Mayo y Junio

Somewhere in between packing, moving and unpacking, I forgot to recap May.  So here is May and June in a nutshell!

May was a big month.  It was the climax of something we’d been anticipating for quite some time – - moving.   Well, and Marissa would probably like us to say that her 16th birthday was pretty important, too!   Seriously, though, it was good to be able to drive down to Alabama and help her celebrate.  But for the most part, May was devoted to getting this move done.

June was pretty awesome.  We finally got to see Coldplay.  (Insert a choir “ah” right about… here).  And we were able to have some friends over to help celebrate our new home.  Our church went on a retreat, and I got to experience rafting for the first time.  This is a must-do-again activity.  Oh, yes!  We were also able to go back to Illinois the last weekend in June to see dear friends get married.  It’s always a joy to attend a beautiful wedding like that.  And to see old friends and family is simply icing on the cake.

Man, what a great couple months.  And looking at them both condensed into two very small and precise paragraphs makes me realize how much we had on the calendar and wonder how it all got done!  But it did.  And I’m sure July will look very similar.

We Joined the Bandwagon: IKEA

Yes, we did it.  We finally went to IKEA.  We were headed over to Gainesville, Georgia, to spend the holiday weekend with some of Jeff’s AIM coworkers, and we stopped in Atlanta at IKEA.  It was an experience.  We were amazed at some of the “how to live in 300 square feet” exhibits.  In fact, I think there were a couple Jeff was ready to move in to. 

We were on the hunt for a few random household items and keeping our eyes out for a new dining room table.  While we did not find a table, we did find some bargains, mainly new glasses and a floor lamp and a few other things.  I don’t know that IKEA is some place I would make a special trip for again (at least, not until I get a house and have more need for, say bookcases, couches, or kitchen cabinets!), but I would stop by one, if it’s convenient.  Oh, and for their chocolate.  So good! (And no, we did not eat all that chocolate.  Most of it is to give away.)

So after that exciting adventure, we headed to Gainesville.  Jeff took me to this place called Little Italy for pizza.  Until Friday, it was merely a name I saw every time I balanced our checkbook while Jeff was in Georgia (they frequent it regularly), and I drooled over the sound of the place. Upon tasting, I was pleased.  I personally liked their Neapolitan, which is their thin-sliced pizza.  We got just plain cheese, and it was deliciously seasoned.  Two slices of that would’ve been plenty for the two of us.  We also split one piece of the other (can’t remember what it’s called).  It has very thick crust, and we got pepperoni.  It was ok, but not as tasty as the cheese… or as healthy.

That night we played cards for a while woth our hosts, before calling it a night.  The next morning we woke up and prepared for a day out on the lake.  There were four of us families that hung out between two boats, and we packed a great meal to BBQ for supper.  It was a beautiful day to be on the lake, even with our minor boat issues.  Who new a trim, a piston and a flywheel could be so important and difficult!  And to be able to see the fireworks from the lake, right over our heads, was amazing.  Gainesville has one beautiful fireworks display, and I think they had some of the largest fireworks I’ve ever seen!

Besides the fireworks, my favorite part of the night had to be the dance party.  After the fireworks, a few on the boat started up a dance party to the 80’s rock music playing over the pontoon’s speakers.  It was hilarious.  I think I had more fun watching then I would have had actually dancing.  Oh!  And I can’t forget a “first,” which was watching some of the group crash a party.

Yes, I said crash a party.

You see, there are houses all around the lake.  And you would not believe some of the houses we spotted.  Beautiful and ginormous.  Huge.  Ridiculous.  Well, one house in particular was apparently having a party and was playing music so loud all afternoon, that no boat on the lake surrounding that house needed to play their own music.  It was that loud.  Really loud.  After the fireworks, we noticed that it changed to live music.  It was a couple guys with guitars, and at one point, a fiddle.  I don’t know how serious the suggestion was to crash the party, but by the time Clint (the driver of the pontoon, who is also quite the daring fellow) got his boat over to this house’s dock, there was seriously a group of four willing to crash it.  So up they went, up this beautiful, white, lantern lit, wooden staircase that climbed the side of the cliff.  We watched as the party sent a herd of people to meet them on the steps.  I thought our group was going to get ambushed and thrown over, but instead we saw them walk on up with the other group.  They mingled for a bit, and came back down.  Even though we didn’t get an official invitation to bring the rest of our group up, they did offer those daring four some homemade peach ice cream.  I don’t know much about party crashing, but I guess not getting thrown out and experiencing some sort of hospitality is a semi-success.

Puppy {Love}

Welp, this past weekend we made the long (and I literally mean long this time, thank you Nashville traffic!) trek back to Illinois.  The reason why we were in town was for a wedding of our college friends.  We always look forward to these sort of things, because we love it when two people, who the Lord brought together, get married.  And we also love seeing all of our other college friends that come to celebrate. 

This time was no exception.  Jenn and Curtis are very dear friends, and they’re together all because of us. Well, ok, not really but kind of.  You see, they say it was the magic at our wedding that made them realize they liked each other.  While I’m glad our wedding could evoke such emotions, we really didn’t do anything.  We are so glad the Lord brought these two to each other.  It was so great to hear stories about their relationship, because unfortunately, we really haven’t been able to know them as a couple.  But we love them dearly as friends and are so incredibly happy they’ve found love.

    

While in Illinois, we took advantage of the opportunity to see my brother preach.  Ahron still has his youth nights on Sunday nights, so we were able to help lead worship, play a great game of wiffle ball in which the adults totally schooled the kids (and the two girls smashed it out of the “park”), and hear Ahron give a great message about forgiveness.  Afterwards, we headed out to the drive-in, one of my favorite things to do, and took in Transformers.  For pure entertainment value, I thought it was good.  However, I realize to those who know more about Transformers, it’s not so great.

 

I also spent lots of time with Gary, the closest thing I will have to a nephew anytime soon.  Ahron just brought him home two weeks ago, and this little puppy will entertain you for hours.  Assuming my role as the spoiler, I bought him two Kongs, a puppy sized one and a big dog sized one (Gary is almost all lab).  The beauty of these things is that you put peanut butter inside of them.  Heck, I’d chew on a chew toy if it had peanut butter inside of it, too!  It took Gary a bit to realize what was going on, but once he did, he wore his poor little tongue out until he got every bit he could.  Do you think these things would work on children?

Spending so much time with Gary was delightful, including the pee greeting he excitedly gave me.  But it also made me realize, as I was yelling at him to not chew on Mom’s lace table cloth and rugs and watched him pee right in front of my mom as she was trying to take him outside, that even though I want a puppy… maybe I could go with a bit older puppy, one that at least recognizes his own name.  Regardless, what a joy he is, and the stories Ahron and Mom had to tell about him kept us laughing for quite some time.

"Stop taking pictures of me already!"