Sweet Sadie

 Sadie made her arrival into this world early Halloween morning! L&D took a long time, not sure if it was as long as Parker’s birth, but it was a looooooooong time!   Sadie is 7 weeks old now and looks remarkably similar to Parker as a baby. She has a wonderful temperament and rarely cries, or at least I rarely see her cry! Parker loves being a big brother to her and tries to be as helpful as possible. I asked him the other day if I could take Sadie home with me and he said “No! That’s MY baby Sadie!”
I've got high hopes that Sadie will want to be a snuggler! (Parker would rarely indulge us long enough to get a good snuggle out of him; he still doesn't want to sit still long enough to snuggle!).

Casino Night in Wboro

Friday night the Downtown Development Authority hosted it's second annual Casino Night fund raiser. This was the first time Drew and I attended and it ending up being a lot more fun than I was expecting it to be! The theme was Great Gatsby and your ticket price included 25,000 dollars in fake money to play with. We played roulette first and lost terribly, then played blackjack and turned our luck around. They also had auction items and Kathryn won a Waynesboro themed gift basket! I'm not sure who catered but everything I tried was delicious, especially these mini BLT bites!

I'm Backkkkkkkkkkk

Obviously I've been on a little bit of a blogging hiatus but hopefully I will get back on track now. 

Here are the highlights since my last post:

1. I FINISHED MY MASTER’S DEGREE! I just recently had it framed. It now hangs proudly under my undergraduate degree in my home office.

2. We went to Maui! BEST. VACATION. EVER. 
Drew and I had convinced ourselves by the end that we would just stay; he would become a fishing guide and I would be a bartender… My favorite activity was our hike along the Waihee Trail. Absolutely breathtaking! Drew’s favorite activity was golfing at the Four Seasons on Lanai. If you are ever thinking of a trip to Hawaii I would definitely recommend Maui over any of the other islands. We will definitely be back!

At the Drums of the Pacific Luau

Golfing on Lanai

Hiking the Waihee Trail

3. Drew and Kathryn’s Birthday! They are birthday twins! We ate at The Good Day Café in celebration. We also celebrated earlier in the week with a delicious dinner at my bother-in-law’s house (Drew and his brother’s bday are only separated by a week (and 6 years)). 

4. Bird Dog Breakaway and the Color Run! Kathryn and I recently completed both of these 5K’s. I’m not going to say that I enjoy running now, but I don’t hate it (anymore!). We finished the Bird Dog Breakaway in 33 minutes and the Color Run in 29 minutes. We were thrilled with our time at the Color Run (I had a sinus infection, Kathryn forgot her headphones and we didn't warm up). It was a lot of fun though! Kathryn has a much better description of it here: Kathryn's Blog, Click here!

Bird Dog Breakaway in Waynesboro

After the Color Run

5. GSU vs. The Citadel
We finally made it to a football game! The weather was wonderful and the Eagles won, of course! 

6. I finally found a unique way to store a few of the trinkets from my wedding. Mrs. Cheryl gifted me a handkerchief from her wedding that I pinned under my gown. My mother had this tiny bagged made out of her wedding dress and one of my father's USMC bars was pinned inside (this was also pinned under my dress).  I have had both of these items in my fireproof safe since the wedding but I have always wanted to display them. They are now beautifully displayed on the shelves in my living room. 

Old Barn Wood Shadow Box (via etsy, duh!)

7. Kim’s is ridiculously beautiful when pregnant (and not pregnant, obviously!). Here are a few pics I took last week:

8. My other sister-in-law just found out last week that they are having a girl! I know they were thrilled to find this out, plus it is so much more fun to shop for a girl! My Etsy addiction is getting out of hand.

 IT'S A GIRL!

9. This past weekend Ansley, Lori and I went to HHI for a mini-getaway. We went to the outlets, which were a bust by-the-way. After that we spent the rest of the day hanging out, eating, bar hopping and finally ended up at the XO Lounge at the resort. We forgot to take a group picture though.. But here is a picture from college… you get the idea! 

Bathroom Re-do

Here are a few pictures of our master bathroom update! We discovered that the grout in our master shower was leaking so we were forced to remove some of the tile to investigate. Fortunately the water damage was not terrible, but it definitely needed to be fixed. I have had the desire to remove the exterior tile for some time now because it I felt it made the bathroom appear too dark. Anyway, ripping out the tile was very messy (but fun!) so we decided we would go ahead with a mini-bathroom overhaul. We added bead board to the exterior shower wall (and added it to all of the other bathroom walls). The bead board needs one more coat of paint that I will get around to doing one day in the future! We also added new countertops (we originally just used left over tile when we first moved in). The granite came from Stoneworks of Augusta and I felt their prices were reasonable. I painted the light fixtures black-ish to match the new faucets/cabinet knobs and added a small chandelier over the bath tub. I think the bathroom looks much brighter and cleaner with the updates!

