Treasured moments

I absolutely adore my best friend Julianne Baily. She has been in my life for 10 years now, and even though we lived WAY too far apart for the last 4 years, we always manage to pick up where we left off.

My sweet friend comes to visit me wherever Josh and I decide to live. She’s stayed with us in Athens, Portland, and 3 times in Austin. I couldn’t be more grateful for her willingness to travel far and wide on behalf of our friendship. Some of the best memories of my life include her and her husband Daniel, and their visit to Austin over the weekend will always hold one of those special, one-of=a-kind places in my heart.

Mushy mushy mushy. Sorry. 🙂

Much of our time together typically revolves around food, and this visit was no exception. When the Bailys come to town, Josh and I are on a mission to wine and dine these two until they subconsciously decide to eventually end up in Austin so we can be neighbors. And also holy crap THE FOOD HERE.

We did a BBQ crawl in Lockhart and Luling, Texas the morning after they arrived. Small town Texas/world famous bbq towns did not disappoint. We had tacos at Torchy’s (twice…), BREAKFAST tacos and Tacodeli (big difference in regular tacos of course), ramen, gourmet truck food from East Side King, and bratwursts from Bangers. Goodness.

So by the time they left on Sunday, I was an absolute wreck from the combination of loathing myself entirely for the food I consumed, and being so so sad that they were leaving and I don’t know when I’ll see Juju again. So many feelings.

“I’m so confused about how food can be this beautiful and taste this good at the same time! How is it possible?”

I was extra glad that Josh and I went ahead and purchased our Christmas gift for ourselves right before they came. We finally have a decent camera again! So blog readers rejoice that photo quality on this site has officially improved dramatically.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go eat raw carrots for the next month until I forgive my 4 day long gluttenous binge.

Cheers to the holidays rapidly approaching, great friends who feel like family, and the greatest city in the world-Austin, Texas!

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I am so grateful to have a husband who cares for me so deeply, not in pity or from a place of conceit. He truly values me as an equal partner, and gently encourages me in my absolute darkest moments. I’ve had a few lately, but every time I almost come unhinged, I walk away in the end with a renewed amazement at God’s goodness through the relentless love shown by my sweet Josh.

I thank God today that His mercies are new every morning, and that I get to married to someone who reminds me of that.