Summer 2009

Since it has been months since my last post, I thought I'd do a brief recap of the summer: went to South Africa for a week with our friends, bought our first home, and that's about it! After all the angst concerning whether we'd get the house or not, I was approved on my own, meaning Brett didn't have to take on any additional debt (his student loans are all in his name only). We closed on September 17 and moved in the same night. We absolutely love it. We spent the first weekend attempting to be home improvement super heroes by installing our own cabinet hardware in the kitchen. it turned out pretty good! There is still so much to do, so much you don't think about when you live in an apartment; you need a water hose; you need a weed wacker; you need to buy air filters; you can't put chicken bones down the garbage disposal! There's a completely new attitude toward your living space-you care if you scuff the walls or if there are fingerprints on the fridge, because the walls and the fridge now belong to you.

We also had an awesome opportunity to go to South Africa this summer with our friends Ben and Melissa, who are originally from Johannesburg. It was the trip of a lifetime! We got to fly first class both ways for free, because of the boys' employment with Delta. Boy was it sweet! The flight was 15 1/2 hours and the seats laid down completely flat. They fed you CONSTANTLY and the food was incredible! The total cost for both of us to fly round trip in those same seats would have cost $18,000.00! Who would ever pay that?!

There is so much I could write about our trip, but it would take days and I just don't have the time. I took about 500 pictures and have only posted about 200 of them. If you'd like to see them, they are on my Facebook profile. We were blessed to be able to go on safari with Melissa's family so there are some really cool shots of "exotic" animals in their natural habitat! We would love the opportunity to go back, but the latest buzz is that Delta is considering selling the school, which would mean we'd lose our benefits. That's been the talk since we've moved here, though, so we'll see.

On a more somber note, I found out about two months ago that my x-husband, Nathan Hallisey, passed away. Though our relationship was poisoned with our addictions, I seldom think of the bad times anymore, and it was hard to accept his passing. Nathan was bright, quick-witted, and always willing to help out a friend. He loved his family and would have given the life he lost for any of them. Though we didn't keep in close contact, we exchanged hello's on Facebook from time to time, and I will miss watching and learning about the happenings of his life.

I hope to keep up with the blog again now that we've closed on the house and things have started slowing down again. I've started couponing and I'm anxious to share the deals I find so that perhaps others than find them, too!