The Last Summer Before Reality

As soon as it started....or so it feels like...I can see the end of the summer drawing to a close and I feel like I haven't taken advantage of it! I survived both of my Step 1 exams (and we will see if I passed in the next few days) and went on vacation with the fam to Fort Morgan, AL.  That was an adventure! We nicknamed the trip "A Day Late and A Dollar Short" although the last part wasn't true.  Other than Granny, we didn't spend much money because she paid for almost every meal or activity! The "day late" part of the trip came with making it to a hot air balloon festival in time to see the last balloon deflated and made it to the Blue Angels just as they were landing and 5500 people were leaving! But it truly was a fun trip!

There's the smokey hot air balloon being deflated!

Since we got back from vacation, I've spent a lot of time cleaning my parent's basement so they don't have to have all my belongings in the way...truthfully I forgot what part of the basement looked like what with my stuff and my brother's "free stuff" from Japan.  But he bought a house so that is all moved out and now my stuff is all either waiting for the yard sale this weekend or in his old room.  In less than a year Jeff and I will be registering for new things, so I better clear most of my stuff out or we will be renting multiple storage units!

Speaking of weddings, I was so excited to see friends from DCOM at the Pazik-Huckaby wedding! To put it plainly...it was my dream wedding...outside, beautiful location, tent reception, dancing, everything a girl can dream of!  And it was hot!!! Probably the hottest weekend I have ever seen! Ours will be a quite a bit different, but it's so fun to see such a great couple get married...and get a few ideas of our own.  Alicia's wedding definitely got our creative juices flowing for a few days and we came up with a few more things we'd like at our wedding.  Other than the wedding, it was just an all around great weekend, including a triple date to dinner and Ted, Sounds game, Putt-Putt and more!

Such a fun reception! We had a great time!

I'm definitely looking forward to these next few weeks, and they will be packed! There's a yard sale (hopefully a success), Jonah's 2nd birthday, Mandy and Kyle's last shower and wedding, starting rotations, and hopefully finding time to spend some quality time with friends, family, and my love! 

Another huge priority for the next few weeks and actually the next year is weight loss.  While I was in grad school a few years ago, I lost a whopping 95 pounds, and since I left Mississippi I have been slowly (well maybe not so slowly) packing on the pounds.  Now, I'm dedicated to taking them off again! I have around 100 pounds that I would like to lose before the wedding, so if you subscribe to the whole 2 pounds per week idea, I've got just enough time! 52 weeks --> 100 pounds...and it's going to happen! We have the Warrior Dash coming up in September, and I don't want to have a heart attack halfway through the course.  And, my superficial reason, aside from blood pressure problems and not being able to run 13 miles anymore, is that I don't want to look at my wedding pictures and be unhappy with how I've let myself go.  So here we go again! Wish me luck! :)