"And my house it`s not much to talk about, But it`s filled with love that's grown in southern ground"

Last weekend marked the one year anniversary of our move into our place here in Charleston. It is hard to believe that a year has already passed, since sometimes we still feel like the new people in the neighborhood or in town. While we have added some new furniture here and there and done some small projects throughout the year, we have enjoyed getting settled into our new place. Two of our big changes to the house since we moved are the new patio that we had added outside of our screened in porch which Timmy enjoys having for his grilling adventures and a new accessory for our driveway! Pictures of both are below.





One of the things we have come to learn and appreciate over the past year is that a owning a home is so much more than the furniture you fill it with or the colors that you paint on the walls. It's about the memories, people, and love that fill the house. We feel so blessed that over the past year we have been able to host dinner parties and gatherings for new friends we have made in Charleston, entertained family and friends who have made the trip to visit us and explore Charleston, experience all the seasons and purchase all of the home decorations that go along with them, hosted our first formal holiday dinner and use our china for the first time, celebrate birthdays, and host a wedding shower. Aside from a year in the new place, another big part of the one year anniversary of our move is that Charleston is finally feeling like home to us. We have been blessed with jobs that we enjoy with people that we enjoy working with that have connected us to the city and as we continue to get involved with our church are enjoying expanding our network of friends and support here in Charleston. While it is always hard to be away from our family and friends in Virgina and other places, we are grateful for the people and opportunities God continues to provide for us while we are here in Charleston. We look forward to what the future holds for us here in Charleston and look forward to making more friends, hosting more visitors, and making more memories in our home!

"So long sweet summer, I stumbled upon you and gratefully basked in your rays"

For our faithful followers (not sure how many of you are actually out there), I have decided to stop apologizing for the delay between my blog posts and just own the fact that our lives are busy and sometimes I just do not have the time I would like to update my blog. While the second half of our summer flew by, we were grateful to have the chance to spend some of it with friends and family both in SC, and from visits to VA and MD. I could probably write all day about the past several weeks, but decided to add some pictures of some of the things we did the second half of our summer below.

In mid-July we went home to VA for a long weekend, we got to spend time with our parents as well as go to Williamsburg for my sorority sister Emily's wedding. It was great to catch up with some of my closest friends from college as well as our friends and family at home.



As most of you know from following our blog, I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to volunteer for Beta Theta Pi Fraternity both as an advisor for their new colony at South Carolina, and to get to facilitate at some of their leadership programs. The first weekend in August I had the chance to travel to DC to attend their Convention and facilitate at their Leadership College. It was a wonderful Beta-filled weekend and I had the chance to spend some time with my dad, catch up with some of my amazing Beta friends and Friends of Beta, as well as see my friend from college Liz. I just don't think I can express enough how much my involvement with Beta means to me, I am so blessed with the people and experiences it has brought to my life, and to have such a wonderful husband who supports my involvement with the organization!






At the end of my time at Convention we were lucky that Timmy had the chance to drive up to VA from SC and then with his parents came up to MD so that we were all able to celebrate Benjamin's 1st Birthday. While it was a short visit, we were grateful to have the opportunity to celebrate this milestone with him!





Another fun thing we have had the chance to enjoy here in Charleston are a series of free concerts that the country station Timmy works for, 96.9 The Wolf, have been sponsoring at The Windjammer in Isle of Palms. You may remember from previous posts that The Windjammer is a beach bar in IOP and these concerts have been awesome live music in a fun, intimate atmosphere, and best of all we have had the chance to meet all of the artists. You all know how much we love music and for me, country music, so I have LOVED these concerts, and Timmy says there will be more in the future!

The first concert was in July with Josh Thompson.


The second was this past week and it was the Beach Ball Free For All, featuring...
Chuck Wicks

The Band Perry

and John Rich!


