Thanksgiving weekend

We hope everyone had a relaxing and festive holiday weekend! Jared and I were busy as always but we had a great time with friends and family.

Thanksgiving we went to my grandparents house in Illinois. My aunt and uncle from North Carolina were in town and my cousin from Chicago was there too. We had some wonderful country cooking and had fun looking at old photos. 

On Friday we headed up to North Vernon to have thanksgiving lunch with Jared's mom. Diana made some wonderful tortilla soup and I brought pumpkin bread which is my great grandmothers recipe! Saturday morning Jared and I made breakfast which was a cinnamon roll French toast casserole. I put too much nutmeg in it on accident but it still turned out pretty good. 

Saturday afternoon the three of us made our way to indianapolis for a wedding. Friends of the shade family were getting married and we had a wonderful time. Their wedding was Americana themed and it was a neat idea. After the ceremony we got dropped off at the wrong reception! Jared was the one to notice it and we had a good laugh. After a scary taxi ride to the right reception, we finally let loose and had some drinks. I got to dance which is one of my favorite things to do. When te reception was over we went back to the hotel and I went to bed. Jared, Diana and their family friend went out for another drink! I'm the boring one!

On Sunday we headed back to North Vernon. Jared and I had fun shooting riffles. My old cell phone which used to give me a lot of brief made for good target practice! We then drove back to Evansville and spent the night studying and doing homework. 

Life is busy but we wouldn't have it any other way! 

'Tis the Season!

Last night, Jared and I braved the cold and crazy shoppers to buy gifts for the families we adopted for Christmas. Since our wedding is one week after Christmas, we decided no gifts for each other. We adopted two families to buy for instead and it has been such a blessing. My graduate school cohort adopted a family too and I got to shop for kids toys! I had so much fun. Kids are way more fun to buy for than adults! Jared and I had a good time picking out presents and getting into the Christmas spirit.

Today we both worked on homework for school. The semester is coming to an end, therefore it is crunch time and we will be doing a lot if studying in the next two weeks. 

I also tried my hand at making potato soup for the first time. I didn't follow a recipe but took advice from a co worker, "just through stuff in"! Jared fried up some bacon and now we're just waiting for the potatoes to cook! We're hoping it gets done soon because it's too cold outside to not have soup ;) 

Under Construction

I wanted to start a blog about Jared and I starting our lives together. Facebook and I have a love/hate relationship- some things are too exciting not to share but, do I really want my 9th grade journalism teacher and first boyfriend, or that frienemy from choir to know? Ummm not really.

So here is the blog! Catchy name, eh?

There are only 46 days left as a Cooper! All day I've been signing my name on work documents and each time I sign the curly letters "C-O-O-P..." I think... "Wow, Shade is going to be hard to get used to". The crooked S and harsh transition between the H and the A is enough to give me those butterflies. It's that or the fact that the symbolism of a last name change means many more life changes. I'm ready for the adventures. Life as a Shade is going to be anything but ordinary!

This first post is going to be short and sweet but I hope to write at least once a week. You can share your thoughts in the comments section!