Jeromy Bourque, CPA & Emily Ardoin, MBA

Whew! What a huge week this has been for our little family.

First, after studying for a year and a half, Jeromy finished the CPA exam after passing the last section this week. We have been working tirelessly for the last two months studying (or, in my case, helping him study), but the missed social events, many panic attacks, thousands of used highlighters, and a missed Fantasy Football Championship are worth it (even if Jeromy really wanted that championship...) It's official. Jeromy Bourque is a CPA!

After celebrating that success all week, Friday rolled around, and it was time for a different celebration... my graduation! Jeromy and I started dating during my first semester of graduate school, and I honestly think I couldn't have made it through that first semester without him. (I'm still having PTSD from Statistics..) I was also incredibly lucky that my grandparents and parents were able to come to graduation and celebrated at our house after.

Overall, it's been an incredible month for us, and we have a lot to celebrate as 2014 closes out. Now that all of our studying is out of the way, mayyyyybe we can start sampling wedding cake. That's the most important part of planning, right?

And We Grow By One...

This weekend, the Bourque household grew by one.

Everyone, I'm pleased to introduce Arthur Bach Bourque!

 He is eight weeks old, chocolate with a touch of white, and pretty much the most adorable 3 pounds on this earth. Of course, Jeromy had the pleasure of naming him, and chose to name him after Arthur Bach from the film Arthur. We've been playing this song nonstop.

Of course, not all members of the household are too sure about him, but Addy has been doing extremely well. Frankly, we hadn't expected to see her out from under the bed until at least Christmas, so the fact that they can be in the same room is a delightful surprise.

I'm having to restrain myself from posting every single picture that I take, because, well, social media would hate me. Currently, Arthur is sleeping with all four paws in the air, grumbling in his sleep as I type this post. Pretty much the most adorable, heart-warming sight ever.

Bourdoins? Ardoque?

There has been lots going on in our brains the last couple of months, from unpacking (slowly, but surely) to getting engaged, to starting the long journey of my job hunt, to trying to knock the CPA exam out of the park. We have been busy, y'all.

Because of that, we decided to push off talking about all things wedding-related to January. I'll be done with school and (hopefully!) gainfully employed, so we can figure out a better budget that falls between "OMG we won't be able to afford to feed people!" to "OMG I absolutely need a string quartet AND a rocking DJ!"

(These are notes from my head. It's a scary place.)

While we are putting off wedding talks, we are definitely not dodging marriage talks. As it turns out, weddings last for an afternoon, while marriages last for the rest of your lives. And that is a crazy scary commitment. So in our down time (HA!), we've been tentatively talking about our life post-wedding, when it comes time for things like babies and if we want them, or where we would like to live in the next few years (before said babies).

*Side note: These are discussions we have had many times over, but with an actual engagement and marriage in the works, these discussions take on a whole new realness. It's crazy. And wonderful. But pretty crazy.

I recently read an article about women changing their names, and the trend of women who are electing to keep their name, hyphenate, or create a new family surname with their spouse.

When confronting all of the wedding-related things thrown at me, I'm trying to ask "why" to traditions. (Current battle: Garter toss? Whyyy?) The idea of changing my name is one I already assumed I would do, because what else do women do when they get married? This article shook me and made me think about WHY I would change my name.

Of course, my family means the world to me, which is an important reason why I'm not particularly keen on changing my name in the first place. Plus, the tradition is deeply rooted in the whole idea of "women-as-property" gig that is so very unappealing. Jeromy considered taking my name instead of me taking his, but he has done intense research into his surname and his history, and he has come to love his name and all it stands for. So, we are at an impasse.

We believe it's important to have a name for our little baby family as a unit. However, what we are left with is to create a new name for our family.

When I mentioned the idea of us creating a new name, Jeromy automatically said, "WE CAN DO THAT?!" Followed by "I COULD BE A LANNISTER! NO, A STARK!"

I'm thinking this will have to be something we will have to continue discussing..

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EDIT: APW has written a lot on the subject of name changing (Bless them!), so for more reading, check out this and this and this. And definitely this.

Hiking the Mountains

When planning our trip, Jeromy kept bringing up hiking. My first thoughts? "Yea, and we can see magical unicorns riding on rainbows while we are up there." Needless to say, I wasn't thrilled about the idea of spending so much of my precious vacation walking up mountains.

And, as always, Jeromy knows me better than I know myself.

The renter of the cabin had left directions to the closest mountain trail to our cabin, Esther Trail. When we were heading out to the trail, we ran into the landlord, who mentioned that the trail was pretty steep.

Understatement. 

