first annual boatright holiday letter* (kinda)

*a holiday letter....as a post on our blog…which is where I’ve been known to ramble…which is why our holiday letter is so long…which is why it kinda stops being a holiday letter and just turns into one big post.
enjoy!

This has been such an amazing year for Will and me and we’re so happy that we were able to share some of our best moments yet with our friends and family! We can’t thank you enough for your love and support throughout the year and we are so blessed to have such amazing people in our lives.

The highlight of our year, of course, was our wedding on October 3rd. Our families had travel times of 8-9 hours from Georgia, and 10-12 hours from Michigan/Illinois to Boone, North Carolina for the ceremony! It was so special to have everyone there together, despite the long distances! Two words to describe that weekend – ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. My only wish is that we would have been able to spend more time with everyone. The day flew by so fast! Just as soon as we had a break from all of the events, it was time for everyone to get ready to head home. So… we are planning (and have already accomplished some of) the Boatright Wedding (Continued) Tour to the North and South!

Our southern tour began last week when we headed to Waycross, Georgia to spend the holidays with Will’s family. We had so much fun seeing everyone and I got to meet a few new family members which is always fun :) We headed south on Wednesday and stayed the night with Will’s brother Cliff in his new house in Valdosta, Georgia. He just finished his first semester at Valdosta State University and did very well. The next morning we headed out to Douglas, Georgia to Bran Hill Plantation where we stayed for two days with Will’s parents, sister (Ann) and her friend (Megan) and boyfriend!! (Ty), Cliff, cousin (JP), and Uncle Cliff. Megan’s parents and brother also came by for the evening. The boys went on a quail and pheasant hunt with the owner of the plantation and then all shot skeet that night. We also had a super competitive game of spoons where I explained the “traditional Hammersley” rules of the game. This is one of our family’s favorite game to play when we get together (Beth and Jamie – you know what I’m talking about!!). I will now never be able to live down the phrase “Hammersley rule” ever, ever again. I was also able to try fried quail for the first time (aka Will put a piece on my plate and told me I had to eat it) and it was actually very good! We headed home from the plantation on Christmas Eve and met up with Will’s grandparents, Mama Pat and Pop, for the evening church service. I will tell you this – the food prepared for us at the plantation was good, but Will’s mom definitely takes the cake for delicious meals every morning, noon, and night while we were there!

On Monday we took a little trip to Kingsland, Georgia to spend some time with Will’s other grandparents, Granny and Papa Gerald. There was family around all day – Uncle Kerry, Uncle Bud, Naomi and her boys (AJ and Cole), Aunt Karla, Uncle Art and their twin girls (Lauren and Leanne)! It was great getting to meet Lauren and Leanne, who are in their first year of college, as well as their significant others :) My favorite part of that day was when Will got up from the couch to introduce himself to Leanne’s boyfriend (Cody) and didn’t realize that I had stood up too. He swung his arm out (thinking that I was still sitting on the couch) and smacked me square in the forehead saying, “And this is my wife Lindsey!” We all could not stop laughing! The trip flew by and before we knew it, a week had passed and we headed back home yesterday morning. We left wearing t-shirts and came back to freezing temperatures and snow everywhere! The tour to the north is definitely going to be in the summer and we can’t wait to see everyone! (I already called dibs on the bouncy bed at Grandma Carolyn’s house haha)

One year ago on New Years Eve, Will got down on one knee in front of the giant Christmas tree at the park in downtown Greensboro and asked me to marry him. Since that moment, our lives have never been the same. We’ve had ups and downs and sometimes struggled as a young couple, but ever since day one (almost 7 years ago!) we were always there for each other and looked out for the other. The strength of our relationship has carried us through life’s challenges and we have grown so much in the past year. I’ve been told several times by several different people that “these are the years we will look back on and laugh…. and maybe even miss it a little.”

Will worked as a “tree surgeon” for a little while this year and then started with Ansco, a company who is subcontracted through AT&T, setting cell phone poles and running the new UVerse cable and internet lines around the state. He has been looking for a local company to work for as a transmission linesman, which is what he has a college degree in and has done in the past when he worked for Irby Construction. Most power line transmission companies require a lot of out of state traveling for long periods of time, and not wanting to leave his super amazing wife, he has settled doing other similar jobs. His big break came a few weeks ago when he applied for and got the job at Buck’s Communications, a local company (yes!!!), building and maintaining cell phone towers and all of the other types of long haul cable line installation and maintenance.



Will's job description doesn't really need any words :)


He has also worked a few independent tree service jobs for our neighbor and people who were referred to him by our neighbor.



Will giving me a "demonstration" of how to cut down a tree -- in the front yard of our old house!


