Monthly Archives: March 2008

Mar 20 2008

a very special day!

Baby Paul

This post is being posted at 9:07am because that marks exactly 26 years that my favorite person has graced this earth. I was explaining to Paul last night why I love celebrating his birthday, because he has been such a wonderful addition to my life that I think a whole day celebrating his existence is quite wonderful!

We’re not sure what big plans we have yet to celebrate – except for going to see the movie “Horton Hears a Who”. Other than that, who knows?

Be sure to go over to his website and leave him a happy birthday message!!

Toddler Paul

Mar 17 2008

I'm so glad my hubby works the day shift

I was browsing CNN.com last Friday night, and saw the headline: Atlanta hit with a tornado. I casually clicked on it, and then gasped and said, “Hey Paul, did you know CNN was hit with a tornado?” He immediately got online and talked to the webmaster who works the night shift. The tornado had done quite a bit of destruction in downtown Atlanta; and more specifically ripped out windows in Paul’s office. When he went into work on Saturday morning, he said that papers were EVERYWHERE. Below is something he wrote for my blog about his thoughts.

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Working in a news organization day by day and seeing all that goes on in the world violence, famines, natural disasters, scandals, etc. it all starts to feel so far away. It becomes easy to poke fun, or not give a second thought about a suicide bomb going off in some obscure country.

Then once in a while something hit close to home, very close to home and there is the realization that what you are witnessing are people’s lives or at least a very small moment in their life and everything that was common place now becomes very real and very potent. After working almost two years at CNN the rare event of a tornado in downtown has been the second time I have come face to face with this realization.

I was not in the newsroom when the tornado hit but I did get a first hand look at the destruction and havoc it left in its path. This tornado could have been worst and I am glad that it was not. And I do admit that it is an amazing event that occurred; to be able to say yes I was there and witnessed first hand the aftermath. However, at the end of the day there is the reminder that no one is immune from anything that is on the news. And having that reminder helps me better empathize with is happening in the world because I know that at any moment I could be that person for better or worse.

aftermath of tornado in atlanta

this shot was taken from the .com building

Mar 13 2008

SPRING!

I know, I know… we have a week before spring officially starts… But if you’re in the South then you’ll have noticed that the weather has been gorgeous. It started with a few nice days here and there, and now we’ve gotten to nice days with only a few chilly days. I LOVE spring! I love being able to open the porch doors and air out the house. I love that it’s light later, so we can go on walks and stay up late. I don’t like going to work in the dark, but it’s a sacrifice I’m happy to make. I love the anticipation of summer, of traveling and seeing friends, and all the fun things that happen in the summer. I love the summer clothes I own (they fit better than my winter clothes :-)), and I’m excited to be able to switch to sandals instead of closed shoes.

I have been so busy here, hence my lack of blogging. Most of my time is taken up by work and the associated commute. I’ve also been in a weekly women’s Bible study that is wrapping up next week. It was called “Wisdom for Wives” and I HIGHLY recommend it if you’re in the northeast Atlanta area! They offer it twice a year, and email me for more info if you’re interested.

I have also been participating in monthly meetings and activities with a women’s fellowship group from my old church. I really love those ladies! I wasn’t sure if they’d let me join them since we don’t go to the church anymore, but they don’t seem bothered by it. We had a retreat on a houseboat a few weekends ago. That was fun; I keep meaning to post pictures of it! Someday I’ll get them off my camera…

Paul and I also have been busy making plans to go CAMPING! Yes! It’s that time of year again! Here in Georgia, it’s finally warm enough to go camping come April. (Paul says that he can’t get used to the fact that April is “warm”). We are going with some friends from church, so that should be fun! We are also lining up camping trips with other people: camping with my parents over the 4th of July (and going to a relative’s wedding in South Carolina), the Gerig Reunion in August, hopefully a camping trip to meet up with Sopeak and Zay, and also there are rumors of a trip to celebrate my brother’s graduation! (Yay AJ! Finally!) I am so excited to be making these plans, and talking about getting out and exercising.

