The days get away from me so quickly....

Oh my!!!

I'm so sorry!!!!

I'm tellin' ya......things have been SO busy around here lately......but GOOD, FUN busy!!!! :) :)

I can't believe, however, that it's been a good 3 weeks since I last posted!!! I hate that I let time get the best of me. :(

Alrighty then, this post will be a quick (yeah right....if you know me in the least, then you know that nothing I say OR type is ever "quick...." I am a woman of MANY words!!) debriefing to bring you up-to-date. Here it goes.....

2. We have been traveling. A lot. This past weekend was the first weekend that we were at home in Charleston since mid September! The first weekend trip was to see a very dear friend of ours, Miss Haley Busby (now Blake, YAY!!) get married to her precious fiancée (now husband, YAY!!) Brandon. Their wedding was GORGEOUS...I hope to post some pictures because the place was truly picture perfect and Haley was amazing. They chose to use fall colors and the weather could not have suited it all any better. We had an absolute wonderful time!! Congrats again to Mr. and Mrs. Blake!!!! :)

In this same weekend we actually left Charleston on a Friday evening around 6:30 and headed to Columbia to visit my BIC and bestest friend Kate. We met her and her awesome galpals as well as our AWESOME and long time friend Brad (who is somehow surviving his first semester of medical school without ANY sleep) out at 5 points for the Gavin DeGraw concert (also the same concert in which Travis Barker and DJ AM opened and later had their horrific crash as they left Columbia). We got some grub afterwards at a place called Salty Nuts which was interesting. Kate so graciously let Jonathan and I stay with her that night (NO RELATIONS Kate....we promise!! Ha!!!) so that all 3 of us could carpool to Haley's wedding the next day.

We left Cola Saturday morning in Jonathan's dad's itty bitty pick-up truck (which was a TON of fun considering how small and the fact that there were 3 of us....we can make anything a BLAST!!!) and dropped it off at the Edens' house to fit into a more comfortable seating arrangement for the rest of our trip up to Haley's wedding (another hour and a half to two hour drive up to Cullowhee, NC). However, because my mama and daddy-in-law are more incredible than I could ever give them credit for, they let us shower and get ready while there, and Sandra couldn't have us leave before having a true, fresh from the garden, home cooked meal!!! I mean, really, she whipped it up in less than half an hour....dessert too. She's unbelievable and it was DE-licious. :)

After the wedding, we headed back to Easley where we dropped Kate off by her parents and hung out a while and talked w/ Mr. Bill and Mrs. Sue. They are so great! Mr. Bill even let us borrow their bike rack so that we could bring our bikes back to Charleston!! If you'd like to see the wonderful Whitlocks head on over to my hubby's blog and check out the post The Whitlocks.

We then went to the Moore's and got there around 10 o'clock. We spent just a little while talking w/ Mama Moore -because she was still up- before heading to bed. The plan was to go to church the next morning, but after having spent almost the same amount of time IN a car as OUT, we overslept. We then had lunch w/ both sets of parents at Applebee's (a J and L Edens favorite), spent some time getting the bikes ready to go, met the Whitlocks to get Kate back, then headed back to Columbia and Charleston.

Needless to say, it was a GREAT w/end, but BUSY, on the move, and sped by far too quickly.

3. Speaking of those bikes that we brought back home on that bike rack from Mr. Bill....our new family motto is: "I ride my bike at night." If I've learned anything about Charleston living, it's that you can't live here and NOT have a bike!! It's the BEST (and ONLY) way to get around!!! We are loving every fast pedaling, back light flashing, gear changing, bum hurting moment. And we really do ride them mostly at night!! During the weekends we'll go out in the mornings, or we'll use them to get to destinations around downtown, but we do try and ride down King to the battery every night and back. I've got to say it's my absolute favorite thing to do with my husband. Man I love it.

4. Okay, so the following weekend we had yet, another wedding. Our good friend Josh Boltinhouse (aka BHouse) and Elizabeth were getting married in Rock Hill and Jonathan was a groomsman. We left Charleston this time on Thursday afternoon so that we could get to the hotel in time for Jonathan to do a "bachelor night" with Josh and the rest of the groomsmen. We booked the hotel from Thursday to Saturday and took part in all the fun and exciting wedding festivities the bride and groom had planned. Friday consisted of some shopping and lunching, Friday night was the rehearsal dinner which was by far the most fun I have EVER had....they had a DJ and we shook our boo-tay's for about 3 or so hours.....and Saturday was the BIG day!! Elizabeth was gorgeous, the wedding was SO sweet, and the reception food was awesome!!! All in all, we had a stellar time.

The wedding didn't start until 6 PM and since my parents had come into Charleston for the weekend (I had spent the week prior to all this traveling cleaning the house from TOP to BOTTOM to get it ready for them...it was the first time they would be seeing it) we decided to drive back after the reception as opposed to staying another night in Rock Hill. Not a good idea, but a necessary one.

We left around 10:40 and drove and drove and drove, with Jonathan BARELY able to stay awake, before we FINALLY hit a rest area around midnight just on to 26. We decided to pull in and set our phone alarms for 1 AM, but didn't awake until 2 AM. Somehow we managed to stay awake and finish out the trip rolling into 132 Smith at 4 AM exactly. Talk about ridiculously TIRED. I don't even remember walking from the car to the house, but I do know we didn't bother to unload the car and went STRAIGHT to bed.

