A Busy Start to a "Normal" Life

Having swum year round since he was 8, Doug has never had much of a so-called "normal" life. He didn't get to go to his high school graduation, any New Year's Eve parties, Spring Breaks, and the like. Since Trials, we have been making up for that lost time. It's been a nice change to do what we want, whenever we want.



In the past three weeks we have been all over the place, living up the summer. We went to Asheville with my home church, FUMC Dothan, and roofed a house with the Youth Group for the day. I got to show Doug what I spent the last eight summers doing. It was as hot as blue blazes, as you imagine it would be on a roof in July. Five of us finished shingling an entire side of the house before lunch and spent the rest of the day painting. Strangely enough, it's always been my favorite summer activity. I tried to talk my dad into letting me roof our house, but didn't get very far with that one.



After that we went to Highlands, NC for the weekend. Highlands is one of my very favorite places in the entire world. I love everything about it. My mom is always scared when I go back because, knock on wood, I have only been to the ER twice in my life, and both times were at Highland-Cashiers Hospital. Once, I fell off a roof on a mission trip, and the other time I fell hiking and broke my butt bone. Sorry Shaws and Lee Ann. I'm trying to keep the ER visits to a minimum, so my mom threatens Doug to keep me safe.



We decided we would go lazy river tubing, well more like floating, all day Saturday. It was like $30 per person, so we bought kids pool tubes at Ace Hardware and sat in the river, which is more like a 6 inch deep creek these days.



We came back home and had a send-off cookout for Jeremy before he left for the Olympics and helped him decorate his classroom, because the day after he gets back from Beijing, he is a 4th grade teacher! Not much time for jet lag.

Last weekend we went to Cary, NC to see The Avett Brothers, a bluegrass-ish band. We have been wanting to see them for so long and lucked out getting tickets and got to go with some friends from Charlotte. The show was amazing. Koka Booth Amphitheatre was a neat venue, outside in the middle of nowhere and a bunch of trees growing up in the middle. Our tickets were 50-yard-line equivalent.



We then went to Raleigh to hang out with one of Doug's friends from growing up, Justin. We hung out in downtown Raleigh until we were practically sleep-walking. We got back late Sunday after having to stop at the outlets in Concord Mills for a while :) and crashed.

Monday night the Counting Crows were playing in Charlotte, so after a sleepy Monday at work, we drove out the the Verizon Amphitheatre and bought tickets from a scalper at the gas station off the exit, got VIP Parking somehow, and got to see another great show. Adam Duritz had a sprained ankle, but kept playing anyway. He'd forget about his ankle, jump during a song and collapse on stage. The brought him out a chair and a cane just in case, but he continued to jump.

We have been staying busy during the week going to American Institute of Graphic Artists (AIGA) get togethers for Doug to make some contacts, triathlon training (not I), and getting everything ready to go to Spain in October!!! We can't wait!!