one month to go...

a month from today will be the last day of school and my last day at oakwood. it is amazing how quickly time has gone by, and though a month seems like such a short time, i know it will be filled with lots of the end-of-year activities. we have another round of standardized testing, spring concerts, talent shows, spring semi-formals and exams--and all that is on top of my wedding-related events and wedding itself! i almost hope that i get to enjoy a little bit of summer before i start a new job, simply because i will need a break before i head to work.

after our amazing weekend in ocracoke, we decided to celebrate our anniversary on monday, the actual day. justin surprised me by coming home early and setting a beautiful table, complete with customized menus and our new dishes. we had received a bottle of the wine that was served at our reception as a gift from alan and rachel over the weekend.


he also took the "life is good" shirts that we wore to leave the reception and made an important change--under "just married" he added "one year ago!" how creative.
and finally, we thawed out the top layer of our wedding cake and tried a slice. it had held on to the cake taste, but had the oddest texture--combination of moist from the defrosting and dry from the fact that it had been frozen for a year.
the rest of the week was a blur, and we received some of the hardest news i've ever had to deal with. we heard monday night that patrice had not felt her baby move in a day or so, and when they went to the doctor, they couldn't find the heartbeat. she and matt delivered gabriel matthew on tuesday morning and had his service on friday morning. i had just been in winston-salem to see them a few weeks ago and had taken some pictures of patrice individually and her and matt together. i was afraid that these would become painful for patrice and matt to look at, but they posted pictures from the service and i am so honored that they used one of the photos as part of the display. as they said, if they had to choose between spending time with him on earth and spending time with him in heaven, they would choose heaven, hands down.
they are an amazing couple and i love them dearly.

this past weekend was another full one, with relay for life on friday night. i stayed out at the event until 2 a.m., supporting our school team while also taking pictures for the paper. below is our team photo with everyone who was there to support lida's family, along with a couple of my favorite photos. if you'd like to see all of the ones that i took that evening, check them out at reflector.com



alan's sr. recital was saturday evening at ECU. justin recorded the entire performance and has posted it for our friends and family to view. the recording is about a half hour long, but it shows the amazing talent alan has and the amount of work that he has done in the school of music. we spent time with everyone who came in to see the recital, and also hosted a bridal shower for rachel and her friends on sunday afternoon. between weddings, graduation in a couple of weeks, and finding jobs, alan and rachel have a busy summer ahead of them!



that's all for now. bridesmaids' weekend in charleston with ashley and the girls this coming weekend!