Craziness and Charleston, among other things.
+ It's 80º today! Yes, this is why I daydreamed about living in Florida when I lived in Illinois. Heaven... I'm in heaven, and my heart beats so I can hardly speak. =o)
+ Life has been crazy. I got back from Charleston Saturday afternoon, spent 15 minutes at home, went to work to finish the bulletin, swung by the house (and didn't even turn the car off) to pick Isaac up to go to 20s/30s Fellowship Group at AAAC's, stayed there till 11, then hit Walmart for something I had to get that night, and then finally got home around 11:30. Whew! Sunday morning was insanity. I only made it into Sunday School for the last 10 minutes, because I had to help the kids' Sunday School practice the song they're singing in church for Christmas, and then was asked to get the November financials done ASAP for a deacon meeting Monday night to determine if we get Christmas bonuses this year (I still haven't heard what the consensus is), and then had a few other things come up too. Once SS was over, I had to enter a song into the PowerPoint that was added last minute, and it was really confusing and I couldn't type for some reason so there were typos even after I proofread it. *headdesk* Then we had plans to go out with our dinner group, which was actually relaxing, but still took up time. Olympians that night was crazy, too. I swear all the kids were on speed. They were insane and louder than ever for no apparent reason. I would say they lost at least 10 minutes of game time simply because they would not listen. We were also down two leaders because after doing the lesson my dad was tossing a football with one of the teens who helps out and badly dislocated his pinky finger! So Ange had to drive Dad to the ER so they could put it back in place. (Apparently it would not budge, either. Ange said she had to leave the room because it was so gross how they had to keep pulling. *shudder*) And did I mention that Mom was not there because she was still driving back from Charleston? (Grams and I left a day earlier.) I have decided Mom is no longer allowed to miss Olympians, because last time she did a kid threw up and this time Dad got hurt and the kids were crazed. Anyway, Dad is okay but he has two fingers splinted together and his hand is bandaged so he can't really move his wrist much. Yeah. Sunday was not a good day, except that Ken's final 2 Corinthians sermon was very good.
+ So. Charleston. Mom had told me to call her when I was ready to leave Thursday morning. I told her I would be ready by 8am. I guess she didn't believe me, because when I called at 7:50 neither she nor Grams were ready! So I woke up half an hour earlier than I had to. Grr. The drive up was not bad - maybe 4.5 hours, including a stop at Panera for a cinnamon crunch bagel. Our hotel was right on the Ashley River (I think. There are 2 rivers in Charleston and I can't keep straight which one is which.) by a marina, so we had a gorgeous view. We went to the Visitor Center first and grabbed pamphlets about all sorts of stuff, and scheduled a long tour for the next day. Then we went to historic King St., which is THE shopping destination in Charleston. We didn't buy anything (we are all CHEAP, hehe), but we had fun browsing, and had an awesome late lunch at this place called Tacone, which we had never heard of but absolutely loved. (It's kind of like a hip Panera.) Oh, and the Williams-Sonoma store had free samples of peppermint bark, hot cocoa, and hot spiced cider. Yes, that was worth mentioning. Hehe. After lunch we did our own little driving tour. Mom and I would've rather walked, but Grams desperately needs to get her knees replaced, so we drove instead. We saw so many gorgeous old homes and buildings, and plenty of amazing wrought iron. I adore all the huge porches most of the houses have, and the tiny gardens and courtyards between houses. I guess when you just have a little piece of yard, you make the best of it. I was also thrilled to see a ton of absolutely stunning trees still wearing their gorgeous autumn leaves! I think I took more pictures of them than anything else. We stopped at Waterfront Park to take in Charleston Harbor, and that was beautiful. After that we did some more driving and shopping, and then decided to go to the James Island Festival of Lights - one of the things we had picked up a brochure for. I'm so glad we went; it was gorgeous! They had so many lights and designs. I'd say we drove at least a few miles through lights, and then they had a place where you could walk through the woods to see even more of them. I took a lot of pictures of that. When we finished there we were hungry, but not very, because our lunch at Tacone was so filling. Inspiration struck me - and I suggested we go to Cold Stone Creamery for dinner! My mom, who will never turn down ice cream, agreed that that was an excellent idea, so we went back to King St. to get it. It was perfect - exactly what we wanted. That night we went to the (very) hot tub overlooking the water/marina. It was beautiful.
