1 year

1 year ago from right now, I was finishing getting ready, Madison & I were getting photos taken and getting ready to get married! This year has been filled with very good times and some difficult times, and I am so thankful for such a great husband to spend the rest of my life with! I couldn't ask for a better husband. Happy 1st year anniversary, sweetie!
Here's some of my favorite pics from May 31, 2008:

a wonderful day

Today was wonderful. I feel so blessed. I woke up and went to practice with the worship team, then played in church. I met a lady who is in charge of the Farmer's Market that Madison and I will be playing at, and many others came up to introduce themselves. It's funny how you sit back for a while before feeling ready to dive in. I have never embraced moving, and can be quite hesitant to get involved. I have moved around so much, my natural instinct is to close up and not like anything, so that when we move, I don't have to hurt so bad. This obviously was something I tried very hard at not doing this move, and one of the last things I have recently opened up to is getting more involved in church. We're going to join it this fall. Our church is full of young people - it's thriving, and we really love it. The pastor has wonderful things to say, and it's a great place for us to be. It meets in an old skating rank. How cool is that! haha. Not somewhere I would want to settle for the rest of my life probably, but it's a great church for now while we're young and wanting to connect with our age group. We have some great law school friends that go there, and we also have been trying to branch out and have some acquaintances we hope to get to know better.
Back to the music: So I played with the guitarist and pianist this morning. We play hymns and RUF music. There was an unusually large crowd for a holiday weekend. I really enjoyed the people I played with, and I'm officially part of the worship team now - so that's fun.

I got home, and got an email from someone whose teacher recently moved away (the teacher was an aquaintance of mine - she was a MM student at Ole Miss and is now going for her PhD in Alabama). The student is an hour-long student which is AWESOME (double the $$ of most of my students). I got a second email only an hour later from a friend of the student who had just emailed me. That student told the other one about me, so she emailed me too! I have since emailed them back and they both emailed me again, confirming times to start this week! This is such a boost to my spirits...I feel like I have been working so hard for so little result lately. Yay!

Like I said in a previous post, next weekend is our 1st anniversary. I can't believe it has been almost a year! It has definitely flown by in a lot of ways. A year ago right now, I was pretty much freaking out with all the loose ends I had to tie up. There were lots of interesting twists...like finding a big lipstick stain on the back of my wedding dress from the alterations lady...!!! Thanks to my sister & brother-in-law, they took it to the lady and she got the stain out! I am still so pleased with how every detail fell into place. The ONLY thing wrong was my dress was still bustled from my final fitting in one little part of the corner of the dress for the ceremony and pictures, and that is such a small detail. You can't tell in most pictures even. That's about the only thing that happened...which is SO small compared to some weddings I have witnessed! Enough about the wedding though, I am so thankful we have each other. We have so much fun hanging out and living here together. It's so much fun to share this place and go on little trips and explore around Oxford together. We get along so well, and he is absolutely perfect for me :-) He is such a good husband! This is our fourth year being together, so we have had a lot of fun from ages 19 to almost 24. :)

Speaking of almost 24, poor Madison has our anniversary on May 31, (which for this year, we decided having each other was enough, so we're not going to do anything except dinner due to tight $$) - and then he has my birthday on June 26...haha. So fun times for him gift wise huh!? Oh well, I'm not too demanding. :-) Right, sweetie?

Well, tomorrow we both have the day off and I cannot believe it! We are so excited - we think we're going to Sardis Lake if the weather is nice. We have never been there, and it's free (or very cheap at least).

Tuesday Madison starts summer school...fun times for everyone...:-/ I'm just focusing on the weekend....and the fact that I have him around, unlike most of the girls in the law wives club who have to part ways for the summer with their husbands!

Ahh, the joys of summer...

