guest post with Brooke from Bright Wishes!

Today you guys get to hear from the lovely Brooke over at Bright Wishes.  I fell in love with her blog a couple months ago and if you haven't seen it yet, go over and check it out! 

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Hey everyone, its Brooke from Bright Wishes! It's so great to be here at Together for the Better blog! Candace asked me to write about anything I'd like, so I chose to share with you some wedding colors that have been in style lately. I'm a bride to be and basically planning a wedding while my fiancée is in another state, so I'm so absorbed into the wedding world although I think any bride is :)

LAVENDER 

click to view more of this wedding.


GREEN

click to view more of this wedding.


GRAY + YELLOW

click to view more of this wedding.

BLUSH PINK

click to view more of this wedding.

I hope you enjoyed going through the colors! My personal favorite is the blush pink. I think it's such a romantic color. What's your favorite?


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Thanks so much Brooke!

guest post with Christal from Mustard Me Yellow

Hey everyone! I am back in good ol' Virginia these days! I'm sorry I wasn't able to put up the wonderful guest posts I have sooner, but unfortunately I had some unexpected internet problems.  I do believe they're all resolved now though, so for the next few days, sit back and enjoy listening to some fabulous posts.

Today you get to hear from my lovely friend Christal.  She lives in Hawaii as well.  Remember when Beau and I had those awesome pictures taken? Well, that was Christal.  Now, enjoy her awesome post and then head over to her blog and say hi!

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Hello. I'm Candace's friend, Christal!  I am so glad that she has asked me to be one of her guest bloggers!  I am a lifestyle blogger and I love photography.  I love taking pictures and I can't get enough of it. I also love thrifting and doing little DIY projects whenever I get the chance. Feel free to follow me HERE.
Here's a little DIY tutorial on a ruffled wreath that I've been wanting to make.  Enjoy!

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Thanks again Christal!

whack-a-mole

Remember that lovely game called Whack-A-Mole.

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Well, my husband and I had our own rendition of it the night. 

But instead of a mallet, we used shoes. 

And instead of moles, we wacked cockroaches.
......

All over our kitchen floor.  

Because even though  my house appears calm and relatively clean during the daytime, as soon as the clock hits midnight, the roaches come out.  The majority of them are fairly small (about the size of my fingernails) thank goodness.  But still...why are there SO MANY??
I love Hawaii so much, but I would love a good bug bomb about now.

The good news?
I just found out last week that the hubby and I got our housing transfer approved.
Which means we will be moving to a one-bedroom apartment next month!
You hear that? A BEDROOM!
If you didn't already know, my husband and I currently live in a teeny tiny studio.
We like to call it "cozy."
But next month, we will be saying "so long!" to the studio and "hello!" to the one-bedroom.
I am soooo excited about this you guys. Plus, I will have some free time on my hands this summer, which means I'll have time for new decorating projects!
And since we will now be on the second floor, I'm crossing my fingers we won't have as many little critters.

This summer is going to be fan-TASTIC! I am actually leaving on a plane today and flying home!
This will be the first time Beau and I have been home since we got married.
We'll be traveling around the east coast for about three weeks and then back to Hawaii mid June.
We're gonna be busy but doing a lot of exciting stuff, so be looking forward to some fun stories!
In the meantime, I will be having some guest bloggers posting in the next few days and next week.  If anyone is still interested in guest posting for me, I'd love to chat about it! My e-mail is up top under the "Contact" tab.  Shoot me an email if you're interested.

I hope everyone is having a fabulous week! I know I've been absent from blogging for awhile, but this last week has been crazy trying to prepare for our trip.  So you may hear from me once more, but if not, enjoy all the guest bloggers you'll hear from.  I promise they're all wonderful!  

relieving decision

I'm sorry I've been such a slacker lately with blogging.  This term of school has seriously been crazy.  The terms here are only 6 weeks and so when you're trying to fit in a semester's worth of work into 6 weeks, it gets a little busy.  most of my classes are 3 hours long and the homework is what's killing me.  I'm sure you're tired of hearing me rant about school, but that's seriously all I've been doing lately.  

But I have good news!  Last week I made a really important decision.  At the end of this term I was supposed to switch jobs and be the head of one of my professor's personal research labs.  Well, I decided to turn him down. It was a stress I don't need right now and I love the job I'm currently working in and I've been working there for almost two years now.  It was a really hard decision for me to make but Beau and I both felt it was the best decision and i seriously feel so much lighter! It's like that one major stress was just taken off my shoulders!

And now, summer is looking good! And what better way to start off my summer-attitude but with some delicious watermelon?

Don't mind if I do.

i'm here, i'm here!

I know I've been a little distant from the blogging world lately,

but I promise I'm still here and alive!

This term of school has been keeping me plenty busy.

One and half more weeks and I'm going on a vacation though!

More details about that later.

And tomorrow I'll post some updates on what has been going on in our lives as of late. 

Hope everyone has a terrific Monday.

PS, I've recently become addicted to Pinterest. 

If you haven't checked this site out already, it's kind of awesome. 

I still don't know all the details of the site, but I'm already in love. 

If you want, you can follow me here. 

breakfast oh breakfast

So sadly Beau doesn't like to cook much. 

It takes a lot to get him into the kitchen.

But, there is one thing that he always makes...pancakes.

Why is he always the one to make these, you may ask?

Because I burn them. 

Can I admit something to you? I sometimes do it on purpose.

I find that he is MUCH more willing to make food if he knows that I am terrible at it. 

That's been my trick in getting him to make pancakes AND eggs. 

Good strategy, huh?

Anyhow, we had delicious pancakes and homemade strawberry syrup 

for breakfast the other morning.   

I don't usually have fresh strawberries at home, only because they are ridiculously expensive. 

