thankful.

With Thanksgiving being this week, I found that the image below helps to put everything in prospective for me. It really shows how we all are truly blessed beyond measure. 

An Exciting Mess...

There are so many great and exciting things coming up that I can barely contain myself! To start, I apologize in advance for what will be a million posts about wedding planning, but I am so stinkin' excited! 

All exciting future plans ahead:

The first exciting event is that we will be in our new house by the end of the month! I am going to be broke decorating the house and moving again, but I am so incredibly excited about it (not the being broke part)! I have all color swatches chosen for each room in the house and where the furniture will be placed. I have chosen what type of window treatments I will make, I just need to find the right patterned fabric. I am making a King sized headboard out of shutters, which I am really excited about and hope will turn out in the coastal chic way I am wanting. I am nothing if not organized (but only) when it comes to decorating. So right now our apartment is a complete mess- part in boxes and part in piles, ugh. I really cannot express how excited I am that there is a light at the end of the very long tunnel of this whole moving process! Whoohoo!

Our new home that we will be closing on the day before Thanksgiving! AHH! Im so excited!

The second exciting and upcoming event is my birthday, which falls on Thanksgiving. I will actually celebrate my birthday the weekend after Thanksgiving with friends, because I will be home for Thanksgiving and black Friday.  Shopping on Black Friday is a tradition done with all the females in my family, and we have so much fun!

The third exciting event is Christmas! I love Christmas as much as Halloween, if not more. The Christmas lights, music, DECORATING and the movies are so fun and pretty so I am looking forward to that! I will go ahead and admit I have seen several Christmas movies already on LMN. I already have half of my holiday shopping done too! I am hoping I will have enough time between unpacking to pull together a Christmas party for all our friends and new neighbors. Truth be told I have already started listening to Christmas music! 

The Fourth exciting event is the cruise! I am looking forward to both my family and Scott's family meeting for the first time, not to mention relaxing on white sand with clear water. This trip cannot come fast enough!  

And finally the next exciting event is on October 05, 2013- Scott and I will be saying our vows. We have secured a date and a venue. I cannot even describe how excited I am to plan our nuptials. I clearly think I have missed my calling in event planning, because I LOVE planning parties and events. I am not doing any further wedding planning until after New Years, but I have everything pretty much planned in my head (of course). 

Dirty Myrtle.

A few weekends ago, Scott and I took a mini vaca to Myrtle Beach. In all honesty, I hate Myrtle Beach, but I don't mind going to visit all the touristy shops and restaurants during the fall; when all the "rebel flag" tourist are gone and all the old folks Yankees and Canadians come to stay. We went for just the night and spent Sunday being tourist. We hung out at the pool and in the Jacuzzi most of the morning. The weather was great to be outside all day. 

After we spent time relaxing, then had lunch at Abuelos, which was a delicious mexcian restaurant. I wish we had an Abuelo here too, I would eat there often! After lunch we went to Broadway at the Beach and walked in all the touristy shops. They have these insane fish that you can feed- they have trained themselves to basically beg for fish food and fight the ducks over who gets the most pellets. 

The insane fish and ducks swarming each other for fish pellets. 

 We spent hours walking and being silly then had a few beers and Scott had wings at Liberty's. Scott being a cheap ass loves their $4 happy hour special- $4 for all apps, Scott loves the 12 wings. He had wings and then we went to King Kong Sushi and I had a sushi roll and we both partook in peach saki. 

Scott being silly outside of Ben and Jerry's.

 A cute vinyl of cows driving a VW bus at Ben and Jerry's Ice cream. 

After walking and shopping (but not buying a single thing) and stuffing our bellies with beer, saki, wings for Scott and sushi for me, and Mexican for lunch we went back to the hotel in a hazy coma of happiness. While watching tv, I passed out at 9:30 pm, I haven't been to bed that early since I was a child. The weekend of concerts, and mini vacation was bliss and hopefully their will be many more! 

Sweet Bay

I have not posted about my angel pup Bayla recently, and I know you have just been waiting for me to do so! haha. On instagram I post a picture almost daily- it's safe to say I am a bit obsessed with her. However, look at that sweet face, how can you not be?! Anyone who spends a minute with her loves her instantly, she's so friendly, cheerful and will clap for you! haha. Did I mention she thinks she's a person? If you ask her a question she will "answer" you. If you ask her if she wants (fill in the blank- example: go outside) she will clap- and if she doesn't want to go outside she wont clap. In short, she's hysterical. 

Bayla after getting groomed. She was so scared going to the groomer, I was almost in tears because she was freaking out and shaking. When I went to pick her up she was sooo happy to see me. I love that pup!

Bayla thinking she's a person and laying her head on a pillow. So sweet.

(Sorry for the grainy picture- it was taken on my phone)

Diamond Dash 2.0

...AND THE BEST HALLOWEEN TREAT EVER.

