My 20s

I have no idea how old I was in this picture, but the expression on my face really sums up how I feel about turning 30.



Some of you know that I love even numbers. My intellectual strengths are in language arts, not math. Yes, its true that I never mastered my multiplication tables and managed to make it through Carolina with only one math class (thank you, Journalism school!). Kind of scary that my job involves lots of numbers, huh? I consider it a huge blessing that I was born in 1980. With a quick and easy subtraction that even I can do in my head, I always can figure out how old I am!

The other thing I like about my birth year is that my "big" birthdays coincide with new decades.

Several older and wiser friends and relatives have told me that my 30s will be the best years of my life. As exciting as this thought seems, I can't help but question the validity of that statement. I spent some time this week reflecting over the past decade, aka my 20s, and they were pretty darn good.

Don't get me wrong, there were some hard times also...but isn't it funny how the good times really stand out? I thought I'd share some of my highlights over the past decade...

2000/age 20:
I was a junior at USC. Good times!


2001/age 21:
This is the year I met the love of my life. It's hard to believe that Graem & I started dating nine years ago! That means we've been together for almost a third of my life. Wow! This picture was taken on one of our first dates. In my mind's eye we still look like this.


The summer of 2001 I did a study abroad program. The course was "Reporting in the British Isles" and we traveled all over England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. This course was through Michigan State (random!) and I didn't know a single other student until I landed at Heathrow Airport in London and met everyone! I made some great friends over that summer and at the end of the course, Jen and I traveled on to Paris and Italy.

Trafalgar Square, London:


2002/age 22:
Graduated from USC.


Graem took me on a trip to Boston to celebrate graduation.


That December my mother and I took a trip to Spain.


2003/age 23:
Looking back, I don't know how I managed to pull this off, considering the salary I made, but somehow I bought my first house -- all by myself! Well, I did have a roommate, but that was because my friend needed a place to live, and it helped me be able to afford to go down to 5 Points every so often buy groceries. We still have this little patio home -- and I mean little -- less than 1,000 square feet -- and we have never had any trouble finding renters for it.



2004/age 24:
Graem and I got engaged and I spent the next year obsessing over every detail of planning our wedding day...

2005/age 25:
Alice and Aunt Ruth (and Aunt Beth, behind the scenes) took me on a fabulous trip to NYC...

Wedding bells!


...and we bought the house we live in now.

Another trip to NYC that fall for me and Graem.


2006/age 26:
Graem and I took one of my favorite trips ever. For our first anniversary, we flew out to California and spent a few days in Napa Valley, a few days in Sonoma Valley and a few days in San Francisco. I planned most of the trip, but Graem was in charge of the transportation, including car rental -- and he surprised me with a Mustang convertible! It was so much fun! The only problem was that the car didn't have very much cargo space. We bought so many cases of wine that it all wouldn't fit in the car and we ended up having to ship some of it home! Mental note for next time: rent a U-Haul!


2007/age 27:
Ski trip to Jackson Hole...except that we didn't do very much skiing. We found out right before our trip that I was expecting and under doctor's orders, no skiing allowed. We ended up going on several snowmobiling excursions, which were amazing, and we skiied one day, very carefully, with Graem skiing behind me to make sure no one plowed into me!


That fall, my sweet little Mason was born.


2008/age 28:
Trip to Montana (chronicled here).

2009/age 29:
Sweet baby boy #2, Roper, was born.


And I finished up a 5-year pursuit of my MAI (I won't bore you with the details -- this is a work thing, but kind of a big deal for me).


The past ten years have been great, so it is bittersweet to say goodbye to my 20s. I'm looking forward to all the good times that lie ahead in my 30s!

Celebration in Chucktown

Another mini-vacation/weekend trip for me and Graem, and another trip to the farm for Mason and Roper. Everyone's a winner!

We went down to Charleston to celebrate my birthday (which is actually today). My husband is very thoughtful and invited some friends of ours to come along...

The McCartys...


...and the Tunmores...


