Welcome, Christmas Break!

*Sigh of relief* Oh how I am thankful for Christmas break to have finally arrived! After a very long and stressful semester, I am glad to be back in the big city of Georgetown, SC! It is sad to admit that all I have felt like doing since I have been back is plopping down on the couch and watching cheezy reruns of One Tree Hill (Lame, I know). Okay, okay, I am not usually this lazy, and for the record I have gotten over a dozen presents wrapped in this amount of time, however, I am plain exhausted from this dreadful semester.

Despite the fact that all of my professors could have all tied for 'The Dumbest Person with a Doctorate' award this semester, I still managed to make all A's! Woohoo! (Sorry, I just had to mention it!)

I looked at my grades the other day and noticed that my over all GPA is a 3.69. This means I am probably going to graduate Cum Laude, while being .01 away from Magna Cum Laude. Since I student teach next semester I will not have an opportunity to increase my GPA because Student Teaching is a Pass/Fail class and affect my GPA any---unless I fail, of course.  This may sound like I am complaining about graduating with just Cum Laude, believe me, I'm not. I am really just happy to be one semester from graduating!

Before I left for Christmas break I was able to make a few last minute wrap ups to the semester, most of these were very exciting.  My favorite experience was meeting my cooperating teacher that I will be with all next semester! I had hoped to meet her earlier in the semester when USC Upstate held a banquet for the student teacher candidates and their cooperating teachers. However, my teacher did not show up to the meeting, which left me slightly worried.  I emailed her after the meeting and explained who I was and made a little note that I was sorry I was unable to meet her that night. She quickly responded to my email and said that she was excited and ready to meet me, sorry she was unable to attend the meeting, but frankly did not even know she was recieving a student teacher. After getting all of our misunderstandings taken care of, we were finally able to meet, and I am far less nervous now! She seems to be so precious, and just so happens to be friends with my cooperating teacher from last semester! :) Ahh, it is amazing how things always fall into place!

I will be student teaching at Boiling Springs Intermediate School in a 5th and 6th grade resource classroom. I have heard only wonderful things about this school and I am anxious to start my final semester of my undergraduate career! Although some say I am crazy for being excited about teaching in a 5th and 6th grade resource (special education) classroom, I can not help but look on the bright side of things. A benefit to being in her class: she gets an hour and 45 minutes for lunch! WOW! How could I get so lucky?!? There has got to be a catch, right? She is always on duty! :(  I will have to be at the school by 7:20 every morning. Thankfully the school is only 5 minutes away from my apartment, and I am more of a morning person anyway!

I know student teaching is going to be difficult, but I am extremely anxious! I am just ready to dive in and get things started! I have a feeling my nerves will subside after my first lesson, but until then...please pray for me!

Another exciting thing to conclude this semester was when my advisor muttered 6 precious words: "You are all set to graduate!" WOOHOO! That is a phrase that will make any student and their mamma wanna dance!

As I think about how all of my other semesters have flown by, I can't help but realize that this one will too. This is IT! This is my last Christmas break living at my parents' house. (I must mention at this point that I will miss my parents very much at this point next year.) This is my last Christmas break not married (Ahhh, still hard to believe!). This is IT! The wedding is swiftly approaching---and I am getting more and more excited! All of the wedding plans are coming along nicely, I am making all of the deadlines, and praying more persistantly with every passing day that the weather will cooperate on our big day!

Welp, that is it for a few days! I hope everyone is having a fabulous holiday season!

A Very Special Chest....

For most people, the Christmas season always brings lots of traveling. My traveling started this weekend when Justin and I headed down to Tifton, GA for a Christmas gathering with his Granddad's side of the family. It was great to see everyone and meet people I've heard about through stories. It is always a great time to spend time with Justin's family. They never fail to make me laugh! :) As I continue to meet Justin's friends and family the more similarities I am able to identify between his family and mine. :)

Although our main reason for traveling to Tifton was for family, our trip came with two intentions. The second reason for our travels was so Justin could deliver a beautiful cedar blanket chest he built for two of his friends from college.

In October of 2005, two of his good friends from the forestry school lost their home and everything in it in a fire. They were renting an old farmhouse from a professor, and faulting wiring consumed everything they had - most tragically, their two dogs were unable to find their way out. Even their cars, which were parked near the house, were destroyed. The outpouring of support from the forestry school got them back on their feet in no time, but of course there are some things that can never be replaced. One of those things was an old cedar chest that had been in one of the girls' family since the 1800s. Curiously, there happened to be an old cedar tree growing beside the house that was killed by the fire. Justin was able to get his hands on a small 8' log from that tree several months after the fire.

