"Ready, ready, ready, ready to run..."

Dear Blog World,

Again it has been 6 months since my last update, and that doesn't mean that we have been doing nothing with our life, just that we have been busy. One of the things I have committed to doing is training for me. I decided on training for this with Team in Training, and so I am not only training but also fundraising. I unfortunately do not have a lot of time right now to give a detailed update on our life for the past 6 months, but I did want to share my training website with all of you who enjoy following this blog. I update this site every week during training so I hope you will follow and keep up with all of my training endeavors. Thanks for your continued support and encouragement! Check out the link below and be sure to bookmark it.

http://pages.teamintraining.org/sc/rnrsav11/rmarshufaj

"On the 10th day of Christmas my true love gave to me..."

...A BLOG UPDATE!

Happy New Year Friends and Family! Yes, Timmy and I are still alive and doing well, once again I have neglected the blog, this may be the longest break in blog posts yet! Thanks for your patience and understanding. Since there seems to be a lot to update since our last post, I have decided to honor one of my favorite childhood Christmas memories of signing the 12 Days of Christmas at our annual Christmas party and bring you our updates by numbers, countdown style (sorry no hand motions in this version). So sit tight and hang in there as I bring to you the 12 Updates of the Marsh Family Fall & Christmas!

TWELVE Drummers Drumming
This Christmas I was very lucky to have the opportunity to spend 12 days at home over the Christmas holiday. One of my lifelong best friends Meg, who now lives in San Francisco, called me back in October to tell me she was coming home for Christmas the weekend before and wanted to know if I could come home and go to the river with her. Luckily I was able to get off work early and thanks to my generous mom who shared some of her earned air miles with me, was able to fly home on December 18. During my 12 days I got to spend one night at the river with the Meg and the rest of the Gill family, and other than a 24hr stomach bug enjoyed spending the week before Christmas at home with mom preparing for the holidays and catching up with friends and family in Richmond. Timmy drove up on the 23rd and we enjoyed celebrating Christmas with Reed & Mom on Christmas Eve and had a fun filled Christmas day with his family since this year his brother's and their families were all in town as well. 12 is also the number of people we had around the table for our Christmas Dinner at Mom & Dad Marsh's as well, we were grateful that they included my mom at dinner that night. Below is a photo of me and Meg at the river as well as a photo of the whole Marsh gang that my mom took after our Christmas dinner!




ELEVEN Pipers Piping
The fall is always a fun time in our house because one of the things that Timmy and I both share a strong mutual love for is college football. There is nothing like planning your Saturdays for 11 weeks in a row around the good games coming on TV or getting together with a group of friends to cheer on your favorite team, or the underdog. For as long as I have known Timmy he has always played Fantasy College Football and as you all know I am a die hard Virginia Tech Fan. While I know Timmy was raised a Wahoo fan, he still supports (most of the time) my passion and love for all things orange and maroon and Hokie, especially during football season. While it was a rough start for the Hokies this season with their first two games, 11 represents the 11 straight wins they had to finish off their season strong, claim the ACC Champion title and land themselves back in the Orange Bowl game tonight against Stanford. This year mom got season tickets to the games and I was fortunate to be able to travel to Blacksburg for three home games and even introduce my friend Melantha to Blacksburg on Gameday and slowly start converting her to a Hokie fan as well. On the weekends that I wasn't able to make it the games Timmy made sure I was in the Gameday spirit with plenty of tailgate snack food and drinks on hand to enjoy as we watched, and a few morning I even got a special VT breakfast. Below are some of my favorite fan shots from this season. Tonight we will of course have all of our Charleston friends over to cheer on the Hokies one last time in hopes that our magic number 11 turns into 12, it will certainly be a great game!






