Happy Anniversary to us!

Today is our anniversary- 6 years! It doesn't seem like it has been that long. Time definitely does fly.

Since we are not together today (I am in IL with my family, and Matt is in tech rehearsals for his show), we celebrated our anniversary on Friday night. Our landlords in Champaign were gracious enough to give us a gift card to a nice restaurant in Nashville as a thanks to us for being such great tenants. =)

We went to Miro District in downtown Nashville. It was awesome! We didn't take our camera, so this pic will have to do. It was a beautiful bistro that served French food in a casual setting. Our food was great- Matt had grilled lamb with grilled vegetables, and I had crab cakes.

Brace yourselves, here comes something a bit cheesy. In honor of our anniversary, here are 6 things I love about my husband.

1. The way the corners of his eyes crinkle when he smiles.
2. He is so calm and patient. He keeps me in check.
3. I love to watch him play with children, especially babies. I know that he's going to be a great daddy.
4. He can always cheer me up or make me laugh.
   
5. He is a strong and faithful priesthood holder. His faith strengthens me and our marriage.
6. He is so supportive of me and all the things I do.
   

Happy anniversary honey, I love you so much, and am so grateful to have you in my life!!

An update and a photo tour

We're getting settled into our house now. Matt started work this week, so I've been trying to keep busy getting things situated around the house, and job hunting like crazy, though I've had no luck on that front yet. I'm trying to be patient. =) We joined a gym this week, which I'm using to fill up some of my free time.

We've made some friends in our new church family, which is great, especially for me! There are 2 couples that are relatively close to us in age, as well as 2 larger families. Our congregation is pretty small, there are roughly 50 people in attendance on a good day.

Matt spent the week getting things ready on campus for the students to return next week (classes start Wednesday). He has been busy finding his way around, getting his office organized, ordering materials for his scene shop, and writing the syllabus for the class he'll be teaching.

As far as my job hunting goes, I've broadened my horizons a bit to include corporate accounting, which I'm hoping will pan out to a few more jobs. I plan to start cold-calling public accounting firms in the area on Tuesday, so I'm hoping to find something soon. I have sent out many resumes and applications already, so I'm praying that something will come through very soon.

Okay, now on to the good stuff! Since our family and friends are far enough away that they can't just come visit on a whim, we decided to post a little tour of our new home, so you all can see it!

See this post for some pics of the outside of our home.

Welcome! Here's the view from the front door (Lucy decided she wanted to be in the pic as well). If you go down the hall to the left, there's a bathroom in the hall and all of the bedrooms at the end of the hall.

If you're standing in the front entry, and look to your right, you'll see the living room.


Here's the kitchen, looking in from the dining area. At the end of the hall on the left is the laundry room.

Here's our bedroom, which is at the end of the hall.

The other side of our bedroom, and the entry to the master bath (which has a double vanity! Yay!).

This is the only room in the house that doesn't have tan carpet and "chocolate milk" colored walls. It's our gym for now, but we're looking to sell our elliptical trainer and this tv (since we joined a gym), so that this can eventually be a nursery. =)

One of these days, hopefully soon, this mess will be our guest bedroom!

The garage is still a bit of a mess, so no pics of that yet. =) Matt hung a few sets of shelves on the walls, so it's looking more organized every day.

Photo tours are fun, but we'll happily welcome real visitors any time!! Hint, hint.

Hello, Nashville!

We made it! After many, many hours of packing boxes and loading them into the truck, we finally rolled out of our neighborhood at around 8:30pm on Wednesday.
After stopping to say goodbye to our dearest friends, the Petersons, (many tears there!), we headed south for my parents house.
We left there Thursday morning, and stopped in Carbondale to pick up our washer and dryer.
The trip was difficult for me, since I had the cats in my car, and Lucy was very upset by having to be in the car. It took 2 doses of kitty sedatives to finally knock her out, and the rest of the trip was much better! =)
We rolled into our new neighborhood around 6pm on Thursday, and have been unpacking ever since! The house is a disaster, so I won't be posting any pics until I have something decent to show! =)
Anyway, we're here, happy to be in our new home, and interested to see what things are like in our new branch tomorrow morning.
More updates to come!

Our new place!

We went house-hunting last weekend, to find a house to rent in Nashville.

It was a long and busy trip, but we were successful! Here are a few pics of the home we'll be renting.





The kitchen is definitely the highlight for me! I'm thinking of dinner parties already!

With just under 3 weeks to go till moving day, I'm starting to really grasp how much work I have to do before then. Yikes!

We're very excited about moving on to the next phase of our lives, and I am admittedly in denial about the fact that this requires us to leave our good friends here. I cannot even think about it without getting teary-eyed, so I'm definitely not looking forward to what happens when I can't deny it anymore!

We're moving!

I'm sure most of you know this by now, but we're moving!

Matt got a job teaching at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, so we'll be moving there next month.

We're very excited, and looking forward to a new adventure!