Friday we woke up early to have breakfast before our tour. I had found a place online that was nearby. I love hole-in-the-wall restaurants, and this was one at its finest - except it also had a great view! After breakfast we went to the tour place, but ended up walking to our first destination, the Joseph Manigault House, because it was right around the corner. This historic house was beautiful. I would love to live there. The history was quite interesting, and the whole place was not only decorated for Christmas, but also had these fantastic flower and plant arrangements everywhere because the Garden Club was using it for a function that afternoon. The house smelled divine because of all the live plants in there.
After the Manigault House, we took the ferry to Ft. Sumter. Talk about having an interesting history! Wow. Most of Ft. Sumter has been rebuilt, because the place was pretty much turned into rubble during the Civil War. We enjoyed a talk by a girl my age about the history of Ft. Sumter. She used the flags flying over it to tell the story. It was very cool... and cold. It had started raining on our ferry ride over, and that bit of drizzle combined with cold wind and weather was enough to keep me pretty completely frozen for the rest of the day. I did not even unbutton my coat until probably 8pm that night. I am SO GLAD I brought a scarf and gloves! When we got back from Sumter, we immediately embarked on the bus tour portion, on which we pretty much did what we had done in Grams's car the night before, except with someone who could tell us what everything was. Hehe. Turns out there have been several movies filmed in Charleston, including The Notebook and North & South (not the BBC one). Oh, and the show Army Wives films there, which amuses me since there is no Army base in Charleston. One of my favorite houses, which we saw on the tour, was the "Wedding Cake House". It's a B&B now, and it is amazing. The pictures on their site do not do it justice.
After the tour we were STARVING, because it was like 3pm and we hadn't eaten since breakfast. We found a cool steak place called T-Bonz and thawed out a bit there. We had an amazing crab dip appetizer that I convinced Mom & Grams to try and which they both adored. T-Bonz was right by The Market, which is an open-air market like many cities have. This one had a lot cooler stuff though, I think. Lots more great jewelry and cool designs. I got the earrings which you saw in my Project 366 post, which are based on a wrought iron fence in Charleston (I'm pretty sure I saw it too!), two other pairs of earrings, a t-shirt, and a laser-cut Christmas ornament that is absolutely gorgeous. I also got a pair of the wrought iron-inspired earrings for Grams, and Mom got a freshwater pearl ring that is just beautiful. So yeah - we did all our shopping at the Market. Hehe. Oh, and I was extremely tempted to buy a handknit alpaca hat, but my cheapness reigned me in. (It was $20. $20 is a lot for a hat, even a gorgeous, one of a kind one!) The woman who made the hats also made a ton of other awesome stuff. She had the absolute cutest kids' scarves, hats and mittens. I asked her if she made them and she said yes, and she also designed the patterns. I told her she needs to put them in a book and sell that!
That evening we were too cold to even use the hot tub (it was outside), but we did venture to the lobby, which had a roaring fire in the fireplace, all the hot cocoa (and marshmallows!) you could want, and a big plasma TV up on the wall playing a rerun of NCIS that had us all laughing. And we all fell asleep by 9:30! So sad. Hehe. But I was so tired.
