taking a deep breath

It's been almost a month since I last posted. *slap on the wrist* The meatloaf turned out great. And by great I mean, Brent LOVED it... I however still can't bring myself to love it, it's hard enough to like it. Maybe if it was covered in cheese it would be different! :)

SO.. the past few weeks have been crazy. I feel like this is the first time I have actually been able to sit down and take a breath. On the other side of the screen is my to-do list and the massive list of gifts that I need to write thank you notes for. I have moved all of my stuff from the office at the farm to my office here at the house. That way I am here to meet all the people that keep showing up to fix various things and when I'm not super busy I can run downstairs and change out the loads of laundry.

The wedding is in two weeks. Yes, TWO WEEKS! I've got a million things going on with cakes and dresses and hair appointments. In the mean time I am constantly unpacking boxes, trying to organize and clean out all of our stuff that keeps piling up at the house, and clean up after all the people that have been over at the house and shop. I probably do an average of 4 loads of laundry a day, vacuum the living room at least twice, and then clean up after the dogs.... sheesh!

I think everything will calm down once the wedding is over and people get used to us living out here and realize that this is our home and not the fun place to come hang out all the time.

I am using the computer Brent gave me for my birthday so I have no pictures on here, but I will upload some at some point and start posting some good stuff again! I hope everyone is doing great.

:* xox

today i will tackle meatloaf...

Today is a day for the books. We have started moving into our house and tonight will be our first night actually staying there. So in honor of our first night, we are having our first meal. The first meal I will ever cook in my new kitchen. I wanted something hearty, something with meaning, something we will always remember. So I thought I would try to cook meatloaf. (eww, yuck, gross)

Meatloaf is something that I have normally in the past refused to eat. Something that I want nothing to do with and something I am totally not interested in. However, Brent loves meatloaf. I figure I will have to make some compromises in this marriage so I am starting with meatloaf.

Maybe I will like the meatloaf if I made it. Maybe it won't be dry. Maybe the sauce in the recipe I have chosen will be out of this world. Just maybe. If all else fails, I make amazing mashed potatoes. :)

I'll take pictures tonight and post tomorrow!

it's been two weeks already??

I do sincerely apologize for the lapse in my writing lately. As we are getting in the final stages of the house we have been crazy busy! When I last wrote they had installed our cabinets and were coming to do the countertops... Now they have installed the granite, finished the plumbing, the appliances are in, and we spent the past 4 days putting polyurethane on the doors, trim, and the entire master bathroom. Needless to say I feel the effects of the fumes in my nose, throat, and lungs.

Now we just have to finish any woodwork and clean out the house so the guy can come and wax our floors! Oh yeah, and we have to wire up the lighting under the cabinets and get the house inspected... oh! And find mirrors, finish putting up the hardware in the master bathroom, get two or three more door knobs.. wait, did I say we were getting close? Maybe not that close.

I will post some pictures of what the house looks like now probably tomorrow. I need to take updated ones where the faucets are in and stuff so you can get the full effect! In the meantime I have managed to lose my spiral index card thingy with all of my important phone numbers in it AND my brand new ray bans. Sometimes I don't know if I am going or coming.

My brother is in town and coming to visit on Wednesday. I am very excited for him to come and see the house. He hasn't been down here in well over a year so he has never even seen what it looks like or where we are building. And he gets to meet all of the dogs! ..... Speaking of the dogs. I have learned that they love pizza. I can get them to do just about anything I want as long as the word 'pizza' is involved. I have started calling Lainey "Cheesey" and I finally figured out yesterday that when she is being bad and doesn't want to go in her pen, if I say "come here Cheesey... you want some PETE-ZA?!" she runs in her pen and sits down like a good girl. I only hate that when she finally figures out I don't have any pizza she will sprint away and hide in the woods like she used to. I will probably have to invest in Pizza Hut soon.

Last week I took some photos with Megan Manus in Sumter, just for fun, and they turned out really great. I didn't buy the digital files but Megan will be putting some up on her blog if you want to check them out. http://meganmanusphotography.com/blog/ ALSO I had my first dress fitting at Hayden Olivia. It was fabulous. Luckily they are having to take the dress in about 4 inches so that made me feel pretty good since last time it barely fit perfectly. I am SO excited about the dress. It truly is magnificent. Afterwards I roamed the streets of East and West Boulevard waiting on my friend Weldon to get off work so I could finally see her place and see Louise and spend some time catching up. I spent about an hour in the shop called Paper Skyscraper and bought a lot of neat things! When Weldon got home we visited for a bit and then went out for sushi (yum! my favorite) and then I had to make the long dreaded trip back down to Summerton. I wish I lived closer to my friends.... well wait, let me rephrase, I wish my friends lived closer to me! :)

Hopefully tomorrow I will get to see Lacey and visit with her. She has never been down here so I am excited to show her the house and the farm. And then my brother! SO it will be a good two weeks! Also this weekend our dear friends are giving us a shower, which will be much needed since we are hopefully going to move in SOON! I promise I will write more now that things are slowing up a bit. I will at least be taking more pictures so I can share some things with everyone.

xox

my office is a racetrack

Happy Monday y'all! As I sit here right now Hank and Lainey are running wide open in circles around the desk in the center of my office. I can't tell who is chasing whom since it changes every time they turn a corner or run behind the chairs a different one is in the lead! Every now and then they take a break and slosh in the water bowl.

