Thanksgiving, Finals, Cody's Graduation and more!

Hey everyone!! Long time no see!! Finals are now over and it is time for Christmas!!!!!!!!!

Let me just say finals were challenging but I conquered them all with a total of 3 hours of sleep each night. This semester has been one of the challenging yet, especially with my writing intensive class of 10 lab reports, 24 pages each, analyzing engineering x-ray diffraction data over and over and over. One of our classes had 2 reports, 8 presentations and a HUGE final project. My class has jumped through so many hoops to do well this semester and now I am rounding the corner of my last semester senior year. Now I await my final grades which are due this Tuesday.

Analyzing my x-ray diffraction data for my mile long lab reports

Studying feverishly for finals (I didn't move from this spot for 3 days)

Presentations galore!

I have gotten slightly better at public speaking!

More data analysis of XRD (I made this!)

Reverse engineering

The intricate parts right before it blew up. (Really!)

It has made a world of difference to have my sweet Cody here with me in the same city! That was the greatest gift the Lord could have given me. I may not be so lucky this next semester depending on where Cody gets a job. It is so scary thinking of the unknown of where and if I can get a job at the end of May and where Cody will get one and trying to get our jobs in the same place and then trying to get the apartments lined up which take half a year for a wait list. The next 5 months are so uncertain and to be honest a little bit scary hoping everything works out in time for the wedding less than six months away. I know God knows our plans and our path and has for all of our lives, we just have to trust in the Lord and cast our worries on him and just pray we listen correctly and make the choices he wills for us on our path. This past semester Cody was there to give me a hug on rough days, give me a billiards study break, bring me dinner when I have a huge test the next day, and most importantly just being there. It was so difficult for us the first 4 years being 6 hours away when those things were impossible and skype was the only option. Cody is amazing and takes such great care of me and really drove 30 minutes to my apartment and 30 minutes back multiple times just to give me a hug after a long day. He really is a keeper folks. He has my heart! <3

Before I get too far ahead of myself let me give a short recap on Thanksgiving. So for Thanksgiving we ate and ate and ate lol. We had such delicious food and catching up on life! I enjoyed staying up until 3:00am with Cody and his mom, cooking the Thanksgiving food, laughing and making memories. This year I decided to do something really brave, I made my dad's famous mashed potatoes all by myself! And they actually turned out well! I can happily say they were a success and I can finally pass down the family recipe. Next is to master my Nana's divine chocolate cake!

The famous mashed potato pot! (We made 6 pounds of it!)

So after finals were over Cody and I tied up loose ends in Knoxville, wrote and sent the save-the-dates for the wedding and all headed to Martin Tennessee for Cody's college graduation. I cannot believe in am engaged to a college graduate!! It was a little sad I wasn't able to graduate with him like high school but it was such an exciting special day. All of his hard work and effort has paid off and now he has a bachelors degree in History education! The future looks so bright!! College has not been nice to Cody or I so this was such a relief for Cody and a huge sense of freedom.

My heart was literally bursting with pride for this guy!

All 14 of his support group (family) celebrating with a yummy lunch with lots of fellowship. (I took this with my selfie stick Cody got me!!)

Cody getting his picture taken, walking with pride back to his seat.

Class of 700!

Me, Morgan, Granddad, Gigi, and Papa up top.

Nana, Mom, me anxiously waiting for it to start.

Jamie, Miles, Nana W. Nana D. mom, and me.

Me and sis!

What a support group! We love you Cody!!!

Oh and tonight Cody, me, Cody's dad, and Cody's grandparents saw Cody's mom's Christmas performance at their church and it was awesome!!! It really got me in the spirit of Christmas! Jamie sang beautifully and the whole performance was beautiful! 

The rest of Christmas break for Cody and I consists of half the time in Knoxville and half of the time in Chattanooga. This coming weekend is my Nana's Christmas in Gatlinburg with the Dyars and also Cody's Nana's Christmas the day after with the Wamacks. It should be an extremely fun weekend kicking off the Christmas festivities! I can't wait to see the craziness at my Nana's Christmas and new memories to make, and the good conversations with Cody's family and board games! 

