Settling In

We have settled into our new apartment in Denver! Well, officially Westminster, CO in Northwest Denver. We flew up here for a few days back in the middle of June for an apartment hunting trip and it was very successful! We are really lucky to have some of Jeremiah's extended family in the area so we were able to stay with them and borrow one of their cars. Our first full day we went to ten different apartment complexes and had some good options... Small and expensive, but that's what we expected for the area. The second day we looked at a couple more places including a couple of condos. One of the condos was our largest, nicest, and somehow least expensive option! We both really liked this option and had a great conversation with the landlord while we were there. But we were a little apprehensive because it seemed too good to be true and we didn't want to fall into any traps. We talked it over with our families and did our best to verify that this was a legitimate deal and our last day of our trip we went back to checks few things, solidify our decision, and ultimately put a deposit down on the place! Success! We were really excited to have a place to call our own! 

Our move-in date was July 1st so that meant we didn't have too much time left in AZ! Thus began night after night of time with friends and family! It was the best! Over the past couple years we have really established some awesome friendships that were hard to say goodbye to. But we plan to keep them up as best we can while we are in CO! Most of these goodbyes happened over food so we simultaneously got to eat at some of our favorite AZ-only restaurants too! We will miss you, Oregano's. 

Anyway, the goodbyes were difficult but we managed because it was also really exciting knowing we were leaving to establish ourselves in our first apartment and together as a couple! Also, I knew we would be seeing my family just three weeks later, so that was a big bonus.

Friday, June 30th we rented a big 16-foot Budget Rental truck and managed to fill the entire thing! Who knew we already had so much stuff?? We packed in a couch, dining room table and chairs, china cabinet, stools, desk, dresser, bikes, and lots of boxes. Both sets of our parents as well as Nathan helped us load up so it really didn't take too long fortunately. Saturday morning we took off bright and early! Jeremiah and I packed up our cars (which were also stuffed full) with a few last minute things and met over at his parents house. Jeremiah and his dad drove the rental truck, my parents were in my car, and Jeremiah's mom and me in Jeremiah's car. We had a little caravan with the rental truck in the middle and with a few stops along the way for gas and food, no major bumps in the road, 14 hours later we arrived in Colorado Springs! Phew! It was a long, tiring day but we made it! Jeremiah's great aunt and uncle live in the Springs so we had a beautiful home and really comfy beds to stay in that night. The next morning Ralph and Jan provided a really nice breakfast for us and a couple other family members stopped over so we had a relaxing morning chatting with everyone! At about 9:30 we hit the road again for the last hour and fifteen minutes up to our apartment. Not bad at all compared to the day before! Once we arrived we pretty much immediately began unloading everything! Our apartment is on the second floor so it was a little tiring and somewhat tricky (aka our couch was nearly impossible, thanks to our dads for the help with that!!). We pretty much just dumped everything anywhere in the apartment so Jeremiah and I could slowly but surely get things situated. 

Also notice I chopped most of my hair off!

That same night that we moved in we went over to Joy and Michael's house (some of J's extended family) for a Fourth of July party! It was a lot of fun and there was a lot of delicious food! After that we dropped my parents off at the lightrail station so they could get to the airport. It was strange saying goodbye! The next morning we joined J's parents, and some other family for breakfast and took his parents to the airport soon after that. So then it was just us and our new apartment! 

The next few days we nonstop unpacked/organized. It was tricky finding a place for everything, but we somehow managed! We made trips to the store here and there to break up the unpacking as well. Since moving here we have also gotten my name changed at the bank, I got a Colorado driver's license (which was a bit of a headache with all of the documents we needed), gotten a gym membership a two minute jog from our apartment, tried a couple new churches, and other misc important things. We've also done a few more fun things as well! We live right around the corner from Waterworld, a huge water park here in Denver so we spent a very fun day there. We also spent a full Saturday at Rocky Mountain National Park with Jeremiah's great Uncle Bill! It is so gorgeous! I'd been once before a few years ago, but the scenery was just as incredible this time around. We drove around a big loop that takes you to different lookout points and walked around/took pictures at many of them. We also dipped our hands in the Colorado river, had a wonderful picnic lunch prepared by Bill, and took a shuttle bus to Bear Lake where we walked the loop around it. We finished the day off at a yummy dinner with Bill as well. It was an amazing day exploring the mountainous side of the state and spending more time with Bill than I ever have. Plus it reminded us that we just moved to a gorgeous place! 

