Memories of a Wedding Two Years Past

{I interrupt my normally scheduled posts (HAHA) today to spend a few moments reliving the events from two years ago. }

April 5th, 2014; the day that my best friend and I committed the rest of our lives to one another. The day truly was a blur as I soared past on excitement and anticipation so I have been thinking about it a lot over the past couple of days, trying to piece together the emotions of myself and those around me.

In my opinion, it was one of the happiest, most light-hearted weddings of all time. (I note my own bias;))

In a wedding the important things are the ones that you will remember and cherish for years to come, and for me, here are a few of those things:

The officiant.

       A good friend of ours was willing to be ordained in order to perform the ceremony. He and his wife took us out to eat prior our wedding and offered pre-marital counseling and advice on living out a God honoring marriage. 

The guests.

      Having the family and close friends there to witness our union but more importantly to share in the joy of it all. It didn't need to be every person we'd ever met, every distant relative, or a day about spreading our "success" to the world. I hope all who came, came because they wanted to join in the fun, not simply because the received an invitation and thought it their duty to attend.

Not waiting for perfection.

      This one I can't stress enough. To any unmarried out there, you may have dreamed up the perfect wedding but I caution you now; waiting until you can have exactly that, won't be worth it. When you know you have met the person you need beside you for the rest of your life; don't wait. Start spending the rest of your life together. Plan a simple wedding, one that you (your families?) can afford, scrap all your extravagant ideas and make a list of what is truly important. For me: 1. Starting life with Wesley. 2. Giving God the glory for being the author of our story. 3. Family. 4. Real flowers. That is all I had on my list, sure I had ideas and pictures of what I wanted in mind but once the ball is rolling and you have a date set, venue reserved, and your wedding parties picked out the rest falls into place. At least mine did.

Its just not worth waiting until he's made his fortune or you've made your own name in the world, well, I can't say with absolute certainty having not done either of those ;) But I can tell you that I can not imagine being happier, certainly not if I hadn't spent the last two years by Wesley's side, or added Jerusha to our family's lives, or even the love and joy in the life of the baby on his/her way. <3

[Whoops. Got a little carried away preaching the virtues of marriage :P]

My dress.

     I bought it for $20 at a garage sale before I was even engaged and altered it to be what I wanted. Sometimes I feel like I missed out, having not gotten to go dress shopping, but in the end my dress is as special to me for the price I paid, work I put into it, and that is enough. I may not have gotten the same experiences as most but mine was special and maybe someday I'll get to go with sisters and girl-friends and watch them "say yes to the dress".

My earrings. 

     I wanted the perfect earrings to go with my dress and never found any. However mommy told me she had ordered some she hoped I would like and they arrived just in time for me to wear. They were perfect, exactly what I'd envisioned. I still keep them on their original packaging and break them out for special occasions; I will be wearing them tonight on our anniversary date.

Daddy giving me away.

    We haven't always had the clearest of relationships so it means the world to me that Daddy found someone he was willing pass me on to. We didn't talk much about "giving me away" but we didn't need to. I know and love my daddy and I should hope it wasn't too hard on him to pass the responsibilities of caring for me on to Wesley. It was honestly probably a relief to him, I'm not all that easy to care for ;) It wasn't a huge emotional ordeal and for that I am thankful. Daddy loved me and he still does, and he rejoiced in God's plan as he gave my hand to Wesley. To summarize; I am thankful that it wasn't a huge deal, that it was simple, daddy giving me to Wesley. The simplicity and peace of it is what I remember and love.

Our Families.

     Our parents and all of our siblings were able to be there. (Some barely, due to the flu.) We were missing some grandparents and in-laws but our best friends, the siblings who "chaperoned" us on dates, the sisters who listened to endless praise of Wesley, the one's who picked up our slack as we texted, talked, and dated, the one's who gave us advice, the one's who we know will be with us throughout the rest of our lives to pick on us, cheer for us, and make memories with us; they were present and they were the most important ones to share the day with. Followed up closely by the friends who are like family and who helped so much with our wedding and praise God with us as He continues to bless.

The flowers.

