"Lookin' at You Lookin' at Me is the Only Thing that Matters"

Last night Timmy and I went down to Charleston to see Sugarland in concert. Last fall Sugarland played here in Columbia at the State Fair and when Timmy and I tried to get tickets they were sold out. We went to the fair anyways that night and I did stand outside the theatre where the concert was and listen but it wasn't the same as seeing them. So back in February as a gift after I finished COMPS Timmy gave me two tickets to the concert last night! Despite the on and off again down pours that luckily occurred before the concert and in between acts, and the cool weather, the concert was wonderful! Billy Currington opened for Sugarland and he was great as well. We had wonderful seats (I am not sure the pictures do it justice) but we had a wonderful time. I am glad that even though country music is not Timmy's favorite he still takes me to see all of my favorite groups! Check out some of the pictures below!

Today Tory is taking me to lunch and to get a pedicure to celebrate my graduation. It has been such a blessing to have her in Columbia while we have been here and I sure am going to miss her when she heads back to Richmond and we move further south to Charleston. The good thing is Tory LOVES SC so I know I can count on her to come visit us plenty.

When Timmy gets off work today we will head to VA, this weekend is Liz's bachelorette party in MD, I am really looking forward to that. Then I will head back to Richmond for a few days before heading back up to Baltimore for the big wedding. While it will be a busy week I am looking forward to catching up with lots of family and friends!

"And how do you keep your feet on the ground, when you know you that you were born to fly?"

Well it has now been a week and half since I have officially been done with school and work, and I am already bored. That is right, I know that most normal people enjoy having time off from work to do nothing, but let me tell you how long doing nothing is fun, for about 2-3 days. Believe me, I have watched plenty of Law & Order and read lots and also run every morning, all of which I enjoy doing but then when Timmy gets home from work I sit and wonder, what good have I done for the world today? I know, I am weird but I can't help it. I thought maybe once I got a job and knew that there would be an end to this boredom that I would enjoy it more but I am still not. I am a total extrovert and get energized from being around others, and I miss being around others. I do have a few friends still around Columbia, however the ones who are not working are hard to track down to spend time with. I am looking forward to next week when I will be in Richmond/Maryland to visit friends and family and to celebrate Liz and Adam's wedding. For now I am keeping my fingers crossed that it gets a little warmer outside so I can at least read out by the pool!

I do enjoy when Timmy is around though and this past Saturday we went to the last home Carolina baseball game against UGA. It was our May Social for the Chi Omega Alumnae group that I have been a part of for the past year. The girls are great and I have enjoyed staying connected to Chi Omega. Below are a few pictures from the game. Tomorrow Timmy is taking me to see Sugarland in Charleston and then Friday after he gets off work we will head to Richmond. I am looking forward to the week ahead and will hopefully have time to post some pictures and updates on here as well!

Chi Omega Girls @ The Game

Timmy & I at the Game

"I Guess the Lord Knows What He's Doing After All"

Well after months of applying for jobs, phone interviews, and a few campus interviews, I have finally found a job! I accepted a job this week at College of Charleston as Assistant Director of Greek Life and am so thrilled. I feel blessed to have a job that I want in a GREAT location, I never dreamed I would ever live in Charleston! Timmy and I are excited to finally know where we are headed and will begin making our plans for the transition from Columbia to Charleston. I do not start work until July 1 so I still have some time off to get organized and relax before I begin my life in the "real world" again. While it was a hard wait at times we are glad that everything worked out and hope that everything else that comes along with relocating will also fall in place. We are grateful for all God has provided to us so far in our journey together and have faith that things will work out during our new adventure. Thanks to all of you who have supported and encouraged us along the way, continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers over the next few months!

The beautiful flowers Timmy brought home to congratulate me with!

"I'll be the greatest fan of your life"

Well we managed to survive the whirlwind of graduation's and celebrations that started last Thursday and ended on Sunday with Reed's graduation from H-SC. It was a great 4 days full of friends, family, food, and fun (all of the important F's of life!). Since pictures speak louder than words sometimes, I have included pictures below of the festivities!

Thursday night Mom and Timmy hosted a great graduation dinner for me that included my family that had arrived in town and those I have worked with over the past two years while at South Carolina. I was grateful to have them all in one room to meet one another and know that I would have never made it through the past two years without any of them in my life!

Dinner Group

Friday was the 'big day' for me. I finally was hooded as Master and was happy to have my family there to celebrate with me, even Reed sacrificed 24 hours of his senior week to come down and share this special time with me! Following the ceremony Dad took us all out to a great lunch to celebrate at Motor Supply Co. Bistro, it was a nice way to end everything before everyone had to hit the road.

Family After Hooding

Me & Marsh's After Hooding

Happy Hour Friends!


