SaraInRealLife

After the wedding, we went to show June our dapper duds, then pizza with dear friends and fam. The Grand Hyatt Atlanta, pink champagne, amazing breakfast towering over the city in the presidential lounge.

The cat cried when we boarded her. First thing in Myrtle Beach: putt putt and hot dogs from Nathan’s restaurant. Amazing Spider Man 2. Movies at Broadway at the Beach, bottle-feeding tigers, cocktails on the open air pier, reading on the beach.

School. Homemaking. Cooking together. Austerity with pockets of abundance. Netflix, studying together, exhaustion, stress. Dinner parties, cuddles with cat, laundry, tidying for the cleaners.

New traditions: Christmas Eve brunch, breakfasts together every morning, brunch on days off. Celebrating milestones.

Lemons forced to become lemonade, an elixir of growth: plans and hopes laid which fell through. Lots of tears and disappointment ensued. We made it work with new goals and pressing forward.

Work and school stress, budget angst. We worked it through together.

Five years of ministry and semester wrap up getaway to Chattanooga, many trips to family. Nieces’ birthdays, a nephew coming.

Gifts: Wonder Woman bracelet for preaching, messenger bag for classes at Candler; fancy pens, books, journals. Flowers, fancy home – cooked dinners.

Trips: Honeymoon to Myrtle Beach; Chattanooga; trips to family in TN; Alabama reunion; CBF Assembly in Birmingham( Navarre Beach; Cincinnati, Louisville, Berea; Lynching Memorial in Montgomery.

Growing in our understanding of what it means to follow Christ. Partners in ministry, in intellect, in life and discipleship.

Anniversary 1: worship, Green Ginger shared lunch special; Hauerwas Reader at 1/2 priced books, and new planner and fancy pens: gifts for the paper anniversary. Home for Sunday nap, deacons meeting, put on our wedding day clothes, shared entree, apps and drinks at Longhorn, skillet cookie with ice cream and Graeter’s chocolate sauce at home, watching Detective Pikachu; cat cuddled up at the corner of the bed.

That’s one.