54 Days...

So much has happened during the past few weeks. I was on Spring Break last week and I had such a great time with my friends, Amanda and Tori! On Friday, John Hoyt and I drove over to Alabama to attend my grandparents' 50th Anniversary party! I was so amazing to see that after 50 years they are still so in love and so happy! It was so inspiring! After the party, we drove back to Georgia to celebrate John Hoyt's dad's birthday with his family. Sunday, we had our church shower that John Hoyt's family threw for us! It was so much fun and we got a lot of beautiful things! On Monday morning, Tori, Amanda, and I left to drive to Pennsylvania! We got there Monday night and then got up early the next morning to drive to Niagara Falls! It was such a fun day! We got to see the Falls on the American side and then we drove over to Canada to see that side too! We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe, and then went to the Skylar Tower (a spinning resturant) for dessert! It was so much fun! On the way back, we had a terrifying trip though. What would normally take about 4 hours ended up taking 8 because we got trapped in a huge snow storm in the mountains. I was driving and it was awful. We got pushed off the road by an 18-wheeler and almost hit the guard rail. It was only by God that we didn't hit it because I lost control of the car and we were sliding on ice and couldn't stop. When we finally got about 10 mintues from home, we got stuck on a hill. My big truck couldn't make it and a Pennsylvania DOT angel saved us! He somehow got my car turned around and we were able to take the long way home. It was truly a miracle because we were stuck in the middle of the road with no way to get up the hill or even move to the side of the road. It was an adventure to say the least. We got home at around 5:15 the next morning. Wednesday and Thursday we stayed at home. On Thursday night we had a "wedding celebration" with some ladies from our church in Pennsylvania and some of our neighbors and friends. Since the wedding is in Georgia, we knew that most people wouldn't be able to make it to the wedding, so they all came to celebrate with me while I was there. We played our slideshow and some music from the wedding, had some great finger foods and got some beautiful gifts! It was SO much fun! We are less than 8 weeks away from the wedding now! I really only have to finish up some details which can be time consuming, so I'm trying to work on stuff a little at a time. We are just so excited! There has been a slight delay in the closing on our house because of a problem with the water company, but it might be good because it gives me a little bit more time to focus on the wedding. I am so thankful for that 2 weeks between graduation and the wedding to finish up and organize everything!

70 Days...

So much has happened since I posted last time! We finally found our house!!! The weekend after my last post, we looked and looked and still couldn't find anything. I left Sunday night feeling very discouraged and upset and wondering what we were going to do. It seemed that we had exhausted all of our options. While I was on my way home, John Hoyt called me and said that he had been looking online at houses in Pendergrass, a town really close to Braselton, where we had been looking. He said that he found two houses that were really beautiful from the pictures and that were definitely in our price range. When I got home that night, I looked at them and fell in love with one in particular. John Hoyt called the real estate agent and set up a time to look at it on Monday night. He loved it and thought I should see it in person, so I drove up that Wednesday night to look at it myself. I fell in love immediately and knew that this was the house for us. We had to put in a bid on it, and so we decided to go ahead and do it that night. We were supposed to hear back to see if we won the bid on Thursday because the bidding ended on Wednesday night, but we didn't hear anything all day. We were so anxious and nervous to hear if we got the house or not. Luckily for me, I was at UGA for my new student visitation and so I was a little distracted. We didn't hear anything all day Thursday. Friday, I was still at UGA and John Hoyt text me and told me that he needed to talk to me about the weekend. When I got a break, I called him and he started telling me about something for that weekend so I thought he hadn't heard anything yet. Then he said, "So, when do you want me to dig up that bush in front of OUR house?". There is a bush that I hate right in the front of the house, so I knew that we had won the bid!!! We were so excited!!!! Saturday, we met with our real estate agent to sign the contract. We should be closing sometime around the end of March!! We are so blessed and we can't wait to start cleaning the house and painting to make it our home. Right now there are 2 hot pink rooms that need to be painted. I just can't wait to get in there and put my touch into it! The house is in the perfect location between his work and UGA. It's also pretty close to his family and our church!

Now that the house is pretty much settled, besides all the paperwork, I can start thinking about the wedding again. John Hoyt and I got some minor shopping done for the ceremony last night. Last weekend we went to Alabama to do our premarital counseling with Pop, since he is performing the ceremony. While we were there, we finalized the details of the ceremony so now I can finish up the program and start working on that. We bought our vases for the sand ceremony and the sand and wax to seal it. Last weekend, I also bought the rest of the napkins for the reception. We've been working on music for the reception and all of that too. Time is ticking away, so I'm trying to stay focused and get everything done. Once we get to close on the house it will be a balancing act trying to get the house ready, move, finish up school, and work on the wedding, but I'm excited. My new obsession is HGTV.com. I can look at rooms that have been decorated on there and so I've been having a blast doing that. John Hoyt and I looked through the pictures I saved and picked out some colors for some of the rooms. We also were blessed with a phone call from a friend who works at Lowe's who found us a brand new, in the box, washing machine for VERY cheap! We went and picked it up Thursday night and we're storing it at John Hoyt's work until we close on the house. Our friend is in the process of looking for a dryer and a fridge for us as well. We are so blessed to have so many things going for us right now!