Lauren's Diary

When I was little I was given a diary with a little gold lock and key. As most girl's my age, I was excited. I had images of my diary becoming my best friend and confidant. In my fantasy world, my diary would someday be discovered and ranked with Anne Frank or Margaret from the Judy Blume book. I wrote a flowery description of some event that was of great importance in my elementary school world. Two days later, I again wrote an entry beginning with an apology to the diary (I was very polite to random objects.) for skipping a day. Two months later, I wrote about having bronchitis and was worried that I was dying. (I was also highly dramatic...a characteristic that continues to emerge.) Several pages were skipped before another entry was made...2 years later! The last entry was inspired by a Brady Bunch episode where Jan is upset that Marsha keeps reading her diary. She writes silly lies in the diary to trick her siblings. I wrote that the President was coming to visit David. I was apparently under a false pretense that David actually cared about what was written in my diary. I'm sure he was in the backyard climbing on roofs and "catching" dead snakes. (a story for another day)

And so here we are, repeating the trend with my blog. I last wrote in October. I'll chuckle at my absence and make another apology & promise that I will write regularly. The reality is that I might possibly skip months at a time more often than making daily entries. I'm ok with this. My life isn't nearly as interesting as Anne Frank or Margaret. I accept this fact and am ready to move on.

Ok, so here's the update in a nutshell since the last entry. Trey went to his hiring conference and left with two job offers. (Milwaukee & Florida) In the meantime, we sold the house. Logan, Mojo, and I moved to Arkansas with my parents while Trey crashed with a friend in Savannah. Trey finished his days with the Army and joined us in Conway. My poor parents begrudgingly tolerated our messes, Mojo's "accidents", and Logan's fits for several weeks. On the job front, neither offer felt like a good fit for our family. So after several meltdowns (mine, not his) and conferences with friends, Trey decided to apply to Edward Jones Investments. He was hired pending his taking (and passing) the series 7 test. We began making day trips to the Memphis area to look for houses. After looking at 375 houses (possibly a slight exaggeration) we found an incredible house in the Bartlett area. When I say incredible, I am not exaggerating! The house is huge and has a pool! We have definitely benefited from the broken housing market. I interviewed and accepted a job with a mental health center in Memphis to provide counseling services in the Shelby County Schools. The job is grant-based and will end in May which makes me nervous. We have since moved into our house (after 2 weeks living in the local Navy Lodge and commuting back to Conway on the weekends) and are starting to reduce the number of boxes in the house.

Trey passed his big test Monday, March 3 and we have been jumping for joy since! (The irony is that he passed the test the day the stock market plummeted but we are confident things will turn around soon...??)

We are blessed to be employed and have a great house. Life will feel more settled when we find a local church and start making friends in the area. (Finding a good babysitter is also a high priority!) Logan is enjoying his school and seems to be learning something new every 5 minutes. We are excited to be close to friends and family again...although still missing the Savannah area and our Georgia friends.

I'm thrilled to be able to make weekend trips to Arky to go consignment sale shopping, attend Michelle's graduation, meet Mini Ryken, and attend UCA events. Our best Savannah friends (& my long lost sista-friend) the Onks are only 4 hours away! We learned our friend Wes and his wife will be moving to the Memphis area this summer. Trey already has Wes' social calendar filled...poor Wes!? :) Life is great!

We are ready for company!!!