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Tuesday, December 31, 2013

NYE Flashbacks

In honor of today being New Years Eve, I started to think about NYE's in past. Today marks two years since Brian Y was hit by a car, 3 years since I spent my NYE with a parrot, and 5 years since Angela hit someone's little dog.

I have never done anything crazy exciting for New Years Eve. Going to Charleston to kick off 2012 was probably the most exciting thing I've ever done. When I was younger, we used to go to the neighbors house around the corner and watch them set off fire works while everyone ate, drank and watched the ball drop. There was one year specifically that I can remember when Jennifer went with my family. Mom, Jen and I were sitting beside the fire on a little bench when all of a sudden the fire popped and something came flying towards us. Mom jumped off and ran one way, I the other, and poor Jennifer just fell backwards off the bench!! Lucas has thrown some trash in the fire, not realizing that one of the fireworks was still in the box!

I just called Angela because I am sitting here almost in tears laughing so hard thinking about NYE 2009. She was dating Josh at that time and we were all freshman in college at USC Aiken. Josh's friends were all getting together to celebrate at one of their houses in Irmo, and he and Ang decided to hook me up on a blind date. Josh's friend, Danny, was single and was a freshman at USC. We were driving back to my house after leaving the party in two separate cars. I was in my own, and Ang was following me in hers. We were on the road that runs beside Publix in Irmo when all of a sudden a little Chihuahua ran in front of my car. I quickly swerved and missed him, but Angela who was a good 100 feet behind me didn't :( I turned around when I realized that Ang wasn't behind me anymore and ended up pulling over on the side of the road where she was. She said she thought it was a squirrel or something and didn't mean to hit it.  I remember us now calling for that little dog and Josh saying that poor little guy was probably someone Christmas present... This was so not funny while it was happening, but 5 years later, I am getting a little chuckle out of it.
















Next came New Years 2010. LC's birthday is January 31st, so we usually celebrate one way or the other. She is in Orlando with some friends, probably having a blast at Harry Potter World today. On this particular NYE, we had a party at Paul's house downtown Columbia. I was still dating Danny at that time, and we surprised LC with a doughnut instead of a cake for her 20th birthday. It was just your typical party at Paul's with a big group of Chapin/ Irmo people!







 
New Years Eve 2011 was nothing special. Jacob and I went to Joey's house for dinner with the family and then watched the ball drop there with everyone. Kristen and Rocky were going out downtown, so they came by and ate with us before they went out. I spent most of the night playing with Zazu, Joey's parrot!



And then there is NYE 2012!!! Jacob and I went to Charleston with some friends of ours on a party bus owned by one of the guys parents. When I say party bus, it is literally that! There was a group of us going down together, but it was all random people that didn't know each other for the most part. Jacob had invited a friend of his named Justin, and then Justin brought two girls with him. Brian was roommates with Robert, so him and his gf Amy (graduated from Chapin with me) joined in too. There was 3 other guys and 2 other girls. Thinking back now, it was really really random how we all ended up on that bus together!

