She's Back.

As we danced at my wedding, with tears in his eyes, Daddy said it like this,

"Have the best life. Live hard. Love hard. Play hard. Let it all out. Hold nothing back."

Mom always said it like this,

"Romp and stomp babe."

These are the words of wisdom we are living by in our early days of marriage. Brian and I are not only newlyweds, but also early-twenty-somethings trying to figure out what we want to be when we grow up. Some of my friends know what path or what path-ish they want to take, and are in grad school or have obtained a job that sets them off on that path. Some of my friends are in my predicament and have moved to fun cities with friends and snagged the first available job to buy some time until they figure out what their dreams are. It's such a frustrating, but exciting stage to be in. We have graduated college and the world is at our fingertips. We are anxious to figure out what our dreams are so we can pursue them, no holds barred.

This is the stage I am in, but I am in it with my new husband. We sit on our couch at night with cookie dough and our latest Netflix acquisition and talk about all the possibilities of what we could do and where we could go. I wonder aloud if my law school itch will ever leave me while B analyzes what 3 years of law school and me not working would mean but also telling me he would love to move if I got a great scholarship somewhere fun. I tell B he should coach high school football and eventually be an offensive coordinator at an SEC school and he tells me it is nearly impossible to coach at the collegiate level without playing college ball first while secretly Googling "football graduate assistantship" on his laptop. The eternal pessimist meets the eternal optimist, and it is a beautiful thing... "Rachel, barely anyone has coached football at the college level who didn't play football in college." "B, are you putting God in a box? I think so." This stage in our lives is richer because we are married and our marriage is richer because we are going through this stage together.

Aside from trying to figure out what our dreams are, we are working, cooking, learning to share EVERYTHING, having friends over, going on late night walks, going to bed early, staying up late, just living our lives. Together. And loving it. There is so much goodness in living with someone you've made a covenant with... living into the promises I have made to him and being humbled by him living into the promises he has made to me. It's not always easy, but it's always good.

This was the most bloggable summer of my life, but all those things that were so blog-worthy stole every moment of my time so that I have blogged little to none since May. But I'm back, and I will update you on the Summer behind us in bits and pieces as I go. Who needs chronology?

For now, just know...

I had the wedding of my dreams.

I married my very best friend.

We are having the best life... we are living hard, loving hard, playing hard. We are letting it all out and holding nothing back.

Rachel