Pictures!

Here are the pictures from Anna and John's wedding! So much fun-I can't believe this was only a week ago!


Clay and DZ--sweaty after hours of dancing!

Warden dance party...epic times...

Anna and John!

Friends dance party...we had fun!

Sweet friends. How I miss you all!

Some of the crew!

Roomies at Tina's house, before we were attacked by a large bee...

What a Weekend!

Whew! Sorry I haven't been around lately-this past weekend wore me out! I spent the rest of last week having friends over for dinner, running, and getting my butt kicked at an aerobics class at Smith Gym here on post. I told Brian about what we did and he called it a "smoke session"...meaning they wear you out! I felt pretty good that he considered my aerobics class credible enough to be deemed a 'smoke session'. My friend Dana and I think that the boys (our husbands) would get a great workout with us but we know it'll never happen...A) it's in the middle of the day, and B) Can anyone see Brian Page in an aerobics class? With fun music and a peppy teacher? Didn't think so. And he would be considerably outnumbered...there are currently no boys :)





So after my 'smoke session' on Friday I got in the car and drove 6 hours! Talk about some sore muscles afterwards! But it was completely worth it, as I ended up in Jackson, Mississippi at the end of my trek! I don't care what people say about Mississippi: I love it. Something just hits you when you cross the state line...feel like you're home! Maybe that's why Mississippi's welcome sign says this:

The sign-makers must feel it too! Anyhoo, I stayed with my old roomie Krystina and we had so much fun! We spent most of Friday night catching up on life, with her mostly telling me crazy stories about where she works! She works at an inner-city church and gets to interact with a lot of the homeless community on a daily basis-she has some great stories about learning about herself and the people who visit her everyday! Saturday Stacey and Zach got into town and Karen and Jared came over too--a roommate reunion, plus husbands! We had so much fun together, catching up, telling stories, and hearing what's new in all of our 'adult' lives....Although I still feel like we should all still be in college, living together, watching Friends, eating ice cream (except you might find Stacey eating lettuce...) and sitting on our lovely red couch!

Saturday night we headed out to have dinner at this awesome place called Sal and Mookie's. When the girls were saying it's name though, I thought it was spelled "Salimuki's", and I thought it had something to do with sushi...as we all know, not exactly my favorite! Except of course, for the fried rice :) No instead it was a New York style pizza/calzone/stromboli type place! And it was so. incredibly. delicious. I might drive 6 more hours just to eat there again! Needless to say, I was NOT hungry at the reception! We headed to the wedding and I got to see my parents and my brother who were also at the wedding, as well as the rest of our MSU friends! Such a glorious reunion. Lots of big hugs, laughs, and smiling! Not to mention dancing. We pretty much tore up the dance floor all night long, only stopping for a few water breaks! Anna was a beautiful bride and everything was gorgeous at the reception--pictures are coming, I promise! I'm usually so excited to write to you all that I don't like to waste time uploading pictures while I write-ha! Hence a second forthcoming post with pictures :) Plus I never know where to put the caption: above, or below? Above, and you get confused with what picture it goes with. Below, and you see all the picture before the caption...ah the dilemma! But thankfully for me, I don't think these wedding pictures are going to need many captions-they sort of speak for themself...

I headed back to Fort Benning Sunday...it was a long drive. Boo. You might be wondering why Brian didn't make it to the wedding with me...well, he was at the lake with our dear friends the Arants and Abernathys! We had to do a little double duty this weekend with our social schedule! He reported that they had a lot of fun; they took out the jet skis (AKA, death on water when Brian's driving...watching him usually takes about 2 years off of my life and will probably make gray hair come prematurely...), and got to catch up a lot. Hopefully we'll do it again soon and I can go with him! I love the lake: it's the easiest way to get a tan because the breeze off the boat doesn't make you hot while you're laying out. Matt always drives the boat and we boost up his ego by telling him he looks like quite the ladies man with three girls tanning on his boat!

Brian is in the field this week-should be home Thursday at 13:00! That's 1 PM. Ok, this never happens-a SUPER early release! Unfortunately I have a meeting at 3, but I'm hoping it'll be quick so I can get home and see him! Not seeing him much this weekend really made it feel like we hadn't had any time together, so I'm eager to see him! I feel bad for the guys-the past two times they've been out in the field it's rained! I mean, it probably feels pretty good but then you have to deal with wet gear and clothes for quite a few hours-no thanks. And those ACU's don't dry super fast. Brian's in leadership this week, so praying that he does well!