 We all met at Brian's apt that morning and headed down to Charleston. The plan was to go to Justin's house that we were all staying at and get changed before we headed to Red's for dinner and the party. After the party, the bus was taking us back to Justin's house to stay the night, and then we were getting up early and headed back to Cola. Seems simple right...
On the way down, everyone started talking about friends they had in Charleston and we ended up picking a few more people up at different apartment complexes on the way to Red's. The only two couples that were on the bus were Jacob & myself and Amy & Robert. Problem #1. Everyone else was basically free meat. Problem #2. Boys had been drinking all day.  Problem #3. All girls are not sluts.
The night was coming to an end... blah blah blah and everyone was getting back on the bus. There was a few randos that we didn't know who they were, but hey, the more the merrier right?! It was around 3am and we were headed back to the house. The bus driver turned down a different road and pulled up to an apartment complex to drop a girl off at the end of the road. The random blonde girl who I didn't know (who is also in the picture to the right in the blue dress with a stain) got off and right behind her followed one of the guys that was with us. Brian was in the back of the bus and didn't seem to know what was going on, but as we started going again, he suddenly jumped up from his seat, grabbed the door opening gadget thing, and jumped off the bus. It was all kind of a 30 sec blur because no one really knew what was going on. Next thing I know is that we look over and Brian was running across oncoming traffic and suddenly was hit by a car. (he is still alive today, don't worry) Other guys ran off the bus to go help him and get him back on the bus with us. Our night that seemed to be coming to an end, was now just starting as we headed to the emergency room.
We pulled up to the ER and Justin jumped off quickly and ran inside to get help. He came back to the bus with a wheelchair and was very unhappy with the nurses inside who had just ignored him when he asked for help and were too busy asking if there was someone famous on our bus. By 4:30am we were leaving Brian there, and headed to the house to try to get some sleep.
 I am honestly not sure what happened after that. We got to the house safely and all went to sleep for like a total of 3 hours. I remember one girl called and got someone to come pick her and a friend up so they wouldn't have to deal with the craziness that the next day would bring. When we got up that morning, we got all of our stuff together and had to be in the driveway at 8 am to get on the bus. Needless to say, the bus didn't get there till almost 10 and we didn't have everyone going home with us that we started with. Brian had a couple of his friend pick him up from the hospital and take him home so we never even saw him after the accident. The picture below is us waiting for the bus to come get all everyone. I have no idea who the girls are beside me....


New Years Eve 2013
This was my first NYE with Stu. We met in January of 2012, so New Years was the last of all the holidays that we got to celebrate together. We didn't plan anything big. Just went to dinner with my girls and then to Brian and Ivey's house to watch the Clemson game.

 
Now to New Years 2014...
To Be Determined.... TONIGHT
 

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Instagram Obsession

It's day after Christmas and all though the house, Stuart was sleeping while Tipsy played with her mouse. Jessica was up, getting ready for work. Not because she wanted to, but because she doesn't get paid to twerk :)

Ha ha ha! It's pretty bad that the first word that I thought of to rhyme with work was twerk!

The office is so quiet today because the majority of everyone has taken the day off. Literally when I say majority... We have 12 sellers and 4 are here today and 3 managers and 1 is here today. Everyone I have called hasn't answered and I have already swallowed down 2 cups of coffee by lunch time. I was looking back at the home page of my blog and started scrolling through my Instagram photos. I ended up going all the way back to the very first photo that I had posted last April. Here's the thing, I was so anti Instagram because I posted everything on Facebook and Twitter. So many of my friends had kept trying to get me to download it, but I just wasn't interested. Finally come April, Bri and I were getting ready for Ang's wedding, and while she did my hair, I scrolled through her Instagram looking at everyones pictures. I immediately loved it and made my own a few days after!

After looking through all my pictures today, I realized I in love with the whole idea of it. There are so many things that I was able to capture over the past 8 months that I love!! Here are some of my favorites!

I just posted this picture yesterday! Casey gave us this cute chalkboard with a picture frame for our engagement party! Some of our wedding décor is going to be chalkboards so this gift was perfect!!
 
 
 I love taking pictures of my food :)

 
Crème Brule from The Lazy Goat in Downtown Greenville.
Strawberry, spinach and almond salad made by me! I ate this everyday for two weeks straight while working at McDonnell & Associates!
A delicious strawberry cupcake from The Chocolate Moose in downtown Greenville.
These yummy goodies were on the dessert bar at Soby's brunch in downtown Greenville!
 Amber Bryant took this picture of Stu and I walking back to our car one night after having dinner with her and Taylor in Greenville.
This was Stu's first, and sadly probably last time at Uptown Art with me! We had so much fun painting out Clemson sunset pictures together.  
 It's no shocker that I am obsessed with my cat Tipsy!
 I love taking pictures of all her funny expressions! She doesn't always love the camera though!!
  
