30 is the new 20 right??

To say that I have had mixed emotions about turning 30 would be an understatement! HA

I mean on one hand I feel like at 30 you are finally viewed as an adult and in my profession are viewed like you have some experience and knowledge instead of just being called "the youngin" all the time!  However, on the other hand, Im no longer in my 20's!! AND 30 just sounds so much older than 29! haha I know that isn't rational but it does and I think anyone who is now in their 30's will agree with me that it is just different! 

Even though I haven't been sure about it everyone around me seemed to think it was a HUGE deal to celebrate and I am very thankful that they did because this one was the best one yet!

The celebrations actually start a couple of weeks before my birthday because my family came in town and we had a joint celebration weekend for my mom and I :)  It was so amazing to have them visit us in Greenville now that we are semi-settled (yeah right haha) and to just have some good family time!
However, we did get to do something amazing while they were here... City Segway Tour of Greenville!! It was so much fun!! We had a great guide who was very laid back and let us get off and explore down town as we wanted to.

 

They were experts from the very beginning!  Barely needed the training class! :)

 

Downtown Greenville:  Definitely falling in love with this city!

Group Shot:

The little guy in some of these pictures is 'Flat Stanley'. My nephew Carson sent him for a visit while Mom, Dad & John Russell were here. 
Below is a picture of us showing them the bridge that goes over the river in downtown!  My mom is pretty scared of heights so she didn't want to get too close but we were able to pull her into the shot :) Her and her nervous laughter! haha

After that we came back to the house and had a pretty intense game of corn hole!  My family is all pretty competitive so it got a little crazy but we all had a blast!! :)

 

 

Thanks for coming to visit Dad, Mom & John Russell!!

Now the weekend of my birthday was pretty amazing too!!

First my office started off the morning by decorating my office...
 

 

 

 

The next surprise was that my amazing husband rented a limo and picked me and two of my good friends up and we all went out to lunch!! It was so much fun and I had no idea!!  You can see by the video below that I was completely in shock but loved every minute of it!! He even stopped at the store and picked up a bottle of champagne so we had a little bubbly on the ride around town! Haha It's 5 o clock somewhere right??

 

First attempt at loading a video so sorry it is a little small or doesn't work...

 

Below is an amazing collage my best friend Susan did for me to wish me a Happy Birthday on Instagram!  She is an amazing woman and I literally could not imagine my life without her in it!! So many fun and wonderful memories with that girl!! I loved the collage so much I had to include it and share :)

 
That night some friends came with me to dinner at my favorite restaurant in Atlanta - Canoe (yes we were in Atlanta working on the house of course! haha)  Dinner was amazing but the company was the best!! Thanks Bryce, Sus, Steffanie, Jenny, Robin, Jeff, Wendy & Greg for making my night so special and amazing!!
Love you all!!
As you can see from the picture below, Bryce rented the limo again to take us to dinner!

Then Bryce, Sus, Steffanie & I went out for a night out on the town in East Andrews!  So much fun dancing the night away!!

The next day I got to have brunch with some wonderful ladies from our supper club - Jen, Lisa & Carrie Beth (with her two girls: Handley & Harper).  I hadn't had the chance to see them in a while and it was so good to catch up and get to meet the two newest members of the group - Andrew & Mackenzie  They are adorable!!  We didn't take any pictures during brunch because we were too busy talking but here is one of the group afterwards out in the parking lot! 

 

Thanks everyone for making my 30th the best birthday ever!! :) Love you all!

 

 

 

 



House Transitions

Since the move to SC we have again been non-stop with things to do and weekend projects.

The most recent and probably largest project is transitioning the Atlanta house to a rental property.

It has been a loooong time coming and we would complete (or not quite complete as many of you know ;-) ) projects on the house here and there while we still lived there.  However, recently we were able to have someone that was interested in moving in due to her family being very close by!  She was willing to wait until construction is completed and has even been helpful giving suggestions as she is an interior designer! 

So, with someone ready to move in and not wanting to continue the financial strain of having a mortgage payment and a rental payment we decided to hire a contractor who would finish out the house for us.  We have been making pretty regular trip back to Atlanta for various things so each time we are there we stop by to check on progress, buy materials as needed, and do any work that we can so that we don't have to pay for it :)

It is coming along so well and should be finished in the next week or so. Originally we had hoped to have her moving in around Thanksgiving but as all projects go it has been delayed.  Our renter is so wonderful though and when we explained she said no problem as she is totally fine where she is for another couple of months if we need it!  She has been a complete God send!

