you still make my heart race.

"I love you. I am who I am because of you. You are every reason, every hope, and every dream I've ever had, and no matter what happens to us in the future, everyday we are together is the greatest day of my life. I will always be yours." -Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

"I’m in love. I don’t mean high school ‘I love you, I love you too.’ I mean, I am in love, and I wanna be. There’s no one else in the world for me and there never will be." -Topanga, Boy Meets World

"I was falling in love for the first time and i was so unsure and I did it. While it hasn't been easy, it has been everything." -Haley James Scott, OTH

"I found a stillness and a bravery in myself with you.  You make me brave. I will love you until the end of time." -Haley James Scott, OTH

pumpkin treats and a great friend.

late night Coffee Underground date with my Cait Cait. one of my most favorite places in the whole world with one of my most favorite people in the whole world.

she's a turtle mocha latte kind of girl. and me, well, I'm a sucker for anything pumpkin.

just look at it. say it with me now..."YUMMMMM!"

we split a heavenly slice of pumpkin cheesecake, too. ahh, the bliss.

yes, we devoured it. what other option was there?

this girl makes me heart OH so happy. how blessed am I to have a friend who goes out of her way to spend time with me on a Tuesday evening?

I love love love you. simple as that.

"That's what a friend is for, when you're lost in darkness and searching for the light, to help you through those lonely nights, when everything around you fails just hold out your hand, and I'll come running--that's what a friend is for." -Marty Keith

"See you and me have a better time than most can dream of, better than the best, so we can pull on through, whatever tears at us, whatever holds us down. And if nothing can be done, we'll make the best of what's around." -Dave Matthews Band

our first bend in the road.

About a week and a half ago, Teesh and I made a pit stop at Rooms-To-Go in between dinner and our movie (yay for date nights!). We had an hour to kill, so we took our time strolling through all the "rooms" and ended up falling in love with two of them: a living room set and a dining room table and chairs. The living room package came with a sofa, a love seat, two end tables, and a coffee table, and it was being sold at a phenomenal price (which made it even more appealing, of course). The dining room set was at priced even better than the living room, and it was exactly what we wanted: dark brown, square, and tall (poor TJ is too big for regular-sized tables...HA! Plus, I'm pretty obsessed with them, too!).


We talked to my parents and asked if they would help us buy the living room for Christmas, and they said YES! Excited much? Umm, heck yes! Shortly after Christmas, we will have our very own living room furniture for our first very own home together. Holy smokes, it's still hard to believe, even after two months, that we're actually getting married. It's not just an idea anymore--it's legitimately happening in a little over 8 months. And not only have I graduated from college and now have a full-time job, but now I am about to be a wife. It seriously feels like I closed my eyes for two seconds when I was a little girl and BAM, here I am all grown up. Straaaaaaange. But, once again, SO EXCITING!


Okay, back to what I was saying before I got lost in another one of my crazy tangents, so the living room is well on its way to being ours. Teesh and I also decided that instead of putting my first couple of paychecks straight into savings, we would go ahead and buy the table so we could scratch that off our to-do list. Thennnnn we thought it would be a good idea for me to apply for a credit card and use it to buy the table, because I have zeeeeero credit (who knew credit was so important to have? Pshhh, I sure didn't.). I told him that the very second I got the card, we were going straight to the store to buy it (just in case), and that he was on-call for the next few days to drop everything in Clemson and speeeeeed to Greenville so we could buy it together. Sounds like a pretty great plan, right?


Yep, that's what we thought. It was the perfect plan until I got the card in the mail today, Teesh drove to Greenville right after I got off work, he and Shannon and I went to Rooms-To-Go to make our first big purchase, and what happens? The table is gone. AND out of stock. I mean, really? What we thought would be one of the most exciting days ever turned into one of the most disappointing. Booooooooo. Even as I write these words, some three hours later, my heart is still aching with frustration and thoughts of "if we'd only bought it when we first saw it." I absolutely hate regret, and it is pretty much consuming me right now. That's the down side of being decisive--knowing what you want and not being able to get it.


The bad news: we didn't get the table that we wanted and now we'll probably have to spend double the money to get one we really like. The good news: I now have a credit card (that I will use responsibly, for those of you who may be wondering), we are still going to get our living room set, we will find a table that we love even more than the last one and we still have eight months to pick one out, I got to see Teesh for really no reason at all tonight (always the best treat ever!), AND I bought my Harry Potter ticket tonight.


All in all, life is goooooooooooood. Actually, I changed my mind. Life is SO much greater than I could ever deserve. And even when it doesn't feel like it, it still is. Boy am I thankful for a God who's got the whole world in his hands. :)


Rule number one is, don't sweat the small stuff.  Rule number two is, it's all small stuff. -Robert Eliot

two months and three days later.

So we took a little break on wedding planning for a few weeks. Because we aren't excited about it anymore? Absolutely positively not! I mean we're still 8 months and 9 days away from the big day (not that I'm still counting or anything), and if we don't take breaks for several weeks at a time, there will be absolutely nothing left to do for the last few months of the engagement. To say that I am extremely proactive about this season in my life doesn't even begin to accurately explain the reality of it.