Summer officially came to an end for me on August 15, with the students getting back to campus and all of the fun and business that comes along with the beginning of a new school year, including recruitment and welcome week. I worked everyday (including weekends) from Sunday, Aug. 15 through yesterday, Saturday, September 4. It is probably the busiest time of year for me each year, and while it seemed long at the time I cannot believe how fast it all flew by. It has been nice to have today and tomorrow off work and Timmy and I have had a chance to spend some time together this weekend doing some fun things. I am going to save our weekend activities for another blog later this week. My favorite time of year is fall and College Football, and it is here- huge VT game tomorrow, so don't forget to tune in and cheer for the Hokies tomorrow night as they take on Bosie State! LETS GO HOKIES!

"I got my toes in the water, ass in the sand, not a worry in the world a cold beer in my hand"

The lyrics in the title of this blog post from Zac Brown Band's song Toes pretty much sums up our July 4th weekend. As you know from my last blog post I had just come off of a week in Ohio when I arrived back on Friday the 2nd after some flight issues which prevented me from getting home on Thursday as originally planned. My former co-worker and friend Heather, who you may remember from past blog posts moved back in December, was back in town for the holiday weekend and we were so excited to have here. While she was here we tried to squeeze in as much celebrating as we could, both for the holiday weekend as well as to celebrate our friends Bethany and Calvin's upcoming wedding. Friday night the girls and I from work hosted a shower for Bethany here at our house. I was still a little exhausted from my trip and was so grateful that Timmy had the house cleaned and had run some errands for me. Between his prep work and the help of all the ladies, it was a pretty stress free evening and everyone seemed to have a great time enjoying some margarita's and celebrating Bethany! Below are a few pictures from the shower.





Saturday night all of the ladies, and our accessories (as Heather likes to call our significant others) went to dinner at the Fat Hen to again celebrate Bethany and Calvin. It was a wonderful dinner and a great way to kick off our beach weekend with the whole group!



Saturday night was our first night in the beach house that we had gotten on Folly Beach. Post dinner we went back and continued visiting and catching up on the amazing screened in porch where you could see and hear the ocean across the street. The 4th consisted of sitting on the beach all day. It was lots of fun just to hang out, visit, enjoy some drinks, and get some sun (or sun burnt as most of us did). We had a cookout at the beach house that night and then walked down to the end of the beach to watch the fireworks. Folly Beach had done their show the night before so we watched the ones being shot off from downtown. While we were far away they were still pretty. It was a nice and relaxing day and we certainly never lost sight of how grateful we are to live in the USA and all of the men and women who have fought and continue fight so that we can enjoy days like we had that day on the beach!





I had taken Tuesday off work so it was nice to have Monday and Tuesday as beach days as well before heading back to work after almost two weeks of not being there. This week as a lot of catch up at work for me, but Friday Libby and I, along with two of my students, took some time to take advantage of the "Dress like a cow and get a free combo meal" from Chick-Fil-A. You can check out our picture below. You better believe that was one of the best meals ever, you can't beat free! I have entered our picture in the Chick-Fil-A photo contest and it is pending approval, once it is posted you can go online and vote for it. If we win we can win free Chick-Fil-A for a year, I figure why not try, we have nothing to lose! I will let you know when it's up so you can vote!

"Turns out not where, but who you're with that really matters"

Well here we are, the beginning of another month and we sit here recapping the last month for our faithful blog followers, as always I apologize to keep you waiting so long between the posts! June turned out to be a relaxing and fun month for both of us, filled with family and friends that we continue to be blessed to have in our lives.

Shortly after my last blog post back at the beginning of June I was thrilled when Reed called me and said he had a long weekend coming up the next weekend and wanted to come visit and that he was going to bring his new girlfriend, Devon. They got in late on Thursday night and Friday since I had to work they came down town and did some sight seeing and then stopped by and had lunch with me at work before they headed out the beach for the afternoon. That night we went to the Charleston Battery soccer game because they were playing the Richmond Kickers and Reed had a chance to see some of his buddies who he played with in the past who are now on their team. After the game we caught up with some of my friends at one of our favorite places to hang out now that the weather is nice, Red's on Shem Creek. Saturday we went over to Isle of Palms for the day and hung out on the beach and at The Windjammer watching the US v. England World Cup game. After a nice day at the beach Timmy cooked us some amazing fajitas and we just relaxed which was so nice. Sunday Reed and Devon came with us to church and we took them to brunch at one of our favorite spots downtown, Hominy Grill. It was a great weekend and we really enjoyed having Reed and Devon here to visit!