Madison and I have really enjoyed being a couple again after law school exams were over! We have really enjoyed hanging out again and had a lot to catch up on. I could hardly talk to him those weeks he was studying, so now it's nice to not have restrictions on when/how much we can talk and spend time together.
Our summer plans are finally coming together. Things are tight money-wise, seeing students go out of town for the summer, etc. I started a new 6 yr old student last week so that's good. I still have some people who are taking every week, and one that won't return my emails/phone calls. Summer is a hard time for a private teacher. Madison will be attending summer school, and thankfully we got some loans granted for that...he is still hoping for a summer job, so we will see. That would be very nice. :-) We are not going out to eat or going to movies, renting movies, or anything beyond very simple grocery shopping, except for special occasions, so we should be fine. We're being creative with what we have, and we have been playing our wii and playing board games together. I'm gone a majority of the time with work, especially on Mon. & Thurs. when I babysit Monday from 7-5:30 and Thurs. from 7:30-5:30. Madison starts summer school on Tuesday. This weekend, we are going to start getting our house somewhat ready for our move, so it's not so much to do the end of next month. We will be celebrating our 1st year anniversary next weekend! It has been a great year. We'll probably just stay here due to no money. We'll probably save up and go out to dinner though! That will be nice to dress up and go out at least.
Well, better go! More updates to follow.

Optical Illusion

1. Stare at the black dot without moving your eyes until it says "Ta Da!"
2. Move your eyes - you saw in color, but it's b&w!

Blog Neglect...shame on me!

There has been a whole heck of a lot going on lately, sorry I have been neglecting this blog...I have been neglecting a lot of things lately, unfortunately! Last weekend, I helped throw a bachelorette party for a friend after working a 10 hour babysitting shift, then the next day I got up to drive to Starkville, MS to play in a wedding, I came home and thank goodness Madison's mom pulled in about the same time to help with the recital. I wouldn't have been able to pull it off without her. She was a huge help! Madison had a 49 page exam on Monday, so obviously he had to study a lot...needless to say, I woke up and it was recital day for my violin kids. They all did beautifully...I'm very proud of all of them. It was my first full student recital! I was pumped at how smoothly it all went, thanks to other people helping!

Monday I was back to my 10 hour babysitting shift, then yesterday I finally got to sleep in for the first time in a long time. Then I taught, then I had the Law Wives Club over for a dessert/game night. This morning, I spoke/played at the Oxford Rotary Club at 7:30am, came home, got some work done, then took my orchestra kids to the Veterans' home. That also went really well! I was so proud of the kids for pulling off 6 songs! Yay! The experience level literally is 1 year of playing to 13 years of playing, so it's a challenge for me! From there, I taught until 5:15. I caught up on yesterday's american idol (found it online hehe...) and then watched the episode tonight at home. Life has been a little bit of a whirlwind here lately! Tomorrow is Madison's last exam!!! I couldn't be more relieved...I don't know what it is, but it seems longer this time around. I'm so sick of not being able to really spend quality time with him at all. I'm glad I have the law wives club girls to talk to about it. They obviously really understand what it is like to be married to a law student.
This weekend, I am playing in a wedding in Grenada, then we're thinking about going to Brookhaven for Mother's Day since we'll be an hour south already anyways! Margaret's birthday is Saturday also! Big eventful weekend for the Taylors!

Last night was crazy weather with tornadoes and such, (we were sitting in the bathroom at 4am...not fun at all...I am so not used to not having a basement!!!)
so I'm looking forward to going to bed really soon (I have to get up for work at 6:30!)
Here's my jobs right now:
Private teacher at the Fine Arts Academy (9 hrs/wk i think...), Private teacher at a local music store (1 hr/wk), private teacher at private school (1hr/wk) orchestra director at a local school (45 min/wk..but I arrange music for hours), and babysitter 20 hours a week, plus freelancing and being my trio's wedding booking agent haha.
I'm getting used to a busier schedule but it's making me have less time for things that keep me sane....ohhhh boy :) haha...Summer schedule is coming soon!