Cupid's arrow was made out of SNOW!

On Friday night, South Carolina experienced a very rare occurance...It actually snowed! Every year there is always the possibility of storms that may come our way but they always seem to tip toe around Columbia. Occasionally we will get a few flurries. When this happens the entire city literally shuts down. Our schools close at the threat of a wintery mix.

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After Adam and I finished eating dinner I could barely stand the wait any longer. We dug up our snow gear and layered up!

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This was what we found...

What is the first thing you do when it snows besides make a snowangel? A snowman of course!

Once the snow slowed down we went back out to check on our big man.

We went to bed at about 1:30 in the morning but I set my alarm for 7:15am so I could try to catch the snow in the morning. 'Round here if you do see any snowflakes they are usually gone quickly so I wanted to be sure to see it in the daylight. I actually woke up at 6:30 out of excitement and got up immediately to see what was causing such a bright light in our windows!

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This was the scene looking directly out past our front yard!

Here is our house covered in white...

Down the street...

I walked up to the entrance of the neighborhood and this was the site...

The view of our house when you turn on our street...

Looking out the back porch...

Our snowman was was made of the following: Clementine eyes, Carrot mouth and nose, Strawberry applesauce buttons, Team car flag arms, and a decorated tin for a hat...Isn't our big man cute?

Lily did not like the snow at all! She had no idea what to think of the bright white stuff that was all over everything. She spent most of her time sniffing around but at least she looked stylish in her wool peacoat!

I had such a hard time getting Lily to use the bathroom for about 14 hours. She absolutely refused to have anything to do with the cold white stuff all over the ground. After making her stay outside for about 10 minutes she finally just squatted down right on the walkway and let it go.

I guess this is what they mean by "don't eat the yellow snow..."

If you know me at all, you know that I am not a morning person (clearly, I am my mother's daughter). So after waking up at 6:30 and staying up until about 9 I was exhausted (pathetic, I know). I headed back into bed. When I woke up Adam had made me pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs. It was delicious and a perfect way to start a cold and lazy Saturday!

The weekend shaped up to be one to remember. Adam and I were able to spend the entire weekend together. We relaxed, watched movies, went to church, made dinners, went on walks basically anything that we did we were together. We sometimes get so caught up in the hussle and bussle of planned activities and obligations that we forget the truly important things in life. It was such a blessing to have a weekend to refocus on the essentials!

Grace Turns Two!

It is hard to believe that Grace turned two on Sunday (02-07-10). We celebrated by heading to her house for a some cake, ice cream, and of course, presents. She is growing up so fast.

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Caption of the Below Picture: "It's MY PARTY and I SAID I'm ready to open PRESENTS!"

I was able to see sweet baby Hannah. I have not seen her since she was a few weeks old. Luckily, I am able to keep up with her through her mom's blog at http://www.itsaroo.blogspot.com/ She is already 9 months old!

How can you not smile when you look at that face?

I think she looks like Cindy Loo Who from 'How the Grinch stole Christmas' here. What do you think?

Since Grace's mom is a fellow Clemson Alumni, I feel it is important to start her early with which team is her favorite. Therefore, Adam and I gave her a large stuffed tiger for her birthday. She gasped when she saw it. She then ran over to her opened presents and grabbed a beanie baby tiger that Taylor and Steve had given her. She ran back to the large tiger and placed it at its feet!

You can see the beanie baby tiger ontop in this one.

The tiger was a big hit!

Here she is giving the Tiger some love...

I had the pleasure of baking her birthday cake this year. Here she is posing before the cake gets devoured...Look at that self-control.

Here is a close up of the cake...

Here is a video of Grace blowing out her birthday candles...over...and over...and over again!

Steve's Birthday Gift

One of Adam's best friend's growing up was Steve Spreeuwers. They have been friends since middle school. After they started college Steve started dating Adam's sister, Taylor. They are now married and live about 15 miles from us. It is so wonderful that Adam's best friend is now his brother-in-law! Adam wanted to do something nice for Steve for Christmas so he started designing and building a dartboard cabinet. As most projects it took a lot more time than originally anticipated so he decided he wanted to give it to him for his birthday which would give him an extra month to work on it. It turned out absolutely beautiful and I am so proud of him. It is made of pine and is extremely heavy. He put a dark stain on it and it looks so great. It was really neat to watch him transform a piece of wood into a beautiful work of art.

The proud carpenter...

He lined the back with corkboard in case people like me are playing :)

Here is Steve when he received his dartboard last Saturday.

It took him over 40 hours to make it and as you can see it was well worth it!

Hartsville..back to the beginning

My family has always had a special connection with the Cokers in Hartsville, SC. They are a family dear to my heart. Unfortunately, Martha Coker passed away in December. So we headed down there to celebrate her life. She was one of the sweetest ladies I have been blessed to know.
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My mom and dad met at Limestone College. After college, my dad accepted a position teaching at Coker College. Once my mom finished school she moved to Hartsville to be closer to him and she got a teaching job in Bishopville. My parents got to know the Cokers so well that when they got married the Cokers let them live in the house below. It was where my dad carried my mom over the threshold (which according to the story was quick because my dad had to pee:) The building is now their administration building. Many of the antiques in my parents house were from here.

After they lived there a while the Cokers let them live in Kalmia Gardens. When we came down for the funeral. My mom and dad took us on a tour around the house and through part of the gardens. My dad has quite the appreciation for plants and this was a perfect spot for them to live. He said they would take walks everyday through the gardens and no matter what time of year it was there was always a flower blooming.

