve so Bradley is going to keep me entertained! He is going to stay with us through Christmas Day. We bought presents for some of Joshua's closest friends so we will be delivering those to them on Christmas Eve and then opening presents on Christmas Day with Bradley. I am so glad to have some of my family with us for the holidays!
Other than that, after Monday's live-fire drills, our life has slowed down a bit! We went shopping today and got some knock-off ugg boots which are very cute! Woo Hoo :)

Until the next time,
Hannah

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Thirty Four

So these past few days in Korea have been very tension filled. South Korea has live-fire drills they are practicing and North Korea is threatening that if they go through with them, they will fire at them. The drills for the South won't be pointed towards North Korea in any form or fashion, but of course, North Korea always has to make a fuss. So almost 2 hours ago, the firing started. I am refreshing the CNN webpage hoping they will give me an update, but alas, they have not. S Korea started their Live Fire drills at 10am Korean time (currently it is 1150am). Joshua is in their motorpool working and I am sitting in his room awaiting further information. I am praying and ask anyone who prays to pray with me. This is not only a place of peace for Americans, but also for the South Koreans. They are peaceful by nature and have never retaliated when N Korea does absurd things. I have been trying to figure out what I will do if War breaks out. Obviously North Korea will lose, but it will be a tough few days/weeks/months/years until it is all resolved. I am happy to say that I am far away from the N and S Borders, but my little 19 year old brother is right there. I am praying for his safety as he is so young. He is my baby brother. I just don't know what I'd do if I lost him in this. I don't know what I'd do about Joshua either but at least he is farther away that the eminent danger is with Bradley. *Sigh* Pray for them. If you don't pray, send them your good thoughts and wishes! But please be with us in thought, if nothing else.

With love,
Hannah

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Thirty Three

I finally made it to Korea! *Whew*
It was definitely hard to say goodbye to my family but I know it isn't "goodbye"- it's "see you later, alligator!". I called my niece, Emily, just before my flight to LA and told her I was nervous and asked her if she had any words of wisdom for me. She told me that the last time she flew to Virginia (to see her dad's side of the family) that it was a good flight so she was sure my flights to Korea would be good, too! She also gave me travel tips like to chew gum as the plane is taking off so my ears don't pop! Ha! Travel tips from my 5 year old niece... she's precious!
The plane ride from L.A to Seoul was 12 hours 45 minutes. It wasn't nearly as bad as the last time I flew. I flew with Korean Air which is a fairly nice airline. They had little slip-on house shoes, bottled water, headphones, toothbrush and toothpaste, and a blanket waiting for us on our seats when we sat down which definitely made me feel better on the flight! They didn't serve very good food but ehh... I didn't expect much. Although, I will say this- American Airlines served great food on my flights last year. It was delicious and I ate every bite when they fed us! On my most recent Korea flight, I slept over half the flight. I was getting pretty tired, so I went ahead and took a NyQuil pill. I put in my ear plugs, put on my eye mask and cuddled up with my pillow and my stuffed animal "Little Joshua" and slept for over five hours straight! It's the most I've slept in probably 4 days! I then woke up for about 30 minutes while they handed out meals (which looked pretty gross and I didn't eat any of it) and then passed out for another 2 hours. When I woke up, we had an hour and a half left of the flight. I watched half of Eat, Pray, Love and then it was time to go find Joshua!
Joshua, one of his friends, and my little brother Bradley all picked me up at the airport. It's always surreal when I walk into an airport and see Joshua. There isn't words to describe it. It's odd because I've been spending so much time talking with him and just seeing his head on the webcam, then all of a sudden there he is! It never feels real until we make it home and we've been together for a day or two and it has a chance to "sink in". Also, it was so nice to see Bradley! I hadn't seen him since Joshua and mines wedding day...or maybe two days after, but either way- it had been a while! He left Austin while Joshua and I were on our honeymoon so it was nice to see his smiling face! It amazes me how much more grown up he is versus when he first joined. He hasn't changed too much, but just enough that it reminds me that my little brother is growing up! He's a whole 19 years old! Eeek! It sounds weird just typing it! Haha :)
Either way, we grabbed a donut at Dunkin Donuts in the airport and hoped on the USO bus back to Bradley's base which was only 30 minutes away. Brad helped us unload and then load back into a cab to take us to the train station. We stopped and ate a bit at the McDonalds at the train station and sat down to relax/warm up our arms, legs and shoulders- it was tough carrying all those bags and suitcases! We hoped on a train at 9pm and then voila-3 and 1/2 hours later, we were home at Joshua's barracks!
I had so much baggage to take with me because I figured I've got to plan for the next 9 months of my life so I packed a lot of my clothes that I wear often (my closet is still 2/3rd full even after taking all these things out!) and packing shoes and towels and not to mention Christmas presents! These bags were nice and heavy and I made sure to let the boys carry them :P Even my backpack carry on left my collar bone bruised! :(
All in all, it was a good flight and a nice trip back to Joshua's barracks. Joshua's unit is leaving for the field today (its 750am here in Korea on 12/17/2010). He left this morning at 5am. It stinks that he is leaving this early into my long-term visit, but he should be home within the next few days which I will be glad for. I am keeping my fingers crossed that they don't send him out again in between now and New Years. After this week is over, he should be getting half days until Christmas so I am happy for that :)
We bought gifts for some of Joshua's friends who won't be going home for the holidays. We also got them all stockings and some little "stuffers" to go in them! I am excited for them to open them all and see what we've got for them! I have also mailed so many gifts over to him for the stockings and for him in general, so I am excited to finally get to wrapping them!
Ahh.. I am jetlagged majorly, so I will say goodbye for now. I will try and write again in a week at the latest!
With love,
Hannah

