beautiful pictures. . .

so i've been waiting for 4 1/2 weeks for this moment.... I GET TO SEE MY WEDDING PICTURES!! yay.. i LOVE THEM!! they are so amazing....i've been using that word...amazing to describe our engagements pictures, sam (our photographer) and now our wedding pictures.. but i can't think of any other word to use BUT AMAZING.. hehe because that's exactly what they are. i haven't got to see them all yet... she's sending out my disc thursday so hopefully I'll have it by this weekend. I have so many things to do when I get it. I really want to print out pictures for EVERYONE...i know that is not gonna happen because i'm broke.. BUT i'm definately getting pics for my family and for us. i have a special wall i've been saving in our living room just for these pictures.. i can not wait to start going thru them all and figuring out which ones i want to print out in what size and what frames and how to hang it on the wall... oh my gosh..i'm so exicted. hehe (hey..my life has been boring the past 2 weeks..i don't work and all i do is sit at home all day....anything in my life right now is exciting) hehe actually i've always been obsessed with organization and such. hehe so really no matter what is going on in my life this stuff is exciting. hehe
i still have no received my first check for unemployment. well..not check..but whatever. i guess you get a debit card and they just automatically deposit the money on it each week.. eitherway i ain't received CRAP!! Good thing i have all my bills caught up until September..but my car insurance is due sept 7, so if i don't get my first unemployment deposit by then i'm gonna have to take money out of the savings to pay for it.. which will suck considering i already owe the savings almost $300. grr... if i don't hear anything by this friday i'm calling the unemployment office and finding out whats going on.
okay..well it's 12:42 and my husband will be home from work in about an hour. i used to hate that he went into work at 5 am...and got off at 1:30 because he'd call me at work at like 1:45 and be like "hey..whatcha doin? i'm on my way home" and i'd be like "you suck..i just got back from lunch 15 minutes ago and still have 4 hours to go" hehe but now that i don't work i love the fact that he gets home by 2. it's awesome..
i have decided that unless the "perfect job" comes up in the next few months, i'm gonna try and not look for a "real" job until after the new year. I absolutely would take a job before then if it was A. perfect for me or B. maybe not so perfect but the pay is too much to pass up. But unless those two happen i'm planning on staying home until after the new year. That will give me the next 4 months to enjoy life and do things that i've always wanted to do but never had the time because of work... shh...i haven't discussed this with my husband. hehe
i've been working on my craft room and started on some craft projects. right now i'm working on something for my aunt... should be done with it tonite..or tomorrow at the latest...can't wait to show it off.
Check out the slideshow that Sam made for us http://theroxystudio.com/melissaandjustinwedding/ .

