Sweet Home California

WE'RE BACK!

We got into Orange (California) at about 730 last night...in record time. We left Rochester at about noon Saturday afternoon, Bobby drove pretty much all night. We stopped for a few hours around 430 am and slept. I had been sleeping on and off but he definitely had not, so after we woke up around 630/7 we got some food where ever we were in Missouri and I drove to Oklahoma City and Bobby slept pretty much the whole time. His dad had left Friday morning and we actually ended up ahead of him! We met up in Gallup, New Mexico and finally got a hotel for the night (thank God!) We got to shower and get a good nights sleep...we were then only about 9 hours away so we left around 10 and got in at 730 last night! Like I said, RECORD TIME! That first 36 hour stretch sucked, but it was SO worth it just to GET here.

We aren't in the most ideal situation currently, and I may or may not have had a minor meltdown this morning, but we are making the best of it. We are going to join a $7/month gym that is right across the street and spend our time working out, going to the beach, and working on wedding stuff. I have my dress fitting and bridal shower in northern california to look forward to next weekend and of course seeing all my family and friends!

After my meltdown today I remembered a quote that fit my situation PERFECTLY

"Someone is happier with less than what you have".

Boy did that snap me back to reality and make me appreciate what I DO have right now. Although my current living situation is less than ideal, I still have more than a lot of people and have a LOT still to be thankful for. So I am going to focus on those things instead and I am feeling better already after a good cry and a realization that I need to suck it up and make the best of the situation...so that is what I am going to do.

I am back in Southern California. I get to marry my best friend in 65 days and I have friends and family who love me. Life is good.

<3

WE (HE) MADE IT!

Bobby graduated from the Simon School of Business this morning and I couldn't be more proud of him! I joke and say "WE" did it, because although he was the one in school, we really did go through this chapter of our lives together. We moved here almost two years ago not knowing a single person. Over 3,000 miles away from our family and everyone and everything we knew, no place to live, I didn't have a job, just took a dive into the complete unknown. It was scary. We only had each other and that was enough for us, but throughout our time here we quickly built friendships that will last far beyond our Simon chapter. We are so thankful for those friendships, especially now that we are all going our separate ways this week. Most every one of our friends are leaving this week, as well as us.  It is going to be so strange not seeing all of the same faces that we have seen for the past two years, especially not knowing when or if we will see many of them ever again. I know I will definitely see a very select few, but I know we won't see everyone. It is an odd feeling...It is one of those things "don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened". Although it is sad thinking about the probability of never seeing a good amount of the people we have met here in Rochester ever again, we are so thankful and grateful for the time that we had with each and every one of them. Each person contributed to making our time here in Rochester worth it and memorable. It is a time in our lives that we will never forget and a chapter in our journey that has changed us forever.

So, here we are with 5 short days left in our Rochester/MBA chapter of our lives, not knowing what the next step is going to be, where we will end up, and knowing everything can change overnight...but yet again we are doing it together. Taking the plunge in to the next chapter of our lives; marriage.

I couldn't ask for a better partner in this life than Bobby. He truly is my best friend and I wouldn't want to be on this journey with anybody else. I love him and am so beyond proud of him he will never know. I feel so lucky and so blessed to call him mine and I am looking forward to the next few months...they're going to be chaotic, stressful, joyous, emotional, and probably some of the most memorable months in our lives and I can't wait to watch it all unfold!

So proud of all of the MBA graduates of 2013, but especially proud of MY graduate! :) 

I finally have a little down time

So I figured I would catch this thing up a little bit since it has been over a month! I don't even know where to begin, we have been SO busy since April and it isn't really slowing down...it is actually going to start getting even more crazy in the next few weeks!

The last thing I posted about was the Color Vibe 5k, the next big thing after that was Black Jack Ball. SO fun! It was our last big party/event all together and it couldn't have been better. It was at this awesome venue called Artisan Works that has paintings and art all over the place, and this place is HUGE! It had all different rooms; theatre room, blackjack room, etc. Really fun venue to have an event!

A few pictures from the night :)

Next was my birthday and trip to DC! We had gone to DC in February for Bobby's MBA Basketball tournament but since it was just a full weekend of basketball we literally had NO time to see anything while we were there. Bobby has been there before (a few times) but I hadn't and wanted to go back and see the monuments/memorials/museums so that's what we did. We jam packed as much as we could into the day and a half we were there and we pretty much saw everything I wanted to see. We went to the Holocaust Museum, which is absolutely heart breaking, but something you MUST see in your lifetime. It is baffling to me that there are people out there who actually believe that it didn't happen....CRAZY! 