5. Family. We LOVE our families and we are HUGE family fans. So....we drove back Saturday night because my parents (and they brought my fabulous aunt Rita) were in town....we woke up WAY too early Sunday morning (8:30....that's right.....only about 4 hours of sleep) and finally unloaded the car and got ready for lunch with the Moore's and the Large's. We were also supposed to take "family" pictures (you know the drill....white tops, khaki bottoms, on the beach) per my mother's request, but Jonathan and I just could not get it together because we were SO tired!!

My parents got here and FINALLY got to see our place (which I was SO excited about) and they LOVED it!!! My mom especially loved my table top decorations on the kitchen table (which I KNEW she would....I get the decorating bug from her) and made over them!!!! I love that I know her so well. :) We again had lunch at Jestine's, just because it's that awesome. If you'll remember, I've posted about this Southern goodness before, and Ashley and I couldn't let our parents miss out on this amazing experience. After lunch we all came back to our place and played Rock Band for a bit before they had to head back to the upstate. :( I do have pictures though and it's hilarious!!!

Speaking of family, Jonathan's mom and dad are coming to visit us this weekend. They helped us when we first moved in, so they've seen the place, but when it was bare and not all fixed up. I am MORE than excited about their visit; getting to show off our freshly decorated home and all sorts of exciting things that I know we'll do while they're here!!!! I can't wait!!! :)

6. Speaking of all that showing off, I plan to post several pictures of our home. I sent an email out to friends and family almost 2 months ago promising these shortly after, and did not follow up!! If you've ever "made" and decorated a home with your significant other, you know that you DON'T move in and everything "just comes together." It definitely takes time, energy, and money to get your house to where you want it....especially with decorating. Since we don't have much time in our very first home :(, due to moving in December, we had to really work hard to make it all come together. And we finally achieved everything we wanted out of it about 2 weeks ago....while we were in the midst of traveling so much.....hince the reason for not having posted or emailed any pictures yet.

We LOVE this house and just about everyday find one of us saying how much we'll miss it when we have to move. It's very old and very little, but has so much character and Charleston heritage in it. It really is the most adorable, perfect house ever. :)

7. We have a friend who likes to hang out on our front porch and I have self named him Chas. He is the CUTEST kitten (besides our sweet Sissy of course) ever!!! He usually only comes around early in the morning or in the evenings, so, although he doesn't have a collar, I still think he belongs to someone. We have a lot of college kids on our street in and in our little complex area, and he has every sign that would mean he belongs to someone around here fitting that description. I do a very bad thing when he comes....I give him sandwich meat, aka-turkey. My husband was not so happy with me when he discovered this, but it hasn't had that "stray cat" affect on Chas, so, more proof that I think he already has a family. He does make for a good visitor though since we couldn't bring Sissy with us. :( I do have some pictures of Chas, so I'll share.

8. My car. I told you I would update you. So....a WHOLE lot of frustration. Long story short they had my car for over a month, would not return our phone calls when we called to check on it, we finally were able to go get it the Wednesday before we were leaving for Josh and Elizabeth's wedding only to find out that they hadn't fixed one whole side of the car (ridiculous, I know)!! We had to leave it, and we were FINALLY able to get it the Sunday when we got back. Whew. Oh yeah....it did STILL have a headlight that didn't work. Oh well. I got my car back and that's all that matters. :)

9. As you know, Fall is here. And, if you'll remember from a previous post about Starbuck's Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino, I expressed to you not only my love for the aforementioned drink, but my tremendous heart for the season itself, Fall. It took it a while to get here -and hearing all of you upstater's brag about that smell and feel that you get from Fall that cannot even be explained through words was TORTURE- but it did reach Charleston!!! :) The leaves changing and falling doesn't really happen here, so I'm extremely sad about that (they just fall to the ground.....no turning), but that crisp, cool air is running through my veins and I take as many deep breaths as possible as I walk outside everyday to take in every moment of Fall that I possibly can. I wish it were fall ALL year round. Really.

Lydz and I have planned a Halloween party for Halloween night, so hopefully that will fulfill some of my yearning, but nothing will compare to Jones' bonfire, tons of candy, Fall Festival at church, and salmon stew w/ the family at Jute's. I did manage to pick up a flyer from work today concerning a corn maze, pumpkin patch, and hay ride out on John's Island, so maybe we'll check that out. But nothing will beat Callaham's. :(

So, as you can see we're making the best of Fall and All Hallow's Eve in the low country. I've decorated the house with just a few simple decorations and candles (only because my husband won't let me go tacky everywhere) and we're watching all SORTS of old and cheesy horror movies OnDemand as often as possible. It's actually been really great and I've still got all those heart filled emotions that I get during this time of year. :) The holiday season is what YOU make of it, and I'm still as happy as a lark when my favorite time of year comes!!!

My Halloween/month of October is everyone else's Christmas/month of December. Seriously. People think I am CRAZY when I tell them Halloween is my favorite holiday....moreso than Christmas even. Really. I'm not evil or anything, I just like it the best. :)

Alright. I know. That was too long. And if you read it all, I'm impressed. And I hope you did, but would understand if you didn't. :) I promise next time I won't wait so long to write again!!! :) :)

Happy Fall, Ya'll!!!!!