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Thirty-Two

Geeze Louise! Time is flying fast. I can't believe we have been married for over two months! Eek!
My big flight over to Korea is on Wednesday. I'm a bit nervous to leave here, but excited to start our grand married-life adventure! I'm so excited to just go and get a chance to hold his hand and hug his neck! It's always odd to see him after we have been away for so long. Usually the first couple hours feel pretty surreal. It's like you are walking next to this face that you've only seen on webcam for so long! It's definitely a good feeling though :)
With our move getting closer and closer, I've only got a day left to spend with people and man have I tried to pack it full! I'm running to my granny's house (my connie), then over to visit with my friend Chelsi who came in town early just to see me (!!!), then I've got to head to Amanda H's mom's house to drop off presents for my "God-kitties" (Yes I am the GodMother to two cute little cats....hey, cats need love too!) and then to the movies to see the new Narnia movie with my best friend's sister Amanda G and one of my Korean counterparts Insook. I know it doesn't sound like much, but with all the visiting and chit chatting, I hope I don't wear myself out before the movie starts. I would hate to sleep through it! Ha!
A couple weeks ago, we recieved our wedding pictures back from our photographer. She did such an awesome job. She has great skill for being fairly brand new (only been shooting weddings for a little over a year, I think) and she is such a sweet person. When we met up at Starbucks for me to pick up the pictures, we sat and discussed how nerdy we were for Harry Potter and Twilight. *Sigh* The nerd in me loves meeting people who read my two favorite series! Haha :) She also was married at a young age, 19 to be exact. Her and her husband have been married for 6 years now! It's nice to find someone so young but so experienced with marriage. It's inspirational to say the least!
Well I am off. It is about 4am here and I am going to try and get some extra sleep in before I start my fun filled day! Woohoo!

The Mrs.o more "future" here!) :)

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Thirty-One

Wow. This past week is movin' right along! We are counting down the days and trying to complete the seating chart with all the new additional people that have slowly decided that they want to come....
These days are coming with more and more stress. It feels like madness...just madness. I'll be ready when we get to Korea and get the heck outta here. I can't wait until the honeymoon and everything else to finally come together.
Before Joshua got home, I felt like there was a MILLION things to do and now that he's here, I just can't remember what needs to be done...
We've got to get down to it. We are meeting with the Dr. Procter today and getting our marriage license! Woohoo :)
ALMOST THERE!

Until next time,
THE ALMOST MRS! :)))

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Thirty

We are a week and 6 days away from Joshua arriving! Woo hoo :) We are cutting down on time. We are 2 weeks and 6 days from the wedding. Our first bridal shower was on August 28th. The bridesmaids threw the party for me. It was very small and intimate. It was so much fun :) We enjoyed a lot of little games and took lots of pictures. They got me lots of nice presents from some of my closest friends!

All the shower attendants and Me.

Me and my Maid Of Honor!

The bride-to-be!

The second bridal shower was thrown by my mother and aunt on September 11th. It was so much fun, too! Most people that attended were older females like Christopher's grandmother, my grandmother, my aunt, Pastor's wife, and about 7 other ladies. It was so nice to hear what these ladies had to say. Most of them had been married for 20 or more years so they had some great advice! Christopher's grandmother gave me Christopher's recipe that he always used during Christmas-cinnamon rolls! Yum! I can't wait to attempt it :)


Some of the ladies

Granny, Mom and I

Granny, Aunt Nancy, and I

Mom and I

Aunt Nancy, Mom, Granny and I :)

We got the flowers taken care of, now all I've got to do is get the rehearsal luncheon together! Im so excited to finally be getting closer and closer. I can't wait. I'm just so ready to get it done :)

Until next time,
The future Mrs!

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Twenty Nine

We are officially hitting the home stretch! I can't believe it. We are 4 weeks out! 28 days until our big day! Yesterday we bought Joshua's ticket home from Korea for his 30-day leave. We also purchased our plane tickets to our honeymoon destination, which I can not wait for!! The only real thing we have left to deal with is flowers. Joshua's mom, Linda, should be in on Friday to go pick out flowers for centerpieces and boutenniers. I've already got some flowers picked out, we're just going to get the rest taken care of. On Wednesday afternoon, I'm going to visit another florist about doing the real flowers for the wedding. The bridesmaids and I are going to have real floral bouquets, which I am super excited for. We are going to have PINK bouquets! I can't wait. So we've got most things done except for flowers and a few other details.
We just secured our pastor for the wedding, as well. Just after I was born, my father was graduating from seminary school. A couple that they graduated with live fairly close to this area. They attend the same church as my mom. Dr David Proctor told my mom that he'd be more than happy to do our ceremony! How great. We are almost "completing" our family circle by having them marry the child of the man they went to seminary with. How funny :)

Either way, dresses need to be hemmed and fitted and we need to get our florals straight, but other than that, we seem to be on the right path! Woo hoo :) So excited to start the rest of our lives! :)

Until next time,
The future Mrs!