the ramblings of a newlywed

so i decided to make a new layout...my header i had up recently was beautiful (peace sign) but i wanted something more personal...which is usually my style. i usually have pictures of me or jc or just whatever..in any of my layouts and stuff i make for myspace or my blog or whatever it is i'm doing at that time.. so i just felt my my current header and layout was too bland..so i decided to spice it up a little...and here it is!! thanks to the awesome webpage Vector Magic i turned a regular boring picture into an awesome vector image.. i think it turned out so cool.. i wanted a person touch of "me" yet i didn't want it to just be another picture ya know. i wanted it to be something cool. i am soooo happy with the results. i also decided to kinda give it a title.. i usually don' t have one. i usually just use my adiqshun name that i use on everything (myspace, facebook, twitter, livejournal...etc.) but i wanted to actually give it some sort of title that way for the people who just happen to stumble upon my webpage somewhat knows what this blog is about.. that way anyone who can relate to me may stop and read instead of just pass on by. so as i was brainstorming ideas of a title...i thought well my image i'm using is me in my wedding dress...and i've almost been married a month now so i'm considered a newlywed...so i'm gonna call it ramblings of a newlywed... which in my case these ramblings are about love, life, & unfortunately unemployment. hehe but i still think it explains me really well. i usually change layouts often but i'm hoping since i am so happy with this one i will keep it for a while. plus now that i finally got my blog exactly how i want it....3 columns...etc. i am now going to really start dedicating my time to my webpage. this has been a dream of mine for years... i've been "online" since around 1997-1998. i was first introduced to the internet around 5th or 6th grade. i was staying the nite at my friend stephanie's house and she went and sat down at her computer and got online...(dial-up...you can actually hear it dialing up) and i was like "oh my god...what's that noise?" from that day forward i was obsessed with being online.. i couldn't wait to go over and hang out at her house....no i didn't use her for her computer but that was definately something i did while i was there... so a few years later when i finally talked my mom and dad into getting a computer and getting the internet...i was officially and addict. i wanted to be online all day everyday and didn't want to do anything else. i became obsessed with livejournal and chat rooms and creating images and layouts for people. i would make livejournal layouts..sometimes 15 to 20 a day for people.. i'd take requests and work all day long trying to make something that would make them happy and that i was proud of. unfortunately i did it for free and made no money from it but it didn't matter to me.. i loved it. i felt so proud when i'd be browsing thru livejournal and see a 100 x 100 icon made by me. sometimes i'd put the © melissa jo on it so that everyone knew i'd made it. even if they had no idea who melissa jo was...i knew who it was. so as i upgraded from livejournal's to webpages (geocities, angelfire, etc...) i taught myself to do html and saved up all my money to purchase paint shop pro 7.0 so that i too could make those awesome images like everyone else online... i would visit sites like lissaexplains and study and read for hours on how to do things that i had always wanted to do. as i went thru high school i still stayed online quite often but i made more time for friends and partying and such...so i sorta slowed down on stuff... (and now if you asked me to make you a livejournal layout...oh my..i have no idea) no matter what....i've always had a dream of owning my own domain and starting up my own webpage... i've always wanted to be able to make graphics and layouts and whatever there is out there that people want..i wanted to be able to make it and give it out for free. because whenever i started online there wasn't much out there.. if you wanted your own graphics you had to learn how and make them yourself.. so i'm gonna do it... i've always said i'm gonna..but never did ....and now with me not working ....why not?
i'm getting unemployment (i haven't got my first payment yet) so it's not like i have no income....if i had no income i definately wouldn't be able to sit at home and try and work on my web career..but with having money come in it's the most perfect opportunity for me. i was working on my webpage before the wedding plans were going crazy..i worked on it sometimes from the minute i got home from work until the minute i went to bed...so if i have all week everyday open...then i definately think i'll be able to get this thing going.... that is if i stop procrastinating... here i am...watching the olympics....blabbing away on my blog....getting ready in the next few days to start sewing stuff to sell on etsy ....but hey..i can do it.. and i'm gonna start i think on monday. maybe tomorrow.. but tomorrow i have my cousin's first football game and then jc's family is sorta having a get together/dinner thing.. and then saturday jc's cousin is having a cook out/party and jc may be going to avon to play softball so....the next few days will probably be kinda tough to work online... i want to do it while jc is at work..he works from 5 am to 1:30 pm.. so if i could get up at 8 every morning and work online from 8-1 that's 5 hours a day i'd be putting in online...that'd be awesome..as long as i can stay away from myspace, facebook, ebay, etsy..etc.... than i could definately get shit done.. haha
{the last two pictures are from our wedding & wedding reception. the one picture is me and my girls before the wedding in the room they gave us to get ready in at the church..and the 2nd picture is us taking shots at the bar at the elks... i had been there maybe 20 minutes...and already taking shots...that was probably about my 4th one or so already...hehe}

