Sweet Home Alabama....Lord I'm Coming Home To You

Ok, well let's face it, I'm with the Lord no matter where I live. BUT I AM MOVING HOME TO MY SWEET HOME OF ALABAMA!!! I accepted an offer on Friday afternoon to work as a Senior Accountant at a local CPA firm located in Riverchase. I was always planning on moving back to Birmingham at some point. I was planning on doing it in June 2009, however certain situations occurred causing me to want to go home sooner than that.

First off, I miss my nephew like crazy. I see him often now, but not as much as I want to. I hate keeping up with Anderson through my sister's blog. Pictures and some videos don't do justice for spending time with little man. Secondly, my brand new niece was born on July 25, 2008. I started looking for a job before Lydia was born, but as her due date got closer, I started getting impatient. Also a rather large factor was Justin. When you love someone as much as we love each other, it becomes unbearable to spend so much time away from them. Justin and I started out seeing each other every other weekend. As time passed, we couldn't go a single weekend without him coming to Nashville or me going to Birmingham. With gas prices where they are, it was getting too expensive for either of us to be traveling that much.

Most of my close friends and family know that I was originally planning on moving to New York City this summer. I had a couple of interviews and even had a few girlfriends that were planning on moving there as well and we were all going to live together. New York is my sanctuary. I do not know why I have such and obsession with it, but it is definitely the one city in the US that has my whole heart. I've been several times and never want to leave once I get there. When me and my mom went last November, we even looked at several apartments in the Queens and Brooklyn area. The whole purpose of taking her to NYC was to make her feel better about me moving so far away. She felt much better when she realized that I knew the city like the back of my hand, even though she said she wouldn't visit often because she hated it :) That dream was a very hard one to let go of. I still wish there was some way I could have what I have in Birmingham in NYC. As much as I love the city and the atmosphere up there, my family means more to me. I cannot imagine giving up Justin to live there and seeing Anderson and Lydia only a couple of times a year.

Needless to say, I am very happy about my decision to move home. I look forward to taking Anderson for a weekend so that Lindsey and Jeff can have some time to themselves and to Lydia. I am so excited to be able to take him to the zoo or the McWane Center in Birmingham. I'll be able to see Justin on a daily basis and have girls nights with the people that know me best. AND I WON'T HAVE TO TRAVEL TO DO IT!!

My last day at BDO Seidman will be on August 20th and I will be moving on the morning of the 21st. I won't actually start my job until the 27th which is good because it will give me some time to get Alabama things (license plate, new license, etc). I am VERY excited to be joining this firm. I can hardly contain my excitement, but will miss so much about Nashville.

I couldn't have made it through my time in Nashville without my friend Lillian. She was definitely a godsend when she moved here this year. She is one of my best friends and it sucks to think that I can't just call her up and go to lunch one day. But I already have two trips planned to come back to Nashville, so I know I will see her on both of those. My roommate Edria has also been amazing and completely understanding through this entire process. I feel absolutely horrible just leaving her here by herself, but she knows that I have to do this. And of course my work friends have been unbelievable, especially one in particular. Dennika has been my closest alliance at work and I will miss her so much. She and I had so much in common because of our religious beliefs and also because she has a little boy that is almost one, so we exchanged baby stories often. I will miss her dearly.

Justin came to Nashville this weekend and didn't even realize that it would be his last time coming to Nashville while I was living here until he was already half way here. We spent the weekend together enjoying our last time to have to travel to see each other. Every now and again he would say "Babe you're moving home" or I would say it to him. I can't wait to get home....only 11 days left :)

Little girls are angels from God

I got to meet my brand new one week old niece today. I came into Birmingham yesterday and drove to Tuscaloosa very early this morning to spend the entire day with Lydia and Anderson. Lydia is the most beautiful little girl in the world. Yeah I know, I'm a little bias, but that's ok. She is a spitting image of her mother's side of the family (which is great, because Anderson looked nothing like her and everything like his daddy). Lydia has my sister Jennifer's curly black hair from when she was a baby. She also has my nose and Lindsey's mouth/lips. She's been a very good baby all day. She's had several visitors today and it hasn't really gotten to her. She doesn't cry much, just sleeps and eats like clockwork.

