The One with the Honeymoon: Part I - The House

After saying hello to everyone at our reception, I was ready to jet. While I loved my friends and family I was ready to start our week-long, sun-fun filled honeymoon in Folly Beach.

Joseph and I had reserved a beautiful beach house right past the Washout on Folly.

Throughout our stay, Joseph and I enjoyed opening the windows to hear the sound of the waves crashing against the shore, drinking coffee on the deck while looking out at the waves and having home cooked dinner out on the deck.

The kitchen was quaint and had everything we needed to cook. The dining room table was made of wood and had the shabby-chic feel that a beach house should have.



The view from the deck and from the living room was incredible. It was such a blessing to be able to wake up every morning and see, smell and hear the ocean.



 The living room was nice and comfortable. We spent a lot of time reading on the couch and even got to watch Chuck (well kind of...the reception was horrible!) on Monday night.



While there, we ended up staying in two different rooms. The first room was just not comfortable, even though it was the prettiest. After the first night we decided to make this our dressing room and we slept in a different room.



It might have been the room that made it difficult to sleep or it could be that I am not used to having to share the bed with someone. Especially someone who may or may not snore. I was worried that I was taking up too much of the bed or that I was moving too much. Needlesstosay, I have gotten over it and now sleep like a baby.

While there were some flaws with the house (luke-warm showers and uneven floors to name a few), overall the house was clean, cozy and served it's purpose well.

Next up: The Food.

Blogspot

So many of the blogs I love to keep up are powered by Blogspot.

I am seriously considering switching over as Blogspot seems to be the "jam".

Anyone have any thoughts on Blogspot? Any thoughts on a seamless transition from one blog to another?

I would hate to lose the posts on this blog...it makes me sad just thinking about it.

Settling In...

While I wait for the professional wedding pictures to come in (and while I wait to get my camera from my parents house so I can post pics of the honeymoon), I wanted to update you guys on life as a married woman.

Realizing that I am no longer an "Edwards" has thrown me for a loop. Half of the day I spend my time saying  and signing "Jessica Edwards" while the other half I remember that I am now "Jessica Ackerman".  I have practiced writing my name on paper just like a teenage, love-sick girl would do on her English notebook during 3rd period.

We have consolidated our possessions, well most of them at least. We have an extensive library that includes many classic literature books, books that are older than our grandparents, books for our childhood and randoms. The back hallway is our "library" with three tall black bookshelves and two small white bookshelves jammed packed with literature.

The kitchen was our first point of contention during our first day of home life. Joseph is used to having roommates, thus the house was put together in his fashion. Two cabinets full of beer glasses? Completely normal for a bachelor. Bur for a married couple? Not so much. It took him a minute to concede that we really did not need two full cabinets full of glassware. I will be honest. I might have pouted a little a lot.

After we got the beer glasses consolidated to two shelves in one cabinet, we were able to place our nice drinking glasses on one shelf in the same cabinet and move the dishes to the other cabinet which used to hold beer glasses.

We then made the top three cabinets our pantry and the bottom three cabinets storage for Tupperware (I still haven't figured out the best way of organizing tupperware...it seems impossible), bakeware and stock pots.

Now that things are organized in the room that we spend most of our time in (except the bedroom...hehe) the rest of the house seems to be falling into place.

Joseph has tackled both bathrooms, sheet-rocking behind the mirror, hanging mirrors, shelves and art, painting the walls and all around redesigning the bathrooms in a way that reflects a married couple instead of a bachelor.

It is encouraging to have a husband who is so great at home improvement. He takes our ideas and turns them into reality. Though we have a long list of things to accomplish, we have a lifetime to accomplish them.

Next up: House training an outside dog, re-grouting the kitchen floor, finishing Joseph's beer cellar, toe-molding the entire house and whatever else comes up!

Wedding Blues

The wedding came and the wedding went. We spent hours with great friends and family. I saw the man of my dreams at the end of the aisle and I steadfastly walked toward him. We said our vows and exchanged rings. Washed each others feet and had a dear friend sing one of our favorite worship songs. We danced (a little), ate good food and wonderful cake. We battled a broken windshield and a mean dragon lady. We honeymooned and laid on the beach. Ate too much bacon and drank good beer.

There were so many great moments and memories with a  little bit of stress along the way but nothing that took away from the glory of the day. It has been almost two weeks since the wedding and I find myself with a case of the wedding blues.

I told myself that I would not come down with the blues but alas, here I am. I can barely look at my favorite wedding blog, weddingbee.com, without having a pang of sadness. I never let on to how much I loved researching wedding related topics. Flowers, cakes, colors, photographers, traditions and creative ways to make the wedding our own.

I enjoyed coming up with fabulous ideas and seeing them, through friends and family, come to be.

Basically, I am sad that our day is over. That I no longer have an excuse to spend ten minutes at the magazine rack flipping through bridal magazines. I no longer have an excuse to spend hours looking for the perfect wedding cake design...because I have already found it and it was executed beautifully. I no longer have an excuse to look at wedding bouquets and centerpieces because I already compiled pages of photo inspiration and my friend and florist made that dream come true (actually...they were beyond my wildest dreams).

But despite the sadness that comes from the loss of a sort of bridal identity, there is joy. I married Joseph. We made wonderful memories with great people. We have household projects galore to accomplish and the adventure of merging two lives.

So while I will be trading in my bridal veil for a more Susie homemaker kerchief, I will fondly remember our wedding day and the happiness that it brought.