This week Cody and I also start pre-marital counseling with my preacher Ann and we are ecstatic!! I cannot wait to prepare for marriage and start back on wedding planning!! Next post I will be talking about what wedding planning will take place this Christmas break and the Christmas festivities with my other grandparents and my immediate family. (and Cody's) It has been so interesting this Christmas working around the dynamics of being engaged. Its that fun/awkward stage where we are so close to marriage but we aren't married, so living arrangements are still separate but things are more flexible. It is so neat spending Christmas being engaged knowing that this time next year we will be husband and wife!!!!! :D 

So I will see everyone later, enjoy the holidays, keep the reason for the season in mind always because it is so easy to get lost in the hustle and bustle of the holiday to-do's and sometimes stresses. Spend time with family because family time always makes the heart happy and full at peace ready for the next year!! 

 Not one tree is the same! Just like people!

Happy Holidays everyone, I will be posting again very soon!!

Love,

Kayla Dyar (Raborn)

Wedding Countdown: 175 days!!! (5 months 21 days!!)

P.S.- Cody and I are on day 5 of our weight-loss kickoff challenge! (eating well, less, and working out) We lost 12-17 pounds this past summer and were unable to continue the trend over stressful school and are picking back up to finish the weight loss. I have a dress fitting early January and am slightly in a panic to reach my goals for then. 

Fall Break!

Hey everyone! It's fall break and I feel like I would like to update everyone with what's been going on since the start of school....since I have the extra 2 days to do major hw ;/. Plus I couldn't stay away from the blogging world, I found that I enjoy it so much and hope you enjoy reading about my adventures! (also I realized I would have posted every one of these pictures on instagram and that can be a problem, and annoying to some lol)

So after school started in August I realized it was as bad as I thought. I have really started to dislike college and I am very ready to graduate in May. A lot of my friends have been talking about grad school and I find that very funny because that is the last thing in the whole world I would EVER do willingly. I am currently taking 6 classes, 14 hours total and get on average 4 hours of sleep a night. It KILLS my body and makes it VERY difficult for weight loss. All of my classes are tough and require immense time outside of class. I sometimes feel like I am losing my mind. For the most part I don't enjoy my classes but I really like my biomaterials class. I think....    Well I enjoy the professor a lot, she is fantastic and it is wonderful to see someone teach a college class with it being their passion. Most of my professors are in it for the research. :( :( :(

Lately I have been attending lots and lots of job fairs and having phone interviews. I am looking at a multitude of companies from TVA, DENSO, ORNL, MARS, Colortech, to Eastman. It is really scary looking for a job and I always imagined this time in my life would never really come but it did and now it's scary.

Cody has been doing well, he is such a trooper. He has been having some SERIOUS senior-itus. He is so ready to graduate this December and I don't blame him! His student teaching has been good and he is a FANTASTIC teacher. I am so proud of him. I am also so glad that he enjoys it. It reconfirms his passion to coach and teach.

Between August and now nothing besides school and hw has really happened but I have found the good out of this semester and can proudly say I have made a friend! Since we are in almost all of the same classes we work on the projects and lab reports together and since the lab reports take 30+ hours, I will often go to her house to bounce back-and-forth ideas on a tricky software. Brianna has three cats and a dog. I have really cherished this friendship that has come out of this semester. She has such a sweet heart and is a lot of fun! This semester people-wise has been great! I am also really close with my other two friends Shelby and Candice. All three people are so so so different but I really care so much for each of them. I have known Shelby for many years and have had many classes together. She is a wonderful friend and listener. Candice is just the sweetest girl and is so spunky! She is wonderful to go to for advice and just recently got married herself. So I LOVE LOVE LOVE wedding talk together!

You will never hear me talk much about friends because I have always been the type of person who likes most people and get along with truly about every person but I don't usually trust people enough to let them in on my personal life or open up to. So it says a lot when I mention friends!

Anyways, this past weekend Cody and I got to experience many new 'firsts' together!!! Last Saturday I took Cody to his first corn maze, hay ride, pumpkin patch, and carved his first pumpkin! At first he wasn't fond of the maze especially since it was incredibly muddy but ended up enjoying it once he found out he got to take home a pumpkin. We went to Oaks Farm out in Sevierville TN and I highly suggest going there! My family has gone to corn mazes almost every year of my entire life and we have tried over 12 maze farms and Oaks Farm by far is the best! We got to swing, sit in our rocking chars, feed animals and race down HUGE slides! Here is a little collage of our trip:

First, Friday night I attended the Farragut High football game and was able to watch my Cody do what he loves, coach! A storm delay caused the game to start at 9:30pm instead of 7:00pm. But I enjoyed spending time with Cody as he got to 'show me off' as he says, to the other coaches ;)

(and note the coaches wife jacket i'm wearing!!!!:D)

It was very rainy and chilly but we managed to squeeze out a smile!