Saturday Grams and I left around 10. We stopped at a hole-in-the-wall for breakfast, where I finally got some fruit, which I had been craving all weekend. Then we stopped at a little Carolina Cider Company country store, which was so cute. We got to sample 4 different kinds of cider: peach, black cherry, muscadine (grape), and blackberry. Until this store I didn't even know there were any ciders other than apple! The blackberry was my favorite, so I bought a half gallon. Grams pretty much bought out the whole store! LOL. She got ciders and butter (sweet potato butter) and jam and syrup and - to my disgust - pickled beets. Ew! Hehe. We also stopped at a small outlet mall where I didn't buy a thing despite having Christmas money, but Grams found something she's been looking for for a while. And we had a late lunch at Steak 'n' Shake to enjoy their 4 under $4 deal. And that was it! Mom got a ride home with a coworker on Sunday.
+ My Charleston pictures are here. A lot of what I talked about is pictured there. =o)
+ What else? Oh - I have the best husband ever! While I was gone, he changed my car's oil, changed its tag light (something we had been meaning to do since September...), and cleaned the garage! Dude. I was not expecting any of that, but I am very grateful! Also, he is sexy. *nods*
+ Most of my Ebay purchases sold! I actually ended up selling the boots to t_jay - how great is that? I still have some shoes left though (the black ones and white ones), so if any of you wear a size 10 and want some shoes for cheap, let me know. Also, if you want to try a Cover Girl Outlast All Day Lipcolor, I have that brand new in Blushed Mauve. It retails for $9.99, but I'd sell it for $4 shipped. Better deal than you'll get anywhere else!
+ I have most of my Christmas shopping done. I just have Aaron, Dad, and my niece and nephews left - that's if I even bother to get Aaron and Dad anything. They are extremely difficult to buy for and probably couldn't care less if they get anything.
+ I have a surprise for you guys for my anniversary, but you'll have to wait till then to find out what it is. Well, except two of you, who will know in a few days. Don't give it away!
+ My MIL and SIL Hope are arriving tomorrow. They're going to hang out here for a few days and then we're heading down to see BIL Jesse in the WOL GP show Isaac and I used to work for, and bring him back to Jax for them to fly out Monday. I was going to skip WOL to go to the Jags vs. Packers game this Sunday, but the tickets fell through. =o( Oh well - I want to see Jesse in SSC too. He's playing Joseph - as in Mary and!
+ Time to figure out some lunch. Kudos to anyone who read all of this.
+ Life has been crazy. I got back from Charleston Saturday afternoon, spent 15 minutes at home, went to work to finish the bulletin, swung by the house (and didn't even turn the car off) to pick Isaac up to go to 20s/30s Fellowship Group at AAAC's, stayed there till 11, then hit Walmart for something I had to get that night, and then finally got home around 11:30. Whew! Sunday morning was insanity. I only made it into Sunday School for the last 10 minutes, because I had to help the kids' Sunday School practice the song they're singing in church for Christmas, and then was asked to get the November financials done ASAP for a deacon meeting Monday night to determine if we get Christmas bonuses this year (I still haven't heard what the consensus is), and then had a few other things come up too. Once SS was over, I had to enter a song into the PowerPoint that was added last minute, and it was really confusing and I couldn't type for some reason so there were typos even after I proofread it. *headdesk* Then we had plans to go out with our dinner group, which was actually relaxing, but still took up time. Olympians that night was crazy, too. I swear all the kids were on speed. They were insane and louder than ever for no apparent reason. I would say they lost at least 10 minutes of game time simply because they would not listen. We were also down two leaders because after doing the lesson my dad was tossing a football with one of the teens who helps out and badly dislocated his pinky finger! So Ange had to drive Dad to the ER so they could put it back in place. (Apparently it would not budge, either. Ange said she had to leave the room because it was so gross how they had to keep pulling. *shudder*) And did I mention that Mom was not there because she was still driving back from Charleston? (Grams and I left a day earlier.) I have decided Mom is no longer allowed to miss Olympians, because last time she did a kid threw up and this time Dad got hurt and the kids were crazed. Anyway, Dad is okay but he has two fingers splinted together and his hand is bandaged so he can't really move his wrist much. Yeah. Sunday was not a good day, except that Ken's final 2 Corinthians sermon was very good.
