Simply Elegant for Simply Savannah!

Wow... my countdown now says 23 days.... I cannot believe how fast time just flew by!
I am so incredibly excited, it really feels like I'm in a dream state most of the time! If Greg and I could miraculously move the wedding date to tomorrow, we seriously would!

Here are some pics from the wedding shower this past Friday! I must say, it was absolutely perfect! Everything was "so me!" haha! I think we agreed on naming the theme "simply elegant" for "simply Savannah" :-)

Isn't this just simply elegant?

This cake was hands down the best cake I have ever tasted!


I LOVE this picture! And my willow tree!!

Tulips are my favorite :-)

My Bride to be and Bridesmaids pins!

Two of the lovely hostesses! (and my soon to be sister-in-laws!)

M for Mercer!

The princess chair :-)

For the bow-bouquet!




haha... look at Allison's chipper face!

Let me send out a HUGE thank you to everyone who came and especially to Susan, Joyce, Allison, and Cristie who put this beautiful shower all together!

Okay! Here is the new post you've all been waiting for!!

I feel if I don't get a new post up here, I will not get any sleep tonight! I didn't realize I had a following on here!

Well this past Sunday I was thrown a wonderful wedding shower by my Aunt Julie, Aunt Gina, and Mrs. Kelli! It was great to see everyone who came and I definitely felt much love! :-)
First of all, the decor and theme was so cute, I don't think I could describe it in words so here are some pictures!

How cute is that cake?!

And I got to take home all the decorations! Needless to say... my kitchen colors are now red and white! Which is good, because I can't make decisions! haha!

My sister, my cousin Whitney, and Mimi!

At the shower there were some fun games planned! One was "guess the recipe" where ingredients were read off and the first one to shout out the recipe title, won the book! My mom was pretty much awesome at this game and Whitney took advantage of sitting close to her.... haha. The next game was designed into three groups. Each group was handed a bag full of flowers and ribbon and the object was to make the best bouquet! I had to be the judge and select one to use for the rehearsal dinner.... it was a hard job that's for sure!

Now, I know someone took pictures of all the festivities so I will update this as soon as I get those in!

On to the presents!

Okay, let me first say that I was absolutely and completely overwhelmed with gifts...

My Aunt Debbie obviously reads my blog! And knows I LOVE teapots!
These are a pair of handmade hand towels! Check out that M! Its almost made me cry!

Very pretty picture frame that read John 1:17 :-)

Double boiler! So you don't burn the chocolate when you try and melt it! haha. Allison....

Mimi gave me my cookware!

The gift from the wonderful hostesses- a beautiful quilted coverlet!

Oh yes... its triple tiered! lol

I wish I had pictures of all the gifts I received (I'm sure they are floating around in someone's camera somewhere) because they were all so wonderful! I'm going to look around for a picture of the gift my cousin Jennifer gave me because it was such a good idea! It was a laundry basket filled with hand towels, cleaning supplies,laundry and dish detergent, and sponges! Those are the things that I'm sure everyone forgets when they get married and move into their first home! So I am very grateful that I now have many things that Greg can clean with......haha!

Speaking of... Greg made his appearance at the end to load all the gifts into the car to bring over to his house. We are so luck that we actually have a place already to store and put away our new things! The bad part is, is that he gets to enjoy them all, and I have to wait 5 more weeks! But I have been over quite a bit in the past 2 days arranging the kitchen (how can I not!) So here are some pics of what it looks like so far! The red and white theme works really well! I LOVE it!

Boxes ready to be unpacked!

This was the first thing I did. I love my little herb garden!! (I am making a note to myself to get a better picture... this one has dirty dishes in it.. That doesn't fly real well by me! haha)

My beautiful new flatware and serveware! Thanks so much Allison and Susan!
How cool is that!!

This is my favorite of the pictures! There's the teapot my Aunt Debbie got me! And the monogramed dish towels that say "Savannah's kitchen" Adorable!Fun gadets! I was able to explain to Greg what a "zester" was!

I don't think those towels will ever be used... they are way too cute the way they are! And there is the fun picture frame with our "proposal night" picture!
Voila!

It is really hard to leave that kitchen and know that I really won't be able to use it for 5 more weeks.... so I guess I will change the countdown at the top of my blog to say "I become Mrs. Mercer and get to use my adorable new kitchen in ______ days!"

Thanks so much to everyone who came and I can't tell you enough how much I appreciate all the gifts to start our new home! I can say that the love and support both Greg and I have from all of you is more than enough on its own!

Well, my next blog will (hopefully) be coming this Saturday! I am so blessed that I have yet another shower!!

