please hold...

I'll be on a blogging vacay, while we sit in front of this for the next 5 days:

Be jealous, if you must.

my manly officer

We have bugs. We have flies, june bugs, mosquitos, creepy crawly mystery bugs and palmetto bugs (read: cockroaches). I have never lived in a place where the insects are in such an abundant supply, but they're here and they love to scurry inside every time we open the door. Personally, I would like to teach Rudy to catch them, but he's not interested. So I guess we're left to our own devices. And believe me, it's a show.

Andrew can do spiders and snakes, but if it flits and flutters, he's no good. Not because he's scared (so he says) but because this variety is so gross. I can't say I disagree. But this aversion has resulted in some pretty hilarious scenes throughout the house. Our first night here, we were sleeping on a matress in the floor and he thought he heard something fly across his face. With a little squeal, he bolted to the end of the mattress, almost busting my chin open in the process. This morning, he reached into the closet in the laundry room to grab something and a cockroach scurried across the floor. He made some very questionable noises and did a little dance, all the while saying, "Oh no, oh no, he's so gross!! Oh no!" Then he forced me to hand over my flipflop to do the deed and let's just say he was a little more violent than I would have liked. It was a messy aftermath.

Unfortunately, it appears that this is something we'll have to adjust to and learn to deal with. Which means I'll have plenty of opportunity to get it on camera. Maybe I'll install a Nanny Cam...

my dad is better than your dad

I think my favorite thing about my dad is that he raised me with a vault full of memories that not many little girls have. For the few years before my brother was born, both of my parents worked but managed their schedules so that I would never have to be in daycare or with a sitter. Not many people can say that. Lucky for me, I had days with my dad. That means I spent my time in little boy clothes (can you see Present Day Page in flannel shirts and overalls?) on a boat with a fishing pole. Or sitting at the kitchen table in a Bill Elliot racing hat, playing with one of the remote control race car tracks. Or perhaps almost catching the apartment on fire trying to make toast because I woke up before he did and wanted breakfast NOW. But that's another story.

I had a dad that believed in making adventures for your kids and bringing them along on yours, in hopes of having something to share excitement over. I had a dad who learned how to braid, because there were days when I only wanted to wear my hair in pigtails. A dad who used to take me on daddy-daughter dates to the bowling alley, making me feel like the most important girl in the world. And as I evolved, he evolved into the dad who stayed up late with me, talking about whatever I found interesting at the time - friends, boys, my religion class in college. He even stayed on the phone with me in the middle of the night when I watched Silence of the Lambs by myself in my dorm room. Dedication, I tell you.

And when another boy started edging in on my time and attention, he made sure that he was the right one and then stepped aside. The true mark of a great father.

Happy Father's Day, Daddy. I hope you always know how thankful I am to be yours.

friday date night: alessandra's

Right before our move down here, Andrew said that he thought it would be fun to document all of our Friday date night meals, since we're in a culinary hotspot for the next year. What better way to bring that to life than in the blog?

This week, the first week, was also the birthday edition! My birthday was on Friday and after a very special day made wonderful by my sweet friends and family, we celebrated at Alessandra's in downtown Summerville. Andrew found this quaint restaurant off of a cobblestone street accessible only by foot. Complete with cafe tables out front and white string lights in the window, it was just the kind of place I get excited about. We were greeted by the very Italian owner and seated by his very Italian brother. Within minutes, a very Italian family friend was at the piano, playing tunes from the Sinatra era. Adorable.

We enjoyed bread with olive oil and spices, house salads and then some pretty standard Italian dishes: chicken fettuccini with spinach and chicken parmesan. It was just simple, good Italian food. Just the way I like it. And the highlight? Watching the veteran waitresses, in too-tight black pants and red lipstick, educate the new girl (a timid little niece) on how to pour water. It was her first night and the way they fussed over her after she took the first order reminded me a little of the way Nia's cousins made a scene on her wedding day in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It was like she had just experienced a rite of passage. Who knew you could find this kind of culture down here?

Thanks for tuning in for our first edition of Friday Date Night! Once we get a little more settled, we'll venture out to downtown Charleston where you know things are going to get reeaaaaal good :)

big girl furniture

So far, settling into the Palmetto State has taken a little longer than we'd like. Our main living area looks like it did the day we moved in and our bedroom is not the quiet and tranquil place that HGTV tells me it should be. It's rather chaotic, in fact. But the good news is that while I've been slaving away in the upstairs office during the day, Andrew's had the time to make progress. He was given a stash job for the summer, until he starts school in August, but each morning when he gets there at 8:15am (to "muster", i.e. sign the attendance sheet) he's been told that there isn't any work for him and he can go home. Tough life.

So what's taking us so long to unpack, you ask? BIG GIRL FURNITURE! We knew that this move would be the one when we'd acquire a good amount of the furniture we've been saving up for, since friends and family are more likely to visit when you live in Charleston, rather than Durham. Let's be honest, there really is no comparison. And in order to have an adequate guest bedroom, we decided to move all of our bedroom furniture upstairs and get ourselves a real, live bedroom suite. And since no one wants to eat a leisurely Sunday dinner on a couch or folding chair, we also got a dining room table (for 10!) to meet all of the hospitality desires of my heart. Unluckily for Andrew, all of it had to be assembled. Hence the unpacked boxes. Where are we going to put our clothes if we don't have a dresser?