+ So. Charleston. Mom had told me to call her when I was ready to leave Thursday morning. I told her I would be ready by 8am. I guess she didn't believe me, because when I called at 7:50 neither she nor Grams were ready! So I woke up half an hour earlier than I had to. Grr. The drive up was not bad - maybe 4.5 hours, including a stop at Panera for a cinnamon crunch bagel. Our hotel was right on the Ashley River (I think. There are 2 rivers in Charleston and I can't keep straight which one is which.) by a marina, so we had a gorgeous view. We went to the Visitor Center first and grabbed pamphlets about all sorts of stuff, and scheduled a long tour for the next day. Then we went to historic King St., which is THE shopping destination in Charleston. We didn't buy anything (we are all CHEAP, hehe), but we had fun browsing, and had an awesome late lunch at this place called Tacone, which we had never heard of but absolutely loved. (It's kind of like a hip Panera.) Oh, and the Williams-Sonoma store had free samples of peppermint bark, hot cocoa, and hot spiced cider. Yes, that was worth mentioning. Hehe. After lunch we did our own little driving tour. Mom and I would've rather walked, but Grams desperately needs to get her knees replaced, so we drove instead. We saw so many gorgeous old homes and buildings, and plenty of amazing wrought iron. I adore all the huge porches most of the houses have, and the tiny gardens and courtyards between houses. I guess when you just have a little piece of yard, you make the best of it. I was also thrilled to see a ton of absolutely stunning trees still wearing their gorgeous autumn leaves! I think I took more pictures of them than anything else. We stopped at Waterfront Park to take in Charleston Harbor, and that was beautiful. After that we did some more driving and shopping, and then decided to go to the James Island Festival of Lights - one of the things we had picked up a brochure for. I'm so glad we went; it was gorgeous! They had so many lights and designs. I'd say we drove at least a few miles through lights, and then they had a place where you could walk through the woods to see even more of them. I took a lot of pictures of that. When we finished there we were hungry, but not very, because our lunch at Tacone was so filling. Inspiration struck me - and I suggested we go to Cold Stone Creamery for dinner! My mom, who will never turn down ice cream, agreed that that was an excellent idea, so we went back to King St. to get it. It was perfect - exactly what we wanted. That night we went to the (very) hot tub overlooking the water/marina. It was beautiful.
Friday we woke up early to have breakfast before our tour. I had found a place online that was nearby. I love hole-in-the-wall restaurants, and this was one at its finest - except it also had a great view! After breakfast we went to the tour place, but ended up walking to our first destination, the Joseph Manigault House, because it was right around the corner. This historic house was beautiful. I would love to live there. The history was quite interesting, and the whole place was not only decorated for Christmas, but also had these fantastic flower and plant arrangements everywhere because the Garden Club was using it for a function that afternoon. The house smelled divine because of all the live plants in there.
After the Manigault House, we took the ferry to Ft. Sumter. Talk about having an interesting history! Wow. Most of Ft. Sumter has been rebuilt, because the place was pretty much turned into rubble during the Civil War. We enjoyed a talk by a girl my age about the history of Ft. Sumter. She used the flags flying over it to tell the story. It was very cool... and cold. It had started raining on our ferry ride over, and that bit of drizzle combined with cold wind and weather was enough to keep me pretty completely frozen for the rest of the day. I did not even unbutton my coat until probably 8pm that night. I am SO GLAD I brought a scarf and gloves! When we got back from Sumter, we immediately embarked on the bus tour portion, on which we pretty much did what we had done in Grams's car the night before, except with someone who could tell us what everything was. Hehe. Turns out there have been several movies filmed in Charleston, including The Notebook and North & South (not the BBC one). Oh, and the show Army Wives films there, which amuses me since there is no Army base in Charleston. One of my favorite houses, which we saw on the tour, was the "Wedding Cake House". It's a B&B now, and it is amazing. The pictures on their site do not do it justice.
