At Last.... (to the tune of Etta James singing...)

HOORAY!! The race is over, AT LAST! Aside from stumbling out of bed this morning on legs that don't seem to want to work, I feel great! The race went remarkably well, and I think Becky and I only ran out of things to talk about for about 3 minutes! Not to get mushy, but there's no way in hell I would have done this without her (granted she was harassing me every step of the way, but...). She's been a great coach and, believe it or not, it's brought us even closer (which even I didn't know was possible). Love you, Beck!

After the race, (and unfortunately, no nap in the afternoon :( we all went to watch the annual Harbor Parade of Boats. It was a bit disappointing this year- seemed like alot less boats than years past, but oh well, it was still a good time with our best of friends! We went and grabbed a drink and some nibbles at a new restaurant downtown called The Buccaneer. A friend of our family just opened it last Monday. The food was great, the drinks even better (try a Crazy Arnold!!) and the place has all kinds of pirate memorabilia all over it. And on top of that, the prices aren't half bad for a downtown restaurant! I highly recommend it :)

Two more weeks of school left...hard to believe that as of December 18th it will all be over. I can't quite seem to get my head around it. Oh well, it will sink in eventually. And, as Eric continues to remind me, FINALLY I'll be bringing home the bacon!

There's an end in sight...

HOORAY! I'm officially employed! I had a job interview Tuesday at St. Francis and was offered the position that afternoon. It's definitely a relief (especially in this job market) to know that there is a job waiting for me as soon as I pass my boards. Speaking of boards, I only have 3 1/2 (!!) weeks left of school. I can't believe this past two years has flown by so fast. I'm feeling overwhelmed at having school exams, exit exams and then boards all within the next month or so, but I'm sure it will be over before I know it!
And thankfully, so will my half-marathon...what a silly idea to run 13 miles in the freezing cold (way to go, Steph, for suggesting it!) I had a relatively good long run this past weekend... thank GOd for energy gels. And I thought that was the last long run until the race. Then my evil sister informed me this week that she thought we should do another. Idiot.
To sum it all up, a million thanks to my hubby, sister, family, and friends for encouraging me not only with school, but also with this whole "exercise thing". As much as I gripe about it, I've definitely surprised myself with how much progress I've made. I can't wait till the race is over and I can get fat again. (just kidding, Beck :)

Can't...Move...My... Legs

So, I thought 8 miles running would be bad. That was until I did 11. Whoever invented half-marathons is stoopid. And I am even stoopider for signing up for one. Only 6 more weeks to go!!

The latest...

We're finally in and getting settled at the new house- YAY! Most everything is unpacked, if you don't count the one room that I've dubbed "the box room"...I try to take at least one thing per day out of that room, but the rest...well, it may eventually make it's way to the trash can!

Where to start with my update??!

First and foremost, I hit a PR on Monday (personal record) - we ran 10 miles in preparation for the half marathon in December. AGh!!! Although I've had a little trouble with a really tight hip flexor, it went pretty well, and I slept like a log last night :)

Second, as of today I officially have only one nursing class (HOPEFULLY) left. I had my final this morning in my mental health nursing class. It was freaking brutal, but it's over now :) Something worth mentioning- last week we went on a "field trip" to the state mental institute in Columbia. I don't even know where to begin in describing that place, other than it's like something out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. It's old, run down, the staff seem miserable, and I truly feel sorry for the patients that are there. It doesn't help, either, that the money that the state budget had allocated toward mental health ended up going towards building a new stadium for the Citadel. I had some enlightening conversations with the patients up there, and as much as I love psych, I could never see myself working in that environment.

Third, whoever out there enjoys reading and wants something new to read, I (and my sister and my husband and various other people), have become addicted to the Twilight series. I'm never one to enjoy fantasy, and the thought of reading about vampires didn't appeal to me in the slightest...yet, I couldn't put the books down, and now can't WAIT until the movie comes out in November. YAY!!!

Our 1950's get-ups

Lastly, this past weekend, some of our friends hosted a murder mystery party. For those of you that have taken part in these, they tend to be out of control, espcially if sweet tea vodka is involved...This one lived up to the expectations!

