Weekend Update

The weekends are causing me a bit of anxiety. But my parents, being the absolute wonderful people that they are, let me come home for the weekend and hide out. But not before my mom came to Greenville, cleaned my entire apartment and did my laundry while I laid in bed and threw myself a pity party. Amazing, no? I know I'm so very blessed for family + friends.

 

Here's a snapshot of my weekend at home:

1. Sushi dinner at Nami on the lake | 2. Flowers my mom bought me and had waiting for me in my bedroom | 3. Mani/pedi with Mom | 4. Breakfast after church Sunday morning | 5. Rainy afternoon | 6. Finally got to see the movie - fantastic!!

Weekend Update

Happy Monday friends!

The picture-taking was extremely scarce this weekend, so I apologize in advance.

Sarah and I had a fun girl's night at Brick Street Cafe, where there was way too much brie, cake, and wine. They have the most divine sweet potato cake. No matter how full you are after a meal there, you just have to order cake, too!

Wine tasting!

Ryan picked us up after dinner and a group of us went to see Skyfall (the new James Bond movie) in IMAX. It was a good thing I took a nap Friday afternoon or I wouldn't have made it through that movie - it wasn't over until 1 am. It was a good movie though!

I realize I totally failed on my Football Friday post last week, but promise not to forget this week!

We headed to Clemson about 8:30 am on Saturday morning for a day full of tailgating and football. Clemson won (ranked #11 now!) and we stuck around to watch #1 Alabama fall to Texas A&M (gig 'em Aggies!).

My first attempt at a panoramic shot of the stadium wasn't the best...

I spent Sunday cleaning and doing laundry, then headed to the outlets in Gaffney for a little Christmas shopping. I ended up with more items for myself; my family is so hard to shop for. (Mom, Katie, if you're reading this, send me your Christmas lists!)

Ryan's gifts were the only ones I crossed off my list, which is shocking since boys are usually the hardest. 

I'm hoping this week will fly by. Lauren and I are hosting a Thanksgiving dinner with our friends on Thursday night and I'm so excited for the potluck dinner! Hopefully I'll have some new delicious recipes to share with you by then! 

Hope everyone is off to a great start to the week! Also, send me any recommendations for your favorite Thanksgiving recipes.

Weekend Update ~ Beer Festival

I always get a little bummed when Sunday night rolls around. It means the end of another great weekend. This one was equally fun and relaxing. I hate to see it end!

Friday night, Lauren and I went to our End of Busy Season party at one of our shareholder's house. It's always fun to hang out with our co-workers outside of the office. The house was beautiful, too! I could've definitely moved in.

After the party, I met my parents for the last few innings of the Drive game. My dad had gotten box seats through work, so I didn't want to miss an opportunity to see my parents and the end of the game. I was only there for about an hour, and the Drive lost, but it was still fun!

There's an apartment building with sweeping balconies that overlooks the stadium. I've always thought to myself how cool it would be to live in a condo there and I wondered what they looked like inside. Ryan texted me to tell me that one of his coworker's lived in an apartment there and to come join them out on the balcony. I jumped at the opportunity! The apartment did not disappoint! I was casually asking them when I could move in, too!

A view from the balcony overlooking the stadium

We lingered as long as possible before heading home. We had to rest up for the Beer Festival! We had lunch at Mellow Mushroom before heading over to the Bi-Lo Center. They decided to move the festival inside because of the chance of rain forecasted. It never actually ended up raining, so it would've been cool to stay outside, but that's okay! The festival was so fun! We made stops at pretty much every station, sampling beers as we went. Most of the breweries were familiar, but we got to try a few new brews for the summer as well. I'm already looking forward to going back next year! 

Abita Beer Garden! (they unfortunately didn't have Strawberry Lager) 

Our mini 2 oz. sampler mugs

So many people!

Reading the map proved to be a challenge

We ate dinner at a mexican restaurant downtown and called it an early night by watching the Braves game at home. While waiting for a cab, I managed to catch an amazing photo of the sunset!