Monday, August 16, 2010

Twenty Eight

Back to the world of blogging!
It hasn't been a very eventful week. In fact, it's been fairly chilled out.
I've got a meeting with an upscale gourmet pizza restraunt to discuss what they could offer for a Rehearsal Dinner/Lunch. They are located pretty close to the venue so I know it would be easily accessable, I just need to make sure it's a decent place and it would be a quiet establishment. If our guests can't hear us speak when we are speaking to the group, thats a problem :P haha.
I still haven't gotten my florals together...which annoys me. I'm trying to get it to work and it just...isn't. I'm trying to find a cheap place that will do a fabulous job, I just haven't come across it yet :(
UGH! Either way, we are just puttin' along here in the planning stages. We are getting to the point when Joshua will actually be home very soon :) Only about a month and a week! I can't tell you how much my heart yerns for that day! It will definitely be a reunion to remember. It will be over 8 months that we have been seperated when I finally get to pick him up at the airport!
Other than that, work has been goin' along just swell, too. Joshua is getting ready for a field mission that will last about 4 days and then next month, he will go to WLC (warrior leader class) so that when his promotion time comes up, he will be able to be promoted. It will be a little over two weeks (I think) and he will be getting done with that on September 23rd and then heading home on the 27th. It will be a rushed schedule, but then he will be able to relax for at least 30 days! ahhh relaxation :)

Until next time,
The future Mrs. :)

Monday, August 9, 2010

Twenty Seven

Wow, busy few weeks :) Things are really starting to fly by as we make our way to our October wedding. I have mailed out the invites and have started getting response cards back! Every time I get one in the mail I just about run the block to get back home so I can set everything down and open it. I pretty much know everyone who will and won't be able to make it... but still! It's so exciting.
I have learned the art of Mod Podge... It's so great. I have been mod podge-ing everything :) I bought and redid a chest of drawers. They were a bit dingy so i sanded them down and painted them a violet color. I put new black handles on the drawers. It looks awesome! And then I mod podged it :) I lined the drawers with a black giraffe print fabric and applied mod podge all over it to seal it into the drawer. It works flawlessly. I will be posting pictures as soon as I get them taken :)
Joshua has been a busy bee, too. At the beginning of July, he went to "soldier of the quarter" board at Camp Carroll (his base in Waegwon) and won, which was great! Then at the end of July, he went to Seoul to compete in another "soldier of the quarter" board which he didn't win. Despite not winning, he had a great trip and learned a lot! Then, just today, he went to the promotion board to get approved for a promotion to Sgt. He had been studying for months- even since I had been in Korea with him! He said he did awesome. He even said he overheard them talking afterwards about how great he did! So kudos to Joshua!! I can't wait to find out his official score :)
Last weekend, I went and visited Melissa and my little "nephew" Antonio. They are one of my bridesmaids and my ring bearer. They are doing great! And looking great, too! Despite being just two, Antonio is almost fully potty trained! Usually boys are a lot harder to train, so kudos to Mel for the hard work! Antonio is getting so big. He is talking up a storm. He will tell you all about everything.
My oldest niece Emily came and visited my mother and me about two weekends ago. It was fun. Emily is a boatload of energy and a boatload of fun...for the most part. One night, when Joshua was on my computer screen on Skype, Emily rushed in and jumped on the bed and just started chatting him up! haha! She is such a sucker for Joshua. I guess there aren't a ton of males in this family as her daddy is away a lot for the army and her uncle is in Korea with Joshua and she doesn't get to see her grandfathers very often so any male adult interaction is appetizing for her. She just loves him! When we would hold hands, she used to try and come in the middle of us- I guess she didn't want Aunt Hannah to have all of Uncle Joshua's attention! Ha! She is a mess! But all in all, she is a lot of fun. Carly has also come over to visit. Carly is getting so big! She will be two about 2 weeks after the wedding so she is talking up a storm too. She likes to play "night night baby" where she puts her baby doll on her tummy and then covers her with a blankey. She then pats the baby's back and says "night night". She also likes to make me do the same thing :P She will make me lay down and she will take a blanket (no matter how small) and put it on my back and pat it saying "night night. night night" She copies anything that Emily is doing. When she can't find Emily, she will walk around saying "meme! meme! meme!!". It's funny to think that I was probably like that with my sister when we were small!
Work is fun. We had a fun country star come in to visit for a couple nights. He was very nice and fairly humble. He did bust out his guitar for us to see it! It looked really awesome. Super jealous of it! Some of the girls at work are so sweet. Since my best friend and MOH Ashley has moved to Washington DC, it's been tough having all my closest friends live so far away. The girls at work make that a little easier. It's nice to have some females to talk to when I get the chance to run into them at work :)
Speaking of work, we had "celebrate service" week at work and at the end of the week they had a big luncheon (which I couldn't attend since I was sleeping!) where they announced the employees of the month. They gave me employee of the month! How great! I've only been working with them for 4 months so everyone was so impressed! It was really exciting and really encouraged me to continue the good service to all of our guests!
The bridesmaids are in the midst of planning the bridal shower! We are going to have two showers. The BM's are planning the first one and my mom and aunt are planning the second one. I am really excited for both showers. I can't wait to see all my favorite ladies :)
Well, I will update as things draw closer!
Until next time,
The future Mrs.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Twenty Six

I received a package in the mail today...all the way from Singapore!I couldn't remember what I'd had ordered or if Joshua had mailed me something and it had gone through Singapore...

