round trip

this weekend we drove to alabama so i could attend my cousin ashley's bridal tea sunday. on the way down saturday, we got to have lunch with our college friends luke & julia. luke just returned from kosovo after a year of military duty. i know he must be so glad to be reunited with his wife & baby daughter, carrigan! (she was at her grandparents' for the day here.)we went to church on sunday, and my grandmother proceeded to introduce me & christopher [read: show us off] to no less than 20 or so of her friends. keep in mind this is at a church where that probably comprises 20% of the congregation! we went to the bridal tea shortly after church, while the men went to lunch. it's funny, because there was actually no tea involved. it was basically a shower. except it felt more like a reception. our gifts were opened discreetly by the hostesses and displayed on several tables for all to see while everyone mingled and ate. i think this is how things are done in small southern towns. it was fun to meet some of ashley's other bridesmaids that i will be seeing more of over the next two months. here i am with the beautiful bride, her mother (aunt jenny), and our grandmother. grandmother is wearing the same dress that she wore to her & daddy buck's 50th wedding anniversary (they are now going on 63 years!) and to mine & christopher's wedding. on the way back through atlanta, we got to have dinner with our good friends wes & blakely. we enjoyed little szechuan while their sweet boys, ashton & collin played. soon it was their bedtime and ashton was in his little monkey pj's. i asked him if i could have a hug and he said "yeah, sure!" they are both so sweet! it really works out well that many of our friends living in atlanta are in the perfect path for us to meet up with on our way through town. we love greenville, but we do miss our atlanta friends!

blessings

i heard a quote once: nothing happens, and nothing happens, and then everything happens. we had a period of about a week-and-a-half like this last month. first, we found out christopher was promoted to lead engineer! in case you're wondering, he does still work on the hot gas path. while this isn't as hilarious as the first time i heard it, it still strikes me as kind of funny. the next big thing that happened was that i also got a promotion at my job! my new role will start next month as a mental health counselor II. (as opposed to a mental health counselor I; the government is very creative with their titles.) and then, the biggest news of all was that we made an offer on a house, and the sellers accepted!! in a few weeks, we will be calling this home:eva is going to have fun running around in the backyard! we are so thankful for all three of these blessings. God is good!