My first week of student teaching!

Well... today I finished my first week of student teaching in a middle school...and lived to blog about it! It has been a great, eye-opening, and very educational experience for me so far and I am excited to fill everyone in on my progress!

So every year since I can remember, my mom has insisted on "first day of school" pics. I guess I wasn't exempt this year...
Now, I can't go into TOO much detail, as this is an internet "diary" and as an educator I am held to strict information limitations... so...

My mentor teacher in the class I am in this first session, was actually my teacher from when I attended Labay about 10 years ago! It has been so cool to be back in the classroom, but with an entirely different role!

This class is called Personal and Family Development. It is a course only offered to 8th graders and covers all areas of Home Economics; apparel construction, nutrition, cooking, interior design, childcare and development, resource management, and families and relationships. These kids will be able to receive a high school credit for taking (that is if they pass) this class... which is good because they have raised the graduation requirements to 26 credits now.

So I have been enjoying my time getting to know this age better... which I have decided I will never fully understand! Now I know why these years were my very LEAST favorite! It amazes me what some of these kids are forced to go through in their personal lives when on top of that they are expected to achieve these high expectations in school. Now, discipline is not one of those expectations... no one is exempt from that! I think that teachers in this age level really need to be the most energetic, enthusiastic, encouraging role models you could ask for! I've realized that it is so important to connect with each and EVERY student in the classroom...even if you have to work really hard for a commonality!

And that, is what I have decided is my goal. I will do my best, no matter where and who I teach, to exert as much energy, enthusiasm, encouragement, and passion in each class as I can possibly give! I feel that I have this responsibility, to this age group especially, to provide such a learning environment that they can count on being fun and worth coming to school for. Because sometimes the teacher is the only thing that is a constant in these kid's lives.

Through my last 2 years of observing classrooms and teachers, I have seen a lot of bad teachers, and I am sad to say I have only seen a couple of ones that truly love what they do and have a care for their students. I am very lucky to have one for my mentor teacher! Thank goodness!

So I believe that if you are going to teach, teach with all your heart! If you can't do that, then that is not the profession for you! Besides, haven't we heard all our lives that it is important to "love what you do?"

Well, in conclusion (haha, this sounds like a term paper now) I LOVE teaching, and cannot wait to have a classroom of my own!!!

Have a great weekend everybody!
My next blog will be about some exciting honeymoon plans!!!!!!! :-)

extreme couponing!

I have discovered something big!!!

The art of extreme couponing!!!! Sounds awesome right? haha.

My mom subscribes to what is called the "grocery game" where she gets the information on how to save the most money and get the best deals at grocery and drugstores. This uses weekly sales papers and the coupons that come in the Sunday paper.

Because sometime very soon, I will have my own house to run, I figured I needed to jump on this bandwagon! Well, I wish I would have sooner, because its actually really fun!

There are about a million blogs on how to best use your coupons and some of them give you extensive lists on how to get products for free and even make a few bucks along the way! They use coupons on top of already existing store sales, AND THEN stores like Walgreen and CVS offer reward dollars when you buy certain products.

For example, my first venture.... Crest Whitestrips. I've been wanting to buy a box to get my teeth nice and white for the wedding :-) so I thought I would just clip out a coupon and buy me a box for 20.00... well after going through an extreme couponing crash course, I found I could get a box for 10.00! Here's how...

The sales ad at CVS lists Crest Whitestrips for 19.99. I have a coupon from P&G saver (Sunday paper) for 5.00 off. When you buy Crest Whitestrips at CVS, the give you back a reciept that says "5.00 ECBs- ExtraCare Bucks" which is just as good as cash, so I can turn around a buy myself a pulsing toothbrush which I also have a great coupon for! So as you can see, there is a lot of though behind extreme couponing, but it is well worth it! I follow a blog now called Katy Couponers where this woman doesn't spend one penny on personal items such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, toilet paper etc. by just following the deals, coupons, and ECB's. She even uses the money she gains to buy milk and bread and any other needed items!

Saving money just naturally gets me so excited, so extreme couponing, here I come!!!

I will be sure to update everyone on my quest to become coupon savvy!!!

back to etsy!

Well, I think I am going to re-open my etsy shop! A few months ago, I was really into designing, making, and selling handbags on etsy, but had to postpone it for a while due to this past semester. Now that I have my hardest semester over with, most of the wedding plans taken care of, and a goal to help out as much as a can in paying for my wedding, I think its time to set up shop again!