Ryan and I are now enjoying a lazy Sunday at his place. The weather was so crazy today, with some rain (and rainbows!). I took some pictures from Ryan's huge loft windows. 

Awesome rain cloud

Double rainbow! 

Water tower/blue sky after the storm

We also managed to cross three movies (3 movies in one day! It has to be a record!) off my list today! We watched Office Space, Reservoir Dogs, and The Breakfast Club. I had seen Office Space a really long time ago but I enjoyed the new ones as well. Yay for making my movie list a little smaller.

Hope y'all enjoyed your weekend as much as I did!

Thankful Things Thursday

Well, it's that time again! Time to start being thankful! Work has been especially slow this week (see ya busy season). Not sure if I'm adding that to the list of things I'm thankful for yet or not...Moving on.

I'm thankful for date nights. Usually Ryan and I are both busy after work from eating, working out, to working late, we sometimes don't get to see each other until 9:30 pm or later, if at all. So on Tuesday, I promised to cook him dinner (pork chops w/pineapple fried rice, obviously). I managed to get home from work and the grocery store early, so I even whipped us up some appetizers! Okay, so maybe "whipping up" isn't the right term. I sliced the cheese and poured the wine and put it on a pretty plate. :)

.

I'm thankful for this little purchase at Target. Seriously, how cute are these? Mini Luna bars? I had no idea they even existed.

.

I'm thankful for rainy evenings in my pajamas. It rained all day yesterday. Perfect nap weather. Unfortunately, a nap wasn't in the cards because of a little thing called work. So instead, when I got home from work and the gym, I put on my pjs at 7 pm, got in bed with a bowl of popcorn, and crossed 2 movies off my "to see" list (Breakfast at Tiffany's and The Fighter).

I'm thankful for tax refunds. It makes it a little better that the government is giving me a smidge of the money I earned back to me. I'm also thankful I didn't have to do my own tax return. Worst accountant ever? Probably. Sorry I'm not sorry.

I'm thankful for having the greatest nachos in the world for lunch (this may just be my personal opinion..jury's still out). One of the greatest things about working downtown is being able to walk somewhere for lunch. When we're all in the office (which is rare for us traveling audit people), we always get a group together. I've been in the office for the past two weeks, and I've actually been thankful to go home for lunch (so much cheaper and healthier). But after the "official end of busy season," we decided to splurge. Enter Chicora Alley. An extremely underrated, amazing restaurant/bar. I realize that this picture looks a little gross. But trust me, it was delicious. And yes, I ate every.last.bite. Chicora makes their own salsas, including a grape salsa, mango salsa, corn salsa, and guacamole. On a related note, I could eat nachos all the time. I even ate them for dinner on both Friday and Saturday two weekends ago. Oops.

I'm thankful for $1 beer night at the Drive stadium. Yes, that's where I'm headed on this lovely 75 degree evening. Put a Strawberry Abita in my hand on the porch while writing this post before I leave and you have one happy girl.

I hope everyone has things to be thankful about today, too! There's usually ALWAYS something!

Weekend Update ~ Cooper River Bridge Run

Happy weekend everyone! This post is coming to you from the beach! It's actually cloudy this morning so I'm inside horizontal on the couch blogging while Ryan reads through The Hunger Games.  I read the book when it first came out and can't wait to see the movie, but Ryan wanted to read the book before we went to see it. I handed over my kindle when we got to the beach Friday and he's been immersed ever since! That book really does suck you in! Here's how my weekend has looked, starting from the beginning!

Friday, we woke up early (the downfall of the working world - sleeping in is hard to do) and decided to watch the sunrise from the hammock. It was such a perfect way to start the day.

I ended up working for a little bit while Ryan napped in the hammock. We ate a quick breakfast and headed to the beach for a quick 2 mile run. I love running on the beach! It's just hard to get used to the humidity down here! After the run, we made a quick change into our bathing suits and were back on the beach in 30 minutes. Ahh, the weather was perfect! We spent the rest of the day soaking up the sun.