Her eyes open pretty often and she is a very curious baby. She's constantly looking around her and I swear she even smiled at me (of course my mom and Lindsey seem to think that is only because she had gas). Lydia was born on Friday, July 25 at 5:31pm. Unfortunately for me, I was in Colorado when she was born. It was very hard for me when I found out Lindsey had given birth. I was literally watching a moose eat grass with Justin when I got the news. All I could do was cry. I was so upset that I wasn't there. Jeff and Lindsey wanted me to film the birth and I desperately wanted to as well. She was 7lbs. 14 oz. and was 19 1/4 inches long. Such perfection for such a small person.

Anderson absolutely loves his "baby sista". He is constantly loving on her and kissing her every chance he gets. He usually kisses her head, but will sometimes kiss her arms or her feet. It really is the cutest thing in the world to watch. He loves her so much already!
She sleeps so much and is the smallest thing I have ever seen!! God truly has put a major blessing on the Smith family and I know that they thank Him everyday for his blessings. I thank God everyday to have such a wonderful and healthy niece and nephew. I only wish I could see them more often.
Oh and Lindsey and I decided that she looks amazing in green!!! With her dark hair and skin color, a light mint green looks the best on her so far :)
Of course we can't forget about the little man. Little man is having to make many adjustments getting use to the 4th addition to the family. The one thing he will never have to worry about is getting attention from his Auntie M. I couldn't love this little boy more if he were my own.


Please continue to keep the Smith's in your prayers as Lindsey is about to have to conquer the world next week when Jeff returns to work and she is left with a newborn who feeds every three hours, a two year old that is not capable of relaxing, and a stomach that is recovering from a major surgery. She will certainly have her hands full and this is all new territory to her. Please keep them both in your prayers since neither of them has gotten a full night's sleep in days and even weeks. These children are my life....

I'm back...but I wish I wasn't

I truly have no words to describe my trip to Colorado. The only way I can show the beauty of what we saw is through pictures. So even though the four of us combined have a total of more than 500 pictures, I am posting a few of my favorites. About 200 of them are on my facebook page, so you can look there to see the majority of them. The pictures below were taken either on Mount Elbert or at Rocky Mountain National Park. Enjoy...I sure did!





We went to hike up a medium sized mountain in the park. We were suggested to hike this mountain by a park ranger in order to see big horn sheep. We actually saw a ton of big horn sheep far away on top of a grassy mountain and there was actually a one mile trail/staircase to get there. We tried to go there, but realized that the trail was closed and wouldn't open until next week. Such bad timing. The trail apparently led you to where you would be within feet of the sheep. So the park ranger suggested we go up a mountain called Mt. Ida. We didn't see sheep, but we saw plenty of breath taking views!



This is me and Justin at a point in the park where there were no people and TONS of elk roaming around.



Bonnie took this picture...it's one of my absolute favorites!



I mean, this is the kind of thing that you see in magazines. Not so much something that you think that you'll be doing...



This is the four of us at Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park



We all wrote our names in the snow :)



Another good view...God I want to go back already!

Now we're off to Mount Elbert! We woke up SUPER early to climb the mountain to be sure that we would have daylight on the trip down the mountian. We had to use headlamps on the way up because it was still dark :)



This is right before we left the hotel to drive to the mountain.



At the trailhead getting ready to start the hike. Gotta love the headlamp action :)



Water break!!!



This is me and Justin right before getting to the summit of Mt. Elbert. It started snowing at the top and was FREEZING!



This is Justin and I at the summit of the 14,433 foot mountain. Pictures do not do it justice!! It is truly unimaginable.

There are so many other pictures, but these were just a few of my favorites. I am sure that last weekend was the most fun I've had in a very very long time. I have truly never witnessed such beautiful scenery in my life and suggest that everyone needs to sneak away from the busy hustle of your life and take time to breath and enjoy what God gave us to enjoy.