Man/Woman/Dog Vs. Wild!

This was our last adventure of the summer.  We decided to pack it all up one more time and head to Twin Lakes Campground.  Let me tell you, we had ourselves a blast.  When we got there, we thought a tornado was coming across Lake Hartwell.  During all that tornadic activity, we were trying to put up our tent.  The tent became more of a parachute than a shelter. We were not the only ones having problems that day either.  Amber's daddy, Ricky, was setting up his pop-up camper and all most turned the whole thing over.  As our tent was about to soar us into the air and Ricky was flipping his camper, our neighbors came over and asked, "Do ya'll need some help?"  Needless to say, we had some pretty cool neighbors because they let us borrow a much needed hammer.  Once the homestead was established, we went swimming, tubing, skiing, and most importantly did some major grilling out.  One of our biggest challenge of the trip was trying to get our dog, Sadie, to swim.  We bought her a life jacket and for the most part it worked and she swam for a little while.  We do have to brag some about Sadie because she was such a good little dog while we were there.  She slept in the tent with us at night and that was pretty interesting.  All in all, we have to give major props to Ricky for being the camp cook/recreational chief.  Jamey, Hope, and the one and only Bryce were awesome campsite buddies.  To sum it up, we had an incredible time living outdoors and hope to do it again soon. 

Beach Bums

First off, sorry we haven't blogged in it seems like forever! But...we have been enjoying our last summer days off before school starts back. Honestly, we have spent some days being completely lazy and some we have spent being productive to get things done for school. We have made a few trips to our classrooms to attempt to start the new school year, but couldn't help but take a few last getaways with some of our favorite people.  Last week we went to the beach with Quinn's family.  We didn't get to go down until later in the week because we were busy helping with VBS at church.  Which, by the way, we had an awesome time dancing our hearts out with some amazing kids!  Anyway, we left on Wednesday to hit up the beach and catch some rays.  We had an incredible time getting to hang out with our new nephew Ellison and having a slumber party with Matthew and Nicole.  In case you are wondering, the reason our trip was like a slumber party is because Matthew, Nicole, Quinn, and I all slept in one room together in two twin size beds.  We were a bit snug, but it was seriously a lot of fun, except for the fact that Matthew wanted to keep closing the air vent because of dust.  The few days we had at the beach were incredible though! We went to the beach (even little Ellison), ate some incredible seafood, saw some unbelievable storms, played numerous games on the Wii, and rode bicycles through rain puddles.  It was so nice to just relax and be with our family without a care in the world. We can't wait for next year's beach trip with the Pearson's.  A trip to St. Simon's Island(where we went on our honeymoon) is in the works.

Making Monday Moments.

Oh the joys of Monday...Mondays seem to always be slow and just creep on minute by minute.  You know, sometimes it's all right to slow yourself down because we tend to notice more of the blessings GOD has poured out to us and how He is always faithful.  We spent the day with Quinn's Grandma Lila and his cousins, Kaitlyn, Riley, and Emily.  We didn't do much of anything special other than eat some KFC and sit on the front porch talking about everything under the Son.  We reminisced about some fond memories of Papa James and how he lived his life.  We walked down to his barn and his radio was still playing the Gospel music channel that he always listened to while he worked.  We all found comfort in that music knowing that he is in a better place now. We encourage you to be still and slow down, notice your surroundings, don't complain so much, and finally, be quick to give GOD praise.  Here's a quick quote we came across from Max Lucado, "Today, you will encounter GOD's creation.  When you see the beauty around, let each detail remind you to lift your head in praise to your Father in Heaven." Nothing but love for you all.  

Wedding Weekend!

This weekend was our last wedding weekend for the summer.   Our college friend, Avery, was the stunning bride.  She is the last of our college friends to finally tie the knot.  What's funny is that this time last year, she wasn't even dating Ryan. They met on eharmony.com and totally fell in love. You have to know Avery's personality to understand how in world she dated and married someone within a 1 year span.  She's totally fun, spontaneous, and exciting and all of us knew that once she met "the one" that it would be a short engagement and she'd be a married woman before long.  Avery and Ryan are a great couple and we truly wish them the best!

We had a great time getting to reunite with old college friends and eat some delicious food.  We were really excited because we got to finally see our friends Heather and Jared and their sweet baby boy, Boone. Besides just hanging out with old friends, we were totally stuffed from some incredible food all weekend! Ryan's uncle was the chef and definitely fixed up our meals right! We had everything from homemade salsa to incredible tasting chicken skewers. We had a wonderful weekend and can't wait to reunite with everyone again!

Girls Morning Out!