Eric's fake tattooed sleeves - does he look like a dirty mechanic to you?

Muddy Buddies

This last weekend, we (a group of 12 of us divided into 3 teams) took part in the US Marine Corps annual mud run in Columbia...and had A BLAST! It's about a 4 mile course through the woods, running up and down hills, jumping in massive mud puddles, rope swings, climbing up rope ladders, more mud puddles, sliding down mud hills into mud puddles, a mud river to walk through (you get my drift...) Needless to say we were absolutely FILTHY by the time we were done, and Stephanie, one of our teammates, had definitely taken a beating on the course. She twisted her ankle, fell another time and scraped up her hip, and busted her elbow up so it was bleeding- but she was a trooper throughout and finished the race! All of the money raised goes towards children and families of those that have lost family members in the war, so it is definitely a great cause.
A HUGE thank you to my sister, who convinced us to do the race, rallied behind all of us during training, , and was standing before the finish line as our team was finishing and screaming (in support) at us the whole time. Thanks Beck!!

FINALLY!!

Well, we're keeping our fingers crossed, but we got a contract to sell our house and we should be closing on it on September 29th!! Everything has gone well so far, and I think the girl that's buying the house is really going to love it.

We went house shopping this past weekend and found a house that we both really liked...and we went and wrote a contract on it last night. 452 signatures later...we're good to go! We should be closing on the new house Oct. 2 (about 4 days after the first closing). YAY!!! Thanks to everyone for their support during this drawn-out process...at last there's an end in sight!

Here's a picture of our humble new abode :)

My life, as I know it, is over...

It's that time of year again...time where everything in our lives revolves around one thing and one thing only...FOOTBALL!! And I'm happy to announce that after a bit of a weather delay, the Seminoles finally got around to playing and successfully trounced Western Carolina on Saturday night. Needless to say, Eric was stoked! Let's hope that the rest of the season is just as great :)

Lessons Learned

It's so sad to officially mark the end of summer on Labor Day weekend...but we definitely went out with a bang! Saturday we got to enjoy one of the local festivals here (The Stomping of the Grapes Festival) at the winery/vineyard that makes the FAMOUS Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka. We got to enjoy the afternoon (sweating) in the sun, drinking some wine...well, mostly cold beer that we brought, and listening to live bluegrass while hanging out with our friends. It was a great afternoon, though life would have been easier if it was about 10 degrees cooler!
Sunday....well, Sunday was another story! We went on one of our adventurous canoe/kayak trips to the tip of one of the islands here. We played on the beach, got some more sun, drank some more beer, then (begrudgingly) had to head home. We knew that having the wind at our backs on the way to the island had definitely made life easier, and we assumed that it would make the paddle back a little difficult. Well, that may be underexaggerating. HOLY CRAP! It was definitely a struggle, and to top it all off, we managed to somehow get turned sideways in the choppy water and flip the canoe. Two words for you: NOT. FUN. Luckily, everyone was pretty close to us and could help get the canoe to shore. The hardest part was trying to get all of the crap out of it to dump the water out (YOU try lifting a non-Hefty trash bag full of empty beer cans and full of water out of a boat and see if YOU don't break the bag!) Ugh. I guess we all knew someone was bound to flip at some point, and the lesson learned was that we can survive it! We managed to eventually make it back to the car in one piece, though we did have at least one casualty- sorry about your phone, Trey!!... What a way to end summer with a bang!

As we head into this week, we're definitely keeping our eyes on the tropics...Hurricane Hanna looks like it may have its' eye on us (literally!). Time to start making the hurricane preparedness kit- wish us luck!

Over halfway there!

