Edisto Family Pics

Here are the Best of the Best of our pictures we took as a family. I was thinking about cropping some and then seeing how they look in black and white, but honestly, I love the bright colors and thought they turned out so good, that I just left them as they were for now. We were going to have a professional take our pictures, that is right on the island, but they never returned our phone calls or emails. So...(God worked it out that..) the staff from our church was having their staff retreat that same week and so Leisa Clamp volunteered to be our photographer and I have to say that she did a super job! But then again, look at what you had to work with, I mean, come on, did you expect anything less than super? Just kidding! Enjoy!

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Edisto Beach with Kevin's Family

This past week was Christmas in June for us and Kevin's family! For Christmas, Kevin's parents decided to give everyone a week at Edisto Beach. All but Kevin and I headed down last Saturday. Kevin and I came down Wednesday late afternoon. (We had to split the time with Kevin's dad due to the farm). Wednesday evening we had family pictures made. (As soon as I get copies, I will post them. They turned out so, so good!) We spent all day on Thursday at the beach. It was a beautiful, perfect beach day! Kevin and I played with our nieces and nephews. We had a great time playing in the water, boggie boarding, jumping waves, playing in the sand, and building things. Friday we awoke to rain. After breakfast it stopped long enough for us to think it was over, so we all headed down to the beach. Only to find that it was going to rain until lunch time. After lunch the sun finally decided to poke it's head out again and shine for a little while. After lunch, the family scattered in different directions. Kevin and I headed back to the beach. Katelyn, Mrs. Katie, Tori, Jared, and Lily Kate headed to Charleston to bring some stuff to Ryan that he had forgotten and needed at the fire station. Heather, Michael, Kayla, and Geoffery headed to the Edisto Serpentarium to check out the snakes and other reptiles. It was a nice, quiet, lazy afternoon for Kevin and I on the beach. Saturday morning we got up and headed home. We were home by lunch time. Then Kevin went to work and I decided to start washing clothes and took a nap. We had a good time. It was very noisy and busy with 8 adults and 4 kids, meal time, but once I got home I found myself a little bored, because the kids had provided the entertainment and I missed having everyone around. I think we all enjoyed our Christmas present.

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Family Time at the Pool

Sunday afternoon, Kevin and I decided to go swimming at his parents' pool. Abby, of course, went with us. This time I wasn't going to put her in the pool at all. So, Kevin and I were playing volleyball and all of a sudden we heard a splash, and we look, and here comes Abby swimming out to us. We were both so shocked. Abby was very calm about it. The times I had put her in before, she didn't seem to like it at all and was acting scared. I had my camera with me, so I got it on video. She swam back to the steps and got out, then a few minutes later, he she comes again. She only got in twice. I think the only reason was because we were not paying her any attention. But I was pleased that she could handle being in the water and not be scared or panic.

Anniversary Dinner

For our anniversary dinner, I wanted to cook and eat off our "good stuff", our China and use our nice glasses, etc. So I cooked a meal that Kevin and I both enjoy. I found this recipe a few weeks ago on the back of the French's Fried Onions, and you prepare your chicken like normal, then dip it into egg, and roll it into the fried onions, then bake for 20 minutes. And it is very, very tasty. If you like onion rings, you would like this. Then I cooked green beans, fried some squash (fresh from our garden), and had some silver queen sweet corn and no that wasn't from our garden, but we will have our own soon! And to top it off, we had a piece of our cake. It was very satisfying.

Happy 1st Anniversary!

I cannot believe that a year ago today, Kevin and I got married! It is crazy to realize that it has already been a year. We celebrate our anniversary last weekend with a trip to Savannah, GA. Last night we went out on a date. It's been a while since we have done that. We went out to eat at Ruby Tuesdays-which was were we ate on our first date-then went to the movies. This was the first time we had been to the movies since we saw Fireproof. We saw "The Proposal" with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. It was very GOOD! Kevin and I both enjoyed it. There was plenty of comedy for Kevin and plenty of romance for me. It was a great all around movie. If you haven't seen it, it's a great date-night movie. The kind of movie that leaves you warm and happy inside and thankful for the spouse or special person in your life. We cut our anniversary cake at lunch. See, in my cake contract you could either save your top layer or on your anniversary she would make you a new, fresh top layer. So of course I wanted a fresh one, instead of one that had been frozen for a year. (That was one of the errands that my dad and I did on Thursday, was to pick up the cake.) It was just as heavenly delicious as I had remembered. Only better this time because Kevin and I get a whole little cake to ourselves!