The following weekend Jonathan and Mary Katherine stopped by and stayed with us on their way to Hilton Head for the week. We were happy to have them all here to visit and Timmy cooked some amazing steak and shrimp kabobs (can you tell we are really enjoying our grill?). They headed out to the beach on Saturday morning but they came back by on their way back home the following weekend. I was in Ohio, which I will get to more in a minute, but Timmy enjoyed the opportunity to spend the weekend with them on their way back. Again, good meals were enjoyed and they even had the chance to go downtown and do some sightseeing around Charleston. Other than Timmy's parents this is the first time one of his brother's and their family have been able to visit us since we were married and moved to South Carolina so we really enjoyed being able to have them here. We also are looking forward to our trip up to Maryland in August to celebrate Benjamin's 1st birthday!





Like I mentioned above, I left on June 24 to head to Oxford, OH for a week to facilitate for Beta Theta Pi's Wooden Institute. I am always so grateful for the opportunity to give to Beta and spend time working with other Beta's and Friends of Beta's to help the collegiate members from across the country really understand the values of the fraternity and how to live them. While the week is about the participants experience I am always so surprised about how much I also grow and learn from the experience every year. It was great to reconnect and spend time with some of my Beta friends as well as meet new friends and professionals in the field who were also there facilitating for the week. I also had the chance to meet some of the new Beta staff members, including TJ Hutchings who will be the LC in the Southeast region so he will work with the South Carolina colony that I also advise. For those of you who work in the higher ed world or with fraternity/sorority life, TJ is keeping a blog of his traveling experiences as a consultant, so if you want something else to follow I recommend his blog, Just Livin the Dream . I wish that I had thought to blog while I was on the road for two years for Chi Omega!




So July is upon us, where does the time go? It his now been a full year since I started my job at CofC. It has been an amazing year and I continue to feel so blessed to be living in an amazing city, doing a job that I love with amazing students and co-workers, to be surrounded by great friends, and to have such a caring and supportive husband. To celebrate the 4th of July weekend the girls and I (along with the men in our lives) have gotten a house at the beach for the long weekend. I am excited for some vacation and beach time and will be sure to post next week about our girls weekend!

I hope that you and your family & friends have a wonderful July 4th, wherever and however you may be celebrating. What a blessing it is to live in America and to have the opportunity to enjoy all the freedoms that come along with that. Let us never forget all of those who have fought and sacrificed and continue to do so that we can enjoy everything and everyone we have in our lives!

"Funny how it's the little things in life, that mean the most"

Sometimes I find that it is all too easy for all of us to get caught up in the hustle and bustle and business that life often brings and that we can overlook some of the little things in our lives that really mean the most, such as spending time with family, having great friends, a walk around the neighborhood, a boat ride, breakfast in bed, ice cream on a hot summer night, and the joy that great music and a live concert can bring to your life. Lucky for us we have had the chance over the past few weeks to really enjoy some of those simple things we are so blessed to have in our lives!

The weekend after my last post we had the chance to travel home to Richmond and spend some time with my mom and brother as well as Timmy's parents to celebrate Mother's Day and my mom's birthday a little late and to have a little early celebration of my birthday with them. We had the chance to eat, no overeat at Cheesecake Factory, which was for sure one of the simple pleasures that we miss since there is not one near is in SC.

