All Done!!!!

I am now officially married to the greatest [hottest] graduate from Florida Tech University. And I still get to share a dorm room with him. ;) This has been a long three years and we are so grateful to God for giving us the strength to finish. Last Friday (on the eve of miss hurricane irene), Tony submitted his last assignment and took his very last stressful exam. As soon as he pressed the submit button one more time, it felt like a huge weight was lifted off us. It was surreal (still is)! We kept saying, with much enthusiasm, we're really done. We're done with school. That was really are last test. No more school work .... over and over we repeated these truths, as our brain had a hard time comprehending this new reality -- life after school!!! :) There on the couch we sat, together, all done. We lifted up praise to God for the completion of this three year journey.

After hugs and kisses and a very squeally YAY from me, we got dressed up nice and enjoyed a cold one at Mother Earth Brewery. We sat out back, side-by-side, on their pretty patio and thoroughly savored our time together. Congratulations started to pour in from facebook (thanks to our dear family and friends). They made the night even more special! Chick-fi-la was our evening snack, followed by a dance party at home. :) We dimmed the lights, turned up Pandora, and danced the night away. It was so much fun, just the two of us celebrating a really HUGE mile stone in our lives. :)

And now for some pictures that have sprinkled my blog during this journey. :) 

In the beginning :) 

Great "healthy" snack while doing school work. :) 

Way too many late nights!! Read this little "poem" I wrote on one of those late nights. :) 

No work, no school, and minimal chores for an entire week. Priceless!! :) 

dd

It was a very tough journey that took a toll on us mentally and physically!! God's sweet grace carried us through! 

Enjoying life

Our weekend delivered lots of togetherness time. Extra hours wrapped in our high thread count sheets. A well detailed brewery tour. Over an hour long, thoroughly enjoyed conversation with a complete stranger, while we sipped on our flights. We are strangers no longer, thanks to facebook. There were moments with friends and family. A little skateboarding. And much time spent at our local movie theatre.

A lot is wrapped up in that last sentence. Our church is currently in transition mode and actually had service at the theatre Sunday morning. In the evening, we went with a couple friends to watch "Cowboys & Aliens." Upon exiting the movie, it was pouring down rain and apparently had been for much of our movie-watching time. The parking lot was crowded with cars trying to get out, but the firefighters did not deem it safe to do so, as the only road coming into the theatre was flooded with water knee deep. We sat in our cars for thirty minutes, heard that it was going to be nearly two hours before anyone could cross over, and took it as a sign to go watch another movie with our friends. Haha. "Captain America" was our second choice and paired well with twizzlers. :) About an hour later, our movie was abruptly stopped and we were told that we had to go ahead and cross the flooded road as another line of thunderstorms were on the way. So along with lots of other cars, we drove through the knee deep water and made it safely to the other side. It was all very exciting! :)

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In other news, we've been pet free for most of our married life. Several years ago, we found three blind baby mice under the stove. We didn't have the heart to kill them, they reminded me too much of the pet hamsters I had while growing up. We instead tried to feed them milk. They ended up passing away within a week... which I guess is a good thing. ;) More recently we had about a dozen baby black swallowtail caterpillars in our garden. Although they're maintenance free, they felt like pets as I went to check on them each morning. One by one they've disappeared - either taken by their rival wasps or in my mind they snuck off somewhere and built themselves a cocoon. While they were here though, I captured some photos and video with my phone, as my stand alone camera is still not working.  :(

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I saved a variety of sunflower seeds from my garden. Soon, everything will be cleared out and we'll be adding some fresh compost to our garden beds. Can't wait!

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Mint Sorbet nail polish has been my favorite the past week.

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Last night we had a mid week adventure and decided to let our creative juices run. Pictures will be posted when we're all done. Blank canvas + cheerful paint + specially selected wine + music playing in the background + homemade bacon cheese fries = = a wonderful time with the man I love most!!!! You, my dear readers should try it sometime. ;)

This morning ~ a new day

Our alarm went off at 4am. We were side by side in the car thirty minutes later. And arrived to the beach we call ours just in time for the sunrise. It was the last good day for surf-able waves from the tropical storm out at sea and Tony didn't want to miss it. He surfed. I walked on the shore for nearly an hour. Then journaled and read for a bit. All while God's handiwork was displayed in shades of blue, orange, and pink. We left shortly after the yellow ball gleamed over the ocean waters. We both had worked up a hunger and anxiously drove home. There we had a big breakfast of cheese grits with scrambled eggs and mandarin oranges. Then Tony got ready for work and the day proceded as normal. "We should do these early beach days more often." :) 

The Mountains

After 20 days, our air conditioner unit is back up and running--all rooms in the house are now cooled to 70 degrees and it's real nice to be able to walk from room to room without feeling like you're going into a sauna. There were times when parts of the house registered in at 100 degrees. Thankfully we were able to get a window unit early on in this adventure, which made it all bearable and for the most part things proceeded as usual. This kept the dining room, front living room, and kitchen cooled, so that is where we did most our living. Needless to say our house was a bit disorderly. So today I spent a lot of my day straightening up the house and it is back to normalcy for the most part. :)

Now to play catch up with lots of pictures.

Starting with our trip to the mountains last weekend. We left super early and were to my Mimi's house by 6:30am for breakfast. Upon our arrival she had coffee brewed and was so sweet to prepare breakfast for us all. She's the best Mimi ever!! We thoroughly enjoyed our visit with her, Keith, Nikki, and my Aunt Gayle. Sweet moments! :) And as usual, the visit was way too short.

From Mimi's we took the scenic route to Asheville, stopping by Chimney Rock to walk on river stones and stick our feet in the mountain water. :) We would love to carry a big truckload of rocks back to our house -- and some of those rolling green hills too.  

Once in Asheville we shared lunch with our dear friend Marcus at Bier Gardens. Great food, drinks, and fellowship!! :) We each ordered a beer flight with our meal, where we were able to sample 4 different beers of our choice (they had lots to choose from). After sipping all and rating them least-best, I will finish them off through the course of my meal in that same order, leaving my favorite for last! My favorite this time around was an ace pear cider.

After an afternoon nap at our hotel we met up with about 20 other Christians to proclaim the gospel at the Bele Chere festival. There are several hundred thousand people that attend this festival every year. We typically set up on various corners to pass out gospel tracts and talk with those that are willing to listen. There are always lots of great conversations. Saturday morning we went to minister at the abortion clinic, then back to the festival for the evening.

On our way home that Sunday we took the scenic route once again and ended up hiking to see the Lanville Gorge and Waterfalls. :) They say the gorge is "North Carolina's Grand Canyon." Well, don't get to excited. Haha. When we finally got to the gorge, Tony said "this is definitely not the grand canyon." :) Still beautiful and a fun time together though.