Home Sweet

We made it to Hawaii safe & sound! With TONS of help from Reid we have been able to get on our feet. (Even if just a little stable haha)

After a very relaxing week in the Hale Koa hotel & Ryan sleeping at his barracks, we finally moved into our apartment. We both agree it has been very fun playing house (;

Getting the keys to our new pad :D
Home Sweet Home!
Moving in was surprisingly easy since we couldn't bring much stuff on the plane from Utah & Ryan didn't keep a lot in his barracks. So we bought an air mattress & put the t.v in front of it. Called it home (:

We were sooo spoiled with gifts from our friends & family we are slowly working on sending them all over! (Thank you cards in progress :p) I was surprisingly excited to see this box because it is nice to see a little taste of home here. We miss our family & friends SOOO MUCH.

We even made our first homemade meal last night! Although it was just spaghetti, it was so fun to do it together (: We are learning & soon will be cooking up masterpieces! hehe

We don't have a table yet so it was a romantic dinner on our air mattress.. roses & everything!

Today is our 1 month anniversary & we are about to go bake a cake. We are real homemakers now :D I'll post pictures when its finished. The first celebration cake of many to come!!
It hasn't all been sitting at home though. We have gone to countless movies & even rode the bus for an 1.5 hours to go snorkeling at Shark's Cove (:
It's official.. we live in paradise!
& Life is wonderful.

-Honeymoon pictures on the way!!
xoxo - Ryan & Jade SMITH (;

Groom-alls

The title says it all people. This last week & the week to come are all about GROOMing over ALL the silly little details for my fairytale wedding. I just have to laugh at how much work goes into making a wedding perfect! To me it's like Thanksgiving, hours of preparation & anticipation for a meal that is over in an hour or less.

;D
I know that on August 1st (9 days!!!) I will not care about anything but saying 'I do' to my amazing fiance & our new life about to start. So I will refrain from stressing too much! It is still bizarre to me that I am about to be married. Jade Smith sounds good to me though!! hehe

Speaking of Smith, my Ryan bear has been home for a week now and I could not be happier!! 10 months sure was a very long time to wait but that first hug made every second worth it (: Loving him more & more everyday knowing nothing has changed. (Except his muscles!! ahh!!) We have had an awesome week together going to a Bee's game, 7 peaks, Harry Potter 7.2 & of course just snuggling up to each other!

The highlight? Well besides his dazzling blue eyes or knock out smile, our groomal session belongs in a magazine!! (Not to sound conceited or anything he definitely made EVERY picture!!) I'll put my favorites up after the wedding but here is a sneak peek. I could not resist to share with my few followers (;

Thank you Brody Dezember photography for taking beautiful pictures of us!!!

Besides the death of my brother & dog Duke, this week could not have been better. It is a bitter sweet time in my life. I am trying to soak up every minute of family time & give as much love as I can. If I have learned anything in my 21 years it is that life is fragile. I do my best to show my love to my family as much as possible because I know that one day they won't be with me & I will not have anymore regrets in my life. I will miss Duke everyday for a very long time, but I know he doesn't hurt & that I gave him my lovin' everyday I was with him. He was one of my best buddies & can never be replaced. Rest in peace & happiness Duke of Top Sail, I love you with my whole heart!

Before we die

Candy Chang, an artist and urban planner, created a wall for others to write things they want to do before they die. Turning an abandoned house into a New Orleans monument of hope (:



I began to think what I would write on the wall. What Ryan & I would write on our own "bucket list." So I bugged him to write down a few things & I also made a list to compile them here (:

Before we die:
1: Travel outside the United States
2: Graduate from school
3: Learn to ballroom dance
4: Begin our dream careers: Pilot & nurse
5: See a lunar eclipse
6: Kiss under water
7: Of course, go skinny dipping :p
8: Have a baby
9: Ride a camel in the desert
10: Grow old together <3
11: Ryan wants to sky dive.. i'll stay on the ground for that one
12: Buy a house
13: Go to the top of the statue of liberty!
14: Plant a tree (or 100)
15: Get a boat
16: Watch the launch of a space shuttle
17: Become grandparents
18: Get a dog
19: Spend new years eve in NYC
20: Climb a mountain!
21: Indulge ourselves with a nice car
22: Go to an all day concert
23: Take a vacation with no specific destination
24: Go on a hot air balloon ride
25: Help someone else (:

These are some of the more obvious, our list could go on for hundreds or more. Now that we know where we are going, it may be easier to get there (:



Make your own! It's pretty fun (:
81 days until Ryan is home!! <3

If the shoe fits.. it's too expensive!

