Back From Hiatus

I don't really know that you would call this last month a hiatus in real life, but most definitely a hiatus from blogging! It's not that I haven't had anything to blog about, just very little time to get it all down. This is my fresh attempt at blogging . . again ;)

What's new?


I finally graduated from my counseling classes. It has been a fulfilling 2 years to say the least. Though my riding partner and I got really burned out this last semester, and came up against so much spiritual warfare, we successfully completed the course. This was not through any effort of myself, I should add. I was so ready to throw in the towel more than once. As the fire got hotter, the more all I wanted to do was retreat to my safe haven. But, God showed me really quickly that I wasn't even safe there. It was a hard season, but a growing one and He never left my side. I am so thankful. So anyway, we are finished!! Yay! The next step is to go through the year long certification process which includes answering and submitting questions as well as actual counseling time. My goal is to complete this within the next year. I have not started to amount to much, but I am hoping that very soon, I will be off to a solid start. My mom has some great pictures from the Sunday we graduated which I will post as soon as I retrieve them from her camera.


My Aunt and I threw a shower for my soon to be sis-in-law at the end of June. We had a great time. I have a few pics, but Mom has more. I plan on doing a separate post on that as well, including photos!

We went to the beach at the end of July with our whole family! We had an amazing time, and just enjoyed each others company, the sand, the waves and the sunshine (when it decided to come out)! We had a few rainy days, but I still got my tan on. Here is what Gracie and I did one rainy morning -

Would you believe I didn't get any beach photos?! I am telling you, I know to be a successful blogger, you must have supporting photos with every post . . I must do better!

This is my first week back at work and it has been super busy. Again, we are thankful being that the real estate market has not been the most lucrative or kind market the past 2 years. My first day back at work was met with this pretty little something special -

I don't know whether to say ouch or gross first! Lesson learned. . after more than a week in flops, ease back into the work heels!

I guess that's about it for this first post back from blog vacation. We have a lot going on that I can't wait to post on!

Happy Thursday!

A Father's Day Funny

We had a great Father's Day weekend! Of course, I took no pictures (except for 1).

Friday night we had dinner with Jason's parents', brother and his girlfriend at Outback. It was yummy! Normally, we do Father's Day with my family on Sunday, but this year we had to improvise and gather at a different time due to South Carolina's first game of the College World Series scheduled for Sunday at 7. Yes, we are those people. Well, let me take that back. My dad is "those people". He is not missing the Gamecocks play in the CWS- no matter what the time ends up being. I am so glad Daniel and Clary didn't plan their wedding anywhere near this season. Otherwise, we would have been short a best man :) So, no big deal we got together on Saturday night and ate at mom's and dad's. We decided to just pick up from a local restaurant here and relax and fellowship. None of us really wanted to get dressed and go all out. So, we spent a great night in!

Funny story. I have been seeing for weeks the Dairy Queen commercial on TV advertising the Father's Day ice cream cakes. I decided on Friday that we had to have one. My dad is a golfer, so I thought the golf decorated one was perfect for him. I call the order in and they tell me to pick it up Saturday afternoon. Cutting it alittle close, but ok, what choice do I have after all?!

This is our yummy cake

Now, it was great. The only problem is that my daddy's nickname is "Cap", not "Cat". I am sure people get weird messages written on cakes all the time, but I did tell the employee "CAP, as in baseball CAP" repeatedly.

Oh well, we all at least had a good laugh!

Hope your Father's Day was special!

Do You Smell That?

What is in a smell? Sometimes, nothing worth smelling. Sometimes, trivial things like supper cooking, freshly cut grass, lemons, household cleaners. We take smell for granted so much- at least I do.

Until those days when you catch a fresh whiff of something that you can’t quite put your finger on, but are transported back in time. All of a sudden there you are in that moment from so long ago, and the nostalgia nearly swallows you whole. This morning, I was stepping in the shower in my bathroom at home one minute and at my grandfather’s lake house almost instantly. All of those summers’ passed came rushing over me like a tidal wave of memories and emotion. I saw my brother and me running, feet clad in flip flops, down the long and twisting hill to the dock. The grass was so thin under our feet, but oh so green. Rocks and little pebbles lay all along the path, so we had to be careful not to trip. The dock was old wood- many years of wear and tear yet still sturdy. We would feed the fish in the morning with the bread my grandmother sent down with us. Pretty soon, there would be a school of fish all around us. We laughed and laughed and laughed in the early morning summer sun, ready for a full day of childhood fun. We splashed in the lake, played on the jet skis, skied and tubed until the sun just began to set. Then, we would all load up in the “big boat” as we called it then, and cap the day off with a little drive around the coves.