It was the coolest autumn sight when we first walked into the maze. It just puts you right into a fall mood. Pumpkin everything!! And look how tall the stalks were this year!

Don't let the smiles fool you, I barely got this picture because Cody HATES pictures and that makes me really sad. Pictures are everything to me. 

Since he didn't want anymore pictures (even though we had only taken 2 at this point, I took matters into my own hands. He WAS going to be in a picture.) And he ended up liking this one, go figure. 

I love doing fun things like corn mazes as yearly traditions.

Cody didn't mind taking pictures of me so I took advantage of the opportunity and he did a great job!! At times like this I really wish I had a selfie stick.

Isn't this just the cutest little pumpkin!?!

Here is the awesome pumpkin patch that was 2 acres long!!!!

We carved our pumpkins on Sunday afternoon and I couldn't help but show off my new initial!! ;) I am so sorry guys, but I am so excited and proud! Bear with me for the next year!

We tested out our pumpkins and I think Cody's vampire pumpkin takes the cake. 

To end that action-packed day, we got to visit and eat at our rehearsal dinner place, Calhouns on the River! I am very pleased with our choice and the view was exquisite! I enjoy date nights and date days more than anything in the world!

That whole last weekend I was blessed to be able to spend so much quality time with Cody and to say the least I think we will have the happiest marriage in the whole world. He is going to be such a fantastic husband and I just cherish the quiet times together chatting about our future and learning more and more about each other every day. He is my hero and my best friend. And I love doing everything together. He is such a neat person with such a neat personality and I love just driving in the car on semi-long car trips talking away. He is great company!

This morning I finally got my new glasses! I can see so much better! These will be the glasses I am wearing for the wedding so I hope they look good and blend into my face well!

I am so excited about them!!

 This Thursday, today, starts our fall break and Morgan and I took our anual Ijams nature center sister bonding time hike! There is nothing better than some sweet sister time to be able to talk, goof off, and have our little rants together about the same thing. I have really enjoyed being so close to my sister especially in the past 8 years. I'm so glad we are now truly best friends. We get each other. 

 We hiked every trail this time and this is my personal favorite, while Morgan's is two pictures down. It is so fun doing exercise and outdoorsy things together!

 There are so many beautiful things in God's world that just take your breath away!

 Like this for example, I could sit here all day. It is the most peaceful and serene thing to sit on the bench and just be. 

 I know it sounds crazy but I can envision Cody and I having a house like that one day with a beautiful view, lots of land, a few cows, and not too close to civilization but not too far. 

The swamp! This is where me, Morgan, and Nana got scary lost 10 years ago. We were lost for 5 hours in the dark! Worst thing ever! 

The rest of fall break will consist of Codys football game tomorrow night, a quick day trip to Chattanooga (for hair highlights), and lots and lots of hw. 

I hope everyone enjoyed reading this post as much as I did writing it! I will update back again after Christmas or who knows, maybe sooner! I love being able to keep friends and family updated!

Love, 

Kayla Dyar (Raborn)

10-15-2015

Dress Shopping!!

Hey guys I know I said I wouldn't be writing this semester really at all due to how much college stresses me but I just couldn't help it! I never got to tell you guys about finding my wedding dress! Isn't that like the best part of wedding planning! I couldn't leave you guys hanging on that until Christmas could I?

Well here is my pre-wedding shopping image trying to tame my crazy hair after a session of jumpfit! I have been trying to lose a little weight before the wedding to get my high school body back. Since May I have lost 15 pounds and really need to amp it up. I thought if I mentioned it, you guys could help keep me accountable. Losing weight is HARD guys, anyone who can accomplish this feat hats off to you! I plan on losing a total of 30 pounds. Anyways, Here in this picture I have such high hopes and excitement flooding through my mind. My mother-in-law Jamie, and her mom were driving up from Chattanooga for the event! I felt so much love that day! I had both grandmothers, my Mom, Morgan, Jamie and Nana. (Sorry I can't show you pictures of them, they are all pictured with me wearing the dress.)

