The past few months have been very busy but exciting! We finished out the summer in Panama City for the Brinkmann family reunion, although it meant we had to miss Michelle and Jonathan Linn's wedding in July. David had to leave on a patrol shortly after the trip, but we enjoyed our vacation time together. I started back to school in August 2013 at St. Alphonsus Catholic School with a group of 11 Kindergarteners. They have been keeping me busy, but the second year of teaching is already much easier. I attended the Conscious Discipline workshop in Hattiesburg over the summer as well, which really helped with my classroom management skills. On September 1, we went to Ryan and Samantha Huebner's wedding in New Hampshire and had a blast! David was a groomsman in the wedding and her bridesmaids included me throughout the weekend, which was very thoughtful. We also attended Hillary and Nick's wedding a week later on September 7 in Mobile, Alabama. On November 9, I went to Mackenzie and Nader Wahba's wedding in Marietta and also got to celebrate my 24th birthday with family in Marietta, although David was not with me. I later attended Mallory and Jason Williams' wedding in Cairo, GA a couple weeks later on November 23, which was great to see all my college friends. It is definitely wedding season! I am very excited to be a bridesmaid in Brittany and Michael's wedding on March 29 and an honorary bridesmaid in Mare and Daniel's wedding on August 16! Lydia and Wryan will be getting married on July 5, 2014. We are also looking forward to Chris and Anne's wedding sometime in the next year. They just got engaged this past Saturday, January 25! Congratulations to my brother-in-law and his soon-to-be wife!
David got home right in time for Thanksgiving this year, but it meant that we couldn't make it to Marietta in time. Instead of going home for the holiday, we had both sides of the family come here to Mississippi! We had 10 people at our two-bedroom apartment on Thanksgiving day, although my family did stay at a nearby hotel for the two nights. It was a lot of fun having everyone together here! Come Christmas time, David and I had fun decorating our tree, sharing Christmas stockings, and going to Christmas parties. Although David had duty on Christmas day, we did celebrate together going to Mass on Christmas Eve, making Christmas dinner, and opening presents. We left the day after Christmas for Marietta to see family. It was great to see Gigi and Papa John, Grammy, Mom and Dad B, Mom and Dad McP, and Chris, Andrew, Sean, and Mary. We spent New Years Eve in Atlanta with Amanda and Ryan and some other friends at an apartment party downtown. Later in January, we headed back up to Atlanta for Brittany's Bachelorette party and David's mom's birthday. I spent the weekend with the girls in Atlanta and David went cabining at Red Top Mountain with his family. It was a lot of fun! Now we are back in the swing of things, with an unexpected day off today and tomorrow due to the snow here. It is also David's birthday, but unfortunately, he has duty and should be home tomorrow once the roads are safe to drive on. That's the latest update here!
