Changing My Name

With the wedding quickly approaching my upcoming name change is weighing heavily on my mind. I always dreamed of changing my name. I was THAT girl doodling my boyfriends name on my scratch paper. Now that the time is actually here and it is no longer a dream...I am freaking out. I have always been very sentimental, love traditions, and love family things. My name fits all of those categories.

Lindsey=my fathers middle name
Marie=my grandmother's middle name
Dawson=my families name and my oldest nephews first name

Does it get anymore sentimental that those? How can I just give them up. Justin will be my husband...and I want to take his name. But for some reason I'm having some internal conflict about this. And the spelling is an issue....Lindsey is commonly misspelled. (with an E, with an A, with a Y....you name it...I have seen it). My current last name is fairly simple...people can sound it out. My new last name, "Haire" is a disaster for spellers....Haire, Har, Hare, Hair........I'm already twitching at the thought of someone spelling my name...."Lindsay Hare" (twitch, twitch)

So the question is....do I drop my middle name? Do I keep them all and add Justin's name? Do I hyphenate? Oh the possibilities.

I guess I'll just have to get use to going to restaurants and putting our name on the waiting list and answering the question..."What's the last name?"....."Haire, that's H-A-I-R-E"

Christmas in June

Getting married is like Christmas in June. Seriously! Most days we come home to packages. I'm telling you we feel so blessed. Because I get to have all the shower fun, I let Boyfriend open all the packages we get at home. I feel like it lets him participate. The other day I took some pictures opening a big box. He was like a 12 year old on Christmas morning. How cute is he? Wasting no time, he is ripping in to it!! Thumbs up for white dishes! :)

We also got this beauty too! I was at home sick one day from work and was startled by the Fed Ex man. No worries he left a huge box....and it was a GRILL!!! It was a gift from my parents. Boyfriend and I were SO excited.

Thanks to everyone for being so giving.

We are having a great time!

First Wedding Shower

We had our first wedding shower last weekend. The shower was at my home church in Arkansas. I was SO nervous. I'm not one to get nervous, especially around people I know very well. I just felt very uncomfortable with everyone looking at me. I can't imagine what I'll be like on the wedding day. : / I'm sure it is a normal feeling...but its a new one for me, so I'm working through it.

These are the ladies who hosted the shower for Justin and I. They consist of family friends, teachers, family members, church family members, former Sunday school teachers, former teammates, really one of every kind. :) They are all too sweet and did a fabulous job decorating and organizing!

These are the gifts I walked into. Like before ANYONE showed up.

I started unwrapping gifts 30 minutes before guests arrived and NEVER STOPPED!

We are very blessed with such giving friends!

My mom and I on shower day. She was amazing all weekend.

We ran a zillion errands and got a ton accomplished.

Thanks Mom!!!

And these ladies made my day. Each one of these girls will be in the wedding and I literally could not imagine it any other way. Just their presence at the shower was comforting. :)

We are having another large shower soon. Please pray my nerves chill out, I want to be able to relax and enjoy these fun moments!

The Traveling Dress and Bridezilla moment #1

As you know I purchased my dress in North Carolina and we are getting married in Arkansas, so my dress had to make the trip home. Naturally, I documented my dresses trip. The day I had to fly out there were storms in the area. So I double bagged my dress to protect the dress from any weather to and from cars and airplanes.

Yes, it went into the bathroom. TMI maybe?

Visited a terminal or two.

I called the Delta customer service line days before my flight and told them I would be traveling with my wedding dress and asked what my options were. (responsible right?) They assured me that I would have no problem, just to notify the flight attendant and my dress could be hung.

Well apparently my flight attendant was having a bad day. Because that is my wedding dress crammed into the smallest overhead bin in the world.

Note Bridezilla moment #1. I looked at her like she was CRAZY! Then notified the girl next to me that they had one hacked off bride on their hands. Whew, I was blowing steam! The kind young lady clearly felt my pain. She helped me move a few bags and lay my dress nicely in the overhead bin. On my connecting flight from Atlanta I had no problems. That flight attendant was having a fine day and offered to hang my dress in the Captain's closet. :)

I finally made it to Arkansas with dress in hand.

There it is, safely in my closet at my parents in Arkansas. Whew, what a little adventure.