     We ordered bulk flowers from SAM's club. We ordered what came in the colors we chose for our wedding, we ordered what was in season, and we arranged them ourselves. They were perfect. 

The food.

     We didn't serve especially exciting food but we had plenty for all of our guests and I thought it was pretty yummy. I wanted it to be lunch, preferably sub style sandwiches and salads and that is exactly what we had. We ordered the subs and chicken salad croissants from Wesley's Casey's. Some people may have found that somewhat lame but I thought it was special since Wesley actually went in and helped make them and Casey's is a pretty important part of our life; I don't mind claiming them. Note: We didn't serve them in Casey's paper wrapping. If you didn't know they were from a gas station you, well, would never have known.

The pictures.

     I love the job our photographers did. They were new to doing weddings so very budget friendly but the moments they captured and images they created will forever offer me a glimpse back at that wonderful day.

My bridesmaids.

     I chose only to have three, my best-friend-sister, and two very close friends. They did a lovely job leading up to the wedding with a bridal shower and wedding preparation, and the night we spent together leading into the big day filled with stories, laughter, and prayer is cherished. 

I suppose that is it. The things that stand out to me as most important on my wedding day.

As I reread this I realize I didn't dwell much on the emotions of the day. I have stopped and pondered and tried to remember but from my perspective, it wasn't especially emotional. Or maybe I didn't see past my own to notice emotions of those around me? I was marrying my best friend. I was thrilled, ecstatic, over-joyed. There was not so much as a prick of sorrow at being given away, or leaving forever, or anything of the sort. I was given away, I did leave my family's home forever, but for what? To join someone else and have our own home and family. It's addition, it's multiplication. Never did it feel like subtraction or division. A new step was taken, a new family created, and I at least, and I believe my family as well, found nothing but joy in that. Two family's joined and another was created.

I'll leave you now with the vow I made and a few pictures of our wedding day.

Before God and these witnesses

I take you - Wesley

to be my best friend,

my faithful husband,

and my God given love.

I promise to encourage you

and to inspire you.

To love you truly 

through good times and bad.

To submit myself to you

and follow as God leads

I will forever be here to laugh with you,

to lift you up when you're down,

and to love you unconditionally

through all of our adventures in life together,

as long as we both shall live.

  

And I know I've thanked you before, but again, Thank You to everyone who helped make our wedding day perfect, from Mr. & Mrs. Smith who raised the perfect man for me to the guests who came to take part in our day; you friends who worked hard to set up and tear down, you family who put up with the chaos of a wedding: Thank You All. <3

1st Birthday Party

For Jerusha's first birthday I wanted to keep it low key and small; I didn't want anyone to feel obligated to come because, well, lets be honest, it's just a first birthday, the celebrated party isn't really going to appreciate or remember it.
It was also important to me that we celebrate on her actual birthday which landed on a Tuesday so that was somewhat limiting on family members schedules and availability; another reason to keep it low key.
          We invited only our local family which if you've read the  'Our Family' page of this blog you'll know is quite a few. In a family as large as ours this party, consisting of only 34 people, was a "small" gathering.
I knew my duty as host of an event so I took it to heart and planned ahead. We chose to have her party at 5:30 so I knew it needed to include dinner. We went with a salad bar because it is a fairly inexpensive option for the group size we were having and because the prep could be done at my own slow pregnant pace.
          On Monday I baked cakes for the party. One 9" stack cake, Jerusha's little cake, and 12 cup cakes. My mother stopped by and we agreed that I was probably going to be short on cake so she made an additional 24 cupcakes that night.
          Tuesday I decorated. I went with an elephant theme as Jerusha's toy collection had acquired several stuffed versions over the year and her very first favorite toy was a stuffed Dumbo who we call "Ella The Ellaphant' because I always thought Dumbo to be a really weird creepy kids movie and I'd rather not have her toy associated with it. ;P
I didn't go very far with the theme, I just made two streamers of stenciled elephants cut out of paint chips and used Jerusha's elephants on the food table.
When Wesley got home from work we began preparing the food. As toppings for our salad we had croutons, crackers, feta cheese, shredded cheddar, black olives, green olives, broccoli, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, bell peppers, avocados, boiled eggs, freshly fried bacon bits, and broiled marinaded chicken. My mother marinaded, broiled, and sliced the chicken for me. Huge thank you, mommy.
We had ranch, french, raspberry vinaigrette, and three cheese vinaigrette as dressing options.
Guests arrived and everything went smoothly. We ate, we presented Jerusha with her cake and like most one year old's she was pretty uninterested and overwhelmed by the audience, we ate cake, visited, and watched her open presents.

