The way we were...

As most of you probably know, mine and Walker's story started many years ago in the hallways and classrooms of Trinity. In the spirit of writing down it down before the details fade, I thought I'd share these gems...

The following are from our 5th grade year (1995)...

(my 11th birthday party at Pizza Hut - notice the LL Bean pullover and spoon ring, both classics in the day)

Each 5th grader created a "time capsule", in which we wrote a letter to our "senior self", as well as notes to our classmates, photos, memories, etc., all of which were put in a shoebox, sealed, and opened at the end of our senior year before graduation.

I will first privy you to my own embarrassing literary genius... (black boxes to protect the privacy of those who did not consent to this).

Interesting how accurate the musings of a 10 year old can be...

Also contained in time capsule was the following written on a notecard, folded and stapled shut...

For those that can't read his then (and still now) terrible handwriting, it says "Dear Emily, Your eyes, your lips, your nose, your hair, their all so beautiful. When I look at you I think I'll die of such beauty."

This is the one and only time he has ever complimented me on the beauty of my nose. Walker was mortified when he saw this at our "Time Capsule party", and made me promise not to show anyone. I technically do not have his consent to share this, but I'm going to assume that 7 years later that promise has expired and he won't mind my sharing with the blog world...

The first "I love you" came on the back of his school picture that same year. Who can resist a 5th grade boy who turns his "o" into a heart? Such a charmer.

I'm still in the process of getting all of our old photos gathered together and in digital format, but here is a smattering of what I've found so far for your enjoyment and laughter...

Hope everyone is having a wonderful countdown to Christmas!

13.1v2

After our first half marathon in Nashville, we swore we would never do it again. 18 months later we found ourselves powering through another 13.1 miles, this time with friends and much better training.

My aunt and uncle graciously let us use their beautiful bay house in Gulf Shores for a long weekend, and we had an amazing time.

Mary Lauren and Lindsay are two of my best friends and med school classmates, and although there is no telling how many hundreds of hours we have spent together over the past 3.5 years, it is rare these days to have uninterrupted times of fellowship. We drove down on Thursday, and spent the day/evening relaxing, catching up on life, and chatting about where life and medicine will take us over the next few years.

Think we were relaxed? Absolutely.

Remember how much she loves sand? Bella was one happy puppy.

The boys joined us later that night, and Friday brought more of the same.

It took multiple attempts to get the above group shot using self-timer, as the raised surface we had to work with was at a height that allowed us to neither sit nor stand, but rather awkwardly sorority squat together. Good thing we are all super close and comfortable with each other. Let's just say there were quite a few outtakes, but these were some of my favorite. The bottom left we call "floating heads".

Race day came bright and (too) early the next morning. We couldn't have asked for more perfect running weather, and were 4/4 in finishing the 13.1 miles in times we were all pleased with. Lindsay dominated from the start, ML ran her first 1/2 in 20 minutes faster than she trained, and Walker and I both shaved 15 minutes off of our Nashville time. Props to Michael who ran the 8K in a great time with no training, then served as our official cameraman and encourager as we each neared the finish line.

To say it was hard to leave this place and this time together is an understatement.

Now I'm off to visit my favorite Texas family and finish up interviews until after Christmas, hurrah!

Glendale-bound!

Walker's dad snagged us tickets to the SEC Championship game, and it was the perfect way to end our long road trip. (My camera lens doesn't have any zoom, and we really were this close to some of the players after the game. They are just human of course, but it was a blast being so close to their celebration!)

Pardon some of the cheesy pre-game photos.

As the title of this blog suggests, we are in fact Glendale-bound come January. We may or may not have purchased our tickets to the game and booked our rental car and flight home from Phoenix the day before this game. The flight to Phoenix was booked by halftime. Pretty risky bet for two very calculated and detail-oriented planners, but our gut feeling paid off and we are pumped! Anyone else headed out to AZ? WAR EAGLE!

NC

My apologies, when it comes to creative blog post titles, my lack of creativity shines through.

Walker and I spent last week traveling through North Carolina, and it was fabulous. We loved exploring cities and college towns where we had never been before, and other than both catching nasty colds along the way, had a wonderful time!

We started in Charlotte, which has a fantastic "Uptown" (read: downtown) area. Our hotel was conveniently located across the street from the Nascar Hall of Fame, but alas, time did not permit our visit there.

Next we visited the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area, and it was so fun to be on an undergraduate campus again! Downtown Chapel Hill made us nostalgic for Auburn.

Our last stop was Winston-Salem, where we got to visit with Brad Tew, Walker's fraternity big brother from Auburn. Conveniently, Mary Lauren and I were interviewing on the same day, and we had a blast in downtown Winston after our interview.

For those of you questioning Walker's employment status and/or ability to join me on some of these trips, let me reassure you that he is still gainfully employed in tax accounting. Conveniently, he is not in busy season right now and also able to work from wherever he has internet, which has made this process much more fun!

Our long week ended in the ATL, and when I have time to sort through the 5000 (exaggeration, but it's a lot) photos I took at the SEC Championship game, I will be posting on that. WAR EAGLE!

After spending 6 nights in a row sleeping in a different bed, we were thrilled to get back to Birmingham on Saturday night. Traveling is fun, but there is certainly no place like home!

Thanksgiving

We have had a wonderful week with family in Atlanta, Montgomery, and Tuscaloosa (WAR EAGLE!). Unfortunately I only documented one day of our week. Our families did Thanksgiving together this year in Montgomery, and although we missed those who couldn't be with us, we had a blast (and of course ate too much)!

Hope you all had a relaxing and enjoyable few days with family and friends!

Too soon?

This December will be especially crazy for us, so Wednesday night (that's right, November 17th) we donned our most Christmas-y pajamas, cranked up the CocoMotion (only the most amazing hot chocolate maker ever), put on the iTunes Christmas play list, and got started with our decorations...

Overeager? Maybe. But we love it.

Have a nice weekend!

Charleston

It is, in a word, charming.

Walker and I spent a long weekend in this beautiful and unique city. It was the first visit for both of us, and we had the best time.

A good time for us typically involves eating delicious food, and oh man is Charleston the place for amazing dining. We had fantastic weather, and loved walking around downtown looking at all of the beautiful buildings.

Battery Row is beautiful. Don't you wish your bedroom opened to this balcony and hammock and this was your 100% unobstructed view of Charleston Harbor? 

Secondary to the fact that we are about 3/4 through with our 1/2 marathon training, we thought we were in good enough shape to incorporate the Cooper River Bridge as part of our long weekend run.

The run across and back is about 5 miles. We certainly underestimated the long incline that we would have to run twice. Granted, we had run a couple of miles before we actually got to the bridge, but YIKES. As Walker so adequately summarized, Charleston 1, Fain's 0. The view from the bridge was quite beautiful, although I would have certainly enjoyed it much more on a leisurely walk.

Sunday afternoon we drove to a couple of the barrier islands just outside Charleston (15 minutes from downtown, doesn't get much better than that!).

More charm. Any Pat Conroy fans out there? Charleston and its islands are precisely as peaceful and charming as I imagined them to be from his books.

As a Gulf Coast girl, I'll be the first to say that the beaches of the Atlantic have nothing on the Florida panhandle, but what they lack in bleached white sand and crystal water they make up for in sheer volume.

Thanks Charleston, you were certainly good to us!