Summer in Review

And yet again, despite my promise in my previous post, here is another summary blog post because my summer was much too busy for me to sit down and update this on a regular basis. So here we go...a story of our first full summer as a married couple...

May

To kick of the summer the right way, my cousin Mary and I decided to plan a camping trip to Moab. We ended up in a small cabin, perfect size for the 6 of us that went, and we spent the weekend hiking around in Arches National Park. I had yet to see the famous arch yet, so it was an awesome fun experience. We had blast spending time with the Finleys: Mary, Leland, and Sean, as well as my sister Erin who was luckily able to tag along.

June

I started my internship at the very beginning of the month and that pretty much consumed my life for the next 10 weeks. I only worked 40 hours a week, despite the typical accounting stereotype of 70 hour weeks, but unfortunately being a newly married...and kinda poor....couple, we only have 1 car. So 1 car equals an hour bus ride to the trax station and then another 35 minutes to the office. And then at the end of the day I got to turn around and do the same commute again. It got old, really fast. But on the bright side, I did finally overcome my carsickness because I was determined to do something productive like reading during the 2 hour commute.

Quite the feat...we fit about 20 people in our small apt

Despite my busy schedule, we did have some fun. On my b-day I came home to find my very own surprise party! I had never had one before, and I have to admit that I'm not a huge fan of the surprise thing. Haha, I may have almost punched my newly acquired cousin Cory in the face when he jumped out from behind my door. But, it was awesome to have all my friends and family come over and show how much they love me. And the best part, all 3 sets of my parents and Nathan decided to pitch in to buy me a keyboard. I was so excited! I had been complaining about not being able to practice piano for months, so I have loved having it.

Two of my favorite boys.

Cory and Leland playing with the little ones

July

July consisted of more working at Deloitte. We did start the month of right with an awesome 4th of July. I let Nathan splurge on some pretty big aerial fireworks and we had one of my most memorable holidays over at the Bramall's house. I had never seen aerial fireworks like that up close and I would have to say I enjoy them a lot more than just going to the Stadium of Fire to watch from afar. So I think it will definitely have to be a tradition we keep up.

I also got the opportunity to go to Deloitte University for intern training. Its basically this huge multi-million dollar resort that Deloitte built to send its employees to all year long for training in Dallas, Texas. It was a big, fun party all weekend with a bunch of college interns. There were about 15 of us from Utah and I'm pretty sure we had a much different party experience than the rest of the group, but it was still a lot of fun. Unlimited delicious food and all kinds of activities. Almost like a cruise for work.

August

We celebrated our 1 year anniversary!! To commemorate the awesome occasion we went up to Park City for the weekend and just enjoyed being together without any of the normal everyday worries. We spent way too much at the outlets and eating out and enjoyed every minute of it. Nathan went down the Alpine Slide for the first time and asked me why I hadn't told him about it sooner because he had a blast. (And he won't admit to this but I totally beat him down the slide.)

Please ignore the men's sunglasses...I seem to have misplaced mine...

I also finished up my internship the second week of August and I excitedly accepted a full time offer as a tax accountant for Deloitte Tax starting next summer of 2013! I can't wait to start my real life career and life after school is out in April.

To end our summer we headed up to Spokane for about 2 weeks to spend some much needed time with Nathan's family. We spent a few days in Montana at Glacier National Park hiking around and seeing the absolutely gorgeous sites. If anyone ever has the opportunity to visit, I would most definitely recommend it. Its one of those places that just makes you stop and think about how great God really is, because he took the time to create such a beautiful place for us to live. The water is perfectly clear, but absolutely freezing. I did get brave on the last day though and jumped straight in.

The beautiful, freezing, glacier water

So now we are back in school and work mode and just as busy as ever. I miss the summer days of seeing my husband for more than a couple hours, but this will do for now. I love my life, we love our life, and wouldn't change a thing.

"In sickness and in health"....but mostly sickness

Life has continued to be just as busy as the last time I posted. School has increased in workload and I am spending way more of my time than I would like to researching the tax code. Yes, such an exciting major. But weirdly, I don't completely hate it. I guess I made the right choice :)

On, the bright side recruiting season is finally over and now I just have the decision of where to accept my internship. There was a huge sigh of relief once I realized that all this hard work I have put in the last few years and will continue until my graduation are not for nothing. I'll have a job when I graduate!

Lately in our home there has been a lot of sickness and more sickness. Nathan came down with an awful fever/sore throat a couple of weeks ago. I did my best to avoid it with excessive hand sanitizing and wiping every possible thing Nathan touched with Clorox disinfecting wipes. If I get sick, I don't get better for weeks because my busy schedule doesn't give me a lot of time to sleep and recover. Plus I had a couple of office visit interviews that I had to be on my game for. I thought I had missed it but just when he started to feel better, I got the same sickness with a vengeance. Try giving a presentation in school when you can't stop coughing, sniffling, or sneezing. I'm quite proud of the fact that I made it through :) Needless to say, we have been eating a lot of soup in our house lately.