Then I opened it. and it was the Ring Bearer ceramic bowl/dish for Antonio to carry down the aisle instead of a pillow :)

It's so precious!

It says:
"TO HAVE AND TO HOLD
HANNAH & JOSHUA
OCTOBER 3, 2010"
:)

I just needed to share my newest present!
Also, I just got my wedding invitations all ready to mail out :) :)
I am SO so ready for this day to hurry up and get here :)

Until next time,
The future Mrs :)

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Twenty-Five

I've really fallen off my blog-wagon. The past few weeks have been MORE than hectic. A dear friend (that I was really close with all through high school and after) passed away in the last week in June. It was a terrible few days and it was very difficult without Joshua here. It was expected as he had been very sick but I don't think anything can ever prep you for losing a 23-year-old. It feels weird and it turns my stomach. Joshua was as supportive as he could be from half way around the world, but it still was rough.
Either way, Christopher always told me to just cry it out and get over it, so I did. I cried it out and am moving on, not without all my crazy and funny memories we made, but moving on none the less. He would expect me to. I've kept in touch with his sweet girlfriend which I know he would be happy about, as well. Anything to help ease their situations.

On to the wedding junk, I've got invitations that I ordered, received, and have written out. I'm just waiting to mail them out,now! I'm pretty excited for them as they are so super cute! I also have picked out a bridesmaid dress which i am SUPER excited for :)
This one will be Ashley's, in black, of course.
When I find the link to the other girls dress, I will make sure to post the link up here :)
I've also booked the DJ so that's one last thing I need to take care of!

I'm so glad I've got those things taken care of! The next things I am looking for is finalizing who is doing the cake, finding someone to take care of the flowers and someone for hair and makeup :)
*whew* We're already past the 3 month mark. Can't believe it!

Until Next Time,
The Future Mrs.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Twenty Four

*Sigh* This week has been a long and rough one for me- emotionally.
I feel like I've been on an emotional rollercoaster this week. Ups & Downs. On top of that, I feel like I'm gaining weight- just what I want before I get all dolled up and walk down the aisle, right? Dang it!!
Went and visited my flower girls, aka- my two gorgeous nieces, today in Killeen. The oldest niece, Meme, had swimming lessons! I got a few fun shots of her in the water. The youngest niece was definitely jealous that Meme was in the water. She pouted for a while about it. I got a few fun shots of her, too :)

Carly and My sister, one of my bridesmaids, watching Meme swim!


Meme kicking around the water!


Carly drinking my sweet tea!

Last week, we had a fun guest- Adam West! Old school batman! How fun! It was neat to get to see him walk down our marble stairs and get into his car with his chauffer! Wouldn't that be fun to have someone drive you everywhere??! Ahh...the life,right?

I created a flickr.com page for wedding guests to post their pictures after the wedding. I also went to zazzle.com and created some small business size cards that have the directions of how to login to flickr.com to add pictures to our website once they get home from the wedding and get them downloaded! The little cards are going to look awesome! I'm so looking forward to receiving that package in the mail! WooHoo!
I also created (on zazzle.com) some postcards with our preprinted address on them and pictures of the Austin capitol from the 40s or 50s on it! I cropped and placed the pictures on there, etc all on my own! I figure we're going to give them out in our welcome baskets for out-of-towners and for our guests in general. My plan for them is to write their favorite part of our event and mail it back to us so that we can keep them as souveniers of our wedding weekend :)

Joshua has been doing well. He was out in the field for about a week and just made it home this past week. I am so glad he is back. It never fails to amaze me how much I miss him when I can't talk to him constantly. He's my partner in life and it never fails that when I can't talk to him a lot, I end up with a bajillion things to tell him by the end of the day! I can't wait for him to make it home from Korea... I just can't wait!
Since we are paying for the wedding, we are attempting to collect money so that we can pay for his ticket home but just haven't gotten it together yet. Ah! Money is one of my biggest stressors. We have been successful in planning this wedding and paying for it with cash and no loans, cc's, etc. I will be frustrated if we have to break that for a plane ticket. Boo!

Either way, we have just continued on our "planning path". We are looking forward to getting to next 3 1/2 months outta the way! October 3rd, here we come!!

Until Next Time,
The Future Mrs.!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Twenty Three *First Dance Song!*

*sigh*
It's been quite a week. We had some fun people stay at the hotel over the weekend.
I also think I might've decided on a first dance song.
Of course its an older song, but I love Adele's version.

ahh..Its so great. Adele- To Make You Feel My Love.
I haven't decided for sure, but it makes me want to cry everytime I hear it :)
I am debating between that one and Beyonce- Ave Maria. It's an AMAZING version. It also makes me tear every time I hear it :)


Decisions, decisions!

