Monday, April 19, 2010

Happy Springtime!!!

It's officially Springtime! Beautiful flowers, baby animals, warm weather. 










God is good. 

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Baseball Season

Oh how I love baseball season!!! - not because I'm a sports freak (I would really rather watch a romantic movie any day) ... but because it signals the end of Hockey season. I won't have to sit through another 3 hour block of time watching the 'Canes play until after Shawn and I return home from our honeymoon (wonderful timing, right?) ... ahhh sweet sweet baseball season, welcome back my friend. I prefer you in the beautiful weather with dip n dots and hot dogs to sitting on the couch bored out of my mind for the 3rd night in a week, sulking over the gray winter months that keep me indoors.

To mark this fabulous transition, we went out to see a baseball game in Winston-Salem with Mike and Danielle ... nice weather, happy people, dance- numbers and free t-shirts (not that I actually managed to snag a t-shirt, but the opportunity was there!), and a big WIN for the home team = happy Perry.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Two Birds - One Stone!

Since I've been trying to save costs in my wedding planning, I have been looking to find ways to incorporate decor items that I plan on using at my wedding in our apartment and vis versa. Since the wedding is a reflection of us anyway, many of the items I have around the house (globes, vintage photos, aged books, bronze keys) are going to be used at the wedding in some form or another. It also goes a long way in allowing me to feel less guilty pouring money into stuff for the wedding if I remind myself that I can reuse some of it around the house. One of my favorite examples is my new picture frame!

I painted it a lighter version of the beautiful teal that I'm using at the wedding and put in one of our engagement pictures. Love it!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Sigh of Relief

The end of March marked the end to one and a half years of stress and worry over my M.A. comprehensive exams. All of our time spent studying history since we entered the program was tested on a single day, with four typed papers, each of which took 90 minutes. Needless to say, my classmates and I had dreaded what we called "Comps" ever since we were first told they would be a requirement to graduate.



Whenever I would work on wedding planning, I always had this dark little cloud called Comps that would remind me not to get too excited - that there was still a big hurdle in my way before I could sit back, relax and enjoy being a bride. When we sat down at the computers in our campus lab on the morning of the exam, I couldn't believe how anxious I was to open the manilla envelope with the questions I would have to answer. (We had to prepare to answer virtually any question on American History that our professors could throw at us, and not just answer it but to develop a 6-8 page paper about it from memory!)

I had already finished my first paper on "How radical was the American Revolution? Consider the point of view of revolutionaries and disenfranchised groups, and explain how historians have disagreed over time" and was half way through with my second paper on "How has academic theory and architectural history intersected (or not) with applied historic preservation? What are the historical and historiographical roots of intersection and/or division between academics and preservationists?" when ....

THE POWER. WENT. OUT.

Can you believe it?! We had prepared for literally almost YEARS for this exam and nearly halfway through the power in our computer lab went out. For a split-second we all (about 30 of us) sat in darkness, as gasps broke what had been a constant sound of typing. In the end, about half the class had lost their papers (campus computer labs delete all files when restarted) - thank the good Lord I was given the foresight to email myself a copy just in case something happened! *Whew!* It was traumatic to say the least, but when I walked out those doors I was a free woman!! :) Hooray!!!

I still have my big paper to work on, and a presentation at the end of April but I feel so relieved to be finished with that exam. :) I've already ordered my rehearsal dinner gown to celebrate! Now it's off to Charleston on Friday to try on the wedding gown I ordered for the first time! No more sample try-ons! This time she's all mine! I can't wait!