So, as some of you know, my sister has managed to talk me into running a half marathon (13 miles) in December. I'm still trying to figure out how she managed it. We've been training for about 2 months now. We run at least 3 days a week (at freaking 5:30 in the morning), and our friends John and Stephanie are doing it as well. We've gradually worked our way up to 7 miles, and this morning's run was supposed to be 7.3. Well. Let me just tell you. For reasons that shall remain unnamed, I needed to take a slight detour, so we gave John and Steph the directions for the rest of the route and Beck and I went a different way. As we winded our way through the streets of Charleston and finally our last turn was in sight, I became slightly delirious and couldn't stop laughing. Yeah. You try running 7 miles and giggling at the end and see how it works for you :) As we stumbled across the "finish line", I was yet again proud of myself for completing another ridiculously long run and still trying to figure out why I was doing it. Well, lo and behold, I get home and Becky calls me after mapping out our run (and the detours we had to take), and come to find out we actually ran 9 miles. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!! First off, I still don't know why we're running it when it would be so much easier (and make sense) to just drive. Second off, well, it's just absurd. I never in my life would have imagined running 9 miles (and being alive after it to talk about it).
So, to wrap this up, many thanks to my sucky sister for talking me into this and helping me meet goals that everyone (including me) thinks are nuts, but just may be worth it at the end.

Scavenger Hunt

YAY!! So the scavenger hunt was a raging success! I didn't know if Dad's friends would be as willing to completely embarass themselves in downtown Charleston, but from the pictures that we saw and the stories we heard, they definitely went above and beyond the call of duty! For those of you that have never done a hunt before, it usually involves collecting various objects, taking pictures of designated places, etc...Well, Dustin created this hunt by himself last year for all of us to do. It was pirate themed (timed for the release of Pirates of the Caribbean 3), and each team had to have bandanas on, eye patches, plastic swords, gold hooped earrings, etc... He printed out an old map of the Charleston peninsula and created a list of tasks on tea stained paper, all written in pirate speak (ARRR!) We had so much fun doing it and were thrilled that we could put the hunt on for someone else. The only bad thing was that the teams continued to argue for at least 4 hours after they got back about who had actually won!
So, a huge thanks to everyone involved and we're really glad to have had so much fun!!

Here goes!

Alright, here goes...my first official blog post! Where to start, where to start?? So, the most recent news with Eric and I is, well, there isn't really anything new. I'm getting ready to head back to school next week and will be taking my Mental Health Nursing class (no comments from the peanut gallery please!) Having already gotten my bachelor's in psychology, I'm very excited about this class. My rotation is at the Institute of Psychiatry at MUSC and we get to take a "field trip" to the State Mental Institute in Columbia on one of our clinical days (which for some reason I'm stoked about but Eric tells me I'm crazy). I think more than anything I'm curious as to whether these places are anything like what the movies/tv makes them out to be. Eric has already informed me, though, that I will not be working at any type of psych. hospital because these areas have the highest episodes of violence in the workplace and he doesn't want me anywhere near them (all together now- Awwww!) Leave it to the engineer to come up with the statistics of where the worst places to work are!!

We've currently got our house listed for sale- we're not desperate to sell, just trying to time the market so we can get into something bigger at a lower price. Fingers crossed! All I know is that selling your house is a pain in the a$$, and hopefully, if/when we do get into a bigger house, we won't be moving anytime soon after that!

One of the most fun things to tell you about (though I'm sure the people that will be reading this are the people that were with us at the time) is that we've recently taken it upon ourselves to canoe/kayak around Charleston and find little known islands/beaches. We then proceed to initiate them with Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka and multiple (read as 2-3) cases of beer...between 5-6 of us, fried chicken , and various other finger foods, including melon(s). See below :)

We find it is our duty to take advantage and appreciate this beautiful, unoccupied land before all of the greedy developers come and snatch it up. And what can be better than sitting on a secluded beach soaking up the sun with the best of friends, looking out over Charleston Harbor, and drinking a cocktail? Well, unless you're Dustin (my brother-in-law). He might not enjoy it so much because he tends to get body slammed :)

So concludes my first official blog post! Tomorrow will be yet another of our fun adventures- we're hosting a pirate themed scavenger hunt for my dad's 53rd birthday. We (a group of about 12-15 of us) have already done this hunt, but we've added some more clues/tasks (because it was so much fun and too short the last time) so now my dad and his friends get to do it while we judge! I hope they enjoy it ...although I don't know if they will have as much fun embarrassing themselves as we did :) Have a great weekend!