Ryan's Moving Day

This weekend we moved Ryan (and Sulley) from Des Moines to Omaha. I spent the weekend helping him unpack all of his things and making his "house look like a home."

It's going to be a very different year for us. I just moved near campus at Drake in preparation for my last year at school, so I will be living in Des Moines until May. Throughout our relationship we've always been in the same city, so this new long distance situation will be quite different than what we're used to.

Ryan is really excited about starting his new job and I couldn't be happier for him!

I'm 21!

I celebrated my birthday with friends this weekend. It was a great way to end the summer and kick off my senior year of college!

They were great! They bought me TWO cakes and dressed me up like a princess before we headed out... I had the best time. My friends rock!

Round One of Engagement Photos

On Saturday Ryan and I met up with our photographer on Drake's campus to take a few engagement photos. We had originally planned on doing our pictures in the fall, but our photographer emailed me and let me know that he would love to do an extra session with us -- no extra charge-- before our "real" engagement session. So we did! I think the pictures turned out great, despite the humidity and my uncooperative hair! I thought that I would let you all know the website, sign-in, and password so whoever was interested could look at our photos. I will let you know after our next session so you can look at those, too!

For the first part of our session, Ryan and I decided to wear Drake shirts and take several photos on Drake's campus. Drake is really special to us because if we both wouldn't have gone to Drake we never would have met. After our Drake shoot, our photographer took us to downtown Des Moines and we got some amazing shots on some train tracks and by the DSM skyline.

Our photographer is awesome to work with, and had all of our photos up the day after our session! We are very excited for our more formal engagement photos in the fall.

website: http://jandbphotography.ifp3.com/
click, "enter site"
click, "Sign In"
username: simpson
password: 070310

The log-in information will be the same for our next session, any additional pictures he takes of us before the wedding, and for all of the wedding and reception pictures.

Update in a nutshell!

I have been terrible about updating my blog this summer, but here's the latest update on my life!  I got a job with ChildServe, a non-profit in Des Moines.  I will be working with children with special needs in the respite department.  I'm excited for the opportunity to work there from August until May when I will be moving to Omaha.

We also had a great time at the Martin family reunion on July 26th, seeing family we hadn't seen in a while.  Aunt Vonda and Uncle Jerry also generously let us go through some things in their basement, and we happily took them off their hands for our new apartment!

Ryan took the bar exam last week, and is super relieved to have it done and over with!  In about a month and a half he'll find out how he did.  I'm confident he passed with flying colors!

Ryan and I went to Omaha this past Friday to go apartment hunting.  We found a nice one-bedroom on the west side of Omaha for Ryan and Sulley (and then me) to live.  He'll move at the end of August.  We're excited to see our friends Shelley and Chris who live in Omaha much more often!

Ryan just started his new job yesterday, and will be working and training in Iowa until September.

We are having a pre-engagement photo session with our photographer, so I might have some photos to share here pretty soon.  In the meantime, here are a couple adorable pictures of my little nephew Tavian we got taken a few weeks ago.