Update, Trip to Indy

It's been quite a while since I posted last, although this is really the first exciting thing that has happened since graduation! Matt left just after Memorial Day for his summer job down in southern Illinois, and I have been going down to visit him every other weekend or so.

I did take a very fun girl's weekend trip to Columbus, OH in June to visit a friend who used to live here in Champaign. We had a blast! Unfortunately, no one brought a camera, so there are no pictures to share. It was about a 5.5 hour drive each way, but we had so much fun that it was worth it!

Okay, back to the more recent past. I decided to go visit my sis-in-law and her family for the weekend at the end of June. We went to the Indy Zoo, which was awesome, although it was HOT that day.

Here's some pics from the zoo.

Doesn't this eel look just like Flotsam or Jetsam from the Little Mermaid? UGLY!

I was able to "pet" this shark. They are kinda slimy...










What a happy boy! Cristian had fun at the zoo too. =)

I'm pretty sure Brieanna was having fun, but she was not interested in smiling for me...

After the zoo and some dinner, I took my sis-in-law out for a girl's night. We went to see "The Proposal," and laughed until our stomachs hurt and we were in tears. Great movie!

I'm a little sad now thinking back, because that was probably the last time I'll visit her and the kids for a long time. It's a much longer drive to see them from Nashville =(.

Hooray! He did it!

Matt graduated on the 17th, with honors, and with a Master of Fine Arts in Scenic Technology. He is the first in his family to go to graduate school!

We were grateful to have much of Matt's family and my parents here to celebrate with us. It was a perfectly beautiful day, and we enjoyed a barbeque with his classmates and their families, and some friends as well. We all had a great time!

Here's some pics!

Matt getting hooded by his advisor.

Pretty good looking grad, if you ask me!(but I may be a bit biased)

I may be as relieved to be finished as he is! =)

Matt and his parents

Congrats, honey! I am so proud of you!

A Wedding! And family photo day at the park

Matt's younger brother got married a couple of weeks ago. The next day, we went to the park to take family photos- all of his family was in town for the wedding!

Here's a couple of wedding pictures.

Matt's brother Josh, and his new wife Marissa. They're so cute!

Matt with his brother, and our nephew Jonathan.

Here's some of the family pics.

Matt's parents, with their children & spouses, and grandchildren.

Matt's grandma with her grandkids and their spouses.

Horsing around...aren't we cute? =)

I've been attacked! Don't you think I should be the one on his back?!

We had a blast visiting with the family, especially Matt's older brother and his family, and his grandma, who all came out from Utah! Our only disappointment was that we couldn't visit longer!

Awesome new recipe

Matt and I have been trying to live a healthier lifestyle, so I have been searching for new recipes that are delicious and healthy.

I hit the jackpot with this recipe! I made it today, and we both loved it! It honestly tastes much too good to be so healthy, and with a serving at only 285 calories, you could even afford to have dessert!

Follow the link to the recipe.

Shrimp Tostadas with Avocado Salsa

Weekend with Kaelobbe

Since we had one last long weekend before Matt went back to school, we decided to "kidnap" our nephew Kaelobbe from Indy for the weekend. Our favorite little buddy was stuck at home, while his sister and younger brother were spending time with Grandma & Grandpa in Quincy (since he had to go to school), so Matt surprised him by showing up at his house to bring him back here! I wish I could have seen his face, but apparently the look was complete shock. :0)

We started off our spoiling session... I mean weekend... with some pizza and Super Nintendo on Friday night, followed by a trip to the store at a time waaaay past bedtime... I shouldn't be saying this...no one will let me babysit ever again! He got to sleep in on Saturday, and he's 7, so it was fine. :) Such a bad influence!

Saturday was a day full of fun, and wore Matt and I out! We went to lunch at McD's so Kaelobbe could play at playland, and then headed for Kaelobbe's favorite place- the bowling alley! Every time we come to visit, going bowling is all he talks about, so I thought this would be perfect.

Look at the concentration! So serious! Isn't he cute?

Pondering his approach

The running start

The pitch

Watching the ball go into the gutter... :0(

Bummer! Oh, man!

A few frames later, he recovers nicely from the gutter ball, with a....

SPARE!! Hooray!

As you can see, our first game was great for Matt and Kaelobbe...not so much for me! What does that say about my bowling skills when I get beat by a 7 year old?!?!

After bowling, we went to the mall to let Kaelobbe burn up some more energy at the play area. He found a friend and they chased each other for almost 45 minutes, playing tag. Then we decided to play some Skee ball at the mall arcade (only 25 cents per game!), and Kaelobbe won a pocket full of candy.

We headed home for some dinner, and then snuggled up together on the couch to watch Indiana Jones. Kaelobbe spent most of the movie in my lap- he's the best cuddler! (and I love it!)

On Sunday, we brought him to church with us, which served to confuse several people, since he looks just like he could be ours! The weekend ended much too soon, and we drove to Crawfordsville, IN to meet his parents.

In our Sunday best

We had a blast with our buddy and love him lots!! He is welcome to come and stay anytime!