Some other random updates before I let you go...I've been applying for jobs, so we'll see what comes back! Just put in most of the applications last week, so it may be awhile before I hear back. I've also started running (regularly) again! My friend Dana is a great runner and she is always up for a run, which I love! I've even been able to talk through several of our runs...I can't believe it! ha :) I usually left Lydia and Gena to talk through the runs as I huffed alongside them...The reason I've kicked up the running is because I'm running the Baltimore half-marathon this October! Why the Baltimore half-marathon? Because dear best friend Katie lives there! I think Sarah and maybe Lydia are going to run it as well, so it's going to be a great reunion! I'm really excited about it. I think this is going to be great motivation to run over the years. The key: sign up for races in towns where your friends live! I'm hoping to run the St. Jude half in December too, and the only thing spurring me on is that I'm going to be able to see tons of my MSU friends who are going to run it too! I ran that one a few years ago (2009?), and loved it. It's a pretty flat course and now the course goes through the children's hospital-how awesome is that?!

Well my cleaning is calling. Had to take a break...Much love!

Marriage...11 days in

Well hello! I have to say, I have been looking forward to this day for some time now. "What day?" You might ask. The 11th day of marriage of course! Actually, the day I get to (officially) start the blog! But so far, the 11th day of marriage has been grrreat. So great that Brian even made dinner. This is due to the fact that I got called into work...which also means that I forgot I was supposed to work today, and my co-worker called me and asked where I was...guess the vacation has to end at some point! They weren't too harsh on me though...my boss, co-worker Megan, and I talked wedding/honeymoon for about 45 minutes-it was a good time.

Speaking of the wedding/honeymoon...IT ALL WAS SUCH A BLAST! If you had any part, big or small, in any of the wedding, thank you with all my heart! It was pretty much the most fun day of my life, mostly due to the fact that I was surrounded by everyone that I love! The ceremony was wonderful (big shout out to my amazing pastors/friends, Joey and Jon), none of the wedding party fainted, and we managed to throw a pretty amazing party afterwards, if I do say so myself. I have about 300 favorite moments from the day...probably should write those down! To name a few: seeing Brian, all of my bridesmaids, Stacey saving the day on my hair-do, communion in the morning, the "water-dancing" in the fountain, the boys serenading me to the Top Gun song, catching up with friends, Jai Ho... I should probably stop, because I keep thinking of more!

For the honeymoon, we went to the El Dorado Royale resort on the Riviera Maya (south of Cancun) in Mexico. It was phenomenal. All-inclusive, the bar opened at 9 AM, the breakfast was amazing, the beach was perfecta, as were the pools, and the staff were so incredibly friendly. We spent our days waking up early, going to eat a huge breakfast, working out (yes, but only twice!), swimming, applying lots of sunscreen to Brian, reading, and relaxing! And eating 4-course dinners. Yum. Brian usually ate 5-courses...I didn't because I usually didn't like one of the options...ha! Typical, I know. We also saw lots of iguanas!

We also got to go to Xel-Ha (Shell-ha), which is a huge cove that the ocean feeds into. We went snorkeling and I only got a little scared when a massive fish swam right at me. I promptly hid behind my lifesize GI Joe. He scared it away. Thanks, honey! We also jumped off some cliffs, walked the entire property, and helped a grandma and her 9 month old grandson cross a floating bridge. A floating bridge in Mexico means a bridge made out of hard plastic floats chained together, with guardrails only every 8-10 feet. Brian pushed the baby, I held onto grandma. May I offer some advice? Don't take a 9 month old to Mexico, ok? Or at least not to an outdoor water recreational area...or attempt to cross a looong floating bridge.

Once we got back, we headed to Tupelo for Foster and Laura's wedding! Brian was a groomsman, and we got to see some of our dear MSU friends and spend a lot of good quality time with them, which was amazing. We're all scattered now, so it was wonderful to catch up! Laura looked amazing and we're all jealous of her and Foster, as they're honeymooning in Italy. And in case you didn't know, that's where he proposed too...uber-romantic :)

Sunday we arrived back to Starkvegas, and ever since we've been cleaning up, setting up house, doing loads of laundry, grocery shopping, and getting back to work! I'm currently procrastinating from studying for my Comprehensive ("get out of grad school") exams, which are next Wednesday...it's hard to get into school-mode after all the festivities! I'm thinking some Bop's might help...Also talking to some dear friends tonight (Paul, my WB, and Gena Kennedy!) also helped me to add onto my procrastination... We also went to Columbus Air Force Base today and I am now officially a military wife with my own ID and health care! Watch out!

Well, I've gone on for long enough now...thanks for sticking with this-more to come later! This is fun!