Bridal Shower Bliss

Hey y'all! Hope you had a fabulous weekend! I've had a super busy few days and I'm just getting back into my normal week routine.  The wedding is creeping closer and closer and panic has set in.  My every waking moment has been me obsessing over wedding thoughts in my head... mostly "crap I haven't called her back or sent that form" or "I can't respond to this person until I talk to vendors A, B & C" or "who the heck does this or that on the wedding day?" ...it's exhausting planning your own wedding sometimes.

But then there are milestone moments in the process that are so fun that it snaps you out of your planning funk and renews your excitement!  This past weekend was huge for me when I celebrated with my bridal shower!

Chris and I have been together for a total of over five years... four of which were spent long distance.  So most people haven't been all that surprised when we said our parents hadn't met yet.  BUT, we can now check that off the list!  I was blessed to have my future in-laws come into town for my wedding shower!  Our parents were so excited to meet and it went really well (I knew that it would!).  It was something that made my bridal shower day just that more special.

The bridal shower was beautiful and I really enjoyed myself.  There's something about your girlfriends asking a million and one questions about how you're doing your hair and what accessories you're wearing and if you're nervous and where you want pictures... it's WAY different than your vendors asking you these questions!  Vendors= me wanting to punch someone in the face... nothing personal lol... you're just stressing me out!  But when it's your girls, it's fun and overwhelming in a good "I'm so in love" way!! And that's exactly how I felt... excited!  That excitement can be stolen very easily in this process, and I feel so blessed to have great bridesmaids and girlfriends and current family and future family that have made me feel so loved!

I don't want to post too many photos from the shower, since I have professional photos from my photographer on the way... but here's a few pics and a couple of my favorite details from my bridal shower!  Thank you again to everyone that helped plan and make my day special!
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Bridal Shower Invitations

Necklace (similar)

Perfume

Lipstick

In love with Valentine's Day

I'm in LOVE with Valentine's Day!! Whether you're headed out on a special date or planning to stay in with girlfriends, here's some super cute items I'm obsessing over!
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In love with Valentine's Day by texassass featuring red home decor

Happy Memorial Day

This is my man, my hero, my best friend, my soul mate. My marine ❤ Chris, you are the best man I know and I can't believe how lucky I am to get to be your girl :-) You're brave and selfless and I'm so proud of you! Thank you, for everything, not just as a girlfriend, but as an American. You've taught me so much and touched my life more than I ever thought possible. You are amazing!! And I love you more and more each day!

And thank you to every single veteran, and every single person still out there somewhere fighting the good fight for our country! Freedom isn't free! It takes a whole lot of brave men and women just like Chris, and they deserve to have everyone (not just their head-over-heels-in-love girlfriends) recognize and thank them :-)

Semper Fi! God Bless America ❤

Missing him

I'm not real sure what to do with myself right now... thought writing might make me feel a little better, kinda like I'm getting it out instead of holding in. I miss Chris so much right now, it's ridiculous. I decided to get more comfy for evening tv, bc I'm not feeling that well... so I moved from the Living Room couch to my bed. Well, in my bed I have one of Chris' shirts to sleep with, bc it smells like him & it can just be really comforting sometimes... not tonight. As soon as I picked his shirt up to give it a hug, I burst into tears! Granted I don't feel well & I'm probably just being a baby right now... but for real, long distance is so hard sometimes. Chris and I have been together 3 & 1/2 years... not a single second of that have we lived in the same city. Things that other people take for granted, I long for... a hug, a kiss on the cheek, a note left on the counter, running stupid errands together, eating dinner together and talking about your day...
And when you don't have your loved one around, you depend on friends, right? Yeah well, I can't even remember the last time someone said to me, "Hey Cassie, that whole long distance thing, how's that going? How are you handling it? Are you doing ok?" And it's not that I think people don't care, it's just not what comes to mind I guess. I get questioned probably once a week when I will "finally" get married (seriously y'all, we're still young... I'm not the odd one for not getting married at 25, sheesh). But never the question about how I'm holding up... it would just be nice for someone to question how my present is going, not my future that hasn't happened yet.
The distance is worth it, I love Chris more than anything & I know God has a plan for us... this is all for some reason, whether I can see it now or not, but sometimes it just really hits me hard. I miss him like crazy right now. Hoping I feel better in the morning... meh :-/

Little things ❤

Sometimes, it's just the little random things that put the biggest smile on your face...