A funny thing happend last night at about 4:30 am, I heard Kevin coming back in the house from checking on the chickens. I normally don't say anything to him when he comes back in, I am still so very asleep at that time. I heard him come into the room, but instead of going to his side of the bed, he was coming over to my side. Well, being still asleep, it kind of scared me, and I woke up and was like " what are you doing?". He was like, "oh shoot!". He turned on the light and had a dozen red roses in his hand. He said that he had them hidden at his parents' house and wanted to surprise me, and have them sitting on my night stand so I would see them when I woke up. It was very sweet.

Kevin and I have had a wonderful first year together. God has blessed us so much, He's taken care of us, and has reminded us over and over that He is the one in control. I love being married to Kevin. I love hearing his voice in the morning (I don't see him because I am still have my eyes closed), and being there when he gets home. He has been there to support me with all the changes that I have had to make. He is always encouraging and helping me to do my best in all I do. He is caring, understanding, and sincere. He's everything I could ever ask for, and I love him more and more each day. I am excited to celebrate this day together. I think we would both agree, we are more relaxed and comfortable today than we were a year ago. I think the only thing maybe that Kevin and I might want to do different would be, that we would love to be back on our way to Jamaica right now. Kevin, thank you for all you do and for being you! I love you and happy first anniversary!

Thank you to our family and friends for being there, supporting us and encouraging us throughout this year. Thank you for those that have sent us anniversary cards or phone calls.

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Happy Father's Day!

Hey Daddy! Remember what you were doing a year ago today?

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there! I went to Greer on Wednesday to visit with my dad, grandfather, and uncle Keith. We went out to eat Wednesday. Thursday, my dad and I ran some errands and just hung out. It was a nice visit. I am sure that dads have a very special relationship with their sons, but there is just something extra special between a dad and a daughter. I could have not asked for a better dad than I have. He has always been there for me at awards days, swim meets, dance recitals, piano recitals, and Mr. Fix-it, etc. He has always made sure that I had everything that I need, plus more. He has given me many opportunities to see and do things that many people would not have had the chance to do. We are so much a like in our personalities that sometimes that can cause us to be suborn when we have a difference of opinion, but we love each other for it. I don't know anyone, next to Kevin, who is a harder worker than my dad. He showed me what a dad was suppose to be like, how a husband was suppose to treat his wife and set the example very high for the kind of man I was to marry. I love him very much and he has helped to make me the person I am today. Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

Butterfly

This afternoon, after we got home from Savannah, I was putting water in the birdbath and filling up the bird feeder, when I noticed the butterfly on my butterfly bush. I got some good pictures.

Savannah Pictures

Some of the pictures that I took over the weekend, I thought would be awesome in black and white. So I chose my favorites to share with you. I would use the smilebox slideshow, but it doesn't show all of the picture. You can click on any of these and make them bigger.

1st Anniversary Weekend Trip

Next Sunday will be our first anniversary! I can't believe that we have been married for a year! It has gone by so fast. Next weekend, Kevin's family leaves for a week at Edisto Beach, so we couldn't go out of town on our actual anniversary, so we went this weekend. We wanted to do something special since it was our first anniversary, so we chose to go to Savannah, GA. We left Friday at 6:30 am and headed on our way. We left so early, because we wanted to find our hotel, then we wanted to spend the day on Tybee Island, GA. Neither one of us had been to Tybee Island before. It was a really nice, clean, family beach! We were both impressed with it. We both would like to come and stay at that beach sometime. We stayed at the beach just driving and walking around until sometime after lunch. We couldn't get in our room until after 3:00 pm in Savannah. Then we headed back. After checking in, we both took a long nap, I was tired after getting up so early. Friday night, we walked around River Street and ate dinner at Dockside Restaurant. It was very, very good! Then we were entertained by some of the musicians walking around River Street. We stayed at the Ballastone Inn, which is a bed and breakfast. Saturday, we had a delicious breakfast of fancy little orange tasting pancakes with powder sugar on top with scrambled eggs, sausage, fresh fruit, and freshly squeezed orange juice. Then we started on our journey to go stand in line to eat a Paula Deen's restaurant. Noelle, gave us a gift card for our anniversary to eat there. Thanks Noelle! We didn't have to stay in line but about 30-40 minutes. We spent the morning around River Street until it was time to head back for lunch at The Lady and Sons. We ate on the 3rd floor of the restaurant. We chose to eat off the buffet. We had fried chicken (which was very good), cream potatoes (which were OUT OF THIS WORLD, crazy, good!), mac 'n' cheese (which I am sorry Paula, my aunt Ann has got you beat hands down on that one), black-eyed peas, fried cornbread cakes (which Kevin said I could beat Paula with my cornbread), cheddar-garlic biscuits (Red Lobster has better ones), but then for dessert, I had chocolate-chip butter cake (oh my gosh, this was like eating cotton candy it melted in your mouth and made you want to slap the person next to you; it was HEAVEN!!!) To wash it down with I had freshly squeezed lemonade that was very delicious and refreshing. It was very neat though to eat at someone's place that was as famous as she is. It's neat and fun thing to tell people you have done. After we rolled ourselves out onto the street, because we were StuFFed; we went next door to shop in Paula's store. We spent the rest of Saturday around Savannah. I had to go to The Peanut Store. Two years ago my mom went to Savannah and brought back a can of chocolate covered peanut brittle and I just had to get some more. It was so very good! We rode on the Georgia Queen River Boat and saw the famous Forsyth Park Fountain. Since we had such a rich lunch, we decided to eat at Five Guys Burgers and Fries for dinner. We had a very nice weekend. We did a lot, a lot, a lot of walking, and we sweated a lot, a lot, a lot, A LOT! So we felt like we walked or sweated off our meals, but it was nice to be away and just get to spend time with each other.