 If you ask Michael Mae who her favorite person is, she will say Stu. He loves her more than anything <3
 
Now Stu has two girls competing for attention. Anna was born the day before Stuart proposed! She is such a little bundle of joy because she is always laughing and smiling at everyone. This was us before church on 12/23.
 
I believe that a persons coffee mugs tell a lot about them!
And to add to the crazy cat lady mug above... here are my crazy cat lady salt & pepper shakers!
 
I love a good day with arm candy! It brings confidence to my attitude!
I could never turn down a good bloody mary! This scrumptious concoction was from the bloody mary bar at The Roost during a Sunday brunch.
The sky amazes me. Especially when it looks like this. This was a sunset back in October in Greenville!
 

Last but not least, these champagne flutes were the first wedding craft that I made for our wedding. I bought the glasses at a thrift store for .25 cents each and then bought the paint at hobby lobby! I can't wait to use them at our wedding!!
 

Double Digit Countdown

Today makes 99 days till our wedding day!!! We hadn't been counting down the days until Christmas Eve when I realized it was 101 days away :) I thought it was pretty special that on Christmas Day, it made 100 days till the wedding!

We have so many wedding things left to do it's crazy! Stu's sister in law sat down with us on Monday night and helped us make a list of everything we have left to finalize. Unfortunately, it was longer than we all had imagined. We have some pretty important big list things left to do like actually book our caterer, plan out our flowers, cake and decorations, and also pick out the guys suits! We have multiple showers that have to set dates for and send list of people to invite to as well. Our registry at Bed, Bath & Beyond is lacking and we also want to go register at Belk. Not to mention I still have multiple girls that haven't ordered their bridesmaid dresses! All this craziness is coming on so fast that we are just having to take one day at a time. With both of us working full time jobs, it doesn't leave much time to sit down and plan everything out. Luckily Stu and his mom are off tomorrow, so they are making the drive up to Sleepy Hollow to view the grounds again, and plan the rehearsal dinner. Hopefully we can get a few more items checked off our list by the time we get to 90 days left...

Prayers of helpfulness are appreciated :)

Thank you so much to Meredith for getting her mom to be our official wedding director and her aunt to do our flowers!!!

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Miss My Frens

Everyone has heard that quote that says "the grass isn't always greener on the other side." Well if we are talking about coworkers, then that's for sure how it is at this job vs. my last.

I worked in the disbursement department at McDonnell and Associates with 8 other girls and 1 token guy. I think Kevin was the luckiest guy ever to get to put up with us lovely girls all day, but I am sure he saw it otherwise. There was quit the mix of personalities when it came to all of us too! Casey & I were the loud and talkative ones who were most likely goofing off at any given time of the day, while Jen & Meghan were just ready for 6:00 to roll around so they could leave! I never would have realized how close I could get to those girls. We spent at least 8 hours a day together, and on months end, even longer!! Kevin quickly became our best friend and could fit right in there and talk about everything since he was happily to married to a girl that acted just like us all!
I can not even describe how much I love Casey! We are so much alike that it is scary! I have no doubt that we were meant to meet and work together, even if it was just for 9 months. Everything from our personalities to our love for margaritas, Casey is my match <3 I am so happy to have her be apart of Stu and I's wedding! She will forever be a bestie!





















I am happy to say that a group of these past coworkers are planning to come to our wedding! There were so many times that we would sit in that office and laugh about having babies and getting married. Now it's a year later and it's actually happening. Jen is in the Army, and Meghan and Amber have babies! Even though many of us have moved on, we still keep in touch weekly. As many times as we complained and fussed that we wanted to get away from that office and leave, I think that there is part of all of us that misses it. I know I definitely miss them the most!!
 
I looked through a bunch of old pictures and found some of our
most memorable moments :)




 




 

 
This whole trip down memory lane started today after I got the idea to call Kevin and speak with an accent since we used to do that all the time to clients who called. Here is the video of the after math :)
 
 
Of course I have more videos loaded on YouTube from from the office!