newlywed blogger – WamiesWorld

12 pieces of advice for newlyweds

Published on April 15, 2019September 6, 2019 by Jamie Shugart1 Comment

Will and I are on the cusp of having been married for an entire year. This basically means that we know all of the things! (That’s a joke)

After five months of marriage we wrote about 5 things we learned in five months of marriage. I figure it’s about time that we share our 12 tips for those of you about to embark on the adventure of marriage. I reached out to my Instagram friends for help. Peep their advice below!

Before I get ahead of myself though, if you want to follow along with our adventures of newlywed life, turning a house into a home, and all of the highs and lows of everyday life, click the subscribe button on the right (or at the bottom if you’re on mobile). It doesn’t send you crazy stuff or give your information to anyone—it just sends blog updates directly to you!

Without further ado, sit down, grab a pen, your BFF (aka soon-to-be or brand new spouse) and take this advice to heart. We obviously know what we’re talking about.

(DISCLAIMER: I feel like I will have to be married about ten million years before actually offering advice on big subjects. Let’s just have some fun together today.)

#1. You WILL adjust.

Times of transition can be difficult, so don’t put too much pressure on yourself. I’ve had girlfriends who cried their eyes out on their first night home from the honeymoon because they were afraid of change. I’ve known couples who have gone to counseling in their first year of marriage. I even once had a boyfriend exclaim that “marriage isn’t that hard!” to a couple struggling through their early years and a woman going through a divorce.

Embrace the transition. Recognize things are going to change and try not to fight it.

#2. You will find your own habits and routines as a couple.

This is a great thing! But it does take time. One of the biggest areas of adjustment in a new marriage can be learning that your time is shared now.

#3. “Don’t compare.

“Don’t compare your relationship/marriage to anyone else’s. Learn from others but never compare.”-Kristina

#4. “Always give your spouse the best of yourself.

“Don’t give your best to everyone else and then give your spouse the leftovers.” -Kristina

#5. “Grow together and embrace the changes in one another.

“Love each other for who you are today, not who you were or who you could be.” -Phillip

#6. “Laugh a lot!

“Don’t take life too seriously.”-Caroline

#7. “Prioritize time together.” -Will

Thanks for the contribution, husband. ❤ I absolutely agree! Determine your marriage priorities together and then stick to them. If you have your priorities in line, decisions become more clear.

#8. “Learn to communicate now, even over the smallest things!”-Marly

Amen, sister! Communication is key.

#9. Unmet expectations are a trap.

We often have expectations of each other, of ourselves, of our circumstances, etc. Unmet expectations can create problems unless you realize what is happening and how to manage it.

#10. Be honest.

If you are upset, be honest. Don’t be afraid to ask each other questions to understand wants, needs, and expectations.

#11. Don’t expect your spouse to change overnight.

First of all, if you don’t express a need for change (in a loving way) but instead keep your feelings to yourself, everything will stay the same. And once you do express a need for change, don’t expect your spouse to get everything right from then on out. They’re still human. Which brings me to my last piece of advice.

#12. Allow your spouse to be human.

Just as you give yourself grace on a bad day, or after a frustrating experience, you need to extend the same courtesy to your spouse. Don’t hold them on a pedestal OR expect them to always fall short. They have bad days, feelings of anxiety, and other human tendencies just like you.

BONUS! Never stop being friends.

Congratulations on being a newlywed or an almost-newlywed! Praying God’s blessings over your marriage, that you will have patience with one another, that you will LOVE each other in every season (even when you don’t like each other all that much), and that you embrace becoming one whole heartedly.

Until next time,
Jamie out.

mucinex

Published on March 18, 2019July 17, 2019 by Jamie ShugartLeave a comment

Sickness has struck the Shugart household.

Well, mostly it has struck me. Will had a cute little cough and then was over and done with it. I, on the other hand, self-diagnosed from the first spike of fever that a sinus infection had taken me down, post-migraine.

I write to you now from the comfort of my bonus room couch, with my steaming mug of chamomile tea and my chick flicks and Grey’s Anatomy on repeat, having missed publishing my first Monday blog post since launching Wamie’s World last July. And while I have no photos to share today, from a typically photography focused blog, I feel that sharing using the written word can just as powerfully convey the clouded vision of a sickly blogger.

I was conveniently taken down by a virus passed on by my loving family on the busiest work week I have seen since the Christmas holiday family photo session explosion of 2018. I curled up in an armchair for two days straight, editing my days away while clutching my box of tissues. I spent the nights clutching my eyeballs for fear they might pop out of my head due to the pressure building up behind them. And I coughed my way through work, popping cough drops like they were candy and huddling in my corner so as not to breathe on anyone.

Conveniently, all of the websites say that you might have a sinus infection if your symptoms persist for more than two weeks.