One other thing that I have been up to here since we moved is a little part time job! I work MWF from 9-1 at a company called Wunderkin about 25 minutes from us! So it's not a lot of time, but it's a little extra money. Wunderkin is this company that makes little girls' bows that my sister loves. Heather knew that they were located in Denver and needed some help packaging and shipping the bows. She gave me the email of the owner of the company whom I emailed basically asking if they could use my help and she said, sure come in Monday! So I started that a couple weeks ago and it has been a good use of my time, since I would otherwise not be doing much productive until school starts. 

Most of you probably know from reading that Jeremiah turned down a full time offer at Stryker in Phoenix so that we could move up here to Denver. Which meant that we were moving here without him having a job. So after a lot of persistence in the job search/application process, Jeremiah found out last Wednesday that he got a full time offer as a Mechanical Engineer with Lockheed Martin!! He and I are extremely excited! I just know that they are going to be so happy they hired him, because he is so talented and such a hard worker. He can update on more specifics of the job in his next post, but he will be starting in a few weeks after they have completed a background check. That means we have a few weeks of minimal obligations and lots of exploring to do! 

That's it from us Colorado Dwights for now! As I said, our apartment is all put together so any and all visitors are more than welcome! 

A Nice Day for a Dwight Wedding

I’d say it’s about time that I give my take on the wedding day! First off, it was amazing! It was everything I hoped for and more (cliche, I know- but true). All of the hard work and time that we spent planning and prepping came together perfectly. 

I’ll start back to two weeks before the wedding when I started getting what felt like a cold. I was annoyed at the timing but also relieved that it came two weeks before the wedding and not two days before! But this cold just seemed to hang on and just as I thought I was getting better, I got worse. Greeeeat. The weekend before the wedding I had my Bachelorette party that Jeremiah explained a little bit about. I was feeling pretty well that whole weekend which was a relief. I had a blast! We volunteered at Feed My Starving Children which was a great way to start the celebration. You are trying to pack as many food boxes as possible in the 90 minutes you have, so it was fast-paced and fun. Feed My Starving Children is a Christian organization, so at the end we had the opportunity to pray over the food being sent to Thailand and the woman who prayed also prayed for Jeremiah and me without even really knowing us, but just knowing that we were getting married. It was really special. 

We stayed at the cutest Airbnb in Downtown Phoenix, had a bunch of delicious snacks, and talked a lot! Then I opened some presents, we went to the delicious Cibo Pizzeria for dinner, followed by Bitter & Twisted for really interesting drinks, and the Duce for drinks and dancing! We danced for a really long time, but I love dancing so it was awesome! The next morning we just had a casual morning at our Airbnb with brunch. It was the perfect bachelorette party for me. My sisters and other bridesmaids and friends who helped put it together did such a great job planning!

The best sisters and cousin.

Some of my very best friends!

The bachelorette party was just the beginning of wedding festivities and as I said my sickness was unfortunately not going away. So on Tuesday I finally went to a Minute Clinic and she told me I had a sinus infection. Perfect timing. Starting Tuesday I was taking quite a few different medications to wipe the sickness and slowly but surely I got better. I felt about 90% by Friday, the day before the wedding, and finally 100% on Saturday. Actual perfect timing!

Thursday morning most of my bridesmaids, flower girls, and my mom and I got our nails done. Thursday evening I spent time at the Airbnb that a lot of my out-of-town family was staying at and we just had a good time together eating food and hanging out! Friday morning we gathered things up to take to our rehearsal at 3:00 that afternoon. My parents were a big help in staying organized so we had a checklist of things to remember to bring and the rehearsal went very smoothly! Pretty much just everyone figuring out where to stand, when to walk, etc. It was much faster than I expected! After that we headed to Magliano’s for the rehearsal dinner which was fantastic. We had a very large rehearsal dinner (most of both of our families were coming from out-of-town) so it was a great opportunity to have conversations with everyone and thank everyone for coming. Plus, the food was fantastic. 

My dad and I at the rehearsal!

Going to bed Friday night I thought I would have a hard time sleeping with all the excitement that lay ahead, but I actually got an excellent night’s sleep! Kind of funny, but it was good because I had a busy day ahead. I woke up feeling very calm, just excited, and that’s pretty much how I stayed the whole day! 

