The First 74 Days of Marriage

Hello from Carbondale! Where the heck is Carbondale you might ask? Well, it is squished two hours between Northern Kentucky and two hours between St. Louis, Missouri. Population: 46,000 (when the university of 25,000 is IN session, half of that when it is not). Yeah, needless to say it is a HUGE jump from Palm Beach, Orlando, or Atlanta. We have an adorable apartment though and if you have not seen pictures yet, you should! Go here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2071858&id=1126080047
Regardless we have a guest bedroom and YOU need to come stay with us! What is there to do in Carbondale you ask? Well, there is a Wal-Mart (praise the Lord!), a small mall, some winerys, and some beautiful lakes that we have not fully explored yet. Oh and thank you for all of your prayers, they are building a Chili's! Woo hoo!! (It was slim pickins before this news kids). So really, why NOT come? Perhaps there is no beach, no Disney World, and no Brave's Stadium, but there is Mary & Drew!

Moving right along...

We are still on the high of our wedding. Wow! What an awesome celebration! I don't know about y'all, but we had a blast! Thanks for coming if you came and we hope you had a great time too! After our wedding we went on a 9 day honeymoon to Breckenridge, Colorado where there was still snow on the mountains! It was beautiful! The weather was a sunny 75 degrees every day! We hiked a little bit, swam in our resorts pools, explored the nearby towns, saw Toy Story 3, shopped at cute local stores, and ate some amazing local food. It was a wonderful and relaxing vacation and we want to go on another honeymoon already!

After that began Mary & Drew's whirlwind roadtrip of a lifetime! Try to follow me here: We returned to Atlanta for 3 days, drove to Orlando for 3 days, back to ATL for 1 night, left for Dallas, TX the next morning for 10 days, drove to Conway, AR for 3 days, back to Atl for 4 days, drove to Carbondale, IL for 2 days, back to ATL for 5 days, drove back to Orlando for 3 more days, and eventually returned to ATL for a week before we had to move to Carbondale. Wow. We am STILL tired from that trip. Anybody else? Gheesh! But it was a lot of fun! Now keep in mind, on the last day of our honeymoon Drew was accepted into Southern Illinois University (Carbondale) when we were planning on moving to Dallas (hence the trip to Dallas). I (Mary) had my heart set on Dallas! Big hair, big diamonds, all things Texan, but after visiting UD we realized that the school was definitely not the best place for us, and SIU offered Drew an incredible deal that we simply could not refuse. So here we are!

Since then, Drew has been teaching 2 freshman composition classes at SIU and taking graduate classes for his Masters in English. He is loving teaching and it is def. his calling. I have yet to hear my own calling. :( I have applied to roughly 30 places so far in Carbondale and in nearby towns with not so much as one bite. Very sad. Very sad indeed. So please keep praying for some type of job for me. It is a very discouraging job market in Illinois right now. Boy do I miss college right now! Too bad I start paying for it in about 2 months. See, THIS is why I need a job. Anything!

Well, please keep us up-to-date on your own life! We miss you and love you all!

Carbondale Wishes and Champagne Dreams!