TEN Lords a Leaping
On December 10 the College of Charleston had its annual Faculty & Staff holiday party. Timmy and I enjoyed the chance to get dressed up and enjoyed celebrating with some of my amazing co-workers and friends. A week from today, on January 10 Timmy will celebrate his 30th birthday! Hard to believe that he will be 3 decades old and to think that I have been in his life for more than 11 of those years is crazy. Timmy is a low key birthday kind of person but I do have some fun surprises in the works to celebrate this big birthday!


NINE Ladies Dancing
Well 9 is the number of months that women are pregnant for. Unfortunately this is not my announcement to the world that I am pregnant (sorry to those of you who I know are anxiously awaiting that day), but 2010 did bring a lot of babies into the lives of many of our friends and we have many more who are expecting in 2011. One of my lifelong best friends Annie is one of those who is expecting really any time now. In October my mom and I, along with a few of Annie's other friends, threw her a baby shower and luncheon. Below are few pictures from the shower. Timmy and I enjoyed the opportunity to go home for the weekend, celebrate Reed's birthday and celebrate the anticipated arrival Baby Cohen. While I was home in December Meg and her sister-in-law Sarah as well as their cousin had another Couples Baby shower for Annie & Zac where we all got together at Dream Dinners and prepared lots of frozen meals for Annie & Zac to take home and have on hand when the baby arrives. For those of you who may not know, Annie was one of my frist friends, I met her when I was one and she was three and we moved down the street from the Gills on Teterling Ct. While my memory is not sharp enough to remember everything from our childhood, there are plenty of pictures and home videos to fill in the gaps for us. In a lot of ways Annie was always the big sister I never had. I have been so blessed to have such an amazing friend like Annie in my life and I can only hope that her little girl finds the same sort of lifelong friendship and mentor that I have found in her mom!



EIGHT Maids a Milking
Back at the end of the summer I posted about the free country concerts that one of Timmy's radio stations 96.9 The Wolf puts on at The Windjammer. At the time of that post we had already had the opportunity to meet 4 rising country artist/groups and since then we have seen and met 4 more, bringing the total number of rising country artists we had the chance to meet to 8 for 2010! We are both looking forward to what fun musical adventures 2011 will bring to our lives, hopefully some more great free show as well as some other fun concert opportunities. Below are the pictures with David Nail, Walker Hayes, Steve Azar, and Jerrod Neimann.





SEVEN Swans a Swimming
As previously mentioned in other blog posts, I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to serve as an advisor to the new Beta Theta Pi colony at the University of South Carolina. When I first started volunteering I was serving as the Recruitment Advisor but due to some advisors moving this fall I assumed the position of Chapter Counselor in early August. In this role I not only work directly with the President of the chapter but also help organize and communicate with the entire advisory board team. It has been very fulfilling for me to be able to volunteer my time to an organization that I care so much about and I have really enjoyed the relationships I have been able to form with the amazing men in the colony, the other volunteers, and the Beta staff members. 7 represents the number of trips that I made to Columbia this fall semester to work with the men and the advisory team. Sometimes the drives can get a little long and lonely, but the return on investment I am getting back from serving in this role is definitely worth it. I am looking forward to what this year and the new executive board will bring to the colony! Below is a picture of many of the men in colony with President Pastides at their Men of Principle scholarship banquet this fall.


SIX Geese a Laying
Well 6 is the number of hours it takes for us to make the trip from Charleston back to Chester. We were lucky to have the chance to make it home for the weekend in October that I already mentioned, as well as for Thanksgiving and again at Christmas. This Christmas we were also blessed with a White Christmas, something we haven't had for a while. While I don't know exactly how many inches of snow we actually got, I know it was at least 6. It made for a pretty Christmas and a really nice, lazy snow day on the 26th! Below is a shot of Mom & Dad Marsh's house on Christmas night and a shot of the grill and cooler from our snow day at mom's house.