As Jeremiah said, I got to the venue at about 11:00, as did my bridesmaids and the hair/makeup artist. The hair person got to work right away and did such an awesome job! I loved every single style that my bridesmaids got done! My mom brought a bunch of snacks into the bridal suite so while everyone took turns getting their hair done, we snacked, talked, and just kind of got prepared! It was a very casual, slow morning/afternoon! We also ordered lunch from Salad and Go, which I highly recommend. I got my hair/makeup done right in the middle of the bridesmaids and it took quite awhile, but that was fine because she did amazing!! I was a little worried because during my hair/makeup trial I had my hair in an updo, but decided the week of the wedding that I would prefer it down. So I didn’t know exactly what to expect, but I showed her  few pictures of styles that I liked and it turned out great. I was really happy I went with my hair down (or half-up/half-down technically!). I also am really not used to so much makeup on my face, so I kept asking people, “Are you sure it doesn’t look like too much??” They kept reassuring me that it looked good, and once we got the professional photos back I was very glad I had my makeup done because it turned out great in the photos! Oh, I also had a spray tan done because I had some bad tan lines on my shoulders, and I was skeptical about that looking okay, but it also turned out just fine! 

As I said it was a pretty slow, relaxing morning and then 3:00 rolled around. That is when the photographers and videographer showed up and things started moving very quickly! I got in my dress, we started getting some pictures done, I had to record my vows for the videographer in the midst of that, and then suddenly I was back in the bridal suite after pictures just hiding out until the start of the ceremony! Our coordinator got everyone lined up and took the bridesmaids up, and then it was just my dad and I left in the bridal suite! Starting then I was getting a little more anxious, but honestly I still felt very calm. Then just like that we were right outside the doors of the ceremony, the coordinator asked if I was ready, I said “Yep!” with a big smile and they swung the doors open. Jeremiah had the hugest smile on his face and I looked at him and no one else the whole walk down the aisle. It was incredible that this moment was finally here! The ceremony was so wonderful. Alan, our friend/officiant gave the perfect sermon, we prayed, and exchanged vows. I was really glad we did both traditional and our own vows. I can’t believe I made it through my vows without crying. I had to take many deep breaths to keep from doing so, but I managed! Jeremiah’s vows were incredible. It was just really special! Then we had our braid ceremony which I am so glad we did! Jessica, our friend/pianist/Alan’s wife sang “God With Us” so beautifully while we braided the three strands representing Jeremiah (and family), me (and family), and God. Really a special moment and after we finished we just got to enjoy Jessica singing the rest of the song. Also, throughout the ceremony I managed to notice some of the decorations/details which looked incredible!! We had an amazing eucalyptus arch against the white backdrop and it looked soo good. Anyone who came to the wedding probably noticed that I was obsessed with eucalyptus. So we had the arch, we had eucalyptus down the sides of the aisle, in our bouquets, and incorporated into the centerpieces. The sage green of the eucalyptus was the perfect accent to the gray and navy I thought! Anyway, after the braid ceremony we prayed and exchanged rings and Jeremiah dipped me during our kiss! I couldn’t believe how wonderful the ceremony was. 

We were whisked right back to the bridal suite after the ceremony for signing the marriage license and the start of our pictures. We had pictured just the two of us, then family and bridal party pictures while the cocktail hour was going on. Surprisingly my face was not hurting from all of the smiling! Guess I was just too happy to care about it! It was a little interesting coordinating our big families in the pictures, but we managed. Then it was time to line up for the reception! Such a fun party!! Jeremiah and I had practiced a few moves for the entrance to “Uptown Funk” which was a great start. Then we had our first dance which did not start quite so great. The DJ started playing the wrong  song… A song which neither of us had ever heard before. I felt like I was looking around frantically, we were trying to figure out what to do, but we just kept dancing. We were both saying, “It’s okay… It’s disappointing, but it will be a funny story down the road.” Luckily my sister-in-law went and told the DJ the right song so he cut the first one off, apologized, and played the right song- “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” by Michael Buble. The perfect song seeing as Jeremiah truly is my best friend. We also had a fun little choreographed part in the middle! 

