A month flew by

Wow it's been a quick month! Interesting too..

We had a fantastic time in Hatteras for our anniversary. We did "touristy" things that we haven't done in forever, or have never done at all. We visited the lighthouse and climbed it. We also did a kayak tour, which was pretty neat. We even went over to Ocracoke, which we do with his family usually every June, but it never really interests us so much. They have a seafood buffet we wanted to check out though. The only downside to the trip is we were evacuated by hurricane Irene :(

As much as it sucked to be evacuated, it was nothing compared to the devastation our island friends are now facing. The pictures and story usually make me tear up reading them. I wish we could do more.

We faired fine through the hurricane up here. My mom had a tree fall on her house, only gutter damage though. Then we got hit with the remnants of tropical storm Lee about a week later and her crawlspace flooded. Could have been a lot worse I suppose. I wish the rainy dreary days would end though. It feels like we haven't seen a sunny day since we were in Hatteras.

On top of all the rain I started school again. Oy. What was I thinking taking 6 classes (18 credits) in one semester. Not sure how this is going to go. One step closer to graduation is the way I am trying to think.

We also celebrated our real one year anniversary Septemeber 7th. Dusty worked all day and I was in school until 7. I just have to say though, this was by far the best anniversary we've ever had. Started off in the morning with him surprising me with my present. He got me 4 new beads for my Pandora bracelet. 2 were a dog bone, and paw print to represent the pups, one was a glass bead with palm trees to represent Hawaii (where we honeymooned) and one that says I <3 NY. Then after I got home we went to Bella Napoli Restaurant. We had our first date ever there. He called ahead and asked the manager to make us a special dessert. It had our wedding date on it. I was about to dig in and he had to stop me to actually look at it! I also got some beautiful red roses :) Overall it was a great day, even though we only saw each other about 3 hours max :)

Laura

Man, where did the summer go?!?

So it's been awhile. Once every couple of months seems to be the norm for me apparently. I've been keeping busy this summer. We went to Hatteras for a couple days back at the end of June with Dusty's family, then we went to TN for a couple days in July. I've done most of the stuff I wanted to do this summer. Which wasn't a lot but at least it's done. Mostly just cleaning our condo GOOD and working on some projects I started awhile ago but didn't finish.

Things will start to get hectic for me again in a couple weeks. School starts again in 13 days. I'm taking 6 classes, or 18 credits. Not looking forward to it at all. But it will get me one step closer to becoming a teacher. Plus, since I'm taking 18 credits, I won't have to take any summer classes next year, so I will have 3 months of vacation instead of just 1 or 2.

Dusty and I's one year anniversary is coming up in a few weeks. I can't believe it has been almost a year! We can't do anything for our actual anniversary since I will be in school by then, so we are going to celebrate next week instead. We are going back to Hatteras, can't wait. Although, I know when we get back it will be back to the grind.

Things change

So I've come to realize in the past few months/weeks that I have grown up a lot in the last year. Not just because of marriage, but also because I realized I needed to go back to school. And I did. My friendships also have changed. I've gotten closer with some. Gotten more distant and lost others. I've also made new friends.

And you know what? I couldn't be happier about it all. Even the ones I've lost. It truly does suck, but we grew apart from each other and have completely different priorities at this time. Who knows, maybe we'll be able to reconnect in a few years. Either way, my life has completely changed in the past year and I am really happy with the way everything is going right now :)

Laura

My little niece!

Sorry this has taken so long to post these, but here is little miss Aubrey Lee, born 5.24.11 @ 8:45pm weighing 7 lb's 1 oz.

This was right after she was born

My hubby and Aubrey

Us the day after she was born

Laura

I passed!

So life has been crazy lately. Spring semester ended last week.. FINALLY.

So I've been attempting to take the Praxis I combined test for a few months now. The first time I took it I failed it by 3 points. 3 points. Talk about annoying. So the second time I took it I only took the reading and writing portions because I passed the math the first time. Big mistake. I should have taken the combined again and tried to get those 3 points in that because I am so much better at math, then at reading and writing. So guess what happened? Yep, failed it again by 3 points.

So last week I took the combined test AGAIN. The computer tells you what your scores are for the reading and math portion immediately. This time I passed it! I knew I did by those scores because I got the 3 points I needed on the math portion. Should have just taken the math over the second time. My official passing score is 530, which I am happy with. They didn't even grade the writing portion of the last test though, I'd be interested to see how I did on that and if I would have gotten an even higher score. But its whatever, I PASSED IT!

Another exciting thing this week, little miss Aubrey Lee AKA "Hattie" made her arrival on 5.24.11. Pics to come very soon!

