Coming up...

So...last weekend was really nice. We got to be a little lazy. Hung around the house, went to the pool, got some laundry done... It was nice to be home and I know Buddy was happy we were there too! :-) Tuesday was my friend Elyse's birthday. We went bowling at the new Strike City uptown and had a really great time. It was so fun and a really neat place. I won the award for the lowest score of the night (a whopping 52) and Barrett was trying for most creative bowl, but was beat at the last minute. I love to hang out with the girls from work. They are so fun to be around and quite honestly are one of the major reasons I still work at the hospital. They have pretty fun husbands/boyfriends/significant others too...so it's fun for Barrett as well! All in all, a pretty succesful trip uptown! Another fun tid-bit - Lora called me this week and told me she thinks she found a FREE island for our kitchen! Yay! This show room that works with Matt went bankrupt and closed their doors and basically told Matt to come take whatever he wanted. Lora saw this freestanding, solid wood island with a black marble (I think she said marble) top. She said it's super heavy but thinks it will fit well in our kitchen. We will be able to stain the wood to match our cabinets, and our appliances are black, so I think it will work. We're also planning to put a black backsplash in the kitchen too, so I think it will all look good together. It will take up a good bit of floor space...but I am so excited to have more counter space AND a drawer for my silveware! It won't have to live in the pantry anymore! Thanks, Lora, for keeping your eyes open! Just when I thought I was feeling better...I got a pretty bad cough. It's worse at night, but makes me kid of tired and my chest hurt a little in the day. At least this time I don't think I'm having a heart attack! Hopefully a little Day-Quil and Robitussin will knock it out. This weekend we're doing a little more of the same. Relaxing. No real plans except maybe a little sushi outing for dinner one night. And - Barrett is going to start painting Matt's new fun cornhole boards. We brought them here to Charlotte and Steve, one of Barrett's friends from work, drew Pee Dee the Pirate on them. So - now it's time to paint them so they can be done for the first game in two weeks! Go Pirates! :-) Hope everyone is doing well! XOXO

Sunny Florida

We had such a great time in Florida! We really had great (hot) weather all week and got to spend a lot of time out in the sun. It was so great to get to spend some time with Susan, Mike, Matt, Jenna, and Landon. We miss you all already! We spent Wednesday out on the beach. When we got there, we thought maybe we were going to be rained out....but, it turned out to be a beautiful day. We spent time in the water, took a walk down to the jetty with Matt & Jenna, and soaked in the sun. Barrett even let Matt bury him in the sand a bit. :-) We went back to the beach that night to watch the sunset and listed to a group of drummers. Landon had a really fun time! :-)