After that my dad gave a really sweet speech, prayed, and it was time for dinner. We were served our meal right at our table which was awesome that we didn’t even have to get up! We ate the amazing food pretty quickly and then started our rounds through the tables to say hello to everyone and thank them for coming. It was so much fun to get around and chat with everyone. One of the things Jeremiah and I have often commented on since the wedding was how amazing it was to have so many people we love so much and who love us right back all in one room. Really incredible and we can’t say thank you enough to everyone who celebrated with us! 

Also throughout the reception we did the shoe/newlywed game, really special father/daughter, mother/son dances, bouquet/garter tosses, cake cutting, and a couple wonderful speeches from our siblings! I loved every single activity!! For the garter toss I had no idea Jeremiah and his groomsmen were going to have nerf guns and it was so hilarious! Such a fun surprise! Then of course there was a ton of dancing! The DJ chose perfect songs to keep everyone dancing and our dance floor was packed almost the whole night! It was a little loud, so I apologize to those guests who were not partaking in the dancing, but I had a blast! Needless to say my feet were absolutely killing me by the end of the night because I never took my heels off. The blisters on my feet are just now fully clearing up! Worth it though! At the very end of the night while everyone was getting ready for the sparkler send-off Jeremiah and I had the dance floor to ourselves for one last dance to “When I Say I Do” by Matthew West. It was a really special, quiet moment to end the night. Then the awesome sparkler exit to our decorated car thanks to some of the groomsmen! 

It was really an amazing day and while it did go by rather quickly, I felt like I did a very good job of taking in each moment and memory and all of the excitement. The vendors that we chose did an incredible job of putting everything together on the day of as well. I have to give a huge thanks to my parents once again for hosting the celebration and helping with every single detail. 

So that’s it! Jeremiah and I are married and I am now officially a Dwight! Even got my name changed at the social security office already. Also as Jeremiah said, we had an absolutely wonderful honeymoon in Cancun, relaxing, swimming, reading, and eating way too much! A perfect week! 

Pretty much all of this was a repeat of what Jeremiah said, I just wanted to give my point of view as well! I plan to write another post in the next few days on happenings since the wedding and our move to Denver! Stay tuned! 

Does it get any cuter than my nieces and nephews??

My handsome husband!

Love this photo with my parents!

Ready to get the party started!

Our choreographed part of our first dance!

Our last dance of the night.

The huge smile I was referring to!

Mawwage

Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time ever, please welcome back to Blogspot the newly married Mr. and Mrs. Jeremiah and Hannah Dwight!! That’s right, the wedding has come and gone – just as fast as everyone promised it would. But before we dive any deeper into that, I should back up a few weeks. Also, go ahead and grab your favorite snack/beverage, because it’s been an eventful month, so this is gonna be a LONG post!

Hannah last wrote just a few days before our graduation ceremonies, so that’s where I’ll pick things up! It was a fun week of celebrations. We attended Commencement on Monday evening, where the former CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, gave a great speech highlighting ASU’s mission of making higher education more accessible. He also left us with a new vocabulary word:  umbutu, which means “I am because of you” in some African language – a good mentality to keep in mind during graduation week. Then Tuesday morning was Hannah’s Barrett Honors College convocation, Wednesday afternoon was my engineering convocation, and wrapping up the week on Friday evening was Hannah’s College of Health Solutions convocation. Despite the literally thousands of names being read, the excitement of graduating made the ceremonies fun. It’s awesome to celebrate our accomplishments in the presence of some of the friends and family who played such an important role in supporting us and facilitating our success. In the words of Mr. Schultz: Umbutu! Umbutu! Umbutu!

It’s still crazy to think we’re both finished at ASU! I know I speak for both of us when I say it was an incredible experience. We made great friends, great memories, and learned a ton. But even though we’re no longer ASU students, and even though we’ll be living in a whole new state, we’ll always be Sun Devils. Yes, I know that’s cheesy… but it’s true, and saying that reminds me (1) how proud I am to call myself a Sun Devil and (2) to always cherish my college experience!

