Alive.

Moving. The 4th. Friends. Family. Life.
Wow. It has been a while.
We were supposed to have internet starting on the 2nd but due to some silly complications with at&t we still do not have it. I guess this is a good excuse to take advantage of the local coffee shop and get out of the house. There is so much to update on I don't even know where to start! Forgive me ahead of time for this post being scattered. (nothing new.)
We moved into our house this past weekend & life has been going 100mph since then. My family came up Friday to help us move in which was quite the blessing. I'm not sure we could have done it without them. My mom, Emma, & I painted while the boys did all the heavy lifting. Now, 5days later we still have boxes to unpack but it's all coming together. It feels nice to not live out of a suitcase.
While half the weekend was filled with moving, the other half was spent just hanging out with friends and family. Our good friends Sara and Jonathan came up on Saturday to hang out in Chattanooga/celebrate the fourth of July weekend. This is the 2nd year we have spent the 4th together and I think it is officially our little tradition. We spent the day swimming at my parents hotel downtown and all went to dinner with Jess and her mom that night.
On Sunday night Jess, Logan, Matthew, and I watched fireworks from the bridge downtown. It's good having friends so close. It's amazing what a little community will do to your spirit.
I'm going to try and space photos out over a few posts but here are some I took on my phone this past weekend! Another update coming soon! (the next time I can get somewhere to use the internet.)

Mountains.

Life Update:
Last night we got the opportunity to swim & eat dinner at one of Logan's friends house. To say the home has an amazing view would be an understatement. They live out in the middle of nowhere on top of the Tennessee mountains.  I'm so amazed at Gods creation. Tennessee is gorgeous.
Today I'm doing my job of job searching. Everytime I look at jobs I feel more & more unqualified to do things. I feel like the only thing I learned in school was random information. (Which I did enjoy, just can't do anything with.) Not trying to be negative just honest. I'l find a job in just the right time right?
Tomorrow we finally get to move into our house! I couldn't be more excited. My parents, my brother Wesley, and his wife Emma are coming to help us move in. It's going to be a fun weekend.
I cannot believe it is already Independence day weekend? June slipped away quickly that's for sure.
Here are just a few pictures from last night. Side note: You can see North Carolina in the background. Also, Matthew looks like a flamingo but he's just kicking a ball. Thought I should clarify ;)

Sketch.

Have you seen odosketch? :) 
So fun. I know what I'll be doing this afternoon. 

Tennessee.

bike rides. friends. river.

just a few things that went along with our first week in Tennessee. 

Summer.

happy first day of summer! 
I started today with a bike ride.
This afternoon I'm job searching (boring) & eating lots of watermelon.
We may celebrate with a swim tonight.
Good thing summer makes everything more fun.
(photo via here.)

Beginnings.

It has been a long and emotionally exhausting few days. We left Texas on Friday and made the 12 1/2 hour drive to my hometown in Alabama. We spent the night with my family and Saturday headed to Tennessee. I decided yesterday that Texas has the best roads anywhere in the united states. I know that is saying a lot. I guess I'll trade the beauty of north Alabama and east Tennessee for the roads any day. I never had any doubt about moving but the logistics of it all took some of the fun away. The stress and nervousness slowly drifted away as I drove through the Tennessee mountains while listening go Coldplay's 'Strawberry Swing'. I knew then that it was all going to be worth it.
Saturday night we started our time here with a celebration. We had dinner with old and new friends in Chattanooga at the Terminal. After that, we sat at a yogurt place by the river to watch fireworks from the Riverbend music festival going on. I don't think we could have started our time here any better.


Today Matthew started his new job. This means I am supposed to be looking for a job. So, today that it's what I am doing. Drinking a coconut latte, doing a little job searching, maybe go on a bike ride (j has a path right in front of her house), and spending much needed time with the Lord.


Matthew said about a year ago that he didn't want to be in Texas very long. I can say that he is a man of his word and didn't waste anytime getting out. So, Matthew I am so proud of you, we did it.
We are spending the 1st week & 1/2 with my best friend until we can move into our house. My wardrobe has now increased greatly. Thanks j ;) Hooray for new beginnings.
Ps. Yesterday was our 6 month anniversary. I cannot believe it has been that long.


'I remember we were walking up to strawberry swing, I can't wait 'til the morning, Wouldn't wanna change a thing, People moving all the time inside a perfectly straight line, Don't you wanna just curve away, When it's such It's such a perfect day, It's such a perfect day. Now the sky could be blue, I don't mind, Without you it's a waste of time, Could be blue I don't mind, Without you it's a waste of time.' -coldplay

Makeover.

As you can see here the blog has gone through quite the makeover. What do you think? I still have a few things to fix. I'm not sure why the 'labels' are in the wrong place. Who knows. I'll figure it out.

We ran out of boxes yesterday and have to get more. We are very close to being done so this is a good excuse for us to play today.

Here is my ideal day:
Breakfast date with Matthew while we spend time with Jesus.
Go get feather hair extensions. (Yes, I'm totally giving into the trend. Eveytime a girl walked in our store with them in I got jealous.)
We may take another trip to IKEA so I can show Matthew a rug. (I know he is thrilled about that one. Hehe.)
It will be 100 degrees today so swimming is in there somewhere.
And we are ending the night out with Matthew's parents at Blue Goose. (A mexican restaurant.)

Move countdown: 4 days!

Cactus.

Just five random things:
1. Check out the awesome Cactus plant I bought today. Good thing they are low maintenance because she will be our little travel buddy come this weekend. 2. One thing I will miss about this area is how EXTREMELY nice, new, and convenient everything is. Seriously every store you could ever dream of is within a 5 mile radius of each other. This is good & bad. I did end up going to IKEA. Apparently everyone likes to go there on Sundays. It was packed. I guess its okay because it led me to not buy as much as I could. I wanted to get out of there. 3. Our house is a wreck. It was foolish of me to think that I could pack up our 600 sq. ft apartment in a orderly fashion. I am determined to get it done by tomorrow. 4. Ulta called me today and wanted to know if I was still coming in to get my hair and makeup done. Ha. I dunno why this was so funny to me.  Considering I have not worn the slightest bit of make-up in a week they have the wrong person. 5. I bought pretzel M&M's today for the first time in a long time. It annoys me that they only put like 5 pieces in a bag & call it a serving. It's never enough. Anyone else know what I'm talking about?
Again, this is just another random post this week.
Move countdown: 5 days.

Packing.

Today I did a whole lot of packing. At the rate I'm going I'll be done tomorrow night. It feels good to have something accomplished. The move still doesn't feel real but seeing boxes all over our living room is helping. Matthew is feeling a little better. He did sleep almost the entire day today. His mom got me the magazines in the picture to keep me occupied so I don't go crazy hanging out here. I already have a few home ideas from one of them. The other picture is of a map we got while we were in Austin. We thought it would be cool if we had a map of every state we live in. This is the first in the collection. I'm excited to hang in in our new house.

Tomorrow I may take a trip to IKEA. We literally live like 10 minutes away from it. I know that will never happen again so I have to take advantage of it while its there.
Anyways, this is just a late night random post.
P.S. Have I mentioned Fleet Foxes Pandora station is awesome? It's been out go to this week.