Happy Birthday Hubby!!

I'm about two weeks late on this post...oops...but we had a lot of fun on Bradley's birthday this year. I had the hardest time figuring out what I was going to get him and he didn't help me out at all. The only thing he told me he wanted was a new golf club...so that's what he got. Since I usually go all out every birthday and Christmas, I felt bad that I only got him one gift. I had to get creative to make his birthday fun and exciting. So....when he got home from work I had a Nerf gun sitting out on the coffee table and a little note giving him the directions of the game. I hid behind the chair with my Nerf gun and attacked as soon as he picked up his gun....we battled for about 30 minutes and at the end of it we both had whelps and was out of breath, but it was so much fun!! 

He had been begging me for weeks to make a homemade pizza so we did that too! It was not my favorite but he loved it so much he made another one the next night. Haha. We then went out to the driving range so he could test his new golf club out, another thing he had been begging me to do with him. That weekend we drove to Memphis to go to the Nike outlet store that we had been wanting to go back to for a few years now. We got some pretty good deals and he found some really cute golf shirts. Can you tell he is really in to golfing right now??? 

On the way back home I had made up a His/Her question list because we tend to have very quiet car rides. The questions were fun little facts and future expectations. I love talking about the future with my new hubby, but hate when I have to come back down to reality. I can't wait to be where we want to be financially, have our dream jobs (he has accomplished this one and hopefully I will too very soon), own our dream house, have little ones running around, and just growing old together. I am lucky to have found my soul mate and I love him so so so much!! 

I accidentally deleted the individual pictures of his birthday fun but kept the Instagram collage of it. 

I Wanna Grow Old With You

I am writing this blog today with many different thoughts and emotions running through me. For some reason this school year has already gotten me so bitter and unmotivated. Seriously, I get in such a bad mood when I have to get up and go to class or do homework. I don't know if it's the fact that I love being married and all I want to do is stay at home with my husband or what, but I'm struggling with a lot of different things. I find motivation to read my Bible and study God's word but when Sunday rolls around it's hard for me to get up and "want" to go. Thankfully, I have a wonderful man that does his duty and holds me accountable for things like that. One of the only things that I have at least some motivation for is my off-site practicum. I am currently at St. Vincent's Rehabilitation Hospital and it has opened my eyes to a whole new world of Speech-Pathology. Before this off-site began I was not very excited about having to work with adult patients, but we have been in it almost 3 weeks now and I have grown to love it. 

One thing I love about it is getting to see patients that have been married 50+ years and how much love they still have for one another. The other day, there was a patient in the office working on his cognition. He barely spoke or participated in therapy. His wife walked up to the glass window and his face lit up. He was so happy. The therapist asked him "Who's that?" and the man replied "My wife, my sweetheart." In that moment while I was in the middle of a session myself, tears swelled in my eyes. There is something about seasoned love that gets me every time. On another occasion, we were working with man who had status/post stroke leaving him with left side facial weakness. One of his main goals for therapy was to be able to kiss his wife again. With his facial weakness it was hard for him to adequately pucker his lips to achieve a meaningful kiss. As I worked with this patient, I kept thinking, how would I feel if I couldn't kiss Bradley the way I wanted to or I couldn't remember that he was my husband?? I worked extra hard as his therapist, even though I am still a student to help him achieve his goal. On his day of discharge, right before he left, he wanted to show his wife how good he could kiss her. Right before they headed out the door he grabbed her head and planted one of the biggest kisses EVER on her. As she cried with tears of joy, so did I. 

I have thought about that experience everyday and every time I kiss my husband. This placement has strengthened my love and dedication to Bradley in three short weeks. When I think about our future I get so excited to grow old with the man that I love so much. We tend to always think about the positive things, but what happens when something goes wrong? Will you still love that person unconditionally? Will you stand by their side even if they are not the "same" person anymore? All these questions run through my mind daily and I have learned how to cherish and love Bradley more than I ever have before. 

He's my best friend, my soul mate.

Looking into the Future

I haven't blogged in a couple weeks due to my last year of grad school starting. We are entering our third week and it is already hectic. Off-site has started and I <3 my placement. We got some good news since the last time I blogged....Bradley got a job!!! Yayyyyy!!! He tried his best to hold off for the perfect job throughout the summer and he finally got the one that he had been praying for. I am so proud of him even though I was starting to stress about us being married, he was still without a job, and I'm still in school. God answered our prayers at the right time. He starts September 9th. :) We have been working hard to finish up our decorations for our little apartment, but we still have a few more things to finish before I post any pictures.
Married life has been wonderful so far. I love every part of it. Especially when we talk about our future. :) We spent our entire weekend scoping out houses for sale in the Conway area...y'all have no idea how excited this makes me. I absolutely cannot wait to buy our own house and no longer live in tiny apartments. I guess you can say I have been a tad bit obsessed since we have been looking and my "Our Future Home" board on Pinterest has been very active. We both have a few ideas of what we want and even if we can't find exactly that, we will remodel. I have a few pictures of our ideas so far that I will post below. Bradley's birthday is next week and I am having the hardest time finding gifts for him. Ugh, this never happens. I promise to blog more when exciting things start to happen in our lives.

We love the colors of the exterior of this house.

I love the columns on the front porch.

Coolest door EVER!

My complete dream kitchen! The white cabinets and marble are gorgeous.

Of course we have to have a fireplace for Christmas time. :)

Bradley wants a huge backyard that he can play with the future kids in :)