So it Begins...Feeding the Masses

I apologize that it's been almost a month since I've blogged.  Life has been crazy since the wedding.  We went to Fort Lauderdale for our honeymoon (post to follow soon).  The day after we got back, we moved my stuff down to our apartment in South Carolina.  A special thanks to Jess, Greg, Jonathan, AJ, Trey, Issac and my family for their help with my stuff.  I'm very thankful that I had that week off because it took me a whole week to unpack! We're still trying to settle in so I'll put up pictures of our new place soon.  I really like it!

On the 4th of July, Brett suggested we have some of the players over for dinner.  Quite a few of the players are here for summer school.  For the freshmen, it's their first time at school away from their parents.  He sent out a message inviting them over to our apartment for dinner.  We decided on the typical 4th of July menu: homemade hamburgers, hotdogs, cheese potatoes, baked beans, and my annual 4th of July cake.

We had planned on having 6 guys come; instead 11 of them showed up!! Luckily we had enough food for everyone. I have to tell you, I LOVED being able to serve them and make them feel like they were cared for even though they were away from home.  I also loved being able to see Brett interacting with his guys.  I've never seen him with them away from the field.  They brought out the Xbox and were talking junk to each other.  It was quite entertaining.

The fellas cleared out the food pretty quickly.  To my surprise, when they left, everyone gave me a hug.  It made me feel appreciated.  Even though I was in the kitchen almost the entire time and my ankles were swollen by the time the players left, I'm so excited to be able to serve with Brett in this ministry.  It's already teaching me to be a better wife and to be more selfless.

T-Minus 2 Days: What the Kardashians Taught Me

I know what you're thinking.  What in the world is Sara talking about?  I have a guilty pleasure: I enjoy watching Khloé and Lamar.  One of the last episodes from last season was about Rob Kardashian's Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).  Rob was going through a situation with moving and work that seemed to have made his OCD escalate. Because of Khloé's persistence, he called a doctor, who told him that stress worsens OCD.


I have some mild OCD.  Every night before I go to bed, I stand on my top stair with my right foot, turn on my stair light, put my left foot on my landing and step down (right foot is still in place), check to see if my door is locked and latched, step back up on my right foot, and turn off my light.  I repeat it two more times. I can't go to sleep if I don't do it three times.

The past two months, I have noticed this getting worse.  I will repeat up to 10 times some nights. It's exhausting.  After watching the Khloé and Lamar episode, it all makes more sense.  My stress level has been much, much higher with packing and preparing for the wedding.  I did a little research of my own and every site I looked at says that stress heightens OCD symptoms.


Thankfully, this week it has lowered to only once or twice a night.  The apartment is mostly packed aside from some kitchen stuff.  I'm to the point that I can't do much else for the wedding.  I'm trying to enjoy the last couple of days before marrying Mr. Hickman.  


2 days!!

T-Minus 3 Days: Make Time

I will be the first to admit that I have not read my Bible nearly as much as I should during our engagement.  I easily got caught up in the wedding planning stress.  Like a lot of people, my diligence and intensity with which I read my Bible goes in cycles.  Even though you would think it would be the opposite given where I am in my life, I got sucked into wedding planning and am on one of the downward slopes with the time I've put into my relationship with God. 

I don't know about you but I can tell when I haven't been feeding my mind with Truth.  I get irritable, easily angered, and impatient. I worry and become fearful.  Those qualities are not good to begin with, but they are even harder to deal with during an engagement (for Brett and my family). 

I've known this was a problem but I thought my upcoming wedding was more important.  I had pushed to the back of my mind the truth that if I'm not right with God, I can't be the wife that He desires me to be nor the wife that Brett deserves.  This morning, I wanted to change that.  I started my day by reading my Bible.  I know it's only three days until the wedding but it's better now than later.  I feel more at peace today.  It's amazing given the level of stress I've been feeling.

Reading the Bible isn't something that I should have to "make time" for.  It's something that should be first on my list followed by everything else.  I know with today's world, everything moves so fast and there never seems to be enough time.  I need to be intentional about setting out some time to work on my relationship with God.  Hope you'll join me!