Friday night I hit the town with a few of my SC faves to celebrate officially being done and to say good-bye. I am still in denial that many of my friends have either left or will be leaving soon but am grateful to have had them in my life while in grad school and know that we will stay great friends and colleagues for many years to come!

Megan, Me, Josh, Lindsay

Saturday Timmy & I hit the road to VA to celebrate Reed's graduation from Hampden-Sydney. Saturday evening was the Baccalaureate which was very nice and then we had a graduation BBQ celebration back at Reed's apartment with one of his roommate's and his family. The food was great and the weather stayed nice, we watched the storms pass by in the distance and were lucky that they did not hit Reed's place!


Sunday morning was Reed's graduation and despite the random sun burns we all received from sitting in the sun for 2.5hours (Rachel and I were cold when we first got there and thought sitting in the sun would keep us warm, it did) it was a nice ceremony and we are all excited for Reed! We enjoyed a nice lunch on the lawn following the ceremony and then headed back to Reed's place to get him moved out.

Reed Getting His Diploma

Reed's Fan Club

Sunday night we celebrated Mother's Day at mom's house with some pizza and gifts. It was a nice ending to a great family weekend. Monday Timmy and I were able to grab lunch with Tina and Eric before heading back to SC and it was great getting to catch up with them.


While I did lose track of what day it was, it was a great few days and it is hard to believe it is over. Thanks to all of you who have supported and encouraged Timmy and I over the past two years as we moved to SC and started new jobs and school, all while being newlyweds. I know I have said it before but it is hard to believe that those two years are already over. We appreciate everyone's love and support!


Still no word on what the next step in our life journey may be but for now its pool time for me!

"Every New Begining Comes from Some Other Beginning's End"

Well I am officially done with all of my graduate school work and as of Friday I will finally be hooded as a Master! It is so hard to believe that two years have gone by so fast and that it is already time for Timmy and I to move on to a new beginning. While at this point we are still not sure what that new beginning will be we are excited to see what may be in store.

Looking back over the past two years I realize how lucky and blessed we have been while being here in Columbia. While it has been hard at times to be away from family and friends back home, we have been fortunate to meet some great new friends through school and work. We are extremely grateful for their love, friendship, and support over the past two years. While there have definitely been ups and downs over the past two years I feel lucky to have such a supportive husband and great friends here.

It has sort of been fun to have another "Senior Year". For my program we had our end of the year SPA Banquet last Friday and then I enjoyed a great night out on the town with several of my friends from the program. My mom gets into town tomorrow and the next few days will be filled with finishing up work, getting some time with my friends who will be leaving Columbia this weekend, and celebrating not only my own graduation but also Reed's from Hampden-Sydney. I am sure the weekend will fly by but I look forward to sharing this time with friends and family. Sorry I have no fun pictures at this point for the blog, but I will try to upload them if time allows over the next few days!

But for now, I am off to celebrate probably one of my favorite holidays, that's right, Cinco De Mayo! I mean come on, what other holiday is centered around drinking margarita's?!? But before that I am going to enjoy the great Mexican dinner Timmy is preparing for me, thank goodness I have a husband who can cook!

"When I Grown Up, I Wanna Be Famous"

Well it has been a week again and it seems like every Wednesday I get on here and blog about the weekend before. I joked with my friends this weekend that I should probably rename this blog the Weekend Blogger. I know no one likes excuses but this weeks delay has been due to a combination of studying for my last final of grad school (who am I kidding, one of the only ones I even had in grad school, usually its just papers) and trying to even imagine the words and stories to even post about my amazing weekend in Blacksburg with the girls.

There are few things in life I am more passionate about than my friends and family and Hokie Football. The only thing missing out of last weekend was my family, but when you have friends that you have been through so much with like the ones I got to see last weekend, they pretty much are family. We all have our moments, we can all get on each others nerves at times, and we know that no matter how old we get some things are just never going to change, and we are ok with that! Sometimes we see each other often and sometimes we don't see each other for months at a time, but its ok because we know when we all get together it will be like it always has been. I am so grateful to have several groups of friends like this in my life, especially with the girls I met in college through Chi Omega.

Hannah, Emily, Me, Michelle, Katie

The most exciting part of the entire weekend had to be our run-ins with our "famous Hokie football players". While it may not measure up to a run-in with Lauren Conrad like one of the girls that I work with and her husband had on their recent vacation to California, it was still just as exciting for all of us. So here are a few of the important celebrity tips I took away from the weekend:

• Never pass up an opportunity to stand on the field with all the 11 and 12 year old kids to take pictures and get autographs from the VT football players, you may just get your picture with...

