Quick Update

Hello everyone! We've almost been here for a week now, and I don't know where the time goes! I talked to my friend Schuster (Megan) yesterday and she asked me if I think I will have time to explore the area like I want before school and work start. It was a very good question and gosh, I sure hope so. But, so far, we don't have much to show for our week here. We spent one day unpacking, then rested on Sunday, ran errands on Monday and Tuesday (we finally have food!!!), and helped a friend move yesterday.

I know I said that I don't want to move anymore, but I definitely don't mind serving others! This was probably one of the worst moves anyone could ever have. Her fiance just drove here from Texas with a 24' truck filled about like ours - 2/3 full and then a motorcycle. So we helped him unpack, then we drove to Ali's apartment and loaded her stuff into the truck which was then driven to the new apartment and unloaded again. LONG DAY. I'm excited to get to know Ali better. She is the president of the PT class ahead of Ryan and he met her when he came out to interview. She was so excited for us to move out here and we clicked the instant we met. Then, as we moved her stuff I saw just how well we'd get along. I found Glee Season 1, the entire Harry Potter series, the High School Musical Soundtrack, and a lot of cute clothes! We're definitely going to be friends. :)

Today we're finally trying to finish organizing the apartment as much as possible and even hang stuff on the wall which feels like the final touch for me. It definitely feels like home having all of our stuff in it!

I'm not budging!!

After moving 15 times in 5 years and one heck of a trek to get out here, I'm staying put!! I told Ryan that if I like the apartment, there is no way I'm packing up and moving to another one (even if it is "better"). Welp, looks like we're staying put!!

But let's start at the beginning...
Monday: Moved all of my stuff from all around the Luke house to the garage.

Tuesday: Picked up our giant 24' truck, car trailer and started packing.
Left Lincoln around 1:30 p.m.

Arrived in Omaha, wrapped and moved our beast of a couch, picked up our new chaise lounge, rearranged my stuff in the truck and added Ryan's (including the motorcycle).

Went to B-dubs for goodbye wings and boy, what a crowd showed up! I thought maybe 10 or so people would stay awhile with others dropping by, but no - 30+ people all night!! I LOVE OUR FRIENDS!!!

Wednesday: Finished packing and finally left town at 1:30 p.m.

Drove, in separate cars, for 9ish miserable hours through rain and construction at night to Savoy, IL.

Thursday: Decided not to drive the remaining 12 hours, but stop in Charleston, WV.
After the worst 10 hour drive of my life through more disgusting rain and construction and traffic we arrived at 11:00 p.m.

Friday: We enjoyed one of the best breakfasts of my life and explored Charleston (where there was a Pontiac car show and I got to see a homeless woman at 9:00 a.m. with her cigarette and bottle of booze and her male friend peeing in the river) and after 6 more hours of driving finally made it "home" at 4:00 p.m!!!
This is our street!!
Not our exact building, but the complex.We were so lucky to have the help of some of the Physical Therapy Students in the class ahead of Ryan help us unpack. We had everything out of the truck and into the apartment in 2.5 hours, it was beautiful! Then we looked around, grabbed the keys, and went out to dinner. :)

Living Room
Living Room/Dining Room/KitchenOur Bedroom
Office
Screened in Patio
And then.... after 24 hours... VOILA!!!

A REAL living room/dining room/kitchen!

And yes, I alphebetized the spice rack.
And note our pretty Fiestaware dishes - LOVE THEM!
I can't wait to finish unpacking and put up finished pictures of our pretty new home!!!!

We're Wedded!!

I don't have much time, but wanted to post a few pictures that my photographer shared from the wedding day. We had a luncheon at Rosenblatt Stadium which is special because it is where Ryan and I had our first date, where he proposed, and where we've spent the past week (College World Series and Independence Day fireworks). Last night was our last night there - EVER - seeing as how they're tearing it down! :( But we had the most spectacular wedding day, we couldn't have asked for anything better!

This last picture was taken in a phone booth in the Old Market, Omaha. I got to put my dress back on Friday and take more pictures in Downtown Omaha. I cannot wait to see the pictures!!

In other news, we move to North Carolina on Wednesday - EEK!!!

Check it out!

Click HERE to see the book Ryan and I finished last week!

Our story in pictures

For the wedding I decided that I wanted to have a scrapbook with Ryan and I's pictures from the past year with our sides of the story as well. After finding supplies at a going-out-of-business sale, I remembered that I hate scrapbooking. I love being crafty, I just don't have the patience to scrapbook. Instead, I've been converted to online albums such as those through winkflash, snapfish, shutterfly, etc. Then I found Blurb. I found that I have much more creative freedom with them and the price was very comparable as well. I just finished the RA Scrapbook for work and it dawned on me to use that instead of my horrible scrapbooking skills to tell our story. So here we sit tonight writing "our story." I'm on my couch in Lincoln and he's sitting in Omaha. Through googletalk we've been sharing portions of what we've written so far and loving every minute of remembering the beginning. It is so much fun hearing it from our two perspectives in our own words that show our personality through every sentence. I can't wait for the final product!

My Grad Announcement

I have lots I could talk about...
Like the fact that I'm done with work at the Corps,
the wedding is in less than a month,
I take out my endowments in two weeks,
I move out of the dorms (for good this time!) next week,
yada yada yada
but I'm most excited about my grad announcement!
Not necessarily about graduation (though I am relieved it's all over),
I just love what I created!!

AND as a graduation gift my parents bought me the
ENTIRE Adobe Creative Suite
(Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver and more).
I cannot wait to start playing!!!!!

Oh, and I absolutely love how my wedding invitations
turned out and not to brag but I've had so many people say
they were the best they've ever seen which makes me
incredibly happy to hear.

I printed the top sheet on velum and attached it with a brad
to a piece of scrapbook paper that looked like cork board.
Aren't they adorable? :)

My Graduate!!!

Caitlin didn't know quite what to do when I was more excited for her graduation than she was! Not only do I get my fiance' back after a rigorous and ridiculous semester filled with finishing her master's and tackling two jobs all while trying to keep an attention whore of a soon-to-be-husband at bay , but we're under the 5 week mark until the Big Day! (I know that I'm way more demanding than both of her jobs, but hey, at least I do the dishes :) Things are finally coming together with graduation over, wedding coming up, and move to North Carolina soon to follow! We couldn't be happier with all the support our friends have offered and I was livin' the high life as Caitlin, along with our good friend Rob, showed up to support their significant others as they ran in Lincoln's half marathon this past week. They truly are athletic supporters ;)