I am still smelling my sun tan lotion as I snap back into reality and realize, 10 + years have come and gone and the lake house was sold years ago.

Thank you Lord for those smells. You know the ones. The ones that take you back in time. The ones that make you remember, appreciate and be ever so thankful to God for all that He has blessed you with!

I wish I had pictures, but I don’t think we do. Fortunately, memories are with you a lifetime.

It's Finally Here!

Wedding season has finally arrived! I have been waiting almost a year for the celebrations to begin for my brother and Clary, and the time is now upon us!

Friday night marked their very first shower, which ended up being a Tool and Garden Shower given by Clary's aunt. It was so much fun, and at the most adorable barn! The setting was just beautiful, and we had such a great time with each others family.

Cute Table Decorations- Fresh Flowers, Lemons and Limes!

Gifts - What Everyone Looks Forward To!

GrandParent's Table

My Parents

My Sweetie and Me

Bride to Be!

Family

Mr. and Mrs. Phillips (in alittle more than 3 months!)

Group Shot of Kids/Young Adults

Day Dreaming

Stuck Here . .



Dreaming of Here . .

Happy Monday All!

What a Difference a Day Makes

Finally! A dream has come true for the Gold family. We have stepped it up in the world, and invested in a king size bedroom suit . . FINALLY! This is a really big deal for us :)

But, the transition of bedrooms did not go super smooth.

These photos are dark because I took them on my phone. Anyway, I was assisting Jase in holding the mirror that was attached to the dresser. As he was unscrewing a screw, something happened that he let go of the screw driver which subsequently flew out of his hand and hit me in the mouth as well as this spot on my arm. I may or may not have cried alittle. It was worse than it looks :)

Looking closely, you can see that Jason is missing a sock. Not even 5 minutes after the screw driver escapade, as we were moving said dresser, I did not realize we were breaking for a minute. The end result was the corner lifting up Jason's toenail. Gross I know. It didn't rip it off or anything, though you would have thought that by his reaction. Then again, he didn't cry like others of us.

Moving on . .

Our bedroom looks alot different empty. The plan was to move our old bedroom suit to the guest bedroom. Last weekend, we got rid if the Jason's old bed from college that had been in guest bedroom, so all we had to do was get the bed, dresser and night stand moved from the master bedroom.

Easier said than done. What a mess! And, I had to leave things undone like this Friday night until our new stuff came on Saturday.

Thankfully, the delivery men came early :)

Again, these pics are coming off my phone and they are horrible!

Guest Bedroom-

So, all is well and put back together in the Gold house tonight.

My view isn't bad either-

;) Night Night.

Simple is as Simple Does

Last night I began to spread my exploratory cooking wings, if you will. I can cook, when I choose to. Lately, it seems like Jason and I are on 2 different schedules, so cooking has been tough. But, hopefully we are getting to the other side of such a busy season. Last week we ate no evening meals together!! Had to change it up this week!!! :)

A couple of things to note-

1. I have been very much in tune to the royal wedding, as I am sure has most of the free world, these past weeks. I was looking online at some old pictures of Kate and commented to my soon to be sis in law how much more toned she looks now versus a year ago. She shared with me the diet Kate was on (website here ) and just some general info about it. Of course I had to try :)

2. After research and careful consideration, I decided to kind of personalize the diet with a more reachable expectation of myself- plus I had to get Jase on board, and he wasn't following Kate's diet.

3. We are eating healthy, not buying junk (makes grocery shopping a breeze) and exercising in hopes of having more energy and looking more toned up!! Bathing suit season is upon us!

Back to last night's dinner . .

I found this recipe which ended up being GREAT! I even took some pictures of the meal in progress, which I am most impressed with myself about!

Spices, Olive Oil and White Wine . . EASY!!!

Gross. I HATE raw chicken and handling it. I washed my hands so many times they were literally bleeding last night around my knuckles.

Throw in alittle roasted squash and zucchini and YUMM O!

It was easy and delicious- a great combo!

Tonight's Menu- steaks, grilled veggies and roasted sweet potato fries. I realize the fries are not good at all, but better than a loaded baked potato, right?!

Incase you haven't noticed, I do things in small steps :)