Complete!

It's official... I'm married to someone who passed the CPA exam! Not only did he pass it but he passed ALL four parts on the FIRST try!  I am so proud of him!

Honestly neither one of us thought there was any way he would pass all of them on the first try.  This is such an answer to many prayers.  God has been good to us!

So now what... Technically JP is now an Inactive CPA.  In order to become a real CPA he must get two more graduate classes and a few more months of work experience.  He is planning on starting Master's of Accountancy classes this fall, and he is actively looking for jobs.

Although I'm SO ready for him to get a job (because that means we can look for a house, I can finally go shopping, we can get furniture, we can go to Disney World), I know that God's timing isn't always the same as mine.  We know that He will continue to provide for us and pray that he will provide JP with the perfect job.

Senior Year Memory Part TWENTY EIGHT: Graduation

May 2007 was a big month for my family!  Sarah graduated from Decatur High School, and I graduated from Samford Unviersity.  Her graduation was on a Friday and mine was the next Saturday.

I brought my graduation gear to Decatur so we could take pictures together.  My mom got balloons... red and black for D-High and red and blue for Samford.

 

This picture is of me, Sarah, and our neighbors Braxton and Tucker after Sarah's graduation.  We would always play board games like Cranium on long summer days.  The reason I'm posting this picture is because they are graduating from high school this year!

 

Now on to Samford's graduation...

 

My sweet grandmothers came to both mine and Sarah's graduation.

 

After the graduation ceremony, we all went to Cocina Superior for lunch.

Senior Year Memory Part TWENTY SEVEN: Time Where Did You Go?

Towards the end of my Senior year, I was really sad about graduating.  Don't get me wrong, I was ecstatic about being done with school, but I was so sad about leaving Samford-my friends, the environment, everything.  There was about a week between my last final and graduation.  During that time I walked all over campus several times taking pictures of everything.  Seriously, everything.  As I looked through the pictures I really can't think of anything I missed.

During this time I listened to the song "Time" by Chantal Kreviazuk. Time, where did you go?

 

 

 

 

I'm tellin' ya... I took pictures of everything.  Here is my mailbox.  Want pics of campus safety cars, benches, random trees... I've got them.

 

One afternoon Laurel and I decided to cross the street and go to the median so we could take this picture

 

... and this happened

 

As we sprinted into the median, are feet started sinking and mud starting flying.  But hey, we got the picture!

Senior Year Memory Part TWENTY SIX: A Dream Come True

I had a REALLY hard time deciding what to do after graduation.  As a nutrition major, the logical thing for me to do was to complete a dietetic internship.  However, I had no desire to do one... I thought.  The internship application is quite complex and most people spend months working on the application.  I, however, decided the week before applications were due that, in fact, I did want to try and do an internship.  So I threw together an application.  Each internship has a different application process.  Because I had waited so late, I was only able to apply to two internships instead of four like I would have liked to do.

The two I applied for were Baylor and UAB.  

• Baylor: I applied to Baylor because it had been a dream of mine since high school to live in Dallas.  Don't ask me where that dream came from, but it was there.  The summer before my Senior year, my family and I went to Dallas to tour Baylor.  My mom went on the tour with me, and we both loved it.  The problem was though that Baylor was very competitive.  They get an average of 120 applications and only 8 people get in.
• UAB:  I applied to UAB part-time program as a back up because I knew I could get in.  I really didn't want to do my internship at UAB but figured if I did the part-time program I could get a fun job as well.

Applications were sent in at the beginning of February, and we didn't find out where we were placed until April! It was quite emotional not knowing what I was going to do when I graduated!  I really just had to put complete faith in God.

The way the internships work is when each applicant sumbits their applications, they also rank each program they are applying to.  Then, each program ranks their applicants and a match happens.  (Basically, it works just like rush).  Applicants are informed of their placement through a computer program which can be accessed at midnight.

On match night, JP came over and brought me banana bread.  We waited until midnight and then checked on the match, and I had gotten my first choice, Baylor!  I was SO excited that 1) I was going to move to Dallas and 2) I FINALLY knew what I was going to be doing.

 Dallas

After I found out, I was still sort of emotional because it was such a big  change.  Looking back I totally see God's hand at work in this situation.  Living in Dallas was one of the best times of my life and really helped me grow emotionally, spiritually, and helped shape me into who I am today through both experiences and people I met.

Senior Year Memory Part TWENTY FIVE: Kickin' It at the Country Club

One of our Senior spring parties had a country club theme.  I was really pleased with me and JP's costumes! I told him to just wear a polo shirt and khakis, but he came with two cool hats and a croquet club as well.  I had borrowed a golf brand baseball-style hat from my dear little friend Braxton but decided the hat JP had did a lot more for the costume.  I also bought some golf clubs at the toy store.

A good reason not to fast foward through commercials...

My new favorite commercial. Why? Because it involves many things I like:

1. A road trip (although not so much a fan of the GPS)

2. The state of Arizona

3. Hot Air Balloons!

4. Engagement

Senior Year Memory Part TWENTY FOUR: El Fudge

One of the things I remember about senior year is the frequent occurrence of E.L. Fudge cookies.  JP gave my E.L. Fudge cookies frequently, usually at random times.  I remember one time I came to visit him over Jan Term, and he had hidden them under a folded blanket on the futon and made me find them.  They were always double stuffed, and we never called them E.L. Fudge but referred to the as el fudge.

These cookies continued to make their presence in our relationship showing up on our engagement night and our wedding day.  Our small gift for out guests were E.L. Fudge cookies!