the allens: Our Love Story : Part III

I couldn't believe I was actually going to live in Atlanta for the summer. At the time, it made perfect sense to go so Owen and I could be together. Kind of crazy looking back on it now. I finally told my parents my summer plans: live in Atlanta with people I've never met while selling security systems door to door. Of course, they were not happy...mostly about the knocking doors part. But I was going no matter what. I could not imagine staying in Utah all summer without my fiance.

After Owen's last final, we packed up the car and headed East. We were honestly so poor leaving Utah. We literally had $20 between us when we left. I don't even know how we did it. We made a stop in the middle of the night, sleeping in the car at a rest stop in Colorado (super sketchy). We drove the next day to Texas to visit Owen's parents for a few days. It was so nice to be back in Texas to visit and see his sisters there as well.

During our drive, we went through: Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and finally Georgia. That's 9 states! Its was a super long drive.

We had finally made it to Atlanta! We met up with the rest of the APX group at our apartments in North Atlanta. Our apartments were awesome: brand new and crazy nice. We met our room mates and the rest of the office. It was a bit scary joining an office that was already close to each other from previous summers. It was mostly married couples and young families, but we quickly made great friends with everyone. Owen's internship with GMAC wasn't starting for a month, so he was able do full time APX with the rest of us. It was starting to turn into a great summer.

I was SO nervous my first day of knocking doors. I honestly had no idea what I was getting into. Our days consisted of: going to the morning meeting, driving to our areas for the day, knocking on door selling alarms ALL day long. They literally don't stop until it gets dark. LONGEST DAYS EVER!

Luckily, I had Owen to help me. He had knocked doors for two summers before, so he knew the ins and outs of summer sales. We actually made a good little team. People loved hearing we were newly engaged and getting married at the end of the summer. It helped us get into houses, which meant more sales :) It also helped that people were curious why a little white girl was wandering around their neighborhood. We were a great little team. Even though the days were long and sometimes frustrating, I loved spending the time with Owen. It was such an adventure being in Atlanta doing something random like knocking doors, but I loved every part of it with Owen.

Some days, we needed a little break so we would sort of, kind of ditch work and play. We would sight-see, visit fun places and see movies. We saw every single movie that came out that summer. Those were my favorite days.

OLYMPIC PARK, DOWN TOWN ATLANTA

TOP OF HYATT HOTEL, DOWN TOWN ATLANTA

Back at our apartments, we would spend any days off at the pool with the rest of the crew. Nights were full of game nights, watching DVDs and going out to eat with the others. Sundays consisted of church (our ward building was right next to the Atlanta Temple - awesome!) and more BBQs at the pool.

We ended up in some scary parts of Atlanta, that's for sure. There was one area that Owen and I went to that was something you see in the movies. Scary people. Scary streets. Sometimes, we didn't even get out of the car. These people definitly needed alarm systems (even though they couldn't afford them half of the time).

Flat tire in a scary part of town.

Atlanta Aquarium

About a month into the summer in Atlanta, we found out the North office was closing. People weren't doing as well as they wanted to, so they were moving on. We were panicked at first...there went our free housing and a summer job! Luckily, we found out there was a South Atlanta APX office. We quickly made arrangements to move down to their office for the rest of the summer.

We packed up our car again and headed to South Atlanta. We went to a small town called McDonough. It was about an hour south of where we were living. Rather than the city, we were now living in the suburbs. And again, we had to make new friends with the new office. The South office was full of a few married couples, but mostly single guys and girls. This office actually had quite a few other girls selling, so I was excited about that part. We got adjusted into our new apartments. Owen's internship was starting about now. I continued to sell and Owen drove up to Atlanta everyday for his GMAC internship.

Working seriously sucked without Owen. This about when I my work dedication quickly went away. I would get dropped off in my area (by myself) and walk to the closest store (WalMart, Grocery Store, ANYTHING) and hang out until Owen picked me up after his internship. Every once in a while I would still go out and sell, but it was hard and kind of scary doing it all by myself. Definitly wasn't a fan of it. The only days I would really sell is when Owen would come with on Saturdays.

We still managed to fit in time for fun between Owen's internship and my knocking doors.

ATLANTA BRAVES GAME

Any down time in our new apartments were spent at the pool or playing tennis, or both.

It was in the South office that we found our pup, Jax. We had been talking for a few days about getting a puppy (mostly because EVERYONE had puppies at this office, so we were puppy hungry). We drove in the the Wal-Mart parking and saw this cute guy for sale. It was love at first sight!

4TH OF JULY

Our office went river rafting together in Tennesse one day. It was super fun, except for when our raft tipped over in the rapids. Not cool, but makes for a good story now.

We spent our nights playing tennis at the courts at our apartment complex. Puppy Jax loved tennis too.

Atlanta was definitly an adventure. A really good adventure. I'm glad Owen and I had the enitre summer together. It made us grow closer together and rely on each other more than ever. I knew I could count on Owen to take care of me out there, and he did. I loved that summer with Owen. We made awesome friends in both offices and made the greatest memories together.

I spent the last part of the summer trying to plan our wedding that was coming up in August. A few weeks before our wedding, I flew home to Arizona to make final wedding preperations. Once Owen's internship finally ended, I flew back to Atlanta to drive back home with Owen and our puppy. There was no way I was going to let him make that long drive alone. On the way back, we stopped by Owen's parents in Texas again for another quick visit. We finally made it to Arizona a week before our wedding. I couldn't wait to marry my best friend...we were so ready for it. I couldn't wait to be Owen's wife.