2011: Further Review

Alright, 2011 was so awesome that it had to be broken up into two blog posts.  Here's the rest of the awesomeness:

On July 3 my dear friend Caitlin got married, and I got to be a maid of honor along with (the other) Caitlin.  The three of us go way back...to elementary school times...and we're part of an exclusive club called the Chocoholics Anonymous.  It's been so fun to grow up together and see now where our 20s are taking us!

The wedding was at Vintage Villas in Austin - gorgeous!  McGuire and I hosted a bachelorette party / lingerie shower on the Thursday right before the wedding:

Also part of the weekend's events - a bridesmaids' luncheon:

And bouquet/centerpiece construction, headed up by our flower pro, McGuire:

Cait was a stunning bride!  Loved her choice of colors, too!

 We are sisters...you are the thumb.

Another fun summer event: Brad and I made our way down to Port O'Connor for the annual Simon-Frederick family reunion.

On our fishing trip, I caught a big ol' speckled trout!  Woo!

At the end of July, Brad and I moved from Waco to Temple (he's had to move on his birthday for two years in a row!)  Once we were settled in there, transportation became so much easier.  It's 8 minutes from our apartment to Scott & White...as opposed to the 45 minute trip I made 4X a day in the spring!  Wedding plans continued as summer was winding down, and I also went to Miami for the Joint Statistical Meetings.  This is a huge gathering of statisticians that happens every year, and those of us coming out of our third year in the stats department are expected to attend, present at least a poster, and start interviewing.  I presented a poster over my dissertation research:

Note the nerd glasses.  I didn't just wear those to look extra-nerdy...for most of the summer I was having major eye issues (tearing up, vision going blurry and then getting clear again throughout the day) and after 5 doctor's appointments and probably 5 diagnoses, they determined that I had ocular rosacea.  I thought rosacea only applied to the skin, but I guess I was wrong!  Eventually it cleared up with meds, but in the meantime I spent most of the summer in my nerd glasses.

Aside from the conference, we managed to have some fun in Miami, going to the beach and trying out some local restaurants:

I had about 8 interviews set up during the conference...interviewing all day with various companies is quite an experience...and tiring.  I'm glad I made the effort, though, because the company I am going to work for started out the process by interviewing me here!

And then, it was fall...a very busy fall indeed.  It was the first fall since I was about 5 years old that I didn't go "back to school"...since I finished up my coursework with my program in the spring/summer, my only tasks were to work on my dissertation and work part-time in the research office at Scott & White for my assistantship.  It was really, really great to not be in classes.  It was also really, really hard to keep myself on track with my dissertation, without those natural deadlines that come with coursework!

Fall was also full of Baylor football.  Brad and I made it to every home game, and it was an "unbelievably believable" season.  So proud of my bears.

 Baylor Line

 Teri and Brad

 The Texas game was rainy!

Chatted with Baylor President Ken Starr before the Texas game!

Other fun fall events: We went to Rockport for Brad's annual family reunion...we drove there AFTER Baylor beat TCU - got in to Rockport around 5 am.  Going to the game was so worth it, but that drive was not super.



With Brad's cousin Kirby...I was still rocking the nerd glasses at this point.

I was blessed with two different wedding showers during the fall, as well as a "ladies' luncheon".  The Caitlins (my matron and maid of honor) hosted the first shower along with my mom's friend Jill, and my aunt Sharon hosted the second one - a couples' shower!

 Kitchen shower in Austin

 Sweet hostesses of the kitchen shower

 Dallas couples' shower: Sharon got a taco truck!

 We had fun opening presents, including this great Baylor blanket!



Brunch with Dad's side of the family the morning after the shower

And of course...there was the wedding on November 12!  As I mentioned before, it was everything I could have hoped for.  Beautiful ceremony and a fun reception that had guests dancing all night.  The pro pics have come in from our talented photographer Megan Smith, so I'll post just a few :)



Whew!  Such an amazing day.  We wrapped up 2011 with our first Christmas as a married couple (I touched on Christmas in a previous post!) and ringing in the new year at home in Temple, just the two of us!  2011 was really great overall, with a few curveballs thrown in there.  Can't wait to see what 2012 has in store.  Hopefully the world doesn't end ;)



2011 in Review

2011, you were pretty excellent.

Here are some of the highlights:

This was my first term as an advisor for the Baylor chapter of Alpha Chi Omega (my collegiate sorority), and I got to do some fun events with my sisters.  Accompanied the exec board to Houston for their leadership retreat in January...I was the only advisor and didn't really know what I was doing, but we had fun anyway (despite being chastised for coming home early.  Whoops.)  I also went to Big Sis Reveal, where we welcomed the newest member in the Turtle family line, Allison!

 Allison is my great-great-grand little.  I am very old.  Can't believe I'm still around the area to welcome a great-great-great-grand little to the line this year.  It's time for me to leave college :)  Anyway, Allison is super awesome!

