The Last Days

Last school presentation.
Last time in the testing center.
Last day of classes.
Last group project.
Last final project.
Last final exam.
Last walk through the Tanner Building as a student.

There have been many lasts lately. But that just means lots of exciting firsts coming up. 1st day at a full time job in January, first August in forever that I haven't had to go back to school. And lots more that I am looking forward to.

This past weekend was full of fun times and celebration. Nathan's whole family (minus the missionary) came up to support me for my graduation. It was such a blast to see them all and spend time with them.

Friday April 26 was my official college graduation. It was the longest ceremony ever. Ever. But it was worth it for my few seconds of fame. I also enjoyed pretending that I was going to Hogwarts...seriously, look at our robes. I totally felt like a wizard.

Wouldn't have made it through the last 2 years without these two. Love them both!

The Tanner Building...our home away from home. 

Afterwards we went to dinner at Mi Rancherito in Payson and then celebrated Nathan's belated birthday with some cake and presents. I also got an adorable graduation carving of Jiminy Cricket from my in-laws. Nathan told them that I have started collecting Disney carvings (yes, I'm just a bit obsessed with all things Disney related).

Saturday we got to celebrate with Jared and Melissa on their special wedding day. We love those two so so much and are so happy for their upcoming adventures. We have loved spending time with them in their dating stage and look forward to having another married couple join the pack.

Saturday night we enjoyed the evening by grilling over our fire pit. My husband sure knows how to grill a mean meal. It was all so good. It helped that he got a bunch of new grilling tools from my parents for his birthday.

And that about sums up the fun but busy weekend. I'm so grateful to all my family for the support they have given me throughout my schooling. I felt like the coolest girl in the world this weekend with all the attention I got. So now I'm looking forward to spending the summer studying for the CPA exam (okay, not looking forward to that part), going on vacations, and spending time with the family.

Christmas Break Completed

We added a new little guy to our family. Meet Keno, our Siberian Husky puppy. He is stubborn and proving hard to train (and not to mention when he does his business it is already 3 times the size of our other dog's) but we love him all the same. I mean, look at him. How could you not love that?

Check off my life long wish of wanting to be surprised with a puppy for Christmas. Just minus the box and cute bow. Nathan just carried him inside. Maybe next time.... ;)

The rest of our break consisted of 10 amazing days in Spokane with our family. Relaxing, movie watching, eating, and sleeping. Couldn't have asked for a better vacation. Except maybe if I had taken pictures to show how awesome it was. One day I'll jump on the "taking pictures of everything" bandwagon. Its on my New Years resolution list.

We also got to be there to go through the temple with Nathan's little brother Connor. Such an incredible experience. We are so excited for him and the new experiences he will have when he leaves on his mission in March.

2013 is going to bring with it a lot of changes for us. I graduate in April and will start my full time job with Deloitte some time this summer. I am nervous but ready for the next stage in life. To make it even better, I was able to pay for all of my tuition with no school loans. I feel like I have the right to brag a little since this is my blog. I have paid for all my own expenses since I left home in August 2008. Rent, car insurance, gas, phone bill, groceries, and even vacations. You name it and I paid for it. I hate asking for money and I made it a point not to unless absolutely necessary. There were a couple of semesters that I was a little short and I have a very generous dad who helped me out in those situations. But overall, I worked hard and saved so that I could do this on my own. I was blessed to have an awesome and flexible job that helped me do all that. Even during the horrible two semesters of the accounting Junior Core where I was told I absolutely could not have a job. I still worked 20 hours a week and somehow got accepted into the Masters program. And I had an awesome family who helped support me and always encouraged me. There were many times throughout the last five years that I wished I had parent's who would pay for everything but ultimately, I am so grateful that they let me do this on my own. I now appreciate my education SO much more because I worked for it and I paid for it.

Okay, I'm getting off my high horse now. But seriously, I feel like I deserved to be there for a minute.

I wouldn't be completely fair without mentioning my incredible and amazing husband. He worked just as hard as I did to make sure that we had the money to pay my tuition. Not to mention I honestly don't know how I stayed sane without him being around. He is always there to remind me when I need to take a deep breath, just enjoy life and stop stressing. He puts up with my crazy school obsessed brain and loves me all the more every day.

So life is good. I am trying to make the most of my last semester ever at BYU while still playing and enjoying life a little. Probably a little more playing than school right now, but hey, I deserve it at this point.

Halloween is Scary and Fun

Just a quick update on our life. We are both keeping busy with work and school. I'm quickly losing what motivation I did have for school when the semester started (which was already very little). I'm ready for the next stage in life, as well as really nervous to start that next stage. I don't know what life will be without school and homework. I'm sure I'll find some way to survive though :)

I went to my first haunted attraction this year since I went to the Haunted Forest as a 7 year old. (Have I thanked you for that one yet, Dad?) I thought I would be brave enough by age 22 but I'm sad to report that I was still terrified. And I may have even cried....okay, yes I cried. Apparently the chain saw guys left more of a scar on my 7 year old self than I thought. And who said Cornbellys wasn't even supposed to be that scary? At least my hubby got some entertainment since he didn't seem to be phased at all.

This was the second Halloween of our married lives that we had to spend apart. In fact, most of the holidays we spend apart. Part of the gig when you have a husband who works in the restaurant business. But I had a blast on Halloween with my family. For those who don't know, my brother Blaine is an incredible artist. So with my brains and his skills....mostly his skills...we pulled together an awesome group costume.

Blaine painted Chance's death eater mask. So awesome! You can't tell in the pic but the wands were also all handmade. Chance's (or Lucius as he is more commonly known) has a snake head on the handle.

On another note: I voted for the first time today! Proud to wear my sticker!

"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!