Cleaning House.

I know I posted a picture a while back of the house that Mark and I had just started the process of buying... we were in the early stages then and we thought it seemed like forever before we would close on the house and officially own it. But that day has come and passed. Mark signed the papers on November 18th, and while my name is not on the deed yet because we're not married, this house belongs to us. I was able to go over to the house this past Saturday and with the help of my mom and sister, cleaned the house from top to bottom. We scrubbed the tubs, the sinks, the shelves, the kitchen counters and cabinets. We dusted, vacuumed, swept and mopped. We opened the blinds to let the sunshine fill the empty house again and opened windows to let the fresh air in. This day was a dream a come true. Ever since we started looking for houses I dreamed about the day that I would go to the house after it was ours to clean it and make it just that - really ours. As I was cleaning I felt like I was washing away all of the things the walls of the house had seen and heard from the family that lived there before us. I felt like I was wiping the slate clean and preparing the walls to host new adventures...adventures that will without a doubt bring both laughter and tears, struggles and victories, and joy and sorrow through a variety of life's issues.

So New House, you are cordially and emphatically invited to take a front row seat to witness the early days of what will one day soon (165 days to be exact) be the Mr. and Mrs. Mark Poindexter family. Enjoy.

6 More Months!

Okay... so I didn't do too amazing on my 7 month wedding check list. Out of the 20 things that needed to get done, I accomplished only 7... YIKES! But no worries, I just hired our DJ Sunday night and it motivated me to keep on top of our wedding plans and try to get major decisions in before the craziness of the holidays. I also prioritized a little and decided some things could wait until January before final decisions have to be made.

So whats on the list for the rest of November?

1.) Buy a Dress! - Isn't this one of the first things Bride's get done when it comes to wedding plans? Why is    
                             it taking me so long to decide?! But my appt with Williamsburg Bridal and Formal on  
                            11/22 will help me make up my mind!
2.) Purchase Save the dates - I've already found adorable Save the Date magnets from Libby James, so I
                                              will probably do this in the next week.
3.) Set aside block of rooms at nearby hotel - no reason why this shouldn't get done in the next few days!
4.) Finalize Invitations - I already have these picked out too! I just need to work on the wording and  
                                      finalize the time of the ceremony.
5.) Finalize guest list so I know how many invitations/save the dates to order!

I should be able to handle five tasks right? Maybe if these get accomplished before December I can add new things to the list!

6 more months. *sigh*

Oh! I was totally a slacker and didn't post pictures of my epic pumpkin cake failure... so here's a little summary of what happened:

Bunt Cakes: Turns out I'm pretty decent at the baking part of things...

 Flip one side upside down to apply icing and create a rounded look once stacked: 

Awesome. I can flip things over :)

Chocolate Frosting for the middle: Yes please!

Dirty Icing (Cake Boss Lingo!)

Stack Cakes: This looks like its going to turn out great huh?

Vanilla Icing mixed with some food coloring for the outside to create the pumpkin look... Not the prettiest color of orange but I was proud. 

And here is where things went terribly wrong......

As it turns out, I should have somehow shaved off the tops of the cakes so they would lay flat against each other and not have a ginormous gap that I hopelessly tried to fill in with my pasty orange icing.

The result:

What looks like 2 bunt cakes stacked on top of each other with a less than appealing orange colored icing covering it. But hey! It ended up tasting pretty decent...

Maybe next year pumpkin cake... maybe next year.

Sacred Marriage

In Gary Thomas' book "Sacred Marriage" he poses the question, "What if God designed marriage to make us holy rather than happy?"

If you've grown up in a church setting as I have, you've probably heard of or seen your church put on marriage conferences or maybe marriage classes for the Wednesday night bible study. Some popular classes at my church, which my parents have often lead and facilitated thanks to their strong example of a christian marriage, have included "Love and Respect", "Fireproof", and "For Men/Women Only". Mark and I have read the last 2 books at the suggestion of our parents in preparation for our marriage and these books largely focus on how to better understand your spouse in order to improve your marital relationships. I enjoyed reading those books and with out a doubt gained insight into how a man is designed and what he needs, but this book by Gary Thomas takes the focus off of building a better marriage. It shows that marriage can be the avenue for experiencing a deeper relationship with God.

