Happy Labor Day

Happy Labor Day to everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! We spent the weekend pretty much being lazy, and trying to accomplish things around the house.  We finished a bunch of our thank you cards but still have a few more to go.

Today it was a little warm but the last two days it actually felt like fall and it was wonderful.  We were able to take the dogs for a really long walk which they loved and have the windows open and air off the entire time.  Its supposed to be warm for a few days this week and then cooling down again and I can't wait!

One of my favorite things about fall is sweaters.  I love sweaters, in particular cardigans.  I even bring cardigans with me when I go to florida in the middle of the summer.  One of my cardigans is the one at Lands End.  I think right now I have it in about four colors and am looking to get a few more colors for the fall because it is such a great sweater.

Tomorrow it is back to the grind!  While my job isn't hard, waking up at three to go to work just messes me up! I feel like during the week all I do is work, eat, and sleep.  I have this schedule for the rest of September so hopefully I can adjust at some point.  Tomorrow we also start coaching girl's youth soccer.  Rudy and I both played soccer growing up and we thought that it would be a great way to get to know new people, so hopefully I will have some pictures to share from that!

Tomorrow is the first day of school for my brother and sisters and if Marmie sends pictures my way I will have those to share as well.  Tomorrow might be the warmest first day of school they have had, but 90 degrees was normal for school in North Carolina. 

Its bath time for J & L, happy Monday and the start to another week!

Happy Birthday Lolie Polie Ohlie

Today is Lola's first birthday and in honor of it we will take a look at the last year in Lola's life!

The Day you were born with your and Jack's mom sugar, you both look more like her than your dad....

The day we brought you home....

You loved to sleep by your food....

And loved your big brother...

But soon you started to get big....

And by the time I came home you were huge...

and loved the mud...

your sunglasses..

and being pretty...

In the car you always make sure you are comfortable....

And today you are still growing...

And you still love your brother....

And squirrels, but I don't have a picture of them.  Happy Birthday Lola!

A Little Bit of the Jack and Lola Show

I decided it was time to once again post a few pictures of the fur babies, who are currently engaged in a tug of war that has been on going all weekend.  Yesterday I picked them up a few squeaky toys, a soccer ball, cheeseburger, and a squirrel off of the dollar shelves at the entrance to Target.  Jack loves squeakers, and Lola loves any toy that Jack wants.  Mr. Squirrel has already met his stuffing demise, and is now just a limp skin of a stuffed animal who has joined the company of Sheep, Dog, and Mr. Bear to name a few.  Thankfully J&L don't seem to mind that they don't have stuffing anymore.  Thus far the cheeseburger and the soccer ball but this is what Rudy and I have watched all weekend non stop.

Lola is all wet because she loves mud

And they have even gone this far...

When they aren't fighting over a toy these days they are looking like this...

Lola can't get enough of the 80's and wants crimped ears...

Jack is finally starting to fill out and look like a gentleman

Are we done taking pictures yet?

Otherwise this has been a pretty uneventful weekend for us.  Today we were going to go swimming but woke up to storms canceling those plans, so we have pretty much bummed around.  I made Rudy watch My Sister's Keeper with me this afternoon which was so depressing, so we immediately started watching Two Weeks Notice after it to lighten the mood.  And right now I just finished ordering our wedding thank you cards and the Hubs is sitting across from me picking his fantasy football team, which he knows absolutely nothing about so it should be a pretty interesting 'fantasy' season.  Back to the grind tomorrow but I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Moving Madness has begun!

Today the moves began, the movers showed up bright and early and packed my house away while I sat on the couch feeling helpless and reading my blogs.  Tomorrow the truck will take it all away, and on Wednesday they will pack Man Friend's stuff and we will be on our way to Waldorf, and the new house.  This weekend I have something very special to look forward to, seeing these lovely ladies!!!

Fair Winds and Following Seas...

Today was officially my last day on DALLAS, a day I thought two years ago I wouldn't see.  DALLAS was not where I wanted to be two years ago, I longed for the comfort of New England, close to home as I officially went out on my own.  But there were other plans for me, and it brought me to Charleston and the life I have now.  And I am truly thankful!  It hasn't always been an easy two years, but I have always had friends by my side as we have struggled to make DALLAS what it is today.  And the friends that I have made I will have for years to come.  The one thing I can truly thank DALLAS for is Rudy, because without DALLAS we never would have met. So good bye ol girl and I look forward to seeing you again!

Yesterday was officially the one month to go until the wedding, which was made more exciting by the fact that my dress came today!! Happy Dance!  After a minor try-on struggle, I was just as in love with it as before.  In honor of operation wedding dress starting, we went to my Carb Heaven,

I absolutely love their pizza and will definitely be missing it when we move north!

