School has gotten under way–I’m finishing out online, which is incredibly nice, but also makes me feel super grown up. No actual class means I work 40 hours a week still…do class in the evenings…and am still working on wedding stuff.

In the past month and a half, we have completed our menu and cake choosing, we have the favors half made, we have chosen ceremony music, my bridesmaids have dresses, and we have booked a honeymoon. Additionally, Moose has come home! ha-now you know why I have not blogged. Oh the busy-ness of life!

It is so strange to think that in 89 days I will have one to-do list 100% done forever. The wedding planning that has been going on for a year and 2 months now is reaching its culmination and Praise Jesus we have such amazing friends helping us get there with our sanity remaining.

Our small groups take a hiatus over the summer (at church). We began again this week. Oh…how I had truly missed this unique group of women. This semester, my sweet friend/MOH/potential future SIL has joined us…we range in age from her (20) to well over 40. We range from college to having kids in college. We have different bodies, tastes, families, styles, and spiritual levels…but we come together each Sunday night to grow in Christ…and all boundaries are dropped. We are a group of the best of friends on that night. We are sisters, sharing our deepest love–our Father. We are being pursued in the same way by the same scriptures. How incredibly amazing God is to create this sisterhood. I am SO blessed by these women. If you are not involved in a small group–you should be!

Today, I read Amanda’s post about her trip to Guatemala. It truly brought me to tears. I pray that my “Compassion” reaches beyond my things and my world to those literally world-wide who need tangible things….and deeply need the love of Jesus.

First–Charleston in the summertime is HOT. We got down on Friday after a long caravan down (three cars). We ate at Burger King on the way down and it did not sit well on my tummy. Mom calls me Lilly Mae. For those of you who knew my aunt, you know that this is her way of calling me a chronic hypochondriac. Nonetheless, my tummy and tiredness kept me from the rehearsal dinner that evening. Instead, I slept from about 4 p.m. until the next morning.

Saturday, we got up and went downtown to the market. We walked the whole thing. I am not sure why our family does this…we never buy anything, but we always walk all the way down one side and back up the other. After this tradition, we realized that a. Micah and Chelsea were on their way and b. Meemaw and Peepaw had never taken a carriage ride and wanted to. We gathered the troops and signed up for a carriage ride. While waiting, the heat took a tool on me. Lets just say it was not a pleasant experience–however, i felt much better afterwards. Our carriage ride was much more invigorating than our wait. We learned a few new Charleston facts and had a good time.

We got ready for Si and Kylee’s wedding and headed down to the Charleston Maritime Center. Again–HOT. Through the blistering, soaking wet heat, they had a beautiful wedding. The reception was fun, as well. We didn’t stay long, though, as we were anxious to get going to Edisto!

We headed out in a caravan of four cars. It began pouring down rain about ten minutes into our journey. I had a difficult time keeping up, so was following closely. About an hour outside of Charleston– dad stopped suddenly, Peepaw stopped suddenly,  Micah stopped suddenly (in Chelsea’s) car, and I hit him (driving Moose’s car). Praise the Lord, absolutely nothing was wrong with either of them! Then, we hit some major traffic. The traffic brought us to a dead stop by a roadside stand–where Micah decided to buy two watermelons. LOL

Finally, we reached the house! Some sweet friends had allowed us the privilege of staying in their beautiful home. We tried the first key–nothing. The second–nothing. So, here we are at 9 p.m. in beautiful Edisto SC……..with no way to get in. Dad and Micah had to go to Columbia and meet the owner and get a key. We finally got in the house at midnight!

The remainder of the week was rather uneventful. We did lots of beach things–skimboarding, body surfing, looking for shells etc. I did lots of studying for my CFA tests–and got the training done. All in all, that was the remainder of our trip. It was a fabulous vacation–one I am eternally grateful for!

My mom and I have been in major project mode for the past few weeks. This tends to happen every summer when we are getting her classroom ready for back-to-school while preparing for Children’s Camp. This year, toss on an ever-nearing DIY wedding, and vulah! (that is my rendition of WA-LA, phonetically).

These pictures are of incredible phone-taken quality, I assure you. They will not win any awards, but they will take you on a short journey of our most recent project adventures.

This wedding project involves cutting 1000 4" by 4" squares of muslin. Just wait. It will be fabulous. You will see....

It's just a little bit tedious.

This project involves drilling holes into approximately 200 Alka-Seltzer for a game at Children's Camp.

Our success rate currently is 50%

Now, Mom wouldn’t let me take a photo of the disaster that his currently her Kindergarten room, but we are changing themes this year and going Western. It’s fun, truly.

This, on top of work and regular summer activities, is basically what we spend our days doing. Don’t you wish you were in our family!?

Stay tuned for a full Si/Kylee Wedding and Edisto Vacation Recap

Granted, I’m on the team who thinks it is crazy to do anything at midnight. I probably haven’t seen the front side of midnight in MONTHS! Maybe like–New Years Eve–Maybe. I see midnight when I am awoken in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, experience heartburn, or am annoyed by snoring, heat, or some other nuance. Yes, I do consider midnight the middle of the night. 9:45-10:30 is bedtime. 11 is pushing it. 12-4 are the middle of the night. If I wake up between 5 and 8, I usually try to lay there for another hour or so, but will typically get up. Maybe I’m old…or maybe I just realized that the best stuff happens during the DAY!

