My Little Alabama Family

A couple of weekends ago my friends Chris & Stacy moved into their new house (no, that's not the pumpkin house above). In exchange for beer and pizza we all agreed to chip in and help out with the big move. So we arrived that Saturday afternoon to pack up the U-Haul and drive it down the mountain (yes, we have small mountains here - I thought it was weird, too!) and get them in their new house. About 2 1/2 hours after starting the loading of the truck, we were basically done and sitting on their new front porch enjoying chilled cans of Miller Lite (blech...I'd never had it before and now know that I will stick with Bud products for sure...although it was free, so I can't complain!) I bet you're wondering, did I type that right? Two and one-half hours to move into a 2 bedroom home? It's amazing how fast things can go when you have 12 people helping you move!

As we were all relaxing, we were discussing how we were all going to be helping each other move over the next few months - yelling at those who were moving first and leaving town, of course...slackers getting out of a bunch of work... Then I realized how cool it was that we all had each other to help out like this! I've never before moved without it just being my parents, siblings and I doing all the work. And then I realized how tough it would be since family is so far away to basically move myself this summer. We're all filling in for each other and being our little Huntsville family.


It's this great group of friends that has made this past school year so enjoyable. We get together every weekend to watch movies, play Guitar Hero/Rock Band, play poker, play football, basketball, golf, soccer and softball, and go to Huntsville Stars (Brewer's farm team) baseball games. (Speaking of which - I went to my first one this week with about 20 others from the department and we had a blast. Although, I think that was the least amount of baseball I've ever watched at a game...it's quite a different atmosphere compared to...say, a Cardinals game.) We also do holiday activities like picking/carving pumpkins, having costume parties, eating Thanksgiving dinner, cutting down Christmas trees and dying Easter eggs...we celebrate birthdays, holidays, and successful PhD defenses together - and we still all like each other enough to see each other almost every day at work. It's pretty amazing and wonderful to have them...cause if I didn't I don't know if I'd have gotten through this year!

We're a team. We win and we lose together.
We celebrate and we mourn together.
And defeats softened and victories sweetended
because we did them together.
~ Toby (The West Wing)