I am a planner to the very core, and these past two months (and three days) have been filled with day dreams of how wonderful and blessed our life together is going to be, gazes at my beautiful diamond (I mean, seriously--it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen!), constant thoughts about how to make things fun and timeless on the big day, and the list goes onnnnn and onnnnnn. I'm totally not being dramatic when I say that I wish my wedding was YESTERDAY! I can't wait to be Mrs. Troy Jerome Bargeron. :)


This weekend, we started up with the planning again. Lucky for us (and my incredible gift to decide on things at the drop of a hat), we knocked out A LOT in just two days. Yesterday, Shannon and I went to Commerce for some [window] shopping, and we found three ceramic birds that match the other birds we're using as inspirations for the reception. The best part? They were on sale! You're welcome, daddy. ;) After Commerce, we stopped by Old Time Pottery to look around and ended up buying most of the decorations for the reception. YAY! We got the lanterns and clear jugs for the table decorations, meaning that the only other containers we need are the blue pots for the floral decoration tables. We also got the twigs to go in the jugs and the candle holder that we're going to use for the lighting of the unity candle. SO exciting! I also made the first purchase for our future home together: a tea set that will serve as the inspiration of our kitchen. Our very own Mrs. Potts. Are you surprised? You should be if you know me at all! It is SO cute!


And as if that wasn't enough to make me jump up and down repeatedly, Melanie (my wonderful MOH and baby sister) and I worked all afternoon on planning my very first bridal shower...a Christmas shower! We bought some goodies at the store for it, made the guest list, talked to Nana and got the OK to have it at her house, planned the menu, and started working on the invitations. Oh. My. Goodness. Gracious. My heart is SO full of uncontrollable joy right night that I can barely sit still long enough to write these words! I'm so blessed to a sister and a best friend who are one in the same. So so SO blessed. She and I are complete opposites (complete and total opposites, to clarify), but I honestly don't know if I could live life without her. That's a bold statement, I realize, but it's the honest to goodness truth. Aside from Teesh, no one in this whole world knows me better than she does (and she even knows some secrets that Teesh won't ever know, but keep that one on the hush hush!).


I never imagined that planning a wedding would be so unbelievably fun. I always knew it would be out of this world with how great it would be, but I never thought it would be this incredible! I just keep thinking that if planning my days leading up to the big day is this mind-blowing, I can't even imagine how life will be afterwards. I can't wait to be married to the most genuine, honest, loyal, passionate fireball of a man in all the earth. It's going to be an adventure every single day. I guess it's a good thing that Adventure is my middle name, huh?


"They gave each other a smile with a future in it." -Ring Lardner

when your name is P. Sawyer, you birthday never ends.

That's right ladies and gentlemen, P. Sawyer is officially 22 years old. Forrrrrrr the seventh (or so) day. She celebrated with her family on Friday night, she and I spend the eeeeeentire day together celebrating on Saturday, on Tuesday (her actually birthday, just for clarification) she and Christine stopped by the house before they headed back to Clemson to continue our tradition: watch the Hill with One Tree together, part of our small group went to Olive Garden (another tradition, espcially with us ABS girls) to continue in the festivities, and thennnnnnnn the grand finale happened Thursday night. Are you ready for this? We road-tripped to ATL for none other than the TYLER HILTON concert at the Vinyl. HECK to the YES!

I wish we were still celebrating. Well, we are...just not together. Saddddd day. Nevertheless, I have a tonnnn of pictures that will allow me to reminisce about all the fun that has been had over the past week. The best part about all of it? That's easy. Getting to bring in Melanie Joy Pineros' (better known as P. Sawyer to all of our mutual friends) twenty-second year.

For her, it happened when she turned twenty-two.

 oh you know, just celebrating good times.

#HPdoBIRTHDAYS

 the PERFECT parking space for the PERFECT night.

 this is the only picture I have of the two of us from the concert. seriously? we're so bad.

ohhh yes!

 memorabilia. can't leave without it.

 slight excitement. not much, though...clearly.

 ready and waiting for Tylerrrr to take the stage!

 TADA! there he is!

 surreal. blows my mind. I can't believe we got to experience this. get the picture?

 see the bass player in the background? he was just another one of my victims.

 one of my favorites of the night, hands down.

 another one of my favs. I loved this guitar. if you know me at all, you will know why.

you'll ask for me.

 we loved his stance. so, of course, I had to document it.

 getting my bracelet signed. yay for it falling right into my hands!

ladies and gentlemen, the man of the hour: Tyler Hilton! you can't tell by just looking at this, but I was so excited that my stomach was in my throat. he was SUCH a nice guy. totally unlike Chris Keller, no worries. :)

 got dem signatures.

being on tour with Chris Keller was lameeee compared to watching Tyler Hilton perform. I'm just sayin'.

She spoils me. I try my best to spoil her as well as she spoils me (which never works out, by the way). She is, without a doubt, a friend that I could never ever EVER deserve in a million years, even if I was always on my best behavior (yeah, right). We do Wilmington together. We do (well, we did until I gradumacated) Clemson together. We do road trips together. We do crack (berries) together. We do bbm chats all day every day together. We do wedding planning together. We do LIFE together. Hales and P. Sawyer. That's how it will always be. Mark my words.

"Maybe our girlfriends are our soulmates and guys are just people to have fun with." -Sex and the City

"My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me." -Henry Ford

"Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It's not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything."

eat, drink, and be scary.

and that, my friends, is Halloween weekend 2010, start to finish. I got to hang out with a whooooole lot of people that have been with me since the very beginning. It was perfect.

Can we do this every weekend? Costumes included? I vote yes. Please and thank you. :)

Happy Halloween, ya'll!