Thursday we headed 6 hours south to Key West for a quick, but fun, overnight trip. The drive wasn't so bad (maybe because I took a dramamine and slept most of the way!) and we stopped at a fun little place for lunch called Chappy's in Marathon just before the 7 mile bridge. Barrett & I had never been to Key West before, so we were excited to see what it was all about. We had some yummy cocktails, went to Mallory Square for sunset, had breakfast (a delicious breakfast) with the chickens at Blue Heaven, took pictures with the buoy at the Southern Most Point, saw Hemingway's house and the Little White House, and walked nearly the full length of Duval Street. Our hotel was really great and in such an awesome spot. If you're heading to Key West, we highly recommend the La Concha Crown Plaza. On the way back, we drove through the Everglades. It was fun scenery for the long stretch home. Matt, Jenna, and Landon left Saturday :-( to get back to Greenville. The plan was to spend sometime at the beach that day....but I wasn't feeling so great (more to come on that later) so I actually napped most of the day while Barrett made a Mii on the Wii for everyone. That afternoon I perked up a bit and we did get in some beach time. Barrett and Mike went diving for sand dollars and Susan and I got in some good reading time. We had a really yummy dinner at the Lock & Key in Englewood. They had a husband and wife duo (Beau & Becca) playing guitar and singing. They were really great and we stayed to listen to them a bit after dinner. Sunday, Barrett & I got in a little pool time in the morning. The pool in the community where Susan works is really nice, and we even had it all to our selves for about an hour or so. Then...off to the airport, and back to Charlotte. We left about an hour later than anticipated from Sarasota and nearly missed our connection in Atlanta. We RAN at full speed through the ATL airport. When we got to our gate, the door was closed, and we were sure we'd missed it. But then - the door opened and the gate agent came out! Turns out, they were changing a tire on the plane, so we were able to get on. We ended up sitting there for about 20 minutes, so luckily our luggage made it on the place with is too! All in all - it was a really great trip. Too short - but so needed. Thank you again so much Susan and Mike for such an awesome week. We hope to be back very soon. As for me...I'm feeling a little better. I'd been feeling a little funny for a while - headaches, dizziness, nausea, tired all the time... But then, I also started having pretty bad chest pain about 2 weeks ago. At first, I thought it was heartburn but no meds helped. Then, I thought maybe it was anxiety because we'd been so busy. But, it never really went away and nothing seemed to help it. When we got back home from Florida, I was feeling pretty bad. The pain in my chest had moved around to my back. I wasn't really sleeping well and knew I needed to get to the doctor before I self-diagnosed and freaked myself out. :-) So, Monday I went to work, but ended up leaving about an hour and a half later because I felt so bad. I went to the doctor and they took some chest x-rays and did a bunch of lab work (complete blood count, metabolic panel, thyroid, iron, coronary panel, and the kitchen sink). Wednesday, I went back in for my follow up - and apparently, I'm fine. Everything was negative. Nothing showed up in my blood or x-rays. So, I guess I should be happy that everything looks good, but it's just really frustrating. I mean, I don't feel GOOD. It kind of makes me feel stupid - like maybe people think I'm making it up or just complaining. But, you don't just feel bad for no reason. So, I guess I'm right back where I started. They want me to do a sleep study - he thinks maybe I have apnea or am just not going into REM. Who knows. I guess I'll just try to take it easy for a while and see how it goes. Other than that....not too much going on. We were supposed to go to Beaufort for a wedding this weekend, but we're going to be staying home. I just want to take it easy, get some rest. Plus, we don't really want to board Buddy again this weekend. And, Barrett didn't ge tomorrow off, so 6 hours is kind of a long drive for one night. So...we're laying low this weekend. Getting some cleaning done around the house, laying by the pool, and hanging out with Buddy. Hope you all have relaxing weekends as well. XOXO

Lora and Matt's Wedding Weekend...

We had a BLAST at Matt & Lora's wedding in Burlington this weekend! She was stunning and Matt looked really handsome. The Craig Woolard Band played awesome beach music all night...yummy seafood...good friends...

The weekend started for me on Thursday. I headed to Burlington to help Lora out with a few last minute things. Lora, Ging, and I went to the nail salon for mani pedis too.

Friday was the bridesmaids luncheon at this cute little place in Mebane call Dick & Jane's. It was hosted by Katie (Allen) Krist and her mom, Jan. It was lots of fun, and we had these fun little martinis called summer lemons. Yum...but dangerous! :-) The rehearsal was that night and went smoothly for the most part. Katherine and I were wearing the same dress (in different colors) so, great minds think alikt I guess! Barrett had to work Friday, so he came in after work and made it to the rehearsal dinner at The Cutting Board. The food was good and they had the most awesome Pee Dee the Pirate cake made by Lora's Aunt Erin.

Saturday was busy busy! We started early at Positive Image for hair and makeup. The limo picked us up at Lora's at 2:30, and we headed to the church for pictures. Lora looked beautiful and the colors (purple and yellow) looked so great together. We may be a bit biased though... :-)

We had a really great time at the reception. The food was awesome (lots of seafood...oysters 4 ways, shrimp, etc.) and the band (Craig Woolard) was so fun! The dance floor was full ALL night! I don't think I've ever seen that at a wedding before! The night went too fast...it was such a good time.

Sunday was kind of a slow start...but we got to hang out with the newlyweds for a few hours before we headed home and before they took off to Hawaii for 10 days.

Good times. I think we're done with weddings till Jamaica on October. It sure has been a nuptial-filled few months!