After the tour we were STARVING, because it was like 3pm and we hadn't eaten since breakfast. We found a cool steak place called T-Bonz and thawed out a bit there. We had an amazing crab dip appetizer that I convinced Mom & Grams to try and which they both adored. T-Bonz was right by The Market, which is an open-air market like many cities have. This one had a lot cooler stuff though, I think. Lots more great jewelry and cool designs. I got the earrings which you saw in my Project 366 post, which are based on a wrought iron fence in Charleston (I'm pretty sure I saw it too!), two other pairs of earrings, a t-shirt, and a laser-cut Christmas ornament that is absolutely gorgeous. I also got a pair of the wrought iron-inspired earrings for Grams, and Mom got a freshwater pearl ring that is just beautiful. So yeah - we did all our shopping at the Market. Hehe. Oh, and I was extremely tempted to buy a handknit alpaca hat, but my cheapness reigned me in. (It was $20. $20 is a lot for a hat, even a gorgeous, one of a kind one!) The woman who made the hats also made a ton of other awesome stuff. She had the absolute cutest kids' scarves, hats and mittens. I asked her if she made them and she said yes, and she also designed the patterns. I told her she needs to put them in a book and sell that!
That evening we were too cold to even use the hot tub (it was outside), but we did venture to the lobby, which had a roaring fire in the fireplace, all the hot cocoa (and marshmallows!) you could want, and a big plasma TV up on the wall playing a rerun of NCIS that had us all laughing. And we all fell asleep by 9:30! So sad. Hehe. But I was so tired.
Saturday Grams and I left around 10. We stopped at a hole-in-the-wall for breakfast, where I finally got some fruit, which I had been craving all weekend. Then we stopped at a little Carolina Cider Company country store, which was so cute. We got to sample 4 different kinds of cider: peach, black cherry, muscadine (grape), and blackberry. Until this store I didn't even know there were any ciders other than apple! The blackberry was my favorite, so I bought a half gallon. Grams pretty much bought out the whole store! LOL. She got ciders and butter (sweet potato butter) and jam and syrup and - to my disgust - pickled beets. Ew! Hehe. We also stopped at a small outlet mall where I didn't buy a thing despite having Christmas money, but Grams found something she's been looking for for a while. And we had a late lunch at Steak 'n' Shake to enjoy their 4 under $4 deal. And that was it! Mom got a ride home with a coworker on Sunday.
+ My Charleston pictures are here. A lot of what I talked about is pictured there. =o)
+ What else? Oh - I have the best husband ever! While I was gone, he changed my car's oil, changed its tag light (something we had been meaning to do since September...), and cleaned the garage! Dude. I was not expecting any of that, but I am very grateful! Also, he is sexy. *nods*
+ Most of my Ebay purchases sold! I actually ended up selling the boots to t_jay - how great is that? I still have some shoes left though (the black ones and white ones), so if any of you wear a size 10 and want some shoes for cheap, let me know. Also, if you want to try a Cover Girl Outlast All Day Lipcolor, I have that brand new in Blushed Mauve. It retails for $9.99, but I'd sell it for $4 shipped. Better deal than you'll get anywhere else!
+ I have most of my Christmas shopping done. I just have Aaron, Dad, and my niece and nephews left - that's if I even bother to get Aaron and Dad anything. They are extremely difficult to buy for and probably couldn't care less if they get anything.
+ I have a surprise for you guys for my anniversary, but you'll have to wait till then to find out what it is. Well, except two of you, who will know in a few days. Don't give it away!
+ My MIL and SIL Hope are arriving tomorrow. They're going to hang out here for a few days and then we're heading down to see BIL Jesse in the WOL GP show Isaac and I used to work for, and bring him back to Jax for them to fly out Monday. I was going to skip WOL to go to the Jags vs. Packers game this Sunday, but the tickets fell through. =o( Oh well - I want to see Jesse in SSC too. He's playing Joseph - as in Mary and!
+ Time to figure out some lunch. Kudos to anyone who read all of this.