The last two months!

So I realized that it's been a REALLY long time since I wrote anything, and I apologize. Life has been pretty crazy. I'm about three weeks from graduating from COLLEGE and it has been pretty busy around here.

I guess I could do a quick recap of everything that's happened over that last two months since my last post.

Back at the end of February, I went with my scuba diving class to Ponce de Leon, FL for four days to get scuba certified. It was a pretty cool trip! We stayed at the Vortex Springs campground and did our first day of dives there, then the second and third days were at Morrison Springs. After the third day of dives, we were officially certified! We had to take a picture for our scuba "license" and we actually just got those in the mail last week. Now all I need is my own air tank and wet suit and I can dive whenever I want!

Half of our group

I love having an underwater camera!

In the water for the first time

Vortex Springs - Day 1

Morrison Springs - Day 2

The girls of group 1

Getting ready to get in the water!

Every weekend (for the most part) we have gotten to see Nikki and Cassidy. They're both doing really well and Cass is getting so big! She is now almost 5 months old and has started smiling and it's the cutest thing in the world and she's such a sweet little girl. She's eating baby food now so she's enjoying throwing up on me even more, but other than that, she's awesome! 

Classes are going well, I guess, but my law class is absolutely miserable. I try to pay attention, and still really just don't understand it. There is so much information that she is trying to get us to learn in such a short time and it's killing me. We have a thesis paper due in two weeks and it's the only thing that I'm focusing on. Luckily, I really don't have a lot in any of my other classes. Islam is technically done next week after we turn in our take home finals, but we did get to do this cool project (which when I describe it, you'll think "that's cool?"). We had to visit a Mosque and attend a Friday sermon and then interview the Imam after. I've actually learned a lot about the Islam faith through this class and it's actually a kind of cool religion, and while talking to the Imam, he was a really awesome guy and had a lot to talk about, so it was very interesting. Photo is going awesome. I've been shooting ballet dancers all semester and I've almost got my final portfolio for the class done, now all I need to do is find a male ballet dancer which has become a little bit harder then I originally had hoped for. Here's a link to check out the work I've done so far (Work for Photo Class). 

March was unusually warm! It was great actually! I also started working again at Dorothy Lane Market as an AFTD (assistant for the day) and at the Service Booth so I'm sort of in charge of the front end of the store along with one other manager during the shifts. It's going pretty well so far. I was a little nervous giving her my schedule for May because I have so much going on and won't be able to work a lot, but my boss was pretty cool about it and didn't seem upset like I thought she would be. 

St. Patrick's Day was one of the most fun days ever! Shannon and I decided (along with Dave and his friend Megan) that we were going to open Timothy's Bar at 5 am, so Shannon and I did not go to sleep the night before and were knocking on Dave's door at 4:30 to get them up. It was the most ridiculous day ever filled with the most awesome friends a girl could ask for! And then we also decided to close Tim's just because we could. Words cannot describe this day. 

The line for Tim's at 5 am!

4 am! 

Our group

Closing Tim's at the end of the night

A couple of weeks ago, the softball team headed to the University of Virginia for a really big tournament that we ended up going pretty good in, although it ended up getting called because of rain. We left Friday afternoon and got there Friday night and just had pizza and played Catch Phrase all night and then Saturday we headed to the park cloudy and early! Our first game was against Duke and we beat them pretty bad and then we had a few hours off before playing Virginia Tech. During that game, it did nothing but pour down rain the entire time so both teams were struggling to be able to play well, and unfortunately we lost, so we were then put into the losers bracket so we had a long road ahead of us. We then played William and Mary and beat them and then played Michigan right away. We were all pretty nervous going into the last game of the night because Michigan looked pretty good, but we ended up beating them! We played so great and did exactly what we needed to do to win, but then it started storming so they called games for the rest of the night which ultimately ended up ending our run because they cancelled the losers bracket for Sunday. But I was so excited because Ben finally got to see me play! He showed up just in time for the VT game so he got to see three games and then stayed with me that night. It was great to see him! :) And when it came time to say good bye on Sunday, it was just a quick "see you soon" but little did he know how soon it really would be because I had plans up my sleeve! 

