Sometimes it amazes me what little things can make a big difference. This is our sixth week in Charleston, and we still had not met any of our neighbors. Although we have talked about it often, Michael and I have yet to reach out and introduce ourselves. After conversations with friends and family, we decided to make cookies for a few of our neighbors as a way of saying “we live here and want to be friends!” Last night we delivered the first batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies and had such a positive experience. Our next door neighbors, Sharon and Ray, have two kids, Olivia (11) and Owen (8). They are an incredibly neat family and we spent 2 hours talking to them just outside our front doors (these are townhouses, remember!) “Why did this take so long?” is what I thought all night. But there is timing in everything. We enjoyed our conversations very much with the McGuirks and are looking forward to many more gatherings together over the next year.

Then, to place icing on the cake, as we were talking, another neighbor down the road with 2 pugs came over to chat. They no longer have the 2nd pug as they are a pug foster family and had just given one away to adoption. I FINALLY got to play with the little pug named Jaba who I have been admiring for weeks; I also got my “pug fill” in for a few days. I am obsessed with them. I may have mentioned this before, but I have an adorable little nephpup named Winston who I love and don’t get to see as much as I’d like to. Here he is:


I have been begging Michael to let us get one eventually, and after talking with these neighbors, I think I may have warmed him up to the idea. Brandy and Justin are a part of a large pug rescue I the Charleston area and might have convinced us not to go with a puppy whenever we get a dog (which probably won’t be anytime soon, Mom!). They, like us, are wanting to know their neighbors more, and especially the young adults (they are only a few years older than us). We gave them cookies too.

On Sunday evening our HOA is having a neighborhood cookout which will allow us to meet most of the rest of the division, which excites us.

So, a little batch of cookies can go a long way.


-LR

Rachel and Rainey

My sweet friend Rachel came to visit with her new precious dog, Rainey from Sunday to Tuesday. I took off work to play at the beach all day on Monday, and it was well worth it! We baked in the sun and cooled off in the water, before Rainey took off running down the beach! Rachel had to run almost a 1/2 mile just to get her...it was quite funny to watch!

Rainey then pooped out on the beach...the sun got the best of her!
We know how to show a good time down here, and the two of them can attest to that! Rachel's friendship is so precious, and I am so glad she decided to share some of her break with us. PS- dogs are welcome, too!

-LR

I'm a South Carolinian

Well, I took the plunge…I got my South Carolina drivers license, title and license plate yesterday. It is the first time I have ever had anything but North Carolina. I have to admit, it was hard and a little sad! I love my home state of North Carolina, and especially that sweet little town of Boone. But, somehow being here with Michael made it okay- this is our home right now. He is my home. And we are making our home a great little place. (I am not sure I could live anywhere else in SC but the Charleston area though!). And I know we will go back to North Carolina one day.

We are really enjoying our time in Charleston so far. It’s hard to believe 5 weeks have already passed since we moved in. I feel as though we have done more in our time here than the whole time we were in New England. It might not have helped that for many of those months in Massachusetts, we were buried under snow! Charleston is such a warm and lively place to live. It has the ocean, rivers, live music, trails, delicious food, great churches, THE bridge, wonderful people, and the epitome of SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY. Oh how I have missed that. And, it doesn’t hurt that we live in a destination place where so many people love to visit. In fact, we got to have dinner with two of our NEWLYWED friends (Jason and Erin Huprich) downtown on Wednesday night who were on their honeymoon!! How unique; we felt honored.

So though I may not wave my confederate flag, I will certainly eat some shrimp n’ grits and catch some sun in my new home of Charleston. And visit North Carolina as often as I can. J

~LB

October 3

I just wanted to share the most beautiful and creative wedding invitation I have ever received! It is for the wedding of my dear ASU friends, Carolyn Clark and Alan Rasmussen. I took a shot of it to show all of the precious details. Of course, being the most creative person I know, Carolyn handmade all of her invitations. Check it out:

Carolyn also keeps up a cool blog of all her wedding creativities (my new word!).

I can't wait for the wedding on October 3 in Banner Elk!!

-LB

Porch Life

Since we have moved into our new Charleston home, I have finally been able to grow the herb plants I have been dying to have. As you can see below, I have basil, oregano, parsley and thyme growing on my porch. Doesn't fresh basil smells so amazing!! And, it has certainly come in handy! Having fresh herbs around is much better than dry herbs, although we still use plenty of them too.
Below are just two of the dishes we have made with fresh herbs in them: A shrimp dish Michael made, and homemade pizza with fresh oregano and basil.
Here is a snapshot of our cute porch furniture Michael's parents blessed us with. It is perfect!
Lastly, we wanted to share the great hole in the wall restaurant we finally went to today after church: Jack's Cosmic Dogs. It is a cute little eclectic place with some great dogs!
-LB

On the boat in Charleston

Two of our friends here in Mt. Pleasant (in our neighborhood actually), Erik and PJ Norlander, generously invited Lynn and I to go out on their boat with them yesterday for Sea Ray's Aquapalooza event. For the event, people basically drive their boats out to Morris Island, park them all around this barge where bands are playing live music, and just hang out in the water, on the beach or in their boats.

It's about a 30 minute boat ride out to Morris Island from Daniel Island, where the boat was docked, and we got out there around 11:00. We had the boat parked near the barge until around 3, when Erik took us out to Morris lighthouse (about a 20 minute ride through open ocean). After Lynn had a slight bout with nausea from the choppy waters, we rode back towards Daniel Island where we stopped and swam with a pack of dolphins (amazingly, they got within about 15-20 feet of us). We then got the wakeboard out, being that we were in calmer waters, and PJ, Katie (Erik's daughter) and I all did some wakeboarding before heading back in around 7:30 pm.

The result of being out on the boat the entire day were some sunburned bodies (even though we lathered and re-lathered), but it was definitely worth it. We're hoping there will be more trips like this later in the summer. If so, I think we could really start getting used to this Charleston place...

Out on the boat in the morning

PJ enjoying being out on the water!

Wakeboarding at Sunset

- MB

Brattleboro, VT

For the past month or so Lynn has been talking about taking a trip to Vermont before we leave New England, because having spent time in New Hampshire & Maine, it remained the last of the New England states for her to visit. As many of you know, our moving plans sped up after we visited Charleston last week, so our original game plan of an overnight trip to Burlington, VT for our six month anniversary (as recommended by Joe & Kerry) changed to simply getting Lynn on to VT soil before Monday's move! So yesterday we took a day trip up to Brattleboro, VT - the closest city above the Mass. line. I did some research earlier in the week and found a solid hike in the Black Mountain National Area, with views of New Hampshire & Mass. at the summit. The trail was off the beaten path to say the least, and as one of the pictures shows, we had to find another route to the trail head from the directions we got offline. The trip was a lot of fun though, and gave me a chance to reflect on these last two years in New England. As Lynn said yesterday, there is something "peaceful" about VT that you don't find too often, especially living in Greater Boston as we have. We soaked in the VT mountain air and panoramic views from the top, realizing that while Charleston has a lot of natural beauty, we would have to drive up to Boone to enjoy these types of views again (which I think we are more than willing to do).

- MB

Not a good sign when turning in to the expected parking area! Had to find another way over the river. New Hampshire mountains over our shoulders

Lynn vs. WildNear the bottom of trail... hoping the camera stays on the branch I set it on