I think we managed to pull off a nice little party. :)

The Spread

The only picture you can see the streamer of elephants in

The Cakes:
Jerusha's 

The Chocolate Cake with Mint Chip Filling
&

Chocolate Cupcakes frosted with Mint Chip Frosting and Purple Chocolate Frosting.

A picture my mom took of our little family <3

We tried putting Jerusha in the high chair with her cake but with all the attention and pressure she was overwhelmed. Moving her to her daddy's lap helped a little but she still didn't understand why everyone was watching her.

 

After everyone had gone home I gave Jerusha her cake again and without the crowd she seemed to enjoy it :)

Jerusha playing with the box from her uncles, aunts, and cousins gift to her :)

Jerusha Ann Smith: One Year

Tuesday, March 15th our baby girl turned 1. It was a fun and exciting day. We had a "small" party for Jerusha, inviting only our local family, an event that I hope to capture in my next post.

When Wesley and I married I couldn't wait to share our love with a family of our own. I didn't have long to wait (although at the time I felt like I did) and within three months of marriage God blessed  us with the pregnancy of our first baby.
Jerusha has been such a blessing from the days of her easy infancy to her toddling chatter filled days of recent. She is a constant ray of sunshine in my life; something that I, a person prone to selfishness, depression, and the like, needed. One of my sister-in-law's has summed it up right-on in saying "Jerusha is exactly what God knew you needed." 

In Jerusha's first year of life she fell out of a chair twice, her high chair once, and never out of a bed so she has had minimal damage. 
For her first 5 or 6 months she grew so fast it seemed every time I turned around I was packing up outgrown clothes and unpacking new ones. She plateaued around 6 months though and now just maintains her weight. I think she's showing her Smith genes as she seems pretty tall. 
We've been working on weaning as I'd like to not tandem nurse and every morning and most nights she nurses but through the day time she eats her own plates of lunch and dinner, snacks, and bottles of milk. 
Jerusha was well traveled in her first year of life going to Alabama within her first week of life, Ohio, New York, and St.Louis by 4 months old, Holden Beach NC in month 6, again to Ohio this past  fall, and a few small trips to local state parks. 
Throughout my pregnancy with her and her first year I faithfully kept a journal, writing her letters and updates on her milestones and adventures. It has been so much fun to watch her develop from the helpless infant into the very independent let-me-try-myself stage she has reached now. 
Wesley and I are trying to find the right balance of punishment for disobedience while still letting her learn from making her own mistakes, the thing I have the hardest discerning are the matters of attitude; how does one know for sure when a one year old is just being plain old rebellious or if they're simply curious?! 

Here are the monthly pictures for Jerusha Ann Smith's first year of life. (I had hoped to put them in a nice little collage but can't seem to figure it out.)

Absence

There is no good excuse or reason for my absence. Over all it can be summed up by my being too lazy to plug in and wait for my computer to be charged enough to turn it on. Now I've finally done that and my computer has alerted me to the fact that the battery is fried and in need of replacing; or I can just park myself by an outlet which is easy enough, problem solved.
It's been a little over a month since I last posted so instead of one giant 'This Is What Happened For The Last Month' post I will try to make a quick series of shorter catching up posts. You're welcome.
The posts will hopefully cover;
Front Porch Rehabilitation Project
My Baby's First Year of Life & 1st Birthday Party
Beach Vacation
A Foodie Post

Unfortunately all of those posts require my uploading pictures from off my phone which often proves to be a challenge for untech-y me. I have no room to ask this but; patience, please.

