Birthdays, Mountains, Beaches, and Green Cards!

It's another gray morning in Mansfield this week, and while Michael is getting his much needed "lie in" I figured its about time to force myself to update this thing!

The last few months have been a lot of fun! We are most definitely settled in, and I'm pretty sure the honeymoon period is over. Actually, if i'm being honest with myself, it ended after our two month "anniversary." Since then we've been functioning as a couple who's been married for approximately 42 years. :) But I think its safe to say we love each other more every day, and I'm so grateful for every incidence that makes me realize that.

Let's go back to where we left off, shall we? My last post was April 20 (wow...I suck at blogging). To make this bearable for everyone to read, because blogging about 4 months of life would be a bore to anyone, I'll post a few pictures with some details about what we did. :)


On April 25th we went to Aaron's 4th brithday party. It was a Dora and Diego theme. And it made me think...maybe this year I'll opt for a themed birthday party. They just look like they're so much more fun. :) The kids played in the sprinklers and the adults (ha, thats me and Michael too!) sat around the table and talked and laughed. Ah, married life! :)








Michael got in on some of the action with the cake toppers.







And on an unrelated topic, I tried out a new hairstyle. Bangs! (or fringe, for our English readers). I got so many mixed reviews - initially they didnt like it, but then it grew on them, etc - that they have now grown out past my nose. Still not sure If I'm ever gonna go back there...




In June we celebrated Michael's 24th birthday! (It hurts a little that I'm going to have to suffer through all the milestone birthdays before him.) On a side note, almost everytime we go through a door Michael feels the needs to hold the door open for me (yes, very nice) and then add "age before beauty." >:( Back to the birthday fun: There isnt a terrible lot to do around these parts, so we went to Stone Mountain!

At the top of the mountain:

Then, we went to dinner at Joe's Crab Shack. Michael, to the best of his memory(which isn't good) had never had crab before! Since my family LOVES crab legs, he really didn't get much of a choice in where we went. (That and my parents paid for us, so really it was their choice :) )

The waitress made him hold his tongue and sing happy birthday to himself before he could get his cake. :) I think Sara has it on video...






I wanted to get him an Arsenal cake, but sadly, we don't do cake decorations for that over here, so I settled for red and yellow. Tho, I guess this season it would be red and blue....


After dinner and cake, we went back to stone mountain for the laser show. Sadly, I dont have any pictures to post because, well, fast moving lights don't exactly photgraph well.


Well, that sums up June! In July we had our family reunion in North Carolina. We took some family photos....







Here are some random snapshots of our week in the mountains!






Some crazy big catfish at Field of the Woods.






Amazing view from somebody else's cabin :)




Us :)





Yummy candy shop in Helen, Georgia - a little German inspired village, i.e., tourist trap.

picture time!

And then last month we made a trip to Florida for my friend Ashley's wedding reception in Orlando! We took the opportunity to go to Downtown Disney and the beach!

As you can see, Michael was thrilled to drive the WHOLE way!

After Ashley's reception, and on our way to Disney!

We had some fun with the hats in World of Disney :)

There's no story behind this picture, I just really like it!

We tried to make a stop at the Orlando temple, but the gates were locked. This was the best we could do!

This is the aligator in my grandparents little lake behind their house! Eek!

And we finally made it the beach! We arrived in Florida just in time for some tropical depressions, so we weren't sure we'd get a sunny day!

Michael taking his first steps in the Gulf of Mexico.

After all of our fun this summer, reality finally came back to us! We had our interview for immigration the day after our beach trip - August 18th. Our interviewer was NOT fun at all, and Michael couldn't remember any of the dates pertaining to our "courtship," but he passed us!! Michael is now a conditional permanent resident of the United States of America! Woo! No more paperwork or interviews for a while now - fingers crossed! So, with his social security card, work authorization, and green card in tow, he hit the streets to find a job! Two days later he started working 12 hour days with Honda of Conyers! I have, since April, been promoted to Lead Sales/key holder at Ann Taylor Loft and find myself, starting this month, working WAY more than usual! So, now that we both have jobs and our bank account has two paychecks coming into it, life seems like it might just be going perectly!

However, that being said, Michael's best friend Andrew is coming to visit us this weekend for two weeks. I might have to reassess my last statement after he has gone back home to England! :) We'll keep you posted!!