On a completely separate note altogether, I wish there were a way I could blog from the car. I have my best thoughts in the car. It’s like a dramatic monologue (I definitely had to spell that word 5 times to get the squiggily red line to go away) going on in my head. It’s crazy…and wonderful. I love the thoughts I have in the car. It is probably one of the reasons I don’t mind my thirty minute commute–granted, I mind it even less in Moose’s car. I am driving it while he is in Australia (and am LOVING the AC).

We had a block party Sunday night for the community. We have been going out on Sunday nights and sharing with the town and community about the church and inviting them to the block party on the 4th Sunday night where the gospel was conveniently presented. This will repeat in different areas of the town in July and August. It was incredibly successful with over 240 guests and at least 5 salvations. Praise the Lord for blessing the unconventional things going on at Calvary Baptist in Williamston.

Well–It is nigh approaching my bedtime, so I will have to finish my fun stories at a later date!

Goodnight all

He is much more hilarious than I.

Sorry that his stories aren’t that invigorating, but I’ll have more Thursday morning

So…I have missed him a little bit! My life the past week-

I had a CFA training conference on MTW. It was a lot of fun. We learned a good bit of information that I had not previously known. I also made several connections with Operators throughout the US who may help me with future career moves. Way to go networking

This weekend, we took my dad and brother out for Father’s Day/Birthday. We ate a fabulous meal at Olive Garden and then saw the Karate Kid. How fun this time was! Micah was a party pooper, though and bailed on the movie.

Sunday, our Movie Gallery was going out of business. I got twenty movies for right at $40. It was a great value. Some of the titles include Post Grad, Annapolis, and The Time Travelers Wife. I feel like it was a fabulous first-year of marriage investment!

My final weekend event was the saddest. Micah made us shave his head. He had beautiful hair–and now, it’s a 3 guard. Sad I told him that by December 11, it better be long again! I’ll try to post some pictures soon!

Much Love

In other news, Moose leaves in 5 short little bitty days to go to Australia. Then, he will be back in exactly two months…than we will get married in 185 days. Be praying that Moose’s grant money actually comes in. The company says they sent it and the bank says they haven’t received it…so currently, we’re still waiting. Hopefully, it will come through without too much trouble.

Moose had a little wreck about a week and a half ago…and his car has been at the shop since then. Finally, today, My mom got her car back from me…I got mine from Moose…and Moose got his from the shop. Thank goodness we have sweet people who will play pass the car when accidents happen!

Next week, I will be in Atlanta MTW for work training at Chick-fil-A corporate. I’m excited about this opportunity. I love going down there and experiencing things with that company. It will be good to have the training also. It has been awhile since I’ve done this sort of outside the store training.

That’s basically what’s going on right now! Talk soon

What do you think? Could I pass for a pop star with an extreme hair budget? Or should I have started fresh with straight hair?

Today I went to a fireman’s golf tournament to give out box lunches from Chick-fil-a. We gave out our new Spicy Chicken Sandwich! They are coming out to the public June 6, but you can get one early by clicking on the link in the previous sentence. Anyway, the golfers were mostly fire chiefs and their cohorts. It was neat because photographers from CFA Corporate were there documenting the event. I always like being a part of big stuff like that. A big shout out to random guy who was the cow for us. He was honestly the best cow I have ever seen. He could be on the commercials, I swear. Energetic, happy, and full of whatever it is the CFA cow should have.

We are officially at 200 days for the wedding. I thought that would be a number I never saw! I think I may just literally jump for joy when I get to 100!

I’m thinking my month of June will be the most relaxing of the summer. We won’t be going on any trips until July, so June will be full of simply work. This will be nice. I’m sure, though, being at work, home, church, work, home, and church will make me miss Moose when he is in Australia. I think I will try and convince him to blog about his adventures (yeah…..right). I will just blog about the stories he tells me. I will allow you to live vicariously through me as I am living vicariously through him.

I would really like a bathing suit cover up. The problem here is that I bought a black/green/white bathing suit and a brown/teal bathing suit….and can’t really afford two cover ups. I am debating between a random color like pink or going neutral with white or grey. I also can’t decide if I want this or this or this or something else all together. The Big Mama blogged the other Friday about which ones she preferred, but most of them were out of my price range as well. Maybe I’ll let another summer go by wearing a t-shirt as the most fashionable cover up option in my closet!

May 8-Hinson

May 22-Burton

July 9-Roberts

July 24-Vest

August 29-Pursley

October 2-Moore

October 15-Stone

December 11–ME!!!

So, here’s the thing. Instead of using months or days, I’ll use friends/family getting married before me to count down.

In other news, I am in the middle of taking a Maymester class. It is multicultural education. I did not think I would enjoy it or appreciate it; but I have been pleasantly surprised. The things we are learning are very interesting and are changing my point of view on cultural differences.

Carrie just shared with me that there are 31 weeks until her wedding. This means there are 30 until mine. Strangely, I am not antsy or nervous. I am honestly ready for it to get here! Moose will be in Australia in exactly 4 weeks for 9 weeks. Scary! I trust that the Lord will grow our relationship through this time of separation.

I truly wish I had a fun story for you all. Say a prayer Maybe soon!