LeahAndMark.com

It’s not that I don’t have my own family, because I do, and they’re great, but when you have a large extended family that lives close to each other… family entails many more things.

I am fortunate to be close and even included/accepted as one of theirs - and it’s an interesting experience. Aside from their family in particular, the whole ‘large extended family’ is a foreign experience for me - and one that I’m glad to be a part of. It’s partly my own fault, but my relationship with my own family is slightly distant, even though the underlying love and everything else is always there. I missed my sister’s graduation and not being able to go hit me harder than I thought it would - even though I really was struggling to get finances in order at the time… but still, that realization that ‘money’ is always keeping me from things… is frustrating. And while I wish I was fighting to push back how much not having money ’stops’ me… I know I’m only getting more money so that the lack of it can stop me only slightly less…  Paying off all my debt this year should help out considerably.

Happily, I have already purchased my ticket to fly out to Phoenix in May for a few days and attend my brother’s graduation. And even though I missed my sister’s, it does seem like this one has more weight, or rather, a different significance since only a few years ago, it was a real issue whether or not Ryan would actually get up and do something with his life…or at least… get to a point where he could go live it. Because being stuck in a depression, deep in a hole without a clue as to how to even begin to climb out… that was Ryan at times, and then one day, I’m sure with my sister’s help, he started moving forward, and then all of a sudden it wasn’t an upward climb but merely a gradual walk up an incline out of a cave instead of a deep, deep hole in the earth.

I am going to take insanely too many pictures of my family when I see them again.

-Mark

It is becoming increasingly difficult to get up and do any real work on the weekends. The days (and nights) are simply too packed now and when Friday night, or Saturday morning come around… I want nothing - or rather, I want to do nothing. Nothing at all. Except hang out, with other people or even just myself, all of it is all good.

Whereas we used to wake up around 5,6, 7am on Saturday, the clock has been pushed back and it’s usually around 8am when I finally get up… to make coffee and fight back doing anything for as long as I can. Since moving to Atlanta, I can say that weekends are better, slower, and I just feel more alive on Saturday and Sunday than I ever did in Phoenix.

Maybe it’s just where I am in life at this point, because I’m looking forward to so much more, both with Leah and for me individually. With the China trip rushing at us, even though I have my finances literally planned out on paper through the end of October… it’s all open to everything that may come our way.

So on this early Sunday afternoon with writing assignments gnawing at me and school projects sitting there waiting to be taken care of, everything else is at the front of my head and the urge to run and live is always fighting the structure of preparation associated with work and school.

This was breakfast today. After getting up, I went down the street to pick up some supplies:

• Eggs
• English Muffins (Wheat!)
• Tomato
• Avocado

Total: $8.72 + Cheese we had, and coffee we also already had… breakfast for both of us!

It made us ask the question: Why don’t we do this more often? - we really should.

My new camera is great, and while I’m not the best at taking great (good) shots… it doesn’t seem to stop me from snapping photos forever and ever… and ever.

-Mark