Some DC Pictures

Since we got back from DC I have just been working a ton, Bobby's dad has been here, and Bobby is about to take his last final ever tomorrow and he will officially be DONE with grad school! I am SO proud of him! He continues to work his cute butt off to find a job, so pray that something good works out soon! 

Next week is my last week of work with my Gabel girls :( I am SO unbelievably sad about leaving them...I can't even imagine my life without those girls in it. I love them more than words and I am going to miss them SOOO much! Claudia just started crawling last week and I was there to see it. I was FREAKING out SO excited and I feel so blessed to have been there. I was changing her diaper downstairs on a changing pad and she spotted all of Julia's pictures she had drawn on the floor. She flipped her cute little naked butt on to her stomach and took off! I couldn't believe it! It was one of the most special moments ever. No joke not even two days before that I was telling Bobby that I HOPE C crawls before I leave because she had been trying SO hard and was so close for about a week and a half and then boom she just did it! It was truly amazing and definitely a moment I will never forget! Now if only V could kick it into high gear and crawl this week ;) haha yeah right that girl is in no hurry! 

The following week is grad week...full of drinks, fun, drinks and more drinks pretty much haha It should be so much fun though to spend some time with everyone before we all go our separate ways. Then June 9th is Bobby's graduation and then we move that Saturday the 15th back to CA so we will spend the week packing, selling, and cleaning. It's crazy. These last few months have gone by in a blink and here we are almost time to close this chapter and move onto the next. 

We are officially in the 3 month countdown till our big day! AH I can't believe it. When we get back we have so many meetings scheduled with vendors and SO many things to do, my list is endless! But they're pretty much all things you do closer to the day and things we can't do from here so it will be fine. I was working on invitations tonight and am one step closer to having those done. My goal is have them ready to put in the mail by the time we move, and then put them in the mail at the end of June. It will be SO nice to get those out! What I am MOST looking forward to is seeing and trying on my DRESS!!!! I haven't seen it in MONTHS, it has been sitting at the bridal store since October just waiting for me to put it on! I seriously cannot wait. I have gone back and forth with dress regret/second guessing so many times because of it, I just because I haven't seen it or been able to just go in and try it on...didn't get to have that moment when I get the call that my dress is in and I am able to just run down to the salon and try it on...nope had to wait 9 months almost to do it! I will finally be able to June 28th the day before my bridal shower :) I can't wait!

There is so much to look forward to and so much happening. I will try to be better at keeping this up to date, but I am not making any promises ;) 

Until then!

xoxo

Color Vibe 5K

Yesterday morning was the Color Vibe 5K! Of course the weather couldn't cooperate, it was 37 degrees and windy as heck! We were all layered and bundled up and still shivering! This was my first 5k, or race period. I had wanted to do a color run since last year and had been SO excited for this! It didn't disappoint, even though the weather did! There were THOUSANDS of people that showed up, it was crazy! We had a team, but only found a few of them, never even saw the rest of them but they did complete it at least haha

It literally started snowing/sleet/raining within the first mile...it was ridiculous. We were getting pelted in the face my ice, the wind was blowing, I couldn't feel the left side of my face for a good 15 minutes. It felt like a mini-tough mudder in the beginning with the ridiculous weather! But once we made it through that, the sun came out for the rest of the race and we finished in about 35 minutes! We ran the entire time. I was so proud!!! I don't run, like ever, so it proves that you don't have to still have endurance. My P90x workouts clearly built up my stamina without ever having to actually run! It was so much fun and definitely a day I won't forget!

We didn't stick around afterwards for too long for the after party because it once again started to snow so we were out of there! It was at the community college that is literally across the street from our apartment complex so we were able to walk which was awesome! We didn't have to deal with parking or trying to get out of the parking lot afterwards!


Bobby was the ultimate trooper and came to watch just so he could take pictures for us! I love him so!

My girl T!

we kicked that 5k in the face!

mid-race

FINISH LINE

we did it!

pre-race dance party

7.5 weeks to go...

WOW! We only have 7.5 weeks left here in Rochester until our lease is up and we are on our merry way. I was talking to my mom the other day and saying it out loud that we only have 8 weeks left here is crazy, and today I made my hair appointment for 6 weeks from today and that is May 31st, my last day of work is May 30th. It is so sad :( At times it felt like business school was dragging, but now it just seems to be flying by faster and faster and there is so much going on all of the time that it is hard to even stop and enjoy the moments! We have something going on every weekend, I am working 40+-50 hours a week lately, enjoying every waking second with my girls, trying to fit in time with friends, planning the wedding, figuring out our next move, etc etc! The list goes on! LIFE is just happening so fast and it is a whirlwind.

