1 month from today.....

Yep you guessed it....I get to marry by best friend....I get to wake up and go to bed every night with my love....I absolutely cannot wait for this next month! I am so excited!





As I was getting my bussell put in my dress yesterday standing there with my dress on and all the fixings made me realize just how wonderful and exciting this all really is! I get to marry the man of dreams then take a 7 day long cruise to the "exotic eastern Caribbean" (yes I stole that off the website :)) and we are staying in a ocean view suite....if you don't think I am excited you are so wrong! I have been restless at night....which could be due to the amount of stuff left I need to already have done or the fact that I need to get the rest of the thank you notes out before my next shower this weekend! But regardless we will say it's restlessness caused by excitement. :)





I was talking to some of my co-workers yesterday as I was visiting with my sweet little niece and they were asking how little miss Ellie was going to be getting down the aisle....well I will be honest, I really want her to crawl down it....she has the fastest little crawl and I think she would be absolutely precious crawling down the aisle....thoughts? (She would be the first one down the aisle....so her dress wouldn't get dirty.....there would be an aisle runner down....those are things others had asked about :)) I just am so stinking excited.





I started getting all my bridesmaids presents together and I feel like I have been buying alot throughout the past 10 months but it really doesn't look that way. So with some help of some good friends I was able to find a "filler" per say that will make it look bigger and more full :)





Hotel reservations are being made, bridal tea invitations are going out and lingerie shower invites are going out! My best friend will be flying in August 11th, in time for my bachelorette weekend and some showers. All is right in my world. I get to marry the man of dreams and spend the rest of my life with him....excited just doesn't do it justice. :) Thanks for all the kindness and prayers that have been offered. :) We are truly blessed with the best friends and family 2 people can ask for!

Showers, Houses, and Wedding Bells

Well let's go back to June 18th-Father's Day weekend.....we had my shower in Valdosta and i was truly showered! They were all so wonderful and got Nate and I such wonderful gifts! We had so much fun and it was so nice to get to see all my family and Nate's family got to come down for it and meet my extended family so that was very nice! Gin-Gin, Kaka, Nana, Audrey, and Bev did such a great job with the shower and it was just wonderful to see all our friends from Valdosta!
Father's day was great it was so nice to be able to spend it with all the "fathers" in my life!

The next week started a TON of traveling for me.....left on the 23rd to go to Church of Christ day at Six Flags....was in Atlanta til midday of the 24th then booked it to Birmingham for my co-workers wedding....we had his rehearsal dinner that night so Jessica and I were booking it back so I could meet Nate to go to that. (Nate lived with Chad, my co-worker so we were invited to the rehearsal) Well on our way to Birmingham Nate called and said he was swamped and that he would not be able to make it to the rehearsal and that the wedding would be iffy....so I call chad and make sure he still wants me to come even though Nate wouldn't be with me and he said yes and just to bring Jessica as my date instead! :) So we went to the rehearsal and it was so fun and we had so much fun with Barry and Tiffany! We stayed and visited with everyone for a good while then headed back to Jessica's aunt and uncle's house to stay for the night! We got up Saturday morning back the car back and headed to get our nails and toes done for my bridal pictures in Albany on Sunday.....(yes it's a roller coaster so just hold on!) After the toes and nails we change into our wedding clothes and head to the wedding! It was beautiful and I am so happy for Chad and Pam.....sitting in that wedding with Nate right beside....well to say the least that I am so excited about our wedding day is a total understatement! :)

