My Favorite Memories

My friend Annie wrote her favorite memories with her husband yesterday, and they were so sweet. I liked them so much that I wanted to share my own favorite memories with my husband.

Just a quick history first:

We started dating in February of 2003

We were engaged April 27, 2006

We were married March 25, 2007

1. Our very first official date was Valentine's Day 2003. We were supposed to go eat at Outback and then go to a movie, but when we got to Outback it was so crowded that we ended up going to Sonic. We had the best time just sitting there in the car laughing and talking. We went to see How to Lose a Guy In 10 Days. I still remember what Hal was wearing that night.

2. Soon after our first date Hal had to leave for spring training in West Palm Beach, FL. I drove him to the airport the morning of March 1. When we got to the airport he handed me a card and told me not to open it until he was gone. When he left I opened it and it was the sweetest card telling me how much fun he had with me over the last few weeks and it said "I love you."

3. Hal's dad invited me to drive down with him that March to visit Hal in spring training. I didn't tell Hal I was coming so I could surprise him. Harry and I went to the field to wait on him to get finished. When he was, I hid behind a tree and when he walked by I stepped out and surprised him. He was so excited to see me and so happy I had come. He didn't remember that I lied to him and told him I couldn't come! :D

4. Every time I would fly down to see him, I would walk out of the terminal and there he would stand waiting on me. My heart would be racing and our faces would just light up with excitement. It was such a great feeling!

5. I used to love to surprise Hal, and I would trick him so I could surprise him. The week he graduated from the Citadel, I drove down to surprise him. He had no idea I was coming. I parked right next to his car then called and asked him to go out to his car, I thought I had left something. When he got out there, I was propped on his car, waiting for him. He went AWOL that night so he could come stay with me!

6. When Hal had Tommy John surgery I got to be the one to go with him and take care of him. The Cincinnati Reds doctor was the one that performed the surgery so we had to drive up to Northern Kentucky to stay for a week after the surgery. I got to spend the whole week taking care of him and nursing him back to health. Hal wasn't at his best, but just being together for that whole week, brought us so close.

7. A few winters ago Hal and I drove up to Boone, NC so I could go skiing. He doesn't know how to ski and knew how much I love to, so he offered to drive me up there and sit there while I got to ski. I just thought that was such a selfless thing to do, because he couldn't ski with me.

8. Like Annie's husband, Hal took care of me when I had my wisdom teeth out. I slept on the couch those first couple of nights and Hal would sleep on the floor beside me. Every 2 hours he would wake up and change my gauze even though he had to go to work the next day. We weren't even married, but he stayed at my parent's house to help take care of me.

9. The day that Hal proposed to me is a day that I will never forget. He sent me flowers that morning, some of the most beautiful flowers I had ever seen. He got to my house that afternoon to pick me up for the Edwin McCain concert we were going to see. Before we could leave he really tricked me (a long story) and ended up proposing. I knew it was coming, but I had no idea it would be that day or the way it happened. It was a perfect day, and Edwin McCain and a surprise appearance by Hootie and the Blowfish was just icing on the cake!

10. Our wedding day, of course, was the greatest day. I got to marry the man of my dreams that day. I will never forget the feeling, walking down the aisle, looking at him knowing that I was content for the rest of my life.

There are so many memories that we have shared. I am so lucky to have a wonderful husband who makes me laugh, who takes care of me, supports me, and loves me with all of his heart. Most of all I am thankful that I have a husband who loves the Lord and puts him first in his life.

Please Pray

I just got an email from my mom that I thought I should share with you ladies.

For the ones of you that live out of town, you can check out the article here about Amy Moxie. Amy was the Clemson student who collapsed on Monday after running and died. It was later determined that she had a slight tear in hear aorta.

Amy was a freshman at Clemson and had only been there for 1 week. She has 2 other sisters, one who is a sophomore at Clemson.

Here is a copy of the email I got:

Hello All,

I just wanted to give you a little update on the family. The Moxie's have 2 other daughters and after the passing of Amy on Tuesday, they are experiencing another blow. Their oldest daughter Megan was taken to GMH on Wednesday for what they thought was a stress induced migraine. She later was taken into emergency brain surgery for a condition they found. I do not know the outcome of this surgery or the details but I do know the family is in complete shock at the circumstances of the last few days.

The lady who sent this email works with Amy's aunt.

I cannot imagine what those parents are going through, but they desperately need our prayer. Please remember the Moxie family today and this week as they bury their Amy on Saturday and fight to keep their other daughter alive.

Don't our own problems seem so small now?

And so it begins...

Today is the day that I become a self-proclaimed widow until January. I am wearing black today (for real) to commemorate the day.

Today marks the official start of football season 2007. Today I lose my husband to the second love of his life!