As always, he sets aside plenty of time to hunt and be out in the woods. He still claims that he has been tracking a huge deer that will be in our freezer any day now. Hmmmm….uh-huh, sure Will! We’ll believe it when we see it mister! :)

I permanently (very, very permanently) retired my waitress apron at the end of June when I landed an awesome job with the internship program at Syngenta Crop Protection in the transportation and logistics department! How did I go from waiting tables at Mellow Mushroom to working for a multi-billion dollar global company? – by realizing that my online Supply Chain Management class that I was taking at the time was going to be an uphill battle and deciding that I would persistently tackle each chapter on a daily basis in order to get a decent grade. I was “one of those” annoying students that would email my professor all the time challenging his point deductions and asking a long list of questions on a weekly basis. The beginning of the semester was a struggle (mentally – I just didn’t get it! emotionally - I was having a hard time getting back into school after taking time off to cope with my mom’s passing and be with my family), but in the end did very well and apparently made an impression on my professor because he asked if he could recommend me to Syngenta for a job. Of course I said yes, and the next day I received a call from the head of the department asking me when I could come in for an interview. I interviewed on a Tuesday and was told that there were still several other applicants that were scheduled to interview, but that I would know either way if I got the job by Friday afternoon. Two hours later, I received an email from the head of the department congratulating me on being chosen for the position and requesting a formal acceptance so that I could start as soon as possible! I love my job and have learned so much in the past six months! Their internship program is definitely going to improve my chances of landing a permanent job here when I graduate and will look pretty nice on my fresh out of college resume.

Four of the five and a half years that I’ve lived in North Carolina have been spent taking orders, refilling drinks, cleaning up the post-meal wreckage from small children and sugar packets (or crackers, or crayons, or all of the above!), refusing obnoxious drunks another round, bussing tables, rolling silverware, burning my fingers on hot plates, smelling like an old wet greasy towel when I got home, making $2.13 an hour and crossing my fingers for a 20% tip. Not that I’m complaining - but waiting tables is harder than most people think!!! However, the pay can definitely make it all worth it depending on the potential generosity of strangers and the never-failing generosity of the family and friends who came to Ruby Tuesday and/or Mellow Mushroom and requested me to be their waitress! Knowing that I was graduating with a marketing degree from a prestigious business school in less than a year, I began to panic because I had absolutely no relative job experience to my field of study. My nightmare: future interviewer looks at my resume and asks me why I would be a valuable asset to his marketing/sales department and I answer, “Umm, because I can up-sell the crap out of pizza and beer?” In my professor’s request for recommendation he pointed out that even if I had a job already, I should strongly consider the fact that the company, who is well-established with 24,000 employees and locations in 90 different countries, would look be a selling point on my resume. I’m so glad that he appreciated my effort in class, and that I now have a job that I love – with a great boss, co-workers, and work environment to boot.

Recently, Will and I have been talking about what our next step should be. In the past few months I have realized how much I want to stay in school and get my master’s degree as soon as I graduate. I figure that while I have the momentum and the drive to dive head first into an MBA program (eep!), I should take advantage of it. Right? I went to lunch with Will’s mom on Tuesday and had a really great talk with her about the possibilities for the future. The biggest decision that Will and I are facing right now is who takes the next step?
Will has been wanting to go back to school for a while now, but it would be very difficult for both of us to be in school at the same time.
I can definitely see myself earning my master’s degree over the next two years.
We both can see ourselves starting a family.
About the family…she said what most other people normally say: “don’t feel rushed to have children right away,” “take the time that you have now to focus on yourselves and enjoy the freedom you have to make last minute plans and be flexible with your lives,” “you won’t get to have any time alone for the next 18 years!” (haha), etc. But here is what most people don’t know and what Will and I didn’t know until recently – there is a deadline. Without going into a lot of personal details, I’ll say it like this… Unknown to me, my chances of being able to carry a baby to term have been slowly decreasing over the years and will begin to rapidly decrease in the next two to three years. An unlucky string of events have caused this deadline to be brought to our attention in the last few weeks and handling the news has been quite difficult. It meant a lot to me to be able to talk openly about everything not only to Will, but also his mom (and now my mom too!). She gave me some great advice and although we do have some time, it doesn’t feel like it’s enough to make that big of a decision. We're still waiting for me to graduate so we can go on our honeymoon! We have been praying about this decision a lot lately and for those of you who have been doing the same, I can’t thank you enough. The fate of Baby B is in God’s hands and that has given us such peace and comfort. I have a million questions for the big man upstairs, and I know in time He will answer them.

In eleven short days I will be back in school for my last semester as an undergrad business student. The break in between semesters has been much needed and I definitely got tons of well-deserved naps in, which always makes me happy. I finished the semester with a 3.9 GPA! After (barely) making it through the curveballs of the fall 2009 and spring 2010 semesters, my GPA was beginning to sink but I worked hard this semester and am back on the Dean’s List and Chancellor’s List! It will be very close, but if I can pass my advanced Spanish class (I tested out of the first three when I got back from the Dominican Republic and was somewhat fluent but have been putting the last one off….for four years – oops!), I might just walk with honors and a fabulous sash at graduation! Next week Will starts his new job and then we are off and running into the new year! We miss you all and will hopefully be seeing you soon! Instead of jet setting to a Caribbean island in May, we are thinking about renting an RV and doing some sightseeing across the country. My favorite memories of my childhood involve family vacations towing along our little pop up camper and experiencing all of the little pieces that make up our country. Who needs an oceanside suite when you have the Horseshoe Ranch in Wyoming? Or buffalo burgers at Wall Drug in South Dakota? Or Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky? Corn Belt, Bible Belt, and Wheat Belt USA we will see you soon!



A little flashback from 2009: our first date - the first day of Will's visit after three lonnnng years apart! :) Little did we know that our innocent best friends date that day would turn into lots of romantical dates, and then an engagement, and then a wedding, and now - an amazing marriage!



We love you all – Happy New Year!

Lindsey & Will