We arrived at David's Bridal only to find that everyone else in the world wanted to buy their dress that day too. We checked in and waited. Thank goodness we actually had that time to wait because I was in wedding heaven and was literally hugging all of the dresses. They were all so pretty! I was able to scout out a collection of 6 dresses that I liked all before the sweet girl Kirsten came to help me try them on. There is so much apparatus that goes on under the dress. I had no idea! It's not just the dress but the corset, slip, A-line slip, and lots and lots of tulle (the puffy stuff). Oh and yeah while you have the corset thing on, you can't eat or breathe.....or move. I am NOT looking forward to that. So if you guys see me at the wedding laying on the floor not breathing please help me and explain why.

The first wedding dress I tried on I instantly loved. It was gorgeous! When I came out of the dressing room, seeing myself in the mirror for the first time in a wedding dress was such a surreal moment. I've never experienced something quite like it. I looked so beautiful that I actually turned around thinking I was seeing the girl behind me instead of my own reflection. Then it became real. At that moment I was going to be a bride in less than a year and I was actually wearing a dress that I would be wearing for my wedding day to marry the man of my dreams. That happiness right there is enough to move a mountain.

So the second dress I tried on was a 'Jessa Duggar dress' those of you who know me, I LOVE the Duggars, especially Jessa! She looked so stunning on her wedding day I HAD to try on a dress like hers to see what it looked like. Because why not!?! Seriously this is the only time, only day my whole life that I will be able to try on wedding dresses so why not enjoy. (it was actually sad at the end when it was over) did anyone else feel like that too? Well the Jessa Duggar dress didn't look quite as good on me as it did her but it was so cool trying one on!

But the third dress that I tried on was the one. Nothing had ever made me feel more beautiful and like the bride I always envisioned myself being. I knew the second I put the dress on. I absolutely can't wait for everyone to see! I wish so badly I could post a picture of the dress! But you'll have to find out at the wedding! ;)

This is my beaming look after trying on 9 wedding dresses and leaving with my dream dress on order. 

Shopping at David's Bridal was so cool and I am 95% happy with my experience and that is saying a lot. I am a tough critic. After I found the one I tried on the 6 others that I had pulled just to be sure and after confirmation of 'the one' I got to ring the David's Bridal victory bell for good luck! We ordered the dress and it is currently safely in my house where I can sneak upstairs and admire it every weekend. :)

I will be posting a fall blog soon to update everyone about school and I think everyone's favorite time of year and the festivities that follow. I knew it was time to create a blog post when my instagram posts were getting long. ;) guilty.

Love,

Kayla Dyar (Raborn)

10-12-15

P.S.- 235 more days until the wedding!!!! A little over 7 months!!! EEEKS :D

Life Lately

Hi Everyone!! Life is so exciting right now!! I have a lot to update you guys on! I am so sorry it has almost been a month since I have posted last!

Let me just say a quick disclaimer, these next 4 months I won't be posting much due to school being back in session and to be honest NOTHING exciting happens during school time EVER for me. I will put my wedding planning on hold until Christmas break when I will be job interviewing and major major wedding planning. See the reason we wanted to be engaged for more than a year is because you have to reserve venues and things you want literally 1 year in advance. This summer we have taken care of the things that need a year reservation and at Christmas time we have left that month open for the things that need to be decided 6 months or less close to the wedding. I have no idea how people are engaged for only 6 months or less, I don't know how they are able to get anything they want! With our engagement being 13.6 months we still ran into many, "We are booked June 4th 2016"! It's like how in the world are you booked over a year in advance! Kudos to those 4 month engage-rs or less!

Let me rewind and pick back up where I wrote last. So soon after my birthday weekend Cody and I headed over to All Occasions Rentals to find out more about our wedding decor. I won't show too many pics to you guys because I still want the element of surprise when you show up at the wedding in 9.5 months!

Wedding colors galore!! 

Now remember, these are my wedding colors but don't worry, it will be a classy white wedding with touches and hints of these two colors popping up in different places.