This morning, I went on a Girls Morning Out with some of my favorite people...Mama, Granny, and Hope.  I was super excited to get to hang out, eat, and get pampered together.  The morning started by a visit to St. Francis Hospital.  A good friend of ours, Sharon, has been in the hospital for almost a month from a sudden case of Pneumonia.  It has left her bed ridden and caused her to get blood clots in her legs. She is now having to start occupational therapy in order to move her arms and legs like normal again.  I think that it was a good time for us to just go and encourage her and lift her spirits.  Please keep her in your prayers as she continues to recover. After our visit, we headed out to Tips -n- Toes to get pedicures.  This is by far one of my favorite things to do.  When I was in college, I got to go get my toes done all of the time, but now that I am teaching, I usually don't have that much time to go.  I figured we would have to wait for quite a while for all 4 of us to get a pedicure, but we went right on in and sat down.  I always love going to nail places and listen to them talk in another language the whole time.  I know that they are probably all secretly talking about how nasty our feet really are.  I actually had my nail lady to ask me about my Jesus fish tattoo on my foot.  It was a neat little time to share with her that it represented my Christianity and faith in Christ.  Another lady also thought I was 16 years old and that Hope was way too blonde to belong to all of us brunettes. Needless to say, we had a great time.  Since Granny and Hope were starving we decided on a fabulous lunch, P.F. Changs! It was absolutely delicious! We left lunch to go to Whole Foods Market. I absolutely loved it there and would love to shop for groceries there all the time if I had all the money in the world.  But I don't have tons of money, so I spend what money I have at ol' Bilo. Anyway, I loved all of the different fruits and vegetables they had, some of which I have never even heard of or seen.  I ended up coming home with a few goodies though.  I brought Quinn some Pistachio crackers, sweet potato chips, and a baby seedless watermelon. Sadie got some sweet potato dog treats herself.  I love the grocery store way too much! Still waiting on my trip to the Farmer's Market before the summer is over.

A Couple Days Behind...

Well, what can we say?  We have been truly livin' it up over these past couple of days.  It all started with Bryce's birthday party which was totally gnarly!  Bryce had a bunch of his buds over to play every sport known to man.  The highlights of the party were the intense wiffle ball game and most definitely the pie throwing at Jamey's face.  We have to give major props to Jamey for letting a bunch of third graders pound him in the face with mountains of whipped cream.  Jamey just sat there and took it like a man.  He will be nominated for "Father of the Year."  

We think it is well worth mentioning that Bryce received a ventriloquist (spelling may be off) doll named "Charlie" for one his birthday gifts.  For some reason, Bryce has an incredible talent at speaking without moving his mouth.  He really can say the whole alphabet without even cracking his lips.  The boy has some major skills which will pay the bills someday.  All in all, Bryce had one cowabunga b-day bash.  Hope and Jamey, well done throwing a great party for a true Son of Thunder.  

Finally, we spent our whole Monday at Table Rock listening to some good ole church talk at the District Conference.  It was an interesting day and the best part was listening to Buddy Rampey.  Buddy Rampey is the man...a true man of God.  Another great part of the day was when Quinn saw two of his students at the conference.  What a small world it is!  Quinn told me that he kept hearing, "Mr. Pearson!" coming from somewhere.  Low and behold, out of the corner of our eyes, there were two of Quinn's students.  After the reunion and some more church talk, we headed back down the mountain to end the day walking our dog, Sadie, down mainstreet while the sun slowly set on the beautiful metropolis of Pelzer.  If that's not livin' it up, then we don't know what is.  Nothing but love and God Bless. 

The Jockey Lot Expedition.

Today we took a Jockey Lot Adventure with Rick, Neesie, and Mr. James.  We were extremely excited because neither of us had been in forever and we had high hopes of finding some neat things to go in our house.  Since we have all the time in the world with summer break, we have been busily working in our home constantly and are always looking for something to make it even better.  Anyway, the morning began at 6:00 a.m.  We haven't gotten up that early since school let out for the summer and boy was it a wake up call. Quinn immediately said that he couldn't do this every Saturday.  The first place we went was to the ol' Piedmont Cafe to get a scrumptious breakfast.  And boy was it delicious! Rick and Mr. James go there so often, the waitresses already know what to order for them.  The rest of us got the normal breakfast but with a grilled biscuit.  Mmmmm! It wasn't a healthy option but was very yummy. After breakfast, the venture to the Jockey Lot began.  Of course Rick and Mr. James got out of the car and left us and Neesie to find deals on our own.  We quickly caught up with Rick and made him stay with us because he is the one who can "wheel and deal."  Everyone knows at the Jockey Lot, you buy extremely random things.  Here is what we came home with: potato chips, Axe spray (can't ever smell too good now), basketball shorts, 4 childrens books, and Sadie a new dog toy.  So needless to say, we didn't find anything to spruce up our house, but we found some other random junk.  That's the joy of going to the Jockey Lot! The morning ended by a quick run to Anderson to a few yard sales that had a bunch of nothing because we were too late.  Then we headed on to Sam's to supposedly just get some croissants, but came home with much much more.  We had an adventurous morning and had a great time listening to Mr. James' stories about life. He also had some great quotes especially this one after we thanked him for a great morning, "Ya'll welcome as the flowers in May."  Maybe we can do it again before school starts back and find some more crazy junk to add to our collection.