So it's been a while since I've posted anything on the blog, but there has been a lot of excitement going on in the Best family. We have been so blessed lately even if neither of us have jobs right now.

The 1st exciting thing is that I'm starting on my last class for my bachelor's degree on June 27!! My 4 years of schooling is coming to an end...finally!!

The 2nd and the more exciting thing of the two is that we are...EXPECTING!!! That's right...our first little baby will arrive around December 30, 2012. Thankfully, that's after graduation. I'll be huge at graduation, but at least I'll be at graduation!

The last little bit of news that's not so exciting is that my brother is being deployed starting in December so he will miss the birth of his niece or nephew. He'll be gone for about a year, so Facebook and e-mail will become our source of communication.

On a happier note though, I have finally started decorating our house, starting with our bedroom. We painted the walls a really nice blue/teal color called "Caribbean Blue." All of the trim is white. I'm searching for a comforter that is white and gray, but haven't found one I come close to liking, so I'm thinking of making my own. I really want to go with white curtains with a gray strip at the top/bottom. My husband has hung all of our picture frames which are black. It's coming together slowly, but nicely. I can't wait to finally get it done. We are probably going to have to have the nursery in our room unless my parents move my grandmother to their house. Then we'll have a room all for the nursery. I can't wait to find out if we're having a boy or girl so we can start decorating our bedroom/nursery or just the nursery. I will be creating just a baby blog in order to share information with family and friends that aren't local. I'll post the link once I get it done.

Well, that's all for now. I'll be back on sometime this week to update about school and hopefully post pictures of our room and baby. =)

it's been a while

Wow, I can't believe it's been 2 months since I've posted anything. So while I was gone, 2012 began; I started my last semester in college; and officially started my role as a wife. I know, I know...Josh and I have been married 8 months and I'm just becoming a wife?! Well, ever since Josh and I got married in May, I've only been home for about 2 months due to being in school 5 hours away. But now I'm home and can finally start being a wife to my wonderful husband. From this moment on, I will be documenting my journey through cooking, crafting, and decorating our home. One big inspiration for all of this is Pinterest.com. I can spend hours and hours looking and wishing on there. I can't wait to get my creative juices going, and I hope you will be a long for the ride.

Christmas is Officially Here!

Well, I'm a few days late posting this. I meant to post it on December 1st, but I got busy with school projects and other things. Anyways, the Christmas season has officially started as of December 1st! The Christmas music, decorating, baking, shopping, wrapping, partying and all of the other things associated with the Christmas season can begin. I've already began listening to Christmas music on Pandora, and have thoroughly enjoyed it so far. I'm not sick of it yet, just some songs.

The decorating will begin when I get home on Wednesday. I get to decorate two houses this year - mom and dad's house and my granny's house. I'm super excited. I've got exciting ideas for both houses. I really wanna put lights up on both houses as well. Maybe I can talk my lovely husband in to.

The baking will also come when I get home. I've found a ton of cute recipes and cookie ideas off Pinterest that I'm really excited to try. I can't wait to bake cookies on Christmas Eve with all of the family around.

I've already started on my Christmas shopping. So far the only person that everything's bought for except for stocking stuffers is my husband, Josh. For my mom, I've got one thing almost finished. After Christmas, I'll put pictures up of it. My brother and dad on the other hand are a different story. I have some stocking stuffers for each person, but I still need to get more. So, hopefully, over the next two weeks, I'll have all the shopping done. The next part is the wrapping of the presents and the stuffing of the stuffers in the stockings. The stockings won't get stuffed to Christmas eve so nobody will peek. The wrapping will get done as I get the gifts and as long as the person isn't around.

But in spite of all the great and fun things Christmas brings about, we all need to remember the real reason for the season. We need to remember Christ's birth for this began the redemption and salvation plan for all of mankind. Keep CHRIST in CHRISTMAS!

Christmas is on its way!

