Pre wedding celebrations (with a side of change)

Lately I'm thankful for pre-wedding celebrations and the people in my life to share them with. Feeling extremely blessed by the gifts, advice and wishes for our wedding. Sixteen days and five hours to go.


Just a heads up, Living Life Today is looking into some renovations and therefore may not be posting as regularly as normal. Bare with me and stay tuned. 

- Teagan Kahla

Hen's Show

I feel so blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life and being able to share my hen's show with some of them was as good as oreo icecream! Three days prior to the day, I received a text message from Lauren P saying I need an overnight bag, a nice pair of clothes and she was picking me up Saturday and dropping me home on Sunday. Excitement to the max! I love surprises.

Saturday afternoon came and our day started at Brighton beach - this was the place where I asked Lauren P to be my MOH {how romantic!}. We moved onto Marion shopping centre after a stroll along the beach and enjoyed a drink and catch up time. I was then taken into Adelaide CBD where Lauren P had booked us a hotel room! Wowzers. We relaxed, ironed, talked and got ready for a night out. Thinking that it was only going to be Lauren P and I, I was shocked to walk into the place where we were going to eat dinner and recognise six beautiful and familiar faces looking at me. My wonderful friends made the night amazing. We drank cocktails, danced, sang karaoke, ate a midnight snack at the pancake kitchen and gave our legs a workout walking around. Bliss! The complimentary breakfast was a bonus.

Thanks a heap to all who made the night what it was!

Four Year {Dating} Anniversary

Today marks the fourth year since Mr J asked me out. 

So blessed to have such a crazy and super amazing man in my life. 

One month, twenty-nine days, twenty-three hours and six minutes until I can call him my husband. 

In love. 

Yesterday. Today. Holidays.

Yesterday Mr J and I shopped and ordered our wedding bands, bought a Christmas tree for a whopping thirteen dollars, treated ourselves to a doughnut to share and visited family for dinner. 

Today I jumped up early to assemble and decorate the Christmas tree. With no Christmas carols on CD, I listened to two hours of Glee's Christmas Mix on youtube. Quite good. I was greeted by at parcel at my door and I'm about to start my new book with a cup of tea, work a short shift and start planning this. Keeping my days filled. 

Holidays are giving me time to A) start a new book B) start making Christmas presents C) finalise wedding plans and D) drink lots of tea. This is great. 

The Proposal

Here is My Love Story. This is the proposal.

Mr J and I had been together for almost three years when we began to talk seriously about engagement.  It was always in the plan but not always on our mind. As typical Teagan, I wanted to know exactly what Mr J was thinking in regards to popping the question. Where? When? How? ...but still wanted a surprise {I understand now, why I caused some frustration}. We prayed a lot, asked deep questions about our future, talked about rings and experienced some shopping at jewellers. It was now a matter of waiting for the right time to come.

It was summer holidays. I was working at a local apple packing shed with my best friend, Lauren P. I told her about Mr J and my possible future engagement and she was over the moon. The following weeks consisted of over-thinking accusations of when Mr J may pull out a ring.

On Saturday 22nd December, I worked in the shed on a 38 degrees day, starting early and finishing at 12pm. Hot and sweaty, I travelled down the hill to watch Mr J play baseball. It was a normal, hot, summer day for that time of year. As a result of an early morning and hot weather I slightly resembled the cookie monster - a little grouchy. Baseball finished and Mr J and I drove back to his house to swim in the pool. The engagement topic arose and due to my mood, poor Mr J copped the bad end of an over-tired Teagan. I snapped a few times. Jamie dispaeared from the pool to the loo but took a long time {For those that know any male - this is nothing out of the ordinary though}. In the meantime, I jumped out the pool and sat in the sun. Mr J arrived back and sat next to me. He put his arms around me and the following words turned me from the cookie monster to the happiest women alive.

"Teagan, you know that I love you... Will you marry me?"  

He got down on one knee and held out the ring. In my heart and my head I wanted to yell a big, humongous yes but instead, I was speechless. All I could do was smile. My answer of silence was not helping Mr J's nerves though, so he asked me again and I said a verbal 'yes' this time.  The ring was a perfect fit and amazingly beautiful.

After the adrenaline had come down to normal level for both of us, Mr J informed he had picked the ring up and spoke to my Dad that same morning, while I was at work. What a big day!

Hours of phone calls and messages later, we sat down trying to believe that this wasn't one of those incredible dreams. I could not be happier. It was truly a Mr J proposal - spontaneous, relaxed and super exciting. Perfect.

This is not only a gorgeous ring, a relationship that has turned into engagement or the planning of a wedding. This is a commitment, and I wouldn't want to do it with anyone else. 

I'm so madly, deeply and crazy in love with this handsome man...

The countdown in on until February the 1st, 2014.

Crazy-busy but worth it

The last couple weeks have consisted of Butter Chicken (with loads of cashews) for lunch. 

The start of a new mixed netball season, resulting in a purchase of bright new runners. Pink makes you go faster, right?

Facetime with my one and only fiancé. This guy makes me smile, especially with his MYO love heart!

