2008

Jan 2008-- January 1 we woke up at our house in Baton Rouge after staying out all night for our wedding! January 1-3 we stayed at LePavillon in New Orleans. It was soooo cold! We ate fancy food and went out for fancy drinks and shopped in malls we couldn't afford. It was a wonderful mini-honeymoon.

Feb 2008-- We celebrated our first Valentine's Day as a married couple. We decided to skip the eating-out thing and made a fancy dinner at home. I made Scott a book of all the months we'd been together. We had friends over for the neighborhood parade.

March 2008-- We laid low most of March. Can't say much about it.

April 2008-- We went to Maison LaCour for my 25th birthday. We ate some of the best food Baton Rouge has to offer and drank wine and Kir Royales.

May 2008-- I graduated with my Masters. We finally took our honeymoon, to beautiful Maui. We stayed at the Ka'anappali Beach Resort in Lahaina, Maui. We didn't want to come home, but we did.

June 2008-- Because of the state government's hiring freeze, I didn't start working until July. Most of June was spent cutting the grass every five days and trying to do things around the house. It was a little boring at times, but peaceful. I'll always remember it as my last summer before the real world.

July 2008-- We celebrated Scott's 26th birthday with PF Changs. We bought Scott's new car, a 2008 Honda Accord. It was the first time either of us had a car straight off the lot. I started my first job post-graduate school.

Aug 2008-- For the first time, we had a combined income. We did our best to save as much as possible. I bought a 2003 Accord from my mom and she got a new car. With two new cars (ie. cars that don't need repairs) we decided a house was next. Because we'd spent so much on the cars, we needed to get to saving.

Sep 2008-- On September 1st, Hurricane Gustav pounded Louisiana and Baton Rouge. We didn't feel safe in our little house with all of the great big oaks, so we stayed at my mom's house for the night. We lost power for 16 days, and many of them were spent at mom's where there was a generator strong enough to power the fridge and a few small fans and lamps.

Oct 2008-- We dressed up as Obama and Palin for Halloween and went to a party at our
friend Alice's house. I started a new job as a therapist at a high school. Scott interviewed for and was offered an awesome job with AT&T as a Business Account Executive for the Northshore region.

Nov 2008-- Scott started his job the day before he election. What an amazing thing! We stayed up all night and sipped champagne. We decided that we could really afford a house and decided to go for it. We contacted our realtor again and told her we were ready. Thanksgiving weekend, she met up with us to discuss options and look at homes listed online.

Dec 2008-- We found the house and made the offer. We set January 16th, my sister's birthday, as our closing date. We're getting an awesome APR because the rates dropped. Right after we locked in, they went back up.

We're celebrating our anniversary tonight with our friends Ashley and Jeremy. Ashley was one of our beautiful bridesmaids at our wedding, a year ago today. We spent last night playing Monopoly and drinking our favorite beer. Today we took a long walk in our soon-to-be-old neighborhood. We're really really going to miss it here.

Happy New Year :)