Once graduation week finished, it was time to focus more than ever on wedding prep! Thankfully we’d done a good job taking care of most things ahead of time, but that still left a surprising amount of “little things” to take care of. We had our final meeting with our coordinator, where we finalized decorations, ceremony timeline, guest count, reception layout, and much more. We also assembled guest bags for our out-of-town guests and delivered them to the hotels where they’d be staying. And we helped Hannah’s mom put together the favors, which were cute little boxes containing two of her trademark chocolate-covered Oreos with beautiful transfer designs on top. She must have put dozens of hours into making those, but I think it was worth every minute because they turned out great! (I should know, as I taste-tested plenty of them!) I’m sure there were more things I could mention, but Hannah and her parents were so on top of everything that much of it went unnoticed to me! But if you’re thinking I was a hands-off groom, you’d be wrong – I think I helped with a lot of the planning and preparation, and I really enjoyed it, too!

Amidst all this, Hannah and I had our bachelor/bachelorette parties the weekend before the wedding. Both were a ton of fun, and a much-needed break from the busyness of final wedding prep. For mine, Nathan and Brian planned a weekend up at Lake Havasu! Twelve of us drove up Saturday morning and rented a pontoon boat to spend all afternoon on the lake. We cliff-jumped, hung out on a few sand bars, gorged on burgers/snacks/beer, had way too much trouble anchoring the boat, and just enjoyed perfect boating weather. After that we grabbed pizza and went back to an Airbnb for the night, which included both standard (beer pong) and not-so-standard (Nerf war) bachelor party antics. We grabbed an awesome brunch at a local diner called Sam’s Place before heading home the next day. I couldn’t have asked for a better bachelor party!

Hannah’s bachelorette party began with volunteering at Feed Our Starving Children Saturday afternoon! Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Who starts their bachelorette party – an event meant to celebrate YOU – with service directed towards others??” My wife, that’s who! Consider this a testament to one of the many qualities I admire about her:  her thoughtfulness. Anyway, after that they hung out at their Airbnb before heading to Cibo (a delicious pizza restaurant) for dinner, followed by Bitter and Twisted for drinks and The Deuce for more drinks and dancing. Then they spent the night at the Airbnb and finished with brunch the next morning. From what I understand it was a really fun weekend!

All our wedding prep culminated with the rehearsal the day before the wedding. It went pretty smoothly, and was surprisingly quick! Afterward we drove up to Scottsdale for our rehearsal dinner at one of our favorite Italian restaurants, Maggiano’s. It was a nice, long, family-style dinner, and almost all of our out-of-town guests were able to come, so it was perfect for catching up and mingling prior to the wedding itself. The food was great, too; my favorites were fried ravioli and four cheese cannelloni! We were even treated to a few toasts from family and friends, which varied in their degrees of sentimentality and humor but were all very thoughtful and appreciated!

And then, after over 14 months of engagement and 6 years of dating, our wedding day arrived!! In short, it was amazing – as great as we could have asked for. But you’re probably looking for more details, huh? So I guess I’ll elaborate!

Hannah and her bridesmaids arrived at the venue around 11am to get their hair and makeup done, but I didn’t arrive till around 2. ‘Cause, you know, not that much to prepare when you’re a guy! My groomsmen arrived shortly after, and we just hung out in the groom’s room for a couple hours. We played fooseball, chatted, and ate some awesome Fractured Prune donuts my brother-in-law brought! Finally it was time to get ready for photos, so we suited up and went outside for some groomsmen shots as the guests began arriving and Hannah’s uncle played bagpipes.

Shortly after, the ceremony began. It was so neat to look out over the audience and see all of our closest family and friends there for us! As each bridesmaid came down the aisle, my heart beat faster and faster. Then our pianist, Jessica, began playing Canon in D. The doors at the back of the aisle shut for a moment. Everybody stood. And as they reopened, I’m pretty sure I smiled bigger than I’ve ever smiled in my life; there was my gorgeous bride – she’s never looked so beautiful!! It was completely surreal. Our officiant, Alan, gave a beautiful sermon in which he urged us to exemplify Christ’s love for us in our own marriage – love that initiates, is sacrificial, and forgives. Hannah and I read both traditional vows and custom vows to one another (though apparently Hannah’s written-out vows nearly didn’t make it to the ceremony!), and our unity ceremony consisted of braiding 3 strands of rope representing me, her, and God, as Jessica sang God With Us. Then we exchanged rings, Alan pronounced us husband and wife, and just like that, we were married!!