Another fun thing about spring is being able to use our porch! This is the first time we’ve had a screened-in porch, and we love it. (The cats do too.) It’s so pleasant to sit out there in the evenings when we get home from work, and just de-stress. I’d like to get a little table out there to set plates and drinks so we can eat out there. As it is, we have a stool we can use for that purpose so it works for now. I think I’ll keep an eye on some garage sales this spring/summer for a table. :-)

Well I want to go sit on the porch now so I’ll close for now. :-) I am hoping to get to a regular schedule of blogging. It’s my goal to write 3 new posts a week over on my pet blog; we’ll see how that goes!

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my friend Olivia!! And Paul’s birthday is a WEEK from today! Any ideas of what I could do to celebrate?

Mar 8 2008

how much space do we need anyways?

Paul and I have been talking about buying a house. Our friends that I mentioned before bought a house about a year ago, and talking to them has got me looking at real estate sites online again. My biggest problem is that I don’t know where to live. We live on the very edge of the perimeter of Atlanta, and any closer is expensive (or not a good neighborhood), and any farther away will just add to Paul’s commute (already an hour long). Our area is too expensive for us to buy in – I think houses start around $250,000.

So we’ve been looking around for ideas of good areas that are affordable and good to live in. Where do we want to live? What is important to us? We have come up with the ideas of a “7-year house” and a “20-year house”. The 7-year house is basically one that would fit our needs right now, and the needs we expect to have in the next 5-7 years. It has a stronger focus on location, resale value, and details that would best suit a young family (like nearby parks). The 20-year house would have to suit us for more long term. We would focus on having a room/area in the house to homeschool, good neighborhoods where our kids can play and make friends, being comfortable in our house, and having a yard. Paul and I are the type of people that want to have a little more freedom in our house. Some of these pretty neighborhoods with all their HOA rules and regulations would drive us nuts. We want a yard with trees – not houses that are too big for their lots and only have 3 feet between them. That’s fine for some people, but it’s just not our style.

We have debated whether we should look for a 7-year house, or just skip that and rent until we can afford the 20-year house. There are advantages and disadvantages for both, and we definitely haven’t made a decision yet. One thing I mentioned was location. Paul works downtown, and he likes his job, but it’s not a position he wants to be in long term. If he isn’t able to move around within the same company in the next few years, he may have to seek out a different job. So where do we want to live? Where is he likely to work?

One place that we keep coming back to about where to live is downtown Atlanta. We love the city; we spend a lot of our time down there. We like to live close enough to places that we can walk to stores, etc. (We love that aspect of our apartment now.) We like to take the train and bus, and avoid driving altogether (it’s cheaper! and better for the environment!). We like the community feel some places have in the city. We like to see people walking their dogs, jogging, riding their bikes. (Both of us grew up in the city, so it’s not something we’re not used to.)

I spent some time on a real estate site today looking at condos. How small would I be willing to go to live in the city? Prices are high – $200k-300k for a one bedroom condo! We can find them cheaper in other areas – even within our budget! But, we would most likely have to get a two-bedroom.

So the question is, how small can we go without going crazy? Can we get a two-bedroom condo, knowing that in 7 years we’d most likely have to move? Unless God has other plans for us, we probably would have two to three small children in there. But hey, both of us lived in places that small with our families when we were growing up. And when your kids are all under age 5 or 6, does it really matter if they’re all in the same bedroom? It would be great to get a three-bedroom, but I’m not finding many that are within our price range. So should we go for the smaller place? Or are we rushing?

And lest you think we’re hurrying off to buy the first thing we see, note that we have 7 months until our lease is even up. At that point, we just need to know how much longer we’ll be here – should we sign a new lease, and if so, for how long? If we look to buy a year from now, we will be more aggressive about saving for a down payment.

I don’t know, just ideas we want to think about. We may just decide to forget the 7 year house and go for the 20 year house once we figure out more long-term things. Though the thought of getting a place all to ourselves in the city excites me!

* By the way, I should mention, Paul is completely on board with the idea of a small place. He doesn’t see the problem at all. It’s me who is hesitating. :-)