After the wedding Jessica and I left and headed BACK to Atlanta to pick up my hair and make up girl and her daughter to go with us down to stay in Perry Saturday night and then go to my bridals with me on Sunday afternoon! I need to stop here and insert a side note....I ordered real flowers from a florist down in Perry so that Jessica's mom could pick them up on Saturday and I could have real flowers for my bridals! When we got to perry I was so excited because they were EXACTLY what I wanted for my pictures and for my actual wedding day! I was beyond happy! So back to the story....we get to Perry and Jessica's mom had went out and bought a steamer so we could steam my dress that night so it wouldn't be all wrinkled from the ride....I am beyond blessed with the most amazing friends!! We stayed up and sat in the hot tub that night for a little bit and talked and visited and it was just so nice....then we went and steamed my dress....I was totally prepared for it to take a good minute to get all the wrinkles out but that steamer was the best! It took us about 45 minutes and we were in bed and asleep! Church and lunch were great and then we were back at Jessica's house loading the car to head for Albany! I was so nervous....(I have been so nervous about everything....showers, hair, makeup, pictures, I MEAN EVERYTHING!) but we got going and I was excited.....we made it over half way there when it hit me, as it started raining, that I forgot my flowers!!! I was so upset....so I was driving so I took a few minutes and vented and then decided that plenty of people don't have flowers in their bridals and that if this was the worst thing that happened it would be just fine! So I get to my photographers house and she suggest we go to publix and just get some....at this point I am stressed over the possibility of rain so I am just ready to get dressed and started. So Jessica being the amazing friend she is runs to publix and comes back with seriously like 6 different bouquets of flowers with my colors in it! Have I mentioned that she is like bridesmaid of the year??? Because she is!!! She has just been amazing! So my bridals went absolutely great and I wish I could show you all some but there needs to be some mystery :) But I can tell you I am oh so happy about 2 things....1 that I have my braces....man I am so much happier with a straight smile.....2 that my pictures turned out so good!

So we get back to Montgomery finally about 11 pm! Jessica drops me off and she heads to Auburn....I head to bed.....get up early Monday morning and pack again for a week of working and helping a friend move in VA.....get to work and my friend I had asked to go with me to help said that she really could go so about noon we head to VA.....and after a LONG 13 hour drive there we make it and visit for a couple minutes then get in bed! It was such a fun week of visiting and I got to see Washington, DC! I also got to visit with a couple recruits and visit some of my churches up there! It was a great week!

I get home Saturday night and go to Louise's and crash! While I was gone mom and dad and some friends from Church had come to help Laurie get her moved out of the apartment and get some of my stuff out....so Sunday we went and got everything out of the apartment and moved everything of mine into Nate and my house! I was so EXCITED!!! Laurie and I will be staying in Laurie's fiance's (Yep you read it right....LAURIE IS ENGAGED!!! YAY!!! Couldn't be any happier and couldn't have prayed for a better man than Matt! He is exactly what she has always wanted and I couldn't have hand picked a better man for her. And he fits in perfectly in the family! :)) back to the story....we will be staying in his old house since he just bought a new house. So we got everything out of the apartment and cleaned it spotless on Monday.

Then Jessica, Nate and I got everything in the house put away...all the boxes and bags out of the house and everything washed! I was SO EXCITED!!! My house was put together and I just couldn't be any happier that it was put together in time for my people to come over for our 4th of July party! It was so fun and so so nice! We had a good time and that is when Laurie and Matt got engaged! Matt took her on the riverboat to watch the fireworks! :) He is very thoughtful!

So that has been the past 3 weeks for me!! And have I mentioned that I can't wait for August 27th?!?! It excites me to think about walking down the aisle to marry the man of my dreams and my best friend who really loves me.....flaws and all! He is a good man! And have I mentioned I absolutely love my house?!?! I will try to post pictures of it finished and I will try to post some pictures from Washington, DC later!!

Showers, Showers, and more Showers :)

So I know these pictures are going in reverse order of which all my showers came but just bear with me and read along! :)

June 12th- Adairsville Church of Christ Shower

Before the shower Nate, Patrick (Nate's best man), and Jessica all came home and took some pictures dressed up. Patrick has been a constant in Nate and I's relationship! Everyone loves him and thinks he is so fun and so sweet. I couldn't ask for Nate to have a better friend than him. He keeps us laughing and always makes going to Adairsville so fun!

Me and Jess. I was so EXTREMELY glad she came!! She has been there through it all and I couldn't be more blessed for a best friend.

Nate and I.....I know it's a weird angle but in all the other one's Nate is sucking in and he looks awkward and I thought this one was the best one :) I love this man!

Mrs. Jacki and Ellie playing at the church shower....at this point we were just trying to keep her from crying....look at how she crosses her little legs and feet....I mean seriously she is a lady! :)

Me and Jess at the shower :)

Momma, Me and Mrs. Jacki :)

Louise, Ellie, Me and Mom.....so thankful they got to come over...that little girl makes my day!

Me and the hostesses

Now starts the Woodring Family Couple Shower June 11th

How cute is she?!?! I mean seriously!! :)

Louise, Me and Ellie. Boy I love them both. Lots. Even serious face she is the cutest thing! :)

Dad, Me, Nate, and Mom at the couple shower :) So glad they were all able to come for this shower too! :)

All the fam jam that was at the shower (Laurie and Matt were in TN visiting grandma)

Me and Jess at the couple shower....have I mentioned that I couldn't have been happier she came?!?! I mean really it was the best!

Me, Nate and the hostesses! They did such a good job and it was so good and so fun! We got lots of goodies! :)

Trenton Church of Christ Shower- June 5th

Me and Momma....favorite picture to date that we have ever taken together!

Me and the sisters. So glad they were both at my first shower! :)

This is my mom's side of the family that was able to come to my Trenton shower! They drove down from Jackson, TN and I was so grateful to see all of them! It meant so much to have them there! :)

Me and Mo :) This girl makes my life so much more fun! She is so much fun and I am so glad that her and her momma were able to come with us :)

This was just ONE of my cakes at the shower....I love cupcakes and really Mrs. Karen Gerber outdid herself on this! She did such a good job and the whole shower was absolutely beautiful!

Me and Michelle.....I love her and she has been amazing! I mean amazing! She has been there through everything and she truly is just part of our family. We are blessed with great friends who have become family :)

Well as you can tell I have had 3 showers already and I am leaving Friday to go down to Valdosta to have my fourth! I am so blessed and I couldn't be enjoying this time in our lives any more than I am! I have wonderful people surrounding me and I just CANNOT wait to spend the rest of my life with the most wonderful man!

If you would like to see all the pictures of all my gifts and such you can go here :http://http//www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.526370199070.2022301.132900211&l=32eddaf5c4

and look at all of them on facebook :) I just highlighted the pictures of people :)

THE HOUSE

Welcome to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Woodring :)

1818 St. Charles Avenue

Montgomery, AL 36107

(Yes I am a nerd I know :))

I am going to take you through a walk through of the house!

These are all the pictures before we painted :) When we get done I will update with painted pictures!
Below is the living room.....through those doors on the right is where our sun room is....I absolutely love that there is a sun room! I can just see the Christmas tree there!!! The floors are all original hard wood with the exception of the bathroom and part of the kitchen. :)

This is another view of the living room!! I absolutely LOVE those built in shelves!!! They are a nicknack heaven!! My mom would die to have those shelves in her house! :)

And for my absolute favorite part of the house.......The dining room and kitchen.....ok seriously I gave up an extra bathroom because I LOVE this kitchen and dining room so much! We I absolutely love entertaining and this dining and kitchen area will allow me to and I am really so excited!!!

Look at the gorgeous china cabinet! The guy that remodeled it took 2 china cabinets and cut them in half and put one half on the floor with the draws and one half he hung on the ceiling with built in lights.....I just absolutely ABSOLUTELY am in love with it!!!

Then this is the first view of the kitchen from the living/dining room. :) I am such a nerd I absolutely am getting excited like it's the first time as I write this!! :) Y'all I LOVE this kitchen! Love it!! It is big enough that we can have family get togethers and there is enough counter space that mom doesn't get crowded...because let's be honest she still likes to be the main cook at family affairs and well I am completely fine with it! :) I love the tall cabinets!!! I need that storage space! :)

This is the back view of the kitchen, I am standing in the back door taking this picture.....look at the pantry at the end with a counter in between the 2 tall cabinets! Isn't that great?!?!

