"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!