(prepare yourself for the longest post ever- apologies in advance)

Last Wednesday was Halloween, and it was by far my most memorable one yet. When I got home from work, this message was left on the door. (very picture heavy from here on...).

For those of you who do not know what a Diamond Dash is, I encourage you to look it up in your area and attend the next one! Scott and I did a Diamond Dash in Greenville over a year ago; it is a scavenger hunt with hundreds of people where you get clues and text the answers back with your phone and the winner gets a diamond ring. It was soo much fun! So Scott created a Diamond Dash just for me. 

So I followed the clue and went to charge my phone and this was beside my charger: Dress nice? Why yes I believe I will. 

I was running around like such a maniac, I took the picture upside down!

Then I do what I always do in most situations that make me nervous, anxious or angry: I immediately broke out in hives from nerves and excitement because I KNEW what the "prize" was at the end of the Diamond Dash... AHHH! 

So I go into my closet to find something nice to wear and this is what the next clue was: "Night Hawk will show you the way"

Which totally confused me because Scott has been refered to as "Night Hawk" in a previous work email so I was thinking "hmm... I guess he is coming to pick me up?!" So I then did what I often do when I need to waste time and I am so unbelievable anxious- I cleaned the house top to bottom. He sent me a text an hour later asking what I was doing which I told him waiting on him- and he then told me to go back and look at the clue.... and it immediately dawned on me the movie Step Brothers! I did not have cable in Greenville for a year and I made Scott watch Step Brothers with me every night, I love that movie. So I found the dvd Step Brothers packed in a box and there was the next clue... "Me Chinese, Me play joke..." which stumped me again! ahh. 

After 25 minutes of looking into all of "chinese" stuff: mochi, chopsticks, woks, etc I found no clue. I cheated and begged Scott for a hint. He told me to think of who I know that is Chinese and after guessing several people and coming up with dead ends- I realized (after feeling very stupid) his SISTER Savannah! Scott's mother adopted a sweet little girl from China two years ago, and though I did not forget about her, I simply think of her as "sister" and not "Chinese" haha. Well I quickly found the next clue taped behind her picture telling me to visit the "windy city".

So I look behind the DMB Chicago poster I bought Scott last Christmas, which led to the next clue: I L_VE You So Much...  

I knew the O was behind the letter pictures spelling out "love" that I had bought from the market on a visit years ago.

Behind the O was a clue telling me "Sandy put me under water" 

So I ran to the NYC poster that I had bought from an art student on the streets of NY. This is where I found the next clue telling me to follow "RebeccaAndScott" on twitter. 

After following on twitter, I then left the house to go to 1133 Mathis Ferry. 

When I arrived at the Library I was told to find a wedding etiquette book that contained a note... there were probably fifty books in that category but oddly enough the very first one I chose had his business card tucked in the sleeve. 

I was then told to go to the address on the business card: Scott's work, and take a picture with his boss to get the next clue. 

 

This is what that clue said:

So I head towards the apartment... and he was not there!  It quickly registered that he's at our NEW house! So I drive there. The neighborhood was like out of a Disney show because there were hundreds  literally hundreds of children in their costumes. IT WAS PRECIOUS! Scott is fully aware of my love for Halloween. After driving a crawling pace through the neighborhood I finally get to our new house and see Scott's parked car. I go inside the house and he's waiting on me (and has been for an hour and a half due to my cleaning spurt from misunderstanding the "Night Hawk" clue and did I mention the electricity isn't on at the house yet? haha). I go inside the house and he gets down on one knee and asks me to marry him, while I am a blubbering mess, I choke out something that sounds like a yes! 

WE ARE ENGAGED!!! WHOOHOO!!

We follow each other to dinner where he had made reservations at one of my favorite local restaurants.  

After calling everyone I know, we go inside and dine and drink free champagne, yay! Seriously, is there anything better than DIAMONDS and FREE CHAMPAGNE in the same night?! My answer is no... so clearly it is the best night in history.

So we snapped our first picture as an engaged couple. 

I have saved every clue and I am going to scrap book them once things calm down a bit. It's an exciting time for us, because we are also moving in 10 days! AHH! 

So this is the "prize" at the end of the Diamond Dash, and it simply could not be more perfect! It is the exact ring I wanted: an oval cushion cut with an antiqued styled round channel setting. He did an amazing job at the proposal (very fun, thoughtful and creative) and an amazingly perfect job at choosing the ring. It has been all I could have asked for and I hope we have a marriage more beautiful than the wedding that I know will be planned to a "T" and simply stunning. 

We have been excited and overwhelmed with all the love and support from our families and friends. Within 24 hours we had 125 likes on our Facebook "status update" and 46 comments. I have had endless phone calls, emails and text messages from well wishers. It is adorable how Scott has been excited and is already talking about planning and registering for the wedding. My mom has called everyone she knows and my dad was already asking about what type of food we were having and the type of music, clearly they are all excited too! We are truly blessed and I could not be happier during this exciting time!