Catching up...

A whirlwind of a month and a half has passed by since I posted here.  So many things have happened, but I’ll try and get back in the swing with the beginning of August in just a couple of days! Wish I had some more pictures to go along with this post, but just don't want to forget what we did this summer, so here it is in lots of words!

During June, we spent an afternoon kayaking with friends down our local river, which then inspired us to purchase our own kayaks.  However, since we bought them, it has rained for a month in a row so the river has been too high.  I’m hoping we’ll get to use them much more in August and September!

We also spent a few days at the beach and wrapped up the month of June celebrating my niece’s Baptism and my nephew’s 3^rd birthday.  Where does the time go??

For 4^th of July, we spent time on one side of the lake with family in the morning and then headed to the other side of the lake for a cookout and fireworks with friends.  I was reminded how AWFUL it is to work the day after a late-night holiday.  They should give everyone the 5^th of July off, too!

July has nearly completely passed me by without even a mention that my husband got to start a new job!  There is a lot of new information to learn and a whole new schedule to adjust to, but so far he is enjoying it.  He’s had to go out of town twice for training, and I spent a week at the beach, so we’ve been missing each other a lot. 

Finally, this past weekend, I attended my Pilates certification course and passed the test to become a Pilates Mat Instructor.  After 4&1/2 years of practicing Pilates, this has been a goal of mine for a while, and I’m excited to see what my future as an instructor holds. 

And… since we’ve been so busy, my sweet husband was sweet enough to plan out a menu for our week, so here it is!  Our weekly menu for the week ahead…

7.29.13 – California Turkey Burgers, Guacamole & Chips

7.30.13 – Leftovers

7.31.13 – Thai Chicken Bites & Rice

8.1.13 – Bacon, Avocado, Tomato Sandwiches

8.2.13 – Headed to Greenville for the night to see our friends & enjoy some baseball and other fun!

8.3.13 – Homemade Pizza or Calzones

Oh, and as always, we’ve been spending plenty of time with this guy, who apparently thinks this is his bed....

June 1 Weekly Menu

Summer is one of those busy seasons that we barely know what's happening tomorrow, much less for the month ahead, so I'm forgoing the monthly menu for a bit and going back with weekly menus until things settle down a bit.  We have had a busy last few weeks, including a long-weekend trip to the beach (see our new picture up there?  Courtesy of the wonderful photography skills of my sister... need your picture or your kids pictures taken?  I can get you in touch with her!)

This guy (and his short haircut) really enjoyed the beach too.... the not so great iPhone photography skills are mine :)

Now, for the menu....
6.1.13 - Brandon & MaryKathryn's Wedding!  Our only wedding this summer, seems we're growing up and there aren't too many to attend anymore!

6.2.13 - Thai Chicken Bites w/ Rice

6.3.13 - JWCMeeting/Girls Night with Leigh!! 

6.4.13 - BBQ Peach Pulled Pork 

6.5.13 - Leftovers

6.6.13 - Roast Beef Panini's w/ Carmelized Onions

6.7.13 - Date Night Out!

Keep Calm & Green On - 10K Race Recap

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  This guy has been sporting his St. Patty's bandana since last week.  I just love how festive it makes him look....

On Friday night, I decided that I needed to buy something new and green to wear for the race on Saturday.  After hunting around a little bit, I found this sparkly long-sleeve T-shirt from Old Navy for $9.  We've had fairly cool weather this week, so I figured long sleeves would be nice for the race.  We got down to Five Points at about 7:15am, and it was pretty breezy, so it turned out to be an OK decision.  I only got hot toward the end of the race, and once we were done running, I was glad again to have on long sleeves.  

The Get to the Green 10K was a first annual event, and also my first official 10K.  The 5K race is a really popular event that occurs every year in conjunction with the 5 Points St. Patty's Festival and parade. and I was excited that they added on the longer distance this year.  Throw in a tech shirt and free admission to the festival, and that was a deal of a race!  

Going in, I was dreading a few things.  First, the race was a double loop, and I do not love running the same loop twice in a row.  Then, the 5K started exactly 30 minutes after the 10K, and the routes crossed paths a few times.  The 5K had 2-3 times as many runners as the 10K, so it got really crowded for us just after mile 3.  The roads were really crowded and I felt like I wasn't keeping a good pace, especially when the 5K runners joined us.  There weren't any mile markers for the 10K and my GPS wasn't working, so I really had no idea.  Ryan ran with me the whole way until we had about a quarter of a mile left.  He ran ahead and was able to finish about a minute ahead of me.  Turns out, I was actually keeping a pretty good pace, finishing at 1:05:25.  Going in, I was hoping to beat 1:10, so goal accomplished!  

