A new dining room table and the story of the cat

Nate and I had a great Fourth of July weekend! On Thursday we enjoyed the first annual EMUN cook off. There was so much food to choose from and it was all so good. It was so great seeing everyone because we don't all get together as often as we would like to. After dinner, the ladies of EMUN sat around talking about childbirth, marriage, and menopause (no joke)...it was hilarious. We had a great night with everyone.

On Friday, we grilled out at granny's. We all ate with her and then headed out to the pool for a relaxing afternoon with the family. I really enjoyed just sitting and reading by the pool for the afternoon. Especially because a friend of mine (one of the EMUN wives) gave me a great new book titled, "Created to Be His Help Meet." The woman that gave it to me said that it completely changed the way she viewed marriage and has helped her to grow so much as a wife and mother. After reading 5 chapters, I understood how reading a book based on the biblical commands for a wife could change how we view marriage. I will have to tell you all more about it as I continue to read, but I am really enjoying it thus far. It talks a lot about finding fulfillment in serving your husband and family...ultimately, being his helper for life and allowing him to lead you by taking the role of his helper. I think this is the greatest way to view marriage and it feels very natural for me. More to come on that...

Friday night we had friends over to play poker. The best part was that there was no money involved so we could just enjoy playing. We played for hours. No one wanted to stop playing, we were just having such a great time. It was a wonderful way to spend our 4th of July night!

On Saturday, we finished registering! One more thing off of our to-do list! Nate and I still can't get over how expensive everything is. We are hoping that our informed buyers will feel free to look at what we have registered for and find it at a better price! Plus, we went furniture shopping. Nate and I have been looking for a nice formal dining room table and we saw this one a couple weeks ago, but we needed more time to look around and decide if it was the one. So, we looked at several other stores and then decided to purchase this one. We are super excited to have a table that holds 10! While a lot of people do not use their formal dining rooms, we really enjoy having people over for dinner and it is not uncommon for us to have at least 8. So, we will actually have room for everyone now, which is fabulous.

As for the cat...oh my lands. This cat decided to make our covered porch it's home about 1 week after we closed on our house. We didn't feed it for one month because we thought that the cat would eventually go away, but it did not get discouraged and run to the neighbors. Instead, it started to stay for longer periods of time and meowed louder! So, about a month ago someone convinced us to feed the cat at least until we found a new home for it.

We have sent emails out to our church family asking for someone to take the cat in, but no one seems to want our persistent pet. So, to make a long story short, we continue to claim that Jinxsy (Brent just had to name her...ha ha ha) is not ours, but we are currently feeding and medicating her. I must commend Jinxsy for her persistence, but my allergies (and honestly our not wanting to have any pets) will not allow us to keep this friendly pet. If you know anyone who would like a good outdoor cat, please let me know. We would love to bring her to your porch :)!

Hope you all have a great week! I will be MIA for most of the week because I am trying to complete a large paper. The good news is that I only have 2 more weeks until summer classes are over and we go to the beach for our second annual family beach trip with the Walker clan. I can't wait!

I must end this post by saying that I can't stop thinking about how blessed I am. I have been truly blessed in the past couple of years and I am reminded of this so often. I am so thankful for everyone in my life and everything I have. Sometimes it is so easy for us to think about the things that we don't have, but it is so much better to focus on the things that we do have because when we do, it is truly amazing!

My little sister is officially Married!

As I mentioned before, this past weekend my little sister got married! It was a very nice ceremony and reception. I even managed to sing during the ceremony without bawling. Jessica looked absolutely beautiful! I am glad we were able to be there for their special day.

We continue to pray that God will watch over Jessica and Tyler for a lifetime.

Nathan and I really enjoyed spending time with my family. My ENTIRE family came to Jessica's wedding so we were able to catch up with everyone! We were excited to learn that several of our closest family members will be coming to Alabama in September to join us for our special day!!! We can't wait!

