by request...

...and because it's LONG LONG overdue, I am updating. Briefly.

A lot (which is still a gross understatement) has happened over the last few months.

After Tony proposed, we made plans to visit his family in Oklahoma. We spent Memorial Day weekend in Oklahoma meeting his wonderful family. We had a great time there. His family is great and I was welcomed to the family with open arms. They even threw us a great party to celebrate our upcoming marriage.

In June I got the final assignment for my masters degree which I worked on full time this last year. It was suicidal enough on it's own. And then I met Tony. I really didn't have time. But it's amazing how you can make time for things you really want, isn't it? I just didn't really sleep or exercise all year. In June we also found an apartment and did 90% of the preparations for our wedding. We were VERY busy. This all happened in the first two weeks of June. The last two weeks Tony was gone for his annual training with the national guard in podunk, virginia. That was a horrible two weeks. The worst part of the two weeks was that towards the end, his unit was informed that they would be deployed in 18 months for approximately one year. That means January 2011. This camper was not the least bit pleased about that.

While Tony was gone for his two weeks of training I did my best to keep busy by completing the majority of the final research project with a woman from class. We decided it would be MUCH easier to divide and conquer. And it was. And we rocked it. And now I am a master. And that is fabulous.

The last saturday of June I went tubing with Darin, his wife Melanie, Adam and his new flame. We had a great time, but I was really missing my honey. When we got back to the car, my phone rang and it was Tony telling me that he had gotten back a day early and so I promptly went home after we got back into town from being in WV for the tubing. I kind of offended my friends, but it had been two weeks since I'd seen Tony and I REALLY missed him!!

Wednesday July 1 we moved all of our belongings to our new house - Tony's first, and then mine. It was a very busy evening, and thankfully one of Tony's coworkers came and helped out. It was great to meet David and also great to have another strong man to be lifting and carrying things around.

July 3 we drove home to Ohio so Tony could meet my family. Tony stayed for the weekend where we enjoyed all kinds of Ohio 4th of July festivities, including the parade and street fair. We enjoyed a plethora of street fair foods and had a great time chillin with the fam. Tony got everyone excited about setting off our own fireworks, so we spent some time picking some out and then later in the evening setting them off. Everyone LOVED them!! And we can't believe we've never done that before! It was SO much fun. And I was so proud to have such a clever man.

I stayed in Ohio for another week and sent Tony to drive home by himself. He made it safely, and I enjoyed a few more days relaxing with my family. It turned out it was good that I stayed because of some family things that came up last minute. It was nice to be able to be home to be supportive and help out where I was needed.

The rest of July was busy with getting my family coordinated to come to Virginia for our wedding and making final arrangements for the wedding. August 1 sneaks up on you - you don't have all of August to anticipate the wedding. If you are planning a wedding at the beginning of the month, I suggest you start thinking of it as being at the end of the previous month, so as not to accidentally miss some deadlines. I should have thought of it as July 32. I didn't miss any deadlines, but I could have!

July 30 my family arrived. August 1 I married my best friend. He really is the greatest man in the entire world, and the last three weeks have been really amazing.

August 5 we left on our honeymoon to cancun. We had a fabulous time!!! Tony was disappointed he had to ask for tortillas every time we went to eat, but we really just enjoyed relaxing at the beach, snorkeling, and swimming in the pool at our great hotel. We came back Sunday. I was kind of ready to come back, but I really loved being on the ocean and spending so much time with my husband. I love him.

August 15 we had a reception in Ohio. I got to spend some time with some good friends and see some people I haven't seen in forever! Tony got to meet some of my very favorite people, and while he does not remember everyone's name (can you blame him?!! He just got dumped on with all kinds of people to meet - just the family who came to the wedding totalled 20 people), he does remember the people, and we both had a fabulous time with friends.

For our 3-week anniversary we went with our good friends Darin and Melanie to Ocean City, MD to go to the beach. Darin and I started beach day 3 years ago, and this year we were excited to bring our new spouses along on our excursion. We were glad they were happy to be there and we were also happy to include them on our tradition. We had a great day at the beach. It was forecasted to thunderstorm, but the rain missed us by thismuch We weren't really allowed to swim because of the harsh rip currents due to Hurricane Bill which was working its way up the eastern coast. We could play in the already crashed waves though, and that was more than enough to keep us entertained.

And now it's back to work. Tony starts school tonight, and I was in a meeting today. Tomorrow starts the full days. Not fun at all. But I have a great husband. I love him and he loves me and we could just make you gag with how happy and in love we are. I won't go into details. You can thank me later.