The wedding plans all seem to be coming together perfectly! We have the venue, caterer, florist, photographer.. & the dress (: Of course, the only thing I can think about is Ryan & my need for the PERFECT wedding shoes!

So I've been searching for months for the right shoes with a certain picture in my head of exactly what I wanted them to look like. Bad idea! After browsing through thousands of wedding heels & all proving to be unsatisfactory, I finally found the exact shoe I had in my head (:

One Problem..
THEY ARE $295!!
seriously.

They really are perfection. Except about $200 dollars above our budget! So my wonderful mother & I put our heads together & decided we are going to make them by ourselves. I know we are a little more than crazy but when 2 women get together who know exactly what they want.. WE GET WHAT WE WANT! (:

I feel so incredibly blessed right now. I have my dream man, shoes & dress. (Not to mention the BEST parents) I just don't know how life gets any better than this ♥

Only 112 days until Ryan gets home & I guess we will find out (:

Missing my fiance ♥

I decided to create a blog to help me get through these last few months Ryan is in Iraq & also to record our life for our family & friends to keep up (: I have always wanted to start a blog but was not sure I would have much to say but I'm hoping that married life will change that! I was just "stumbling" when I came across this & could not stop giggling..

Missing your fiance in the military

1. You wear old sweatpants and sweatshirts to bed.

2. You can watch whatever you want on TV without arguing with him first

3. You get up in the middle of the night to check your e-mail.

4. You sleep with your cell phone in case he calls in the middle of the night.

5. You love watching cute love movies because it reminds you of all the cute things he does when he's home.

6. You haven't shaved your legs in weeks.

7. The mailman knows you because you are always out waiting for him to come.

8. You start paying close attention in class when the words "military" or "iraq" are mentioned.

9. You suddenly have an obsession with anything military related.
10. You see someone wearing an army, navy, or usmc shirt and you get this overwhelming urge to talk to them.

11. You make friends with strangers online just because they are in the same situation as you and are the only ones that can truly understand what you are going through.

12. You can't decide what to wear when you meet him at the airport because his flight comes in at a ridiculous hour in the morning and you want to look cute, but not too cute, because your cutest outfit you want to save for your first full day together.

13. Your first Christmas together is... apart.

14. You find yourself checking your e-mail every fifteen minutes.

15. You know all the time differences between where you are and Iraq, Ireland, Kuwait, Italy, Germany, Korea, and every state in the U.S.

16. The highlight of your day is getting a letter that was mailed a month ago.

17. And if you don't get a letter, the highlight of your day is writing him a letter that you know he will be able to read in a month.

18. You realize that HOMECOMING is so much more than a football game.

19. You want to hit any happy couple you see together

20. You get excited about "unknown" phone numbers calling you.

21. You've exhausted every idea a brain could have of what to put in a box.

22. You see a "support our troops" sticker on a car when you are stuck in traffic and you find yourself guessing about who they know that is deployed and thinking about their entire life story.

23. When the clock says 11:11, you find yourself wishing for the same thing every time: a call from your soldier.

24. You get excited when its only 5 months until you see your Soldier instead of 7!

25. You can't stand girls that talk about missing their boyfriends who live a few hours away. You just want to yell "drive and go see them them" because if you had the chance, you would jump on the first plane to go see your soldier no matter how far it is. AHH SO TRUE!!

26. You don't know what teams are on top for football, basketball, etc.

27. You wouldn't dream of walking out of the house without the cell phone and every number you have is forwarded to that cell.

28. You find yourself randomly crying from just looking at a picture of the two of you together.

29. You find yourself randomly crying and you sometimes have no idea why.

30. You stay on the internet for hours searching for anything and everything about the military.

31. You talk to your friends about him so much that they know his full name, birthday and even his favorite color.

32. You find yourself speaking in acronyms (that no one other than you and he would understand).

32. You are reading this and smiling and nodding because you know it's so true