❤ Your pet sleeping soundly and looking so cute that you don't want to move or make noise just so you don't disturb them

❤ Someone holding the elevator door for you

❤ The thing you go to the store for surprising you by being on sale

❤ Your boyfriend calling you before he even gets out of bed in the morning

❤ Checking your mail and getting a new Architectural Digest

❤ Skipping over articles in girl magazines about "where to meet guys" and "how to make him your boyfriend" because you're already head-over-heels in love with the man of your dreams and he loves you just as much

❤ Dressing cute, even if you're just running to the grocery store

❤ Smelling fresh flowers on your kitchen table as you drink your morning coffee

❤ Having a friend tell you they miss you on your facebook wall

...take 10 seconds to say a little thank you prayer for your little things, in that moment, and see how it changes your attitude towards life. Every day is full of thousands of little things that will warm your heart if you just allow yourself to notice them 

The comforts of getting old

I've been thinking a lot about our 10-year high school reunion coming up and how much things have changed since high school. You wouldn't think in a mere 10 years you feel like a completely different person, but I do. And I'm sure most people I know do. The things that were important in high school seem like a joke now. Life has gotten so real, but at the same time, I look back at life then and compare it to now, and I'm so much better now than I ever was. I actually feel excited to go to the reunion, which isn't something I predicted for myself. I didn't like high school that much. Of course I have some great memories of really fun times, but it was a very uncomfortable time for me... I think it's like that for a lot of kids.

I think the reason I'm excited about it is I'm actually comfortable with myself now. Maybe it took me longer than my friends, I don't really care. But at the age of 28, I'm finally feeling like I know myself and I'm starting to see what I want for my life, not what someone else wanted. It takes a strong person to be confident in themselves... I think I had to face a lot of things in my life before I could ever look at myself and see ME.

There are two reasons I'm finally to this point... my boyfriend Chris, and my bold move to take a chance on Mary Kay. When you fall in love, you realize things about yourself you never ever knew. I look back on how my relationship came to be and the fact that Chris and I were in high school together but didn't get together until years later. That's GOD... all GOD. He knew we were two different people in high school than we are today and that's why our relationship didn't develop until we were both older. We weren't ready for each other back then, because we hadn't tested ourselves... we didn't know ourselves. And in our relationship today, we're still finding ourselves. Mary Kay is the way I'm finding myself. Chris is a marine, and let's be honest, can we all think of a way to get to know yourself and test yourself better than going through the Marine Corps and fighting wars..? Not really... that's pretty hardcore "getting to know yourself". It's what Chris needed... and what I needed was Mary Kay.

I think a lot of people think I'm crazy the way I've taken to MK, but I don't really care. It's not just my job, it's my livelihood, it's my purpose every day. I have learned more about myself in Mary Kay training in the past 3 years than in the first 25 years of my life. Because it's scary to bet on yourself when you don't even really know yourself. Scary but not at all impossible. It takes faith and it teaches you faith. My relationship with God is great, and continuing every day to get greater. I have Mary Kay to thank for that. My faith was really being tested before MK, and I think I was failing. There are things in my life that I had to face that no one, even the closest friends of mine, know about. That's true, still to this day. When you're tested, and you take on those tests with God by your side, you come out of them so much better. I can't say I'm thankful for some of the things that have happened, but I can say I'm thankful for the things they're teaching me.... like, high school was a lifetime away, and every single stupid insecurity I had back then is fading away... because I CHOOSE to make them go away, and I CHOOSE to believe in myself more than other people believe in me. I could be focused on a lot of negative feelings about high school, about mean girls and guys, or stupid things that happened or that people did to me, but I CHOOSE to be focused on remembering the fun things and looking at how far we've all come.

10 years is a long time, especially throughout your 20s. A lot can happen... the biggest things that have happened to me are falling in love and beginning to find myself. I don't care if it takes me longer or if everyone else already has everything figured out in their lives. I don't care if it seems like "I'm behind" because I'm not... I'm living the wonderful life my Father in Heaven has given me at the pace he intended. In high school, you focus on being on the same page as everyone else... 10 years later, you focus on standing out and not being one of the crowd. I think deep down, I've never been one of the crowd, I just thought I was supposed to be. But I value myself more than that now, and it's the most freeing feeling. Bring on the reunion because all it means to me is great memories with a few great friends that I don't get to see as often as I'd like, because life at 28 years old is crazy ;-)