One of the cool things that happened was the winner of the 10K (along with his police escort to help get him through the crowd) passed us at about mile 3.  All I can say is, WOW.  He was booking it, going at a pace about twice as fast as ours.  It was cool to look down the hill an actually see the winner finish the race... not so cool that we still had 3 miles to go!  

Here we are after the race -- Deedee, Russ & Jennifer met up with us at the finish after running the 5K.  

I think it is safe to say that I'm going to be hooked on the 10K distance race.  It was long enough to make it feel worthwhile to pay the money, but not so long that you have to do any major training leading up to it.  Also definitely a distance I feel like I can work to improve my time.  The next race on the books is the Heart & Sole Women's 5-Miler on April 27th.

The weather was really nice so we came back to the festival later in the day to enjoy some Bluegrass and Shag music -- stayed just long enough to get a funny sunburn..... aaah the joys of early Spring!  

2012 in Review

The year 2012 has been an interesting one to say the least, but we made it through, and here are some highlights!

January

Made some resolutions..... check back later this week to see how I did! 

Ryan started taking a Statistics class at our local tech school 

February

Spent a long weekend in NYC with my girlfriends from work

Celebrated Ryan's 28th Birthday

March

Spent lots of time with my girlfriends Leigh & Leigh since they would both be moving soon!

Celebrated my first-day-of-college friend Taylor's Bachelorette Weekend with my first-ever trip to St. Patty's in 5pts

April

Tour-de-food around Columbia before our best friends moved away! 

Celebrated Taylor & Peter's Wedding Weekend in St. Simon's Island, GA

May

Celebrated Mary Elizabeth & Gabe's Wedding Reception after their return from their wedding in Jamaica!

Celebrated my little brother's graduation from Clemson

Celebrated Elizabeth & Billy's Wedding in Charleston

Convinced Ryan's parents to adopt a goldendoodle half-brother of Beaufort's  

June

Spent a few days at our family beach house in North Litchfield, SC

Celebrated my nephew Cooper's 2nd Birthday

July

Spent a little more time at the beach

Visited our friends and my uncle in D.C.  

FINALLY decided to run in my 2nd Half Marathon  

August

Spent a week at Folly Beach and went to the PGA Championship Golf Tournament in Kiawah Island

Celebrated Hilary & Kyle's Wedding (the same day we missed Jessica & Mark's wedding)

Ryan started taking some more classes at USC

Fall 2012 Football Season began with another Thursday season opener for the Gamecocks!

September

Lots of football watching going on!

Continued training for my half-marathon, hitting a few bad runs 

October

Ran my second half-marathon in Georgetown, SC and met my goal of running under 2.5 hours, setting a new PR at 2:26:17

Hosted a pumpkin carving party!  

November

Helped throw a SURPRISE party for my sister's 30th b-day

Visited the local corn maze with some friends from our Sunday School Class

December

My niece Elliott was born December 1st 

Celebrated our 3rd anniversary

Hosted a Favorite Things Christmas Exchange 

Celebrated Christmas and my 28th birthday with family and friends

Ended the year with a few extremely relaxing days at the beach!

Beaufort meets Zeke

This weekend, we were so excited to introduce Beaufort to a new family member. A few weeks ago, we saw that our breeder had a goldendoodle that needed to be adopted! Turns out, Beaufort and Zeke have the same dad, so they are half brothers! Since Ryan's parents adopted him, we've started calling him Beaufort's br-uncle (brother-uncle).

It was so fun to see them play together and watch how their personalities are both similar and different. They were worn out after an evening of running, playing ball, and wrestling. One thing is for sure, they're both people lovers and will do just about anything for a treat!

iPhone dump... what iPhone photos tell you about us...

1. my husband and i are obsessed with our dog.  we are constantly sending pictures back and forth to each other and giving voice to the awesome personality of this precious fella... for example... 

I'm a model dog... pose - pose - pose 

2. I take pics of things that I like in stores... for instance... first bathing suit of the season... and the tankini is the best thing that ever happened to bathing suits, amen?

3. I have random recipes that one day maybe I'll post, or just perhaps I wanted to see what my food looked like on camera....

4. we are dweebs.  we were SO excited that our church has a REAL life candlelight service.  when the church we grew up in built a new building, they axed the candles because of wax drippings, and it was sad.  this Christmas eve, we were so happy! nothing like silent night & sharing the light of the world

5. i have no idea how to take a picture in weird light.  but for some reason, I love this shadowy one of my two favorite boys on the beach.

