Alabama Anniversary

A year ago today, we pulled into Hoover, Alabama. We were feeling pretty good about ourselves, because our trek across the country with a 6-month-old turned out to be a lot easier than we anticipated and ALABAMA!!! It was surprisingly, breathtakingly beautiful and the people here were the nicest - I was expecting an ugly, hot and humid place inhabited by a bunch of rednecks. (I think I had such low expectations about this place because I had more than one person in Utah say, "I'm so sorry!" when I announced that we were moving to Birmingham, even though I'm pretty sure they had never been anywhere near the southeast before.)

We felt excited and happy and anxious to move into our apartment the next day, but then the next day happened and there were tons of apartment complications that just seemed to snowball into more and more apartment and financial and emotional complications which then proceeded to the absolute worst, loneliest and anxiety-ridden summer of my life. (Summer venting can be found here and here and here and here and here and here and here. I know that's a lot of venting, but my blog was my emotional outlet last summer, and I would sadly go as far as to say that blogging kept me sane. So thanks, blog!)

So now we're a year out, and I am happy to report that this year has been the best year-minus-three-months of my entire life! My love for Birmingham is as great as my hate was for it last summer, and that makes me feel pretty victorious. I love this football loving, fried-food and BBQ eating, Jesus worshiping, country listening, Southern hospitality and culture. And I desperately want a southern accent.

Here's to another happy year!!!!

My goal this year is to learn how to naturally let the word "y'all" roll off my toungue without feeling incredibly self-conscious or feeling like I am going against everything my mom taught me about grammar.