Another one of of the things we were able to celebrate and enjoy over the past few weeks was my birthday. I have spoken a lot on here about the amazing women I have been blessed to work with and have as friends since moving to Charleston. Well Libby's birthday is just a few days before mine and we were lucky to be able to celebrate with the gang together on Libby's birthday. We enjoyed pedicures together in the morning and then enjoyed a fun Mexican dinner with the group that night, it was really great to have a birthday buddy and we look forward to celebrating many more together! Below are a few pictures from that celebration.




Over Memorial Day Weekend, when my actual birthday was, Timmy and I had the chance to visit my dad and Regan at their place in Hertford, NC. We hadn't had the chance to visit since they moved into their new place or even when the weather was nice so we were happy to have a nice weekend. We enjoyed the time to visit, relax, go out on the boat rides, meet some of their neighbors, and really enjoyed the nice cookout they had that Sunday night. I think that the 40 people singing Happy Birthday to me may have been a new record for me! Zoey was able to come with us and I think she enjoyed the boat more than we did, check out some of the pictures below!






This past weekend we finally had the chance to stay in Charleston and hang out with some friends here. Friday night Timmy had to do a promo event at Wild Wing so we went and hung out there with Steve and Jessica from the 96.9 Wolf Country morning show. They are so fun and down to earth and we enjoy hanging out with them. Our friends came along and Casey, one of Timmy's co-workers from Columbia was in town for the weekend with her husband Wally and they were there as well. Saturday morning Timmy surprised me with another late birthday surprise by making me breakfast in bed, it was amazing! Saturday night we went to see Zac Brown Band, which was amazing. Our tickets ended up being right in the front row of our section on the first level, so we had a great view and great time enjoying the amazing music! Other than the extreme heat and humidity it was a wonderful night. Sunday we were able to make it back to church and our community group, we are still enjoying meeting and getting to know more and more people at the church. We really feel blessed to have found such a great, young congregation to join!







We are looking forward to a few more weeks and weekends without travel before I head out of town at the end of the month. Hope wherever you are that you continue to enjoy all the little things in your life that mean the most to you as well!

"It's time to try defying gravity, I think I'll try defying gravity"

I am very lucky every now and then to have the opportunity to facilitate at different leadership programs, and those of you who follow my blog regularly know that I have done several programs for Beta Theta Pi over the past couple of years. Well last week I spent the week at Bonnie Doone Plantation in Walterboro, SC at serving as a small group facilitator for our CofC LeaderShape session. The experience was absolutely amazing! I don't know if it was the fact that we had awesome lead facilitators, a great group of cluster facilitators, amazing students, that my small group really opened up and had a great week, or the fact that I will actually have the chance to see all the students I worked with throughout the week again and follow-up with them, but something about the LeaderShape experience really impacted me more than I have been impacted at some of the other programs I have facilitated. I feel so blessed and fortunate to have the chance to work with amazing students and professionals on a daily basis and really thank God for leading me down this student affairs path, and last week was again just re-affirmation that I am really doing what I love. Below are a few pictures from the week.





I mentioned a few times on here before that Timmy and I had been visiting churches. Well I am happy to announce that this past Sunday we finally became members of Redeemer Presbyterian Church and are very excited to get to know more members and to get involved. We have been visiting the church since January and enjoy the worship services and the people we have met. We have found a small group to get involved in and are really looking forward to growing together spiritually through our involvement with the church. We never officially joined a church while we were in Columbia so we are very excited about this step in our journey together!

"There's nothing sweeter than summertime..."

Here's to summer arriving! That's right, exams at the College ended on Wednesday and graduation was today, which means that in my world summer has arrived. Even though I do still work through the summer, things will definitely be quieter and less hectic during the week with the students gone. It's been weird getting used to actually getting to leave work at the end of the work day and not have to hang around all night for meetings or events. I may even have time to get back into running again, and am definitely looking forward to having more time to spend with Timmy other than just on the weekends.

With the warm weather finally here we have been enjoying our new patio and grill and have hosted several dinners over the past few weeks. Our neighborhood pool opened last weekend and we haven't made it over yet but are looking forward to having that so close. I was able to make it to the beach today with my friends Libby and Tyler which was awesome, I am starting to love Charleston more and more as the weather gets warmer and we have been able to enjoy the outdoors and all the great things that we are lucky to be so close to living here.