Not that bettering your marriage (or preparing for my eventual marriage) is wrong, in fact I believe this is a good thing. But shouldn't our main focus, whether we are single or married, be on developing a closer, deeper, more intimate relationship with God? Because in light of eternity, that is the relationship that counts. There will be no marriage at the resurrection, except for that of Christ and his Church. The relationship between husband and wife can reveal the character flaws that God is trying to correct in our lives.

I just finished chapter 6 (out of 13) which was titled "The Cleansing of Marriage". It spoke about how his marriage has held a mirror up to his own sin. Forcing him to honestly face his flaws and selfishness. He quotes an author that says "Sometimes what is hard to take in the first years of marriage is not what we find out about our partner, but we find out about ourselves."

This book has challenged my thinking on preparing for my future role as a wife. I need to purpose to not only understand the way God designed Mark in order to understand how Mark is thinking and communicating his needs so we can grow closer as a couple, but to view my relationship with Mark as a platform for growing closer to God. I need to view my future marriage as a way to be cleansed spiritually, to view it as a spiritual discipline. My main focus on entering this marriage should not be on becoming emotionally fulfilled or romantically charged (though I am excited about those things and believe those can be a result of a godly marriage for sure!). My predominant reason for entering this marriage should be so that I can become more like Jesus Christ.

 I'm thankful for my dear friend Robyn who gave this book to me as an engagement present of sorts, for she is always spurring me on in my relationship with Christ. Urging me not to become satisfied with the things of this world or lose track of my eternal focus. God gave her to me to be my iron, and I only pray I return the favor in our relationship.

I'm excited to continue reading and gaining new insight. This should definitely make it on your "to read" list. [Or am I the only one that has one of those? :)]

Find His Website Here.

Fall Baking

its the season, maybe its the thought of soon becoming a housewife, or maybe its just my mouth watering, but whatever the case yesterday afternoon was spent doing some much anticipated fall baking!

The set up:

   

  

           

The Classics: 

Snicker Doodles

Chocolate Chip Cookies

<--Some Cooking Inspiration-->

The Finished Product: 

After finishing the cookies I tried out a little pinterest inspired baking idea: Ice Cream Cookie Cups

Theory: bake chocolate chip cookies on upside down muffin tin to make edible ice cream cups...

Reality: They don't slide off of the muffin tin, even with what seemed to be sufficient "greasing" of the pan. So instead of ice cream cups I got a plateful of chocolate chip cookie crumbs! Oh well... maybe I'll revisit this experiment another time. I didn't have time to play around with the idea any more after that because I had a special dinner experiment I wanted to try out!

Introducing the Pinterest inspired "":Broccoli Cheddar Chicken Braid

 It turned out so much better than I thought it would! My fiance, who happens to be a very picky eater, even enjoyed it! [success!]

Overall the baking yesterday proved to be very therapeutic. This is why I've already planned out my next baking adventure, which is also inspired by my internet obsession.

However this will have to wait for another day because Noah's 13 birthday is today, so we're spending the afternoon celebrating with him!

I'll be sure to post pictures of my pumpkin cake baking process when I do finish it!

Happy Fall Baking everyone!



P.S.
Thanks Mallory Kessler for helping with the photos!

First Time Home Buyers

What a weekend!!! 

Friday after work Mark and I's realtor took us to look at 2 new houses and then back to the very first house that we ever looked at only a little more then a week ago. After looking at the 2 new houses, (remember we looked at 3 houses the previous week) we realized we really liked the first house we ever saw! It really was at the top of our list. It was in a beautiful neighborhood and met almost everything on our wish list. So we told our realtor at that point that we were very interested in this house.

The drawback? It was about $10,000 out of our price range.

Our realtor suggested to offer what we could and just see what happened. So we made plans to have our parents come and see the house and check it out before we made any serious offers on it. We value our parent's opinions and knew they'd be able to look for things that we might not know to look for. Things that might persuade us to look for other houses or pursue this one.