In February I attended Alpha Chi's New Member dance as one of the advisors.  Brad and I dressed the part...the theme was From Geek to Greek, you could dress geeky or fratty...we went for the former, naturally.

 My shirt: "Statisicians are normal, everyone else is skewed".  His shirt: "The only vowels I need are 'u' and 'i'".

Fast forward to spring break...I always love to get up to Montana to see my grandparents, and my cousin Hayley was going to be there with her son Aevry and my aunt Kim, so it was a great time to go:

 I really, really love this place.

 Aevry is just the cutest, seriously.

In March, I went to the Conference of Texas Statisticians with some grad school classmates.  Other people from my cohort presented posters on their research, but I...was a slacker.  Sadly the conference was hosted by A&M this year so I had to go to College Station...but I managed :-P   Also partied afterward with Forrest, Caleb and Brandi, we had a grand old time.



My resident, Kavitha, had graduated but she came back to Waco to work for a news station.  We reconnected in the spring and decided to try out a few restaurants specific to Waco, since I was about to move to Temple and she ended up moving to St. Louis!  Here, enjoying some D's Mediterranean:

Other events not pictured: we went to several basketball games (including the heartbreaking loss for the women to A&M), and I did lots of wedding planning.  At this time we were starting up the great Dress Remodeling.  To explain...I had had one appointment with David's Bridal and found some favorites in the fall of 2010, but I also wanted to try on my mom's dress (she had had it preserved from when she married my dad in 1980).  She had it shipped down from Montana, and that fall I tried it on:

I REALLY liked the classic look of the long train and lacy veil, but I wasn't a fan of the sleeves (they were too short anyway, and what you can't see is that the bodice wouldn't even zip in the back!)  So, we talked about redesigning it.  My grandma has that talent for sewing (she made most of my mom's prom dresses, etc.) but the Texas-Montana divide would make it difficult.  But Megan, my matron of honor's mom, is also very talented and has made wedding dresses in the past - and lived in Austin!  We asked if she'd be willing to take on this task, and she said yes!  It was no small task...the bodice would have to be completely removed, with lacy details around the point of removal needing to be preserved.  Then, she had to design an entirely new bodice, using this David's dress that I liked as inspiration:

Megan really worked wonders.  She couldn't find a pattern with this "crumb-catcher" design, so she just made one up!  Crazy talented.  She worked on it starting in the spring and up until the wedding...pictures of the finished product later in this post :)

In April, life got really shaken up...Brad had found a job at Scott & White hospital in Temple and he was going to move in with me in Waco from his grandpa's house in Tyler.  He was set to move-in on April 1st, and we just happened to have our engagement pics scheduled in Waco for the next day.  Then he would start the job that Monday, April 4!  So many things going on at once...well, on his way home from his last day of work in Tyler, he had an absence seizure and had a head-on collision with another vehicle.  So so thankfully, none of the three passengers in the other truck were harmed, nor was Brad.  This certainly changed our plans, though.  His truck was totaled and the police sent it off to the tow yard.  He proceeded with his move-in the next day (my mom drove in her truck from Austin to Tyler to Waco to get him moved in!) and amazingly, he was still up for engagement pics that day.  He had been really shaken up by that wreck but we managed to have a good afternoon shooting pictures around Baylor and Waco with our photographer, Megan Smith:

Brad started his job as planned that Monday.  We were also trying schedule in time to go back to Tyler and release his truck to the tow place, as well as get him in to his neurologist to change up his meds.  I'm so happy to report that since that 4/1 accident, Brad has not had another seizure.  I think it's the new combination of meds and maybe even the lifting of his mood since moving to Waco (then Temple)...at any rate, we're very thankful for this blessing.

In April we were operating on just one car (actually still are to this day!), which was certainly a challenge.  I would make the 45-minute drive to Temple in the morning to drop Brad off, come back for my 9:30 class, go back at the end of the day after finishing up my IRT job to pick him up, and bring him back home to Waco.  Lots of driving on I-35...it wasn't great, but we needed to do it.  Once classes ended in May it got a little easier, I started an assistantship with Scott & White Research and we moved to Temple in July - after that it was MUCH easier :)

Other summer events...another one of my residents, Stephanie, got married in June and Brad and I had the pleasure of going to her wedding.  It was Baylor-fied like ours would turn out to be, which made us happy :)  They had green and gold in their colors, and they led a sic 'em at the end of their ceremony! 

These are all girls from my hall, North Russell 2C!  Love that these girls' friendships lasted beyond freshman year and all the way up to being bridesmaids in Steph's wedding!  I had just a small part in it, but it feels good to see their friendships last :)

I'll end on that happy note with the rest of 2011 to be shared later!  I have a dissertation chapter due to my advisor in two days...it's probably about time to stop the procrastination.