It's officially the start of the Christmas season now that Thanksgiving and Black Friday have passed. This was mine and Josh's first Thanksgiving as a married couple! We didn't have a Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, Nov. 24 because my dad was working day shift. We did however, go Black Friday shopping, and got everything we were out to get including a digital camera, welding helmet, and battery charger. Our Thanksgiving dinner was Friday afternoon. Our dinner included ham, mashed potatoes, hash brown casserole, broccoli-rice casserole, green beans, sweet potato casserole, pasta salad, rolls and for dessert, dirt cake! It was very good. After dinner, Josh and I went to the Palatka Christmas Parade. We had a great time. Now, that we've been to a Christmas parade and Christmas music is on the radio, I'm ready to get going full speed ahead on everything Christmas!

Starting Christmas Early

It's not even Thanksgiving yet, but I've already started on my Christmas gifts and decorations for this year. I'm super excited about Christmas this year...all aspects of it. This is Josh and I's first Christmas married, so it makes it even special for the two of us even if it is our 5th Christmas together.

For the past 2 Christmases, Josh and I have decided on a theme for our Christmas tree. The first year's Christmas tree was a teal blue and silver. It was gorgeous! It's by far one of my favorites ever! A picture is below.

Last year, our Christmas tree was purple and silver. It wasn't nearly as pretty as I had pictured it turning out, but it was still very pretty. I think the purple was too dark. Picture below. 

This year's theme for our Christmas tree is going to be homemade. I'm ambitiously going to make most of the decorations for this year's Christmas tree along with other decorations for our house. I'm also going to attempt baking as well, so this Christmas is going to be super busy but so full of memories! 

I've already started on one project which is Josh's 25 Day Christmas countdown. I think he's going to love it! I'm also starting on a couple of ornaments for our tree! I'm going this weekend to get more stuff for ornaments and some other projects! I'm super excited to be getting started this early so hopefully, I'll be able to enjoy the month of December or at least most of it.

5 Month Update!

Josh and I are 22 days from being married 6 months. It's amazing how time flies! A few things have changed in ours lives. Josh, finally, got a job a week ago, and he absolutely loves it. He's working as a welder for Elliot welding as a contract for Seminole Electric. I'm somewhat working as well, but for myself. I am a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant, and it's going good so far. I can't wait to throw my first party and have the money start rolling in. But that's going to be a while because of school. Speaking of school: it's going great! I have A's in three of my five classes. The other two are online so I'm not sure what my grades are in there, but they're probably good. I've started "extreme" couponing, and I absolutely love it! It's a great feeling knowing that I can get things for free or for very little plus it's a challenge as well.

I get to go home in 12 days and I'm so excited! I can't wait to go on a date with my husband. It's been so long since we've actually been on a date. Our last date was probably on our honeymoon in the first part of June. I can't wait to just sit down and have a great conversation with him and just be able to talk. Being 5 hours away is not fun, but him work 12 hour midnights/ 7 days a week for a month is really not fun. So I'm definitely ready for any time I can with him.

I also can't wait for Thanksgiving and for Black Friday shopping! I'm so excited to start decorating for Christmas and get all my Christmas shopping out of the way. I'm planning on being very crafty for Christmas this year. Pinterest has become my new addiction and there's so MANY crafty and creative things on there. I'll write a post just for Christmas things!  

Fall is just around the corner!

Today is the first day of September which means Labor Day's almost here, College Football Season starts (GO GATORS!!), and fall is just around the corner. September also means Thanksgiving is even closer and Christmas is just a few months away. And last but not least, it means my birthday is next month!! This definitely describes the next few months.

 

Last day of August

Today's August 30 which means only one more day of August left. Starting in September, I will be blogging about fall and other things coming up such as Holidays and my birthday. But for now, we're still in August, so back to this post. 

I've been in school now for 16 days, and I'd say it's going very well. All my in-class classes are going great. And my online classes, surprisingly, are going great as well. As far as a favorite class...I really don't have one that just stands out as a favorite. They're all just about equal except History of Southern Baptists. That class is SOOO boring, but it's required. I've found a great church to go to up here - FBCG and a wonderful college group to go to on Thursday nights. I've only been to one, and it was great. I can't wait to go to this Thursday's. 