Now, I must say, I love football, I really really do, but I will never love football as much as Hal does. From August until January he lives, eats, sleeps, and breathes football.

I say that I am a football widow because once football season starts I take a back seat to the game on TV. In all truth, I really don't, because I sit right down there with him, holler at the TV, and high-five like I'm one of the boys. I love it.

So, really I'm wearing black as a joke, because just like my husband, I love football.

Last night we watched part of the Live for 25 on ESPN (25 straight hours of college football) to get us in gear and to catch us up on all of the latest team trivia. We are ready.

Tonight on ESPN, LSU takes on Mississippi State, should be a blowout, but nonetheless, its football, and we can't wait!

And so it begins...

Thursday 13

13 Reasons I LOVE football season:

1. It is the perfect excuse to get together with family, and scream and holler without fighting with each other!

2. Who doesn't LOVE finger foods?

3. The smell of a grill on a cool fall day parked outside Williams Brice gets my motor running!

4. Shopping for cute clothes in my team's colors

5. I get to snuggle under a warm blanket with my husband!

6. There is ALWAYS something to look forward to during the week!

7. the exhilarating feeling of my team running onto the field before the game is one like no other feeling!

8. Seeing all of my college friends again!

9. Sharing a camaraderie with 85,000 other fanatics.

10. Having the best seat in the house, on my couch watching on our big screen!

11. Listening to Hal talk all year about how excited he is for football season to get here, and seeing the excitement when it finally arrives!

12. Talking "football" with Hal and actually knowing what I'm talking about, for once!

13. TAILGATING...enough said! :D

Ready for cooler weather?

I hope so.

I was listening to the news this morning and they started talking about the upcoming winter. Hal and I both froze in our tracks to listen more closely.

The almanac is predicting that the eastern seaboard will have a colder winter than normal. They also predict that we will have 4 major frosts and an abundance of snow.

Yep, I'm definately still a kid at heart when I hear that!

4 more days until the weekend!

Does anyone else agree with me that weekends should be 5 days and work weeks should be 2 days? There is never enough time in a weekend, just one more day would suit my fancy!

Our weekend was pretty uneventful being that Hal had to work nights all weekend! :( What time I did get to spend with my hubby, I enjoyed!

Thursday night we watched The Bourne Identity. We are gearing up to FINALLY go see The Bourne Ultimatum. I wanted to watch the first two before we went to see the third so that I would remember everything that was going on. It was a great little movie/date night for us!

Friday, Hal had to go into work at 7:30, but he had to give a pitching lesson before at 4:00. When we were leaving to head that way we drove through the beginnings of a pretty rough storm. Rough it was, and destructive too! We got home and our internet modem had been fried and our bedroom TV. Thank goodness we unplugged our flat screen because it would have died too! Unfortunately now, we have no internet or TV in bed at home! :(

Saturday my mom and I got up and went to Dobson's Hardware to get a SC flag for our new house. I have been so excited about getting a flag! That's the first thing I am going to do on closing day, put up my flag. Its like cutting the ribbon, to me! :D

Yesterday was a pretty lazy day. I cooked Hal's favorite for supper. We had fried eggs, sausage, and biscuits with apple butter. YUM! My mom and I finally got to go to Costco! Just as I suspected, I fell in love! Thank you Michelin for the FREE membership! I got Southern Living's 500 Favorite Recipes. It is the most amazing cook book, I cannot wait to try EVERYTHING in it!

I went today to turn in the last bit of paperwork required for our mortgage. If everything stays on track, we will be homeowners as of September 12th! :D

As I have mentioned before, September should be a great month for us! Here are some important dates for us:

September 8: Carolina at Georgia - we will be there!
September 12: We close on our house!
September 15: Our friends Sarah and Kyle are getting married!
September 17: We leave for Las Vegas - neither of us have ever been!
September 25: We will be married for 6 months!
September 30: The LAST DAY in our apartment!

FOUR DAYS AND ITS FRIDAY! :D

You girls will love this!

I have found 2 new places that I LOVE to shop. Some of you girls may already know about these places, if not you should definately try them out!

Palmetto Hardware and More is off Pelham Road near I-85 in the Bi-Lo shopping center. It is a small harware store but it has the cutest gifts. It has lots of the Tree and Moon gifts and gadgets, and other great "girly" gifts that you can never find at the mall.

Dobson's Hardware in Greer is such a great place. They are right beside Home Depot on Highway 29 in Greer. They used to be a true hardware store in downtown Greer until they were overshadowed by Home Depot and Lowes. Now they are a small hardware store with lots of great gifts. They have lots of university gifts (they have things from the Citadel, which sold me), prints, jewelry, and other great miscellaneous items.

If you girls are like me and like unique things that are personalized, these two places are great places to go! I really like to share my finds with everyone so that they can share in the delight of these unique places! :D