Not to mention Mr J and I are now owners of our first couch, which ads to the storage of our dining table.

We have also had a a 12th birthday party, a kitchen tea for a bride-to-be, study, work, church, board & card games, private screening of The Croods 3D and some wedding planning. I've also learnt that if Mr J accidentally picks his footy tips on my account, not to change them... that was my mistake this week - I changed them to realise Jamie's round two results were 100% correct (margin & all) - good work honey!

Crazy-busy but worth it.

The Day After

Family day. Today Jamie and I enjoyed a day with family that Jamie has staying within Florida. After breakfast we spent the morning with Jamie's cousin, wife and their son at a park enjoying the sunshine and their wonderful company while we watched Jamie's second cousin on the play equipment. After a good hour of talking and playing we turned up the air conditioner in the car as we drove to have lunch with Jamie's Aunty, Uncle and cousin. We enjoyed the leftovers from this night. We then headed to Countryside Mall (a Westfield) and did some shopping which followed by a lovely dinner out with Jamie's cousin and family before they headed on their 4 hour drive home. We ate at a Mexican restaurant for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed it. The company assisted that also. Jamie and I were very thankful that his cousin and family were staying in the same hotel as us, not only were they very helpful and thoughtful by giving us lifts over the weekend but we also we able to get to know them better and enjoy their company, it was wonderful.

One more day in Tampa and then we bus it to our next destination on Tuesday.

Did you know that 4 way stop signs exist? They do in America. Who ever gets their first, gets to go first - that's how I understand it.

The Wedding

Yesterday Jamie and I bought a card for the wedded couple. After looking at a few. We agreed on this one, which said:

When the Lord joins man and women, the two as one should be, yet in the home they share with Him - in faith, the two are three... He multiplies their blessings, their sadness He divides and for their different dreams and needs, He equallly provides... He adds to their fullfillment and takes away their care, and one in Him, their total life abounds with love to spare!

So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not seperate. ~Matthew 19:6

Today we shared a beautiful day with an amazing couple. The ceremony was gorgeous. American weddings tend to be bigger than Australian weddings. Today there were 7 groomsman and 7 bridesmaids + 1 junior bridesmaid. The ceremony was a true celebration, with incredible and lovely decorations and joyful environment  God provided an incredible day for the newly married couple today and we thank him for allowing us to be apart of it. The reception also allowed me to learn some American line dancing and Jamie and I met some more lovely people. We left the night with a bag of homemade cookies made by loved ones of the newly weds.

A Busy Friday

Mr J and I can't complain we didn't get our exercise today. We left our hotel after breakfast on a mission to get to the closest mall by foot. It didn't look too far on the map but after a good hour of walking we had done a lot of talking and laughing but had no sight of a mall. We estimated that we had walked a good 3 miles (almost 5km) and decided to stop. We went into a walmart to see what they had instead. This wasn't the common walmart, instead it was a 'neighbourhood store' which is closer to a supermarket. All I can say is... cheap!! Mr J bought one litre of Gatorade for US$1. You can buy a large bag of M&M's for just over US$1 also {my brother would love this at home!}. We bought some necessities and found a bus stop nearby. We caught the bus back to our hotel after realising we had not put sunscreen on and were quite pink {there may be an ozone layer here compared to none at home but the sun still burns, it just takes a little longer}.  The bus trip was US$2, again very cheap! Mr J and I got off a stop early and picked up homemade ice-cream from a store nearby. It was a struggle to eat it faster than it was melting but after a messy face and a few giggles we got there. Back at the hotel, it was pool time. We then got ready for the wedding rehearsal and dinner.

At the rehearsal dinner we experienced our first American barbeque. YUM! I can't tell you what I was eating but it was tasty. Mr J went back for seconds, a big seconds! We ate cream pies, cake pops and we had Australian chocolates and lollies {candies} for the Americans to try. By this time there are a few Australian friends and family of the groom in Florida.

I have an American gentleman trying to teach me how to come across as a local. He is ATTEMPTING to teach me their accent and slang, I need a lot more practice. I was introduced to a lot of people tonight and none of them had heard of my name before. They like it {at least that's what they are telling me}. It's amazing to see how intrigued the Americans are about us, our culture and our accent. We often are getting people come up to us to hear us speak - quite frankly, I don't mind as I like hearing them talk too. Mr J has met the other men in the bridal party and gets along with them very well, one in particular has made time to get to know us and is picking Mr J up for the wedding tomorrow. All Americans are lovely, their service is incredible as they have to work for it {tips} and they have manners.

Mr J's cousin, who we havent seen for a couple of years lives with his wife and son, 4 hours away from here. They came across for the wedding and are staying in the same hotel as us. Its great! We grabbed a ride home with them from the dinner and as Mr J will be doing his groomsman duties tomorrow, I will be driving with them to the wedding also. Mr J and I also have organised to catch up with them over breakfast in the morning.

Jamie loved the bucks show yesterday!! They played dodgeball and other games at the venue. He ate pizza, talked guy stuff and went for a swim.

Wedding day tomorrow. Bliss!