Its been awhile..

School has been keeping me crazy insane busy. Ever since spring break has been over anyways. I can see a light at the end of the tunnel though. I only have one "big" paper left and then some little stuff, plus finals. Which don't end til May 24th :/ Then Summer classes start June 1st.

I can't believe its almost May. I love summer. Plus, we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our niece. She is due in 3 weeks. We absolutely cannot wait to meet her.

We decided on our anniversary trip also. We're just heading back to Hatteras for a week. With all the renovations we've done lately and needing new carpet and AC, we just decided not to go all out. We'll have fun though, we love that place. Plus we're going for a couple days in June, and going to TN in July for a few days. :)

SPRING BREAK

Happy St. Patty's day! This week has been really REALLY long. Started with Sunday pretty much sucking, then Monday started and well, Mondays aren't all that great. The one good thing about Monday was that I logged onto blackboard and found out I got a 83/84 points on my math test last week. Went to classes on Tuesday and found out my teacher made a mistake and I actually got 84/84. Sweet.

On Wednesday I studied all day for my big geometry test this morning. I feel like it went better then I thought it would. I didn't get a chance to finish it though so hopefully my teacher will let me. She wasn't there today but sent out an email saying we would be granted extra time if it was within reason. It was only one problem, but that one problem is worth 7 or 8 points so that could suck. But I think that within reason.

Oh, and I also got an A on my first essay in my educational writing class. Yay!

I have one more class today and then it will officially be spring break! It gives me time to catch up on some work and relax. Would rather be somewhere tropical of course, but that will just have to wait.

~Laura

Six Months

Exactly six months ago, I was in Hatteras spending time with great friends and family and GETTING MARRIED! I can't believe it has been six months already.

They have been an exciting six months so far. On Thanksgiving we found out that my Dusty's brother Ben, and his girlfriend Debbie were expecting. I had to quickly do the math and thought it was a Hatteras baby, but they said it wasn't :( Close enough I say, hehe. 2 days before Christmas they found out they were having a girl. A niece for us! We can't wait to meet her in May. Then they sprang a Vegas wedding on us. We couldn't be happier for them :)

In January I started school again after being on hiatus for a couple of years. Definitely stressful but it will be worth it in the end.

Plus we re-did our kitchen. I love cooking in there. So much more counterspace and cabinets then before. I don't feel like I'm getting swallowed by clutter anymore.

Now I am trying to come up with a good trip for our one year anniversary. We are going to be on a strict budget of cheap (lol) so most likely we will end up in Hatteras again. That doesn't mean I can't look into other places and maybe I'll come up with a good deal somewhere. So far I've been looking at Las Vegas, New Orleans, Punta Cana or an AI somewhere else, and cruises. I always love the thought of going to Hatteras, but scratching new places off the bucket list while we can is always nice.

~Laura

Remodeling

So, its been over two years since we've lived in our condo. Before we moved in we had to repaint the ENTIRE place, put in new ceiling fans, redo the bedroom vanity, install new outlets/outlet covers, repaint the kitchen cabinets, install a new floor in the den, and completely gut and redo the bathroom. Why you ask? Because the person that lived there before us was older and I don't think had ever repainted, except of course to paint over most of the outlets. Or had done anything in the bathroom because the vanity was rotting and the tub no longer had a finish. Oh, and her cats peed all over then carpet in the den, hence why we had to redo the floor in there.

Anyways, the kitchen was also in dier need of a remodel also. The bathroom was in worse condition, and we could only do one as money was tight. So I settled with updating the cabinet hardware, painting the cabinets and scraping the "popcorn" from the ceiling to at least sprucen it up a bit. This is what it kind of looked like before:

I have better pics somewhere but I think they are on another computer. Just imagine a kitchen from the early 70's, that had never been remodeled in nearly 40 years. That was my kitchen.

Last summer I got a call from my grandparents. They were going to completely remodel their kitchen and wanted to know that if their old cabinets would fit into my kitchen, if we'd want them? Ummmm heck yes! So in January, we completely gutted everything and this is what the final product is:

We could not be more happier. A big THANK YOU to everyone who made this possible and helped us out when we needed it. We couldn't have done it without you.

~Laura

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Chip Cupcakes

I love all things cupcakes. Recently I bought a babycakes machine. It is the most awesome little kitchen gadget I've got. Aside from my kitchen aid mixer that is. Last night I made chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter chips inside of them.

That machine makes 8 mini cupcakes in about 5 minutes. I <3 it!

I had trouble icing them this morning. The frosting was too thick so I couldn't get them very pretty. I guess alls that matters is they taste good though.

~Laura