My, how time flies!

I cannot believe how long it has been since I posted! So much has happened this month and the holidays are quickly approaching. I was actually designing our Christmas card today (yay!) and was checking back over the blog to find fun things that we have been up to this year and realized that I have quite a few things to share.

The most life-changing of the updates that I have to share is... I PASSED MY MASTER'S COMPREHENSIVE ORAL EXAM on November 10th and will be graduating on December 16th!
I cannot believe I am finished with my Master's program. It seems like last semester that I started, and yet so much has happened while I've been in school... the most exciting thing, of course, being that Belmont and I met and got married!! :)

Belmont took me out to a celebratory lunch right after my exam at the Tenderloin Room. (Delicious!) It has been so nice to be done with studying and thesis-writing! I still have classes that I am teaching, but I will finish those in December. I am scheduled to teach two classes and three labs again in the spring, and then we will see what the Lord has in store for me job-wise!

Yesterday Belmont's golf clubs arrived in the mail!!!
He is so excited, but it is almost too cold to play golf now! :/
We went to his parents' house for a nice family dinner last night and also stopped by Old Navy to use a coupon we had. He now has two new sweaters (one of which is a Christmas argyle sweater!), a new pair of pants, and a Coca-Cola t-shirt. He doesn't have many graphic tees and he just loved it. :)

After my most recent blog post, we decided to celebrate three months of marriage by eating a little of the anniversary tier of our wedding cake. Much more delicious than we anticipated after spending a month or so in the golf club's refrigerator! We are planning to eat a little every three months until our one-year anniversary. Thanks, Kerstin!

The famous wedding tier. Gorgeous, no?!


Belmont eating his first bite. Yum!!


Silly cake-eating shot. This cake was delicious, though!
Especially after spending months in the freezer! :)

Today my mother-in-law, Cindy, took me shopping to celebrate my Master's and to help me search for a blazer for my life in the professional world now that I've graduated. Her sweet dad took her shopping after she graduated from college for some "grown-up" clothes, and she wanted to help me celebrate in the same way. We went all over the mall and finally wound up finding not one but two lovely blazers at Talbots! I am moving on up in the world, wouldn't you say?? I have never owned anything from Talbots in my life! One of the blazers is a light-brown tweed and the other is a deep olive corduroy that Cindy thinks looks great with my hair. I love them both! Thank you, Cindy, for a fun day of shopping and a start to my professional wardrobe! :)

This afternoon, Belmont took my little brother, Jacob, car shopping. He has been without a car for about a month now after having an (injury-free) car accident. He has been staying at our house off-and-on for the last week trying to carpool with Belmont to work, but they both finally had time today to go hunt down the perfect car for him. After they are done, the husband and I are planning to go to a play tonight. One of my d-group girls is in it and we are excited for a mini-date night!

Tomorrow = Thanksgiving at Calen's house! I was supposed to make a pumpkin pie, but I might wind up buying one. OR making sweet potato casserole, which is a delicious Thanksgiving treat that I have only recently grown to love.

Wednesday = traveling to my parents' house to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Jones fam! I am so excited. My mom is the best cook ever AND my dad makes deep-friend turkey. We might all be as large as Macy's balloons when this is over with, but what a delight for our taste buds!

A very happy Thanksgiving to each of you!

Stay tuned for holiday updates... hopefully they won't be as few and far-between in the upcoming weeks! :)