Happy Memorial Day!

In DC, people probably didn't believe me at first when I told them I was from Florida.  After all, living in Tallahassee for 4 years had nearly erased any evidence of any tan skin I once had.  But one flash of my Virginia driver's license made them all believers, with my tan skin 10 days post St. Lucian honeymoon.

After 2 years and and a few months away from the sunshine state, Aaron and I are definitely Floridians again.  And it feels great! (and hot)!  Don't get me wrong, transitioning away from familiarity and friends has it's challenges.  But something about living in a city along the Atlantic Coast feels just like home.  Aaron surprises himself on a daily basis by making note of how much he's comfortable in 90 degrees with a sea breeze.  "There's just something about it," he says.  And we both have spent more and more time outdoors.  Even the puggle likes to chill in the sunshine. 

We're slowly getting used to taking care of a house (a little bit more of a responsibility over a 1 bedroom apartment).  We've found every Target, Walmart, Lowe's and Home Depot in a 20 mile radius.  And yesterday was full of yard work and washing our car (I never considered that having our own hose would be a thought so endearing).  

Today I have been laying out working on my pre-beach base tan so I don't get fried on my very first venture to "the shore" (familiar vocabulary for all you northerners).  But I just got smoked out of the backyard by Aaron, who is firing up his brand new to toy to grill some long-awaited ribs.

It's a bittersweet time we're having here, in a state of transition between "home" and "home".  Feels like we belong around here until I see pictures of Arlington Cemetery and start to tear up for all the wrong reasons.  As in, the cemetery is one of many iconic places that remind me of our old home.  

...But on that thought, on this Memorial Day, I challenge those of you in the DC area not to take for granted all of the memorials and monuments around you, as it can be so easy to do in our daily city lives.   But let's be thankful to those heroes who have given their lives in service so that we can engage in all of our American festivities and celebrations...wherever we are.

Happy Memorial Day from the Wilsons.

You can call me Master Wilson!

Okay.  I'm going to attempt to catch everyone up on my whirlwind of a week (more like 2 weeks, but whirlwind of a 2 weeks doesn't sound as catchy).

First up: GRADUATION WEEKEND.  It was several days filled with so much fun, family, friends, and I got a Master's Degree at the end of it all!  Oh, and food.  We had lots of food.

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Sporting the GW gear that I bought when cleaning out my GWorld account.

With 2 really sweet ladies. 

Okay, so this one has a story.  My mom got me M&Ms as a graduation gift because as a pre-schooler I had to go speech therapy.  I had vocal nodules, largely due to the fact that I was a loud-mouth at an early age.  This caused me to develop nodules and earn the nickname "Raspy Lo".  My speech pathologist gave me M&Ms as reinforcement for using a "good voice".  I told my parents I wanted to be a speech pathologist when I grew up, because who doesn't want to be the awesome lady who shells out free candy all day!?  And 20 years later, whattaya know.

PS- Mom informed me after I ate them all that the M&Ms were supposed to be for my future clients.  Oops.

Morning of graduation day (#1).  Me and my good-lookin' boo.

Dr. Hancock and I...Seminoles unite (we're doing the tomahawk chop for  those of you who haven't had a good dose of ACC football in your life).

Caroline and I had the same shoes!  Why is this important?  It probably isn't, but now you won't have any questions about what shoes I wore with my dress.

Aaron, me, Caroline, & Todd! (And now you won't have any questions about Caroline's dress now that you've seen her shoes.)

My family came to celebrate.  Missed you, lyn!

The other side of my family joined us, too!

Columbian College of Arts and Sciences Graduation time!  Janean giving her rockstar of a speech!! 

Aaron snuck down to get a pic of me among my fellow graduates.

We did Maggiano's (family style) for dinner.  Thumbs up for the dessert.  And everything else we ate.

Annnnnnd more dessert.  

Aaron, Mohammad, Rogaiyah, & moi (celebrating post-ceremony at the same restaurant)!  We're gonna miss these good friends!  (And yes I'm wearing my medal.  You don't talk back to your dad when he tells you to wear your medal.  Especially when he's buying dinner.)

Graduation round 2.  Sunday morning on the National Mall.

It was predicted to rain, but turned out to be a gorgeous day in the capital city!

Hooray!

That's the story of graduation.  More to come re: our move to FLORIDA.

Love,

Laura Wilson, M.A., CF-SLP

First things first.

So I have SO much to blog about.  Here's a sneak peek of what's to come:

Graduation Weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BUT.  First things first.  I have to go in chronological order for organization's sake.  And I promised Alicia I would post our BBQ adventure pics on the blog.  And trust me, the BBQ was blog-worthy.

In the spirit of making sure we complete our bucket list of must-dos before leaving the DC-metro area, Aaron and I made the pilgrimage to La Plata, Maryland for some down-home BBQ with my good friend Alicia (La Plata being her beloved home town).  The place was called Johnny Boy's Ribs and it was a 12'x12' smokehouse that sold plates of BBQ, sweet tea, a LARGE serving of french fries, and some southern nostalgia walkup-style.

Making our selections @ Johnny's.

Fellow GW-grad-to-be Alicia got the ribs on a sandwich.  I like someone who shares my affinity for food!

Mmmm. 

The 32 oz cup of fries runneth over.

Aaron couldn't resist the half-rack.  

Me and my boo-boo.

Alicia gave us a new way home and we found a TCBY!  Too full to finish it, but couldn't resist!

And while this is completely unrelated to our BBQ date, I have to show you my week of planning and preparing to graduate, pack, and move in a period of less than 7 days.  Hey, anal retentive or not, the job gets done...and done well!

That's all I've got for now, but be sure to check back soon for my GRADUATION post!!

Love,

Master Laura Wilson ;)

The first of the lasts

It's a bit of a melancholy Monday morning for me.  My last Monday morning with a to-do list for grad school.  It feels a little bit strange to be thinking about the "lasts" that I've encountered and those that lie in the days ahead.  The last few weeks marked the beginning of a lot of the victorious lasts related to school.  I had my last graduate-school class ever.  Last therapy session at GW ever.  Last track meeting ever.  

And more lasts are to come.  Tomorrow is my last day at my internship at Washington-Lee High School.  My last morning waking up early to make a long commute.  This week I take my last exam and write my last paper.

There are other lasts that aren't so exciting:  Like, our last couples-group meeting with our great friends from Ambassador Bible Church.  Last time hanging out with my girlfriends from GW.  Or our last time eating at Zoe's in Fairfax.  Or my last time having Lin from Bubbles cut my hair.

Okay, so maybe some are not as genuinely saddening as others, but it's crazy to think that in t-minus 12 days I will be graduating with a master's degree.  And that in t-minus 17 days we are packing up and moving back to Florida.  Crazy times ahead for the VA Wilsons.  Wait...do I have to change my URL?  Crap.

...Vote to the right to let us know what you think about the URL name-change!

Pensiveness aside, we're also totally excited about the next several weeks.  Here's what we've got on the agenda (meaning lots of great posts to come):

May 13th thru 16th: GRADUATION Weekend - with lots of family in town!
May 19th: Moving to Florida!
June 4th: Family baby shower in Sylacauga, AL!
June 14th: Heading to Hawaii for a little post-grad/post-move R&R!
June 20th: Back to reality and commencement of operation get a job! :)

Over & Out on this lovely Monday morn.  Hope everyone is off to a great week!