Oh the changes....

Well hey hey everyone! It's been a very long time since I blogged last...and lots has occurred between then and now.

For starters Adam and I have worked very hard on our new house and moved in the last weekend in February. We completely transformed the kitchen with the help of Adam's parents, who came down for a week in Feb. I have never worked so hard for seven days straight.....and hope to never have to again. But! it turned out beautifully, and I am so in love with how it looks now.

Considering we have to pretty much paint every wall in our new house ( i hated all the colors they had chosen) we have been busy. But we are almost done with that task too. Just a couple more spare rooms and the hallway to go. Finally tonight after one whole month Adam has turned on his x-box and is enjoying an evening relaxing....I'll take that as a good sign. Our next big projects move us outside to where our bushes have become very large trees, and we get the joy of hacking them back down to size.

We are also preparing for our puppy to join the family. We drove to Fair Play, SC a couple weeks ago and picked out our new addition, Roman. Roman will come to live with us in April. I'm not sure whose most excited, Adam, myself, or my Mom (it is her first grand-dog ya know?)

Adam and I are currently in between spring vacations as well...we just spent a week in Charleston with my family for my parents 30th anniversary and in April are we going to Florida to spend a week with Adam's family. We had a wonderful time in Charleston...we relaxed, walked the beach, and most definitely did not think about all the work waiting for us at home. We are excited for FL. as well.....more relaxing couldn't hurt.

Enjoy the before and after pics of our new place.....and no we can't come to your house and transform it....I'm too tired. hehe.




Before and After:

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

Off to the beach on Halloween!

I really don't have much to report today, but I thought I would update some pictures, and make you all jealous by sharing with you our day at the beach at the end of October!

I forced ;-) Adam to take me to the beach last Saturday because I thought it would be so relaxing and fun to say I went to the beach on Halloween and laid out. It didn't quite work out that way, but we did eventually make it down there and sat for awhile and watched the waves. It was still beautiful, even though it wasn't as warm as I would have liked it.

In the afternoon instead of going to the beach right away due to the drizzle, Adam and I finally explored Broadway at the Beach in downtown Myrtle. We had a really good time walking through all the shops - my favorite store was the Sugar Store - filled with every type of candy you can imagine. We made some close friendships with a couple of ducks....no seriously friendliest ducks I've ever met....

Anyways...enj0y our pictures....miss you all!

Visitors to this Foreign Land

We've had visitors! This past weekend my parents, and my brother Matt, and his girlfriend, Sara stayed with us in our little abode over my brother's fall break from college. It was so nice to see familiar faces, receive family hugs, and spend time laughing like you can only do when your with your family. Unfortunately the weather wasn't what we had hoped it would be for their visit, Florence's usually 80 degree weather dipped down to the 50's for the weekend, making things a bit chilly.
I attempted to do my best to give my visitors a small taste of Florence and southern culture. Thursday morning, after sleeping in after a late arrival the night before, we ventured to Young's Pecan Factory and the Farmer's Market (two places I know my parents would love). They loved perusing the various types of pre-mixed grits, special jams, and pecan syrups and the Pecan Factory. But it was the Farmer's Market that stole my parents hearts. They slowly wandered through the produce, admiring all the freshly picked options, browsed the fresh flowers and enormous pumpkins. Mom even attempted to make a friend with a local grower when she stated "lovely weather isn't it?" and he looked at her cross-eyed and stated, "Your not from here are you?" We southerner's enjoy our warm weather. The rest of Thursday involved a Wii Championship tournament with the gold medal going to Mom for making us laugh the hardest. On Friday we explored more of Florence's shopping district and had a good southern lunch of Chick-Fil-A. Everyone who comes to visit must experience Chick-Fil-A! Before Adam had to go to work we craved pumpkins that we had purchased at the Farmer's market. Friday night I convinced my family to go to the Wilson FB game against Crestwood. We enjoyed the game, and cheered like true Wilson fans. We didn't partake in all the Wilson FB rituals - such as getting fish from from the concession stand. No need to experience that much of the South.
On Saturday we had to go to the beach and thankfully the weather was a lot nicer. The sun actually came out and we enjoyed walking the beach, searching for shells, and had a nice lunch together. At night we took the fam to Red Bone Alley so everyone could experience one of Florence's best restaurants. Matt finally got to eat some southern ribs, and Adam and Dad were purring with their steaks.
It was a great weekend for everyone and it was so nice to share some of our favorite Florence and SC things with our family. We can't wait until we have more visitors!

This week also included my birthday - Thank you so much to everyone who called me and sent cards; I feel very loved. Thank you!! It's tough to celebrate far from home, but you all made it still very special.

love you all!