My dad then decided to move to Spartanburg where he bought a flower shop and worked as a Florist. (My dad is seriously a renaissance man!) They lived there a few years and had my sister. Then they decided to move back to Hartsville. Once they moved back from Spartanburg they lived at this house on Home Avenue. This the house they lived in when I was born. It has now been converted to a duplex. I only lived there until I was two and I don't remember it being pointed out in the past so it was neat to get to see it.

My mom, sister, and I headed back to Hartsville on Saturday to spend some time with David and Dan Coker (Martha's sons). We had a terrific lunch and were able catch up for a few hours. They are such wonderful people I am so fortunate to know and love them.

I hope we are able to visit them again sometime soon!

Nicole and Robert's Engagement Party

We had planned to head up to Raleigh last weekend to celebrate the upcoming wedding of Jimmy and Tanya. I was to attend a shower for her on Saturday afternoon and that night a few couples (including us) planned an engagement party for them. Invitations had been sent out and everything was ready to go. Everything but the weather decided to cooperate. That weekend Raleigh had a lot of snow and it just was not a good idea for us to drive up there in the peak of the storm. Since we decided to stay at the last minute we were able to go to The Melting Pot with Ed and Cyndi. Ed had never been there before and I was very excited about him enjoying one of my favorite place to eat. If you have ever eaten there then you know it is quite a process. We did not get finished eating until about 11:30pm but we headed over to Jason Richardson's house anyways. Jason and Ley were throwing Nicole Barr and Robert Cranford an engagement party. Originially, I had told the hosts that we would not be able to attend but since things worked out at the last minute we were able to go. It was great to celebrate with them (and boy did they celebrate). We stayed over there until about 4:30 in the morning. These were the few pictures that were suitable to post!
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The picture below with Adam and Clary was one of my favorites from the evening...

Some of the ladies...

We are looking forward to their wedding in April!

Hijacked!

Last Friday when we were heading back from the cooking institute, I realized that my friend Kate's band was playing a gig that night. We turned around and showed up to surprise her. Kate is probably my oldest friend. We went to the same school and church growing up. She even lived about 2 minutes from me. She has the most beautiful voice I have ever heard and I always just stand in amazement of her talent. We were fortunate enough for her to sing both of the songs in our wedding. Her husband's name is Jack and the band is appropriately named Hijacked. He is the guy on the left with the black guitar and is a fantastic musician. The band is awesome and they play at various venues such as Hemingways, 5 Points Pub, The Corner Pocket, Wild Wings, and many more.

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I've been trying to convince Kate to audition for American Idol. I mean, they would probably just shut the show down and give her the title as soon as she started singing. Since she has yet to debut her album, I recorded some of their songs that night so I can listen to her whenever I want.
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Here is AC/DC's 'You shook me all night long' (the view gets a bit obstructed from the dancers)...

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You can check them and their upcoming schedule out at http://www.hijackedband.com/

Fleur De Lys

Early in 2009 I read about a neat little cooking institute in Columbia called Fleur De Lys that I thought would be a lot of fun for Adam and I to try. I am always trying to think of new things that we can do together. We talked about it for a while but it was eventually pushed under the rug as we stay pretty busy. For our anniversary this year, Adam gave me two gift certificates for the two of us to schedule a cooking school date night.
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We were able to schedule one of the nights for Friday, January 29. When you look at their website you are able to see his cooking schedule so you can pick out the date where you want to eat a particular food.
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Each class holds about 20 to 25 people. He has hands-on classes as well that are typically smaller. For this class he gave us a recipe and cooked while telling us how he was preparing it. That night we had Chilean Sea Bass which is one of our favorites.
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The chef's name is Francois Fisera and he is very French...sometimes you have to listen very carefully at what he is saying to catch everything. He has been presented with numerous awards and international recognition for his culinary excellence. One of particular mention is he was recognized by the French Agricultural Minister with the Order du Merite Agricole. His receipt of this award was due to a lifetime's work. Out of 11,000 worldwide candidates only 1,971 have been presented. Only eight chefs in the United States (regardless of French or American origin) have ever been presented this award. Here is a picture of the chef with Loni Anderson for a commercial (it was the best picture of him I could find).

Here is the cooking school. He is the man in blue (clearly the above picture is from a few years back)

You can see in the above picture that there is a large chart near the window. This is where he keeps a list of his "Top Students" you have to at least attended 100 classes to be put on the board. Each class begins by introducing yourself and telling everyone how many of his classes you have attended. There were people in our class that were in their 200s! Apparently the person who has attended the most has come to 369 classes so far! That is so difficult to comprehend. The chef also takes a group of students to France every year to travel the winery's...but wait...his trips are booked until 2014! This is apparently one popular guy!

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In the back of the class there is this grid-like shelf. Apparently it is part of the French culture that if you frequent a particular restaurant you have a cubby where you keep your cloth napkins. Adam and I were using paper napkins but some people actually store and replenish their slot with cloth napkins. One of their regulars said that they use it to pass notes to their friends as well which I thought was cute.

We stayed until we were the last one's there. Everyone we spoke with was so nice. They kept saying it was "the best kept secret in Columbia" and they use it as their own private dinner club. They also said if you like to eat and drink wine then you are in the right place!

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It was such a neat unique experience and we had such a wonderful time that we are hoping to try to do this once a month. The food was absolutely divine and we really enjoyed the people at our table. So much so that all six of us signed up for the same class in February so we can hang out again!

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Au Revoir until next time!