And this is the last view of the kitchen....if you haven't picked up on it yet I love this kitchen! LOVE IT! Look at the extra counter space there on the end with all of those outlets!! Is that sad that I get excited about outlets?!?! I hate searching for outlets and having to move when you are doing stuff!

Right beside the kitchen is our room.....these rooms are nice and big which I absolutely love!! :) The closets are a little small but I thinking an amoire would be great in this room! :)

Right beside our room is the bathroom. I love love love the granite/slate tile work in the bathroom! Absolutely love it!

This is the extra bedroom! They previous owners had it as their baby's room but we will not be having one of those right now so we are definitely going to have to paint this a more neutral color! :) But again it's so big and so nice!!

And here is my other favorite part! The back yard!! It already has a swing up for Ellie to come over and play with and I already have in the works that we are going to get a swing for out here!! I just think it will be the perfect place for a back yard bbq~ And it has a fire pit and a little fountain back there! Oh I just love it!!! And I have a great friend from work who is going to help me get my yard in tip top shape!! Oh I am so excited!!!


Ok so the only thing I forgot to take pictures of is our sun room and the front of the house.....so I will do that this weekend and report back! :)

There have been so many people that have helped, prayed, painted, and a little bit of all of the above over the past few weeks and I could not have done it with out them....and most of all I couldn't have done it with out my absolutely wonderful fiance' making sure we got this house....if this is how the next forever years go I can already tell, you will not find a happier woman! I am a a lucky girl I tell ya!

So whenever you are in Montgomery come on by and see our perfect first home!

The house that built me...well maybe helped me grow up :)

So as I sit here and type this I am filled with a lot of different emotions about what the next 9 months will hold. Here are all the different thoughts running through my head at the moment...

• Am I really old enough now to be getting married and starting a life of my own....getting married and starting my own life is something I have always wanted but ALWAYS felt like it was so far away....now it's less than 9 months....
• I am sad about moving out of our house on hill hedge....I had a lot of good memories there and I honestly don't know if I am ready to get rid of all of them yet...I know I will always have the memories but oh if I would've known that was our last year in that house...our last Christmas tree, last birthday's celebrated, last new years, etc.
• This will be the first year in 25 years that I have not and will not have a Christmas tree in my house....I made the executive not too since we have soo much stuff in the little apartment and we still have boxes everywhere....this year I will be living through Louise's Christmas tree....nevertheless i will still be sad not to be able to watch TV through the glow of our real Christmas tree...
• have I mentioned being a grown up isn't all it's cracked up to be? I mean don't get me wrong, I like making my own decisions and for the most part I am pretty smart with them but I miss the simple times of living with mom and dad and having them take care of everything. I have a deeper appreciation for them and everything they sacrificed for me and both my sisters. Hands down I have the best parents around. Couldn't be any more thankful :)
• With all of this wedding stuff and moving I have really been reminded of what great friends I have....I am really trying NOT to be bridezilla but I have some oh so friendly reminders that sometimes I am and it brings me back to my mindset that I do not want to be like that. I want to enjoy this time and really have fun with the wedding and living in a one bedroom apartment with Laurie for the next 6-8 months :) Best days of my life! But seriously I really have the best friends around! :)
• My Ellie is growing up way too fast! She is getting so big and doing new things everyday! I can't imagine not seeing her everyday and when I can't it makes me so sad because I know I am missing something! I feel that same way with Morgan....I feel like it was just yesterday when we were trying to get her to crawl and we thought she never would....and now it's hard to even remember what she looked like then....she is such a little diva girl now and carries her purse around and is just the cutest thing! She is talking so good now and really picking up on things!

Well I know this blog has no rhyme or reason to it but it's just things that are going through my head right now and honestly I just needed to say it out loud....or well type it out loud! :)

The1st Step.....The Date

We have finally decided on a date.....we have been back and forth several times and talked to several of the people that will be in the wedding and we decided that the date will be.....

(No the wedding colors are NOT pink and black!)
After a lot of talking and weighing out the pro's and con's we decided August 27th, 2011 would be great! We will also share this special date with some of the closest people in our lives.....

