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!

surprise visit

julia called me this afternoon at work to say she & luke would be going to north carolina this evening to get a new car and they realized they'd be passing right through greenville. so on their way back, they came & shared pizza with us while we watched the last of the tech game. here's the sweet gurley family, with precious carrigan - and eva. so good to see them!

doggies, weddings, and babies

three of my favorite things! first, we celebrated eva's first birthday this week with her first bandana that i found online at pawsh pooch, a doggie boutique by two women in kennesaw. i also found some peanut-butter flavored frozen dog treats near the ice cream in the grocery store. eva seemed to love it! we recommend putting it in a dog bowl, not a saucer (which is what the box shows) because as she licked it, it fell off the sides!

we went to atlanta for part of the long weekend for kaitlin & wallace's wedding and the first gt football game of the season. i'll let christopher tell you about the football...the wedding was beautiful. here are linda, angela, & me with the bride: our favorite campus minister, jamey, was the officiant. it was great to see him, and we miss him and his family a lot!we enjoyed staying with some tech friends, angela & joseph. they have a black lab named dixie that eva enjoyed playing with. chris & i got to meet luke & julia's baby, carrigan for the first time. she is around 6 months old and looks just like a tiny female version of luke. we also got to stop by for a visit with the yorks. it's hard to believe their son, ashton, is already one!

atlanta weekend

chris and i had a great weekend visiting some dear friends in atlanta. friday night, we ate at los hermanos with the yorks and stayed with them that night. they didn't mind us bringing eva, and we were glad for the chance to get her more socialized. other than a little barking at first, she did great around their dog, haley and their sweet 7-month-old son, ashton. it helps that haley is one of the most laid-back dogs i know (she's in a category with the droddys' dog lucy). turns out ashton is fascinated by dogs. he was so cute to watch playing with them! later the sullivans dropped by and brought their dog, georgie. i wish i had a picture of the three of them sniffing each other! chris assures me that smelling behinds is equivalent to shaking hands for dogs. blakely also let me feed ashton, which was fun. on saturday, we hung out with the gurleys. chris watched some baseball with luke while i went with julia to her baby shower thrown by our old church, mt. vernon. it was great to get to spend time with her and see many of our old friends from sunday school. how cute are these dresses? the gurleys got a surprise yesterday when julia went into labor a month early. carrigan hope was born at a little over 5 pounds but was healthy, praise God! here's a picture they sent out to the sunday school class. i think julia looks amazing to have just been in labor!