I have been attempting to buy Emily's flower girl present. I wanted to get her a Bride Barbie but every time I went to walmart, target, etc they were sold out of the brides! I guess that's a popular one! So i went to Mattel.com and ordered one- even with shipping it was still cheaper than the $20 from Walmart and Target! Wow... who would have thought, right? I just got it in today :) I know she's going to loove it! The bride even has a pink sash on her dress :) Emily will freak when she sees it!

I finished one of my last pink lantern balls! It was so exciting. Now I've just got to finish the small ones for the aisle way chairs. Ugh. I'm so so ready to just get this thing over with! Only three months and three weeks to go- FINALLY!

Until Next Time,
The Future Mrs. :)

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Twenty-two

Ah. It's been a busy busy few weeks. Emily had her 5th birthday party last weekend. I cant believe she's already 5. I remember holding her in the hospital after she had just been born!! She is becoming such a big girl- she just lost her second tooth! :) What a little miniature grown up :)


Happy Memorial day. It's such a nice holiday to sit back and remember those soldiers passed. Luckily, Joshua got a 4 day weekend, so we got a chance to spend a lot more time over the wecam with eachother. So that was nice.
I am reupholstering a parsons chair from Ikea. I am very excited. It is going to be blue and white stripped.
I have been buying lots of cloth to stock up for while I'm over in Korea. I also made a little pin cushion and jar for all my needles,string,etc. It's been fun getting crafty and ready for the new house in Korea.
We had some fun guests staying at the hotel over this weekend- Black Sabbath snuck in around 2am in the middle of the night after a concert of theirs. They made sure there was no one else around in the lobby when they came in after unloading two big busses. Even though I don't listen to their music, it was still neat to see them. Another cool celeb on the list :)
The next thing on my list for wedding planning is purchasing our invites from here. We are slowly getting to the countdown-only 4 months and 3 days until the wedding :):) woo. I can't wait to Joshua to get home for the wedding. It will be so nice to have my best friend that close :)

These are the flowers that Joshua sent me :) Aren't they just divine? The note he sent was so fabulous, too! Although I know he'd be pretty angry if I put his mushy talk on a blog- so I can't disclose what he said! haha :) Trust me, it was way cute!

Until Next Time,
The future Mrs.
Wedding Countdown Ticker

Monday, May 24, 2010

Twenty-One

Emily's tote :)
Its petite, but I think thats why I like it so much!
What you will need:
-Two regular size bandana's
-Scissors
-Sewing machine
-A few pins to stick in the fabric!
-Paint pen
-Stencils for words/decoration

I bought two bandana's from Walmart for $1/each.


I folded it "hot dog style". In layman's terms-I folded it across its horizontal axis :)


Then folded it across its vertical axis...or hamburger style :)

I sewed three edges of it (including the side that was already connected) leaving the top of the bag opened. Once i had gotten three sides sewn, I turned it inside out so that it wouldnt have all the stitching on the outside.


I folded down the edges on top of sewed the down so that the edges would be smooth on top-not jagged.
After that, i started the straps.
With my other bandana, I opened it and then folded it hot dog style as well. I cut two vertical strips off of it and pinned them in place for sewing onto the bag! Make sure to keep your ends on the "soon-to-be-straps" covered! ( so make sure to pin them from the inside out. Next, with your sewing machine, make sure to sew the straps on-go over it a few times. Since I was making this bag for my 5 year old niece flower girl, I knew the straps needed to be sturdy. No wonder what she will put in there!


After that, I put a peice of cardboard in the bag and wrote her name and put a few bits of decoration on it.



It was a fun project that I'm sure Emily will enjoy! :)

Until Next Time,
The future Mrs. D :)

Twenty

Good early morning, All. Just stopping in since I just finished another project which I am quite proud of, if I do say so myself :)

For this blog, I am going to show how i made my bridesmaid's bags....
**WARNING!** If you are a bridesmaid and you read this-you WILL ruin the surprise for yourself :(

I made tote bags for all 4 of my girls :)
I bought black bags from Hobby Lobby and decorated them. I'm going to put things in them, but this is the biggest part of the present! :)
What you will need:
Black tote bag
sewing machine
Thick Ribbon of choice color
2nd skinnier ribbon of different choice color
string of choice colors for sewing
paint pen
stencils for letters/decoration!
iron-on letters


1. First things first.the black bags!


2. I first wrote each of the "_____ maid" parts. and put the design around them.
Each girl gets a different verb in front of maid... some of them are inside jokes and some of them are just the words i know describe them perfectly! Choosing each girl's word was probably the best part of this project! Make sure you've got your thesaurus for this one, ladies! :)


3. Next, we get the first big ribbon!!
I chose a pink polka dot ribbon since our colors are dark pink and black!
I sewed the ribbon onto the bag. Be careful-if you dont use the string color that matches your ribbon of choice-they will be able to easily see where you didn't have that "perfect" straight line...hehe that happened to me quite a few times!


4. I discovered that it is a LOT easier to just tie a bow and sew the bow on instead of sewing the ribbon around like i had with the thick pink. When i was attempting to sew the bow on, I did make a discovery: going through the middle of the bow is NOT a good idea. I broke two sewing needles by going through the middle! It was just too dang thick, I guess! Either way, I think it turned out well!