26

so last weekend Justin had a softball tournament in avon, indiana. in between games i went shopping at Target and picked up a few things. we don't have a target anywhere close to us here. you can either drive to up to plainfield which is a good hour drive or you can drive south to evansville which is a good hour and a half drive. and perhaps its a good thing that we don't have a target. :o) i tend to go crazy in there...this time i knew i was on a budget considering i have no job and i only had about an hour to shop since i had to get back to the ball diamond. i did pick up this awesome snoopy tote. i absolutely LOVE it! it was the only one left so it was obviously meant to be. i've been a huge snoopy fanatic since the age of 1. hehe my aunt shellie jo (who i got my middle name from) was a huge fan of snoopy so i was introduced to him and the "peanuts gang" at an early age. I actually have a "snoopy" room here at our house. I sold alot of stuff that i had due to having TOO MUCH...but i still have a huge curio cabinet filled of snoopy and peanut memorabilia. i love the fact that snoopy is "going green."

i also looked thru the clothes section there real fast because i was hoping to find some old vintage feel shirts... i love wearing them until i can't wear them anymore and then i have been saving them and i want to make a scarf or pillow or something out of them. anyways..so as i was looking thru the clothing i found this awesome zip up hoodie. i love the colors and of course the design on the back. you can never have too many zip up hoodies...always nice to have one to throw on when it gets a little nipply out. :o) i also bought bella a green dog collar that was in the $1.00 section.

so i finally took some pics of my new tattoos that i got. they aren't real clear because they were only like 2 or 3 days old in the picture and they're still healing. but atleast you get an idea of what they look like. i want to make it a tradition to get a tattoo on every birthday...but i'd rather have them sooner. hehe we'll see how that goes...jc says he'll divorce me if i get anymore..haha but i doubt it.

so my first week of having no job hasn't really been that bad. my aunt who lives behind my grandma's house has been out of town all week and will be out of town next week. they have a really nice inground pool... so all week i've been going over there with my aunt shellie and laying out in the pool and just relaxing.. it's really quite nice.. i plan on doing that all week next week too. but then next friday they'll be back...so then i'll have to find something to do everyday....

i really want to get back in the habit of working on my webpage. i really got into it and worked on it like 5 or 6 hours a day when i first bought it..but then i had wedding stuff i had to work on so i pushed it to the side...and now i'm having a hard time get motivated to work on it.. so that's my next goal...because i figured if i worked on it from the time i got up until jc got home from work...that's about 5 or 6 hours...and if i do that monday - friday that outta get me back on track.

today is friday but to me it almost feels like sunday or saturday or something...by not working my days are getting all confused.. i'd like to try and find something to do like twice a week to make some money...of course i'd have to get paid cash so that unemployment doesn't know about it.. really the only thing that i could think of is babysitt or clean houses...and i don't like either one..haha so much for that idea.

i found out that i'm getting paid only $60 less a week then i got paid working...and i lived 20 miles away from work...so everyday i was driving 40 miles.. 20 there, 20 back.. well..i get 20 miles to a gallon so i was filling up about twice a week....so i was spending around $60 a week on gas...sometimes less depending on if i worked out both clinics in a day.. if that was the case i'd drive 80 miles a day.. ao anyways..since i'm not paying that much in gas anymore it's actually gonna work out i think. i haven't got my first payment yet. i think the first week they don't pay you...so i shouldn't get a payment for like another week or something..i'm not really sure.. but i mean i went from driving 40 miles a day..to either driving none at all...or if i run somewhere around town or something i may drive like 5. so i think that even thought i'm getting paid a little less that i would working i'm saving SO MUCH MONEY by not having to drive all that way everyday...i'm really excited to get my first payment so i can kinda get a feel for my new budget...i want to get it and figure out my exact budget on how much i'm gonna need to get by...and pay bills and such...

so anyways..this weekend jc's playing in a softball tournament this weekend...it starts tonight and all day tomorrow... so that'll be something to do this weekend.. and then i think sunday if the weather is warm were gonna try and swim all day. okay well i'm gonna get some laundry and dishes done and i'm off to lay out in the pool...