Justin & Michelle

Married August 27th, 2005

It will be their 6th Wedding Anniversary!

(And yes I asked before we decided on this date to make sure she didn't mind sharing! :))

We are SO exciting about this time in our lives and we are excited about the wedding.....ok I think Nate is just ready for the wedding to be here and be done so we can start the honeymoon but either way it's going to be an exciting next 10 months!! :)

The blog I have been dreading to write....

Well today is my Friday.....I am taking off Thursday and Friday to spend time with my best friend, Taylor, who will be leaving to go back to Washington to get things prepared for her husband to come home from fighting for our freedom in Afghanistan. Don't get me wrong I know how much she has missed him and she absolutely can NOT WAIT for him to be home. It's funny though how attached you become to someone who you spend every waking moment with!! From the time she got here I decided that I was going to do everything possible to have her included in everything and make sure she felt wanted and needed. I knew it was going to be a hard transition and I wanted to help make it as easy as possible! So from day 1 I was stuck to her side. I didn't give her a choice. I just called and said I was coming over. I told Nathan that he needed to know going into this that she would be attached to my side and he has been ABSOLUTELY great about it!! Just another reason I love him! :) But I am just glad that we have got to spend the past year together! She is the best friend I have ever had and I am so happy that I got to have this year with her! Over the course of this year we have done and had some crazy times! Some of which include: Disney World, the beach, the pool, the many many shopping trips, getting our hair done together, getting mani & pedi's, Lads-to-Leaders, the long talks, wedding planning, vacation planning, football games, baseball games, philly cheesesteak sandwiches, planning how to talk down the crazy guy on the monorail at Disney, oh and how can I forget the SCHOOL WORK! :) Sometimes that school work was very easy though! :) But there are so many memories that I will never forget and she has been such a HUGE help to me here.

I know I am blessed with friends here and 2 sisters that are amazing but there is something about a best friend, her knowing everything about you, and still loving me unconditionally, or loving me because I know too much on her too! :) She has taught me many a thing or 2 about marriage, being away from your family all the time and how to be a true friend. I am truly blessed to have had her in my life. And I know she isn't dead and that she is just leaving but when you are with someone day-in, day-out, when they leave and you don't see them for 4 months it feels like a death in someways. I remember her saying that in her deployment meeting before Blake left that they said it would feel like you are grieving for the actual loss of that person because of the absence of them, and well I feel like that is how I will feel. I know it's no where near the pain of missing her husband but she is truly my best friend....and for those of you that know me, well I have gone through my fair share of best friends. She is just the one person I know that I can tell anything to and she won't judge me or tell anything I say to her. And well there aren't a lot of friends I have that are like that....in fact I have learned that i do not say stuff to anyone about anything because most people just don't know how to keep their mouth shut...but she can. And I love and appreciate her for that. She is generous and willing to help me in any way possible. She would bring me anything I needed and was always up for a lunch date! She lets me vents and just listens. I am just so very grateful!! So below are some pictures from our year. We have alot together but i just didn't want to bore everyone else with them. :)

This is from our trip to Disney! We had so much fun!!!

Again from Disney....that trip was the BEST!!

This is from Halloween, which was also her birthday! :) We took Morgan out to pick out a pumpkin!

This is from Halloween too! I was a cowgirl (I know how original :)) And she was an Army Wife....fitting right?? :)

This is from Disney too, this is where we almost forgot our tickets and had to run back to the car to get them, then we RAN back to catch the shuttle! :)

This is from when we went to Adairsville to see Nate's family and get our hair done :) This is one of my favorite pictures of us!

This is from the Rodeo....that was a fun night! :)

This was right after she got home....she went with Laurie, Louise, Dirt, and I to have family pictures done! :)

Well that is a good wrap of the year....So Taylor I hope you know how much you mean to me and I am so blessed to have you in my life! I am excited for you that you get to see Blake in a month and I know that I will be seeing you in Germany. You are the best friend I could've ever asked for!! Thank you so much for making this year so so great!! Love you so so much!! And I will miss you more than you know!