 He had the log sawed into lumber with the intention of making something for his friends. Over the last couple of years, him and his friends finished school and went their separate ways. One of them married another good friend of his from the forestry school. Last year, he called Justin up with a proposition: he wanted him to build a cedar chest to replace the one that burnt in the fire. He didn't even know Justin had lumber from the house fire. (How cool!)This was the push Justin needed to use that lumber to build something beautiful for one of his friends.

Although Justin was given a push, he was not given a very specific date, so he put it off until the last minute. A couple weeks ago Justin recieved another phone call from his friend asking if the chest could be ready by Christmas. Justin agreed, even though he knew it would require many late nights in the shop.

As we know, Justin was scheduled to deliver the chest on Saturday morning. At this point Justin had the body of the chest built, but still had a ways to go...at 8 pm on Friday night.

Once he installed the molding he moved on to oiling the chest before he put the first coat of blonde shellac. 10pm.

This chest required three coats of shellac. Each coat takes an hour to dry, and has to dry before the next coat can be applied. Justin finished up around 1am. That gave him just about 5 hours of sleep before having to get up and make finishing touches.

TA-DA! The finished chest! You can't even tell there is a hidden drawer in the front, can you!?

Justin's friend only had one request, a secret drawer. Justin said that puzzling out and building this drawer almost doubled the amount of time to build the chest. Dovetails still work even if they're not perfect, but everything had to be just right for this drawer to work properly.

Another view of the chest and the drawer.

 Another secret compartment! :)  The side of the till slides up to reveal it. This is where Justin hopes the owners will store the note he wrote to go along with the chest. It explains where all of the wood came from, how long it took, the maker, and who it was made for.

On the way down to Tifton I asked Justin if we could just keep it and tell his friend that his fiance' just couldn't let it go! :) Justin replied, "this will probably be the hardest thing I'll ever have to give away until I have a daughter."

This Christmas Brings New Traditions

As Justin and I begin to enter into the first Christmas season that we will not be spending with our own parents on both Christmas eve and Christmas day, we are reminded of how our lives are changing. Although this change comes with the price of becoming busy beavers as we scurry from the coast of South Carolina to the middle of Georgia early Christmas morning, we can not help but be so thankful for having two wonderful families to be able to share such a special time with.

Growing up we have both experienced the holidays with our families and have been apart of the traditions our parents and grandparents have created. 

Of course every family celebrates different events in their own unique way. Christmas is no different. So as Justin and I were talking about putting up the Christmas decorations, we began to swap stories of the different traditions our families have started and stuck with over the years. We have some similar traditions, and some...not so similar, but one thing we are in full agreement on is: we LOVE real Christmas trees!

Both our families have always had live trees, so we decided we were not going to break that tradition! Another reason: I love the smell of them!

Our small tree, isn't it cute?!

After reflecting upon different traditions, we decided that we were going to start a tradition of our own. Since we will be decorating the house for Christmas together for the rest of our lives :), we decided that would be a nice time to start a tradition. Justin said his family, on Christmas eve, has finger foods, so that is what we decided to do for our "decorating" tradition. Since Justin will not be at his parents' house on Christmas Eve this year (sorry Mr. Tony and Mrs. Mona ;)) we thought we would play off of a tradition that his family had.

Our finger foods included: homemade apple cider, beanie wienies....

...sausage balls, fruit salad, Hillshire sausage, and chocolate covered pretzels! I promise, we had a lot of left overs! :)

After dinner, we tackled decorating around the house, mainly, the tree! :)

  Three strands of lights, 85 ornaments (including candy canes and our very special Niagara Falls ornament that Justin purchased just a few hours before he proposed!), and a golden angel later, we were in awe. All we could do was sit and stare at our tree for quite a while.  Although we are both in favor of hand crafted and homemade ornaments, especially when little ones start running around, we concluded that it is nice to have a tree where all of the ornaments match!  Now, all that is missing are little red bows! :)

I guess, since I've talked about some of Justin's traditions, I should talk about some things that make my family unique around Christmas time. The first decoration we always put up is the Nativity Scene.  This is my family's way of never getting too wrapped up in all of the hustle and bustle that comes along with the holiday season that we forget the true meaning of Christmas.

