Toadfrogs and Elephants

Before Wade got his internship with Ryobi, I had never heard of Anderson, SC. It’s not a large city. The population is probably about 40,000. All of a sudden, Anderson is the place to be. My mom called to tell me that a Paducah family I know is moving to Anderson. Wade’s Aunt and Uncle are moving to Greenville (20 minutes away).

Then I got a call on Friday from Gloria Kohler. I babysat for the Kohler family for years growing up and they were definitely one of my favorite families. They have four children – Kelly, Rusty, Andrew, and Becky. When I was in high school, they moved to Florida. Rusty chose GaTech as his college so I have seen him a few times in the last couple of years. It turns out Jim has gotten a job in Piedmont, SC and the family is moving to Anderson. Who knew that I would move here knowing no one and people I know would move to town?

I received this email the other day from a friend and cracked up!

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Etta Bath time. Boy was Keefe not happy. WHATEVER??!

Just in case does anyone know an expert in parental custody rights?

-Ryan

So for the first time in our year and a half of marriage, Wade and I are both sick. I got it first and he got it worse. We’re going to blame it on either Dad or my brother-in-law because those are the only people (at all) that I have been around. Working at home, I don’t get out much.

We had another Madison incident tonight. Around midnight, Wade was watching TV in the living room and I was messing with my computer in the bedroom. I suddenly realized Madison wasn’t in the room with me – she normally follows me everywhere. I started calling her and she didn’t come. Wade had been doing some work up in the attic and in the basement so we looked there thinking she might have gotten trapped behind a door. No luck. All that we could figure is she got outside when I was taking some boxes out. I went outside and tried to “quietly” yell for Madison – it was midnight. And wouldn’t you know, after a few minutes she comes running down the street. She was even coming from the street with less traffic. This also happens to be the one time she didn’t have her collar on. It was being washed. Oh well, she is safely home now.

Madison proved herself once again to be a great escape artist. We had left her in Melissa’s backyard and headed to the ball game. We had just gotten to the arena when Wade’s dad (Madison’s vet) called. Someone had found her. She had escaped Melissa’s backyard and was in a neighbor’s backyard. Wade offered to go get her and take care of her. It turns out that Melissa’s backyard is great, as long as the fence is securely latched. Wade put Madison back in and she spent the rest of the day there without incident.

The championship game today was between South Carolina (my new team) and Florida. We all rooted for USC and they came close, so close. In the end, USC lost by two points. It was a great game though! And then we had our nice long drive back to Anderson. We have arrived safely and are about to start chores – yuck!

Wade and I loaded up the car and headed to Nashville after work on Thursday. My dad and Laura had gotten us all tickets to the SEC championship in Nashville. My sister had been to the Thursday games and told us we had good seats, but I didn’t expect center section, front row. We are the first row behind all the press. It’s awesome! I hear we were even on TV. Sadly, Kentucky lost today to South Carolina and Florida beat LSU. Oh well, tomorrow will be a good game I’m sure.

We are staying with Melissa and Chris and got to see their new house. It’s so nice to see a house unpacked and all painted. Ours will get there eventually, right?

Madison posing for the camera. She was much cuter when she was fighting with her toy, but she dropped it when she heard the camera lens open.

After three different colors, Wade has found exactly what he wanted for his office. I was out of town for the first colors, but there was blue, green, and finally brown. I have to admit I wasn’t 100% behind the idea of brown, but it looks fantastic on the walls!

The wall with the window is a darker color than the other walls, but it is subtle:

This picture is a little more true to the actual colors on the walls: