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!

Menu Plan Monday (Year 2, Week 40)

Week 40?  How can this be?  Only 12 weeks left in 2012, and I'm totally not ready for the holidays to be upon us, and especially not a whole new year!

10.1.12 - Homemade Pizza (didn't make it last week)
10.2.12 - Crockpot Shredded Beef Tacos with Blackbeans, Chips & Guac
10.3.12 - Leftovers (cause those tacos are awesome, and make a huge meal!)
10.4.12 - Thai Chicken Bites w/ Rice
10.5.12 - Grilling out
10.6.12 - USC vs. UGA Tailgate
10.7.12 - TBD

This is also the last week before my next half marathon!  Cannot believe it is almost here.... trying to fit in a few more short training runs (easy ones, to avoid injury), and a 15K race here at home to "warm up" for the big day in Georgetown!  So excited!!

Menu Plan Monday (Year 2, Week 36)

Sheesh!  Despite the holiday and short week, this week is busy!  Luckily, we're getting the hang of this crazy schedule so here's what we're eating....

9.3.12 - Labor Day Cook out... Burgers w/ Pimento Cheese
9.4.12 - Stuffed Peppers (Combining a few recipes to make a new one, if it is a success, I'll share it here later!)
9.5.12 - Crockpot Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches, Potato Salad, Cole Slaw
9.6.12 - Celebrating one of our favorite kid's b-days
9.7.12 - Dinner out with friends
9.8.12 - Making Hashbrown Casserole for Tailgate, Making a Yummy Icecream Sandwich Dessert for Supper Club
9.9.12 - TBD

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!

Weekend ahead...

So incredibly thankful it is Friday!  We have some good things planned for the weekend and I pretty much just can't wait to get it started....
 
First off, after work today, Jennifer & I are going to run at the river.  Hopefully it won't be too chilly since all of a sudden we had a giant cold front roll in.  It is only my second time running since my big race two weeks ago.  It has been a nice break to only run a few times here and there rather than 4x a week!  Don't worry though, I've been hitting the gym, just not SO much running.
 
After our run I'll probably get started on making up some good tailgate food for tomorrow.  I'm making hashbrown casserole again for the morning, this time with BACON!  (Let's face it, everything tastes just a little better when it has bacon in it.)  For after the game, I'm throwing together the EASIEST RECIPE EVER that Lindsey made for our supper club appetizer last weekend.  Check back for a recipe real soon.
 
South Carolina plays The Citadel, so it should be a low-stress game, leaving us to enjoy our beautiful day at the stadium.  It is also military appreciation day which is always special, and a little birdy told me there is going to be a fly-over, which I always find fascinating. 
 
Sunday, we're having a pot luck lunch at church, I'm making crockpot macaroni & cheese.... then I'm hoping to convince Ryan to head out a week early and go snag a Christmas tree!  It should be really interesting this year with Beaufort and the tree.  He has taken a new liking to sticks/twigs/branches of any kind, so we need to get started getting him used to it before we put any ornaments/lights on it.  Last year, he was small enough that we were able to just block it off, but this year we're going to really have to perfect his "LEAVE IT" skills.   
 
Whether or not we get the tree, I'm already listening to Christmas tunes, and I can't wait to celebrate the holidays this year :)

First day of Fall 2011

Today is officially the beginning of Fall, so I'd like to share with you a few things I LOVE about this season.... and they are in no particular order because these are the random thoughts of my brain :)

 

1. Soup - so if I'm being honest, I eat soup all times of year, but the best time to eat it is in the fall! Usually I've had a long break from soup (especially the homemade kind) by the time fall rolls around.  To me, there is just nothing better than a warm bowl of soup on the first few crisp days of fall.  A few of my favorites are.... Easy Crockpot Potato Soup,  Taco or Enchilada Soup,  Cheesy Chicken Corn Chowder, and of course some Chili sometimes!

 

2. Football Tailgates - clearly, if you know me, you know I grew up in a family that LOVES football. (Clemson football, to be exact).  However, as a proud graduate of THE University of South Carolina, my blood runs GARNET!  My favorite types of foods are all present at tailgates --- dips, chicken, biscuits, grilled stuff, and of course, DIET COKE!  And the fun times spent with family and friends enjoying food, games, and football talk just can't be beat!  Also, on a random note.... ever wonder what would be a great wedding present?  Tailgate chairs!  Our go-to-gift is a matching set of chairs for the bride & groom.  We usually try and get team-themed chairs if possible & we've had several friends tell us the chairs were their

 "favorite" or "most-used" gift.

 

3. Cool, but not COLD weather - ok, so I HATE cold weather, but I LOVE when it starts to get cool.  If I can sport a sweater without wearing a jacket, or longsleeves with flip-flops, I'm totally down with that.   There's also nothing like riding with the windows down in the car with the seat heater warming up your bottom!

 

4. Dark mornings - I love me some sleep, so hitting that snooze button becomes so much easier when it is still dark in the mornings!  Usually though, if I let it last too long, I have a furry friend all up in my business & licking my face so he can get his breakfast.  See exhibit A: 

 

5. Trips to see friends & visitors - We've already been to Charlotte this fall for Carolina's first game against ECU.   Usually we have lots of friends coming in to town for football games & there is already a girls trip in the works with my college friends in the fall!  Of all our college friends, we are some of the few who still live here in town.  We LOVE hosting anyone coming down (so plan your trip soon), but it is also a great time of year to make our own trips to see all those fun people who've left us behind!

 

6. Preparing for holidays - I'm already thinking up ideas for Christmas gifts, decorating for Halloween, Thanksgiving & Christmas, and just what we'll do for our anniversary this year.  The holiday months always seem to fly by with so much going on, so I'm hoping this year we'll take the time to just enjoy each moment and spend time with family & friends.   Probably as soon as the calendar flips over to October, I'll re-load the Christmas music onto my iPod.  Let's face it, I think we could add about 60 more days to the month of December, and still not have enough time to enjoy all the Christmas tunes. 

 

Happy Fall Y'all!

Fall Saturday

Whoa, it's been a while since I posted anything but menu plans.  Waking up early today has given me a chance to really enjoy our first real FALL Saturday.

For a change, it is actually surprisingly cool for our first home football game scheduled for tonight at Williams Bryce Stadium.  I'm a little sad that I'm not out running in this fabulous weather with my TNT team, but you can read more about that here.  My leg is on the mend, so I'm hoping to be out on the road again soon!

So given that we have a cool fall day, I'm planning to enjoy it to the fullest.  We'll probably go grab some breakfast.... I'm thinking... hangover hashbrowns???

Then hit up the store for some yummy tailgating food..... perhaps buffalo chicken dip.....  and maybe some sweet black bean & corn salsa...yummm.

Maybe get a few things done around the house, then head out to enjoy some tailgating before the GAMEOCKS take on NAVY!

  

Menu Plan Monday - Week 35!

This is the last week of the month, traditionally my BUSIEST week of the month at work, therefore I'm looking for the easiest possible meals to throw on the table as quickly as possible.  In addition to that, I've got some volunteer responsibilities, getting a haircut, giving blood, preparing for the first Carolina football game and of course RUNNING to train for the Savannah half-marathon.  All that being said, I barely have time to think this week, and that's when DREAM DINNERS come to the rescue!  I'm not sure I could put together a yummier menu, though!

Monday - Firecracker Sliders & Fries
Tuesday - Tuscan Chicken Fettucini Alfredo & Salad
Wednesday - Pub Chicken & Mashed Potatoes
Thursday - Chicken Enchiladas
Friday - Date Night Out
Saturday - CAROLINA FOOTBALL TAILGATE!!!!]
Sunday - Pre-Labor Day Grilling