Saturday, however, all house plans were placed on hold and Mark and I enjoyed a full day at Busch Gardens with my family. It was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun riding rides, eating free meals [thanks Dad] and getting a lot of laughs from the howl-o-screamness of the night.

The next day, Sunday, [because thats usually the day after Saturday] we had plans to get our engagement pictures taken, but we pushed that back just a little so we could get our parents out to look at the house. Why the rush? The sellers had just dropped the price so it would be showing up on the top of realtors "hot sheets" and they said they had people coming to look at the house. We knew we couldn't be competitive with our offers, so we wanted to get ours in first. So our parents came out and ended up giving their "approval" for the house. [Aside from my mom's complaint that it's too far away] After the walk through with our parents we rushed back to get ready for our engagement pictures. Mallory and Erin took us out to Botanical Gardens and The Chrysler Museum and helped us take the most gorgeous pictures ever! Not to brag, but I'm really impressed with Mark and I's posing skills and the overall cuteness of our pictures! We're not super photogenic people but I guess when your really in love, it shows through in pictures.  [I can't wait to post the pictures once Mallory is done editing]

After engagement pictures we met with our realtor from 7-8pm to put in our offer. We signed the paperwork, and provided our earnest money deposit. We left her office feeling at peace with our decision and purposing to trust God and be happy no matter which way the offer fell. We thought we'd hear back from the seller by the end of the week- We never dreamed that by lunch time the following day, they would come back with a counter offer.  Their first offer wasn't in our range, but Mark worked hard all day Monday calling our lender and our realtor, crunching numbers and negotiating. By the end of the day Mark got them to pay closing costs which then put the house right in our range.

Long story short? We got the house! Pending the inspection at 2pm on Friday, Mark and I will be First time home owners.

This has all happened so much faster than we thought it would, but we believe God's favor has been on us and has provided us a house in our price range. Not only a house we like but a house that has many of our favorite features. We have learned so much and I feel we have grown up years in just a few days. What a huge decision to make in such a short time! But we feel this is the perfect house for us right now and we can see ourselves staying there for many years and raising our family there.

So without further ado... I'd like to introduce you to the future home of Mr. & Mrs. Mark Thomas Poindexter.

7 More Months

Thats right... I'm getting married in 7 months! Thats only 213 more days to go.

I say only as if it is coming up fast, but in reality I feel like it is still so far away! We have all of fall and winter to get through and THEN I think I'll feel like it is almost here. Hopefully the upcoming holiday season will give us plenty to do to make the time fly by fast. But since today marks the 7 month milestone, let's see what we've accomplished in the last month and what I need to get done this coming month according to Theknot.com!

1. Find a ceremony site - Check! Ceremony at the church sanctuary.
2. Plan reception menu - Not done at all!
3. Make list of family wedding customs - Didn't think of this one, that should be fun!
4. Finalize wedding guest list - Almost done
5. Decide on wedding flowers - I'm thinking daisy's at this point, but not 100%
6. Look for/book DJ/Band - I'm dreading this one, but it needs to be top of my priority list.
7. Figure out invitations/save the dates - Found ones that I love at mixbook, but haven't ordered them. [by the way, I got a great deal thanks to moolala deals online! $150 worth for $50!]
8. Hire photographer/videographer - unofficially, but yes, this is done.
9. Buy Wedding Dress - This also needs to be top priority. Thought I had found the one but now I'm not sure...
10. Book Cake baker - Check!
11. Plan out Ceremony and Premarital counseling - 
12. Have engagement photos taken - Doing them this Sunday! I can't wait!
13. Prep for out of town guests by reserving a block of rooms at nearby hotels  
14. Make sure out of town bridesmaids have ordered dresses - I have 3 out of towners and I miss them so much! I'm so excited they will be a part of this day.
15. Finalize ceremony music - in the process
16. Plan rehearsal dinner - The In laws are taking care of this one : )
17. Finalize menu - Last thing to do for this month
18. Browse centerpiece photos - In the process
19. Browse wedding hair photos - In the process
20. Finalize invitation wording - also last of the things to do for this month. 