As a woman who has had far more than her fair share of sinus infections in her life, I would have to disagree with whomever invented them. More than two weeks is far too long to put up with this nonsense. Can I please just return to my normal programming?

Should you be happy and healthy today, enjoying the full use of your vocal cords, please appreciate your pressure free sinuses, your vertigo free days, and how little you require tissues on a minute by minute basis. I will be here, attempting to live a normal life while contemplating removing my sinuses from my body.

Until next time,
Jamie out.

We got a puppy!

Published on November 28, 2018September 16, 2019 by Jamie Shugart6 Comments

Friend, meet Blue. Blue, meet friend!

She is a pure bred Golden Retriever with so much spunk and sass, I’m not certain what we have gotten ourselves into.

This is Blue at six weeks old. We started looking for her in October, deciding that getting a puppy around the holidays would be easier with our work schedules being a little more open than normal. We had known for a long time that we wanted to get a puppy to grow our family, and while she came a few weeks sooner than we had planned, we couldn’t pass up on this beauty.

We drove up to Virginia when all of the puppies were six weeks old. Blue’s mom had ten puppies, six of which were girls. We already had our eye on Blue from all of the photos and videos we had seen, but we really wanted to meet all of them in person before deciding.

Blue was always in the thick of the playtime. She would run and leap into the doggy pile. If there was a tug of war over a water bowl happening, she was definitely going to be involved. She was also sweet and loved sitting on our laps being snuggled and giving sweet puppy kisses. We knew she was our girl almost right away.

Two weeks later we got to bring her home. She did great on the car ride back, even though being removed from her mom and siblings was hard at first. She slept most of the drive and we got to enjoy lots of puppy snuggles before we encountered potty training, puppy nips, and lots of trips outside at night.

I will have a lot of updates coming your way—Blue’s blogs will be two Wednesdays a month while she is young. There is just so much growing and learning going on at this age! She gained over a pound in the first week we had her and has learned to sit. Until that next blog post, here’s a mini photoshoot we had on her eight week birthday.

Have you ever had a puppy? I need ALL of the advice! From crate training, potty training, training her to thrive while being alone, EVERYTHING. Please leave it in the comments! If you think my pup is adorable, give this post a like and don’t forget to subscribe and join our family if you haven’t already!

Until next time,
Jamie out

we lost it all in Hurricane Florence

Published on November 26, 2018 by Jamie Shugart5 Comments

If you watched the news in September, you know that Hurricane Florence hit the east coast and caused a lot of damage. Most of the severe losses were in coastal towns, but places inland were affected as well. The Cape Fear River that runs through Fayetteville and the surrounding towns crested around 60 feet, majorly surpassing the 35 foot flood stage and causing families along the river and other water ways that run off it to be evacuated.

While we were in Arizona, most of our worldly possessions were in a storage unit in Fayetteville. We, luckily, decided to opt into the insurance the facility offered well before the storm. While I do not believe the storage unit was within a mandatory flood evacuation zone, we were informed by management that our unit had flooded.

We returned home at the end of October and took a peek at the damage. Initially we thought it wasn’t so bad—only a few boxes had been on the ground and it was mostly furniture that took the brunt of the water. We assumed we would be able to clean them off and be on our merry way.

After closing on our home, the next day we got a U-Haul and invited friends and family to help us empty our unit. We went out and bought gloves and masks for everyone, as long as a lot of white vinegar and cleaning supplies.

It was not just a little bit of damage. A whole box of picture albums was on the ground. Most of our furniture is wood or fabric, so the material held onto the moisture and mold grew rampant. Even boxes that weren’t soaked with water allowed moisture and eventually mold inside and we had to go through everything carefully.

Luckily, we were able to save money while we were in Arizona and we deliberately put some away for purchasing things we would need—like a washer and dryer. Luckily, like I said above, we put insurance on our unit and its contents. Luckily, we had the support of our loved ones as we unpacked, cleaned, and photographed the damage. Luckily, we serve a great God who has been gracious in providing, even through the troubled times.

I know people who lost everything in Hurricane Matthew. People who lost their homes and all of their possessions. In the hurricanes that have hit the Carolinas recently, many people have lost their lives.

We lost some furniture. Financially and emotionally that is certainly not the easiest thing to go through. But we have our lives, and we have each other.

On the plus side, we get new stuff. We get to pick the things that are to our taste. We get to design our house from the ground up, so to speak. And while it may be tough and draining and arduous, especially during the waiting (we are still working through the insurance claims process and have not been reimbursed for our losses yet), we know that now is not forever and that now will always change.

After over three weeks, we have been able to almost fully furnish our home with what we NEED, with either the money we saved or the generosity of others. We are grateful and happy for what we have, and we know that having each other is much more important than having a mattress, although it is much easier to sleep at night with one. For real.

Until next time,
Jamie out.