Family Day Picnic

Today Nick, Finlay, and I went to a family day picnic hosted by Nick's new squadron. It was fun getting to meet some of the guys Nick will be working with and their cute wives. This is a pretty big squadron so there will be lots more people to meet, but today was a good start! Finlay was the star of the show today. He sat sweetly while TONS of kids, of all ages, came up to him and petted him. All I heard all day was "what a good dog" and "he's so well-behaved!" We were proud dog parents.
In other news, we're leaving tomorrow for Mandy's wedding extravaganza. We'll be spending several days in New Braunfels and then flying to Mexico for the big day. We're super excited about the time with family and the relaxing time we'll have at our fabulous resort. We won't be back until after Memorial Day so don't expect any more posts until then!

3 New Posts!

It has been brought to my attention multiple times over the last two weeks that I have been neglecting the blog. Suffice it to say that I have had more than a few irons in the fire that have left me exhausted! I will try to do a better job of keeping you up to date now that I have internet access again.
We drove to Clovis (our new home in New Mexico) from Waco on Sunday, the day after Bec's wedding (see post below). We're loving our brand new house, but don't have any pictures worth posting yet. We're in the process of ordering a ton of new furniture and decorating the house so I probably won't have any great pictures to post for a while. Sorry!
Our yard was sodded on Tuesday (which explains its appearance in the pictures below), and we have been running our sprinklers a lot. That is until Friday, when we had a massive flooding thunderstorm. We even got hail! That's all the white stuff in the picture below. Clovis has about 350 sunny days each year so it just figures that within days of us moving here, we'd have a torrential downpour.

In other news, Finlay is adjusting to his new yard. He's not quite sure what to do with it, and since we have new sod we can't play much in it with him right now. We're really hoping he figures it out soon.

Mrs. Rebecca Smith

Last weekend my best friend got married! She was an absolutely gorgeous bride and every aspect of the wedding was perfect. Well done, Bec! I can't believe it took you and Michael almost 20 years to figure it out, but I'm glad you finally did.

Here I am with some of my best girl friends from high school, Adrienne, Bec, Christine (who is having a little boy September 1st), and Allison. Aren't they beautiful?! Here's a whole group of Midway Panthers. None of the pictures I got were good of everyone so sorry to those who aren't looking at the camera! It was so good to see so many of my lifelong friends.

Here I am with my favorite dance partner at the reception. Bec's parents hosted it in their "backyard" i.e. many acres of pastoral landscape filled with tents, candles, lanterns, and gorgeous flowers. It was a dream wedding!And here I am with the blushing bride herself. Love you, Bec!

Leaving South Carolina

We left Columbia two weeks ago, and we really miss it! The biggest things we miss, of course, are our friends and our church. There are other things too, though, like restaurant selection and shopping options! We really tried to soak up our favorite things about Cola before we left - here are a few pictures.

Okay, the apartment wasn't one of our favorite parts of Columbia, but I love this picture of Finlay looking confused in our apartment on Friday night before we left on Saturday. Our friends Michael and Kelly brought us over some road goodies - thanks guys! We really enjoyed them, especially our favorite cookies from The Fresh Market. Here are Michael and Nick...
And me with Kelly!

For our last meal, Nick chose Rockaway's, home of the famous pimiento cheese fries and pimiento cheese burger. This place is so good that when "W" visited a while back, here ate here. It can be hard to find because there's no sign! It's definitely a local favorite. Here I am with Melissa, my friend and co-worker at USC. This picture was taken right before my sweet going away party at work.

Unfortunately I don't have pictures with ALL of my favorite people and places, but at least now you have a sample! To all our friends in Cola, we miss you so much!!! It's not too early to start planning your ski trips to Red River, Angel Fire, or Taos...

We're Back!

I've caught a lot of flack recently for not updating the blog so here's a megapost for all you complainers!

As you know, Nick got home on March 19th. Here's a shot of him waiting for his helicopter ride off of the FOB. We, of course, toasted his homecoming with some bubbly!

A few weeks ago we ventured up to Charlotte to shop for spring clothes. We had a lot to buy with our two big weddings coming up! My best friend, Rebecca gets married in less than two weeks, and our sister Mandy is getting married at the end of May. We have lots of fun times to look forward to! This picture was taken during Nick's first visit to the Cheesecake Factory. Yum!

Between our trip to Charlotte and the next excitement I'll post, we flew home to Waco for Rebecca's bachelorette weekend and some good family time. Unfortunately I don't have a single picture from that weekend! I guess I was just too busy enjoying myself...I'll just have to make sure to get plenty of good ones during the wedding weekend.

These next pictures are from our farewell bash here in Columbia. Several of our sweet friends got together to throw us a fabulous party where we got to celebrate good times with our friends and then bid everyone farewell. Nick and I were absolutely bowled over by the hospitality of our hosts and hostesses and the love and support showed by all of our friends who came. To echo the sentiments shared during last nights toasts, we have become a part of an incredible, loving family here that has supported us through some of the most challenging times of our lives. We can't even say how much we'll miss our friends here, and we are so thankful for EVERYTHING you've done for us. And don't worry, we're already planning our first visit back!

Here I am with some of my favorite Columbia women: Meredith, Lauren, Laura, and Kelly.
FFF (fabulous faithful females): Kelly, Lauren, Laura, Angela, and Hope

On the porch with Angela and Kelly - disclaimer, it was raining and humid so my hair and make-up situation is rapidly deteriorating before your eyes!

As usual, Rex and Paula Wilson graciously opened their home for our party. These two have been my Columbia Mom and Dad!

Sunday School friends: Matt, Kelly, Michael, Angela, and Christian

All of our Columbia friends put together an amazing South Carolina swag bucket for us. We will be representing the Palmetto State well in New Mexico as you can see. Even the bucket itself has a palmetto tree on it! If you come visit us in Clovis, we'll let you sample some sweet tea vodka. Yummy!

Finlay was very uncertain about these new items coming into his house...

As for our moving timeline, our movers come to pack us up tomorrow, and they'll be all done by Tuesday night. We'll leave Columbia on Saturday and arrive in Waco on Sunday, which is where we'll be until after Michael and Rebecca's wedding. We'll actually get to Clovis on Sunday, May 9th, and we'll be there until we leave a few weeks later for Mandy's wedding extravaganza. As usual, life is crazy, but I will try to be better about keeping you updated along the way.

Have a great week everyone!

En Route

If I had a house with a tree outside I'd tie a yellow ribbon like this one to it! No, Mom, I'm not going to tie it to my car, even if CRV does rhyme with tree...
Why would I do this? Because my long lost husband is finally coming home. Yesterday he left his forward operating base, and he's now en-route to Columbia. He won't be out of Afghanistan for another week, and he won't be home until March 19th, but at least he's making progress.

Finlay for mayor and other news...

I think my dog has something to tell me. I guess he hasn't been listening when I've told him we're moving in 2 months! Last weekend I was in Austin for my sister-in-law, Mandy's bachelorette weekend. We had a great time! This is the only picture I got, and it's with my iPhone so I'm sorry about the quality. We dressed Mandy up and took her down to 6th Street on Friday night!

Unfortunately, I came home from Austin with the flu - yes, the real flu - even though I got the flu shot! I've been out all week, and still have symptoms so I can't leave the house yet. It's very lonely and boring!

Here's the great news on the countdown: Nick leaves the FOB on Monday, which means he has less than 2 days left there! He's slated to return to the States on the 18th and to Columbia on the 19th. That's less than 2 weeks until he's home!