And so it begins

Carson and I traveled to Hartsville, SC last weekend for his first on location interview for a job after graduation!! It's great to know that opportunities exist this far out even though he is not going to graduate until August. Carson handled the whole thing with such confidence! (Me, I would have been a crazy nervous wreck. . . so I was very impressed). I was especially excited when he brought back a goodie bag because Packaging companies are always looking to show off what they have packaged. I've been good so far and not broken into the full size package of Oreo's (no, I was a good wife and much more interested in how the interviews went... mmm hmm)

I spent most of the time relaxing in the hotel room because Carson had the car at the interview and then we left town shortly after his interviews were finished. We'll know soon if he gets an offer.

So I have some exciting pictures from our trip







Just kidding! It wasn't all fields. There was a Wal-Mart and about five fast food restaurants in that parking lot and a downtown area. I was excited about the small town (I love them) but this was not a thriving small town. Half of the buildings were just sitting empty and kind of run down. It looked like it used to be a very quaint little town but maybe the recession has hit it hard. So sad!

Wedding!

Shortly after I got home from my business trip, Carson and I turned around and came back down to Orlando for a wedding. Josh, the groom, has been a friend of mine since the 5th grade and Carson's friend since high school. Josh was also one of the groomsmen in our wedding!



His entire family has been good friends of ours for quite a while and so it was a wonderful occasion to celebrate!



While we were home, we went out to celebrate my birthday at an Italian restaurant (Carson took me out for Mexican on my real birthday so I got to enjoy both of my favorite foods!) It was great to be out with the whole family. Our good friend Jeff came with us who has been called my parents adopted son. We joked that my parents gained two kids in one year! My brother (the real one) just turned 21 so we're one big grown up happy family. It's amazing to see how things have changed over the years and it feels more like we're all friends now!

Takin' Care of Business

As I have mentioned on my blog before, I am now a beauty consultant for a skincare called Aloette! I have completed my training and October was my first month as an independent consultant and it was a great one! I travelled to Orlando to do some shows down there and one of my friends snapped a picture. This was my second show so I was still kind of nervous (as you can probably tell since I am beat red all over!) but it was such a fun time!!



While I have been working on getting my business off the ground, Carson has also been hard at work with his photography business. He has already had a few independent jobs while continuing to build his portfolio! He has created his own website if you would like to check it out.

Camping

So we got some great camping gear for our wedding and haven't had the chance to use it all yet. So....


we went camping...


in North Carolina....



in a Chick-Fil-A parking lot!!

We went to a CFA grand opening where if you are one of the first 100 people there (or chosen) and camp out for 24 hours, you get 52 free combo coupons the next morning when they open! It was so much fun. Carson was #17 chosen and I was alternate #104 and 3 people dropped out!! I was so close but it was still a great memory and we got one set of coupons. http://www.gastongazette.com/news/chick-38741-fil-line.html

We got up at 2:30 am to drive to North Carolina and get in line in the rain. As soon as we pitched our tent I took a nap. It was a great day to relax and they fed us all thorughout the day! We would have to line up in number order and walk through the drive through. The day turned out to be a little warmer than anticipated but Carson we able to cool off with a water relay.
And here is Carson bright and early the next morning getting his tickets! Less than 7 hours of sleep in two nights but it was an amazing experience that we would love to take part in again!

The biggest birthday celebration

Ok, so I know I promised to post about when Carson's parents were here like a month ago but I've already apologized and I'm making up for lost time. The weather prevented us from going up into the mountains but I do have a picture from the family birthday celebration. Everyone (not really, it just seems that way) has a birthday in or around October. So we all get together at once to celebrate. We had such a fun time catching up with family, some that we haven't seen since our wedding. We got the whole upstairs of this restaurant and as you can tell we filled it up pretty well!

Wow! It has been forever!

Sorry about the temporary lapse in blogging. Life suddenly got really busy and it was the first thing to go. Busy is good though. God has really been blessing us with lots of time with family, success in our businesses and strengthening our marriage. I was sharing my blog with a friend and he thought it was all about grocery deals that I have snagged lately. It was for a while when we were just kind of chugging along in life, but now we have so much going on I hardly have time to grocery shop. I'll fill you in on life and then do a few separate post on some of the specific things that we've been up to.

The big news in our lives right now is that we are preparing for a move. We're going to be living a little bit further out from campus in a little house that some of Carson's family owns. It's a huge blessing and I'm sure I'll have plenty of picture of the progress of the move. First I'll have to start packing though!

Carson has also made a lot of progress in his thesis research and is planning to graduate early. So he has also already begun interviewing for jobs. We are stressed excited about the opportunities that are ahead in the coming months.