Tomorrow a group of us are running the Color Vibe 5k and I am excited! Aside from the fact that the temperature just literally dropped 35 degrees in a 6 hour period and it is supposed to be 37 degrees tomorrow morning...it should be a great time! It was SO nice yesterday, 75 degrees, sunny, amazing...tomorrow 37 cold and windy BOO! Oh well, it will still be fun and I can't wait! There will definitely be pics to come of that! :)

Bobby is still very actively job hunting at the moment. The job that we were so excited about turned out to NOT be at all the company we thought it was and it ended up being a blessing in disguise that that didn't pan out. We would not have been happy there so I am really relieved that that nightmare is over and we are onto better opportunities. I have pretty much stopped worrying/stressing. I know he will get the right job for him/us and everything will work out how it is supposed to. I have just put it in God's hands and trust that he will guide us down the right path. All I do know is that we are getting married in 125 days and that's all I really care about right now :)

Speaking of, we have picked out our invitations and I will be ordering them soon!!! EEK! So crazy! Everyone keeps asking how the wedding planning is going etc etc and to be honest I rarely even think about it! I know there is still a lot to be done, but oh well I know it will get done why stress out about it? I am just really trying to enjoy my last weeks here and focusing on spending as much time with the people I love here as I can before we part ways. I will have plenty of time this summer to work on the wedding, all of the major things are done and it's just the little busy work left. Aside from the invitations, I don't have much else to do until after we move.

I finished P90X! I am so proud ;) I have not had time to post final progress pics or measurements but I WILL this weekend and you can find those on my fitness blog :)

Well, that's about as much energy as I have. Time to get ready for bed and ready for the happiest 5k in the world tomorrow! ;)

New Addition

There has been a new addition to the Graham-Rainwater wedding party and her name is Mrs. Theresa Guirola and I couldn't be more excited! I had been wanting to ask her for a LONG time, but already had my 4 girls picked already from the beginning so I just didn't know what to do. Bobby had been so OCD about having the numbers be the same that I felt stuck and pretty bummed about it. Theresa is seriously one of my best friends. We pretty much talk 24/7 and hang out every chance we get. Her husband goes to school with Bobby and they are pretty much besties too. I finally just made the decision that you know what, Bobby can get over the number thing (which he did) and I decided to just ask her! I didn't want to assume she would say yes, or that she would be able to make the trip from Florida (lucky B gets to live there after graduation!) but she began talking a lot about her trip out for our wedding etc so I was like ok she is coming anyway I NEED to ask her to be apart of it because I just feel in my heart that that would make the bridal party complete. So I asked her and she said YES!  I got her a perfect for US and our relationship card off of Etsy and had her over last on Tuesday for tea (sounds funny I know) and popped the question. I was nervous and didn't know what she would think because it's so close to the wedding, but she was definitely SURPRISED, but said yes and is beyond excited which was a big relief! I feel SO much better and like the party is complete. I feel so blessed to have met someone here that GETS me, has been through this roller coaster called business school with me, and someone who I feel like I have known forever but have really only known about 18 months. Sometimes it isn't about how long you have known someone, but what you go through together and how much you just get each other. I have people in my life I have known forever and just because of the time I have known them doesn't mean we are close...time definitely isn't the end all be all of a friendship.

It really hit me through all of this that we are DONE here in Rochester and at Simon in TWO months! 60 days and we are all going to be going our separate ways. It is beyond bittersweet. We have all been through the same struggles that nobody understands unless they have been through it too and I have built a few friendships that are lifelong and for that I am beyond blessed. As much as I complain about the weather, and the cold (which definitely does suck) it was all a part of the struggle which is a part of the journey. It was all worth it to build the relationships that I have built and that I will be taking away from this chapter in our lives. I am looking forward to making these last two months here amazing and really spending my limited time with the people who mean the most to me here. This last year has definitely shown me who my true friends are and who I will be leaving this experience with our friendship still in tact. Sad to say, I know I won't keep in touch with the majority of the people I have met here, but that is just how life is. They have all been a part of the adventure, but only a select few will continue with my on my journey in life and I am truly blessed to have those select few. <3

HE'S BACK!

YAY! Bobby is currently en route to Rochester RIGHT NOW from JFK and I can't wait to see him!!! We haven't talked basically this whole week he has been gone, just random 5 minute fb message conversations whenever he had wifi and time, which was not very often. No phone, no skype, nothing! Ah I have missed him so much and I can't wait to see him! Before he left he said any trip over 5 days and I am coming from now on haha Let's hope that holds true! :)


Now to go shower and head to the airport to pick my love up! <33

SO HAPPY!