Tuesday, December 3, 2013

My How Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Well, I'm embarrassed to admit that my last post was well over a year ago! Ouch!!!

So much has happened in the last year and a half!!!  So I think the best thing to do is briefly catch up where I left off!  For starters, we closed on our first house, moved in and started making it our own!!

I finished up grad school, and am proud to announce I am now a Master of Accounting!!!

Shortly upon my return to Knoxville I landed a job at Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance, which is under the Clayton Homes umbrella.
I've learned in my first year here just how great of a company it is to work for!  Looking forward to my future here and where my career may lead me.

And then life got busy, and that's a huge understatement.  This year we had SIX weddings, one of which was our own!!! I might also add that I was honored to standup as a bridesmaid in two of those weddings!! Our wedding year started with my little sister from my sorority in March.

Megan and Pat were wed in a beautiful ceremony in Wilmington, NC.  I was honored when Megan asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding (and so excited when she was able to return the favor for me in June)!!! The following month it was off to Charlotte, NC to celebrate my big brother Jerry's wedding to his college sweetheart Kate!!

Again, I was honored to serve as a bridesmaid to my new sister-in-law!! We had almost two months to recover until our next wedding at the start of June when Amber, my big sister from my sorority, got married.  Luckily for us, Amber and Jeremy were married locally, so thankfully we didn't have to travel for this one!!


And then the big one...Kevin and I exchanged vows at All Saints Catholic Church in Knoxville on June 22!!!!


I could go on for days about what a perfect day it was.  We felt so blessed to be surrounded by our closest friends and family on such an important day in our lives!!!  We had such an amazing team of vendors that far exceeded our expectations, and stopped short of nothing to ensure our day was as perfect as we envisioned!!
Following the wedding we took a cruise to the western Caribbean for our honeymoon.  We visited serval ports along the coast of Mexico and South America.  In one port we went on a scuba diving excursion, and while I had a rocky start, I have found my new passion!!  Kevin and I hope to get certified in the next year so that we can start going on longer more advanced dives!!

Shortly after returning from our honeymoon, one of Kevin's groomsmen was getting married in Syracuse.  Unfortunately we weren't able to make it to New York to celebrate with Ryan and Erin, but we could tell from the photos that we missed a beautiful wedding!  And while we weren't able to be there, we were definitely thinking of them that day and celebrating from afar!

Our year of weddings wrapped out with my oldest brothers wedding in October.  Scott and Ashley were wed on a beautiful October day in Plainfield, IN.

I must say, we were definitely spoiled with family time this year as we gathered for so many weddings.  With family all over the country it can definitely be difficult to get together with everyone, and each of these weddings provided the perfect excuse to put forth the time and effort and spend time celebrating a special moment with those we are closest to!

Following the wedding in October, things definitely started to calm down.  We started looking forward to attending the University of Tennessee Homecoming game, which many of Kevin's college friends would be in town for.  While we lost the game, it was fun getting to spend time with so many friends, and a good opportunity for me to meet some of the people I've heard so many stories about from Kevin's college years!


And that just about sums it up!  I'm sure I'm leaving things out, but those were the big points this year!  We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving with family over the last two weeks, and I'm excited to be hosting my first Christmas next month!!!  Stay tuned, because I'm sure there will be lots to share!!!