So, the to do list when we hired the contractor was as follows:
-Demo the master bathroom
-Frame in the new master bathroom and walk-in closet
-Finish replacing all of the plumbing (original plumbing in most of the house of cast iron from the 60's - it had started to break down)
-Rewire a lot of the electrical - also badly needed updating
-Finish out both bathrooms with drywall, tile, showers, tubs, toilets, sink, etc
-Replace floor in kitchen with hard wood.
-Replace appliances in kitchen
-Change cabinet setup to where there is a peninsula that "separates" the kitchen and living room but it all appears as one open seamless space.
Side note on the cabinets - when they starting taking out the bottom cabinets to work on the plumbing, they realized that there had been an old leak before Bryce moved in that was fixed but none of the damage was replaced so a lot of the floor, wall and cabinets around the sink were completely rotted and unusable so here is where we had to add a few more things to the list.  Oh the joys of construction!! haha
-Replace framing and wood joists around sink.
-Replace all of the bottom cabinets
-Refinish hard woods in the entire house.

I don't think I am forgetting anything but oh well. :)

Below are some pictures that I have taken throughout the process... I haven't been the best about before and after pictures but hopefully you will get the idea we are going for! Also, a lot of the them are hard to tell what it will be because it is only framing and if you have the same problem I do, I can't see it until the drywall is up so I will definitely post some once everything is done!

Closing in this window (We never used it anyway) to make room for the new pantry in the Kitchen...

 Hallway Bathroom...  This is the former 'pink beast' haha
Will now be a small hallway bathroom with a pocket door (I love pocket doors!) and the master bathroom will be larger!

 

Bryce being goofy of course! Haha I swear he always keep me laughing! :)

 

Kitchen... we took out the entire left side and are putting in a peninsula to make that space more open and feel larger...

 

 

New Base Cabinets:

 New Pantry and space for the refrigerator:

New Hardwood Floors Going In!


Master Bathroom/Walk In Closet...

 

 

 

 

 Outside:  The back yard is finally flat and now we just have to plant grass seed!

The redneck chimney is finally gone!! :)

 

We still have a lot of work to do but I am loving the progress and how it is turning out so far!

We are headed back this weekend so I will take some more progress photos! :)

 

 

 

 

 

Mexico Day 4 & 5

Well the last two days weren't nearly as exciting as the wedding!  However, they were just as amazing!  The last day was just pure relaxation and enjoying the amazing location!! 

We slept in and then enjoyed our breakfast norm :) Which of course was amazing as usual!

 

 

 

After breakfast I tried to do a little active clean up/packing in our room since we were leaving the next day but it just depressed me that we had to leave so I stopped! haha

We found out that there were a bunch of people hanging out at the pool so we went to check it out.

Turns out we spent the entire day at the pool/beach just talking and hanging out with everyone.

We tried to get some jet skis set up for a fun activity for everyone to do but the guy we dealt with literally wanted to charge us an astronomical amount of money to use his skis?!

So, we opted for beach volleyball! 

I ended up just sitting on the side lines and running the music and reading :)  Wanted to get one last day of reading in before we had to get back to reality! haha

As we were walking back to the room to get ready for dinner, I realized that I hadn't taken any pictures of the actual resort... this was the hallway to our room.

 

This is what all of the walkways around the resort looked like :) Sorry it is a little dark...

 

 

This is when you look over the railing... as I said before... total tropical paradise.  Constant sounds of water running and beautiful grounds and flowers!

Room 2152 :)

 At dinner that night we had such a great time visiting one last time with everyone who was still there.  Another great thing about an all inclusive resort is that you don't have to worry about who is going to pick up the bill or if they will split it... haha no matter how many people you have everyone just gets whatever they want!!  After our amazing meal we were looking at the dessert menu and couldn't decide what to get so the waiter suggested we try everything!! Haha  Awesome idea right?!? 

So, we did.. they were so cool looking I had to snap a couple pictures of a few of them... there were about 6 more! haha 

 

 

After dinner everyone said their goodbyes and headed back to their rooms.  The next morning we flew out and headed back to our reality!  Good Bye Grand Velas! 

 

 

 

Needless to say it was the trip of a lifetime and I am hoping we can repeat it next summer!!  Anyone else in??