5. Last, but never least, I put an initial of the girls on the back of the bags. Sadly...I forgot to take a picture of it... but I can tell you it looks really cute! For ashley's, I put a cursive letter "A" on the back of the bag in the middle of it.


I also made my oldest niece Emily a tote bag but i made it from two bandanas! It looks awesome! I've got pictures of it- but I'm going to use it for another blog :)

Until next time,
The future Mrs. :)

Monday, May 17, 2010

Nineteen

I figured I'd post up a few of my wedding crafts since they are what consumes me lately other than work. As soon as i get pictures of everything, will put up pictures/instructions. Some of these things don't look as good in the pictures as they do in real life, so bear with me. Just figured it'd give me something to blog about versus boring you with our not exciting lives lol

Enjoy-more to come in the next few days :)

Until Next Time,
The Future Mrs. :)

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Eighteen

Hello all,
Joshua has invested in a bicycle. He looks pretty funny in his little helmet :) haha It's really cute. He likes his bike because now he can ride everywhere and not have to walk. He says its really hard on his muscles but really nice to not have to walk. It's probably even more helpful now that the weather is getting hot since now he doesn't have to be walking in the heat. He is doing great!
I bought some new Tennis Shoes for Joshua. I just sent them over to Korea so he should be getting them any day now. I also sent some cookies and home made snack mix. I know he'll enjoy that package. If anyone would like to send anything to him (letter,package,etc), I will send you the address- Just let me know!
It's finally arrived at my weekend. I don't have to work tonight or tomorrow night. I'm so relieved. It's so nice to get a weekend in. We have been busy at work. We had ZZ Top in for a few nights. All those managers and such were so nice. I got to meet the guys band manager Pablo Gamboa. Actually, Pablo called room service after hours and wanted some ice cream. Everyone told me that we couldn't serve him any because our Room Service wasn't in to give it to him. I decided that we should give him ice cream anyways. I scooped some ice cream and took it to him- He was so nice! He was like "awesome!!!" and then he introduced himself as if he was any other person. It was very nice to meet someone who you know has lots of money but is still so humble and kind.
As far as planning goes, I've been trying to finish my projects. I'm going to finish laquering my wood projects for the house this weekend. I am also going to start working on finishing up my flower balls. I enjoy being creative on a weekly basis. It's nice to get a chance to just let my creative side run wild :) haha
Well, off I go to work on my projects while I'm watching TV! I will leave you with a few pictures of Emily playing T-Ball while Steve coaches her! :)



Until Next Time,
The Future Mrs. :)

Sunday, May 9, 2010

seventeeeeen

Illustrations for the past few blogs :)


My Reupholstered chair!! :):)


Mother's Day Dinner crew.


again :)


Carly!I have the most precious neice in the world!


Pa enjoying Emily and Carly's antics

To celebrate Mother's Day, all of us kids (minus bradley and joshua who are all in Korea) took Mom, Granny, and Sarah out to eat. We went to Mom's favorite restraunt. Even my two cousins (their immediate family is in Houston but they attend UT so they were stuck here for the holiday) got the chance to come! Its so nice to see them. I've only got one girl cousin so I've definitely learned to love my boy cousins. They are the two tall ones in the back of the pictures wearing the yellow and orange shirts. Why didn't i get any tall genes in me?!? Either way, we had a nice dinner. My oldest niece,Emily had lost a tooth since we had last seen her so she showed us all the "hole" in her mouth. My brother in law taught my little niece Carly how to frown so she showed us all her frown! It was very funny. She would frown and she would look so angry and then she'd bust out with a laugh because she knew she did it right! It was so precious and fun! We enjoyed our time, as we hope you enjoyed your holiday! The important thing to remember is that this holiday isnt just about having kids-it's about being supportive and loving for your family,whether you've just got a husband or just a cousin or just a grandparent, so whether you've got no kids or twenty, know that you are so very appreciated and loved!

until next time
The Future Mrs.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Sixteen

I have been feeling quite productive over the past few days even though I didn't have much time to express it all in my last entry. I booked a groom's cake for Joshua which I designed myself and I'm really excited about it. The company that's doing it is The PolkaDot Cupcake Factory.
I also met with my day-of coordinator and she rocks. I can't wait to see how she pulls everything together for the wedding. Her name is Mandy and she is a reservist. It's so nice to be doing business with someone who understands the military! It's so rare for that to happen when planning a wedding, i think. She is also super tiny-short like me but very thin- how is she a soldier! She's very precious! I'm very excited to work with her. She also has fabulous connections so she is helping me pull a deal with an awesome florist :) I'm very excited about getting things all pulled together.
The next thing that I've got to do is get together the rehearsal dinner....hmm! Joshua said he wants italian so I'm sure that's what we will do since he hasn't had American-Italian food in about 7 months now :) Now, I've just got to find a good place with a decent price!haha :)

