Mango Lips

my sister moved to honduras 3 years ago, and one of the things she loved to do was pick fresh mangos off the trees and eat them with the kids...turned out she was allergic to mangos.

she emailed this to me to today in hopes of making me laugh - which i did. liz, don't hate me for this.

It's Been a Good Six Years

i have had the luxury of not ever really having to move the past 6 years. that is virtually unheard of seeing as how during the last 6 years i was in college, graduated, got a job, got married, etc. we bought the house that we live in from the 'rents because they bought it for me and my sister when we came to college. its not much. a typical 1960's house. but its got character. and a lot of love has gone into it. my sister and i along with carol, mandy, and jamie changed it into a great college girl house. we had some amazing times in that house. then me and david made it a home. toned down some of the brightly colored rooms and made it "us."

we also took on some huge projects that i liken to labor (like, having a baby) in that, no matter how painful and miserable we were, afterwards we seemed to forget about the bad and moved onto the next miserable project. some of these include ripping up all the carpet upstairs and refinishing hardwoods in the middle of summer (when, a few days in, our ac gave out and we almost died of heat stroke and fumes). then we remodeled the kitchen. we thought we could get this done a week before david's family came to town for christmas. we may have been able to pull this off, but we will never know because two days before his family's arrival i contracted rotavirus from the baby i was keeping and spent the entire christmas visit in bed. then came the painting the exterior of the house. not only did i get bit by a black widow spider during this process (of course david was out of town so i spent one night horribly sick by myself and the next two days on my friend, leigh anne's, couch so that if i died, there would be a witness) but after three weeks of excruciating heat we outsourced the work to our friend dan in exchange for some drum shells. that is only a fraction of what we have been through together. but now, it is time to move on.

it is sad. so much of our history as a couple is in this house. but we are beyond ready to leave auburn. so here's to good times and more to be had. 

Moving On

as some of you probably know, dave and i have spent the last 2 years here in auburn working for grace campus ministries (better known as "encounter"). it has been an amazing two years. we have had the time of our lives working with gcm and wouldn't trade it for anything. we were a family and we shared the good and the bad together. granted, we started out with way more steam - graduating, living with all of our friends, basically living the college life just working instead of going to class. towards the end, it got a little harder for me...first my sis and bro-in-law moved to birmingham. then courtney and mckenzie moved (first their separate ways and then following a short sabatical back in auburn, to austin). and there tends to be a trend when your married that people assume that you are always busy or doing it, so they don't go out of their way to hang out - so that took care of all the other girls i still had in town. basically, i wanted to be anywhere but here. auburn became way too small and i felt way too old. (thank you to leigh anne for keeping me sane during this time).

then there was just the basic state of life in auburn. i've already pointed out that we live in a college town and meeting, getting married and staying in the same small town was hard. we have been in this limbo knowing that we weren't going to stay for long but not knowing where we were going afterwards. we still have our cars insured and registered in two separate states in case we moved back to texas. we have never felt settled. every decision we have ever made has been followed up with a "well what if we wind up...." its amazing that you can live in a place for 6 years and it never feels like home. well, no more.

we finally have a clue. after a depressing job search that led us to the conclusion that it truly is all in who you know, we finally figured out that we know some of the coolest people. so it looks like we are headed to atlanta (a place i have said i would never want to live). but the fact that its east atlanta is the only reason i'm up for it. david got a job with matchstic - this great design firm. this is how it goes: my friend josh (who works for abryanphoto, started my bryan johnson) knew of an opening at matchstic (started by craig johnson - bryan's brother - along with blake howard ). so begins the emailing. and now we have a job. and turns out, the guy david will be working for is dustin britt - another guy i went to high school with...small world.

a few months ago, i was talking to my friend courtney garrettwho has finally been able to work full time as an artist. and i was just saying how happy it makes me to hear of people who are doing what they love, because i feel so often that our parents' generation is so practical, they miss out on all things that they love to do. anyway, my point is, when we got the job description for this we looked at each other and said "this is it." this is david's opportunity to do what he is so good at and something he really wants to do - not something he has to do because he has to take care of me and pay bills, etc. and these guys are so awesome. to work for a company that values their employees and their families is rare and it is an honor to be a part of it.

so now that i have gotten through the serious stuff, here is the top 8, bottom 4 of moving to atlanta:

top 8:
1. getting to be in a town with old, fun friends
2. knowing that maybe, just maybe i could run into usher
3. being in the same town as david's sister
4. having stores other than target and old navy
5. as a result, saving a ton on shipping from online shopping
6. david can still ride the scooter to work
7. basically, anything we ever didn't do because it involved driving to atlanta, we can do now
8. ikea


bottom 4:
1. losing the free place to stay on game weekends
2. buying a georgia tag and as a result everyone in surrounding states assuming that you are a terrible driver
3. being surrounded by georgia and braves fans
4. ikea