Bec's Big Move

Next weekend two of my favorite friends will be visiting Columbia on their way from Texas to Baltimore. My best friend Rebecca and her boyfriend Michael will be here in just 6 days! I've spent the last few weeks telling people that my "best friend" is coming to visit, and at the age of 26 that phrase sometimes sounds silly. I thought I'd just justify this by showing the oldest picture I own of us. I think that this is of from our first birthday (we're just 4 days apart). How many of you have know your best friend that long?
Rebecca is moving up to Baltimore, where she will begin a fabulous new job. She'll also be closer to Michael while he is in med school at Johns Hopkins. I am so excited for her to start this new chapter in life and for her to join me as an official Texas ex-pat!

Here we are during a trip to NYC. Michael was there too, along with our friend Ben. This was immediately prior to the Blizzard of '06. Just for kicks here's a picture of our group of friends senior year of high school. Many of us have been friends since kindergarten or first grade. It's amazing to think about where we all are now. Some are married, some have kids, one just played in the MLB All Star game...Also love that Michael and Rebecca are together in the middle.

On another note, today is a deployment milestone. Nick will be gone for a full year, including his 3 months of training which began April 1. Since today marks one month since he took off for Afghanistan I am making the 26th of the month official milestone day from here on out. This means that our separation is one-third over. Just 8 more months to go!

Cousin Date!

Matt and I had another cousin date in Orangeburg last night. This time we got to celebrate Matt's birthday! I thought our family members would enjoy a picture, although the quality is really poor (it was taken with my iPhone in really bad lighting).

Composition

In my quest for photographic greatness, I have purchased a photography manual. My first chapter was on composition, and today I tried out the new skill. I took some pictures on USC's historic Horseshoe. These pictures were shot on my camera's fully automatic setting, one new skill at a time!

Gratuitous rose shotHere, I was trying "framing"

Vertical (above) and horizontal (below) Really trying to get that "rule of thirds" Not too successful so far.

Buried Treasure

Today I read my Canon manual and played around with the different settings. I've realized that it's going to take some serious studying to get really good at this! A longtime friend, Michelle, told me about a great website that I will be poring over in the near future that should give me some tips. I hope y'all like pictures of Finlay because right now he's pretty much my only subject. Today we went to a sand pile that was set up for VBS at the church next door, where Fin dug for buried treasure. Apparently the VBS people did some type of archeological theme this year, and they buried rawhide bones in the sand. For the last few weeks Finlay goes straight there to look for them when we go for walks. Here are a few pictures from my first trial run with the camera (beyond the fully automatic mode).Digging, not even in the sand anymore...not sure what he was thinking!King of the Hill!Glamour shot

Finally!

I am finally updating the blog. I can't believe it's been almost a month! There's been a lot going on, both good and not-so-good, that has drained me of energy to blog. So sorry! Below are the pictures Nick and I took while he was home on leave before heading to Afghanistan. We had a great week at home, just hanging out by the pool and eating at our favorite restaurants. He has now safely arrived at his FOB (forward operating base) and has begun work with the PRT (provincial reconstruction team). If you'd like to be included on my update e-mails for Nick's deployment, send me an e-mail at nl_hall@hotmail.com.

The Homecoming Set-up

.(Above) Finlay was so happy to have Nick home that he wouldn't even leave him alone in the shower!

(Below) Here we are at our Sunday School lake party.

After dinner at Ruth's Chris

This past weekend Mark and Lauren came to visit for the 4th. We regrettably didn't take many pictures, but here are the few that we did get.Mark and Lauren in downtown Charleston
Colonial flag flying in the alley

Lunch at Hyman's. General North and Oprah have eaten at our table!

You can expect more blogs with pictures in the future, as I am determined to learn how to use my new Canon Rebel XS, which has been with me since Christmas, but little and poorly utilized. If photography isn't your thing, please indulge me because I need someone with whom to share my attempts, and if photography is your thing, please send me any tips!