Our Spring!

Spring came to Georgia in fits and starts this year, going from very cold and snowy in March(!) to warm and back to cold and rainy. The good thing, though, is that we are not in a dire drought, as we were at this time last year when we were contemplating our move to Atlanta. Peter and I celebrated the start of spring, the end of the GA legislative session, and an early third wedding anniversary in the N. GA mountains. We rented a cabin in the little town of Cherry Log and retreated for a long weekend of hiking, reading, sleeping in, hot tubbing and no TV--it was wonderful! As soon as we got back, Peter started a new job. He had been dissatisfied at MALDEF because of the lack of clients and found a great opportunity at a small, boutique immigration firm that caters to the Latino community and accepted the position with some doubts because he had worked at MALDEF for such a relatively short amount of time. However, a few days later, all of his doubts were erased when the national head of MALDEF came to Atlanta and closed the office! Suddenly, Peter was the luckiest individual among his colleagues, who were stuck looking for a job in a terrible economy--how lucky we felt! He has now been at the new place for about 5 weeks and is starting to settle in happily!

We also celebrated Easter with my mom and dad and had our first year with 2 passover seders to attend, both through the wonderful temple that Peter recently joined. After that, Peter's dad John came at the end of April. The lead up to his visit was a flurry of furnishing the house so that he'd have somewhere to sleep beside an air mattress. We are now the proud owners of a fully functional guest room with a REAL bed (not a futon!), as well as a real dining room table--it's all making us feel very adult. Come visit and check them out!

John was our inaugural over-night guest to stay in our guest room and we had a fantastic time with him, showing him our new town and home, as well as some distinct Atlanta sites, such as CNN, the MLK memorial, the Cyclorama and Buford Highway. On his last night in town, my parents came up and we made mint juleps, watched the Kentucky Derby and had a nice meal together at our dining room table (our first dinner there!). After John's visit, Peter traveled to Wisconsin, along with his brother David and sister Victoria to visit their Grandma Betty for mother's day weekend, while I traveled the short 45 minutes to Peachtree City to be with my mom.

Aside from all of our travels and family visits, I have discovered this spring that I love gardening! We live right near a very cool community garden where we took a lesson on spring planting at the end of winter and now I have used what I gleaned there to establish a garden of bok choy, broccoli, chard, squash, radishes, collards, tomatoes and a struggling jalapeno plant (I think it's been too cold for it). I am loving seeing the plants grow and check on my garden pretty much every day before and after work.

So, that's it for now. This coming week, we are headed to Pittsburgh to visit my cousins who Peter has never met, as well as my grandmother and aunts. After that, Matt and Woody are scheduled to arrive in GA and start their lives here living in our basement--yay! Now that I'm out of the winter doldrums, I am going to try to keep up with this blog a little more. xoxo, r:)

Pictures, top to bottom: Peter w/ Grandma Betty; Robyn with our two dads John and Wilson at our new table; Peter and John in front of the house; Robyn and John on the back porch; Robyn's garden; John reading the paper in the dining room; Robyn with Pico and Isabelle on the bed; Kathy and Wilson on Easter weekend; Robyn on the porch of the Cherry Log cabin; Peter inside the Cherry Log cabin.