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Fifteen

This week has been a very busy one for me. At the hotel, we have all of the GM's for our hotels from across the United States so we have to be in tip top shape,etc. It's been a busy few days.
Joshua's board has gotten pushed back until June. I know he wishes they would just hurry and get it over with.
Anyone who reads this blog- if you're coming in from out of state/out of city, we are hoping that you would stay with the Stephen F Austin Hotel in Austin. Since I work there, I know that I can get good service and discounts on things for everyone. Plus, I'd be able to attend to your rooms and make sure welcome baskets,etc get there and the rooms are ready for your arrivals! I emailed a lot of people my "friends and family discount" link. If you dont have it, please send me your email and I will send you the link. Its a great rate.
Other than that tid bit of information, we've just been keeping busy and counting down the months until October :)

Until Next Time,
Hannah

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Fourteen

These few weeks have been slowly rolling by. I re-upholstered a living room chair for our house in Korea. I was so excited when i finally got it done. It's black, pink and white. it looks awesome. I will put pictures up as soon as i get them downloaded :)
Joshua seems to be doing great. He is studying continuously to go to "the board" and get promoted for work! I know he is ready to get that done and over with.
I have officially decided upon a menu for our wedding that we can afford. I'm really excited about it. We are finally coming up on the almost-close-enough-to-start-the-countdown months. I'm so very ready for October to come and for us to finally get our lives started. It will be oh-so-very fabulous! I have been slowly starting to collect flowers for our centerpeice arrangements. I also decided that instead of having small cakes on every table, I am going to have pies on every table for the guests. We will obviously have an *awesome* grooms cake and a very pretty wedding cake incase the guests dont want the pie on their table. I think it will add a cute little southern flair on our wedding. It shall be divine :)

When i get pictures, I will update the post again :)

Until next time
Hannah <3

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Thirteeeeen!

Lucky number thirteen,right?
I started my first week of overnight shifts at work. It was a little hard but it was so very rewarding that Joshua and I get to fall asleep at the same time together over our webcam monitors. It's so nice to be on the same schedule. I work from 11pm-7am answering phones and accounting stuff. Since no one is usually with my while I'm upstairs (besides security), I get to keep Joshua on speaker phone after he gets off work (at 3am Texas time). It's been so convenient and I find that we get to talk even more often than we were getting to. The only problem is that my body doesnt like to sleep during the day so I just get plain ol' exhausted a lot easier!
My birthday was today, on Easter. It was really a nice day. My mom bought Ashley and I tickets to see The Phantom of the Opera. They were amazing seats and I enjoyed it so much! I can't wait to do it again! It was divine! :) Afterwards, Ashley, my mom, and I went and ate dinner at a little cafe. It was a nice relaxing birthday. No stress, nothing over the top, just perfect :) The only thing that could have made it any better was if Joshua was here in person and not just on the webcam :(.
We made our second payment to the photographer on the 1st. I'm so excited! I love her photography (www.maganslens.com) and she is such a sweet person. Mom has also been doing a little digging into finding a baker for our cake. We've got a few people that we are looking in to! I can't wait to get that finalized as well! :)
There isn't toooo much more that I can update on, but I will be updating again soon, I hope!
Have a fabulous week, everyone!
Until next time
Hannah

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Twelve

Wow, is it really twelve blog posts already? I still remember posting the first one!

Well, these past few weeks have been busy! I got a job working in the accounting department of the Stephen F Austin InterContinental hotel downtown Austin. I love the atmosphere of downtown. I will be working the night shift doing accouting and guest services (which means that at 3am when you wake up and see that a pipe has busted or you want room service,you call me and i call someone to go do whatever you need). It should be really fun once I get started. Ive been working/ training on the day shift for the past two weeks. I have learned so much and have met some super awesome people! I feel like I'm really getting the hang of it! It's so exciting!
We actually have had some really cool people stay with us during SXSW going on this past week. We had Ashley Greene from the Twilight series come stay with us for a couple of nights! It was so exciting since I'm such a nerd for the Twilight book series. I didn't get to meet her,etc but atleast I know that we were at the same place for a while! haha :) We also had Jordin Sparks come stay with us before she performed at the Rodeo. That was really exciting as well!

I've become a "Hobby Lobby" aholic. I love that store! It's so fabulous! Everytime I go in there to buy fabric, I always leave with more! haha I'm sure they love me there! I've recently been trying to get a little bit more crafty so that I can be more frugal with planning our wedding. I have finally and officially sent out the save the dates! Yay!! I am so glad to have that accomplished! I am working on making some little tissue "for your tears of joy" packets for the wedding! At Hobby Lobby, of course, I found some little tissues that have the letter "d" on them for Delp! They will go perfect with the wedding! I am so excited. I am also still working on my flower pomander balls! They are looking awesome! Thanks so much to everyone who had continually offered their help on all my little craft projects :) I am actually looking into printing our own invites to be a little bit more cost efficient. I found a site that would give us all the materials to make an awesome invite but will allow us to print it out at home. It would save us a good bit of mula, I think.

Last Saturday, Sarah, Emily, Carly, Ashley's sister Amanda (who had never been before!), Mom and me all went to the Austin Rodeo. It was extreme bull riding night and Eli Young Band was playing. For anyone who doesn't know who Eli Young is, they are a Texas country band. They're so great. It was a lot of fun. Sarah,the girls and mom all went home pre-concert but Amanda and I stayed to enjoy it! It was so fabulous! I even got to shake Eli Young's hand! How cool :)



Mom and the girls on the Carousel

Me and Emily on the ferris wheel

Last Sunday, Melissa was in Austin so we took little Antonio to the Austin's Children's Museum. He LOVED it! He was so interested in the trains and the blocks.

