m e a d o w l a r k

hi ya’ll from tennessee…wil and i are actively reading the blog- happy to see it has some traffic again! our life seems to be abnormally busy right now; work has consumed both of our lives the last couple months. summer definitely went by so fast that it didn’t feel like summer.

i wanted to hop on here and let you all know that there actually is a way to have your post categorized with your name (someone mentioned it in a past comment). it has been set up since the beginning, but i don’t know if it was ever mentioned in any of the tutorials for anyone to know!

when you write a post, you’ll notice 6 or 7 blue categories on the right…if you hit the little plus sign (+) on the “categories” section, it will show a list of all the participants in the blog. when you write your post, you’ll click the box next to your name and unclick the box that says general. not only will it show your name at the beginning of your post when published, it will keep all of the posts sorted by category so someone can go click “chuck” on the main page and see all the posts chuck wrote.

i can include a little picture of it when i get home to give you a visual of that list…i can’t upload pictures at the moment. i’ve tried to go in as people write their posts and change the categories myself, but i’ve gotten behind with all this activity!

thanks, kristen

well, as of yesterday, wil and i became official first time home owners.
if you hadn’t heard, not even two months ago, wil and i made the decision to buy a house, we looked for about a week, found one we loved, put an offer and waited till escrow closed!

not knowing what to expect, the process was interesting- fun, exciting, nervewracking, stressful, to say the least. it was fast…we were always on the next step (our goal was to be able to move out by august 1st, so that we could offer our condo as a place to rent for nearby design students or whomever.). we did hit a few bumps along the way, especially nearing the end, though. had some issues with the underwriter in the last moments of escrow that wil wonderfully handled, while i bit my nails in the background not knowing what the heck was going on. the back and forth paperwork for the loan was much more difficult than we anticipated, and with a stubborn underwriter, we had to continually push the day of closing back, causing it to fall on a day that i was out of town and wil was expected to meet with the upper management at work for their monthly meetings. jeesh!

but it’s done! we have the keys and the garage door openers (we’re pretty excited about not parking outside anymore) so i guess it’s official! since we leave for hawaii tomorrow, all the moving will happen when we get back. we plan on doing some fun stuff to the place too- tile in some bathrooms, new kitchen cabinets and counters, new furniture. woohoo!
here’s our new home- 300 harwich court, nashville:

come visit us!

well the fresh words inspired me to write a post, and come to think of it, i don’t know if i personally have written anything on here. it’s due time to pass on some updates about me and wil.

as leila said, wil made it through the hoops to become an assistant manager…about a week ago he received in the mail an official offer in a formal letter and packet of information. god continues to financially provide for us more than we’d ever imagine at this point. in may/june we will both be earning salaries and we are very excited and thankful! at this time he will also move to his new store- a newer store with a drive thru a few more miles beyond his store now. both he and i and are not crazy about his new store (yet)- he is getting used to the drive thru, the difference in customers and unfamiliar coworkers. i’ll need to get used to the new location, the new coworkers to befriend, and the completely different atmosphere when i come to visit. we have made some good friends at his current store- hopefully those relationships won’t strain when we don’t see them as often.

our baby gracie continues to grow…we haven’t been able to weigh her for some time but about a month ago (the last time wil could barely pick her up) she was hovering around 100 pounds. both wil and i know that she’s gained much more weight since- filling into a more adult, solid, massive stature. and, eating dinner on the table is interesting for us- with her back taller than the table, it’s not too much of a struggle for her to rest her head next to your plate to see what you’re eating. : ) even with her getting so big, she is still very much a puppy at times. we are really loving getting outside more with her- evening walks and bark park visits.

the weather has been beyond perfect for the last couple weeks here (70’s-80’s)… in a few minutes i will have officially skipped my tuesday class just because it was too nice this morning to sit in a classroom for two hours. the first set of flowering trees are actually mostly gone, but the dogwoods (my favorite), are in full bloom. it hasn’t rained much yet, but even without the precipitation, everything is starting to feel so lush and green. i can speak for both wil and i when i say we will dearly miss the tennessee seasons.

as for school (where i ought to be at this moment), i only have about 4 weeks left for the rest of my life! graduation is the second weekend in may, and only in the past few days have i come to the realization of how soon it will be upon me. i know, i should be in class, but when you’re this close to the end of the senior year (and forever), all you’re previous standards of attendance kind of go wacky. i have a hard time caring about the two classes i am in right now; it’s good to not be stressed my last semester, but i feel bad for my teachers’ sakes…they’re only getting about 30% of my brain this term.

daily life isn’t very different for us…work, eat, oogle over gracie, drink coffee, play on the computers, watch movies, hang out at starbucks, and such. once may rolls around we will have gone crazy: lots of family coming in for my graduation, then straight off to europe for 11 days, then to oregon for a blink to laura’s graduation, and then breathe for a second before heading to hawaii. we’ll really be reaching the opposite ends of the earth in only a few months! we can’t wait for all our trips and to see the people we love so dearly. hope you are all well!

wil and i got back from a wild and crazy weekend in vegas. ok, so maybe pretty tame compared to most who go to vegas.

celebrating my 21st (friday), my mom’s 50th (shhh…oct) as well as a slew of other birthdays around the same time, the entire family and then some met in las vegas for a long weekend. we gambled (a lot!), danced, drank (a little), played pool, threw darts, watched a usc game, saw the sites, and basically had a great time with such a big group together, that doesn’t usually see each other all at the same time except for weddings and funerals.

we had some big perks, besides just the birthdays. although losing some money the first night, wil and i both had a pretty lucky night at the black jack table before coming home, actually getting us back to almost even! (i’d say that’s pretty good compared to losing it all). some of the younger generation went to a couple nightclubs, and on the last night at a really awesome club at the newest most expensive hotel on the strip, we saw britney spears and paris hilton! and of course, with my side of the family, usc winning against cal is always a plus.

unfortunately i started the trip off sick so i was fighting the battle against and cold/sore throat all weekend, but otherwise, wil and i really enjoyed ourselves. we spent just enough time to step out of reality and experience the city, but not enough so that there’s more to do on later trips. here’s a photo of us on friday at the house we all stayed in (my first legal night!). also, i wrote a longer post on our site, simpleclosure.org