6. obsessed with this face.  how could you not be?

7. i intended to post about christmas decorations.... maybe?  or just wanted to remember how the wreath looked this year?

8. this sign is why I don't think I'll ever run a full marathon.  this was a scary place.  I can't imagine having to take the left fork instead of the right.

2011 in Review

I think it is pretty cool to look back and see what the heck happened over the last year, especially when I feel like I was JUST looking back at 2010.  Seems like 2012 has always been a year that was WAY far in the future, but here it is, just around the bend!

Started my first full year of menu planning!  **First New Year's Resolution I ever kept!**

Joined the NOMA Dog Park... best place ever.

Started sticking to a budget to save money to replace Ryan's car & pay off school loans

Bought our first piece of furniture (all the rest we have is inherited/gifts) -- a new couch!

Got snowed in! You know it's bad when even the federal government cancels work!

Hosted our 1st Supper Club...  I made MEXICAN food (I know you're shocked!)  It was the first time I pulled out all my fancy china & crystal that we got for our wedding... all went well until the dog put his face in the sourcream :)

Celebrated Ryan's 27th Birthday

Had a long weekend at the beach & a weekend in Spartanburg for Josh & Jennifer's wedding

Helped host a wedding shower for Ryan's best bud and his fiance

I met THE PIONEER WOMAN with my sister at Ree's book signing in Georgia

Did some big projects for our backyard - new addition to deck, planted shrubs, painted the shed

Celebrated my great aunt's 90th Birthday!

  Decided to sign up with Team-in-Training for my first half-marathon
FINALLY sold the Rodeo & bought a Truck for Ryan
Had our second major mishap of homeownership & had to replace our A/C unit
Travelled to Chicago, IL and Holland, MI to celebrate the wedding of Christian & Stephanie

Celebrated with our friend's Gray & Leigh when they brought home their son from Ethiopia!
Finally got to make the Blackberry-to-iPhone switch

Watched excitedly as our GAMECOCKS rose to the top of the pack again and brought home their SECOND NCAA Baseball National Championship!

Celebrated our nephew Cooper's 1st birthday
Spent a week of vacation at the BEACH!
My friend Jenny moved back to town!

The summer of broken appliances continued with a washing machine that tried to flood our house!  Luckily we found a great deal on a new washer/dryer set at Home Depot -- our 3rd major purchase for our house.

Travelled to Charlotte to kick off the USC Football Season!
Suffered from tendonitis and had to break from training for my half marathon :(

Spent one awesome & relaxing weekend in the mountains with my college girlfriends
Resumed training and kicked it into high gear for about 6 weeks before my race.

RAN my first half-marathon in Savannah, GA!!
RESTED from all that running.
Ate TONS of food at Thanksgiving.
Decorated for Christmas... except, never got around to putting ornaments on the tree.

Celebrated the holidays by eating with pretty much everyone we knew.  And eating lots of food.  Our celebrations lasted ALL month.  
Celebrated our 2nd Anniversary with dinner at Mr. Friendly's & decided we need to go on more fancy dinner dates
Vacationed to the beach, relaxed & got all our Christmas shopping done
Spent Christmas with our families
Celebrated my 27th Birthday
Prepared to bring in the NEW YEAR!

Tons more things happened throughout the course of 2011, but I couldn't possibly remember them all. We are truly blessed and excited to see what 2012 is going to bring!  Happy New Year!

Back Yard Re-do..... And so it begins!

Today marks the beginning of a big undertaking for us.  We're FINALLY getting started with our backyard re-do!  In fact, as I type, Ryan and Todd are off at Lowe's shopping for supplies for our new deck addition.  We currently have a back deck that leads down into the yard, but it isn't really big enough to hold both a grill and seating area.

We once thought that we wanted to put in a patio, but based on the way the ground slopes, we determined it would be much easier, and less expensive, to add on a lower level deck.    The weather isn't really cooperating, the forecast is calling for rain around lunch time today, so not sure how much progress will be made before it rolls in.

I'm going to try and document the whole process here on the blog, so here are some "BEFORE" pics of the back yard:

Side view of current deck 

The new deck will be in the dirt area off the steps of the current deck.  Hopefully then we'll get the grill moved down onto the new deck and purchase a table and chairs to enjoy our new back yard!

View from top back corner of yard

View from front corner down to shed (added 2 years ago after the fence extension)

We plan to add a bed with some shrubs down the side fence seen above.