I'm very excited about this weekend though. I get to go home. I haven't seen my husband and family in over 2 weeks!! Its been killing me. We're going to Hogwaller Mud Bog (I think), going to a fabulous restaurant for my grandmother's birthday, and the Gator's first football game is Saturday!! GO GATORS! So this weekend is going to be jam-packed and lots of fun. I'm really hoping my mom takes some "trash the dress" pictures of me and my wedding dress without actually trashing the dress, because I love it!

Well, I still really can't believe that the last day of August is really upon us. However, I'm really excited to see what September brings.

Date Book

My husband and I have been married almost 3 months, and it's been the best 3 months ever. It's almost like we're dating again. To keep up this "honeymoon" phase as some call it, I've been looking all over the internet for creative date ideas and things to spice up our marriage. After dating for 4 years, dates become very monotonous. We do the same things over and over again. Don't get me wrong - I love spending time with my husband, but when you do the same things over and over again...well, it gets very boring. So, to avoid this problem, I have come up with 3-ring binder of date ideas and even gift ideas. It's called our "Date Book." I saw it on a blog and thought what a creative way to store these date ideas where even my husband can have access to it. (Genius!!) 

To create my own, I took a 3-ring binder I had laying around, scrapbook paper I already, page protectors, some stickers, and a picture of us for the front cover. I will post pictures once I'm done. 

My tabs include: Calendar, Holidays, Themes, At-Home Dates, Out of Town Dates, Printables, Inspirations, Supply Lists, and Special Things.

My New Addiction =)

So recently I discovered the wonderful world of Pinterest.com. This site is absolutely amazing. You can get all kinds of inspirations on this site from photography ideas to wedding planning to decorating your dream home and much more. I'll be posting some of the wonderful pictures I've gotten off there on here along with some of the blogs and websites the pictures come from. The blogs and websites that some of the pictures are associated with are absolutely amazing and such a life saver. In my House Ideas and Photo Ideas Tabs, the pictures you see come off of Pinterest.com. I hope you enjoy the pictures as I post them.

School

Well, school started yesterday and so far, so good. All 3 of my in-class classes have gone really good. My 2 online classes are what's going to give me the most trouble, I think. There's so much work to be done each week in both of them. Plus I still have my other 3 classes. But I'll get everything done. My goal is to at least make dean's list this semester since this is my last semester at BCF before going full-time at SJRSC. 

Well, living by myself is a big adjustment. It's really lonely without Josh along my side. I miss seeing him everyday and just being with him. But after December, I'll be able to see him everyday. Anyways, I have liked being able to cook whatever I wanted to eat whenever I wanted to. Steph has come over and eaten with me and hung out the past couple of days which has been nice. I'll put up pictures of the apartment soon. I just haven't had time.

Newlyweds

So it's been a little over 2 months since Josh and I got married, and these past couple of months have been amazing! We have laughed so hard and had so much fun together. Our wedding was absolutely a dream come true, and was so beautiful. We had so much fun on our honeymoon to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. We went to Dollywood, the Dixie Stampede, Ripley's Aquarium, hiking, toured Cade's Cove, several car museums, an aviation museum and lots more. 

Since our honeymoon, I haven't been doing much at all except watching my grandmother and getting things ready to go back to school. Josh has been working then laid off and now working again (thankfully!!). It's been really stressful with Josh not having a job for a month. Luckily, God provided enough money for all our bills to be paid. God, then, provided a job and then a call about an interview about another job. Now, I'm praying that god gives Josh the courage and drive for this job; and if not, to provide him with another job soon afterward. I'm also praying that God provides me with a part-time job while I'm up at school.

I'm really excited to continue this next chapter of our lives together! It's going to be stressful and hectic, but we're going to make it through it together.