Mel and Antonio watching the trains :)

He was so intrigued. It was so fun to watch!

One of Joshua's very close friends, Dustin, came home for a few weeks from Korea to see his wife and baby. They brought little Tyler over for me to babysit while they took a few hours to spend shopping and just getting to hang out solo. He is such a fun little kid and he was dancing for me! It was hilarious! :) He is such a fabulous baby. I wish they would bring him over more! I love seeing Tabitha and Tyler!


I guess thats the most "exciting" news for the past few weeks. I'm hoping that Joshua's mom might get a chance to come up next weekend! I would love to see Ms Linda!
Until Next Time :)
Hannah

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Eleventh

Here's some pictures to illustrate the last two blogs :)


Antonio came to visit me in Austin!He's the cutest Godson in the world :)



Visiting Amanda and Aaron in San Antonio! :)




Bradley's going away bowling party


Bowling night with Justin

:)
Lalala
hope you enjoy those!
Until Next Time,
Hannah

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Blog Ten

Wow.it has been a busy few weeks. For those of you not in Austin, we got a good bit of snow on Tuesday.
I had an interview for the historic Stephen F Austin hotel last Friday. They called me back that afternoon and told me they had another position within the hotel that they'd like me to interview for. It will be an overnight job (11pm-7am) which would be nice, it would mean that I would be on Joshuas schedule. It would be quite convenient. Ive got the interview for that on Friday morning.
I went and visited Joshuas family in Houston last weekend. We had a lot of fun. I even snapped a few pictures of Justin bowling and he didnt even know it :) Joshuas mom so graciously offered to do our flowers and to fly her sister in to do our cake! What a load off and what a nice gesture!I cant wait!
I've been keeping quite busy with wedding stuff lately. Finished my first craft Rose Ball for decoration and I'm working on my second one. I'm going to Ashley's sisters house tomorrow and shes going to help me with some of the bridesmaids gifts. Ashley and her sister Amanda are so helpful and creative with this wedding!
I found the perfect present for one of my flower girls-my youngest niece Carly.Its one of Fisher Price "Little People" collection. Its a little princess and prince wedding set up. Its adorable! I plan on getting my niece Emily a Bride Barbie for her flower girl present.
Mom has been so helpful since Ive gotten back from Korea. She has helped me with anything I havent been able to do myself,such as if I need gas in my car,she helps to fill it up. Its so nice to know that Ive got an awesome mom to rely on!
Ive currently become obsessed with TCM. oh goodness,they show some of my favorite old movies- The Awful Truth (with Cary Grant...YUM!), How to Marry a Millionaire (with Marilyn Monroe), the old school version of Alfie,etc. I love it!
Joshua is at my little brother Bradley's base in Korea so im sure Bradley is enjoying the company. Joshua will be staying there for close to a month. He has been brought up to the base to drive around some higher-up officers that will be in country for a meeting or some such. He is doing great. Im sure hes glad hes not here so i cant make him do wedding things!haha :) He is a great sport and can't wait for him to finally get here.October cant get here soon enough!
Until Next Time,my loves!
Hannah

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Back home..

Back home,finally.
Ive been back for about 2 weeks officially. It's difficult to readjust to having friends again and actually driving a car.
I've found that my friends that I used to see and talk to every day before I left have shunned me. Josh had to give me the speech that soldiers always get when they leave to go overseas- "People have readjusted their lives while you were gone so it will take a while for them to adjust back to having you". I'm just not that patient.
Its hard trying to please everyone. Everyone wants me to do everything with me-people call and text and expect that I can do everything at once. It's hard to have to relearn how to balance everything while still trying to be able to answer all of Joshua's calls. For the first week, my phone was acting up and wouldnt let me accept phone calls so eventually I went to a TMobile store and they fixed it.I was relieved since I hadnt gotten to talk to Joshua a whole lot.
Things have been tough. Being away from Joshua is the worst. I thought I missed him a lot before I left for Korea but I think I've missed him more now that I'm back.
Its been a tough few weeks but I have faith that things will get better, preferably soon :)
Sarah and Steve finally got married.it was nice to see the ceremony but definitely teared me up knowing that Joshu and I will be doing the same thing soon :)


I do believe that I will keep up with this blog even though I'm not in Korea anymore. Especially for you Mrs Karen ;)
Ashley and I had a meeting with a photographer yesterday. She was so sweet. Her blog is here. You can tell by her additude and blog that she is an awesome Christian lady. I do believe that we will be booking her soon for our October 3rd wedding. I chose our wedding venue about 4 months ago- Vintage Villas in Austin. Im glad to finally be getting closER to the wedding. We've still got 8 months left to plan. I feel like its taking forever and just dragging by.
I am ready to get back to Joshua already.
Until Next Time,
Hannah

ps- This is one of the last pics we took in Korea. We found a store called Hanna's and I just had to take a pic in front of it :)