Here are a few pictures from the weekend. The lighting in the church made it very difficult for me (Nate) to take good pictures. I am sure my mom will have some better pictures and I will try to post a few once she shares them with me.

On a side note, let us all remember the men and women who serve our Country stateside and oversees. Sometimes I forget to pray for my fellow servicemen and women. I have several friends who are currently serving in Iraq (proudly and willingly I might add). Please lift them up this weekend! I am so thankful for the sacrifices they make on a regular basis.

We have a fun but busy weekend planned. Tonight Emun is having a cooking competition. tomorrow we are celebrating the Fourth with Nate's family, Saturday we have to finish registering (people are starting to ask), and Sunday Nate leaves for the Atlanta show!

Wedding Fun

Thanks to our great friends and family, we are official done making our invitations. We had a lot of fun making them. We loved the idea of saving money by making our own invites, but now we just love the invites and can't imagine purchasing them. Besides, it just wouldn't be us. The guys even helped us by cutting and printing. Justin Austin is actually a master invite cutter. Plus, the guys wrapped wire around about 35 jars while watching Tiger play some mad golf! I was sad I missed out on the golf but I was busy figuring out the invites. I decided to give you all a little sneak peak of our invites. We also made RSVP post cards that match the invites. They have a cream background and the blue pattern on them (much like the initial portion of the invite)...they turned out really cute. We also sat with Cani and Justin for about 15 minutes that afternoon trying to figure out the wording for the invites. As soon as the storybook wording came up, we knew it was ours! Cheesy but fitting.

We have so many DIY projects but they are being knocked out one by one. Our friends are so willing to help which makes the projects not only easy but also enjoyable! We still have a lot of projects ahead of us, but I am confident that we are going to conquer them all.

Nate and I have decided that we are on and off again wedding planners. We get pumped about getting stuff done for like 2 days and then we don't even look at wedding stuff for a week. We know we are going to need to get better about that. We went into our engagement knowing that we didn't want the wedding stuff to take up all of our time or thoughts, but now we are realizing it may need to take up some of it in order for us to get stuff done! Especially since we are all about DIY projects.

I still love the simplicity of our wedding. That is what excites me about it the most! The natural beauty, relaxed feel, and closeness of the day. The hardest part has been figuring out how we are going to narrow down our friends and family to a select 130 (that is all the church will hold) who are going to be able to join us on our special day. It has been tough because we feel close to so many people, but we know this is what we want! In fact, we actually wanted more like 80 guests, but upon our first draft of the guest list, we realized that was IMPOSSIBLE. We are planning on having a "Stop in to give the newlyweds a blessing" event at Nate's parents after we return from our week long honeymoon (in Jamaica...not sure if I told you all that). So, I am hoping people who we are not as close with will enjoy that time with us and undestand that we want an intimate wedding.

In other breaking news, MY LITTLE SISTER IS GETTING MARRIED THIS WEEKEND! AHHHHHHH!!!! So, we are headed to Nebraska for a weekend with the family. She is having a large bright pink formal Lutheran Church wedding! This is crazy if you know my sister because she has always been a laid-back tom-boy. When she showed me her huge princess dress and my bright pink bridesmaids dress, I was shocked to say the least. This her day though and she decided that for one day she is going to dress herself up and be as girly as her heart desires! It will be wonderful seeing everyone and celebrating with my little sister who doesn't seem so little anymore. I'm sure I will have plenty pictures when I return!

Have a great weekend!

Fun Facts about Nathan (as requested)

Some of you have requested a short blog about my best friend and future husband Nathan. So, for your reading pleasure...here are 20 fun facts about Nate. I am pretty sure I could write about 100 and brag about Nate pretty much all day, but I will try to keep it short.

1) He has two sisters, Natalie (younger) and Nicole (older). Nat has a master's in Social Work and is heading up a new learning center with our church. Nicole is a mother of two (Ty and Tess) and is married to wonderful man named Donald. His mom and dad also live in HSV and are both teachers at a local Christian school. His mom teaches Spanish and his dad teaches bible.

