Sweet Summer Time

I've said it before and I'll say it again: this summer has been absolutely wonderful so far! Working from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm is the best schedule I could have asked for, besides working maybe two hours a week. Last summer I worked these same hours but Brandon had summer school in June and July so he always had to work later. It has been so nice to have us both get off at the same time. I leave work at three and he comes and picks me up somewhere below campus around 3:15, then we go get sno cones, do something fun, or just go home and play outside. It is supposed to be 93 degrees today so it is definitely a good day for sno cones!

Brandon's younger brother Austin got home from his mission almost two weeks ago, and it has been so fun having him home! He is just a year younger than me, and we worked together at the movie theater a few years ago. I actually met Austin a few weeks before I met Brandon, which was way before we started dating, so Austin and I had the opportunity to become friends before I started becoming a part of their family. I was really excited for him to come home because, even though I knew him before I left, I hadn't had the opportunity to get to know him as well as I have gotten to know the rest of his family over the past two years. Luckily though, we are making up for that time already! Brandon and I have hung out with Austin a lot, getting sno cones, looking at cars, and watching movies, and it has been a blast! It is nice to have a friend that actually wants to hang out with us, even though we are married. I feel like neither of us feel obligated to hang out because we are family, we just genuinely enjoy spending time together.

Brandon, Austin, Shawn and myself all rode down to the Farmer's Market on Saturday, which is becoming a weekly tradition for Brandon and me. The market is pretty small; you can walk through it in about fifteen minutes, but it is something to do and gets us out of bed before ten on Saturdays, which is nice. We also go to Costa Vida pretty much every Saturday, but I like it because we walk there and then eat outside. We also have been going climbing with James and Candis (Brandon's older brother and girlfriend) lately. Last time we went climbing I couldn't make it all the way up, so when we went this last weekend I had to redeem myself! It still took me two tries to get all the way up, but I finally found a quick burst of courage and just did it! The hardest part is just trusting myself, the rock, and the equipment. Brandon and James tell me and Candis to put our feet on a ledge of rock that sticks out like an eighth of an inch, and I just don't feel comfortable with that sometimes. Before these past few times, I hadn't been climbing since before we got married, and even before then I only went like five or six times. The very last time we went before we got married, I slipped and it scared me so bad that I didn't want to go again. I finally have started wanting to go again, but I am afraid that I am going to slip again and be more afraid, so I don't move up the rock until I feel completely comfortable. I feel like I am wasting everyone's time with how long it takes me sometimes, but I am determined to keep reaching the top!

Last week on Friday I had to get off work earlier than Brandon, so we put my bike in the trunk of the car so I could ride it home after work. On the way up to campus, Brandon was telling me to put the lock through the front tire and the triangle of the bike, then around whatever I was locking it to, because sometimes people will just steal the front tire. I double and triple checked my lock job, and compared it to the bikes next to mine even, just to make sure I was doing it right. I felt pretty confident that I locked it up correctly, and didn't think about it once the rest of the day. I was getting pretty excited to ride my bike home by the end of the day, and after seven and a half hours of work and stopping to grab Brandon a donut in honor of National Donut Day, I headed out the door to ride my bike home! Well bad news. My bike was gone. The front tire was still there, locked up, but the rest of the bike was gone. I couldn't believe it. This is the very first time I have ever brought a bike up to campus, and it got stolen. On top of that, it wasn't even my bike. Brandon's parents are letting us borrow a few of their old bikes, so I felt awful that it got stolen. And it definitely wasn't the nicest bike there. Also,  I didn't have a way to get home. So I called Brandon and told him the bike got stolen and he said "Wait, what?" and I just started bawling. I was so upset. He told me to calm down and tell him what happened, and I told him that I thought I locked it up correctly but I guess I didn't because the bike was just gone. Well guess what, sometimes my husband is rude and likes to play tricks on me. He left work earlier than I got off, came and parked the car, unlocked the bike, took everything but the front tire, and went and put the bike back in the trunk. I was so mad. When he told me he had the bike, I thought maybe he had just moved it, or maybe he had followed me to work in the morning and taken the bike then, in which case I would have been more mad, because I sure as heck was not walking home, but luckily he was in the parking lot just north of the library. Needless to say, he did not get the entire donut to himself. And he did take me to a movie afterwards to make up for it, but I was still mad. It was funny, but rude.

There really isn't much else happening here. We are just loving summer! We have a few more things to do for our vacation, like booking one more hotel room, buying our Citypasses for Atlanta, and booking parasailing at Myrtle Beach, but we are getting pretty excited! I can't wait to get a change of scenery!