A Temple Trip

Some of you may well know that on July 1st of this year, the Atlanta Temple closed for a year and a half of renovations. This makes the temple a little less accessible for us--the nearest one being Birmingham, AL--three and a quarter hours drive from here. Our area has been asked to attend the next closest temple--Columbia, SC--a three and a half hour drive away. After a pretty stressful week at work for the both of us, I felt like we needed to make the drive and attend the temple today. Since we didn't have anything else going on, it worked out perfectly. It was so nice to be in the temple again. I LOVE the small temples. They are so efficient, yet cozy and beautiful all at the same time. I love all the windows, and how each small temple has its own unique theme with the patterns on the stained glass. But aside from the experience of being in the temple, I think the most marvellous part of the day was the drive to the temple. When we go to the Atlanta temple, it takes us about 50 minutes to get there, and we are usually hurrying to make a particular session. We were hurrying today too, but you can only feel so much of a sense of urgency on a 3 1/2 hour drive, especially when you don't recognize the landmarks. It was neat to have a large amount of time to sit and ponder about the temple, to listen to quiet music, and prepare myself spiritually for the experience. I also enjoyed simply being with my husband, playing the alphabet game and laughing and joking with each other. Although it was a long day which involved a LOT of driving, it was completely worth it. I am really looking forward to our next temple trip!!

Trip to Chattanooga

Very last minute I decided we ought to go somewhere and do something for our anniversary. I had visions of sitting a home being bored all weekend (the usual for us), and I just thought we ought to do something memorable. So, Friday morning I booked us a hotel in Chattanooga (only 2 1/2 hours away), and we drove up there after I got off work. The hotel we stayed at was really nice. It was a 3-star hotel that we only stayed in because I got an incredibly good deal on Priceline. The next morning I dragged my husband out of bed and we went to Ruby Falls: a pricy attraction that features an underground waterfall. It was pretty cool though--we enjoyed ourselves. We drove around for a bit after that, ending up at Point Park on the top of Lookout Mountain, the site of the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park. We wandered around there for a while, watched a red ant drag a dead black ant up a 90 degree rock face, walked up and down some stairs and got tired out. After the park we headed back into town for some Sticky Fingers BBQ, which I thought was pretty good. Ben thought it was ok. After a late lunch we headed back to Atlanta, stopping at some outlet stores and buying Ben some much needed new pairs of jeans. We took a small detour through downtown Atlanta, stopping at my favorite ice cream place, Zesto, which is the only place I've found decent soft-serve here. We NEVER get to go there except when we are downtown and only if we get there before it closes. So--it had been a while. By the time we got back, it was nearly 9pm and we were exhausted! But, we had a great time and I'm so glad that we decided to go somewhere for our anniversary. We definitely made some memories what we'll have forever!

Our lovely 3-star hotel room plus a bonus husband!

Us inside the cave at Ruby Falls

The beautiful Ruby Falls

Poor dead black ant. I wonder what the red ant is going to do with him?

Ooooohhh this makes me want more Zesto's soft-serve!!!

First Anniversary

Ben and I are celebrating our first anniversary today! I can't believe it's been a year already. I made the best decision of my life one year ago today and I couldn't be happier!

I'll Do It Later

That's what I think every time I think about blogging lately. I've just not had the blogging bug! Time to get over it, I guess. Or rather, time to get it, again.

Things around here have been hot hot hot. No really--the weather is hot! I finally went out this morning and bought myself a pair of capris so I wouldn't die of heat outside in my jeans.

My family is here in town this week. Well, my parents and my brother Matthew. I worked Monday and Tuesday and now I'm off the rest of the week. Hallelujah!!! My brother is off work today so we're going with them up to Canton, GA to have lunch with some cousins. My landlords are so nice--they let us use the rest of the basement so my parents can stay there while they are here visiting. It works out perfectly. The only thing is, I can't seem to keep my kitchen from getting cluttered up with everyone's stuff and it's driving me nuts!

I can't believe it's almost the 4th of July. Ben and I will be celebrating our 1-year anniversary in about 11 days. It's hard to believe we've been married for a year already. It's flown by, but it's been a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to many more fun, happy years, and a family too, hopefully!

A couple of weeks ago we had a "Southern Family Reunion" for our ward. Lawrenceville Ward was formed 20 years ago, so we had a lovely activity which featured myself, my husband, and our friend Shellie singing "Man of Constant Sorrow" from O\O Brother, Where Art Thou. We were really crazy and weird and so everyone loved it. I wish I'd had someone take pictures. Yeah--we were THAT good ;)

In other news, I bought some basil plants that I repotted and put outside. They are growing beautifully, but I have to water them just about every other day. It's so nice to have fresh basil any time I want it. I can't wait until we have our own place and I can have a real garden!