Me & Bud Foster

• If a football player that plays in the NFL comes into the restaurant where you are eating, don't hesitate to go take picture with him, he may just buy a round for your table instead of the one next to you. But if you do hesitate, just make sure you have a friend who has a great boyfriend who is willing to go tell him that his little sister is his biggest fan and would like a picture with him and you may just get one...

Me & Deangelo Hall

• Just because that NFL player has a camera man following him around doesn't mean you want to be on the reality show.

  

  Hall's Camera Man for his reality show (don't worry mom, I talked to the camera man but not to the camera, so I won't be embarrassing anyone on TV)

• If you take enough pictures of a cute football player throughout the night he may just eventually come over the table to talk to you and let you get in a picture with him, and buy the table a round...

Me & Eric Green

• And finally, even Chris Ellis has to wait in the line at TOTS. But if you try to fight with the bouncer to let him cut in line he may just pay your cover charge for you!

The Girls with Ellis

Yes there were other exciting things about our weekend like our VT Cake and meeting EKenney's new boyfriend, but I think the "famous" football players sums up the best parts. Michelle, hope this entry lived up to your expectations!

"Your Best Friends, Your Little Hometown, Are Waiting Up Wherever You Go Now"

Sorry that it has been a little while since I posted, I am still getting into the hang of this blog thing, and finding time to keep it updated! Anyways, Timmy and I had the chance to go home last weekend and had a great time visiting family and catching up with old friends.

Our adventure started out Friday night when we began our 5 hour trip home around 6:00, don't worry we are used to the late night Friday drives home. Well we got a Garmin for Christmas and since we don't really need it to tell us how to get from SC to Chester, we still always use it anyways, we find it amusing to try to beat the arrival time it projects at the bottom. I have also enjoyed the "restaurant finder" option as well. Well as most of you know I love Chick-Fil-A and I do love being able to search where the closest one is as we travel home. When we got around Fayetteville, NC I was starting to get hungry and decided to search for the closest Chick-Fil-A. It said there was one 8 miles if we got off the next exit or that we could continue up 95 for 54 miles and stop at another one. I decided I would rather just get off and try to find the one we were closest to. Long story short that 8-mile trip to the Chick-Fil-A and then getting lost on the way back to 95 (yes even British Emily doesn't always give the most efficient directions, so we decided to give up on her and use the good old fashion navigation system of road signs to get back to 95) turned into an extra hour added to our trip. I was convinced we had driven south far enough that we were going to get back onto 95 back in South Carolina, but was relieved when we finally made it back to 95 and were actually 12 miles further north than where we had gotten off an hour before. I am lucky to have such a patient and kind husband whose only comment upon getting back on 95 was "well it only took us 55 minutes to go those 12 miles." Next time I think I will opt for staying on 95 for 54 more miles and getting off at the exit where Chick-Fil-A is visible from the highway, or just eat something else.

We really enjoyed the rest of the weekend. Saturday was a beautiful day and we got to go to a cookout for my sorority sister Liz and her fiance Adam whose wedding I will be in at the end of May. We haven't been able to attend any other parties or showers for them so were glad we could make it to this one. It was hosted by Adam's family in Urbana which was just a little over an hour from Richmond. We rode with our friends Danielle and Mike and it was great getting to catch up with them on the ride and during the cookout.

Danielle, "May Bride", Me

The Girls with our Boys

Saturday night mom cooked steaks and Mom and Dad Marsh came over for dinner, again it was great to just relax with our families, eat outside and enjoy the nice spring weather, and enjoy a good meal!

Sunday Timmy went over to help his parents out with some yard work and I had the opportunity to go to brunch with some of my closest Chi Omega friends (all named Katie (y)) who live in Richmond. Weaks just moved back to VA from Missouri a few weeks ago and we are very glad to have her back! It was great catching up with the girls and checking out Weak's cute new apartment. My mom also joined us and it was great having her there, I also enjoyed the little shopping trip I had with her following brunch!

My Brunch Bunch

It was over brunch when we were discussing blogs that Lawlor (who has her own blog, The Preppy RN) was discussing doing something creative with blogs. Well Timmy and I started talking on our car ride back to SC about this and decided since we both love music so much that maybe we would start naming our blog entries after song titles and lyrics. So this marks our first one (other than the actual name of our blog which is one of my favorite song lyrics from a Kenny Chesney song). I had to find something good about friends and home and these lyrics from a Miley Cyrus song seemed appropriate. We hope you will enjoy this new added twist to to our blog, and thanks Lawlor for making me think of something creative to do!

This week has been low key, I am wrapping up my last week of classes and my last few weeks of work in the Greek Life Office, its been very bittersweet. This weekend I am heading to Blacksburg to for a mini senior year reunion with some of my Chi O sisters who I graduated with. I am looking forward to another weekend away, getting a preview of the 2009 Hokie football team, and the chance to catch up with more old friends, should be a fun girls weekend!