Hello, hello…
It’s a been a while. It’s been a while, and a lot has happened.
1. Meagan and I honeymooned.
We didn’t go right after the wedding. Instead, we waited until school was out for a week or so. This way, Gage got to go to his grandpa and grandma’s house for the week while we were away.
We did a tour of the south, hitting up Ashville, North Caroline; Charleston, South Carolina; and Savannah, Georgia. I’d never been to any of these cities, and neither had Meagan. We got off to a rough start when we couldn’t find a decent place to eat the first night of the trip, resorting to Hardee’s in a last ditch attempt to fill ourselves. Other than that, though, we loved it.
We toured the Biltmore Estate in Ashville, met up with some friends unexpectedly in Charleston, and walked our way through the nooks and crannies of Savannah’s historic district.
Before I met Meagan, I always wanted to honeymoon like this, to places I could return for anniversaries without it being a budget breaker. Once we started planning our wedding, though, we made plans to go to Hawaii instead. I’d still like to visit Hawaii with Meagan someday, but I think I honeymoon road trip turned out to be the better option.
I loved road tripping with her for the first time like this, and I’m so looking forwarding to these kinds of trips in the future with her.
2. Hunchback Whale started recording an album.
At the top of July, our band, Hunchback Whale, started recording, well, four songs at first. After two days in the studio, we decided to go all in and record a full, 10-track album. Hearing the first song come together as we recording for the first time was one of the coolest experiences of my life. It’s been exhausting at times, but we’re all looking forward to the end result, releasing it for everyone to hear (more on this, hopefully soon).
3. My brother, Will, got married.
Will and Lauren have been together since he was 15. She lived in Florida, though, and Will obviously lived up here in Kentucky. I think in total they’d only been with each other about 75 days, the rest of the time spent skyping and texting and calling over the phone.
They had their wedding in Florida, so we all packed up and joined them down there. Meagan, Gage, and I turned it into a mini-vacation as well, leaving the rest of the Joneses to help the newest Jones move her stuff all the way back.
It’s wild that both Will and I are settling into married life now. Those two events this year made for a pretty eventful year by themselves.
4. Meagan and I bought a house.
This just happened two weeks ago. After searching for a few months over the summer and our rent getting jacked up, we knew we had to make a decision on a house. Thankfully, we found one in the area we wanted, which is near where I work and my parents.
The house is a small, three bedroom/one bath house in a double cul-de-sac. The lot is a wedge shape. The front yard is small, but the backyard opens up to a little less than half a acre of flat space with a a few trees. There’s a detached garage out there as well. The house itself has original hardwood floors throughout and an updated kitchen. The rest is fairly straightforward, but it’s going to work well for us.
I’ve wanted to buy a house since I was about 18. (I may have even written about it a few times in the past.) I took the long way to get it, but I’m happy with how it turned out. Meagan and I are excited, even Gage, even though his room is, quote, really small.
