2.

...years that is.

David and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary on August 9 (yes, more than a week ago... so, I'm behind on the blog...) and I can hardly believe it has been that long! These two years have been the best of my life- no exaggeration. The best part about being married to David is that we are on the same team (Team G!)- no matter what the circumstances. I'm so blessed to have a husband who is truly my best friend.

Looking back (through my blog) I realized I never really did a full recap of our wedding weekend. Probably because, though wonderful, it was exhausting and I've needed some time to recover. That, and I was so disappointed with our pictures that I didn't want to show them to anyone. (A bit of advice: Use a seasoned professional for your wedding pictures. You only get one chance to get it right. You get what you pay for and the pictures are the only tangible piece of the wedding you will keep forever! I learned this lesson the hard way...)

Now I think it's time to recap the whole weekend of events!

Thursday: Honeymoon Shower

Since we knew that nearly everyone coming to the wedding would be traveling in from out-of-town, one of our main objectives for the weekend was to include as many people as possible in lots of activities. That began Thursday evening with my Honeymoon Shower and David's dinner & a ballgame outing. Ashley and Greg bought our honeymoon as their wedding gift to us (most generous gift EVER), but their one stipulation was that it be a surprise to me. So, Ashley (with the help of Courtney and Casey) threw my shower to reveal the location of our trip. Thus, it was a Mexican themed party!

Casey, Ashley and Courtney- the best hostesses!

This is how they revealed the location of our honeymoon to me!

(and yes, this was 2 days before our wedding)

The only pictures I have from this party are ones I stole from facebook. It makes me so sad that I don't have pictures of everyone that was there because so many sweet people helped us celebrate.

Friday: Play day at CVP
This was one of the best parts of the entire weekend. Jerry let us use the waterfront at camp for several hours Friday morning so we could just play and hang out with our family and friends that were in town. Lots of people made it in time to play and we had SO much fun.

Dad blobbing Greg!

Friday: Rehearsal Dinner at Coolidge Park
Once again, we decided that we wanted to include as many people as possible in the rehearsal dinner, so we had Sticky Fingers BBQ at the Walker Pavilion at Coolidge Park! The Lord blessed us with the most beautiful evening ever (especially for August in the South!) and everyone was really able to enjoy the night.

Oh, and our photographer decided not to come to the rehearsal dinner (and didn't bother telling me), but fortunately Becca had her camera with her and was gracious enough to take pictures! All the ones we have from that night are from Becca, hence the impeccable quality.

My Aunt Doris and Uncle Denny brought us leis straight from Hawaii!

Kate wasn't even here yet! I can hardly remember life pre-Kate!

Sweet, sweet friends.

Kara Rhodenbaugh (Andy's sister and like a little sister to David) and Mindy Barber (mother of the ring bearers but more importantly, my dear friend)

love them!

Stole this one off facebook, but I love it!

Up next: Wedding day!

night at the park

After enjoying a relaxing dinner at Chili's (courtesy of Anna! thank you, friend!), we met up with the Rochas at Coolidge Park last night. It was the first night in months that was even remotely pleasant, and we had so much fun! Kate warmed up to the fountains, KJ chilled contently in his seat, and the big girls and boys chatted away.

We topped it all of with ice cream, of course.

What a wonderful evening!

Monday already??

Out of a whole weekend of fun things, the only pictures I took were on my phone and of this sweet boy:

I could just eat him up!

love both of these sweet boys. KJ takes after David's fashion sense! I even bought him some seersucker yesterday :)

Becca's sister Jessica got married this weekend, and it was a joyous occasion. Friday night was the barn dance at the Coker Barn (so fun!) and Saturday was full of wedding festivities. I "helped" by holding this precious baby throughout the day. We had two couples involved in the wedding (the minister and a groomsman + their wives) stay at our house for the weekend, and they were so sweet to make dinner for us Saturday night. We were blessed by their company and new friendship! Sunday we spent the day lounging at the lake and enjoying the Bryants. David cooked dinner (shredded beef & mashed potatoes: his specialty) and we helped the Bryants kick off their last week of freedom. School starts next week!

a peek inside my brain

Working on a college campus makes you keenly aware of the end of the summer. Classes at UTC start August 23 (David's birthday! The best gift ever is that he won't be heading to class!!), so everything is in high gear to get prepared. As this time approaches, I am reminded once again of how weird I am.

Why? Well, it turns out that when I visualize the calendar, it is as a pie chart in my brain.

Here you go:

Essentially, it boils down to the fact that August is a BIG month in my little world. As far as I can remember, August was THE most important month out of the whole year, and for some reason that automatically made it the longest. Granted, my birthday is August 26th and my sister's is the 27th, so I'm sure that has something to do with it. Now, we have David's birthday on the 23rd and our anniversary on the 9th to add to the August celebrations. It's weird, I know. For example, I can't explain at all to you why March is a "large" month... that's just the way it is in my head. And June and July?! So sorry, friends. You are quite forgotten. I guess there just isn't enough room in the summer for August AND other months!

SO, there you have it. Proof positive that I am crazy.

so much to say

The longer I wait to blog, the more content I have to actually blog about. I've been debating whether to put it all in one big, overwhelming post or to break it up over lots of small ones. I'm still collecting pictures from the weekend, so you'll have to wait for those.

In the past week we've had a lot going on:

David graduated with his MBA.

We celebrated at the lake with all of our families and lots of friends.

We celebrated our 2 year anniversary.

David joined a soccer team with some VW guys.

I joined the Junior League.

To begin the long weekend post, I'll share this. Everyone was so generous and David got tons of gifts (cash, gift cards, luggage), but he got one thing that pretty much made his entire weekend:

Yep, that's a mini Ohio State helmet signed with a personal message from Jim Tressel (Ohio State's coach). Andy outdid himself with this special gift! David was absolutely elated.

Stay tuned for much, much more about our weekend o' fun!

stick a fork in him...

HE'S DONE!!!

He's actually finished, but you catch my drift.

Food is done, people are finished.

David came home last night from his VERY FINAL MBA class to some homemade oatmeal raisin cookies (his favorite)

and a handwritten sign inspired by one of our favorite YouTube sensations.

I've said it before but it's worth repeating a thousand times... I am SO proud of David!

Cotton Ball

Saturday night was Cotton Ball!

Mary Shelton was presented last year, and this year she was one of four girls chosen to be on the court. She was the most gorgeous girl in the room, and we were SO proud of her! Obviously, I cried. If we have kids who are half as attractive or talented at the Bryants, I am going to need serious sedation to make it through special events.

And now... tons of pictures:

Can you tell which two have lived at the lake for the summer?

+ Chuck

(and his wonky bow tie)

cutest picture ever!

Their bow ties and Kevin's cummerbund have cotton on them!

We had a BALL (literally) dancing the night away. The next day we were all sore from the festivities, probably because of the constant squats we were doing in order to dance with Margaret Anne.

Thank you, Bryants+Hudsons for such a fun night. We love you guys, but you already knew that :).