Check out this beautiful sunset on the way to our semi-nightly jumpfit class!

I just wanted to share this pic of my never ending hair! God has blessed me with this much hair to work with forever. My hair is one of my favorite physical assets of me! Now there are some major downfalls of having this much hair and it being so poofy, on multiple occasions I have gotten into the shower and shook my hair to start washing it and have a beetle fall right out onto the shower floor. Yep. During the summer days when I am outside a lot, they like to set up camp in my hair for the day. Aren't I lucky! And man don't even get me started on low shower pressure and 2-in-1 shampoo/conditioners, grrr :(. PEOPLE IT'S NOT CONDITIONER AT ALL!      :)

One cool thing a few weeks ago was Cody and I were able to go to our second drive-in movie ever! We had a blast and got front row seats! Apparently there aren't any speakers and each car had to provide their own with the radio station but I didn't want to risk our car not starting from being on battery for 4 hours. So we got to watch two semi-silent movies!! The experiance was so fun we didnt' even care! The two movies we saw were Pixels and Minions. I do have to say Cody and I may or may not have fallen asleep during the minions movie since it was 2 am so don't ask us about it;).

In preparation for our Texas trip we searched for a good old shady hat. I found this beauty at Dicks Sporting Goods! The sun didn't stand a chance with me! (if you could have only seen how big the hat actually was lol!)

One disappointing thing lately was this selfie stick.

This is my second selfie stick and neither of them ever worked for me :_( I think I have given up on the selfie bandwagon. Too bad I really wanted it to work.

One really really exciting thing/milestone in our engaged lives is Cody coached his first scrimmage as a high school coach! So naturally I had to take pictures!

All the prayers helped tremendously and our prayers were answered! Cody is now student teaching at Farragut High School and coaching on their football team! We just had to wait on God's timing instead of our own. We struggled for this to work out for over half a year! I have never been so proud of my fiance! He is a fantastic coach and has so much knowledge and passion for football. I truly believe he is the next football prodigy, leaving out all biased opinions! He is good! I've never seen anyone his age know just as much and more than most college coaches! (I would know, I come from a family of college coaches) It was so bright that day! Cody also lead the team huddle and called all of the plays!

 Before moving on let me give a quick recognition to this amazing person!

Nana has taken Cody and I in for 3 summers out of the 5 I have been in college and opened the door willingly to her house! She is gracious to let us have the two bedrooms upstairs and be able to store our stuff and cook in her house! She is a saving grace and has such a big heart! Thank you so much Nana! We will remember that forever! Oh and she cooked her famous home-cooked meals for us once a week! We were spoiled!!

Thanks to my dad just last week Cody, me, Morgan, and her boyfriend Edgar took a trip to Texas to stay with dad! My dad got us our plane tickets and planned a packed fun 4 day vacation for us to celebrate the end of my summer research, me and Morgan's classes, and all four of us starting back school again. I was a much needed trip. I feel like with college I haven't done anything these past 4 almost 5 years. I can't wait to get my life back! 

The beginning of our trip started out on Thursday at 3:00pm with 4 hours of driving to the Atlanta airport and a 3 hour flight followed by a 1 hour drive to dad's place. We were exhausted but THRILLED our plane was on time! THANK THE LORD! Morgan and I have had our fair share with airports and flying and know what can happen. But thankfully every single thing went smoothly and the airport was a breeze! I'm traveling at night more often! Cody and Edgar had really never been in an airport or on a plane before so I was so happy to be able to share this first time experience together! (Oh and when the flight attendants say you might want to check your bag because it doesn't look like it's going to fit, check your dang bag people!! Don't be those people who swear their 5 foot bag will fit in the overhead compartments. We had many people in front of us stubborn as ever holding up the line for 30+ minutes because of this. Bottom line folks, use your brain!) 

Here is a little collage of what our Friday consisted of:

Driving to Schlitterbahn water park 

Schlitterbahn was an absolute blast! Even though it took us 5 hours to get 1 hour away we still made the most of our day! (forgot tickets and anything else that could go wrong, we were the Griswalds for the day:)) My favorite ride was an uphill water coaster! We closed the park down at 8:00pm! Wish we could have stayed longer! Oh and only Cody got burned I say that was a success! Only 1/6! Poor Cody.

