We have a blog?!? Oh yeah.

It's been quite some time since our last post and I would normally apologize for our lack of blog-commitment and number all of our excuses for getting slack on the updates, but I have to be honest, the excuses that run through my head aren't that legitimate.

I could say "it hasn't really been that long - has it?" But it has. Winter and spring have passed and my mental calendar is often runnning a few minutes behind, but not 4 months behind. No excuse there.

I could say "nobody actually follows our little life together, so nobody will notice if we don't update our page for a while." But, while we don't have the religious (and creepy) following of Jon & Kate Gosselin, to say nobody cares about what is going on with us would be discounting the love and interest of many family members - especially ones far & rarely seen.

Perhaps I could say "...but nothing really major has happened. At least nothing blog-worthy." But that would be far-stretched as well.

So as you can imagine, I could go on & on about all of our excuses for not posting more often, but truth is, we just aren't good bloggers. With that said, here's a few updates...

Amanda officially graduated college!

Graduation ceremonies have never been my thing. When I finished up my college education, I didn't attend my ceremony, and truth be told, if my mother allowed me I would have probably missed my high school ceremony. It's not that I don't value an education, I sincerely do. I've just always been a "give me my degree & keep your hot, sweaty handshake, Mr./Mrs. Dean of the School"-type of guy.

But I can truly say that I have never enjoyed a ceremony so much and I have never been so proud of someone's accomplishments as much as my wife's. For those of you who don't know Amanda very well (which means you would probably be on my side of the family tree), rest assured that my children have hope. I haven't quite figured out how I will explain to our children one day why college took Mom half the time it took Dad to finish, but oh well. Amanda finished college as a 4.0 GPA scholar-athlete in 3.5 years AND she managed to squeeze in an intership and me. And while it was a joy to watch Amanda receive Peace College's highest academic award among graduates, the thing that made me most proud was never applauded and barely recognized by others. Amanda never made excuses or bragged about her heavy schedule. While she juggled many things at once, she never became a circus clown motivated by an applause. Amanda quietly & humbly closed the book on her college education and basketball career with a 4.0 GPA and as a captain of the team because it was the right way to do things. Her perspective throughout the last few years that we have been together has been nothing short of inspiring.

We became a new baby girl's Aunt & Uncle!

My brother and sister-in-law, Adam and Connie, gave birth to sweet Isabella Kate Brown in March! While we couldn't make it down the week of Sweet Baby Bella's arrival, we managed to visit Adam, Connie & new big brother Josiah the following week.

No offense mothers of the world, I love babies to death, but I'm not a good baby holder - so I was a little nervous about holding such a sweet, tiny baby girl. Baby boys, I'm fine with. As strange as it might seem in the Brown family, dropping baby boys happens all the time. We can shrug such an act off with a shoulder shrug and a "it'll make him tougher!" But that's not the case with baby girls. There is no rebounding back from dropping such a sweet little baby. So the whole time I held Bella, I was imagining to myself how much of a disgraceful uncle I would become if I dropped beautiful Bella (perhaps the photo captures some of my nervousness). Then I realized she was about the size of a football and I recalled all the times I had yelled at the TV in the past at a New Orleans Saints football player for not holding onto the football. So there I was, holding onto the most beautiful football I had ever seen, repeating in my head, "we have a 4th quarter lead, Andrew. Just don't fumble."

I will say though, Connie was a great sport and she assured me I'd be fine. And in all seriousness, I absolutely loved holding my newest niece.

When we weren't holding little Bella, we were most likely playing with Josiah. Every time we see him, Josiah amazes us by his personality and just plain coolness. There is no better synonym. He is a stud. The Robert Redford of the nursery, if you will.

Josiah, Amanda and I enjoyed jumping on beds, wrestling and pillow fighting. We enjoyed being a 3-man (and woman) wrecking crew and we have a few pictures of our demo-derby of a weekend.

We took our first vacation as a married couple!

Well, at least post-Honeymoon that is. In February, Amanda's company took a 4 day company retreat down to Orlando. The company had a little bit of business to take care of while we were down there, but for the most part, we just enjoyed Florida.

The resort that we stayed at was fabulous and it was a great time to escape North Carolina's version of Winter. Amanda and I shared a beautiful bedroom suite overlooking winding pools and a green golf course. Funny thing was, while Amanda was in one of her business meetings in the day time, I remember watching the news about all the AIG executives on their company retreat and thought to myself - "oh the audacity of those guys! While the rest of the country slaves away working just trying to make ends meat--" only to be interrupted by the realization that I was propped up in a hotel lounge chair, looking out of our suite balcony door at a God's great creation. My attitude of judgment quickly altered into a state of sympathy and understanding. I felt a bit foolish to be so eager to jump on the jury, but at the same time, it felt good being a fool. All I could do was laugh at myself and fix another frozen concoction.

Anyways, Orlando was great. We visited the parks, ate at some wonderful restaurants and I got to know some of Amanda's co-workers better. We really did have a blast!

On a side note, (Amanda will kill me for this) I also enjoyed spending the day in the parks counting misbehaved children on leashes. I'm not judging anyone's parenting methods, Lord knows that I deserved to be chained up a time or two when I was a child. I'm just sharing with you guys Amanda and my Disney experience. We are two people-watchers who got married, so you must expect us to play people watching games while in crowds. It was like playing "Punch Buggy" on a family road trip - except this "Punch Buggy" game was as action packed as a "Punch Buggy" game en route Woodstock circa 1969. Here are a few pictures of the wild rugrats. (My favorite ones are the innocent leashes that are disguised as monkey tail bookbags.)

Editor's Note: I understand that the only thing more sad than the faces of these leashed children was the fact that I was sneaking around, like a real creeper, taking pictures of them. But don't let Amanda tell you otherwise - she was cheering me on.

We bought a house!

Well, technically we made a down payment on the idea of a house. You see, the house is a new build and construction has just started.

Amanda and I have been living in an apartment since our wedding last July, and while we have enjoyed our little nest up on the 3rd floor of our apartment, we are ready to be homeowners. So after looking around for quite a while, we signed on the dotted (begin construction) line on Valentine's Day. Since then, we have been getting building permits and planning out the house at KB Homes' design studio.

The actual construction did not begin until about a week ago and we are expecting a late August closing date. But we will make sure to give updates and pictures of the process going forward.

Our first home will be a townhouse located on Affirmed Way. We looked all over the area and ended up on settling on a neighborhood in Cary, named Washington Square at Amberly. Our sub-neighborhood (Washington Square) is a small townhome community inside a larger neighborhood (Amberly). Hence, "Washington Square at Amberly". Amberly is made up of 4 or 5 neighborhoods - each varying in home sizes. (For more information and good pictures of the neighborhood, check out www.amberly.com) We absolutely loved the location and the neighborhood amenties and we look forward to sharing our home with many of you as soon as I unpack my new grill.

Week 1 - 5/30/09