We also lost my good, ole car a couple of weeks ago. That car has been through a lot, including a high school wreck, a deer collision, and even a few incidents with ducks......haha don't ask. So I have been driving around a mini-van and we are trying to figure out what to do about a method of transportation.

A few other things have happened lately in addition to sickness and the loss of my car that have made the statement, "When it rains, it pours" completely applicable to our life. And for those who know me well, I am a stresser. I stress about money and I stress about the future and I stress about....well everything. But I definitely married the right kind of person to mellow me out a bit. I was talking to a friend today who gave a great analogy of life that relates a lot to me and Nathan. Life is a road and in the past, on one side of the road, are rocky mountains you have already made it through. The other side, the future, is a straight drop off cliff. If you start veering too far to the left you are living in the past, which is never a good thing. If you start veering too far to the right, you become anxious and stressed. So ultimately we need to stay in the middle of the road to live a happy life. Live in the present and enjoy life as it is. I tend to be a person who veers strongly to the right. But my husband is amazingly talented at staying happy and in the middle. I noticed that there were a few talks this last General Conference that gave this point as well. This is an area that I have always been trying to improve on and now that I'm married to Nathan, I think I may finally be making progress. I am blessed to have someone as grounded as he is to constantly remind me that Heavenly Father is watching out for us and will make sure everything works out for our good as long as we are doing our best to follow Him. So regardless of the fact that I have felt like every possible little thing that could go wrong has gone wrong lately, I have to have faith that everything will work out. There's my little feel good thought for the day :)

In between work, school, and homework we do occasionally find time to have some fun. A few weeks ago we went to Color Me Mine. For those who don't know, this is a ceramic painting studio. Nathan picked a monkey and I painted a Volkswagen bug piggy bank. I am not even remotely artistic or creative and I found this experience way more frustrating than it was enjoyable. Nathan on the other hand spent hours articulately painting every inch of his monkey. It was the funniest and cutest thing. Ultimately though, I have learned I can never go back because my perfectionist personality makes my art hideous. I start with a cute idea but I take it too far, and then it becomes overwhelming and too much. I gave up about 20 minutes into painting and just hurried to finish the rest of it. I am completely left brained. I didn't inherit any artistic ability.

Insider's Look at the Newlyweds

Well I have decided to give in to the blogging world. I tried to resist, using the excuse that I am much too busy to add another thing to my never ending to-do list. But when I thought about it some more, I couldn't think of a better way to update all our friends and family on the oh so exciting daily events of our lives. I'm hoping that instead of taking up more time, the blog will in fact save time by updating everyone all at once.

So here we go....welcome to the lives of Courtney & Nathan, the newest Webb family.

When I think of a word to describe our lives right now, busy doesn't even come close to illustrating the craziness that has become our married life. Nathan started at UVU for his first semester back at school since he got home from his mission. He is taking some basic generals and trying to decide what the future holds for him in the career department. Sizzler keeps him occupied with work, cashiering and serving people food. I'm lucky to have a husband that is such a talented waiter. Tips make such a difference in our monthly income :)

During the week we don't see much of each other, besides about an hour before my 9 pm bedtime. (Yes, I realize college age students shouldn't go to bed this early. But old habits die hard....I've been going to sleep before 9 since my little kid years.) My busy schedule is due to the fact that I recently accepted at promotion at Novell and I now work 30 hours instead of the 20 hours I worked as an intern. The extra ten hours really does make a difference, but so far I'm handling everything okay. School keeps me busy, but nowhere near as busy as I was last year in the accounting Junior Core. I started my graduate studies this semester to obtain my MAcc in Tax and so far the course load is significantly less. I am actually back to enjoying learning and school, which I have missed greatly.

In addition to school and work, it is recruiting season here at the BYU Marriot School of Management. I have had 6 interviews in the last week and a half, with all of the Big Four accounting firms as well as a few local firms. This has kept both me and Nathan busy as we have had pre-interview socials to attend almost every night this week. These interviews are only first round interviews and I will hear at the end of September whether or not I get to make any office visits. It's amazing how 6 interviews in a row can rid you of your interviewing fear ;)

Well that about sums up our lives right now. We are living life up and enjoying the married life. My favorite part is always having my best friend to come home to every night. Usually with dinner :) I definitely lucked out with marrying a cook. It makes my life so much easier. We have a good life right now and couldn't ask for anything more. We send our love to you all!