Lake James

I had too much fun. I have evidence of this because I have absolutely no pictures of Lake James. Jonathan and I went to the Lake with his parents, Erin, Mike, and Aiden. We had such a great time! Jonathan and I pretty much just laid on tubes in the water the whole time (or jumped off the second level of the dock). One day we did venture into the small town of Black Mountain. It was a really neat place and I would highly recommend it. It had interesting stores and great restaurants! We were so grateful to go with his family and have some time together. It was also interesting to see a "day in the life of a baby." Ha!

The only pictures I took were some when we were relaxing at night. I did try to take a couple of the mountains outside but my camera fogged up from the humidity. :)

I Love Fall!

I Love Fall!

Brrrr! It has grown colder and darker as we moved our clocks back 1 hour. This comes with the positive of not driving to work in the dark in the mornings but with the negative of getting darker earlier in the afternoons. But fall still remains to be the best season of the year with apple cider, pumpkin, fires, football, and the beauty of changing leaves. 

I apologize for being so terrible at blogging. Since work began back the last thing I have felt motivated to do was go on the computer when I get home from work. I will keep working on it but I am making no promises. :)

Jonathan and I have enjoyed getting back into our "pre-grad school" routines by actually having full weekends together. We celebrated mom's birthday, his birthday, and our nephew Aiden's first birthday. It was also Jenny's birthday...lot's of birthdays! We were also excited to take part in Anna's wedding :)

Happy fall and I will post some catch-up pics on other posts. Check out some fall pics below:

I also love that you can drive down
the road in the fall and see this...

And this...

I love our tree in the front of
 our house

Sophie hanging out in the window now that we can leave them open to catch the crisp fall breeze. How does she get in there?

Goodbye Summer

Goodbye Summer!
I can't believe today was the first day back at work. We had a busy summer in the household with a wallpaper project that never ends, vacations, our anniversary, and much more! Every year at this time I feel both anxious, hopeful, and excited for a fresh start at work. While I am typing, I can scarcely believe that the summer is over. I will slowly try to catch you up with more consistent posts and our latest happenings.

Last month Jonathan and I spent our anniversary in Asheville. We splurged on a nice hotel and had a blast exploring one of our special places to visit. I am so thankful for Jonathan, and though the last two years has been a whirlwind, I have loved every minute of being married to him. One of our favorite (and slightly dorky) things to do in Asheville is to go to the nature center. Check out a few of these pics!

Check back soon to see pictures from Lake James and the Outer Banks!

June Adventure # 1- Happy Birthday Poppy!

June Adventure # 1- Happy Birthday Poppi!

In June, we traveled to Georgia to celebrate my grandfather's birthday. My grandmother is very sneaky and planned to get the family together to surprise him. It worked! He was shocked to see us pull up to his house at 11:30 at night. On Saturday, we had a small party that consisted of family and friends that came to celebrate Poppi turning 80. It was a great time and Nani worked tirelessly to make the party wonderful. Though the weekend went by much too fast, I was grateful to take part in the fun. Below are a few pictures from the festivities. 

Hello Again

Hello again! 
As usual, it has been awhile since my last post. The reason for this is that things have been a bit hectic. In the last 5 weeks school went on break, I finished graduate school (yay!), helped my parents move, went out of town (several times), and am currently working to take wallpaper off the wall in the bathroom (different post to come about this fun). The good news is that I now have more free time to work on projects, get myself back in shape, and bask in the joy that I don't have to rush home from work to do grad school work. Hooray!
Since there has been so much going on, I decided to do separate posts to catch up. Enjoy reading through our June and July adventures so far. There are more to come!

Checking in and Catching Up

Catching Up...


It seems I am not very good with blogging. My hope is that things will slow down soon and I can blog more regularly. It is almost the end of May and time has been flying. Here are a few highlights from the last three weeks.


1) Graduate School Presentation: To finish the program you have to give a presentation in front of the graduate department about your key learnings, evidence, etc. Of course, this was not the most fun...but it ended up being tolerable. :) Plus I got a medal out of it..whoop! On the down side, my advisor was there and "strongly encouraged" me to walk in December's graduation. I was hoping to avoid this since it is months after I am technically finished with grad school. We'll see.

My friend Elizabeth and I after the presentation. She rocks and I couldn't have made it through this experience without her. (Not feeling well in this picture so excuse the puffy eyes etc)

2) Mother's Day came and went. I was in Durham so I was not with my mom. But she knows that she is awesome and I love her very much! It was nice to be with Jonathan's family, and I got some great new pictures of Aiden (these will follow). 

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

3) Two weekend break: Thankfully, between spring semester and summer session I got two weekends off. Jonathan and I loved hanging out, and I loved being lazy. I read a lot and tried to exercise, and I geared up for the final stretch of grad school. I feel like the little engine that could ("I think I can...) climbing up that mountain. 

Best thing about time off on the weekends...walking around outside.  I love Spring!

4) Charlotte visit: I was widely jealous to go with Jonathan to the dedication of the new tennis facility. I would go back to UNCC in a heartbeat...that place looks awesome! They have built so many new buildings and the facilities around campus look incredible. We had a great time rooming with Marilyn and Jonathan C. in the hotel. You know they are true friends when you are sharing a room with four adults and loving every minute. They are awesome! The best part about going to the old stomping grounds was remembering mine and J's dating years. It brings back great memories.

One of our favorite "pubs (picture from 2006)." We went back there that weekend. 

5) Nolan's birthday: Nolan is Allison's son and had his birthday which we missed because we were in Charlotte. Allison, Nolan, and I went out to lunch the weekend before to celebrate. Nolan is my unofficial nephew in case you are wondering. He is such a fun kid...just like his mom! I got a few photos of him before we went out to eat. He was so precious with Chomsky.

That's all for now. I will try to be more consistent posting, but summer school began today so I make no promises. Two classes left and the end of school at work will prove to be a busy five weeks...but then I am done. I can hardly wait!

Let's try this again

Let's try this again... A month ago I tried to post a video I made from pictures I took around spring break this year. It seemed to be having some problems for some people, so I embedded it here. Hopefully you should just have to press play.