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Weekend Wrap Up

This was another busy weekend for us. Friday, Abby went to the groomers and got her a summer hair cut. In this picture she had already lost one bow. But her bandanna is blue with Nemo on it.

My parents came down today with my aunt Susan and uncle Dan. They brought me a birdbath. I have been looking for one for about 2 months and they found one that I liked. So now my little flower bed is completed.

We had a nice visit. Susan and Dan had not been to our house before. It was drizzling a little bit when they first got there. We showed them the chickens, compost, and sheep it really started raining some. After we ate lunch, it cleared up. It was a pleasant day outside, not that hot, so we all sat on the front porch, taking turns throwing the ball to Abby. It was a nice day.

Swimming Lessons

Yesterday, to celebrate the end of another school year, Abby and I went over to Mrs. Katie's house to go swimming. It was just the 2 of us and Daisy. We only stayed about 30 minutes because it started raining. I wanted to see how Abby would react to the pool. So I put her in it and held her while she paddled around, then I let go. She was scared. She was splashing and carrying on so. I did put her in about 4-5 times, because I was trying to train her to go to the steps to get out. She kept on wanting to go up the side, but she just couldn't get the rest of her body out. I wanted her to know how to get out in case she was to fall in sometime. The last time I put her in, she did go to the steps after she tried to get up the side about 3 times. But I think she was very scared and probably won't get too close the pool. I had brought her tennis ball with us. She would take her nose and roll it to the side of the pool so it would drop in the water for me to get it to throw it for her. It was so cute.

Summer Break

Well, yesterday was the "official" last day of school for me. The kids' last day was on Wednesday and my day was yesterday. It is so nice to be done. Kevin told me last night that this was the first time in the past 3 years that I didn't call him and say " I'm FREE! I'm FREE at Last!". Which I had not even noticed. When we were at the beach I saw this Christmas ornament that was in the shape of an apple and it said, " 3 Reasons to be a teacher: JUNE, JULY, & AUGUST!"Which I thought was funny but true. I know that most jobs are all year long, but most jobs are not as mentally, emotionally draining as teaching. If we didn't have those 9 weeks off, I know for a fact many, many teachers wouldn't come back. We need this time to get the bad taste out of our mouth of the year, distress, and by August we come back ready for a new year and refreshed, thinking this year will be much better. However, all in all, I did have a great school year. I loved being at Kelly Edwards and I really enjoyed teaching 3rd grade. I was blessed and realized that over and over throughout the year to be at the place I was. I am also so thankful that I will be able to return to KEES and be in the 3rd grade again next year.

Congrats Graduates!

I just wanted to give a shout out to some graduates that I know.

Brooke Scott

Blue Ridge High School

Plans to attend Lander University in the Fall

I am so proud of you! You have many wonderful, exciting adventures and challenges ahead of you.

Drew Scott

University of South Carolina

Degree: BS in Sociology

Plans to find a job, if not, then plans to maybe attend graduate school in the fall.

I know that whatever you decide to do, you will succeed!

Amanda McCoy

Tri-County Technical College

Degree: Nursing RN

Job: a nurse at the Emergent Care Center in Anderson, SC

Congratulations on passing your boards! You have such a caring and happy personality-you will brighten any one's day and you will make a great nurse!

Aunt Arie Update

The surgery went very well last night according to the doctors. She has done pretty well today. She is awake and able to move her arms and legs. She had a small hemorrhage at the base of her brain where the spinal cord connects. She is still pretty druged up, but she is able to answer a few questions. Sometimes, though, to to move her arm she does have to pick it up with the other hand. Just keep praying for a full recovery and she will still continue to progress each day.