View from shed of back of house

 Once the new deck is added, we plan to put a bed around the bottom of the current deck with knockout roses and some shrubs over to the right of the deck where the yard slopes down a lot!

View of other side fence and top back corner

View of back fence from deck area

 Also, going to add another bed and plants along the back fence.  AND, need to paint the shed gray with white trim to match the house.

And, a cute face that loves to play in the yard :)

He'll be glad when all this work is done an he isn't trapped in the house!!

love this guy....

We're just hanging out around the house tonight, and this guy is keeping us company.... hanging out in one of his favorite spots on the back of the couch.... he has no idea he is entirely too big to try and balance up there.

That's because it was only like yesterday when he was this size..... (this was on the way home from his first vet visit... cuddling with his hedgehog toy)

But, now that he's big, he's also discovered that he can squeeze ever so tightly into our little chairs......

And, one of my all time favorites, the day he surprised his dad at the door with the "I might be dirty, but it was WORTH IT" face.  I don't think he's ever been more proud of himself.

If you didn't love him before, you probably do now :)  Too bad he's mine!    Sorry for the poor quality these blackberry pics, but they definitely show off my Beaufort in all his cuteness.

I'm up early....

It isn't unusual for me to wake up early, even on the weekend.  Especially now that we have Beaufort, probably the latest I ever get to sleep is 6:30, but today I was up even earlier than that at 5:15, just lying in bed awake, wishing my body would allow me just a little bit longer to enjoy the sleeping hours of the night.

It depends just HOW awake I am what I do with my early morning wake-up times.  Sometimes I spend the time keeping Beaufort out of trouble and quiet until Ryan gets up.   Sometimes I take the opportunity to enjoy an extra long shower.  Sometimes I get up, move to the couch, and fall back asleep (a habit I got from my mom).  Sometimes I catch up on my Bible reading or read other books.  Sometimes I watch all the girly DVR shows I know are taking up valuable recording space and there's no reason to wait to watch them when Ryan is awake.  If my google-reader is full of good blog updates, I'll stalk around on the internet for a while.

Today, I'm working on my grocery list and menu plan.  I'm googling recipes and debating whether to go to the store before or after church.  Speaking of googling, I cannot imagine what life was like when you had to use a cookbook to search for a recipe, a phonebook to get the phone number for a store, then call to find out their hours.  We children of the internet age are so spoiled to have all this information at our fingertips.  Also, the fact that google is both a noun and a verb, and a word at all, is amazing to me.  I just googled the hours for my Publix, and they open at 7am on Sundays. I think I'm going to try and go over there early, get it over with.  It seems like early morning would be a not-so-busy time to do your grocery shopping.  And, it seems like a good way to take up some of this early wake-up time.  Perhaps I'll start shopping early every Sunday :)

Our New Favorite Place

Saturday was the GRAND OPENING of our new favorite place, The NoMA Bark Park.  Just a short ride or walk from our house, Earlewood Park is now home to our city's newest dog park.  We went for the first time Sunday afternoon just to find out how to join and check it out.  We quickly filled out the paperwork and mailed in our dues because this place is a dog's (and dog-owner's) dream come true!

Basically, it is a HUGE fenced-in area where dogs can run, off-leash, play, socialize, and our favorite part, get TOTALLY worn out.  Ever since Beaufort has been with us, we've tried just about everything to let him get out his pent-up energy.  We walk the neighborhood, play fetch, run around the yard, throw balls/toys inside and outside the house, etc, but sometimes a puppy just needs room to RUN, and that is what the bark park is all about.

The RESULTS of a visit to the park .....

We've met lots of other dog-owners and their furry friends and look forward to going to the Bark Park often.   One lesson I've already learned is to wear "play-clothes" because Beaufort and the other dogs not only play with each other, but they get the owners involved, too!   If you live in the Columbia area, the $25 annual fee is well worth it for this fun place to take your pup.  You can learn more about how to join, here. 

And, don't forget to let us know when you're going, because puppy play-dates are the best!

SNOWED IN

Wow, we've had snow twice in two weeks here in South Carolina. Of course, the city is pretty much shut down, and since we live in the most hilly part of town, we are "snowed in". We took a walk around the neighborhood and saw one guy trying to leave, but he ended up having to all the way back down in reverse to his driveway. We woke up to about 4 inches of snow on the ground and piles of snow still falling from the sky. We have about 5-6 inches total, I think.

Beaufort had a blast running and jumping and rolling in the snow this morning, but he got little icicles all stuck in his fur, especially around his paws and face. He looked like a little polar bear!