We finally went inside to shower around 5 pm and then we were off to Charleston! One of my best friends, Rachel, is in medical school in Charleston and we were staying with her for the race. I had made reservations for dinner at Red Drum weeks ago. I had my 22nd birthday dinner there and the food is amazing. I didn't need an excuse to eat there again! Ryan and I were starving, so we ordered the chips and salsa before Rachel and her friend got there. The menu has a southwestern flair (which I knew Ryan would love because he's from Texas) so I had to have a margarita! The lighting in the restaurant is pretty dim so I didn't get any good pictures of our food. I had the wood-grilled chicken breast which comes with mexican cheese, thin tortilla strips, and a avocado sauce. We were so full, we couldn't even make room for dessert, which is a shame because the dessert menu is to die for!

After dinner, we went back to Rachel's apartment for lots of sleep before the race. Unfortunately, right before bed, Ryan and I got news that our best friend's dad had passed away. He's been battling cancer for a couple of months and had slipped into a coma earlier in the day. I had a rough time sleeping Friday night because of my heavy heart, so that 5 am wake up call came mighty early. I think I only managed 3 hours of sleep. 

On to the race! We got dressed, pinned on our bibs, grabbed some Luna bars and a bottle of water and headed to the shuttles. Our shuttle managed to get lost on the way to the start line, and there was over an hour delay for the race. But Ryan and I passed the time, and tried to keep stretching.  Then we were off! We ran over a mile before we got to the bridge but Ryan's calves started to cramp up. We walked up the bridge (which is over a mile long) and ran the rest of the race. We had a lot of fun, and crossed the finish line together at 1:21! Training next year will go much smoother and we're going to kill that time!

After the race, we headed back to Rachel's place to shower and then meet Ryan's roommate Travis and his girlfriend Abby downtown for lunch. They had picked Big Gun Burgers and it was delicious! We ordered mac & cheese fritters for an appetizer. I had a blue cheese bacon burger and a Tom Collins! Running 6 miles requires refueling with food that's bad for you! :)



Water in mason jars!



Fried mac & cheese! Doesn't get much better!

We were absolutely exhausted but I wanted to get back to Litchfield before it got dark and before the Final Four games came on. Ryan took a little more convincing...




Rachel and Ryan post-race

Before leaving Charleston, we ended up meeting one of my friends, Kyle, at an Irish pub. It was great to see him and catch up and Ryan and I enjoyed a Coffee and Kahlua to stay awake for the remainder of the day! We also had to make a pitstop for this picture:

Fun Story: Ryan's last name is Berndt (pronounced "burnt"). As the story goes, freshman year of college, when he was introducing himself to the guys on his hall, they didn't understand what his last name was. So, to make it easier, he said "Berndt. Like burnt toast." And the nickname was born. When I first met Ryan, I was introduced to him as "Toast." I had no idea what his actual name was for at least a month. He was even in my phone as "Toast." But after dating him for a little while, he requested I no longer call him "Toast." So I'm retraining myself and slowly learning to call him Ryan! I saw this restaurant (which is a great place for brunch) and I just had to make him take a picture under the awning!

Back to the weekend! Ryan and I left Charleston around 4:30 pm. We got back to the beach and picked a local seafood place for dinner. Hanser House is a delicious, family owned restaurant about a mile from the house. We bellied up to the bar just in time for tip-off of the first basketball game. Dinner was amazing (I had shrimp and grits, Ryan had the seafood platter) and there were endless baskets of hushpuppies!!




Guess who had the fruitier drink?!

Sunday was a short day in the sun and we hopped back in the car to head home. Ryan continued to read The Hunger Games all the way home, so we could see the movie when we got back to Greenville! It was sooo good! 



via

And that, my friends, concludes the weekend! Whew! We packed a lot into one weekend (and drove over 796 miles)! But it was a great weekend and a lot of fun!