But, the grocery store was having a buy-one-get-one-free sale this week and I had to jump on it.

So I made my first ever homemade strawberry syrup. Not only was it amazingly delicious and easy, but it made our house smell absolutely heavenly. Seriously, I wish my house could smell like that everyday.  Mmmmm.

Want to make your own homemade strawberry syrup? 

In a saucepan, add 1 cup of water and 1/2-1 cup of sugar (I used 1/2 a cup and it was perfect). Bring to a boil.  Slowly add in 1 1/2-2 cups of mashed strawberries.  Bring back to a boil and then reduce heat to low an simmer for about 10 minutes.  If the sauce needs to thicken, add a tsp of cornstarch mixed in a small amount of water and add to saucepan for the last minute.  Use over pancakes, angel food cake, or anything else you like.  Enjoy!

it's raining, it's pouring

Remember when I talked about the storm we had last Monday night?

Well, ever since then it's been raining. Non stop. 

I'm talking flooding type rains. 

So so much rain. 

I miss the sun. 

And please note that all the water you see in the following pictures does not belong. Even the water that looks like ponds or lakes. 

bbq and a pj party

Saturday night we had a get-together with a group of our lovely friends.  

We were going to have an afternoon bbq on the beach, but it's been raining ALL week (more on that later though).  So, instead, we set up little mini grills outside one couple's apartment and grilled away. I had a delicious teriyaki, mahi mahi burger with grilled pineapple.  Beau had a homemade creation of monterrey jack cheese, spinach, and various spices all mixed into a beef patty.  

After eating and hanging out for awhile, the boys all decided to go to the movies.

So, what did the wives all do? Have a mock-slumber party of course!

We all ran home, changed into jammies, brought back pillows and blankets, and blew up air mattresses. 

We chatted and watched How to Train Your Dragon.  The movie was way cute actually. 

Overall, a fabulous weekend!

happy mother's day

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My beautiful mother, 

Over the years, I've appreciated and admired you more than you could know.  You've been so much more than just a mother to me.  You've been a confidant, an example, and inspiration, a teacher-of-life-lessons, a nurse to my little-girl-boo-boos, a believer-of-my-potential, a service-giver, a clothes-mender, a jewelry-passer-on, a supporter, an advice-giver, a meal-maker, a family-game-player, a hug-giver, a hair-braider, and best of all a friend.  The word "friend" doesn't quite do you justice though.  Because friends's come and go.  They get busy with life sometimes. But not you.  You are always make time for me.  Thanks for teaching me about life Ma.  I love you.

Dear Stacey (my wonderful mother-in-law),

I know we haven't been able to spend much time together since my and Beau's marriage, but I will be forever grateful for you.  Thank you for raising such a wonderful son.  There are so many ways that he takes after you and Scott.  You raised quite the gentleman.  And I am so lucky to have been able to not only marry him, but to be able to marry into your beautiful family.  I am so excited to be able to spend some time on vacation with you guys this summer.  Thank you for your loving, caring attitude, your motherly concern, and most of all your support and love for us.  I hope you have a fabulous mother's day.  Love you.

cinco de mayo dinner

So Beau only has two more weeks of student teaching left!

Today, he and his students had a fiesta all day long, in honor of Cinco de Mayo. 

So, I decided to make some delicious quesadillas for dinner tonight.  

If I do say so myself, they were Deee-licious. 

I actually found this recipe in Women's Health magazine and was so excited to try it out.

The best part? It is SUPER easy!

All you need is precooked chicken, corn (I used  frozen), Monterrey Jack cheese, feta or goat cheese, cilantro, and pepper. The recipe called for onions as well, but I didn't have any.

Anyone have a favorite quesadilla recipe?

stormy stormy

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Monday night we had the biggest thunderstorm I've been through in a long long time.  

I'm talking car alarms were being set off because the thunder was so powerful.   

And of course, it was all around 2:00am.  

Needless to say it was a pretty sleepless night for the two of us .

I was terrified our apartment was going to flood.  

Thankfully the storm must have subsided at some point, because we eventually fell back asleep.

Only to be woken up by our 5:30 and 6:00am alarms of course.

Yesterday was a pretty hectic day though.  I have never been more thankful for a school term only being six weeks.  Only a couple more weeks and I will be done!  I am counting down to May 25th you guys!!
Anyone have any exciting summer plans?   

fabulous news

This weekend the hubby and I got some fabulous news. 

As of this past Saturday, Beau officially  has a great new job for this next year.

So while I'm finishing up my last year of college, Beau has a wonderful job.

And best of all, he got his first pick as well. 

It's funny but this is our first big step as a married couple. 

We're so used to living off of a student worker salary, it's weird that we're actually going to be getting legitimate paychecks. I feel very blessed though. 

There are of course days when I complain about our tiny tiny studio. I complain about how I have to use a cup to roll out my pizza dough because I can't justify buying a real rolling pin.  I complain about having to use a overly-crowded, shared laundry room instead of having our own machines.  I complain about having such busy, chaotic weeks.

But really, when it comes down to is, I'm very blessed. I'm truly so SO blessed. 

I have a terrific husband that is always there for me. We are both healthy people. Though we make hardly any money, we've never had financial problems.  We both have received/are receiving great educations that will both bless us and our future family.  I have no idea what the future has in store for us, but I couldn't be more happy to find out. I'm grateful for my present though. I spend too much of my time thinking about the future and often forget to really take notice of the countless blessings that I presently have.

So for now, I'm grateful that I'm able to attend such a wonderful school. I'm grateful that my husband is able to support the two of us.  I'm grateful that we have made so many wonderful friends here.  I'm grateful that Hawaii feels more and more like home everyday.  And I'm grateful that I married my best friend.