...and us. :)


We headed down early on Saturday so that Tara and I could hit the outlets. Graem and Arch had very little interest in outlet shopping, so they entertained themselves by visiting Dick's Sporting Goods and a very large pawn shop!

After scoring some good deals, we headed downtown to browse the shops on King Street and the market. I was on a mission to find an Easter basket for Roper. I wanted one of similar size and design as Mason's. As expected, there was quite a selection!


Mission accomplished.


I'd say they are pretty similar!


We got together for a glass of champagne at the hotel courtyard (again, thanks to my hubs for planning ahead)...




...followed by a delectable dinner at Hanks. Graem and I started P90X last week, and Tara, Arch and Auralee are on the South Beach diet. I don't know about everyone else, but the food was so delicious that I didn't even miss having dessert!

The next morning, we headed over to our favorite breakfast spot. Graem had the foresight to make reservations, thank goodness -- look at the crowd!


We debated on whether to walk or drive, the sky was cloudy and rain was in the forecast. We decided to walk. I'm so glad we did! On our way back, I wanted to come down Queen Street so that we could look at all the flower boxes and peek into the quaint courtyards and cemeteries.






For some reason, I'm a stranger magnet. I feel like everywhere I go people always stop me and talk to me. I like to think it means that I'm approachable. :) Anyway, a sweet elderly lady stopped us on Queen Street and invited us to join her for worship at her church. She said she has been a member at her church since the early 80s when there were only 30 members. Now, they routinely have a packed service and often run out of bulletins. How could we resist her invitation?


The service was beautiful and the message was wonderful. One interesting thing is that some of Graem's ancestors were French Huguenots. They emigrated from France to the SC Coast in the early 1800s before later moving farther inland to Aiken County. I couldn't help but wonder if some of his ancestors had once worshiped in this church.


Our new friend was a wealth of information regarding our beloved Charleston. She gave us the full history on her church and on the Dock Street Theater, across the street from the church. According to her, the first theater in America was performed at this intersection. The Dock Street Theater just underwent $29 million in renovations.


She invited us for lunch after the service. I can't put into words how disappointed I was that we had to decline. By this time it was 11:30 and our hotel check out was at noon, so we really had to get back to pack up and check out.

We promised her that we'd come back to her church on our next trip to Charleston. Next time we will dress in our Sunday morning duds instead of jeans + t-shirts! Charleston is so beautiful...each time we leave I look forward to our next trip.

My Apologies

I just realized that I haven't posted any pictures of Mason and Roper since our trip to the mountains last month. I have some new blog material that I'll be posting over the next day or two, but the boys won't be featured in any of my new posts either. So, to satisfy those of you (ahem, grandparents) that like to see new pictures of the boys, I'll direct you to Tara's post about our trip to the park last week, which you can find here.

Take Me Home, Country Roads...

This past weekend Graem and I went skiing in West Virginia with our small group from church. It was great to spend time with old friends and get to know some new friends better.

Group shot in the lodge:



Group shot on the slopes (minus Ted, Sarah & Burton -- they came up & left a day early):



I managed to get a picture of each couple on the lifts (again -- minus the Brewers).

Jason & Leslie



Raluca & Justin



Jessica & Matt



Graem & me



We even had some trick skiers with us. Maybe a circus career is in their future? :)







Some of us had to leave babies at home with doting grandparents...but Burton (age 5) is a seasoned skier and taught the rest of us a thing or two about cutting up the slopes!



Isn't it great how these things show up all over the place?? Go Gamecocks!

Betsy's Birthday Party

Little Betsy celebrated her birthday last weekend with a "Dollhouse Housewarming Party" -- I thought it was a really creative theme that Sally came up with!

Graem & I attended the party sans children. Mason had a pretty bad case of RSV last week...by Friday he was feeling much better. By Sunday Roper was coughing and running a fever off and on...I guess it is virtually impossible to keep a 2-year-old from spreading germs to his baby bro. Two weeks of sick babies...that explains why I'm just getting around to posting these pictures!

