What an eventful couple of weeks! We are making some big changes here in Flo-Town!


For starters....Adam and I got to witness/be a part of Extreme Home Makeover last week Thursday when we visited where they were building a home down here in S.C. A family in Loris, S.C. was nominated, and a husband of one of Adam's friends from work is part of the planning/organization committee so we were invited to go out to the site and check it out. We got to pretend we were very important and wear the hard hats and the blue shirts and walk up to the house. Some old lady thought we were famous and even took our picture! It was pretty crazy to see how it is all put together. Unfortunately I didn't get to see Ty......bummer. The episode should air some time in March.



This week Friday Adam and I closed on our house. We are officially home owners!!! And what fun that has already been......can I get my money back...please.????JKJKJK! After signing all of our papers and handing over the biggest check of our lives, Adam and I ran over to our new house, so excited to get inside it....come to find the previous owners hadn't completely left yet! A couple of rooms were still full of their stuff.....this is not how I had pictured this going.....But anyways we let them slowly remove their possessions, and even leave their food in our refrigerator for the night. We are way too nice....
So anyways Saturday morning Adam had me up at 8 o'clock to get ready and get over to the house and start working. If you haven't seen the pictures of how the house looked before we bought it, you might not understand quite as well, but there is a lot of work to be done inside. I'm planning on posting before and after pictures (but that won't be for a long time ;-). Oh the joys of owning a little bit older home...The wallpaper in the kitchen is probably going to be the bane of my existence for the next couple of weeks....goody goody. But house work is housework and it's has to get done, and once it is done, it will look wonderful, and represent us and no one else.

Housework wasn't the worse part of our first day of homeownership....no it was the visitor we had. Adam and I are scraping away in the kitchen when we hear a scratching noise in the livingroom. Thinking it was a cat at the back door we look out the back, but can't find anything until we turn around and come to find a SQUIRREL in the fireplace! It was sitting there with it's little paws on the wire grate, staring up at us with a dumb little smile on it's face. Needless to say we both freaked out (maybe me more than Adam) and scared the thing half-to-death. After much deliberating and staring into the fireplace we attempted to give the squirrel a chance at freedom by opening up the glass on the fireplace and cornering off a path to the door and the backyard. Of course the thing wouldn't go near our neat path, so Adam monkeyed with the flue for a while and opened some vents and we went back to our work and when we checked back a couple hours later the squirrel was gone. Of course something like this would happen to Adam and I on the first day we own a home....of course.

I'm sure many more interesting stories will be coming about our slow progress on our house....but hopefully no more squirrels.

love y'all

Taste of Home

Well...after receiving a little flack from family for not posting in so long....maybe since Halloween...oops...I decided to update everyone on what's been going on, and what's ahead for Adam and I. Adam and I got back a week ago from Michigan....and what a week it was!!

To start things out...Adam and I plowed (and I mean plowed with our Honda Accord) through the worst winter snow event North Carolina has seen in the last 10 years on our way up to Michigan. We left on Dec. 18 (Adam's Birthday) for Grand Rapids, hoping to make it to Lexington, Kentucky that night. Of course first we hit all the rain, then the buckets of snow once we got closer to the mountains of NC; the mixture of 12 in. of snow and drivers that have never seen it before and sure didn't know how to drive in it, was just bad. We lost our battle to the snow around Hendersonville, NC (only about 4 hours from home) where we stopped for dinner and the only place open was Denny's. We decided to be wise and hang it up for the night...considering we didn't have much choice...they closed the interstate.
The next morning Adam and I awoke with great hope that today we were going to get all the way from NC to MI! We got on the road at 5am and promptly sat in a traffic jam for an hour....great start. After one more small traffic jam (only 45 min.) we made it to Asheville, NC and the roads started getting a little better. Adam and I decided to take a state road through the mountains, hoping for less traffic and better luck and ended up driving through the most beautiful snow covered mountains and small towns I have ever seen. Past the mountains the driving conditions got even better, and finally we were making up some time. Until....it got dark. We were in the northern part of Indiana right before the MI border when the roads started to ice up and Adam and I after 11 hours of driving decided to get a hotel room rather than drive 30 mph for the next 5 hours to get to home. Tough decision, but laying down in bed that night never felt so good.
The next morning we finally made it to GR and finally saw some family! Now the fastest week ever can begin!!

Adam and I hadn't seen Adam's parents since July, and most other family since August or October, so we had a lot of catching up to do. We spent evenings at Jon and Jen's new home in Fremont, Tim and Ashley's new home in Grand Rapids, and hit almost every Christmas party we could. We sat in awe of how big our niece Emma has gotten and marveled at the fact that she talks and walks too. She even knows our names....except for Adam's. But we'll get there; at least she has Eeeah down. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing friends, spending time with family and completely forgetting about work for a week. Coming to the end of the week was difficult because it meant A) we had to get back in the car and B) we had to leave all our friends and family behind again. It was such a good week with everyone though, and I can't wait til next year!

The trip home was much smoother. We hit a little bit of trouble on 75 in Ohio due to some snow and icy roads, but made it that first night down to Lexington, KY. The next day was fine and we finally made it back home after 16 hours in the car.

So what now??? Back to normal boring life?! OH no way...we need some excitement...some change around here! Adam and I purchased a home here in Florence and we plan to move in come early February! We are very excited making it truly all our own, and actually owning the property rather than renting it. And the house is sooooo cute! Not on the inside yet....you'll understand after I post the before and after photos...but soon it will be so chic.

Also we have two big vacations coming up, opportunities to spend more time with family so we are so very excited about that too! The first week in March my parents are taking our family to Charleston, SC where they rented a home for the week to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary with all of us kids. Then 4 weeks later Adam and I are traveling to FL. to spend Spring Break with Jon, Jen, Emma and Adam's parents. It will be so nice to relax with family!

After all of our vacations....Adam and I plan on making a new addition to the family! A puppy! (gotcha for a minute didn't I?) We get the first pick of a golden retriever litter in Fair Play, SC. We can not wait!

So much ahead of us...it will be a very busy couple of months, but wonderful months though.
I will attempt to post pictures of our home as we get in it and start remodeling.

Miss you all once again!

Leah