Happy Birthday Ginna!!

Happy Birthday to that Ginna girl!!! I hope you had the best day ever and I can't wait to snuggle with you this weekend in Boone!! :) I love you!

Remembering

Remembering those who were snuggled with their loved ones ten years ago yesterday. I can't even imagine.

I love today

Saturdays are my favorite! It's the day I catch up on sleep, errands and spend a lot of time cooking/baking. Today I'm making Iced Pumpkin Cookies! I already have a chicken tortilla soup in the crock pot (thanks, Al!) for tonight's dinner. Andrew will watch football in a few hours and life is good.

Last night we went to the Greek Festival here in Charlotte with our friends the Lowders. I LOVE Greek food. We also ran into a couple from church who was there with their 5 day old baby! And we even left before they did! It's cool to see that life doesn't have to "end" when you have a baby.

Oh and I also love being married! He's so good to me!

Have a beautiful weekend and go USC!

Life lately

I know. It's been a while. I'll blame it on my new job (!) and the fact that I am exhausted at the end of most days. But what a wonderful August it was! Here are a couple highlights:

Atlanta to visit Al & B!

I was so excited for this trip because I hadn't seen their new house and it's adorable. I also was super happy to see Toby, their dog. I think I only love two dogs in the whole world and he's one of 'em.

Here's the pre-breakfast table. Breakfast was yummy (of course!).

We met up with Julie for lunch and then did some shopping!

The next day we went to Winston-Salem for my Uncle Hunter's last day at his church. They had a lovely farewell lunch at a cool venue downtown followed by a band with dancing for after the service. The flowers were beautiful.

Uncle Hunter!

Some of the cousins in town for the occasion!

Now we're gearing up for a busy fall with football (I'm now a Gamecock fan!), trips, hanging out with friends and getting back into a schedule. Oh, and fall weather. I just got back from a run and it was pure bliss! Yes it was. Try running in 95 degree weather and 100% humidity to 70 degree weather. Yippeee!!

I'll confess...

...I did it. Our apartment looks way better than I presented it. You'll find out one day.

But what's wrong with Michael Jackson, at least in the 80s. Sure, he got a little interesting in his later years, but to paraphrase Dave Chapelle, "The man did Thriller!"

And, I just pulled these out of the oven. Wish you were here!

Beauty

Oh! Get ready for some beautiful pictures!

Yesterday I went to visit my dear friend Michelle and her husband Aaron Ray. They live in the beautiful countryside of NC and I couldn't get enough of it. It was a two hour drive from Charlotte and I arrived around dinner time.

Their house is absolutely adorable!

We sat out on the front porch with our tea/lemonade and visited. Doesn't that sound delightful?!

Me & Malart!

Mich & Aaron Ray!

This was taken on their driveway.

One last shot on my way home. It was a wonderful, quick trip and thank you so much for a delightful stay!

Also, you can see below that a certain husband of mine got hold of the blog while I was away. I'll have to give you a proper apartment tour at some point because this is not how it usually looks. ;)

Jolly makes a move

So after all this discussion of decorating on the blog, Andrew and I have revisited what percentage of our decorating input comes from him versus me and we've agreed on more of a 50-50 arrangement, instead of the 95-5 agreement previously in force. It was one of those things where we were hanging out on Monday night and both just decided it was time to re-arrange things a little bit. Let me know what you think!

Andrew is redoing his bureau as a shrine to Coke. Not my favorite, I'll admit, but it's one of his only spaces so I'm going to let him do whatever without comment. At least my lamp managed to stay!
Andrew had this "St. Andrew's Ale" bottle that he'd left sitting around for a while now, and I thought it would be fun to have next to one of our wedding pictures. Ignore the hammer. That doesn't live there.
This one took a little more thought but after much debate, we decided that MJ could sit on the nightstand on my side of the bed. I mean, who wouldn't want Michael Jackson watching over them?
I like what Andrew did here. We moved one of the plants we got as wedding gift to a different spot in the room and are using one of those big glass jugs Andrew brews beer in as a new accent on the couches (which are to the left of this picture). I'm still not sure what I think about that sword he put on the bookshelf. It's still under discussion. But at least he let me put the dolphin clock on our "mantle" overlooking the kitchen. This was one of our favorite shower gifts and it's taken a while to find the perfect place for it.
I'll admit, this one took me a while. I mean, I liked the Jolly Roger just fine in the laundry room. This whole idea of this being "our home" is very true and all but I'm not sure I want a skull looking down on me while I sleep. Michael Jackson, sure, pirate flag...maybe not. This one may not last too long.
And in honor of college football starting off soon, we've broken out the USC blanket Andrew has for the loveseat. If nothing else, it's really warm and will be great for snuggling during Gamecock victories in early winter!