Pictures of Us

I realized I haven't posted any pictures in a long time, besides the dilapidated buildings. I don't have my wedding pictures yet, but here are some honeymoon pics.

Here is my handsome husband giving a thumbs-up to the hotel in North Myrtle Beach. It was a suite on the top (19th) floor with a full kitchen and balcony. It was bigger than the place we're staying in Ohio all summer. In fact, it rivals our apartment in North Carolina.

This is the view from our balcony. On the left side, you see the marsh, which is actually a lot prettier than I was expecting and on the right, of course, is the Atlantic Ocean. I LOVE the Atlantic Ocean. Unlike the Pacific, the water is WARM and the beachfronts are clean.

There are several Ripley's attractions in Myrtle Beach. Besides the Believe It or Not museum (which was actually kind of lame), we went to the Mirror Maze. Basically, it is just what is sounds like. A maze of mirrors. In this picture, you can see 2 reflections of me, but neither of these are actually me! Props to Jared for taking this picture.
And here we are looking slightly ridiculous at the beach right in front of our hotel. We had a really good time playing in the ocean. I especially enjoyed laying on my float and letting the waves lift me up. I think I'm going to take a float every time I go to the ocean from now on. Kept me way more entertained than just swimming in the water or trying to body surf.

And here is a picture of M&Ms with our faces on them! My dad surprised us and had these made for the wedding. The bottom white M&M is a picture of the bridge next to the gazebo where Jared proposed to me.

P.S. - No news on the stolen car yet. We made a list yesterday of all the things that were in the car and it turns out we lost a LOT more than we thought at first - about $2000 worth of belongings. It didn't seem like we had much in the car, but it adds up quickly because we had some pricey things - blackberry, waterproof digital camera (which I am very sad about), bike rack, tools, several shoes, gift cards, cash. We are still hoping and praying for a miracle.

You know what sucks?

When you move to a tiny little town in a faraway state where you don't know anyone and then you travel 2 hours to get to a city that you think might be interesting to explore and then you go to an overpriced exhibit and come out to find that your CAR has been stolen and then you remember your purse and phone and credit cards and social security card and basically your whole identity was also in the car so you call the credit card companies and talk to a bunch of dumb people who put you on hold 18 thousand times while you're standing outside in the sun getting yet another sunburn and then you remember your ipod was in the car too and your expensive cycling shoes and your husband's only church shoes so now he has to wear tennis shoes or Chacos to church tomorrow and you have no way to get home and there's no one to call because you don't know anyone so you finally rent a car which is way, way overpriced and drive 2 hours home and all you want to do is curl up in bed and finish reading Confessions of a Shopaholic which you checked out from the library but you realize you can't because your library books were also in the car that was stolen!

Yeah, it sucks.

A Tourist's Guide to Greenville

Should you ever decide to take a trip to the lovely Greenville, Ohio, here are some things you could do to entertain yourself. This may or may not be the actual list of what I do every day while my husband gets to go to his exciting job where he walks up and down rows of corn and counts plants (jealous!).

1. Walk around town aimlessly.
2. Bike around town aimlessly.
3. Go to Walmart.
4. Go to Goodwill.
5. Go to the library and get mobbed by employees (librarians? volunteers? I'll play it safe and call them employees) who are super-excited that they have a patron.
6. Walk around aimlessly.
7. Bike around aimlessly.
8. Take pictures of dilapidated buildings and then post them on your blog.
9. Walk around aimlessly.
10. Eat a nectarine.
*Here is where my husband comes home and our evening activities ensue.*
11. Drive up and down every street in town. This should take approximately 10 minutes.
12. Go to the "famous" sandwich shop in town and order the "famous loose-meat sandwich" which is actually just a messy hamburger that really is not that good.
13. Drive around aimlessly.
14. Go to bed early.

Who wants to come visit??????!

Wedding and more...

I'm thrilled to announce that I am now a married woman. Everything regarding the wedding went very well, thanks to lots of help from amazing family members and friends. Even the weather cooperated! It was a beautiful day and lots of fun. Thanks to everyone who came! It was great to see everyone. I don't have the pictures yet, but you can look at them here on the photographer's website. I'd especially like to point out my incredibly handsome husband.

We arrived in Greenville, Ohio last night. After passing through Dayton (which is the closest "big" city, we drove a good 30 minutes, seeing nothing but farms, before arriving at our bed and breakfast. It sure is a small town, but that's alright. I've always wanted to experience living in a small town. I'm going to go walk around downtown today and check things out. Heck, maybe I'll walk around the entire town - it's only 6 square miles.