3 days!!!

T-Minus 4 Days: The Daunting Task

I'm starting one of the more daunting tasks: packing for the honeymoon! We are going to Lago Mar Resort and Club in Fort Lauderdale.  We'll be there for 7 days and 6 nights.  I tend to overpack... a lot. Luckily, my brother bought us our luggage (and Cheryl bought the cute satchel). Here's the collection Chris bought us.

Unfortunately, the forecast for the weather in Fort Lauderdale is 60% chance of thunderstorms through next Thursday.  That means I'm not exactly sure what I should be packing.  Summer in Florida can mean anything in terms of weather so we're praying for the best.

I'm trying to be resourceful with the space that I have in the two suitcases. Does anyone have any packing tips?

T-Minus 5 Days: Family is Invaluable

We're five days from the wedding!! Brett and I got our marriage license today so we can OFFICIALLY get married.  I sent him off with Greg to coach the ECU football camp. It gives me a little time to get errands done, pack, and clean a little before the wedding.  I went over to Mom and Dad's afterwards to hang out.  I wanted to get some sun but about 10 minutes after I went out the their pool, it started to downpour. It rained the rest of the night.  I helped Mom with the welcome bags and then Dad and I watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I.

I've always known that family time is invaluable, but it's become even more so the closer that we get to the wedding.  Brett and I have been blessed with amazing families.  We have grown up with committed, Christian marriages all around us.  I never realized how important that was until the last year or so.  We have seen couples fight to keep their marriages alive and to put in the time in order to keep them fresh.  I know I am forever grateful for that. 

I'm so excited to have my family all together to celebrate our marriage.  My mom's parents come into town tomorrow and then my family from San Diego, my brother, and my cousin come into town on Wednesday.  Yay for family reunions!!!

T-Minus 6 Days: Giving up Control

We're in our actual wedding week. I can't believe it.  The topic of today's post is one that I have a TON of trouble with.  I'm a control freak. I have a really hard time delegating tasks and not knowing if or when they are done.  My tight control over things has caused a whole lot of stress because I've tried to delegate, but then I worry about it the whole time. That just makes me not want to delegate.

My mom and Brett have tried to remind me that even if things don't go perfectly, the only thing that matters is that we are married at the end of the day.  My type A personality has a hard time dealing with everything not going perfectly.  I've been very thankful that Mom has been sending me texts with verses about patience and trust.  Trying to dwell on those these last six days before the wedding so I can enjoy this time.  Please pray for me to be able to give up control and trust that everything will turn out just how God plans it to turn out.

T-Minus 7 Days: Change but More of the Same

I get married in 1 week!! I'm going to TRY to do on post each day the next week.  We'll see if that actually happens.  One week until the wedding means a whole bunch of last minute tasks and lots of changes that are about to happen.  One of those would be work.  Yesterday was my last day of work for 3 weeks!  I've been working at the same place for almost 4 years.  Wow that's hard to believe.  I started as an administrative assistant, then became a research assistant my senior year in college, and was hired full-time as an analyst once I graduated.

I know I have been blessed working at Veritas.  I seriously have the most understanding, patient bosses.  Matt and Jason actually really dislike the word boss; they consider themselves my coworkers.  Anyway, I was planning on working until next Wednesday, but Jason told me I would need to be off the whole week before the wedding.  I already know that he was right.  I think I'm really going to need the whole week for my sanity.

My office the past three years.

One thing that has reduced my stress immensely is the fact that I can keep my job and work from home once I move.  That took away the potential of having to job search, plan a wedding, and move at the same time.  After I finished work, Brett came to the office to help me pack everything up to move it to SC.  I didn't know how much stuff I had accumulated over the past couple of years.  Here's the office after we packed everything up.  Hard to tell a difference since you can't see the whole room, but it was pretty sad. 

Bye bye office.

Even though I won't be at the Cary office anymore, I get to open up the South Carolina branch.  Thankful for the opportunity to have worked and continue to work for such an amazing company.