And for our last Friday night in Charleston, Man Friend and I are enjoying our new couches and watching,

Hope everyone has a good start to the weekend!

Little By Little the Last Week in Charleston

The last couple of days have been kind of a whirlwind, as we try to get all the loose ends tied up in Charleston in preparation for moving north!! But on the other hand we are sad to be leaving Charleston.  One of the biggest challenges thus far as been setting up our move.  Our organization has a moving system, but with it being transfer season it is exceptionally difficult to navigate.  After a week and and a half of practically stalking the moving people we have the move from the Charleston house set up for the 28th and 29th and the move from the Columbia house for the 30th! It is a relief to finally have that piece of the puzzle figured out!

On Monday we decided on couches.  After a long battle of going to multiple furniture stores ( at one the women recognized me from my three previous visits) we decided to go with a leather couch and loveseat for the family room.  My initial inclination had been to get a sectional for that room, but man friend and I fell in love with these couches and thankfully they will be delivered this Friday in time for our move!

After the couch expedition, I dragged Rudy to Homegoods to look for some home decor and I came across this delightful rooster that will I think go very well in the new kitchen...

The kitchen is kind of dark so I think I am going to use the reds that we already have in the house we live in now and try to use them.

For Tuesday I will put the bad to the bone puppies, aka Jack and Lola.  Of late they have insisted on acting out, particularly they enjoy shredding magazines into a million pieces, and Jack-O has developed an interest in track and field, and has begun high jumping over the fence anytime he is left in the yard.  Thankfully the new house has high fences so I can't wait to see him try to get over that one!

Jack, Hes too cool for school...

Lola, trying to look out the corner of her eye for her next magazine of choice...

Today I took man friend to the USS Yorktown which is parked at Patriots Point in Mount Pleasant.  The retired WWII Ship is home to the national Medal of Honor Museum, which we were really excited to see.  I had previously seen it when my dad came to visit in July of 2008.

A view of my favorite bridge from the pier...

and our best attempt at a self portrait from the flight deck.

Tonight we went out to dinner with Casey to Reds, which is a great surf and turf restaurant on Shem Creek.  Casey was really excited to go so he could ride his motorcycle.  We have previously been there a  lot because it is one of the dog friendly restaurants in Charleston, and Jack made appearances often when he was a puppy.  The food was great and it had finally cooled down as a storm passed through this afternoon.

Sorry for the blur, I turned the flash off..

Casey's Motorcycle sitting outside (I thought it was a good pic with the flag in the background)

And now man friend and I are watching one of our favorite shows, or rather my favorite shows that he willingly suffers through with me.  I'm very happy that Toddlers and Tiaras has a new summer season.

Hope everyone is having a good night!

Weekend Fun

Although I had duty yesterday, we still managed to have a pretty good weekend!  On Friday night we got together with some of our Charleston Friends as this will probably be the last weekend we have the opportunity to hang out and have fun before we leave.  I'm sure next weekend will be consumed with cleaning and getting ready to leave!

For dinner we went out Yamato, one of our favorite Hibachis in Mount Pleasant.  Mary and I love it so much that we sometimes call and order take out from there and just skip the whole experience.  Everyone except myself, Mary and Man friend had never been there before so it was a good time for all!

Mary and I at the house for the last time as roomies!

Rudy, Tyler, and Liam enjoying a drink before dinner

Annette and Wes, and him being silly....

Me and Man Friend

Today when I got home from duty, we took the pups to the James Island Dog park to meet up with my friend Reanna and her dog Chance.

Chance headed for the Water....

 One of the great features about Charleston is the park system.  In each section of the town there is a different park with its own unique features.  The James Island dog park is especially fun because it has a pond for the dogs to swim in.  Now unlike most golden retrievers, my pups hate the water, but shockingly Jack actually enjoyed the water today, he still refuses to swim but he was pretty happy wading in the water.

Jack Prancing in the Park

Rudy teaching Lola how to swim!

Carrying Jack into the water!

My two playful pups

While we were coming home from the park I saw a sight I never thought I would see, Mary's ship, GALLATIN, finally getting underway.  GALLATIN is the sister ship to my ship, and has been plagued with many of the age issues that the entire class has experienced.  They haven't left Charleston since returning home in July of 2008 and today I watched as they passed under the Ravenel Bridge on their way to sea.  I made Rudy stop at the waterfront park so I could snap these quick pics!

The afternoon was spent continuing the search for a couch.  Our new family room is really light and open so I wanted to stick to a nautical/americana theme in the room, but I have yet to find a couch that I like yet.  We found a few more furniture stores that we will probably check out tomorrow as they weren't open today, and hopefully we will find something we like, or rather I will find something I like as Rudy seems to like every couch!