There it is. 20 things to complete this month, a few of which I'm glad to say are already done or they're in the works! Top 3 things that need to be completed - buying a dress, booking a DJ and getting my bridesmaid dresses all ordered.  

Here's to a happy and productive October!

Engagement Fever

Todays post is dedicated to one of my favorite people growing up and his brand new fiance. 

If you spent time with the Doyle family you would notice a small tendency that the cousins have to reach life milestones in groups. We were born in groups, [thanks to our parents] graduated high school in groups,  found our special some ones in groups and finally decided to make [or say yes when our special someone asks us to be] our only someone for life... in groups.

Luke David, you've been a great inspiration to me in many ways, including musically and spiritually, over the last 23 years of our lives. You've added such a special dynamic to our family that we always feel your absence when you can't be with us. And we love the love of your life just as much as we love you!

Congratulations Luke and Megan! I am so excited to be sharing yet another stage of life with you. 

I pray God will use you and Megan to glorify Him in ways that you 

couldn't do if you were apart from each other.

Happy Planning :)

House Hunting

Its official. Mark and I have begun the house hunting process.

We met with a real estate agent on Saturday, and discussed the necessary steps we had to take in order to buy a house. She gave us a lot of information and also took a lot of info from us regarding what we were looking for. We even set up a time for next Saturday to begin driving around and looking at houses. Of course this depends on whether or not we can set up a time to meet with a lender this week and get pre-qualified. We are beyond excited!

Its amazing to me that its actually time to start this journey.  For months, long before we were even engaged, Mark and I began daydreaming about our future house. We would drive through neighborhoods talking about our favorite features. Whether we liked brick or siding, a two story or a ranch. We discussed our "must haves" [a master bathroom for me, a wall where mark can put his projector for him] and our "wants" [a front porch for me, a back deck for mark]. We debated location. We discussed our likes/dislikes regarding floor plans. We imagined how many rooms we would need/want for our future family and what we would use the rooms for until then. [marks hoping to finally be able to set up his drum set thats been taking turns between the back of his 4runner and his garage]. We would even spend down time at work searching through zillow.com and emailing favorite houses back and forth. We would critique and reply until we both had a good idea about what we wanted in a house, but this was all in fun. They were simply day dreams about "some day".

Sometimes during our trips through the neighborhoods we would let ourselves get lost a little and wander to what we call the "rich section" of neighborhoods. Here we would drive by very large, very expensive homes and imagine that we had high paying jobs that allowed us to have gigantic pools in our back yards and bathrooms with jacuzzi tubs. We would pretend that we had a boat or a couple of jet skis in our drive way that we would take down to our beach house [because obviously if we could afford one of these homes we could afford a beach house... isn't that how it works?]. Sometimes we would plan what our home theater room would look like or our giant foyer. But always after we left the "rich section" and we would drive back by the "normal" 3 bedroom homes that we knew maybe had more than 1 bathroom... it was there that I could actually see our life playing out before us. I could see reality. A small home filled with struggles and victories, occasional tears and lots of laughing. A small house occupied by the man of my dreams, me and our future family. It was then, as we drove by, that I would fall in love with the small brick house. Not for what it was but for what it represented. And suddenly, as we drove by, all of the imagining and day dreaming about the "rich section" lost all of its appeal. The only thing that mattered was the man driving me through these neighborhoods indulging me in my day dreams, and the life we would "some day" be sharing.

Now our day dreams about "some day" are beginning to become reality. We couldn't be more excited - or more scared. We have big decisions ahead of us, big important decisions. We are praying for guidance, because we know we are entering unfamiliar territory for us. I am praying for guidance for my Mark because I know that while we will be making these decisions together, he is the one that will be  picking up the financial and emotional responsibility that these decisions bring with them. I am praying that God will show me how to help him carry this load within the the role of a biblical wife and helpmeet that God has laid out for me, so that this responsibility will be a joy for Mark to carry and not a burden.

We fully trust that God has a plan for our future home and we pray we will be diligent to follow biblical principals so that we can honor God with our decisions and be a witness to friends and family around us.
 