We made it back home to Virginia a few weekends ago for my sorority sister Jackie's wedding and got to catch up with family. We are planning to head home again in two weeks to visit our moms for a post-Mother's Day celebration with them. Last weekend we went to Columbia with Libby and Tyler to the Carrie Underwood concert, SHE IS AMAZING! If you ever have the chance to see her live I highly recommend it, she is a great performer and an amazing singer.

Life has been exciting for our spoiled little puppy Zoey as well. Some of you know that she is really a sweet dog but sometimes she gets a little protective and overly excited when we see other dogs in the neighborhood and on walks. We never really know how she is going to react around other dogs so we don't really socialize her too much. She gets along great with mom's dog Sydney and she had some dog friends in Columbia, Finlay and Addy, but we hadn't really introduced her to many dogs since we have moved. Last night though we took her over to meet our friends Libby and Tyler's golden-doodle Ebbie. They got along great and enjoyed playing, even though most of the time Zoey was distracted by the food. We are happy that she has a friend and that they can hang out together. Tonight we are having the crew over for a cookout and Ebbie is coming as well as Kassie and Sean's boxer Palmer, so hopefully they will all have a great time!

Tomorrow I head off for LeaderShape, a week long leadership retreat for the students at CofC. It should be a great week and I am looking forward to being out of the office for a little while.

Mom's, we are sorry we won't be home with you tomorrow for Mother's day but we hope that you both have an amazing day! You both deserve the best for all that you do for us and the family and we hope your day is as special as you are! To all mom's who may read this blog I hope that you each have a wonderful day as well. What a true blessing mother's are to the world!

"I run my life, or is it running me..."

Well here I am again, another month has gone by and I haven't been very good about keeping my blog updated (I am really sorry Heather). Timmy and I have both been busy with work and it seems like our weekends have defined our off time for the past month as well. I am sorry that I have been bad about updating the blog but here is a brief update of what we have been up to for the past several weeks (mostly weekends).

We enjoyed a weekend trip home the second weekend in March to catch up with family and friends. The best part however was that I finally got to see Wicked! We had been trying to see it for a while it wasn't working out either with our schedule or it would be sold out. So when we were home last summer and Timmy saw it was coming to Richmond in March he got us tickets and we had a great time taking his parents along to go see it! It was amazing and I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it and get the chance to!

The following weekend Kassie and I took seven of our Panhellenic council officers down to Atlanta for a regional conference. It was great spending time with the girls as well as getting to catch up with other friends and colleagues.



Some of you know that the fall after Timmy and I got married we ran in a 5K that benefited the Make-A-Wish Foundation. We spent several months leading up to that little race practicing and preparing. Well we decided that since we now live in Charleston that we needed to participate in their annual Cooper River Bridge Run, which is a 10K. We registered but didn't really spend too much time preparing for this one, just decided we would do the best we could even if we walked. Well we did the race and I am happy to report that despite being out of shape and not really preparing we both completed the race in less than an hour and 15 minutes (beating our goal of trying to do it in at least an hour and half!). We are glad we did it and certainly enjoyed the long nap we took that afternoon afterwards!



We decided to stay in Charleston for Easter since we will be going home at the end of the month for a wedding. In the Easter spirit though we dyed Easter eggs with our friends Melantha and Kassie. Mom also came down to visit and we hosted Easter dinner at our house for all of our friends who were also still in town. We bought a new table for our screened in porch and finally had a chance to use our china (first time ever). We love to host and it was great to have mom here and to celebrate with her and our Charleston family.








This weekend we have been hanging around and resting as the next couple of weeks and weekends will be busy again. We are enjoying that the weather is finally getting nice, Charleston is certainly beautiful this time of year, it makes us both grateful for all of the many blessings we have in our lives!