Guest Room Essentials

I thought this post was appropriate with thanksgiving right around the corner, can you believe that its next week?

We don't have guests stay at our house all that often since we live so close to our families. But when we do have guests I like to make sure they feel comfortable. Have you ever been to someone’s house and you really need something to drink in the middle of the night but don’t want to go out and get something just in case the hosts might either still be awake or you might wake them up? Maybe that’s just me but I try and put items in our guest room when we have guests that I would like if I’m staying at someone’s house. Here is a list of things I like to do.

In their room:

Something to drink

Ibuprofen
Granola bars
Extra blankets

 

In the bathroom:

Lay their towels out

Stock up the shower with everything they might needwneed
Place extra toilet paper where they can find it

Just a few things but maybe if we make them feel comfortable they will want to come back and stay with us.

 

 Also, I will not be posting anything new posts next week. The blog is going under a little construction; I can’t wait to show it all to you!

 

Wedding Wednesday

 If you are planning on having a kid friendly wedding here are a few ideas to keep them entertained throughout the evening. Supply then with something to do. We did coloring books. (You can download a copy here). Another option is to have games, bing bag toss, ring toss, etc. outdoor games that kids and adults can play are always a great option. You can also do bubbles, a camera, playdoo, the options are endles. Another thing we did was have juice there at the kids table instead of just water and tea.

Are you planning on having an adult only wedding or are you planning on having kids at your wedding?

Car Emergency Kits

Here in Oklahoma we get bad snow storms every few years. And since we haven't had a bad one in a while I just know we are bound to get one soon.

My husband and I commute to work so its important that we have a car emergency kit just an case we get stuck in a blizzard.

I've been researching car emergency kits and put a list together that works best for us. So this past weekend I went out and put our kits together. Thank goodness I did because we got our first round of snow on Sunday. Starting early this year and looking like its going to be a long winter.

 

Here is what is in our kits(a few of them are not shown in the picture above):

Flashlight - batteries

Water

Blanket

Hot ones

First Aid Kit

Jumper cables

Peanuts - Food

Chapstick

Advil

Gloves

Kleenex

Kitty Litter

Small Shovel

Windshield scraper

Phone numbers

Phone Charger

Whistle

If you have children, here are some ideas to include:

 

Formula

Baby food

Diapers

Baby wipes

Baby blanket

Extra clothes

Date Ideas

During our premarital counseling session she mentioned date ideas for us to try as a way to communicate both of our love languages. Although the therapist didn't work out for us, I loved this idea. Chad and I both wrote down 5 date ideas and then put them in a jar, some of them take a little more planning then others. On an ideal month we will pick one out and do it for the month, whatever that may be. There were months were we got pretty relaxed and didn't do any of the date ideas but we are back in full swing. What do you and your love one do for date nights?

Also, for the wedding I had a station set up for people to write their marriage advice, and date ideas as well. We got some pretty interesting ones but love what others came up with. What are your most memorable dates?

Date your Spouse

As I mentioned yesterday, we have only been married for 8 months but I have learned a few things in this short amount of time. I have always been interested in the topic of love and marriage. Especially recently since our church is going through a new series called Love Song and our pastor has even written a book about marriage called; “From this day Forward” You can pick a copy up here.

Here are a few things I have learned about marriage

1.       Do things your spouse wants to do even if you don’t. I’m not a big “going to the movies” kind of person. In fact we have Netflix just so we don’t have to go watch it on the big screen. But my husband loves to go to the movies, so sometimes I have to suck up my pride and do it for him.

2.       Pick your battles. If you just fought about him coming home too late 5 minutes ago, it’s probably not a good time to bring up the “You never do the dishes” fight.

3.       Never say Never. Chad hates it when I say the word “Never” during a fight, sometimes it just comes out and then I realize too late. If you read the our pastor’s book he talks about fighting fair which also means do not do things just to start a fight, don’t say the word Never.

4.       Sometimes you just need to lay on the couch with your significant other. The to-do’s lists can wait. Spend time just watching tv or cuddling with your spouse.

5.       Be open about going to counseling. Chad and I went to our pre-marital counseling through a therapist and although the therapist wasn’t for us we did decide to go back for check-ups. We have gone for a 6 month checkup and we will go again for a year checkup. There isn’t any trouble in paradise for us but we believe that it’s good to discuss things before there is a major problem. Fail-proofing our marriage is what I like to call it.

6.       Forgive and Forget. This is probably my biggest struggle, I can forgive but I don’t forget very easily. When it comes to marriage it’s important to not bring up past arguments during current arguments just to make yourself look good and the other person bad. Now if you have argued about the dishes before and they still aren’t being done, I think it’s ok to bring it up again. Chad always disagrees with me on this one.  (Yes I have mentioned dishes twice now. Can you figure out what the biggest argument is?). And by the way, if the dishes are your biggest argument you’re doing alright.