We went down to the bridal suite to sign our marriage license and take a few pictures as the rest of our guests enjoyed cocktail hour. A waitress even came and brought us some of the appetizers we thought we were going to miss, and they were delicious! Truffle mac and cheese bites and beef wellington. Meanwhile, guests mingled, highlighted their favorite verses in a Bible we provided, wrote both serious and silly answers on advice cards, and signed our guest book. Then we took pictures with our bridal party and families, which was a bit chaotic, but we managed to salvage enough time for some shots of just the two of us before the reception began.

For our grand entrance, we danced in to Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars. Then we had our first dance, which actually began on the wrong song! We were both a little confused, but just started dancing anyway; thankfully Hannah’s sister-in-law Terrisa went up to correct the DJ and after a minute they put on our true first dance:  You’ve Got a Friend in Me, by Michael Buble. It’s such a fun song that represents my favorite thing about our relationship – our friendship – and we even threw in some fun choreography during a jazzy section of the song. Then Hannah’s father welcomed us all, gave a toast and a blessing, and dinner began. We had a delicious meal that included parmesan-stuffed flank steak, brown butter chicken, and sundried tomato gnocchi. We ate as quick as we could, then walked around while everyone else ate to personally thank them for coming. Then we had best man and maid/matron of honor toasts, father-daughter and mother-son dances, and then open dancing began. We were really excited to see that almost everyone danced at some point! I guess we owe the DJ (and probably also the open bar) the thanks for that!

After a bit, we played a newlywed game where the DJ asks Hannah and me questions like “Who’s the better driver?” and we each hold up a shoe representing our answer. Then we cut our cake and fed each other the first bites – and I refrained from smooshing the cake all over Hannah’s beautifully makeup-ed face. Then came the bouquet toss and garter retrieval/toss, which I had some fun with:  the song we chose was the theme to Mission: Impossible, so I had a few groomsmen stand around Hannah with little Nerf guns while I dodged their shots and used a bigger Nerf gun to take them down. I approached my laughing damsel in distress with a kiss on the hand before removing her garter – gotta keep it classy, right? – and then shot it into the crowd of single men. After an anniversary dance, we opened the floor to dancing again. At the end of the night, Hannah and I danced to another favorite of ours, When I Say I Do, by Matthew West, while our guests lined up outside for our sparkler exit. The sparkler exit was a really fun way to leave the venue, and unbeknownst to us, Brian and Nathan had prepared our getaway car with writing on the windows:  everything from “just married” to “honk” and “shotgun wedding”. Funny, of course, because a 14-month engagement is anything but a shotgun wedding!

We spent the night at a beautiful resort in Scottsdale called The Scott, and departed for our honeymoon the very next day! Our destination was Cancun, where we stayed at an awesome all-inclusive resort called Azul Sensatori for an entire week. We chose Cancun because it wasn’t somewhere we felt the urge to go sight-see or fill our days with excursions, so this let us just relax at the resort almost the entire time. We don’t normally vacation that way, so our honeymoon was the perfect opportunity to change our vacation style a bit!

The resort had several restaurants and bars, including a couple swim-up bars in the pools. Our favorite restaurant was called Tapaz; it was a Spanish-style restaurant where we were brought 7 courses of appetizers for our meal. Pretty fun dining experience!

Our room was awesome, too. We got upgraded (for free!) to one on the first floor right next to one of the pools, and we made great use of our prime location! We spent a lot of time lounging and reading on our patio, and when we got too hot we’d go grab a drink and swim in the pool for a bit. The room even had its own Jacuzzi! In the middle of the week we went to a spot just 30 minutes from the resort for some jet-skiing and a catamaran/snorkeling cruise. We also sat through a 2-hour timeshare sales pitch to get a 2-for-1 deal on a beachside couples massage! Score!

Hannah took her GoPro and made an awesome video (see below), so I’ll let that do the rest of the talking. In case the embedded video doesn't work, here's the YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3Ise1KK8dE

As you can tell, May was an incredible month. It’s amazing to finally call Hannah my wife. I love her with all my heart, and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with her!

In case you’re wondering what the immediate future holds, I’ll fill you in a bit. Right now a lot is still up in the air. I haven’t yet landed a job, but we’re flying out to Denver for a few days this week to find an apartment. Assuming we’re successful, we’ll move there at the end of the month, though it really just depends on when our lease begins. We’ve been told that inexpensive housing is extremely competitive in Denver, so we would appreciate your thoughts and prayers as we search there this week! And regarding my job search as well. It’s difficult to be in the middle of so much transition and uncertainty, but we’re confident God will guide us and it’ll all work out soon!