oh...i was just watching the olympic good morning america coverage or whatever it is on NBC...and they were showing clips of the usa olympic basketball team at the water cube watching phelps swim.. all the players are like watching down where the pool is and kobe is talking to some girl who just has like bathing suit bottoms on and she's kinda bent over like her head is towards his lap. LOL then when it shows another picture it shows her standing up in front of him and him talking to her with a HUGE smile on his face. LOL it just looks a little strange considering his history and all ya know.. and then when the pics were over they went back to al and meredith and them she was like "did anybody pay close attention to that picture???" and they other people were like "what???" i mean i didn't really notice it either until she pointed it out.. i was looking at all the players not just kobe..and then she was like "oh i'm sure the audience at home saw it" i wonder if she's gonna get in trouble for saying anything or if she's gonna have to apologize for saying anything...haha that's funny though..she called him right out.. HAHA..

okay..i'm really off to get some stuff done...and i'm starving....

PEACE

25

so it just so happens that this is my 25th post on my blog, which also happens to be the age i turned on 8-8-08. it seems like just yesterday i remember my 14th birthday or 16th birthday....it's so crazy that i'm 25. as you get older you can't really remember your birthday...like i remember my 16th and 18th...not so much anything after that. so friday after i got my new drivers license and i was driving on my way to the unemployment office i thought...hmm..i really don't want to look back and remember this birthday as the birthday i lost my job. haha i wanted to look back and remember this is the birthday when i was married to my husband and was happy and at peace with everything.. and that was exactly what it was.. was i pissed off and bitter about losing my job? well yeah of course i was...but was that job my life? absolutely not. it was 9 hours a day m-f. that's it. i didn't enjoy it. it wasn't me. so yeah i was upset more than anything that she had threatened to lay me off 3 days before our wedding..so when she actually did it the day before my birthday...i was fine with it. but i didn't want that memory to be my memory when i thought back on my 25th birthday. so...as i was driving away from the unemployment office i thought hmmm....i want to do something that i will always remember that i did this on my 25th birthday... so i got a tattoo....well...2 tattoos to be exact. hehe and i absolutely love them. I know that everytime i look at them i'll remember what they mean to me. Everytime I think about my 25th birthday i'll remember i went and did something for myself. something i enjoyed. something that will be with me forever.

even though i am 25 now i'm still a kid at heart... i cant' imagine not being who i am now..or who i was when i was 16. i guess in some situations i can tell i am much more mature than i once was...but i still can't imagine not being the fun, outgoing, immature person that i am. and i can't imagine my friends acting any different either. i think we'll always be the same.

so if i hadn't already posted...i lost my job. i was told a few days before the wedding that they were closing their 2nd clinic in carlisle and that the person who worked there had been with the company for 13 years...i had only been here for 3 1/2 years so when that clinic closes she'd be coming up here and we'd be overstaffed...so i would no longer be needed. i was so upset that she told me just a few days before the wedding because instead of that day being my last day she said well i'm not sure when it will happen... which meant i could have a job for another week or month so why worry me about it days before my wedding. so when i got back from our honeymoon i worked all week...except for friday i was off because it was my birthday and one of the doctors was off half day so i wasn't needed anyways... but thursday around 4:30 i found out that as of 5:00pm that day my job there was finished.

so i'll be collecting unemployment until i find a new job. i went and signed up for it friday and i'm not sure when i'll get my first check or how much it will be. it did say i would have a waiting week the first week where i won't get anything.. so i'm not really expecting anything for like 2 weeks...yesterday i got all the laundry caught up and today i got the entire house cleaned..so tomorrow is day 1 of working on my webpage. i'm getting up early and working on it all day. i'm hoping to get it going so that it's opened by september and can start making money on it. i'm also turing our computer room into my craft room.. i'm finally gonna get my sewing machine set up and all my craft stuff organized and start making stuff on the side.. hopefully i can sell some things on etsy and make some extra money here and there.. anything will help. i'd love to be able stay at home and just make money working online and such...especially if jc and i ever decide to have kids..but who knows... we are both still kids ourselves. hehe we both have big dreams of what we want in life.. the best thing about any of it though...is that we're doing it together...job or no job....doesn't matter i'm so extremely happy at this point in my life...it doesn't really matter. (that's jc making sure that there was no food left over at the wedding reception.. he's so cheap..he didnt' want any to go to waste.)