Christmastime

We celebrated Christmas this past weekend...all across Texas!  Since Brad and I got married in November, I wouldn't say we've had any fights, but two of our "heated discussions" have been about the holidays.  First up - Thanksgiving - I thought it was important to see my dad's side of the family (and my grandma had been emailing about Thanksgiving since before the wedding), while Brad usually spends that weekend in Hearne (where his grandma is) since he and his dad and brother hunt there.  I had this grand scheme for going to both places in one day, and we butted heads over that for awhile :)  When it came down to it, we woke up in Hearne on Thanksgiving day, drove to Georgetown for a late lunch with my family that afternoon, then came back to Hearne in the evening so he could hunt Friday! 

Now, Christmas...Brad basically doesn't like driving all over the place when the holidays should be a relaxing time...but for this one, we had fewer days and more families to visit!  My dad is currently in Korea for work, so we did our Christmas meal with him a week early.  That left my mom and Sean in Round Rock, his family in Hearne, and his family in Tyler to go see...in three days!  Again, we clashed about it and for awhile it sounded like he was just going to see his family without me...which I'm not okay with since it's our first married Christmas!...but I guess he was just picking on me, because he came along in the end :)  We started out in Round Rock, where we saw Mom, Sean, and my brothers along with Matt's girlfriend Tess.  Mom made her traditional tenderloin with moutarde sauce, and I brought sooo many cookies I had been making in Temple.

Holiday Hats

On Saturday we made our way to Hearne, and we woke up there on Christmas morning.  I had a stocking!  Felt like part of the family :)

Showing off our new texting gloves!

Family Pic

And after all the Christmas festivities in Hearne, we drove up to Tyler to see Brad's mom's side of the family.  (Teri got a family shot on her camera but I didn't, so here's an action shot of present-opening!)

Papaw gave us a heated blanket (a wedding registry item we had never received!) and I'm sure it'll come in handy in NY.  Teri gave us the new Baylor cowboy boots!  Brad will be wearing his tomorrow...

...at the Alamo Bowl!  We're so excited to go watch the final football game.  Ready to see our Bears achieve 10 wins for this season!  It's a little bittersweet, since we'll be in New York next year when football starts up again, and I'm not sure when we'll be able to personally attend another game!  Maybe we'll fly down in the fall sometime...just can't imagine a fall without football!

Sic 'em, Bears!!

Great Weekend

What a great weekend in Dallas!  We went up to go to brother Dave's annual Christmas party...turns out the Heisman trophy presentation was scheduled to start right as the party was starting, so we had a room full of Baylor bears glued to the TV. 

And of course...Baylor's own RG3 won the award!  First time ever for a Baylor player to win the award.  It's still surreal to think about...so proud of him and he's such a good guy all around.

The Christmas party was fun (of course, got off to a great start!) and we spent the rest of the weekend with Brad's mom.  Now, gearing up to Christmas...I still have a lot of shopping to do, whoops. 

Speaking of Christmas, I'm really glad I won the debate with Brad...he doesn't like that Christmas is a "season" (doesn't like the commercialism of it) and wanted to wait till Christmas Eve to put up our tree!  I got him to agree to get a tree with me if we got the apartment cleaned and all the wedding presents put away...and that happened :)

Merry Christmas and sic 'em bears ;)

We're Married!!

Well, the wedding came and went in a rush!  It was beautiful and the reception was so fun.  16 months of planning...it's weird to not have wedding plans consuming my life now!  But it's a good feeling.  Some ladies get the "post-wedding blues" after it's over...I felt a little bit like I wanted to experience it again, from a guest's point of view, in the few days after the wedding, but for the most part I'm glad to be done and on to spending the rest of my life with my best friend!

Our photographer promised pics within 2 months of the wedding...since we're not even at the 1-month mark yet, I'm just patiently waiting!  But here are some pics I stole from friends' facebook albums!

More to come, of course...everything went really well, the only major mishap came during the exchanging of the rings in the ceremony.  Everyone always jokes about losing the rings, etc...well...our coordinator got the two rings from me so I wouldn't have to keep track.  She gave Brad's ring to my maid of honor right away, then slipped my ring on her hand to give to the best man (Jared) later on.  Fast forward to the ceremony...we're standing up there and our officiant asks Jared for the ring.  Jared gives this nervous smile and kind of shakes his head.  The officiant continues with talking about the rings, and even looks like he might be holding a ring on the Bible! - so I think we're fine.  Then after his statement, he asks Jared again for the ring.  Now I know there's a problem.  I pause for a second, then slip the engagement ring off my right hand and slip it to Brad so that he has something to put on my finger for that part!  Then we continue, Caitlin has his ring as expected and we go on with the ceremony.

Afterward, I found our coordinator in the lobby and asked where the ring was.  She thought she had given it to Jared...she went back to the room to check the ring boxes, and then someone asked her "Is it still on your finger?"  Sure enough...there it was.  I had Brad place it on my hand unceremoniously right there in the lobby :)  Ah well, gotta have a story right?

Anyway, overall the day was everything I wanted it to be.  A meaningful ceremony, and a fun party after.  Lots of friends and familiy stayed and danced all the way to the end when we made our grand exit.  So many good memories from that day.

And I'm sure there will be more pics to come!