This trail was intense! The mountain we climbed was 13,700 feet in elevation, which is pretty damn tall in terms of mountains. (For reference, Mt. Elbert, the tallest mountain in Colorado, is 14,400 feet.) Luckily, we found walking sticks near the beginning of the trail, which we decided to borrow for our trek. And thank goodness. There is no way I would have made it up (or down!) that mountain without the trusty walking stick.

The trail was difficult, for sure, but the views made it worth the hike! Jeromy and I found multiple places where we stopped to take in the surreal landscapes.

While walking along the trail, we came across this adorable bunny! He was seriously so sweet and as curious about us as we were about him. Then I got "Peter Cottontail" stuck in my head.

When we (finally!) reached the top of the mountain, we found an point that overlooked the area. After hiking up the mountain, it was such a relief and a joy to reach the top and find such an amazing view. We had brought supper in our booksacks up the mountain, and we stopped here to eat. 

After a bit more exploring, we came up to a meadow that was nestled in the valley between a few mountain peaks. I'm pretty sure I could have stayed in that meadow forever.

Overall, this hike was the highlight of the trip for both of us. It pushed us outside our comfort zone, made us work together, and gave us some of the best views of the trip. Plus, Jeromy said he can marry me with peace of mind now knowing that I can be a nature girl!

Hot Air Ballooning

As I mentioned before, Jeromy gave me a gift certificate for a hot air balloon ride for Christmas 2013. On the Sunday of our Colorado vacation, we put that gift certificate into action for the best morning I've ever had.

When we drove up (at 5:45 in the morning!), we saw a beautiful setup. In a valley between mountain ranges, a long table had been set up for breakfast. The sun rising over the mountain tops, the cloud-free sky, and the mountains on the horizon really set the scene for the amazing experience.

After chatting with the hilarious greeter of the company, we were able to watch them blow up the balloons. The process was really cool. The balloons were hooked up to the front of a truck via cable to keep the balloon from floating away. We got into the wicker basket attached to the balloon with 3 other couples and our pilot. It was a cool 50 degrees when we took off, and we took off from an elevation of 9,000 feet above sea level (!!!). 

When we took off, it was such a surreal experience! The balloon floats with the wind, so it felt like we were floating the entire time. (I said it feels like Charlie in the glass elevator from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.) The views were stunning. The picture above is a picture of the Continental Divide. 

There was another balloon in the air with us, and it led to some great pictures. I mean, look at that sky!

Jeromy used my gift certificate paper to create a paper airplane. We sent it down when we were 3,000 feet above the ground (or 12,000 feet above sea level!). It soared for a while before landing on the ground.

 

After an hour of traveling over five miles in the balloon we landed safely. I cannot say enough about the professionalism of the company we used! They landed the balloon so smoothly and softly. Then, after landing and packing up the balloon, we headed back to the launch site for some home cooked eggs, bacon, and French toast, with mimosas on the side! The whole morning was wonderful, and I couldn't have asked for a more awesome experience.

Hello, Colorado!

For Christmas 2013, Jeromy gave me a hot air balloon ride in Colorado that we were both just way too excited about. From the day I got it, I had people whispering behind my back telling me that he would propose on that hot air balloon. Of course, that was his plan. Which meant that every single person ruined it for me, and he just couldn't use that plan anymore.

I still think I had the most perfect proposal ever, so I'm not complaining.

However, that still left us with a trip to Colorado, which we decided to consider it a "Happy Engagement" vacation. (Or, engagement-moon, as my mom called it.) And, as far as vacations go, this one pretty much topped the list in every category. The weather was stunning, the adventures were awesome, and the whole area made me fall in love all over again.

The first time I saw the Rockies. Swoon.

In an effort to keep ourselves well rested (HA!), we decided to rent a cabin the mountains for a few nights. It was several hours closer to our hot air balloon take off point, and had ZERO cell phone service, which was the perfect way to kick off our vacation. (We played at least 10 games of Uno and watched Harry Potter and napped A LOT.)

Our view from the cabin.

The cabin was near Manitou Springs, which is this little touristy/artsy/homegrown town that had some pretty awesome food. We ate at an old inn, had locally brewed blueberry beer (Oh. My. Goodness.), and bought some artwork from a local artist.

The first night of our trip, we drove into the outskirts of Denver to see comedian Jay Mohr at Comedy Works. Apparently, he's a pretty popular comedian, and Comedy Works is often the scene of Comedy Central standup shows. Despite a touch of altitude sickness and travel exhaustion, it was a pretty awesome experience and the perfect way to kick off our vacation.

