Walk on the beach at Sunset

See the Sunrise at IOP

Spend a day (or two) at the beach

Eat at a new restaurant at least once a month

Visit Solmaz in Mississippi

Get Fondue @ Fonduely Yours, Mt. Pleasant

Go to a Charleston Riverdogs game

Visit Greenville

Have my niece and nephews down to the Waterpark

Go out on the water in a boat…MK, here we go!

Walk the Bridge

Make Homemade Ice Cream

Complete 3 Pinterest Projects

Complete one yard project

Go to a Yard Sale

Send snail mail to one friend a week

Learn Sign Language

Make a First Aid Kit for my car

Attend a Roller Derby Match

And the list could grow over the next couple of weeks! You should try to come up with a Summer To-Do List too.

The result was a loss due to some errors. But I was so proud of my ladies. I met the bus as it pulled into CSU from a long road trip just to hug each of them and tell them how proud I was of each of them. 

This year has been so much fun watching the Softball ladies grow in their game and in their personal lives. I have been so honored to get the opportunity to serve these girls and to love them just the way that they are.Through injuries, bench time, and losses I have been impressed with their perseverance and their growth. Through healing, play time and wins I have been blessed to see how they have tried to honor the Lord in it all. I have laughed often and I have loved them more and more! 

Can’t wait for next year. Love you Lady Bucs! 

I began moving boxes and furniture that night and by Saturday afternoon I had everything moved over from the apartment and unloaded at the house. I spent the night in my new home for the first time with Drea. Now I have to admit that I woke up the next day and thought “Ohhhh myyyyy! What the heck did I just do? Do I like this house enough to be committed to it this long?” Well that feeling was eased as I got up and moving around and was reminded how awesome the house is.

So it took me about a week to get things moved in and unpacked. Thankfully and unfortunately, I didn’t have roommates for the first week. At first, it was kinda sucky. Then I decided it was kinda nice! 

On Mother’s Day weekend my family was so kind to host a Housewarming party for me to celebrate my new home. I got some gift cards and some odds & ends. I decided to look through the house and find some things that I definitely needed to be functional and some things to just organize it better. Now I am on mission to use up those gift cards to make some of these purchases. 

A couple of tips:

1. Build your credit the best you can because your credit scores are critical to this process.

2. Find a great realtor who is interested in your happiness and well-being more than their cut in the sell. 

3. Minimize your paper mail so that you don’t have to change your address on SO many things.

4. Document with pictures along the way.

The house is becoming a home!

Friday night I went to the CHORAL POP concert featuring several of the choirs where they performed some past and present hit songs by Journey, Elton John, Queen and the Beatles. It was phenomenal! 

After a short break from the concert I found my way to the FINAL RAVE of the year. Now in times past I have been the chaperone and it was not so great because there were some issues with some of the people who were at the event. This year I felt the need to show up because it was the last whooo-rahhhhh for Sam and Kris. They do an excellent job with the event and everyone who comes always has a blast. 

Then Saturday, I went to see the final showing of Alice in Wonderland where my girl, Megan, was ALICE. It was hilarious and I think I might have been the only one laughing at times, but I didn’t really mind. It was so fun to see people’s personalities come out in the play which is what made it so humorous for me. I give mad props to Christi Wilken in her directing skills (and for the front row seats)!! 

Time has lapsed and many things have been done in the meantime. I’ve filled out much paper work and scanned over document after documents to the Home Owner Insurance place and the Mortgage lender. I think it would have been beneficial to purchase one of those signature stamps for as many times as I have ALREADY signed my name. What scares me if that everyone keeps saying that it is nothing like it will be on the closing day. 

One of the crazy things in this whole process is how tough it has been to get the last bit of money for the closing day. My Granny has been cracking me up with all of her explanations and attitude. I am most excited for her to see it on May 4th when she comes down to Charleston… yessss that is right! Granny is coming to town!

Last Thursday, I did my pre-settlement walk-thru at the house with Beau, contractor for Ryland, and he was awesome to work with to make sure everything was marked for final review and touch ups. Thankful for Wayne and Connie with Exit Realtors for their help and commitment to me getting the best service possible. It was kind of weird walking through the house being so intentional to inspect and point out things. It made it surreal that I am about to own my first home. 

This weekend I finally started gathering some boxes and began the packing process. I have a couple of boxes packed and have been getting other things ready to be put in boxes. I am realizing several things – I have  a lot of junk. I still need some things for my house. I don’t like having to pack. And that I am not officially excited about this next step/move. 

We shall continue the Lot 53 journey as soon as we get word that the closing date is solid…

Three things I learned on Friday: 

1. Always be prepared for much laughter when hanging out with Allison! She is a riot!

2. Stella’s Southern Kitchen has some AWESOME/DELISH food! (Check it out, Fairview Road, Greenville)

3. I want my bridal party to spend some time giving me godly/wise advise before praying over me and my future husband.

Wedding day arises and I must say I was excited to see how the Lord was going to bless these two as they enter into a sacred covenant. I have never laughed so much in one time at someone and then in the moment I was so emotional with tears of happiness and joy! 

Below are just a couple of pictures I snapped throughout the weekend. I am so honored to have been a part of the wedding even in the most unofficial ways. I loved every minute of it! I also was encouraged by the compliments that so many of the bridesmaids told me as I met them about how much Allison had said about me before. Just never know how much of an impact you have the opportunity for 

The Lot 53 Journey began when I set the ‘next’ goal after paying off my student loans. I wanted to buy a house! 

Back in November I talked to the Realtor and told her I was wanting to look for a house and she said we would start at the beginning of March so that we had enough time. Move-in has to happen by mid-May. Of course with the busy hectic schedule we have during this time of the school year I was about 2 weeks behind on starting the house hunt. 

I called the Realtor and she got right on sending me listings online to check out. So on March 20th I began receiving those and sorting through them. Some where a little too high in price. Some where too small. Some were too big. Some were too far away. Finally…I got a handful of houses I am sure I kind of like. So Kadie and I decided to drive by a couple of them this week on March 26th to see the outside and the location in reference to CSU. We found this one SUPER cute yellow house that was 4 bedrooms and 3 baths for super cheap I was pretty sure it was the one for me. I talked to Mrs. Connie and she lined up for us to go look at 4 sites on Wednesday, March 28th. The cute yellow one turned out to be under contract. 

The first one we went to was a new construction home in a new neighborhood. I took pictures while there. I tested out the bathrooms and the kitchen. I knew from the walk-through that I liked it a lot and would probably come back to that house. So before taking time on Saturday to continue looking for houses I just told her that I had a peace about this house. So on today, March 31 I put down a written contract for the house on Lot 53.

Talk about being nervous to commit your name to such a massive amount of money! This girl right here was kind of sweating it and I am not even close to the end of this journey. It has only….begun….LOT 53.

Without any further delay…here is the little house I am buying.

CSU Lady Bucs Softball shows up and shows out for game one.

We’re all in! Watch this…