Pinterest

Thanks to my cousin Kelleigh... I have found a new obsession. They call it:

Pinterest.


Not only do they have the most adorable wedding idea pictures, they also have pictures of food ideas, DIY craft ideas, and yummy food ideas!

These are some of my favorites so far!

 I made these but put apple sauce in them instead of apple cider.... It turned out super yummy! Will post pics soon... 

I can totally see me and Mallory doing this on my wedding day... except for the fact that jumping up and down would totally mess up the hair.

I love this one line journal idea. I've kept a daily journal for probably the last 5 or 6 years and I love looking back on entries and seeing what was going on, or what I was going through during a certain time. With this idea you have an index card or post card for each day of the year, you flip to the current date, write the year on the first line and write a simple note about something that happened that day, flip the card and repeat the following day. It would be fun to keep something like this the first 5 years of Mark and I's marriage to see how things change. Some days might say something boring like 

"I burnt our first real meal at home together" (this is a highly likely possibility with my cooking skills) or something as exciting as "we found out we're going to have a baby!". 

Oh the big and little joys and heart aches these cards could hold if 

I remember to actually do this after we get married! 

They have amazing photo op ideas for engagement and wedding pictures so

I'm sure I'll be posting more pictures soon. 

Thanks Kel, for opening my eyes to a creativity level that far surpasses my own.

:)

Bridal Party Gifts.... & Dinner.

I finally popped the question to some of my bridesmaids, my jr. bridesmaid, my maid of honor & my matron of honor! They said yes! I mean, how could they refuse with the cute shirts I got for them (each with a font that I think expresses their personalities) and the sweet DIY cards with personalized poems asking them to stand beside me on my wedding day?!? Saying No was impossible ; ) 

I've got 5 down & 2 more to go... Should have all 7 girls on the team by the end of this week!

Sara's

Ann's

Mallory's

Once they've all accepted we can plan a trip to try on dresses! My favorite bridesmaid dresses so far are below. They're cute, look like spring time to me, and are already in the perfect colors. They're by Alfred Angelo... (who would've thought I'd ever know the names of any designers?!?... I guess this is what wedding planning does to a girl) and can be found at All The Rage, so I guess that will be our first stop when we pick the date!

 I'm ashamed to admit I haven't been helping out with the cooking too much at home lately, so I decided to brush up on some of my cooking skills since mom and mallory were gone tonight. 

A classic "Meghan" dinner: 

Tuna Noodle Casserole & biscuits on the side. Yum!

Centerpiece Inspiration

I'm in love with the idea of using lanterns as part of the centerpieces for our wedding right now.

Its Just The Beginning...

7 years and 2 weeks ago today, I met Mark Thomas Poindexter for the first time, we were in South Dakota, on a missions trip that neither of us had planned to be on. 3 years, 4 months, 2 weeks and 3 day ago we made a commitment with my parents to enter in to a relationship that we both desired to lead to marriage, we were at Neighbors Pizzeria. 1 month, 1 week and 6 days ago, Mark Thomas Poindexter got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife and to raise a family with him, we were on a picnic at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.

The first month of my engagement my focus has been on myself, Mark and the exciting new romance that comes with having a ring on your finger. My excitement, though not having decreased in the least, has been reigned in, and my focus has started to shift to the marriage that will be following. A marriage in which I will be called to reach the standard of the woman described in Proverbs 31.

I created this blog to be a journal of all my adventures as I learn to become Mark's 31 woman, though my journey started long before I got engaged, it even started long before Mark and I entered into a relationship. It began when my parents committed to raising me up to be a woman pleasing to the Lord. And I am eternally (literally, for I wouldn't know about eternal life through Christ without them) grateful for their relentless and tireless efforts to mold me and make me who I am today.  

My wedding date is set for May 12th, 2012. My "miss" status will be changed to "Mrs." and I will officially be Mark's wife. I pray that I make myself available for God to use the next 9 months, 1 week, and 5 days to address my shortcomings and continue molding me into a woman that Mark will lack no confidence in, one he trusts with his whole heart, and one that will bring him good all the days of his life.