Also, since I grew up in a neighborhood, my family and I would always, after decorating and lighting the tree, would go out in the front yard and see how it looked from the road. It may sound silly, but it was a way for us, as a family, to admire our work and get excited about the upcoming events!

I love the traditions I have experienced with my family and I can't wait to be included in those of the Tyson family (I've already been introduced to the infamous Thanksgiving noodles! YUM!), but I am excited about growing with Justin and beginning to build traditions of our own! :)

We just can't sit still...

On beautiful Fall days, it is just crazy to sit inside and fill out save-the-date cards, right? So instead of completing this much needed task, we decided to ditch it and go somewhere!

Since I have been itching to go somewhere and wanting to go to the mountains, we decided to take the Blue Ridge Parkway to Maggie Valley.

We planned to grab a bite to eat for lunch in Maggie and head on out to Cataloochee. However, when we arrived in Maggie, which is a small mountain town, we realized that it pretty much closes down in the off season, leaving us very few options for lunch. We were fortunate enough to find  a Subway, so we got our food to go and were on our way!

Cataloochee is around 17 miles from Maggie Valley, however it took us about an hour to go that distance. As we all know, mountain miles seem ten times longer than low country miles, and it did not help that most of the distance was a single lane, dirt road.

We made it and set up picnic in the hay loft of an old barn.

After lunch we just piddled around Catalooche. We visited old homesteads, schools, and churches. This is a picture of the old school.  Thankfully I will be teaching in a school where the desks can be rearranged and there is heating and air! :)

Since it was still early in the day, Justin and I decided to hike up to an old cemetery. We thought it would be a nice leisure walk, just to pass time. We were wrong! It was a short distance, but the hike was difficult. The trail ventured straight up a mountain, leaving us both (being experienced hikers) gasping for air half way up. We made it to the top, expecting to see a graveyard of really old headstones. No. There were four graves, all from the early 1900's. It was pretty anticlimactic.  ( I regret that we did not take any pictures of this strenuous climb, but to be fair, I was too tired to even begin to think about capturing the experience on camera!)

Returning to our car exhausted, we thought we would just head back home since it was 'too early' to see elk anyway. We decided, just for the heck of it, to drive back down to the other end of Cataloochee one last time. Much to our suprise, this is what we saw:

Dozens of elk! I had been to Cataloochee before with my family to see the elk, however Justin had never been! It was pretty neat. We counted between 35-40, we could never agree on a number, you know how that goes! :)

After standing in awe of how gigantic they really are, we decided to head home happy! As we were pulling out of the park, Mr. Papa Elk decided to pose for the camera. There were actually two, one on either side of the road! ( I was a little concerned when we were stopped in the road. However, they seem to be unusually used to the paparazzi!)

We took our time going home.We stopped at this lookout, which is right outside of Cataloochee's entrance. My parents have a picture of me at this same lookout when I was around 6. So, it I thought it neat to stop there again.

Also on the way home, we stopped in Franklin, NC. We just walked around for a little while, enjoying the weather. We then came across one enormous pumpkin! Justin decided that in order for y'all to fully understand the size of this pumpkin, I needed to sit on it to offer up a comparison. I was impressed with it, so impressed I tried to pick it up and take it home.... needless to say I failed! ;)

We made it home right after sunset. We missed most of the sunset, however we were still served with quite a view.

After dark we decided to make a yummy dinner and just relax. It was a perfect way to spend and end a beautiful Autumn day!

Um Jantar Brasileiro

Maybe there are some benefits of my fiance' going to Brasil after all...

On Wednesday night, Justin decided to make me an awesome authentic Brasilian supper. I will no longer complain about him leaving the country without me if he comes back preparing meals like this one!

He used his handy soapstone cookwear from Brasil to sear calabresa (Brasilian sausage), peppers, and onions for the feijoada. Feijoada is the national dish of Brasil that is cooked with black beans, meat, vegetables (usually peppers and onions), and special seasonings.

The feijoada was served on top of rice that had grilled pineapples mixed in! Oh my goodness. I was a little hesitant at first, not really knowing how the pineapple was going to taste when eaten at the same time as rice and beans, but it smelled so good I was more than willing to try it! The entire dish was topped with farofa, a coarse flour made from yucca root.

To accompany our dinner, Justin invented a new kind of drink: jabuticabarinha. It is made similiarly to the caipirinhas, which is the national drink of Brasil. However, a caipirinha contains crushed lime, sugar, and cachaca, but he substituted jabuticaba and white wine for the cachaca.