- He is very close to his family and believes family is VERY important.

2) He is originally from Vernon, AL which is a very small town. His friends tell me that he sounded like a total hick when he first moved to HSV.

3) He graduated from Harding University in 2002 (A private Church of Christ University) with a B.A. degree in Information Technology.

4) He is a software developer for a Christian company that his brother-in-law and friend started called EMUN. He has worked there for the past 6 years. He absolutely loves his job because he works with a great group of men! Plus, he is a huge computer nerd...so it just fits.

5) He will turn 29 this October. His 30th B-day is creeping up!

6) He loves to tell a good story! I have heard every one of his favorite childhood stories at least twice. People love to hear his stories because he never leaves out the details.

7) He is always searching for a good deal. He has so much fun trying to find the best deal on something or at least a coupon. I have learned to share in this joy. We are serious about finding deals and staying on budget. We are not cheap, we are just informed buyers!

8) He really enjoys traveling and taking mini-vacations.

9) He isn't Mr. Romantic by nature, but he cares about me so much and loves to see me smile, so he often tries to think outside the box and do simple things for me that he knows I will love.

10) He loves getting all of our friends together. He and I are always planning our next dinner with friends and family. We both place a lot of value on our friends and talk about how thankful we are for them a lot.

11) He loves spending time with Ty and Tess, and the kids from church. He is the kind of guy who just picks up a kid and puts them over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He loves to play!

12) He is one of the most laid-back people I know. I have seen him in the midst of trouble and turmoil and he is calm, cool, and collective. He has the ability to brush things off and think rationally in all circumstances. He is a problem-solver. He is patient and steady. The is one of the qualities he has that has made me know he is the one I need to spend my life with.

13) He is one of those people who forgives and forgets. Full of grace. Each time he shows me this side of him, I am truly amazed.

14) He loves working in the yard and is bound and determined to get our yard looking superb by next summer.

15) If we go on a road-trip, he makes a game out of seeing how fast we can get there. It is hilarious because we refuse to stop and try not to drink too much so we don't want to have to stop for bathroom breaks....ha ha ha. What am I saying, Nathan will make a game out of anything. Him and Natalie are always making up some sort of trivia game or singing game whenever we go on trips.

16) He is going to be an excellent provider for me and our future family. He is a great financial manager and desires to keep us free of debt. He also desires for me to stay at home with our future children and continues to plan for this.

17) He always tells me how thankful he is for me and how excited he is for me to be his wife. He loves to tell the story of how we met and point out all of the things that perfectly lined up in order for us to be together. He says he never thought he would be this happy in a relationship and this excited for marriage. He can't wait!

18) One of my other favorite qualities about Nathan is that if I come to him with a concern, he actually works on it! He doesn't just say he is going to work on something, he actually puts his words into action. This is awesome and is an area that he has helped me in.

19) He keeps life simple, laughs a lot, and is satisfied in the small stuff!

20) He trusts in God's plan for his life!

Date Nights, Spending Time with Friends, and House Projects

I have been thoroughly enjoying my time off from graduate school. I still have another full week until I start my class for my specialty! I have been doing a bit of wedding planning and lots of house shopping. I had a great past weekend with Nate and Friends.

On Friday, Nate planned us a date night which was simply perfect (GO NATE)! We went to PF Changs for dinner and ended up spending almost 2 hours there just talking about how blessed we are to have met one another and how crazy it is that everything lined up just perfectly so that we KNEW we were supposed to be together. Nate had planned fo us to play put-put afterwards, but it was getting late so we ended up getting a good movie (A Night at the Museum...you should see it...pretty funny) and staying in. FABULOUS!

On Saturday, me, Dahsha, and two girls from the inner city spent the day shopping. It was a lot of fun just spending time with them and looking at some cool stuff. Dasha is a great decorator so she is trying to help me with the house :)!