Leah

101 things to do...

Hey there friends and family! Two weeks in a row...whoa... I thought I would let you all in on the exploring Adam and I did this week and the things we found. I found a brochure in one of our drawers from when we first moved to Florence that contained 101 things to do in Florence County. Adam and I have decided to complete the list (or at least try to do our best. It does contain outings like...painting pottery and picking sunflowers along the road). So.... Monday morning we decided to get off the couch and explore Lynches River County Park, #5 on our list. The park is about 10 miles down the road from our house (down US-52, the direction I never travel - but we were brave this day.) We walked the nature trail and packed a lunch and ate by the river. My Dad would be so proud, we stopped and read all the signs along the trail and learned the names of the trees down here in SC.


I had a couple of moments where the bugs, cobwebs, and lizards were a bit much, but for the most part I thought I did quite well embracing the nature around me. And yes that's right...on Monday I was introduced to the little lizards that live around our home.
After our nature walk Adam had to go into school, so I had some free time and it was a really nice day so I thought I would sit on the back porch and read my book. Of course after about 10 minutes of wonderful relaxation it was all ruined when I looked up to find two lizards crawling on my house - 5 feet away from me. And of course they were close to my back door so I felt trapped! I can't open the back door - they might scurry their way inside before I know it! Eventually I made the dash to the door while they weren't looking, but I was definitely shaken up. I thought the bugs down here were bad...now I have to watch out for the amphibians too!



Monday afternoon (after I had calmed down from my lizard encounter) my friend Sarah took me to Youngs Pecan Plantation, #98 on our list. What a wonderful experience. After perusing all the different SC jams, bread mixtures, soups and spices, we found the pecan sample table....oh boy. The company lays out bowls of there different types of prepared pecans and other nuts. Oh the choices! Double chocolate covered...sugar and spice...toffee chocolate...honey baked....chocolate amaretto...butterscotch...and the list goes on....my favorite (and of course I had to bring home a box) are the Chocolate honey baked....yum yum. I knew Adam would love the pecan shop too so we went back on Wednesday so he could sample the pecans to his heart's content as well. It was a great lunch....hehehe JK.

Last night I did one more very SC thing. I made my first rack of ribs for Adam for dinner. Now I understand why everyone loves ribs down here...they were good! My cooking is becoming so diverse!

Til next time - love ya!

Leah

A whole month since I've been here to share!

Coming up soon Adam and I will have been in SC for 3 months already. Since the last blog unfortunately not too much exciting has occurred, but I wanted all of you to know that we are still alive and doing well here in Florence. Adam actually said to me the other day, "Leah, I'm so impressed that you haven't cried yet." Oh yeah..that's right...I'm a rock. No really, Adam and I really do enjoy being here, and the transition hasn't been nearly as difficult as I had anticipated (or as bad as my husband anticipated - told him I might burst into spontaneous tears at any moment during the first couple of months - but that hasn't happened, yay!). The weather does help the situation quite a bit, it's still 85-90 degrees here each day, but don't worry it looks like we might have a "cool down" this week...80 degrees.

Adam's schedule has picked up quite a bit, he's busy now three mornings each week at the clinic at McLeod, and then every afternoon has football at Wilson. I continue to work in the dialysis unit at McLeod, I'm technically still on orientation for another 4 weeks...and I'm loving it. I do start some mornings now at 5:30am and those are a bit tougher. The four other days of the week when I'm not working I bum around the house, clean, bake and drive around Florence. I frequent the Farmer's market often, and I even made an apple pie this past week with apples I had never heard of. Not too shabby of me...

Two weeks ago we did have something exciting and newsworthy happen....probably the second most important thing in my life...I got baptized. Adam and I have been attending NewSpring Church (the Florence campus - one of four. NewSpring is actually the seventh fastest growing church in the US right now (www.newspring.cc) and I hadn't planned at all to be baptized that morning. The pastor taught about our faith not being a private matter and that we are commanded to accept Christ and then be baptized, no if's, ands or buts about it. I was nudged to say the least. I had always wanted to be baptized, but my pride and nerves always kept me in my seat. I'm sorry for all those who might have wanted to be there, but that Sunday was the day, and I couldn't deny God any longer, so I went public in the parking lot of the civic center at NewSpring church. Isn't HE GOOD?!

Hopefully this blog finds you all well. We look forward to the days when we will see you again. We are excited for visitors - my mom, Matt and his girlfriend Sarah will be visiting us for a weekend in October - yay!!

Hugs and kisses -

Leah