this is how i look good naked. lgn. keep on keepin’ on. alright.

so, if you remember from roll call, april totally sucked except for my sweet bach weekend, which made up for everything all year long! but may, in striking contrast, is much better than the papers and projects of april. this month represents many great things. my birthday. our wedding. finishing a semester of grad school. my birthday was really sweet and totally special, but very low key. grant knows how to make me feel celebrated. and i got to talk to some of my very favorite ladies. xoxo. i got to hang out with nids and take her to the air port and spend some time with a great new friend, kate altmix (check out their website here). my family and i are moving my house (my life) into mine and grant’s apt. so much fun! it makes it feel real: bringing all our stuff to one place we call home (or soon will call home). i got an internship with a sweet historic home in roswell (1.4 miles from our place. yay! check it!) and i’m really excited about starting. that means: school credit plus experience plus an “in” with people that could potentially hire me equals eeeeee! (steph, you’re my fave; that’s a shout out to you xoxo). we’re just tying up loose ends: wedding programs, rehearsal dinner invites, new addresses for a few of the wedding party, and choosing scripture and music. it’s so much fun. and a dear dear friend of mine just got engaged too, mary catherine caldwell, and is getting married to syman (love him) october 4th. this is truly a season of love. i couldn’t be more blessed. wish us well on setting up shop with the help of the ‘rents! can’t wait to see our place full of furniture not boxes.

we’re slowly moving into OUR FIRST PLACE!!! grant’s already pretty much moved in, and when i went to visit and job search in atl on monday, i got to see it. it was awesome: big empty rooms with boxes and random lamps on the floor never felt more like home.  grant and i were standing there, holding hands, in our first place, wandering through empty spaces talking about what we want to put where and how it will look. who knew an empty apartment in atlanta spells h.o.m.e.?  we are so so blessed, and we are fully aware of how lucky we are to have each other in our new place. i can’t wait to get married and really call it home!! 

well. the bachelorette weekend at the lake with my faves was AWESOME! seriously. we had the best time. someor all of the following may or may not have happened: skinny dipping, jumping off the top of the dock, getting in the hot tub, counting shooting stars, playing a game i loved, playing a game i hated, getting stranded on the boat (so so funny!), hoppin’ on the jet ski, opening presents, dancing to rap music (omg… who knew that many white girls knew those lyrics. ha!), spending quality time with my girls, praying for me, grant, my job, and our future. all in all it was incredible. oh, and did i mention the food? mama carpenter really hooked us up! leen brought the food–coolers full of it! italian, breakfast casserole, sammiches, ridiculous dessert truffle thing (aka death by chocolate), petite fores (delish!), and chips… did we talk about the chips? we girls ate about a bag and a half a day… mary brought the alcohol and nida brought the cloves. don’t worry. it was awesome. the food was great and we had a blast. i felt so loved and blessed. i have the best friends in the world! thank you kathleen, hannah, ashley, nida, heidi, megen, carrie, and mary. and we missed you: maggie, steph, coco, emily, kelly, laura, alice, and lindsay. we’re SO having a lake reunion every summer. get ready!

this weekend was packed with friends, family, parties, and quality time. it was awesome. friday night grant and i went to crescendo auction, which was really fun, and met up with ashley and mason for dinner and auctioning. i think we might’ve actually almosted bidded on several items, but out waves went luckily unnoticed! the saturday am (very early am, btw) grant, mama, grandmama, and i headed to athens, alabama for a tea that gma’s 157-year-old friends had for me and grant. it was sweet. seriously. old women plus one handsome man plus presents equals fun. it was hilarious. we left that party only to return to a full house in huntsville. a college bff of my mama’s drove all the way from fairhope to meet grant and go to the mother-daughter lingerie shower some friends hosted for us in huntsville. she stayed and played until party time at 7.00. while mama and i were sharing stories and hearing advice–while i got some sweet unmentionables–grant and mason had a play date at bridgestreet, which is awesome, btw, if you haven’t yet gone. the party lasted until 10.30, which was delightful. then grant and i got to hang out and goof off. sunday began with company at 9.00am, a huge breakfast, and a quick siesta before we 4 (grant, me, mama, and daddy) went to the 2.00 matinee performance of hhs’ Les Miserables. stahler’s in it. it was AWESOME. i can’t even begin to describe it, but rest assured, it made me laugh, it made me cry, and the talent and stage set were so incredible i often forgot it was a high school performance. if you can make it to a show, GO! wow. then we ate lunch at one of grant’s fave restaurants in huntsville, and headed back home. grant and i got to chill out one last time before he drove back atl today–i stayed and am driving back tmrw am for class. it was a hectic weekend. and most hectic weekends = no sleep and no quality time. but this weekend was different. it was exactly what we needed. God is so good to give us what we need when we need it. grant is moving into OUR appartment tmrw! he’ll be all moved in before thursday, which marks the beginning of his bachelor weekend with the boys in st. simons and my bachelorette weekend with the girls!! we both can’t wait! we are so blessed with the coolest friends! as for school and work, i’m hoping to hear back from some places i applied to last week and hope to set up interviews for the first week in may. and school: my last hell week is this one. by thursday when i’m with my faves nothing school-related will matter, b/c that will all be said and done, praise the Lord. tho the weekend was fun, i’m so tired, so i’m out. but i’ll try to write more consistantly in the future. ciao.