The authentic Mexican restaurant we ate at before the comedy show.

Ringing in the Celebrations

When people get engaged, the first thing I say is "Congratulations!". The second thing I say is, "Show me the ring!"

Jeromy and I had visited a couple antique jewelers months and months ago "just to look". We had been talking about an engagement in that vague way that people talk about babies and retirement. To my knowledge, our timeline was firmly set at 2016 at the earliest for a proposal. So while we looked at rings, I knew not to get my hopes up too high.

What little I knew!

Back in February, Jeromy worked in New Orleans for the entire month on a banking client. It was pretty hellish hours. He didn't have a single day off (including Sundays) for the entire month. I would visit on the weekends and lend moral support, but we didn't get to see much of each other.

However, he was finding time to ring shop.

He searched 15-20 different antique dealerships in the New Orleans area in the month of February without any luck. Either the rings were not pretty enough, not detailed enough, or just not right... I'm still not sure how he managed to do all of this without my knowledge.

When he couldn't find anything that satisfied him, he came to Lafayette to look. One Saturday in March, he ditched lunch plans with Laura Leigh and me to pick up Abby and go ring shopping. (I was pretty mad about the canceling plans part.. But I guess I can forgive him for this one, right?)

They were looking at rings that THEY would like, including one that "had diamonds piled up like a castle on your hand", when he looked left and saw this one.

The ring.

An 1930s antique art deco style ring with intricate scrollwork and cutouts, featuring small green garnets on either side of the diamond. He handpicked the diamond to go into the setting, and boy, does it shine.

(As Abby points out, I manage to slip it into every Snapchat I send. Sorry, not sorry.)

Nothing has brought me greater joy, comfort, and contentment than seeing this beautiful ring on my finger. Not because the diamond is so sparkly (but y'all, this diamond is so sparkly!) or because the intricate details on the band is exactly what I envisioned, but because every single day, when I slip on this ring, I am reminded of the wonderful man who gave me his heart, this ring, and, one day, his last name.

We're Engaged!

Every girl dreams of a classic engagement story, right? Something new and surprising that will make everyone swoon when you tell it to them.

My momma didn't get that engagement story. In fact, (as she has retold it countless times) her engagement story went something like this...

Mom: Hey, Scott. Don't you think it's time we get married?
Dad: You're probably right.

I'm sure it was much more romantic when it actually happened, but 30 years down the road, their story has boiled down to this. Because of this, of course, she has always urged me to wait and let my fiancé propose to me.

But a girl does get impatient...

Jeromy and I had a friendship that involved fussing about the opposite sex. We both had rough pasts and had come out of long term relationships recently. Our friendship was a way to vent to each other about the opposite sex, with a healthy dose of picking and tormenting. You know, a budding relationship. We hung out throughout the whole summer, as nothing more than friends. (A fact we were pretty adamant about.)

That changed the first time we hugged.

Cliché, right? We touched, and sparks and fireworks and opera music.. Cue the eyerolls. But it's true. We both knew something had changed that night. Something, as in, our whole lives.

Fast forward nearly two years down the road, and my boy is on bended knee.

Saturday started out as any other Saturday. We were slightly hungover (much thanks to Abby and Jordan for coming grill with us at midnight!), and while I went to my cousin's baby shower, Jeromy slept in. (Edit: Jeromy wanted me to include that he also cut the grass while I was gone, thank you very much.)

He was leaving for Denver on Sunday, so we planned a date night that consisted of cooking and drinking wine. (Moving is expensive, y'all. And his chicken sauce pincaté is to die for.) While catching up on some Louie on-demand, he told me he had a surprise for me, but he had to put it together. Ok? So I ran to the grocery store while he put my present together.

When I got home, he handed me an Amazon box. Not unusual, since 95% of his shopping is done on Amazon. I opened up the box and found the most beautiful book.

A pop-up book! The most intricate, delicate, beautiful pop-up book I have ever seen. Of course, I hold the Wizard of Oz close to my heart, as any Gamma Kappa KD does. The pictures in the book were beautiful, and the pop-ups on every page were stunning. I was tearing up at just the thought of him going out of his way to surprise me with this beautiful novel.

As I'm flipping through the pages (very, very slowly and carefully), I come to the second-to-last page. It's Dorothy. On a hot air balloon. With a ring.

Yes, he proposed to me on a hot air balloon.. in a book. He knows me so well.

He got down on bended knee, and told me that he knew he has wanted to marry me since our first hug. And would I do him the honor of being his wife.

My response? "You're serious, right? This isn't a joke or a test run or anything? This is real life?"

Then, of course, "YES!"