Waiting in between games

It rained all day!

So last week was our two year anniversary and I planned out this entire HUGE surprise with the help of some awesome friends! Shannon and I decided to drive up to visit Michelle and Victoria so we left Thursday afternoon and got to Annapolis about 9 o'clock. We stopped in to say hi to the girls but we went straight downtown for dinner because we hadn't really stopped along the way. I don't think I've ever had to try sooooo hard before NOT to tell Ben what I was doing! I was so anxious and just wanted to see him and surprise him, but I knew I had to wait until Friday. I had a plan that Lee (his roommate) was helping me out with. The original plan was to go to El Toro for dinner and I was going to have their server give Ben this card that I had "accidentally" forgot to put in his Easter Basket (oh yeah, this was all over Easter weekend by the way!) that said I was in town and then walk over and surprise him! Well, needless to say, Lee had a pretty hard time talking Ben into going out to dinner because he (Ben) had had a pretty long day and just wanted to stay in. When Shannon and I got there at 6:30 (the boys were coming at 7), there wasn't a single table available. We decided to go to the bar because we couldn't just be standing waiting, but the only seats available were right in front of the door. The couple next to us got up and left about five minutes later so we went to scoot down when this group of four locals came up to sit down. We explained to them we were in town to surprise my boyfriend for our anniversary and that we were hoping to move down to the end of the bar and this is when things got awesome! They said they wanted to help with the surprise and it ended up working better then I could have imagined! 

They brought military rubber ducks to let float in their margaritas! 

The women in the group said they would go and talk to Ben and give him the card while the men agreed to hide me from him seeing me. So as soon as they (Lee and Ben) walked in, they headed towards the bar and the women stopped them to talk. Ben looked so confused and I was SOO nervous! I was literally sitting in my chair shaking because I was so excited! He ended up thinking they were someone's sponsor parents (which was perfect!) and when the ladies gave him the card, he had NO idea what was going on. When he opened it, all he read was "love, Marci" and asked the ladies why I had sent them the card instead of sending it to him and then the men that were hiding me moved and I finally got to see him! He looked at me and said "oh my gosh! What are you doing here!?" and came over to give me a hug and kiss! He was honestly so surprised and it couldn't have worked out better! Thank you Lee sooooo much for helping me out! I never would have been able to pull it off without you! Lee had taken care of everything and signed Ben up for a weekend so he could stay with me and then got him to the restaurant. After dinner, we all went back to Michelle and Victoria's for some drinks before going out. It was so nice to be able to hang out with friends AND Ben at the same time! We don't get to do that often. We almost seemed like a normal couple! Then Saturday, we spent the day at the beach with a picnic lunch :) and went to dinner at the Wild Orchid Cafe (pretty good). Sunday, we went to Easter mass and then started a new "tradition."

Being in a military relationship, I know we won't get to spend all the holidays that we would like with our families, so it was nice to get to spend it with another sort of family. Our friends. After mass, we went back to Michelle and Victoria's and made a huge brunch! Everything from eggs and sausage to mimosas and pancakes and french toast! It was delicious and then we spent the rest of the day just relaxing and hanging out with everyone. It was such a great weekend!

The ladies before we went out Friday night

Us girls at the Fed House

Our view for Saturday afternoon 

<3

So now I have the last couple of weeks of college ahead of me, and then I'm done with school. It's such a crazy thought! I have been working on getting graduation invitations and announcements ready and thanks to Lauren Shepherd Photography I was able to get some awesome "senior pics" to include with them.

It's so weird to look at these pictures compared to my senior pictures from high school from just four years ago. I have grown so much as an individual and made some awesome friends! I can't believe graduation is just 23 days away. And then Ben graduates shortly after! I can't believe it's all happening so fast! 

Thanks for reading and I'm sorry it's such a long post. I will try to keep up to date with stuff going on, but the next two months are going to be pretty hectic, but I'll do my best!