Internet in Alabama!

Hello! I'm alive! It was funny to see that my last post was from May 9th! That is almost 3 months ago! Wow! So much has happened since then!

Graduation & Pinning
They were both amazing! It was so cool to actually be done with school! Pinning is such neat ritual & I'm so glad  that I got to share it with my family and friends! And my mom got to put the pin on me, which made it extra special!

Wedding
Wow. It was absolutely amazing. The best part about it, for me, was the serenity that came over me the couple of hours before & during the ceremony. I was completely calm and at peace. Nothing could go wrong. I was marrying my best friend and the world was right. Several things did go wrong. For instance, a hobo tried to crash our wedding & Seth had to intervene. The video camera almost didn't make it (and I still haven't seen the video). I kissed my dress (with lipstick on) during the last minute pee session and Sabrina freaked out. I guess those are small wrong things. The ceremony was absolutely perfect. I didn't cry (I know, I was amazed, too!)! The reception was mostly perfect (I really did not enjoy our DJ). Our family and friends were there & it was an amazing day!

Honeymoon
Mexico was phenomenal! Gosh. So many great things! We stayed at Excellence Playa Mujeres. It was an all-inclusive resort 20 minutes North of Cancun. I have so many neat pictures. We went to Chichen Itza, the Mayan ruins on the Yucatan Peninsula. It is one of the 7 Wonders of the World and it was phenomenal! Other than that, we laid on the beach, drank piña coladas (ok, Seth didn't. He had beer), and ate all the food that our little hearts desired. By Day 3 we wished that people would let us do stuff for ourselves, but we enjoyed the rest of the trip.

We got back from the honeymoon, stayed in the hotel that we met in six years ago on that fabulous Youth Tour trip, went to our friends Ricky & Katlin's wedding, and then returned to as normal as it got for a month. We stayed at my parents' house for a little while. I took my NCLEX on June 23rd & passed it (most of you already know that). Therefore, I am officially a nurse! :)

Carlos
We also gained a member of our family, Carlos. He is now 10 weeks & 2 days old. He was born on May 24th of this year & we picked him up on July 4th. He is the sweetest Velociraptor anyone could ever have. Just kidding. He is a Golden Retriever. But sometimes I swear that the toilet paper and I would agree that he is a dinosaur. He is so good! He can sit, lay down, stay, and give kisses (that one is just for me). He already knows that Seth is more for playing & I am more for loving (although we do play a lot, too). He has only had 2 accidents in our house and we have been here for 3 weeks!! Up until two days ago, he whined at the door when he needed to go outside. Two days ago we hung some bells on the door handle & now he rings the bells to go outside (Thanks, Robert & Lauren!). He loves tug of war & chewing on hands. We are trying to stop the latter. He is getting really good at fetch, too.

Moving
It was really sad to move, I must admit. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be but only because I thought I wouldn't be able to drive away. It was a 13.5 hour drive and we split it up in two days; stopping in Meridian, Mississippi. I saw a lot of America that I had never seen before & the drive really wasn't that bad. Carlos slept the majority of the time (benefit of him being a tiny puppy). As soon as we got here to Fort Rucker, Alabama, we got our house & moved in! It was so simple.

Our House
I love it. I didn't know how I would feel about living on post. I thought there would be a lot of restrictions that I couldn't take; but the benefits outweigh the negative things. In about two months, Seth will have SERE training during which we have no contact for three weeks. He is a lot more ready to do that knowing that I will be safe inside the post gates during that time. Carlos will keep me safe. The lawn mowing situation kind of makes me mad since they almost didn't mow the first week because the gate was "locked" by a cinder block blocking a hole so Carlos couldn't climb out & this past week they didn't mow at all due to "excessive pet feces." Before y'all think I'm gross, it was not excessive. However, it will be in tip-top shape come Monday & there will be no complaints about my yard. We were blessed to have been given a couch, love seat, & TV by Seth's parents. Our only other furniture was an air mattress. Since then, we have gotten a table, side tables and a TV stand for the living room, and bedroom furniture. The house is amazing. We were supposed to only get a two bedroom home. They were all out of them so instead they put us in a three bedroom home so we can have a guest bedroom & an office! Seth is so excited to build a desk for our office!

It has been such a blast to set up our home together. Seth has had most of the time off with the exception of 0550 workouts every morning so we have been able to spend almost all of the three weeks together. We are still getting all the finishing touches worked out; but I am so happy to say that we are pretty much moved in!

And, I have a second interview (a call-back, if you will) for an ICU position tomorrow! I am so ready to begin working (but not ready to leave Carlos here by himself, which is why I'm going to be a stay-at-home mom when we have kids).

This has been a crazy couple of months & I am so grateful for the time off we have had but so ready to start our normal lives! :) Thank you all for the support during the crazy wedding planning & through the end of nursing school. Hopefully I'll be posting pictures of it all soon! :)