Monday, December 30, 2013

A Year in Review....

2013 was a great year, don't get me wrong, but I am so excited about the prospect of a new year with new beginnings and new adventures.

2013 was a crazy blend of stress and blessings — we dealt with unemployment, two semesters, wedding planning, a wedding, honeymoon, a new job, moving to a new city, etc. I am SO ready to get 2014 started!

January: I don't remember much about this month, except that I probably spent a lot of it on Pinterest looking at wedding stuff. We went to a bridal fair in Oklahoma City and Chase tagged along. The poor guy kept complaining about his stomach hurting; his mom and I finally convinced him to go to the hospital.
Despite the smile on his face, he had to have his appendix taken out. I did my best to take care of him and nurse him back to health.

February: Hmm....not sure if I remember anything significant about this month. More wedding planning, trying to diet for the wedding (FAIL).

March: I found my wedding dress! I thought it would take forever to pick out my dress, but the third dress I tried on was the perfect one.

April: More wedding planning, I'm sure. School work, going to class, grading papers, etc.

May: Finished my first year of grad school! We also drove to Alabama (in the middle of the night) to spend the week with my family. It was amazing...I'm hoping we can do it again! (hint, hint, Mom, Dad?)
Gulf Shores, Ala.

 

June: When we returned to Oklahoma from Alabama, we stayed with my family for a couple of days before we headed back north. Chase received a phone call during lunch one day. He called the man back later that day said said that a company in Houston wanted him to go to Houston that week for a prospective job in Tulsa. After a few months of unemployment, we were overjoyed! We returned home and had our engagement shoot (I know, I know, last minute) before he flew to Houston. Since his lease was about to expire on his apartment, we had to move all of is belongings to my apartment. The job wasn't finished before he left, so I finished moving/cleaning his apartment before I went to spend time with my family.


July: Wedding!!!! But first, Chase returned from Houston after being gone for nearly three weeks. He announced that we had to find a place to live in Tulsa IMMEDIATELY. The following Monday, he went to Tulsa to work, I met him that afternoon, and we looked at places to live. Luckily, we were able to find a nice place with immediate openings. On Friday, we started packing and loading things up and we were moved by Saturday. There were still things to do in Stillwater, so I traveled back in forth. Eventually, we had everything out of the apartment in Stillwater, just in time for my high school besties to arrive and last minute wedding prep. I drove to Oklahoma City to pick them up and we spend the next couple of days doing last minute things. I can honestly say I had never been so stressed. My apartment still wasn't unpacked, I still had wedding stuff to do, and I was trying to spend time with my friends while getting ready for my wedding and packing for the honeymoon. Somehow I survived. People act surprised when I tell them my wedding was super stressful (I still haven't watched the video of our wedding for that reason). But, it wasn't the wedding itself. It was a culmination of everything we had dealt with for the past six months. Even though my wedding day was so beautiful, I was genuinely happy when it was over.





It was so funny — I almost waited until October because I always wanted a fall wedding. But, since we obviously didn't want to live together before we were married, trying to find two apartments wherever we moved was getting troublesome, and since I would be in the middle of a semester, we chose July. And, I'm so happy we did. After we returned from our wonderful honeymoon in Florida, the toughest semester of my life began.

August - December: These months were a blur. My beautiful cousin married the beginning of August and I was blessed enough to do her makeup. She looked gorgeous! My parents celebrated their 27th wedding anniversary on Aug. 15. My parents are my biggest inspiration and I look up to them in so many ways. I celebrated my 26th birthday on Sept. 10 (eek!) and Chase celebrated his 25th on Nov. 8. Yes, he calls me a cradle robber. We did a day after shoot in downtown Tulsa and took some amazing artsy pictures that I am dying to have printed.
I also began my second year of graduate school. I made the commute (3 hours round trip) to Stillwater four times a week and began working on my thesis. I had a hard time with the commuting, keeping everything straight and getting everything done on time. With the great support from my husband and family, I was able to finish the semester with a 4.0. I have never been so happy to have a semester be over! Even though I had a tearful breakdown in the food court of the mall while shopping with his family, I survived. We had a great Christmas with both of our families and are looking forward to celebrating the beginning of a new year.

To all of my friends and family that I have been blessed with, thank you so much for an amazing year! Much love and prayers for an even better year in 2014!




 

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