Hello August! Part 2 (yearly updates on the same day?!?)

Exactly one year ago, I posted this update! My goodness, how things have changed! 

My last post was about getting engaged... and we did end up getting married by Christmas! December 17 was our wedding date, and the whirlwind wedding planning went pretty well, in the less-than-3-months we had to plan. The most stressful part for me ended up being a rather last-minute change of reception location, due to some management issues, and concerns about lighting/sound. And I almost walked down the aisle without my bouquet, but thankfully I remembered it after only a couple steps - as I nervously plucked at my dress with the hand that was not in my dad's arm, I realized I should have something else to occupy that hand! 

Here's just a few photos: 

Our rings on my bouquet

My lovely mother and me getting ready!

Me and my sister and maid-of-honor!

Pre-wedding photos! (We did a first-look)

The Stone Chapel in Wake Forest

Thrilled to have my dad perform the ceremony!

My mom and dear friend Mrs. Basden headed up the reception!

Centerpiece created by my mom!

I had fun baking the cheesecakes ahead of time and freezing!

First dance

Dip!!

Daddy and me father/daughter dance.

Matt planned our honeymoon secretly, and it was amazing! We stayed one night in a fancy hotel suite, and had a delicious dinner at the hotel restaurant, and then finished the drive to Biltmore the next day! I had never been to Biltmore before, and seeing it all decorated and festive for Christmas was thrilling. We stayed several nights at the lovely hotel on the estate, and enjoyed lots of fabulous food, topped off by a 3-course dinner our last evening. He also got us special tickets to see Biltmore by candlelight (which was so beautiful!), a roof-top tour (which was fascinating and had great views!) and a carriage ride (which was so much fun, and gave us an incredible view of the estate!) and it was all so memorable! He planned the perfect honeymoon. We had almost a whole week to ourselves, and then got home in time for Christmas with our families. (We have lots of photos, but it would be too hard to pick favorites, and there's plenty of photos in this post already!)

Our first few months of married life flew by, marriage has been so much more fun than I ever could have imagined! One hard decision though, was to quit teaching. I loved my students, but we really didn't need my income, and I was struggling to keep up with cooking, cleaning and general homemaking the way I desired. My new (much more flexible) additional job, is handling some basic customer support for my husband's business, Transcript Maker, paying the contractors when invoices come in, and mailing some marketing materials (we offer discounts for homeschool groups! ;) ), all things that I enjoy, and can do whenever I find some free time in my schedule. 

A few days before my last studio recital with my students, we were excited to find out that we were expecting our first baby! Due December 29, I'm now almost 19 weeks along (which means almost halfway there already!) and just starting to regularly feel tiny little kicks and punches. Our 18-week ultrasound revealed that I was correct in believing our baby to be a boy!

The adorable booties were crocheted by my great-grandmother! Mom gave them to me after the ultrasound. They just happened to already have blue ribbons!

So, with our baby boy on the way, and no students to teach, my goals are to stay on top of the usual house work, while working on our registry and getting the nursery ready, plus all the other things that come along with preparing for baby!

And so, with that in mind, I should probably get off my laptop and get to work!

 

"Wuv, twue wuv, wiw fowwow you... fowevah..."

(Title quote from The Princess Bride. If you haven't seen it yet, you should!)

We're engaged!

One week ago, 363 days after the day we met, my sweet man asked me to marry him! I thought it was absolutely perfect (although he would say it was a little too warm outside, and too many people around!) and I've been floating on clouds and staring at my gorgeous ring every spare second since. 

He took me to Duke gardens, and since I had never been before, I was amazed by how expansive it was, and all the beautiful flowers, rich grassy areas, trickling waterfalls and especially the lovely bridges! He said his mental map of the place was a little mixed up, so I didn't even get suspicious when we started crossing the same bridges multiple times. He wanted to propose on a bridge, but also didn't want crowds of people around, and it was pretty busy! Finally, on this adorable little bridge, he found an opportunity.

Every little thing about his proposal was so perfect! I am still in awe that God brought such a wonderful, kind, romantic, handsome, funny, tender, courageous, wise, thoughtful, godly man into my life, and thrilled beyond belief that I get to spend the rest of my life with him! 

Afterwards, we had a delicious dinner at a new restaurant in Durham, Primal Food & Spirits, which was absolutely incredible, I couldn't believe how great the food was! 

This has been the best year of my life so far, getting to know my dear Matt, and I am looking forward to many more wonderful years by his side!

Also, I'm so eager to marry him as soon as possible, that I might already have my dress and a venue picked out... don't you think Christmas decorations are the best kind?!?

Hello August! (Where has this year gone?!?)

Wow, I can't believe it's August already! It's been a very hot summer, I hope it will cool down some this month, now that we're approaching fall!

So, a quick little update on what I've been up to... if you saw my ONE other post this year (haha, my poor little blog is so neglected!) you know that my work goals were:

- Have my annual Spring recital for my studio - CHECK!

- Create a more professional studio policy for managing payments, cancellations, etc. - CHECK!

- Perform my solo recital as soon as possible (hopefully by summer at the latest) - CHECK!!!!!

- Finish the tuning course by the end of the year

- Get my second piano in shape so my older intermediate students can begin concerti

We had a nice, quite successful and very well-attended Spring recital at the end of April. I'm very excited about the improvements I've made to my studio policy and how it's helped teaching to flow more smoothly. I added a policy about late-notice cancellations (I was getting quite a few of those, and it can really mess up a schedule!), began using a online scheduling calendar that I absolutely love (https://acuityscheduling.com) and finally got up the nerve to raise my rates, after 10 years of teaching for the exact same fee! 

I also performed my solo recital at the end of June! 

Thanks to my dear friend Katherine for this "action" shot, which was staged after the recital. ;)

My boyfriend Matt and me after my solo recital was (FINALLY!) done!

Not to blame him or anything, but this amazing guy is part of the reason I sort of abandoned my blog. We've been dating almost 9 months! He has been such an encouragement to me, always willing to listen and advise when I was trying to decide how to approach my adjustments to my studio policy and so supportive during both my students' recital and my solo recital. 

We met at a contra dance in September 2015, and he asked me out in November. It's been so much fun getting to know him this year. He's a strong, godly man and has been encouraging me in my walk with God. He eats healthy food and we did Whole30 together in January, plus several "Whole7's" since then as a short little reboot. He likes Pride and Prejudice 1995 and watched it with me when we'd only been dating 2 months! (He also appropriately disdains the P&P05 atrocity. *wink*) He enjoys classical music, and likes to read... the number of things we have in common is so neat!

It's been an incredible blessing having him be such an important part of my life this year. We've spent a lot of time together doing all sorts of fun things, way too many to list. Building Legos, reading together and sharing our favorite TV shows are just a few. Whether having fun, just relaxing, or working on a project, he is always fun to be around. I'm so thankful God brought us together!

I'm going to work on writing blog posts more frequently, at Matt's encouragement. I'm planning on continuing to write them quickly, and not do much editing though, as I used to spend SO much time tweaking little things that probably no one but me would even notice! I'm trying to relax on my perfectionist tendencies. 

And with that, I'm going to close this post with just a few pictures of my post recent chalk paint projects. This is Primer Red, with dark wax on some pieces of furniture in our den/TV room. 

Happy August everyone!