"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!

"Because I knew you, I have been changed for good"

We all have them in our lives, and if we are lucky we have more than one. The teacher(s) who not only teach us the subjects of their courses but that also teach us about life; and when we complete our time in their courses we not only leave as better students, but we carry their spirit, their love, and their inspiration with us for the rest of our lives.

I was blessed to have one of these teachers in high school, Mrs. Margaret F. Gregory. Mrs. Gregory taught chorus at my high school and I was blessed to have the opportunity to have her my senior year for two chorus classes. Prior to my senior year though I had worked with Mrs. G at church as she lead our youth choir and I also had the chance to take private voice lessons from her for a year. She definitely was passionate about music and passed that along to all that she met. She lit up the room when she walked into it, and beyond teaching music she really did teach everyone that she met about how to live and love life to the fullest.

Mrs. Gregory died suddenly last Monday morning and it has been a hard and sad week for everyone who was blessed to have known her and have her touch their life. There are things that happen in our lives all the time that we don't understand and we don't think are fair, and losing Mrs. Gregory so soon is definitely one of those. I am comforted knowing that God has plans for everyone and that I know she is now singing in his choir, the greatest choir of all! I was lucky to get to spend some time with Mrs. Gregory and her husband last summer when they came to Charleston for a visit and took me out to dinner. I will always cherish the lessons she taught me both inside and outside of the classroom, and to honor her will strive to live my life as she lived hers. I pray that I can be the same type of inspiration and joy to others I meet and work with in life as Mrs. Gregory was to all she met. I miss you Mrs. Gregory, and know that I will see you again someday!

"If it's cold outside, show the world the warmth of your smile"

I don't know about my friends and family, but I am ready for spring to get here! Two weeks ago we actually got some snow here in Charleston, nothing compared to VA and further north, but we got about 3 inches at our house and according to the news it was the 4th largest snow storm to ever hit Charleston. For those of you who know me, you know that snow is not my favorite thing, but we certainly didn't miss the opportunity to capture some pictures in hopes that this will be the only time we experience snow while we are in Charleston!






Below are a few other things we have enjoyed over the past few weeks that help us keep our mind off this cold weather!

* Celebrating our friend Melantha's 30th Birthday!

* A quick visit from my Chi Omega Friend Ashlee Hicks.

* Church and brunch together on Valentine's Day.

* Playing Tyler & Libby's Beatles Rockband.

* Both of us having President's Day off of work and being able to enjoy some time together shopping, catching a movie, and visiting with Timmy's former co-worker from Columbia Casey and her family who were in Charleston for the day.

* My trip to Jacksonville to facilitate at the Beta SE Keystone. I love having the opportunity to give my time to Beta and to catch up with old and new friends!

* Our new webcam and being able to Skype with our parents, Jon and MK and Benjamin, and our friend Meg in CA for a while on her birthday! Let us know if you have a webcam and want to Skype, we are loving it!

This weekend 6 of my friends who work for Beta are coming down to Charleston for the weekend to visit. We are looking forward to the company and to have the chance to explore around Charleston some more!

"Baby It's Cold Outside..."

Well hello February, how did you get here so fast? I can't believe we are already a week into February! 2010 has been off to a great but busy start for me and Timmy. We have both been busy with activities at work, we have been visiting churches again in hopes of finding a church home here in Charleston, and we have enjoyed a few visits from some friends. While fortunately we have not had snow dumped on us for the past few weekends like many of our family in friends in VA, MD, and PA, it has certainly been very cold down here the past few weekends.

When I last posted the girls had just come down to visit over MLK weekend. Last month I also had the chance to go to lunch and catch up with my college friend Pam and her husband Jason while they were visiting Charleston. Pam is pregnant and is due in June so it was great to catch up after so long and to get lots of updates. We look forward to seeing them both again in July at Emily and Jess's wedding. My former co-worker, and fellow Chi Omega Sister, Spring and her boyfriend Jordan also came down to Charleston for a day to visit the law school here. I enjoyed getting to spend the afternoon with the two of them and Timmy and I enjoyed a great dinner with them at Fleet Landing. Some of my mom's girlfriends were spending the week in Hilton Head last week and came up to Charleston for the day so I got to visit with them for a little while. That is one nice thing about living in Charleston, lots of people visit and we are able to see old friends and family more regularly than when we were in Columbia. We love the company and hope to have more visitors as the weather gets nicer.


Last weekend Timmy and I attended the Lowcountry Oyster Festival, and despite the frigid temperatures had a lot of fun. My friends Melantha and Bethany from work came out and met us and they enjoyed the oysters and Timmy and I enjoyed the vendor food. Timmy had to be there for work and I do enjoy that we are able to participate in some fun Charleston activities thanks to his job! This weekend is the Southeastern Wildlife Expo which is another big Charleston event that Timmy will get attend for work. I have a program all weekend so probably will not be able to enjoy this one with him, but I am ok with that!

As you all know Timmy and I love to entertain and so we are preparing to have our friends over to watch the big Super Bowl game tonight. Timmy is making my favorite buffalo chicken dip, pigs in a blanket, and we bought some frozen finger foods at Costco. He also baked this cinnamon bread a little while ago that smells amazing, I cannot wait to try it. I really do think that I am the luckiest girl in the world to have a husband that is such an amazing cook!

The next few weeks are busy for Timmy and I both but hopefully I may actually find time to blog more than once this month! (I have some pictures to add but they are not uploading correctly right now, hopefully I can get them added soon!)

"This year, is gonna be incredible"

We are already 17 days into 2010 and so far the year has been off to a wonderful start! I had a great time ringing in the New Year in Atlanta with Tara and a Hokie Victory at the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, guess I finally broke the losing streak with my attendance at the game. It was a wonderful way to start off the new year and I must say that the first two weeks have already been pretty busy. Last weekend for work we had our annual Greek Leadership Institute for our new chapter leaders and I had the chance to plan it this year. Other than the fact that is was VERY cold (luckily the cabins and the meeting rooms were heated at the camp) it was a wonderful weekend and both the students and the staff/alumni facilitators we had help us all seemed to have a great time, it was truly a wonderful way for us all to kick off the spring semester. This weekend my friends Tory, Tina, and Melissa came down from Virginia to visit us and while it was a short visit we had a great time. Yesterday was a little rainy and pretty cool out but we still enjoyed a carriage tour around the city and got in some shopping at the Market and on King Street. We hung out at the house last night and ordered pizza and played some Wii, just had a good old girls night. This morning we went downtown for brunch at one of my new favorite places here in Charleston, Hominy Grill and then took a nice walk along the East side of the peninsula enjoying the views of the Battery and the Cooper River as we made our way from the Battery to Waterfront Park, the sun was out today and the weather was very nice, It was a great ending to our weekend together.

Timmy and I have a lot to look forward to in the upcoming months including upcoming visits from friends and family, some upcoming activities we both have with work, a trip back to Richmond in March to visit family and friends and see Wicked, my new volunteer role as Recruitment Advisor for the new Beta Theta Pi colony at the University of South Carolina, hopefully running together in our first 10K during the Annual Bridge Run here in Charleston at the end of March, and some weddings! We both continue to be grateful for the many blessings we received during 2009 and look forward to all that 2010 has to bring to us.

Here are a few pictures from the CFA Bowl Game and from the girls visit this weekend.