During the demo

Shower before and after

Tub area before and after 

My sink/vanity area before/after

Walls by our closets before/after

Another Adventure

Drew and I are gearing up for another travel adventure next month! We decided in May that we wanted to take a trip this fall to celebrate MBA accomplishments but we had no idea where we wanted to go. We thought about it and decided between going back to Costa Rica, Key West or doing something a little more low key like going to Denver. When it came down to booking our trip we weren't sold on any of those locations (although I would go back to Costa Rica in a heartbeat!). We ended up deciding on Hawaii, more specifically the island of Maui! We are soooo excited! I am not excited about the 20+ hours it will take us to get there though! We are flying out of Atlanta to Honolulu then taking an “island hopper” to Maui. Pray for us and this tiny airplane!

We are flying into Kahului and driving to Ka’anapali. Drew is stoked that I rented a jeep wrangler (typical tourist car!). He has always wanted a Jeep!

We decided to rent a condo in Ka’anapali versus staying in a hotel. We wanted to stay somewhere that was less crowded that the big resorts on Maui so we rented a 1 bedroom condo at the Honua Kai Resort.

The countdown clock has started.. we are less than a month away! We are staying in Maui for ALMOST a week! Can you believe that?? Usually 4 days is my max, but when it takes 20 hours to travel somewhere I’ll make an exception!

… More to come! 

July run-down

Wow! It has been over a month since my last post! Seems like I just wrote about Has Lina last week! Here is what has been going on since my last post:

We went to HHI for the 4^th of July! It was a lot of fun! We stayed in Folly Field. The traffic was terrible on the island though! We went shopping, spent time on the beach and ate ….a lot! Drew, my mom and brother even played a round of golf together at Indigo Run.

Mama and Parker

There were a bunch of birthdays this month too! Our nephew turned 2! Here is opening his Harley Davidson BIG wheel from Aunt Bean and Uncle Drew! I LOVED my big wheel as a kid and I hope he enjoys this one just as much!

Kim turned 27 this month too! I forgot to take a picture at dinner (we went to Myabis!) so her is a picture from a Kenny Chesney concert we attended in 2009! That was such a fun night!

My mother-in-law also had a birthday! I took a picture of her at the Mexican restaurant in a ridiculously large sombrero that I will decline to post… for now! ;) Here is a picture of us from 2007, I believe this was our first picture together!

Last Saturday was Caroline’s 30^th birthday! We went to Augusta to celebrate.. Beamies for dinner! Here is a picture of the girls before we headed out (by the way, this is Caroline’s front porch on their BEAUTIFUL new house!)

We have also started a few upgrades on our house! The bathroom was out of necessity (the tile grout was leaking (ughhhh!)) and we had the kitchen back-splash tiled too. The bathroom is almost finished (we decided to replace the countertops and then we added bead board to the walls since we had a mess on our hands anyway!).

Kitchen before and after!

tile coming down

mid-crazy-mess that was the bathroom. 

Drew and I have also been working out together in preparation for our upcoming trip! I will post about that soon.. But back to working out, I purchased a polar watch and heart rate monitor and I'll admit it’s pretty impressive (and keeps me motivated!). Among other things, it tracks your calories burned based on your heart rate during the workout (granted you have to wear a small strap around your rib cage while you work out and that can be a little uncomfortable at times.  I got mine on Amazon, of course.

We have also had a couple lazy afternoons too!  

The sun!! 

Has-Lina

              
Earlier this week Drew and I were watching something on the Discovery Channel/NatGeo before bed (our go-to channels when there isn't much on TV).  Anyway, back to Has-Lina, a Christian Child Fund commercial came on and inspired us to want to sponsor a child in an underdeveloped nation. I signed us up to sponsor a little girl the next day. Her name is Has-Lina (goes by Lina) and she lives in the Svay Angk Community of Cambodia. She is 12 years old and loves school, especially mathematics. I would like to encourage everyone to sponsor a child through CCF if you are interested. You can pay on a month-to-month basis, quarterly or once per year.  The cost to sponsor a child is only $28/month which is basically the cost of a manicure or a trip to the Mexican restaurant. Here is the link if you are interested: www.childfund.org. I wrote my first letter to her this morning and I am excited to receive a response (which will take a few weeks to be delivered to her and translated) but I will share with you once she writes back. 

Has-Lina, 12 y/o

 

Point "A" is Svay Angk which is about 80 miles from the capital.

