Mom - Kidnapped!!!

After the Women of Faith conference, Allison, her mom, and I kidnapped my mom and brought her back to S'Ville with us. Mom stayed with me for about a week, which was really nice...especially since Paul was on a trip. The 4 of us, and our friend Ali and her mom, went to a cute tea room in downtown Summerville, called This Whole House. WOW! We ate good that afternoon!


Here is my tea:
And my Greek tortellini salad with fruit:
And my dessert (I think it was a lemon cake with raspberry filling and white chocolate shavings):
This is what my mom ordered for dessert (chocolate cake):
Ali, Allison, and me. Ali has been such a good friend these past few months. She was my small group leader when I attended Thursday morning Bible study, and then this summer she led the Beth Moore Bible study we did. She's expecting her second baby boy in November, so keep her in your prayers!

Women of Faith Conference

On August 9, Allison, her mom, and I drove down to Atlanta to spend the weekend with my mom and attend the Women of Faith conference (Aug. 10-11). Let me just tell you that it was awesome! Allison and I went to the Beth Moore pre-conference during the day on Friday, then our moms joined us for the main conference that night and all day Saturday. My favorite part, by far, was listening to Beth Moore - what an amazing, humble, humorous, godly, engaging, encouraging, energetic speaker she is! It was even more exciting since Allison and I were just finishing up the Beth Moore Bible study entitled "Living Beyond Yourself - Exploring the Fruit of the Spirit" which was incredible and enlightening. What was really special for me was what she spoke about. I had just said during dinner the night before that I am waiting for some good to come out of what I've been through losing my father. I said that I want to live out 2 Corinthians 1 and comfort others the way the Lord has comforted me. Well, would you know it, but Beth spoke all day about COMFORT and 2 Cor. 1:3-11!!!!! I couldn't believe how relevant it was to me! I ended up in tears at the end just because everything was touching me so deeply.
Anyway, here are some pictures from the conference.
Denise Jackson (Alan Jackson's wife)
Anita Renfroe. View her website here and her MySpace page here. Her latest comedy video "Total Momsense" was taped in January and Allison, her mom, and me and my mom are shown in the audience about 11 times!
Anita Renfroe in the middle of her comedy sketch
Allison and me
Havin' a good time!

Teal...A Swanky Boutique

This is my friend Jessica's store. She lives 4 houses down from us, and her husband flies C-17s like Paul does. Her store is super trendy with really cute stuff! Check it out next time you're in Summerville, and tell her I sent you!

9 Years Later

Jen, Mir, Mem, and I visited Charleston back when we were in college and took this picture at Waterfront Park.Here were are in front of the same fountain, about 9 years later. Since Jen wasn't there, T$ stepped in for her.

Girl Week

About 3 weeks ago, my good friends Mem and Mir came to visit. Mir brought her daughter too, and we had "Girl Week", as Mir calls it. We all met at Furman University in Greenville, SC and have remanined the best of friends since then. Our other friend, Jen, couldn't make it for Girl Week.
We had so much fun, hanging out, going to Folly Beach, shopping in downtown Charleston and downtown Summerville, going out to eat, and just acting silly! I miss those girls and I miss being in college (the social aspect...I could do without the classes). Mir's daughter was absolutely fabulous...so cute, well behaved, and just a perfect little angel. Anyway, we had fun and hope to make "Girl Week" an annual tradition. You can read what Mir had to say about our time together on her blog. She also posted a recipe I made while they were here (it's in my BigOven account as well, under "recipes I've posted"). Here are some pictures of our week.We ate dinner one night at Fleet Landing, which is a restaurant right on the water. It used to be a Navy building in the 1940s. This is where I tried my first Shrimp and Grits...tasty!
Mir and T$
Mem and me in our classic pose!
Allison came downtown with us. We enjoyed her company and her photography skills! Thanks for taking all those pics of us, Allison.
Awesome fabric store in Summerville! They offer classes too.
Amy Butler fabrics...eye candy!
Mem's neice came shopping with us in Summerville. She and T$ were so cute together.

Sneaky Snake

A few weeks ago I had a surprise when I went to cut back my marigolds...a snake popped out of my flower box! I must have jumped back about 10 feet! Then, of course, I went inside to grab my camera. Paul was on a trip at the time, so I really didn't know what to do. Was it just a garter snake that would do no harm? Or was it something dangerous? So I poked and prodded the snake out of my flower box and snapped a few portraits. Then I went online and started searching "snakes in SC." I figured out it was a yellow rat snake, a non-venomous, constricting snake.
Well, later in the day I went back outside on my front porch and lo and behold - there he was again! Back in my flower box! I really didn't know what to do, so I went over to my neighbor's and asked if any of their boys liked snakes. Jonathan, their father, came over and looked at the critter. We tried to get it into a garbage bag (me holding the bag...ahhhhh!) to take it out back, but the snake scurried off down the foundation of my house. Jonathan hates snakes, so he said "that's it, I'm just gonna kill it," and went to get a shovel out of the garage. A few moments later, the snake was killed and my problem was solved. I really don't like snakes and worried about it getting into the house, the garage, or the dogs messing with it. Now I am very cautious about sticking my hands in any flowers boxes or containers!