To add an interesting fact, jabuticaba is a tree native to the Atlantic rainforest that produces a large, sweet fruit that resembles a muscadine. (Cool, huh?)

A couple things we learned from cooking this dinner:

• We could totally use a bigger soapstone skillet!
• American food tastes bland after being exposed to Brasilian food! 

Hooray!!! Justin's Back!

You would have thought that between classes, clinicals, and planning a wedding I wouldn't have time to miss Justin. And to tell the truth, the two weeks Justin was gone just so happened to be close to the busiest two weeks of the semester, maybe of my entire collegiate career. However, it appears that no matter how busy I am, I can always make time to miss my sweetie!

As most of you know, Justin arrived back in the States on Monday night. We all well aware of how accident-prone he is, so I let out a sigh of relief when he called and told me he had finally landed in Atlanta! Thanks to Emily and Eric, Justin arrived back from Brazil safely!

I know this had to be somewhat of a challenge for them considering:

•  Justin almost got beat up by a Parrot! (I guess I can find some distant relatives in Brazil after all! ;) )

• The enormous amount of caimans in the Pantanal! (I guess it does have to be mentioned that caimans won't even eat the capybara (the largest living rodent in the world) that come around. They just look too much like alligators for my liking!

• Georgie, Justin's horse, was supposedly the wildest one out of the bunch. The tour guide told Justin not to ride in the middle of the pack or else Georgie would start kicking and biting the horses around him. Justin looks mighty protected with the cute little helmet he is wearing, don't you agree? :)

I am glad he made it back, and now I must live in envy of all of the beautiful things he saw and got to do--For example:

Gabs and the Giant Snail on a beach in Rio de Janeiro!

School of fish in Lagoa Azul at Ilha Grande

Another awesome fish at Lagoa Azul. (This picture looks like it came straight out of National Geographic!)

Piranha Fishing!

Piranha's mouth!

Chasing an Anteater!

Gruta de Lago Azul (Blue Lake Cave) at Bonito

But the one thing I miss that I will get to see SOON :) is my future brother- and sister-in-law and their beautiful daughter, Gabriela!

Hurry up, Tuesday!

Oh, my, goodness. How sweet!!!

Usually I dispise going to the mailbox, mainly because I know all that sits waiting for me is a stack of bills, or occasionally a magazine from an educational company trying to get me to purchase something. Well, for the past week and a half I have basically been waiting on the mailman to arrive! :)

Let me just say, I have the sweetest fiance' ever! I know, I know, everyone claims that their significant other is the best, but let me defend my statement!!

As most of you know, Justin is in Brazil from October 24 to November 9th. For everyday that he has been gone, I have recieved a little surprise in my mailbox.


Since he was not sure how much we were going to be able to talk during his trip, he pre-wrote and individually enveloped and stamped 17 little notes. I can only assume that Mr. Tony, his dad is the one sending these cute little smile starters. :)

I had no clue that I was to be expecting anything, but it just so happened that the day I really needed a smile, I recieved my first surprise! It was the sweetest letter. It has provided many butterflies in the last week, especially the days that I have been unable to talk to him.

I continue to get an envelope in the mail each day. So far I have recieved 10 and believe I will get 6 more! :) Each note is titled: 16 Reasons Why I Love You. (aw!)

Although I enjoy every note I have gotten from Justin, I am more than ready for him to return home! Tuesday can not get here fast enough!!!

This ring is 63 years old....

Today was Homecoming at my home church in Georgetown, SC so I went back to see all of the folks I have not been able to see in a while. As they were asking about life and the "so do you have a boyfriend?" question, I was pleased to say, "well actually, he's my fiance'!" Most of the ladies oooohed and aaaahed and asked to see the ring as excitement filled their smiles. Many of the ladies offered advice and well wishes to the bride to be, but one lady offered a little more, a story that I will never forget.

As I stood in the aisle of the church, Mrs. Stella Jacobs held me close as she whispered her own love story in my ear. She held out her hand and started off with, "This ring is 63 years old!" As she began to speak, tears of happiness came to her eyes. Her excitement for me was obvious when she said that her and her husband had been married for 63 years and are happier now than the day they got married. She said that the best days of my life will be spent with my husband (Justin!) and every bicker, every fight will be well worth it!

Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs were my age (21) when they married and have been richly blessed with children and grandchildren. She told me that the key to their marriage was their relationship with God. Like most little old ladies, Mrs. Jacobs mixed humor into her story. She said that there were times that she could have killed Mr. Noah and that she probably would have if it wasn't for her being a Christian. (I snickered.) "But in all seriousness," she said "learn from your fights, always forgive and always respect him. This is the key to marriage."

As she concluded, she said "your husband is supposed to strive to be your better half, but you may have to strive to be his first." As she hugged me real tight before letting go she said, "I have prayed for you ever since you were a little girl in my Sunday school class. You are like a granddaughter and I know God will richly bless you in your marriage." As she release and allowed me to go mingle with other excited older ladies, I could not help but be extraordinarily thankful for returning to Screven Baptist Church for Homecoming. I do not think I will ever forget Mrs. Jacobs' advice nor will I forget how much she loves and truly cares for me.

I won't analyze her conclusion on this blog like I have already done in my head, but I just thought I would share the advice and conclusion she has come to after 63 years of a strong and beautiful marriage.

This is what inspired the entire conversation! :) (Of course I had to show it off at some point on here! :) )

Oh the happiness...

A couple weekends ago, Justin and I made a trip down to Georgetown to visit with my family and take engagement pictures. We enjoyed every bit of having a legitimate reason to show a little PDA. :) Since my Grandma's husband, Mr. Jim, always takes awesome pictures at all of our family events, we asked him to photograph our excitement.

Mr. Jim arrived at my parents' has at 9:00 am ready to begin our busy day. I was so lucky to have two amazing men in my life that would go and do whatever I wanted! (Let me tell ya, a girl could get used to a feeling like that!) It was amazing! I had a flexible photographer and a wonderful fiance'! :) We decided to divide our time between Wedgefield Plantation (our wedding spot!), Downtown Georgetown, Pawleys Island, and my Grandma's farm in Effingham.

I have already shared a few of our other favorites, so in fear of redundancy, I continue with new and different pictures. This one is taken under the tree where we will say our 'I do's.' Since Justin and I are both nature lovers, we thought it was only appropriate to have an outdoor ceremony! (Praying for Sunshine on May 22!)

As the day started off it was severely overcast. Being the optimistic individual that he is, Justin suggested for us to go to Wedgefield first, to allow time for the sun to come out. Perfect suggestion, the sun came out just as we arrived at the beach! Pawleys Island is one of my favorite spots in the Lowcountry!

We were pretty exhausted by the time we made it to Effingham. Although our initial excitement was winding down, we still managed to get a few good pictures at the end of our day.

We thought Grandma's farm would be a neat place to take pictures since it is so sentimental to me. When I was a little kid running around barefoot at my Grandma's, I loved to play in these grape vines! I thought it would be fun to play in them one more time, just for old time sakes! :)

Although it was an exhausting day, we had a blast! In closing, all I can say is Mr. Jim and Justin are MAJOR troopers! I could not ask for anything more! :)

Saudades.

With Halloween approaching, sharing the story of Saudade only seems appropriate!

On the Wednesday night before Justin left for Brazil, we took the opportunity to have a date night! We took a picnic to Falls Park in Downtown Greenville, SC and ate dinner. Afterwards we walked around a little, talked about his trip, and then decided to head back to my apartment. Since Justin grew pumpkins this year, he decided to bring two of them for me! We concluded that it would be best for us to carve one and leave the other one for decoration!

Here is the one we chose to carve....

Last year we had the hardest time trying to decide on a face, so I suggested that we come up with a name first and design a face that matches it.

I immediately thought of the name Saudade. Saudade is a Portugese word that describes the feeling of "the love that remains" after someone is gone. In Portugese, 'Tenho Saudades Tuas,' translated as 'I have saudades for you' means 'I miss you!' Since Justin will be in Brazil on Halloween, I will have saudades for him, so the name seemed fitting.

This name inspired a feeling, which in turn inspired a face! We knew the face would have to be sad, but not in a 'you make me want to cry' way, but in a 'I really miss you' way! :)

We used symbolism to get the point across. A tear drop would fall from his eye, however the tear drop would be an upside down heart, making it clear Saudade is missing his love.

Saudade ended up looking even more sad than we had originally planned. However, I guess that is how I will feel on Halloween without Justin. ;) Just kidding. Anyway, Justin looks a little too happy to be holding such a sad pumpkin, doesn't he?

I know, I know. Halloween pumpkins aren't supposed sad. We have promised that this will be the only sad pumpkin we ever carve! Although he is a very sad pumpkin, I love Saudade, anyway! :)