too legit to quit.

you guys. so you know how the last 2+ years of my life have been spent crying/stressing studying my life away for this? well, despite passing my classes, being pinned, and graduating, i wasn't even a real pta yet. on top of all the crap hard work you have to do for school, you have to take a licensing exam to even be an actual pta {except for in the states of colorado and hawaii, apparently}.

we graduated on may 10th and had to wait two {2!} whole months to take our boards. july 10th was a super big day. because the local seats filled up before i was able to register, austin and i drove up to to nashville the night before and stayed in a hotel so i didn't have to try to drive and take the test all in one morning. after staying up as late as i could handle {about 10 pm} and trying my best to get a good night's sleep {right} it was time.

i came. i test. i left.

and that was it. it then became a waiting game to see whether or not i passed.

and i had to wait a whole week. 7 days. 7 days too many, in my opinion.

i mean, it's computerized. they should know immediately, right?

but i waited.

and...

and holy guacamole! i passed!

but even still, passing was not enough. the state of tennessee has to give me a license. and they did! it's legit! see that? active licensed. take that!

cue celebratory dancing, running through the house and perhaps a few tears. followed almost immediately by the ceremonial burning of the flashcards/old notes/papers from class.

best. feeling. ever. i am so, so happy to be done with school. it's been a long road but i can't wait to get started working as a legit licensed pta! because, yeah, i accepted a job! i interviewed with a handful of companies and got quite a few offers, but after careful consideration and a lot of sweating, i made a decision. so excited to get back into the real world!

signal point and fall creek falls.

i'm working on getting caught up on some recent happenings including sharing a couple of hiking trips austin, ben and i took back in june.

for our first trip we took the very short drive up to signal mountain to hike the trail at signal point. you may remember that austin and i took a hike up there about two years ago as part of our first wedding anniversary. this time we actually hiked all the way in {about two miles, i think} until we found a swimming hole.

a ridiculously, extremely, awfully cold swimming hole.

i got in, but only for about three minutes. because i could no longer feel my toes.

the second trip we took was up to fall creek falls. i'd never been before and it's just about an hour drive so we loaded up the car and the dogs and took off. we started at the top and hiked down to the base of the highest waterfall in the eastern united states.

the puppies had a fun hike, too. ben's dog sandy really loves the water, juliet just appreciates being in my lap and keeping her paws dry.

it was a seriously hot day, but the hike had lots of shade so it wasn't miserable.

we packed some food for a picnic lunch and break from all the hiking.

after eating we went to what i think was the most crowded part of the entire state park to find a spot to swim/wade in the water. we tried to get as far away from the crowd as possible, so juliet didn't eat anyone. and would you believe it that we actually got juliet to swim?! it took a lot of coaxing and some lead-by-example demonstrations showing her the water wasn't too deep for her to touch, but by the end of the day she was {almost} voluntarily going in the water! i was so proud.

i can't wait for austin and i to go back to fall creek falls to camp! hopefully it won't take another 7 years before i can convince austin to take me.

also, recently austin and i have been doing a fair amount of traveling for his work. first, we spent a few days at a conference in nashville and i got to meet up with brandi, katie and boomer for some non-air-conditioned dinner. the next conference was in knoxville and apparently austin and i decided to take a 6 mile hike through downtown to prove a point to some middle-aged ladies who thought it was too far to walk.

turns out, they were right. it was too far to walk. but we did it anyway because i was not about to be told how far i could or could not walk by some strangers.

totally should have listened to them. but at least we burned some calories. and austin ordered us some drinks that looked like dirty dishwater. yum?

aaaand cue completely unrelated pictures to end this post. because i've got no good way to end.

celebrating three years.

austin and i started a tradition {is it really a tradition when you first start it?} of having cake and champagne at midnight on our anniversary. it began with my inability to be patient excitement on our first anniversary when i wanted to have some yummy wedding cake and champagne from our wedding. unfortunately, our at midnight on our second anniversary we had a little hiccup of juliet deciding to break out in hives, so we didn't get to have cake and champagne at midnight, but we did have some eventually!

this year there were no hiccups! austin popped open the bottle and poured us each a glass right before it officially was midnight. it's like new year's eve!

{geeze why is our kitchen so yellow?? someone come paint it for me.}

and austin had picked up some cupcakes for us and he even thought to get them in our wedding colors- pink and green! {plus chocolate iced ones just because they're delicious}.

austin, of course, had to work the day of our anniversary, but once he was home and changed out of his scrubs we were ready to celebrate!

and what, you ask, did we do to celebrate our anniversary?

we went to watch monsters university, of course! i'm kind of obsessed with mike and sully. so i was really excited to see the prequel to monsters, inc. sully was kind of a jerk though. and that made me sad... {also, don't forget to check out austin's monster growl face above}

austin always gets me flowers for our anniversary. and this year was no exception.

he even made sure to get some of my favorite flowers included in the bouquet- lilies and hydrangeas, which were also in my wedding bouquet. he's a thinker, that one.

after cooking some dinner together, we settled in on the couch to watch the summer premiere of one of our favorite shows, big brother! {yes, we have an unhealthy obsession with that show.}

we had a great day celebrating three years of marriage! i sure do love this guy. :)