All I know is this: We're in too beautiful a place to spend our days in boxes, so any free minute I have will go to getting this place settled. And when that day comes, there will be celebration.

"have fun on your adventure"

We're here! I won't say that we're settled, but I will say that we have a mattress on the floor and a functional kitchen. And a semi-functional living room, bathroom and office. But we're here!

It was an ordeal to get ourselves and our stuff down here. U-haul disasters and packing obstacles and temporary homelessness caused a few headaches But alas, we arrived Thursday night, to a house that we signed a lease on 36 hours prior - having not even seen it. Of course, the AC was broken and the thermostat was registering 96 degrees, so we spent the night in a hotel until they could fix it. Seriously, you wouldn't believe the luck we've had this week. Horrendous. But the house is beautiful and better than we ever could have hoped for. I'll post pictures when it doesn't look like a storage unit. As taxing as the process has been, I had my "I can't believe we live here" moment when we were driving around on Friday. It's so breathtakingly southern. If all the stress leads to those moments, I can't complain too much.

I will say that leaving NC was a lot harder than I thought. My parents helped us pack on Tuesday and Wednesday, prolonging the inevitable goodbye. When the time came for me to hug them one last time, I felt like a five-year-old leaving for her first day of school. I stood in the front yard and cried as they drove away. I cried the next morning while I finished cleaning. I cried when I crossed the border into SC, as if Pedro and his fun themepark only represented the fact that I don't even live in same Carolina as the rest of my family. But if there's one thing I'm learning, it's that there is something beautiful in the story that God is writing for me. Even the story that tears me away from family and friends and familiarity, leading us to the uncertainty that makes my stomach turn. (Mir, I promise I'll finish reading that book as soon as I unpack it!) I can only assume that He wrote this part to give me something precious, so I'll take it.

When I was hugging my dad one last time, he told me to have fun on my adventure. Thanks, Dad, for raising me to go on and enjoy adventures. And for giving me to a man who will take care of me while we're on them together.

Here we go...

i got nowhere else to go!

(Props to you if you're NOT in my family and you got that movie reference.)

Okay, folks. Cue the circus music.

Yesterday, we had a place to live. Today, we do not. The homeowners of the place we were renting decided they want to sell, not rent. After screaming at my phone upon hearing this voicemail, scouring the internet for the possibility of a rental that escaped us during previous searches and saying a few quick, frustrated prayers, we've decided that it's okay. It'll all work out. Our new motto is "keep on keepin' on." But really, it's almost comical. There were 5 houses that I found in the weeks leading up to the house hunt that had been listed for months. They were taken the second we entered South Carolina. Please see below for the craziness that followed:

House #1: Listing said the yard was fenced, perfect for our high-maintenance dog. Drive-by proves listing wrong.

House #2: LOVE IT. Walk around inside, day dream about decorating and drive back to the rental company to sign the papers. Someone has filled out an application while were were looking at it.

House #3: Ghetto.

House #4: Fenced-in yard = three-sided fence. Why bother?

House #5: While standing in the kitchen, realtor gets a call. Owner changes their mind about pets. Really? Let me just show you Rudy, he's really nice. Are you SURE you don't take pets?

House #6: It'll do. If we don't like the next one, we'll take it.

House #7: No key left in the special realtor box. House #6 it is.

House #8: An exact replica of House #2 is available. Hurry, send in paperwork and cancel House #6. Oh, we're sorry. House #8 doesn't want to be a rental. And oh, House #6 is taken already.

House #9: Someone JUST submitted an application and we haven't had a chance to take it off our site.

Either we need to figure out a way to be quicker on the draw or we need to hire someone to sabotage these people's credit checks, but this is getting out.of.control.

As of now, we're homeless. It's possible that our U-Haul trailer will be situated in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn for a few days, but we're praying that the Lord will provide. Ok, we know He WILL provide, we just pray that it's sooner rather than later. And if it's not, we pray that we understand why. One day.

Sigh.

done, sir, done

I can't believe it's been one week since I arrived in Newport and participated in the whirlwind of events that led up to Andrew's graduation. It was beautiful and exhausting and exciting and perfect. I don't even know how to put it all into words, other than to say it was an honor to be a part of it all. I was bursting with pride the whole time thinking of how blessed I am to have a husband like this. We enjoyed good food with family, met friends who have carried me through the last three months and had a tiny glimpse into what this experience has been like for Andrew. It was all really unbelievable. Here's a look, in pictures:

Together again :)

As exciting as last week was, there was no time to relax in the memories of it all. We hit the ground running as soon as we got back home. We spent two days in Charleston, trying to get everything with his orders sorted out and trying to find a place to live. Both are checked off! He doesn't start school until August, so we'll have the summer to get settled and enjoy being in Charleston. Until then, we have less than 5 days to get packed and moved.

Let the games begin!