7.       Praise each other in public. We will be at a friend’s house and I might be having a disagreement with one of our friends. I may be completely wrong but Chad will back me up 100%. He might tell me in the car that I was completely wrong but in front of people he always has my back

8.       Learn each other’s love language. I am a huge fan of the 5 love languages, just ask my husband. He gets sick of me talking about it or referencing it during arguments. I honestly think the man who wrote the book is a complete genius. My husband’s love language is Physical Touch and Words of Affirmation. Physical Touch is easy it’s the Words of Affirmation that I’m not too good with but I’m working on it.

Dating your Spouse

Like I mentioned yesterday I am currently traveling for work so my husband is holding the fort down at home while I am away. Now we have only been married for almost 8 months so I’m by no means the expert in relationships but here are a few things I like to do when I’m away from my honey bun!

I try and make him dinner and breakfast for the days I’ll be away. Rather that is freezer meals or a casserole, depending on how long I’ll be gone, it’s a great way to have them think of you while eating their dinner. Now we are talking about men here so make sure you leave heating instructions for themJ. My husband isn’t a big dessert man but another option is to make a dessert for your loved ones as well. Now some people might argue that this is how they become spoiled but I secretly like it.

One other special thing I do for my man when I’m away is write love notes and stick them in places he will find in the days ahead, like on his pillow and in his shoes. I mean what is more romantic than love notes?

Weekend Recap

What a weekend this has been. Last week I found out that I would be traveling for work and leaving on Sunday. I was already stressing out knowing we were going go Ponca City for a wedding on Saturday and then coming straight back home and having to travel to Houston the next day.

Needless to say the wedding was absolutely beautiful. It was at the Marland mansion there in Ponca City so Chad and I made the most of the day Saturday and went there early so we could tour the mansion and also go eat at the all time famous BBQ joint located right there in Ponca City, Head County. I got my "go to" BBQ meal of a smoked bologna sandwich and holy goodness this was the best bologna I had ever had, it just melted in your mouth, so heavenly.

The Marland mansion was actually on Chad and I's date ideas for the year so we were able to cross that one off the list.

Sunday we woke up and drove back. I was able to make Chad a casserole for the days I would be gone and also make him breakfast for the week before I had to leave. It is always so hard to leave my little family, I guess that's the homebody in me. Positive side though is that I'll be able to hopefully catch up on blog posts.

 

Wedding Wednesday

We had a very non-traditional wedding including the unity ceremony. We knew we didn’t want something that we would just put it a box and then in the attic it went. So we went to the internet to find just what we were looking for. Our theme to our wedding was tying the knot and what is a more perfect way to tie it all together than to literally tie the knot!

We purchased the rope from Home Depot and then researched how to tie a fisherman’s knot. We practiced once and then honestly forgot about it until the night of rehearsal. I was a nervous wreck about tying it; I was worried that I would have forgotten if I was supposed to thread my piece instead or outside his.

During the ceremony our minister exampled the meaning behind the knot while we were tying it together and just like the fisherman’s knot, pressure of outside influences only make the knot stronger. And without a hitch we tied it perfectly

Now our knot is hanging in our living room in a shadow box instead of in a cardboard box in the attic, I absolutely love it!

Here are other unique ideas for your unity ceremony:

Potted Plant, add dirt from each of our parents homes to the top.

Unity Cross, the outer cross represents man, the inner represents woman and the three pegs represent Father, Son, and Holy Ghost

Love notes to each other to open when times get rough to remind each other the reasons why you feel in love with the other or on your 10^th wedding anniversary. (I love this idea but if you are anything like me, impatient, you would be opening the box the day after you get back from your honeymoon)

What did you do? Or What do you plan on doing?

Weekend Recap

This weekend was all about recovery. I really started to feel good on Thursday night so soaked up every minute of it and carved our pumpkins! On Friday we ran a few errands and then we waited to the trick-or-treaters to come around……. Needless to say we didn’t have any in our neighborhood so we were NOT going to waste these fabulous costumes and handed to our friend’s house were the kids were swarming in, it was CRAZY!!! Chad and I got so excited we kind of took over the handing out candy duty.

 

Later that night I started to not feel very good again, thinking I over did it, so we called it a night and went home. The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing. My mom ended up coming on Sunday to try and make me feel better and to clean/cook a little. What would we do without our mommy’s? So after a few tears were shed from the “I’m sick of being sick” we headed to bed to start another work week.