I keep a sketch book nearby whenever an idea pops in my head, and the past couple months I've filled the pages! I've done a bit of brainstorming and have decided that this time, my designs are going to be a bit more simple, and very much practical. The market had changed and will continue to change this coming year as people are passing on the fun, trendy, "want" items (like handbags), but the demand for handmade is staying strong!

I've also been collecting many books (thanks to those Barnes and Noble gift cards!!) on various techniques, projects, and ideas that I am very excited to use as well.....especially screen printing!!!!

Well, we will see how this carries out...you never know! I may be swamped this coming semester...or I may be smooth sailing.

But a goal not written (or typed!) is only a wish!!!

some great reading!

This Christmas I was very blessed to receive some great reading! I had been asking around for some good books on becoming a wife and the topic of marriage and both Greg's mom and grandma have given me a great start to my collection!!

I have been so excited to start reading, that I have started 3 books at once! "A Wife After God's Own Heart" by Elizabeth George, "The Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey, and "The Power of a Praying Wife," by Stormie Omartian. I have the habit of reading multiple books at once and I will probably have to slow myself down pretty soon! haha

I love recommending books, so I thought I would share a review and my thoughts on what I am reading!

The first one I am reading (I read this one in the mornings ;-) is A Wife After God's own Heart by Elizabeth George.
I absolutely LOVE Elizabeth George and her book studies, (especially the Proverbs 31) and as I have grown up I have read A Young Woman After God's own Heart, A Woman After God's own Heart, and now I am so excited to begin the one on becoming a wife!!
In this book, she covers the 12 important factors that make up a marriage (the things that really matter) So far I have covered "Growing in the Lord," "Working as a team," "Learning to Communicate," "Enjoying Intimacy," "Managing your money," and "Keeping up the home."
What I really like about Elizabeth George, is that she gives so many great examples of each topic from her marriage and family. She describes the beginning of her marriage with her husband Jim as great, but increasingly going downhill and lacking in many important areas as the years went on and their family grew. It wasn't until 8 years later, both her and her husband became believers and as she began growing in the Lord, she also grew her marriage and her family to what it is today!

At the end of each chapter she gives a list of "little things" that you can do and practice in your home and marriage to carry out each of the topics she discusses, which is really neat, and in my case really exciting!

This may sound really corny, but every time I read a chapter of this book, I have gotten the urge call Greg and tell him how excited I am to become his wife :-) Awwww.....I know. Oh and one more thing, I find that it's best to read Elizabeth George in the mornings with a good cup of coffee! :-)

Well, I hope you have enjoyed my review... there will be more to come as I finish this book and many others! And I LOVE book recommendations, so send some my way! :-) I got a Barnes and Noble gift card for Christmas and I have been itching to use it! haha

Christmas

Well the "hustle and bustle" (what does that mean by the way??) of Christmas is over... and like every year before, it was a wonderful time! The week before Christmas is always VERY busy for me because I am making gifts left and right! Greg's gift is always very hard, and because I don't have a lot of money to spend, I have to be very creative! This year, I came up with a really cool idea to make Greg his very own March Madness bracket to hang in his future game room/office/guy room...pretty much anywhere but the bedroom or the living room! I bought the biggest dry-erase board I could find at Hobby Lobby, some black pin striping tape from an auto parts store, and printable stickers and this is what I came up with...

I'm going to get it framed once I get a coupon for Hobby Lobby and attach a marker with velcro. Greg really liked his present, and I imagine I will have a hard time trying to keep Greg from sneaking this on the plane on our honeymoon!

This year the Mercer's started a Christmas tradition with a get together complete with white elephant gift exchange and games! It was such a fun time. Allison made broccoli casserole and sweet potatoes so I HAD to get a picture of that! haha

Awesome job meech!
Here are the Mercer girls! (well one soon to be Mercer! :-)

The white elephant was really fun... I got a cute Christmas bowl set with muffin mixes...but the best gift award goes to the homemade Obama T-shirt by Tim...or maybe that mini- fountain, I can't decide! haha!
Well, I can't wait for next year! What a fun tradition!

On Christmas day, my family and I went to my aunt Julie's house in Crosby and had a wonderful time with the Latour side!
So I decided that from now on, I'm in the grown up gift age...I got a cordless iron, a teapot for my future collection, and a cute rolling set of drawers for the classroom. And I've also decided that I LOVE grown up gifts haha!

Here is Greg and I's 6th anual Christmas tree picture....


Well, Christmas is over and this time next year I will be taking down my OWN decorations, tree, and lights with Greg! I had a wonderful and bittersweet "last Christmas" under my parent's roof, but I am so excited to start my own traditions next year!

Happy New Year!!!