Solid Weekend

Today I'm thankful because:

1. We were able to go to Tuscaloosa Saturday to watch Alabama play, as well as visit with good friends.

2. I think we can make good friends in our Sunday School class. There are good people there, and they're very friendly and generous too. They're practically strangers, yet several of them have offered their help, trucks, even painting supplies for our move. That's Christian love.

3. Yesterday Z and I decided to join the church we've been visiting for a few months.

4. Last night we rented movies and had a nice, relaxing end to the weekend.

5. Today we met with our lady at the mortgage company to go over some more paperwork and discuss, well, a bunch of boring crap. She kind of gets on our nerves.


This weekend was busy, but fun. All last week, Z and I hadn't really been feeling good. Not terribly ill, just sort of yucky. So Friday evening, after we got in from work, both of us fell sound asleep for about 3 or 4 hours. We got up later that night and just lounged around, neither one of us feeling like doing anything.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early to go to Tuscaloosa. That's slightly more than 2 hours away from us now, so we had to leave with plenty of time. The drive was relatively smooth (lots of traffic though), but when we got in town, and specifically on campus, we noticed that our regular parking places were all roped off or blocked with traffic cones. So we drove around and around until finally we gave up and parked about a gajillion miles away. By this time it was about 12:30 and HOT. We stopped as soon as we saw porta-potties (we had been in the car for a long time), and I opened the door on a man who was peeing. He just laughed and said, "I never lock these things." Why in the world not? The green on the outside means "come on in." Anyway, we had quite a distance to hike until reaching the quad where we were meeting up with my old work friends. By the time we got there, I was feeling weird but really hungry. Z got me a bottle of water and we both ate a hotdog from my old company's tailgating tent. Then I felt really bad. I got sort of queasy and dizzy and light headed. I sat down on a cooler, but had to get up each time someone wanted a drink out of it. So finally I sat down on the ground against a tree (very dangerous on the quad on game day) because I felt like I would faint if I had to stand any longer.

Eventually, it was time to go meet another friend who had our tickets. We walked over to the stadium to meet him and get our tickets. Then we quickly moved inside because I felt downright horrible. We found our seats, but they were in the north end zone and weren't destined to be in the shade until after half time. It was SO HOT and I felt completely crappy. By the time the shade finally reached our section though, I felt 100% better, so I suppose I was just overheated. I get that from my mother.

After the game, we walked back to my ex-company's tent to get 2 cokes before our long trek back to the car. It was almost completely dark by the time we reached the car. We headed over to our good friend C's apartment after that. She had made a casserole and mashed potatoes for us, and we had a good time visiting with her, but we were so hot and sticky, and we had such a long drive back to Prattvegas, that we couldn't stay long at all.

We got back home and showered immediately then fell asleep hard. Sunday morning we went to Sunday School and church, and we decided to go ahead and join the church. We'd been visiting for a few months now, and we both like it, and we're both ready to get involved in a church family again. It's difficult for me though because I'm Methodist, and it's a Baptist church. The differences aren't huge or horrible, but there are differences, and it was a more emotional experience for me than I thought it would be. I will have to be baptized again because the Baptist church does not recognize infant baptism. That is an extremely touchy subject for me, but the bottom line is that we're all Christians, and I know in my heart what I believe and feel. After the service, lots of very friendly people came up to speak with us and welcome us to the church. That's one of the first things we liked about that church – the people are just the right amount of nice. Not too pushy, not too stand-offish. Just perfect.

After church, we drove over to the lake house to see if they'd put up the "Sold" sign yet. They had, and I made Z take my picture next to it. We only got that picture and one of me at the front door before the batteries in my camera went dead. So, even though we saw more beautiful Canadian geese, I again didn't get a picture of them.

After that we went back home and took a nap. I am not ashamed – I love and cherish my Sunday afternoon nap. I get that from my mother too. Anyway, we completely skipped lunch because of the nap, but I guess I still wasn't feeling great because I didn't have an appetite anyway. In the late afternoon we went to the movie rental store and got two movies – Forgetting Sarah Marshall and The Heartbreak Kid. We came back home and Z grilled steaks while I cooked French fries, macaroni and cheese, and green beans. Then we ate and watched the first movie. It was funny, but wow there were a lot of full-frontal male scenes. You don't usually see a lot of those… Also, during the movie and after it, I did 5 loads of laundry. That's what happens when you have a whole sick week – lots of laundry piles up. I'm glad there's an actual laundry room in the lake house, so it won't be in a tiny closet off the tiny kitchen like it is now in our apartment.

I really want to have a party at our new home once we move in. It's not that I want a house-warming party, although lots of people have asked me about that. It's just that I really miss all my friends and family. It's been since the wedding that we've seen some of them, and that makes me very sad. I just hope we can get in gear quickly enough to get walls painted, our stuff in and organized, and then have people celebrate with us. The house is painted very nicely in a pretty color, but it's just that all the walls are the same color, so we want to paint a few rooms. We'll probably leave the living room and hall bathroom and one bedroom that color. But I think we want to paint the kitchen, dining room, master bedroom and master bath. We'll see – that will get kind of expensive.