I will be back with a true post soon, maybe even before the day is up!
~Haley

{Foodie Post No.3} Hot and Spicy Pickled Eggs

One of my Monday projects was to start a batch of pickled eggs and I am happy to report that it was checked off my to-do list by noon!

This is my mother-in-law's recipe and it is the only way I have found that I truly enjoy boiled eggs. Egg salad is tolerable, deviled eggs must be named based on their near-kin the devil himself, and boiled eggs themselves are only edible with unreasonable amounts of salt and pepper or chopped up on a cob salad. These pickled eggs however I find to be quite yummy. And please, don't write them off as nasty if the only other pickled eggs you've had are the purplish pink dirt flavored beet variety. These are completely different. Give them a chance! And give them to me if you made them and weren't satisfied ;)

Hot and Spicy Pickled Eggs

brine ingredients 

boiled and peeled eggs (I forgot to poke them with a fork so after taking this picture I dumped them out and poked then re packed!

boiled brine

the final product, ready for two weeks in the 'fridge

Let me know if you give this recipe a try and what you thought of them if you do! :)

Enjoy! ~Haley

Hot and Spicy Pickled Eggs

About 12 hard-cooked boiled eggs(to fill a quart jar), peeled

2 tablespoons pickling salt (I used regular sea salt)

6 fresh or pickled green hot peppers, such as a serrano, slit lengthwise (I used pickled, sliced jalapeno's, because that's what I had!)

1 1/2 cups cider vinegar

1/2 water

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

1 tablespoon whole black mustard seeds (I used regular yellow mustard seeds because, again, that's what I had)

1 tablespoon crushed black pepper

2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped

1. With a fork, pierce each egg through six times into the yolk. Put eggs into a quart jar. In a nonreactive saucepan, combine remaining ingredients. Bring them to a boil, reduce the heat, and cover the pan. Simmer the contents for 15 minutes. Let the liquid cool.

2. Pour the spiced vinegar over the eggs. Cap the jar and refrigerate the jar for at least a week to allow the eggs to absorb the flavorings.

3. Refrigerated, the eggs will keep for several weeks.

I boiled 18 eggs and 1 and a halved this recipe; in the end I think one recipe's worth of brine would have been enough as I had a cup left over. Probably all depends on how packed the eggs are and what size jar you use.

Rise and Shine

Mornings. I used to love mornings. I was in every possible way a morning person. I have so many memories of starting my day throughout my twenty-one years of life.

I was a morning person even before I do remember. From my toddler years when my mother would wake up to my pajama clad self whispering "Mommy can I have opieloap (oatmeal) for breakfast?" to elementary grade home-schooler me who would set my alarm for 4:30 and hover in the bathroom under a nightlight with my school books spread before me. The goal was to be finished with school and downstairs sitting in front of our dining room picture window in time to watch the sun rise. The rest of the day would then be free to enjoy. 
I have fond memories of joining daddy in the garage at six-thirty every weekday morning where we would stretch, lift weights, norditract, and jump rope. 
There was a time when I was focused on extreme responsibility and before anyone else awoke I could be found in the kitchen washing dishes from the night before, fixing breakfast for my siblings, and then cleaning the kitchen again. 
That morphed into a season when I slacked off on the responsibility side of things and simply spent an hour every morning reading, writing, and in prayer with my cup of tea or coffee within reach. 
In more recent years I would get up and join mommy in listening to Greg Laurie as she fixed breakfast burritos for Daniel before she left to take him to work. I would eat the left overs, finish listening, then set out breakfast for my siblings before waking them up.

Mornings, oh how I loved mornings.
And then,

Marriage.

Marriage killed my mornings. 
Somehow, on that glorious day of April 5th, as Wesley and I exchanged our vows and entered a lifetime commitment to and with one another, after nineteen years of morning love, every thing changed. The very first morning I woke up in our new home, our honey-moon over, I had no desire to start my day. 

I think it comes from being a lone-creature-of-habit. Sure, my morning routine's had changed over the years as life changed around me but marriage threw an entirely foreign change in; another person. My family had been worked into my routines slowly over the years and out of practicality but living twenty-four seven with a person, sharing my mornings, had never been a part of the picture. 