That is about it...I am sure I will post more soon. Life is fairly busy even without school, but it is full of all the good stuff in life! [Pics are from before our date night...we are really making the house our own]

Wedding Planning

I am sure some of you are curious to know about the details of our wedding...

Well I have created a little page so you all can acquire some of the details:
http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/StephanieForeman&NathanFaught

That will give you basic info like the time, place, and the wedding party.

We are really excited because our main goal of our wedding day is to keep it relaxed and personal. My belief is that a wedding isn't some big show. A lot of people place so much emphasis on their wedding day that they forget about the importance of the day and the most important element of the day, taking your marriage vows in front of God and your most trusted friends and family. Don't get me wrong, I truly believe it is one of the most important and special days of your life, but I think it is important to keep marriage first.

This being said, we have chosen to get married in this small country town right outside of Huntsville. We want our guests to come in whatever they feel comfortable in (jeans, shorts, whatever...). We want to know each one of our guests in a personal way and we want our friends and family to walk away feeling refreshed and relaxed.

I attached a few pictures of the church and the reception site (the reception is actually outdoors in their little gardens area). These pics should give you an idea of the style we are going for! Oh and you all have to hear the story of my awesome wedding dress. My friend Dasha just happened to "pick it up" for me at a local discount store not knowing if I would like it or not, but knowing she just had to get it. It is a J Crew wedding dress (I didn't even know they had a bridal line, but they do) and fits the style of the wedding PERFECTLY! The fabric is just so natural and beautiful. It had to go through a series of serious alterations (it was too big), but it is looking awesome. Plus, you know how Nate and I are, we love a good story and this is a great one if I do say so myself!

I will keep you all posted on the other details...next up...cake, making sashes for my 9 BM's, finding shirts for the GM's (that's right...no tuxes just some brown (hopefully linen) pants and a cream button down dress shirt), picking out photos for our little photo line (made with clothespins and rope...it will attach to the old fence in the gardens), and buying the decoration stuff Joanna (she is helping me with my simple decor) suggested (this is Nate's brother-in-laws, brothers, wife...confusing I know).

This house keeps us busy...

I haven't written in awhile because we have been quite busy with the house and "some" wedding planning (I really haven't done as much as I need to). Since I wrote last....

- My mom came to visit for about 4 days and helped us paint our ENTIRE house. It was great. We had so much fun and our house looks fabulous. The Faughts and Walkers really enjoyed my mom's visit. We were able to spend some time with everyone which was really nice. I hope she can come and visit again soon...hopefully next time she won't have to work so hard!

- We went to Nate's 10 year high school reunion. We had a good time hanging out with Geoff and Melinda (she graduated from Madison Academy with Nate) all day and Nate also got to see some old friends. It was crazy because we were the only couple there without kids or who were expecting kids. We told them that we will try to have kids by the 20 year reunion.

- Nate has become a serious handy man! I am sure many of you didn't know he had it in him, but he is quite the Mr. fix-it. This past month he has taken on the following roles...landscaper, yard maintenance man, pest control specialist/ bird killer, air technician, painter, plumber, electrician, and many more. Our house is looking better and better every day thanks to his ability to learn new things. We have been working so hard to make it this house our home. It has been so much fun for us. We are a great team.

- We went to our friends Andy and Bethany's wedding shower. Andy is a co-worker of Nathan's. They are getting married at the end of May and we are super excited for them. One thing I took away from this experience, I DO NOT want to open gifts in front of tons of people...I think I will feel like I am on fire because I will be 20 different shades of red.

- I have 1 more week of classes for this semester! YAY...I made it! I was planning on taking practicum this semester but due to my job and me finally saying enough is enough...I will be taking a break this summer by only taking one course needed for my specialization. This graduate degree feels like it is never going to end, but after a semester of working full-time and going to grad school full-time, I need a break!

I can't wait for summer! We are so excited to have everyone over to the lay-out and play in the pool. BYOT....bring your own towels :-)!