24

so on wednesday the 23rd of july i was told by my boss that i was getting laid off and would no longer have a job... of course being 3 days before my wedding i was upset/pissed off and wanted to kill her. of course now after i've had sometime to think about it (yes i'm still pissed she told me 3 days before my wedding, especially considering that she wasn't actually going to lay me off until september but chose to tell me on that paticular day) anyways...i have came to realize it is a blessing in disguise. i mean i could care less about working there... yes there are a few people there that i work with that i consider my friends...and would hate that i don't work with them anymore....but if were really friends will stay in touch... anyways....i haven't been happy there for a while... and i always knew that after justin and i were married and i had his insurance it wouldn't matter anymore...and i knew i wanted to look for a job then... so this is just pushing me to actually do it. and of course my dream is to have my own online company.. ya know work from home online...crafting and making things...and i'm gonna do it.. i mean i've bought my webpage....and everyday i'm taking steps to make it happen. and it will. and now i know by getting laid off that is going to give me the opportunity to stay at home.. still making money from unemployment but being able to be home fulltime and get stuff done... so i know it's all gonna work out...and the best part is i have an awesome husband who supports me.

so i really didn't go into detail before about my "bridesmaid drama" but just in a short story... all 4 of my bridesmaids i consider my "best friends." each one of them are my friends for a different reason. and each one of them are just as important as the other. but one friend seems to think shes more important than the rest.. or something...

see...back when justin and i were engaged in dec of 2005 the first person i called was my best friend tabby and i told her of course your my maid of honor...shes my best friend and has been for a long time.. she's always there for me when i need her and i do the same for her. i feel like out of my best friends she is the one that no matter what is on my side...no matter good or bad she has my back...and i'm not so sure about other people. anyways...so i told her back then and i had every intention of making sure that 2 years later when we finally got hitched she'd be the one right next to me. and i didn't want it any other way. so that's the way it happened.. well apparently one of my other friends (who was second in line in the bridesmaid line up) was pissed or whatever...and thru a little tantram the nite of the rehearsal when she found out and was sorta crappy towards tabby and made comments to her like "well you know you have to straighten he train on her dress...i'm not doing it....you have to your the "maid of honor". okay..i'm sorry but who cares.....i mean my bridesmaid who was standing the farthest away from me helped me. she got the birdseed outta my hair, she straightened my dress, she helped with everything... i had known her since kindergarten yet she wasn't my maid of honor...but she still treated me that day like she was....because like i said...they are all important to me.. so anyways...everyone at work says its because she's jealous of me because i'm married and happy and maybe shes not.. and ya know...maybe shes not happy...but its none of our faults..it's the negative attitude that she has day in and day out...shes the same bridesmaid that on my nite my bachlorette party got mad because we were gonna go where I wanted to go...on MY NITE...hello? i don't know....it just hurts me to know that she has to be so negative....i don't understand it....

also i guess she was going around telling everyone that jc was dancing all over her and flirting with her...and crap at the reception...hello.... he was dancing with me and all my bridesmaids.. it wasn't just her. i don't understand why she has to act like shes the center of attention and why she has to act like everything revolves around her? why can't she just think about others... and the funny thing is justin went up to tabby and said hey...your like a sister to me...your such a good friend to melissa...thanks for being in the wedding.. and he sincerely meant that...but did you hear her going around and bragging about it and trying to almost push it into peoples face?? no... and i guess what really ticks me off the most...is that she does it to make herself feel better..and try and make others feel bad... like she tried to make the other bridesmaids feel as if they're not as important..or as if he doesn't like them as much...and the funny thing is....he doesn't like her. out of all my friends she is the least liked by him and because of the drama she caused at the bachlorette party he didn't even want her in the wedding... but did i go and rub that in her face to make her feel bad?? no.. i keep it quiet.. because i'm not a negative person... grr...i just hate seeing people be down because of the way she treats them because i know how that feels because she used to do that to me.....but not anymore..i'm over it. i'm married and in love and don't give a fuck. haha and i wish others didn't either...

life is good....i'm so obsessed with blogging...it seems to really help with venting...i love it...i think i could make a career out of it...hehe oh the picture above is bella swimming in her pool...she loves it..and jc holding her so i can get a good picture.....