I love Wesley. I would love to love sharing my mornings with him. But, so far in our close to two years of marriage I have not found a way to do so. 
In the beginning I would get up and pack his lunch and fix him breakfast but it was never my routine. I was fixing his breakfast and packing his lunch. 
I was up for him.
The start of my morning wasn't mine. 

Time went by and I was sick with pregnancy and I quit getting up all together. Months went by and I went back to trying. An alarm would go off, I'd get out of bed and again try packing his lunch. After he left I would try staying up and drinking a cup of tea, reading, and eventually I would fall back asleep in an early morning nap. So I quit getting up with him again; why get up and "start my day" when I fall back asleep mid morning?

As time goes by I miss my mornings more and more. So again, I'm going to try. This time around though I am going to once again try and make my mornings mine. When Wesley's alarm goes off I will try to get up and spend some time alone. While he is getting ready for work I will drink some tea, maybe write in my journal, and wake up. Then I hope together we can fix his lunch, have breakfast, and read our Bible's. Once he has left for work hopefully I will be able to stay awake and start in on projects, perhaps get some time in on the never ending braided rug. 


Wesley spent a week out of town for work recently and that week I was able to start my mornings early and end my days each night feeling successful. That was one of the hardest parts of having him gone; realizing my mornings worked better with out him. 
So I plan to change that. Whether he is in town working here at his store, or away, I am going to love mornings again.

Chocolates and Roses

Valentines Day. It is the epitome of 'Hallmark Holiday's', millions are made by convincing people that expensive chocolates, roses, cards and nearly anything market-able in reds and blacks are what love means.
Growing up I never paid any attention to the day, my parents never did anything elaborate, February 14th really wasn't a day on my radar as something special; February 15th? Now that is a different story... the day those expensive chocolates went on sale was a day worth celebrating ;)

Things have changed just a bit in the past few years though. I now find that I have fallen prey to the marketing schemes set before me. Walking through walmart as soon as the Christmas decorations were packed away replaced by giant red hearts and all manner of valentiney-ness. It's a marketable day, who doesn't adore the idea of celebrating love and all of its glory? It gets us all.

I don't put a whole lot of stock into the day, I know it's just a money making fest, but I can't help but join in the celebration of showing my people I love them. Wesley is a man with a great big generous heart and much as I insist not to worry about going out of his way or spending too much on me it didn't surprise me a bit when he presented me with a pound of Fannie May chocolates. Then when he notified me that two dozen long stem roses had been delivered to the door while we were shopping I grinned and shook my head; of course he wouldn't let a pound of chocolate be the only way he showed me our love is worth celebrating on this valentines weekend. In the end not only were chocolate and roses bestowed upon me but trips to two different Goodwills in two days, grocery shopping together, trying out a new wine, cooking two dinners together, cleaning the kitchen together, breakfast out Sunday before church, picking out chocolates to pass out to our sisters, and just spending the whole weekend by one another's side with Jerusha in one of our arms or close by. Wesley also stopped at the very busy local Starbucks after church in order to secure a 'Molten Lava Mocha-something-or-other' for me. I had seen it advertised and the last day to get one was the fourteenth.. and I'm pregnant guys, I needed that chocolatey whipped cream on top of chocolatey coffee. It did not disappoint. Possibly the best thing I've ever had from Starbucks. It is probably a good thing it was only a two week special..
Wesley was the recipient of a "movie night" box containing popping corn, peanut M&M's, Hot Tamale's, Junior Mints, and glass bottled coke which we enjoyed together while watching season two of the Office. It was an evening full of memories such as a $1 box of theater style microwavable popcorn that burned in the middle while still popping the edges followed up by my popping popped corn the good old fashioned way; in a whirly pop.

Well, I had more thoughts to share (I thought) but Wesley got home from work and I need to go ready myself for a group date we're going on with his parents and all the local married siblings.

(Posted a day later than planned)

My roses and chocolates

after math of 'movie night'... popcorn and M&M's are long gone..

We got Jerusha this adorably cuddly giant elephant and Saturday morning Wesley got her this wiry plush rose :)

Blurry but too cute not to share.