After the water park we stopped at the Twisted Root restaurant to pick up burgers. This pic reminds me of the sun-burnt windy nights at the beach. I loved it!

We found a t-rex there and had to take a pic.

Look at my handsome man!

Morgan loves her lemonade!

And my daddy!

Dad was sweet enough to buy us all matching tshirts from his company which we visited on Saturday! I love where he works! Bazaar Voice! They were all sized XXL so we had a nice tent lol!

On Saturday morning we had a delicious lunch at a gorgeous restaurant called the Oasis! We used to eat there for special occasions when we lived in Texas. I was so excited to show Cody all of the neat places where I grew up.

Breathtaking view! Even more gorgeous than I remembered.

I found this beautiful horse statue!

And of course they had a football statue!

The rest of Saturday we went sight seeing and showed Cody what real high school football stadiums look like:). He was impressed to say the least.

On Sunday it came time to leave to Knoxville. My dad and his girlfriend Tonya got up early in the morning for us and got the famous Round Rock donuts. The pictures don't do it justice! The yellow on the inside of the donuts, yeah that's the buttery-ness! I could easily eat an entire box!!

Oh and before I forget, we visited Amy's ice cream. We always loved Amy's! It didn't disappoint! They have marble cows to climb on and take a pic so we added one to our past collection of Amy's marble cow pictures.  

We finally got to sit together!! The plane was also on time! We love Delta Airlines!!

The breathtaking view from Cody's window up in the air! It reminds me of God's love for us, never ending!

So now Wednesday rolls around and it is yet again time to move into my apartment. I am in love with my new place! I have finally not gotten the short end of the stick!

Only took us three carts full this year and 1.5 hours to move in! Score!!

I am so grateful for Mom, Morgan, Gigi, Granddad, and Nana to take time out of their busy schedule to help me move in! I am especially grateful for my mom during this new move! I practically begged her the night before to take off of work to come help me! I was desperate and so overwhelmed! I don't think I have ever begged my mom like that but she asked her principal and was able to sneak away for 2 hours! She was such an amazing help just what I needed and I knew she would be!

I finally have a room to myself after 22 years of life! I can't stand being shoved in tight spaces to live with complete strangers so I am ecstatic! Thank the Lord for senior year. (My 5th year go engineering major!)

My wonderful spacious living room with breathtaking views!

Oh and I was second most excited about this, who am I kidding, the whole thing was a surprise! I had such low expectations. I am so happy and blessed! I was thrilled to see this apartment building had a small grocery store!! Just what I needed!

One of the 360 views my place has!!

And a workout room!! Oh my goodness I am so excited for this!!!

Free laundry facilities!!!

And a multi-media room with ping-pong, air hockey, billiards, a tv, and a pool area outside!! I am one happy girl! And Cody is just 30 minutes away opposed to 6 hours and Morgan is 5 streets away! I'm in heaven!!

I don't look forward to this school year at all but I need to pray and have a positive attitude. It is so hard. College has torn my confidence to shreds and walks on the pieces every day. I am NOT a fan. 

One happy thing is in both of my summer classes I made a B!! I am so happy!!! Hard work rarely pays off in college classes but this time it did!

Guess what is happening tomorrow?!?! WEDDING DRESS SHOPPING! Yes the time has finally come and the last of my summer wedding planning is here! I am shopping at Davids bridal with my family and Cody's family tomorrow and I couldn't be more thrilled!! All this eating well and exercising more has really paid off! I have lost a total of 15 pounds this summer!!

Things are moving so fast in life and I am so excited about that! Let me tell you I absolutely can't wait to marry Cody! Whenever we have date nights or just talk, we frequently bring up our married life! Cody and I have been talking about getting married since a year and a half into our dating life.  We always knew that's what we wanted and couldn't wait for the future! I feel like even after 4.4 years of dating I still can't get enough time with him and never will be able to. Which is a good thing! Cody and I LOVE spending time together and sharing every day of our life together. When we get married I can't wait to have our own place to go to and just be together! He is my best friend and truly I can't wait to spend the rest of our lives together. He is such an amazing supporter and listener and helps make me a better person. I feel the most like myself when I am with him. I feel like we are going to have a really really really good life together.

Love, 

Kayla Dyar (Raborn)

P.S.- 295 days left to the wedding!!