It's May! YAY!

We are just about three weeks out from the wedding now! 22 days, but who’s counting? ;)

We have come a very long way in preparation since our last post! We have pretty much everything ready to go; we just have some final meetings and details to iron out before the big day. So we have figured out all of our song selections, food selections, did our cake tasting and decided on cake flavors and design, ordered a bunch of miscellaneous items, sent out invitations, ironed out order of ceremony, the list goes on! There are so many details to consider and luckily we have a crew of people helping us get ready! For one, my parents have been a massive help. We have weekly “wedding meetings” in which we go over where we’re at, who needs to do what still, questions we need to ask vendors, what needs to be purchased, etc. These have been very necessary for staying on top of things! I also have a few of my bridesmaids working on some tasks for me, and am always getting people offering to help in any way they can. It is so nice to have that help!

We have a final meeting with our photographer tomorrow and a final meeting with our venue and coordinator next week, I also have my hair and makeup trial next week, and a few other miscellaneous things! I am currently preparing gifts for the bridal party and writing out a very detailed timeline of events and things to remember day of to hand out to everyone in the bridal party. I am having way too much fun with that, but what can I say, I like to be organized!

            So another big event that is happening next week for Jeremiah and me are our graduation ceremonies!! As of today (for Jeremiah, I finished Monday) we are both done with our degrees! For me, a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology and for Jeremiah a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering! How cool is that?? It hasn’t really sunk in for me fully yet, perhaps because I am going back to school in August. But I can’t wait for the ceremonies next week, because I am sure it will feel real then! Jeremiah is done with school forever (or at least for the foreseeable future) and I am so proud of all of his hard work and accomplishments! Yet again, he managed to maintain a 4.0, which is just incredible. All the while, maintaining a TA job, looking for jobs in Denver, and helping with wedding tasks.

            I am very proud of how I finished off my time at ASU, both GPA-wise and otherwise. Looking back on my time in undergrad I am really amazed at all that I was able to fit in the four years. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone on multiple occasions and tried a bunch of new things, and that really helped shape an amazing four years. In my four years, I was part of the Leadership Scholarship Program, I tried out three different clubs (Devils Advocates- 2 years, Honors Devils- 2 years, Nutritional Health Awareness- 1 year), I worked at Gammage for 3.5 years, I worked as a Community Assistant for one year, worked as a PT Tech for just over a year, worked as First-Year Success Coach for one year. I also studied abroad for a semester, backpacked Europe, road tripped from AZ to FL, attended a ton of ASU football games and a few other ASU sport events, worked in a research lab for a semester, and completed an Honors Thesis. And even with all of those things, I am sure there are things that are missing; all of the day-to-day things that I did that I am going to miss. All in all I am so glad that I chose to go to ASU, but more importantly, I am so glad that I decided to make the most of my experience in undergrad. I tried things that I didn’t like and I tried jobs that really tested me, but I learned from each of them, and found new experiences to try! I am so proud to be graduating as a Sun Devil!

            I’ll wrap up with some specific events of the past month or two. Last Friday I attended my senior banquet for the Leadership Scholarship Program. My parents and Jeremiah came with me and it was such a great night. The committee did a great job putting the program together, we had some great speakers, a fun senior video, and we all received graduation stoles as our parting gift! LSP was one of the experiences in college that shaped me the most, primarily because I met some really incredible people who were with me all four years.

            This past Monday I went to a luncheon for Gammage’s graduating student workers. I started working at Gammage during my freshman year thinking it would likely just be a short time, but three years later I was still working there! I just had my last shift last week and it was a sad day! My boss was seriously the greatest, she is so funny and just really helpful. Plus my coworkers were all so nice and fun to work with. And who doesn’t love getting to watch Broadway shows for free? The lunch was a really nice end to my time working there, my boss Virginia said some nice words about working with me, and we all got a really nice Gammage mug. Grateful to always be part of the Gam Fam!

            I pick up my wedding dress on Monday and can’t wait to see it with the alterations completed! YAY! The day is getting so close, but still feels pretty surreal!