Graem's parents had been planning to keep the boys Friday night and bring them back in time for the party. Since Mason seemed to be feeling better on Friday, off they went to N.A. But we didn't want to expose any of the other children to those awful germs, so they ended up staying with Nana and Grandaddy for the weekend. It felt kind of funny to be at a 2-year-old birthday party without my boys, but we enjoyed it. I felt like I could actually carry on a conversation with other adults without being distracted by having to keep one eye on each child.

Here is the birthday girl with her dollhouse, ready to be furnished.



The dollhouse was Sally's -- her mother made it out of an old cabinet. Sally renovated it for Betsy. Sally inherited her creativity from her mother!

She asked me to make Bet's cake and of course I was happy to oblige. I really hope that someone else will ask me to make a dollhouse cake, because I have some ideas for next time that would make this cake even better!



I think Betsy approved of my handiwork...I caught her sampling the icing.





Jude and Christopher took turns four-wheeling...





Sally, me, Auralee and Tara. Love these girls!

Songs

Lately Mason has requested that I sing him a song before bed, after we've read a few books. I don't have the best singing voice, but he doesn't seem to mind. The songs that are in our "heavy rotation" include:
- Row, Row, Row (he likes this one because one of our nicknames for Roper is "Ro-Ro")
- Twinkle, Twinkle
- Dixie
- Rock of Ages
- Jesus Loves Me
And, Mason's personal favorite, As the Deer, or as he calls it, The Deer Song. Only lately, he has been requesting The Horse Song. What is the horse song??? I have no idea. Sometimes I sing As the Deer and replace "deer" with "horse." But then I get cracked up by the vision of a horse panting for water -- it just is funny/wierd.

Beer for my Horses just doesn't quite fit the fill as a lullaby. I know lots of George Strait songs that are about rodeos, but surprisingly, very few of them actually have the word "horse" in them.

The only children's song I can think of with the word "horse" is She'll be Coming Round the Mountain -- but I really don't like that song very much, not sure why. Probably because when we went to Montana last year it was one of 5 songs on a Disney children's cd that we had with us. We listened to Goofy & Mickey's rendition maybe 6,500 times. That'll kinda ruin a song for you for life.

This past weekend, Aunt Cindy taught me two extra verses to "Row." I had never heard these, but I like them so I thought I'd share:

Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream,
If you see an alligator,
Don't forget to scream! AAHH

Row, row, row your boat,
Gently to the shore,
If you see a lion,
Don't forget to ROAR!

The Great Smoky Mountains

My mother planned a great "Girls Weekend" (plus children) for us to the Great Smoky Mountains this past weekend. It was so much fun to get to spend time with Aunt Cindy and my cousin Michelle and her two children, McKendree (2) and Madden (3 months). We loaded up Daddy's suburban (4 adults + 4 babies + luggage!!!) and took off to Gatlinburg for the weekend.

Friday: Loaded up and ready for a road trip...



Sweet babies in their jammies...



Aunt Cindy had all of them cracking up.





The highlight of the trip for Roper...Bebe introduces him to french fries (they were very well-mashed).



On Saturday, we went over to Bryson City to ride on the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad. The train ride was 4 hours with a layover at the Nantahala Outdoor Center. The views along the Tuckasegee River were gorgeous! Needless to say, the children really enjoyed themselves and I think everyone on the train knew who Mason and McKendree were!











I love this picture...I can't believe Roper's eyes are so blue...time will tell if they'll stay that way. Mason's stayed blue until about 12 months and now they're a green/hazel color.



Aunt Cindy and McKendree at the Nantahala Outdoor Center.



Mason and McKendree decided to try their turn at white water rafting...





We couldn't believe our eyes when we saw a herd of elk on our way home Sunday evening! I took this picture at dusk and had to "doctor" it so you can see the elk. These two bulls were sparring when we first pulled off the road to look at them, but in this picture they seem to be getting along just fine!



I promise that I was on the trip...I know I'm not in any of the pictures, because I was always on the other side of the lens!