Wall Art

Our new wall decoration for our hallway!

I have been looking for these letters for almost a year now at New River Pottery. They had the M and the C, but not the W. Finally, after about 9 months of waiting, they got it in stock. They were so easy to put up on the wall--it only took about 5 minutes.

New Hairstyle

My new hair cut!

More Wedding Pictures

I finally added some pictures to the post below, but the professional ones are so much better! Click the link below to see pictures of the wedding by Milt Hawes Photography.

http://www.milthawes.com/mary

Blah, Blah, Birdies

The other day, I was taking my hanging flower basket down off the hook to water it and....AGHHHHH! A bird came flying by my head, its wings flapping in my hair as it flew away! It scared me half to death, and I screamed! AGHHHH! Of course, the bird had a nest, with eggs, sitting so pretty inside the middle of my hanging flower basket. The week before I had already thrown out a nest, without any eggs yet, from the same basket. So, I had a dilemma...do I gently put the basket back without removing the nest and hope that the mother bird will come back to nest, or do I throw the nest out?

Last year I had this same problem. Birds had laid eggs in my hanging ferns. Last year I didn't have the heart to move the nest and the eggs, so by the time the baby birdies had hatched, my fern was dying of thirst and pretty much completely demolished. I ended up having to get rid of my fern.

This year, I wasn't so nice--we removed the nest, along with the eggs, and placed it in the tree closest to the hanging baskets. (Of course, while we were doing this, you could hear the mother bird chirping with fear and sorrow.)

Today, I was once again taking my hanging basket down to water it, and thankfully no bird came swooping by my head this time. But the bird did try to get smart--she had laid more eggs where the nest had been, without building a new nest. So, once again, we removed the eggs and placed them in the nest that we had moved earlier into the tree. This is one persistant mother bird!

Wedding Weekend

Congratulations Mary and Jeremy!

My sister got married this past weekend, Saturday, April 11. Cody and I went home on Thursday night for all the various wedding events. On Thursday night, I helped my mom set up for the Bridesmaid Brunch that was taking place on Friday morning. It was very nice, but way too much food, as usual! ;) (Mom, you forgot to give me some fruit salsa to take home!) Friday afternoon was spent running some last minute errands with my sister before getting pedicures, and then going to the rehearsal. Unfortunately, it rained cats and dogs on Friday night, so the rehearsal had to be held inside. On Saturday, the weather couldn't have been more beautiful. The clouds had cleared out, and the sun was shining--the wind made it a little cool, but at least it was pretty. The wedding was outside at an old plantation house. It was such a sweet wedding!

Some of my favorite wedding details:
1. Connor, my nephew, was Mary's escort down the aisle.
2. Instead of doing a unity candle, they did a sand ceremony. Jeremy, Mary and Connor each had a different color of sand that they poured into one jar, representing them joining together as a family.
3. The vows--the bride and groom's vows were extra special because they were the same ones Cody and I used in our wedding. Plus, Jeremy said a vow to Connor...it was so cute!
4. Colorful, tropical flowers!
5. The hand-made programs and favor cards, complete with real seashells.
6. The beautiful bride, of course! I love you, Mary!

Bridesmaid Brunch

Wedding pics:

Charleston!

What a great weekend! Cody had a Family Medicine conference in Charleston this weekend, so I tagged along and turned it into a mini vacation. We left Thursday (after Cody had to take his EKG exam) around 10:45 a.m. and got to Charleston about 3:30 p.m. Thankfully, the hotel we stayed at allowed dogs, so Hershey got to come with us! Here are some pictures and a little about what we did each day:

Thursday
After arriving and unpacking our stuff, we got Hershey settled in. He was a little unsure of being somewhere new at first, but he quickly warmed up to it. We played with his ball for a little bit and took him outside. We went to eat dinner at a little local place called Firey Ron's BBQ. They gave you some huge BBQ sandwiches. Yummy! Tanger outlet stores were close by to our hotel, so we walked there for a little while.

Friday
Cody got up early in the morning to go to the opening ceremony for the conference. When he got back, we went to browse the streets of downtown Charleston for a while. We went through the open-air market, browsed some of the shops along the streets, and had lunch at Market Street Deli. Cody had to go back to the conference for a board meeting, so I went back to the room to spend some time with Hershey. After he finished we went back to downtown Charleston. We stopped at the cutest doggy bakery to get Hershey some goodies--Drooly Dream peanut butter bar, rrrrRibs, and and Springer Spangle donut. We had dinner reservations for Virginia's on King, where they serve low country cuisine in a somewhat formal setting. Cody tried the famous She-Crab Soup, along with a Cobb salad, and I had baked ham, cream corn, green beans and broccoli. After dinner, we went back to the hotel to get Hershey. The three of us went for a walk in the waterfront park and along rainbow row. Hershey had such a good time, but he was so tired when we were done.

Sweet Grass Baskets at the Market

Browsing the Open-Air Market

Waterfront Park


Mommy, Daddy, and Hershey at Waterfront Park


Rainbow Row

Hershey's Drooly Dream Bar from Three Dogs Bakery

Hershey Eating His Drooly Dream Bar

Saturday
This was quite possibly my favorite day! Cody went to the conference in the morning, but he had the rest of the day free, so we spent the entire day at Middleton Place Plantation. It was beautiful! This was an old rice plantation/garden that was owned by several generations of the Middleton family, many who had important places in history--President of the First Continental Congress, signer of the Declaration of Independence, etc. We toured the gardens, complete with tons of azeleas, camellias, huge live oaks, and ponds, and then walked through the structures on the plantation. The actual plantation house and one side house (used as a music room and library) were destroyed during the Civil War when Union soldiers burned many plantations in SC; however, the ruins of these buildings remained. The guest house and stableyards remained. We took a tour to learn about the African American culture on the plantation, took a carriage ride through the bamboo forest, and toured the guest house, which is now set up with actual furniture from the Middleton families that lived there. It was such a beautiful place, and the weather was perfect!

We returned back to the hotel to check on Hershey and to take him outside for a potty break. Then we went to eat dinner at an Italian restaurant in the heart of downtown Charleston, Bocci's. After dinner, we walked downtown some more and bought some pralines to take home. (The store served samples of them while they were warm, and they just melted in your mouth--sooooo good!)

Azeleas at Middleton Place

Reflection Pond at Middleton Place

Cody and Melanie at Middleton Place

Guest House

Ruins of the Plantation House

Sunday
We had such a good time, and it was so nice to get away for a while (this was the closest to a vacation we have had since our honeymoon), neither of us wanted to leave. We had wanted to go to the Tea Plantation, but it was about 45 minutes in the opposite direction, we decided not to go. Instead, we went back to Tanger--this time, Hershey came with us since we had to check out of our hotel. He walked around to the stores with us, and we would take turns sitting with him while the other one shopped. We found some really good deals, so that's always exciting!

Well, as they say, all good things must come to an end....