FIVE Golden Rings
Is it me or did Christmas seem to come really fast this year? We were fortunate to have the chance to host the Greek Life Office staff for our annual Holiday dinner. Five is the number of people who joined us for dinner that night, including my boss Kassie and our 4 amazing student workers, check out the picture below. I continue to feel very blessed to work in a field that I love where I have the chance to interact with so many amazing students and coworkers. Don't get me wrong, like with any job, there are tough times and days, but the people, opportunities, and experiences this job has brought into my life really outweigh the hard times and make it all so worthwhile. Looking forward to what 2011 has to bring to both Timmy and I in our professional lives this year. Five is also the number of hours that Timmy and I spent in the car driving to and from Chester to Hertford to visit with Dad after Christmas. The drive to and from was definitely worth it to be able to visit with Dad, Regan, and Luke for a few hours over the holidays.


FOUR Calling Birds
Along with the many babies blessing our friends lives, so are weddings! 4 is the number of weddings we already know we have in 2011. These include one of my best friends Clayton who proposed to his girlfriend Amanda right before Christmas. We are also excited that my best friend and Maid of Honor from my wedding Tina got engaged to her boyfriend Eric on Christmas day! While no date has been set for their wedding, I am really excited that they are engaged. Tina and I have experienced so many of life's ups and downs together over the years and I was so honored to have her stand next to me at my wedding and look forward to being there for her as she gets ready for her big day as well! We are excited for all of the celebrating for all of the weddings we have coming in 2011. Below is a shot of me with Tina & Eric at one of the Tech games this fall.


THREE French Hens
Three is the number of nephews that Timmy and I have and we were really lucky to be able to spend time with them all at Christmas. We do not get to see Jacob & Zachary very much since they are in PA and we are in Charleston, so we were glad to get to spend so many days with them over Christmas break. It's hard to believe how old they are getting, but I am happy to report, even at 7 years old Jacob still thinks his Aunt Rachel is cool and still enjoys playing with me. I lost many laser gun wars and Sorry games but enjoyed playing with Jacob and Zachary. We were also excited to get to see Benjamin again since we had not seen him since our trip to MD in August to celebrate his 1st birthday. He is still as adorable as ever and now that he is walking is fun to chase around the house!





TWO Turtle Doves
Two is the number of weekends we had visitors this fall. Mom and Dad Marsh came down for a long weekend at the beginning of November and my sorority sisters Liz & Caroline came down for a long weekend right before Thanksgiving. We really enjoy company and the opportunity to show them around Charleston and try out new places to eat and explore. In addtion, it has become a new tradition over the past few years for my family to take a self-timer picture in front of the tree every Christmas Eve. I am happy to report that this year we only had to take it two times, and not because the first was bad but just so we could get one closer up too. We have come a long way since that first Christmas when we couldn't figure out the timer or all get posed and stop laughing long enough for a good picture. You can check out the portrait below! Two is also the number of movies that Timmy and I have gone to see since we got home on January 30. We don't go to the movies often so the fact that we have seen two in the past 4 days is a big deal for us. We went and saw Little Fockers on Friday and last night finally went and saw the new Harry Potter movie, which believe it or not was sold out when we tried to see it in the afternoon and we had to go back last night, guess we weren't the only ones who hadn't seen it yet!





and A partridge in a pear tree
Alas, I have made it to one! Aside from the fact that it has taken me over 1 hour to finally update this blog and that our one spoiled puppy has been trying to distract me to play with her for the past 30 minutes, that is not what I had in mind to include here at the number 1 spot. For us one is for the One who has made everything in this post and in our lives possible. Timmy and I continue to be grateful everyday for a loving and faithful God who continues to bless us with good health, jobs, and loving family and friends. It's so easy to feel like you want more or need more at the holidays, but we thank God everyday for all that He has given to us and we look forward to seeing what plans he has for us as we enter this new year.


So there it is friends and family, sorry that you had to wait so long but if you were able to hang in there and actually read this whole post then you are in fact a very faithful follower! We hope that you and your family enjoyed the holidays and we wish you all many blessings in this New Year!

"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!