23

so i am officially Mrs. Justin Copeland. :o) YAY!!! the wedding went perfect and the reception was beautiful... it was actually more perfect than i could have imagined. i loved the way everything worked out... for the past month or two before the wedding i almost wished that we had instead went and eloped instead of having the big wedding and reception due to all the drama and stress....but it was SO WORTH IT!!!! every second of stress and drama was worth every bit of that day.. and if i had to go thru all the stress and drama again...i would if i knew it would turn out as perfect as that day did. from the mom and dad drama to the bridesmaid getting mad on who was the maid of honor and who wasn't and the bridesmaid drama from the bachlorette party.. it was all worth it and really i didn't care about one bit of it at that wedding.... all i cared about is having the time of my life with my husband...and that's exactly what i did. i don't have any of my professional pictures back of course but i do have alot of pictures that i took from the reception...and hopefully in the next few days the friends and family members that took pictures of the wedding will email me some so i can see them all... i am so thankful for all the people that made that day perfect for me.


This is my THANK YOU list.

Sullivan Elks....at first i wasn't sure everything was going to work in there because i wasn't sure if they knew exactly what i wanted...but they trusted me and let me do whatever i wanted and it turns out they said "it was the most beautiful decorations we have ever had here for a wedding." well THANK YOU!!! ;o)


Jackie http://www.jackiescakesandcookies.net/ The cake looked awesome... Unfortunately I didn't get but just the bite jc fed to me...but what i can remember of that small bite it tasted awesome. I'm definately looking forward to our one year anniversary of eating that whole top by myself. hehe


Sam http://www.theroxystudio.com/ oh my gosh i can't even put into words how excited i am to see those wedding pictures... i had SO MANY people come up to me and say "oh my gosh...she is just the nicest person... and those pictures, at north central, she took of you guys were awesome..." everyone is just as excited to see the wedding pics as i am. i can't wait for the other big things in my life to happen so you can photograph all those.... i definately consider you a good friend...and i hope you feel the same way.


Danny Wayne http://www.djdannywayne.com/index.htm Danny, thanks so much for being a part of our big party. I know the wedding is where you become husband & wife but i always feel like the reception is the time you get to show off how much you love eachother...not only with eachother but with your family and friends. everyone had a great time dancing and really enjoyed you work. Thanks so much!!


Earth Friendly Home http://www.earth-friendlyhome.com/ This is where i purchased all my bio-degradable products. My forks were made from potatoes and soy, my plates were made of sugarcane, & my cups were made of corn. Without ya'll my "go green" wedding just wouldn't have been so great. I plan on spreading the word of how easy it is to have a "green" wedding & i plan on promoting ya'll to the fulliest extent. Thank you soooo much!!


Kustom Koozies http://www.kustomkoozies.com When i first came up with the "green" wedding i wanted to make sure i could give out a favor that could be used over and over again.... these were perfect. They were a huge hit...i can't get over how many people grabbed these up as soon as they got to their seat... i know that justin and i will use our koozies for ever and will always remember our special day...


Also, thank you to all my friends & family who helped us out in any and all ways of making that day so perfect...thanks to Nancy for doing my hair & make-up, without you i would have looked terrible.. haha you made me look beautiful that day....

As soon as i get pics of everything I'll be sure to post them.. If you don't have me added on myspace, add me. You can see all my pictures as I get them....i upload daily. http://www.myspace.com/adiqshun