Lazy Summer Catch-Up

So far it has been a lazy summer for us (although summer does not officially begin until this Friday). We have been staying in more than usual and I must say it is nice to go all weekend without having to put any makeup on. We need to stay home more often! Drew has been playing more golf lately and I've been torturing myself at the gym after work a few days a week; other than that it has just been work and home, work and home. Here are the highlights from the past couple of weeks:

1. It’s a GIRL!

We found out last weekend that J&K are expecting a girl this fall! I was convinced it was going to be a boy but “boy” was I wrong! We are all thrilled to be receiving a baby girl into our family. I don’t believe I mentioned this yet but J&K asked Drew and me to be the godparent’s of P and Baby #2. Such an honor that was! As far as I know they have not decided on a name for baby girl yet but they need to do so quickly so I can feed my etsy addiction!

Kim and Parker after the confetti drop!

Me, Kim & Courtney; my 2 oldest friends.

Here is my first purchase for baby girl! 60 hair bows!!
Let's hope she isn't bald 'til age 2 like I was!

 

2. DONE. WITH. CLASSES. FOREVER…. Or a while at least.

I finished my LAST class for my MBA program on the 10^th! I am thrilled to be finished with classes and now the only thing left to complete is my MBA project. I am about a 1/3 of the way finished with the project and have until September 30^th to submit it. I’d like to think I can get it turned in early, but if my past performance is any indication I’ll be rushing to finish at the bitter end! I would like to think that I am officially finished with higher education, but getting my PhD is pretty tempting. Dr. Bean – I like it!  

check!

3. Mama’s birthday! The 9^th was Mama’s birthday! She turned 49? … Yes, let’s go with 49. We had a mellow evening; Chinese food and birthday cake! I’m pretty sure we were all sick afterwards from eating too much.

 blowing out candles before "wopening" gma's presents.

 

4. Effective today I am offically a part-time reduced hours employee. It will be a while until I can consider myself an actual part-time employee especially with the increased workload businesses now face with the implementation of the Obamacare Affordable Healthcare Act (ACA) in January. I went to an ACA seminar last Friday and I am genuinely frightened for the vast majorities of small businesses. This "Affordable" act is going to sink far too many businesses than benefit the individuals who already receive free healthcare need access to insurance. ... Okay, off my soap box.

 

St. Simon's Island

We snuck away for Memorial Day weekend this past weekend and it was a very nice getaway! We rented a condo near the King and Prince Resort and shared it with my brother and Drew’s brother (plus their wives of course). Our friends Scott and Laurie were also at SSI for the weekend and they spent a lot of time with us too! We got a great deal on the condo, especially considering it was Memorial Day weekend; I wouldn't mind renting it again in the future! The weather was fantastic (sunny and high 80’s --perfect beach weather!). Us gals spent most of our days on the beach, the guys went golfing on Saturday and toughed it out with us all day Sunday. We brought a ton of food down with us and only ate about a 1/3 of it; imagine that. We ate out every night (@ the Red Barn, Crab Trap and Gnat’s Landing – Gnat’s was my favorite). I’m not sure why I didn't really take any pictures, but here are a few:

Drew and his bother playing corn-hole.

Outside of the Crab Trap (great chicken fingers by the way!)

.... yep that is it for pictures! 

Another update!

It is obvious that I have been pretty slack when it comes to updating my blog; I've have been ridiculously busy at work and have had zero motivation for anything else that involves a computer (including school work!). On the bright side I am switching to a part-time-ish position with C4 in June and I am thrilled about the prospect of having a little time to myself again! Here are a few high lights from the past few weeks:

Kim is expecting again! Our family is ecstatic about another sweet baby! We find out the gender the first week in June and she is Due November 1^st! Whoop Whoop!

Our youngest nephew graduated from Bible Play School this week. He was absolutely adorable during the program and did such a good job singing and dancing with his class! 

We were fortunate enough to host a whole slew of mothers at our house last past weekend for mother's day! We had a great time having both of our families over. We cooked (way too much) low country boil and the kids got to play together which was a lot of fun to watch. 

As a fundraiser for Relay For Life I was a waitress at Burke Perk on April 25th. All of the tips and proceeds from chicken wings sales went to the American Cancer Society. Here we are in our waitress-ing gear:

We went up to the Mexican restaurant for Cinco de Mayo which has turned into an unexpected tradition over the past couple of years. I'm beginning to think that we eat Mexican too often because all of the waitresses know our orders....

We discovered 5 baby rabbits living in our front yard last night! They are adorable! Drew wouldn't let me keep them... something about this being another bad idea like the ducks.... rude!