I'm fairly antsy when stuck inside all day, so I've already unpacked and re-organized the bottom of the china cabinet, and I think the rest of the house is gonna get at least the once-over this afternoon. They're calling for freezing rain and ice tonight and in the morning, so if the city stays shut down, this could last another day. That could make for a giant goodwill donation bag and humongous trash pile if I keep it up at this rate! Here's the view out the back of the house and down the hill out front. At least the snow makes for a beautiful view!

And I'm off to the next project, I think I'm going to attempt some closet cleanout!

One Year in the Making

We are celebrating our first anniversary today. Wow, I think the year has simply flown by. It is somewhat strange that we woke up to a cold rain this morning, and very similar to our wedding day. So, just for the sake of recording a few memories, here are a few things that we've done this year.

1. Just a few days after we returned from our honeymoon in Park City, Utah, we celebrated our first Christmas & New Year's in our own home (I guess we can't count buying the house, since technically that happened before we said "I DO"). Christmas was pretty toned down for us since we had just celebrated our wedding. While others were unloading Christmas gifts, we spent the holidays opening and sorting through wedding gifts. We had a blast spending all the giftcards we got when we returned the duplicates and extras. And I started the writing the thank-you notes.
2. We spent our first Valentine's Weekend in Savannah, GA where Ryan was happy to learn you can order a beer to-go from nearly any restaurant or bar and walk down the street drinking it. Unfortunately, we came home to a broken heat pump. Our first major mishap as homeowners and newlyweds, and 1 very cold night. Good fortune had it that our heat pump was still under warranty and we only had to pay for labor.
3. Got in a major car accident (not our fault!) and had to spend the money we were saving for Ryan's new car to replace my Honda we hoped would run for several more years.
4. Shopped and put a deposit down on our first puppy. That didn't work out, so we chose to wait for another litter and had to wait several more months.
5. Ryan started a new position at work. Although it may not be the ultimate answer, this change was an answer to prayer that we had been hoping for for many months. This put a damper on our summer vacation plans, but we definitely knew it was for the best.
6. We watched excitedly as our college alma mater, the University of South Carolina Gamecocks won the NCAA national baseball championship.
7. Just as the college world series wrapped up, our nephew Cooper was born. He is the first child in either of our immediate families. He was a few weeks early and had to spend a little extra time in the hospital at first, but hasn't let that slow him down. He is so precious and we have enjoyed watching him grown in the last 5 months.
8. In August, we finally brought home our puppy Beaufort. Life has been a whirlwind since then. I never imagined how much work goes into raising and training a puppy. Our entire house had to be "puppy-proofed", and even still, this smart little booger finds ways to get into trouble.
9. The week after we brought home the puppy, Ryan had to go to training for 3 straight weeks. This was our first time being apart for an extended period of time and I found a new respect for people who live apart from their loved ones. Luckily, I was quite busy taking care of our furry-four-legged child while he was away. Ryan got to spend 2 weekends with my uncle exploring the Washington, DC area. He has never been before and loved seeing all the sites in our nation's capitol.
10. Throughout the year, we have celebrated with several friends at their weddings and engagements, the exciting news of babies on the way and baby arrivals, even just recently the news of a long-awaited wait list spot for friends in the process of adopting sweet children from Ethiopia. We changed churches, helped start up a supper club group that meets monthly, made some new friends, made great memories and we have truly enjoyed every moment.

We are celebrating the great year we've had and looking forward with goals in mind of what we want our next year to look like. We are so thankful that God has blessed us with so much this year. I can't wait to share the many moments of our lives together and see what the next year holds.

Happy Anniversary to us!

Leslie

Introducing.....

For a long time now, we've been wanting to get a dog. I would probably say we've been talking about it for several years! We always came up with a reason why it wasn't a good time for us yet.... too expensive, living in two different houses, traveling too much, too busy with other things in our life. I think my husband was starting to lose hope that it would ever happen!

At long last, our new puppy, Beaufort, will be coming home this Tuesday! We are BEYOND excited to add him to our family and can't wait for him to be here with us. In fact, two weeks ago when we went to pick him out of the litter, we wanted to bring him home immediately.

Here's his very first pic...

I'm sure his cute little face will be filling up this blog in no time flat as he grows up. He's a Goldendoodle (mix between a Golden Retriever & Standard Poodle) which we are told are some of the smartest and most loving dogs. This is good because we have a lot to learn about training him and starting out with good habits! Any suggestions for us first time dog owners?

Lockslie