2 weeks! And summer plans...

Just in case anyone is interested...have I mentioned that we are moving to Ohio? Ok, ok, it's not really moving. We are leaving most of our stuff in Raleigh, but we will temporarily be living in Ohio for 9 weeks. After our wedding and honeymoon, we will be back in Raleigh for less than 24 hours before we leave for Greenville, Ohio. Jared has an internship with Monsanto, the company that is providing his fellowship for his Ph.D. program (i.e. - paying him to go to school). They are also providing our living arrangments while we are there (a room at a bed and breakfast).

SIDE NOTE: Not only does Monsanto pay for Jared's tuition for his entire program and pay him a salary, but they are also provided housing at no cost during his internship. Let me just take a moment to contrast that with my internship: I got nothing. I did not get paid, I had to pay for 14 credit hours of tuition even though I was not taking classes, and I was not allowed to work another job. I had to take out a loan just to live. (Oh, but when I interviewed for the internship, I was told that I got free lunch every day and could consider that my stipend.) Not that I'm complaning (ok, I am), but I am definitely excited (and grateful) for Jared's sweet deal. No hard feelings to any of my Provo Canyon friends! We all know PCS is cheap. ;)

We will return to Raleigh mid-August. School will start again immediately for Jared and I will go back to the tortuous, but hopefully-more-promising-this-time-around job hunt.

24 days...

So we're down to 24 days until we get married. Just thought I should update that. And maybe update a few other things. I've been terribly absent from this blog for a couple months now. The reason for that is I moved and I no longer have internet at home. Remember that post about my awesome house? Well I don't live there anymore. It's a long story, but basically the owner of the house wanted us to start paying more rent and we were so not okay with that, so we all moved out. I moved into a one-bedroom apartment by myself. It's actually been really nice having my own place. I was afraid I would not like living alone or I would be scared, but the opposite is true. I don't feel scared at all (I live in a nice complex in a really good area...in fact the town I live in has been ranked the 6th safest city in America) and I really like having my own place and organizing things however I want them and not dealing with roommates being loud and keeping me up at night. Plus, it is making the transition to married life easier, I think. Jared has been gradually moving his stuff in and we've had time to sort through all our crap and organize, combine, discard, etc. Even though Jared doesn't live in it yet, we view it as our apartment.

I finally got my ring. Actually I got it about a month and a half ago, but I hadn't mentioned it yet, so now I am. I knew it was considered an "antique" style ring, but I wasn't prepared for so many comments about it! I receive at least a couple of compliments per week from customers at work and every single one has been from an older woman. I've also been asked if it was a family heirloom or if it was an antique. But I don't mind having an old lady ring. I really, really like it and I'm definitely still happy with my choice.

How I Know I’m Poor

I just dug through a trash can. For food. More specifically, for coupons for food. I stopped by the mailboxes at my apartment complex on my way home the other day to see if I got any interesting junk mail, because – let's be honest – that's all I get. Well today was my lucky day because my junk mail was not junk at all! It was a postcard from Chick-fil-A with 3 coupons for free food! And the best part is that the food is actually free! It's not one of those "you can have 1 free small fry if you buy 2 large burgers and 2 large drinks and give us a kidney and half of your liver" coupons. It's just free – by itself. (*Note: 1 of the coupons does actually require you to buy a medium drink, but the free item is totally worth more than the drink.)

Anyway. I was excitedly reading the details of the coupons when I happened to look down at the trash can (which, to my credit, is more like a junk mail receptacle than a diaper/smelly trash/rotten food receptacle) and noticed that someone threw their coupons away! Of course I snatched them right up. But then I noticed there was another coupon postcard underneath that one! So I had to pick that one up, too. And then that got me thinking…how many more people have thrown their coupons away? So…I dug. I only had time to find one more before I heard someone walking toward me and had to collect myself and my stolen mail and walk away nonchalantly. (Oddly, I don't mind broadcasting to the blogworld that I was digging through the trash, but I just could not bear to have the middle-aged, hairy, talks-too-loud-on-his-cell-phone man see me do it. Why is that?)

I got in the car with a grin on my face, ecstatic to tell Jared that I just scored us 12 free meals – 6 each. I don't know about the rest of you, but I have personally been feeling the pains of this recession and subsequent job market, so I'll dig through the trash for coupons any chance I get. What have the rest of you done to save a few bucks?