It's been almost two weeks since I have written and a lot has happened! They came and installed our cabinets last week and they look fabulous. Next the granite people will come Thursday to install the countertops and then it's only a few more little things and we will be moving in! I'm shooting for the week of August 15th. It would be fabulous if we could at least start moving that week since my parents and my brother will be here! (and they can help us move, of course!) When the house is complete I will post a few pics for those of you who might never make it down here.  ;)

Along with the house plans are the wedding plans and we are down to 60 days. I would say two months, but I am a procrastinator and two months sounds longer than 60 days so I have to think in terms of days now so I will get things done! I have about 5 or 6 different to-do lists (they have a lot of overlap) but it makes me feel better to write it all out and be able to cross things off.

After much debate over wedding shoes I have finally gotten a pair. They are totally NOT what I thought I would get but I am in love with them. I have been saying for the past year and a half that I wanted blue heels and I ended up with gold glitter flats from J Crew and they are SO comfortable.

I spent a little time today going over the marriage license process, the name change process, and then changing my residency finally to say that I truly live in South Carolina. Yes I know I've lived here for well over a year but for part of that time I was a "student" and I didn't need to get a SC license. I didn't want to go through the DMV deal twice so I figured it was best just to wait. It's ONLY 60 more days.....

Both of my wedding dresses came in on Friday. Weird that they came in on the same day but I am so relieved that they are finally here and we can start the fittings. I need to get one of those "It Works" fat wraps just incase I've gained weight. Hopefully I can loose a few more inches before we get down to the nitty gritty of alterations. I think my main problems are length and bust, not waist, so that's a relief. I would definitely have a hip problem but the ball gown covers that up! :)

I'll post a few sneak peaks of things under the Photos tab. I honestly don't have any new recipes at the moment. Sadly. Mom came this past weekend and helped me clean my house and pack. I swear we could be on an episode of Hoarders. While she was there she made my favorite Chicken Tetrazzini. I will post her recipe under the Recipe tab! It is delicious!!

I hope everyone is doing well and staying cool in this blistering heat wave!

taking life by the ears...

 

Today marked day one of corn cutting season. It's quiet around the farm now that everyone is off in the fields and riding on the combine this morning with Brent brought back great memories from last year. Everyone is getting along today which is a God sent blessing from the heavens. My life is better when they all get along and I am sure that everyone else's wives and girlfriends feel the same way. We had a severe lack of rain and a lot of the corn didn't reach it's full potential. I am praying for rain daily so the cotton and soybeans will make a good crop.

I thought that the cabinets would be ready to install this week but it seems that they had a bit of a problem with our wood having too high of a moisture content so they are coming the first of next week. I don't know when we will ever be able to move into the house. I am starting to get a little discouraged, but I know everything happens for a reason.

Brent's birthday is this week. He is finally turning 25! I think he has said he's 25 for the past year so now he'll probably think he's turning 26. I am a big proponent of celebrating birthdays, especially my own ;) so it's been frustrating that they are going to be harvesting corn and we can't really celebrate. I guess when they get finished for the day we will have a late supper for him Thursday night and he can open his presents. I got him some really awesome stuff! Although I can't put it on here just in case he happens to read this before Thursday!

We had Laura's baby shower this past weekend and I also got to visit some old friends in Howards Mill. The baby shower turned out great and Laura got a lot of wonderful gifts. It was great to see all the girls even if it was for just a few hours.

I hope everyone has been doing well! I will update again soon with more pictures and recipes!

  

it's almost monday again already?

It's the end to another wonderful weekend and time to start a new week. I feel like the weeks are just flying by and we are in a permanent state of chaos! Life around the farm is always busy but it seems more so than usual these days. We haven't even started cutting corn yet so I should probably enjoy it as much as I can.

Friday I went to finalize everything for the cabinets and I am SO excited about them. The man said they would start on them Monday (tomorrow) and they would be finished in a week. So hopefully that means just a few more weeks until we can move in! I'm hoping once we live there people will stop showing up to 'check out the house'. I am not a fan of unexpected visitors and was always taught to call before you drop by. I think that chapter of Emily Post didn't make it in the etiquette books down here. It usually goes something like this "Heyyyyy there I heard y'all were building a place back here. Billy Bob told me it was real niiiice. I'm Fred from yonder down the way and I just happened to be riding through and I thought I'd just come and take a look for myself and see what y'all was building back here." It's seldom that I know the people that I find wandering around in the yard and letting themselves into my house but they seem to know who I am and even if they don't, they're friends with Jim Bo's cousin that lives over in Silver and Betty Sue gave them permission to come on by. The last guy was trying to pick the lock to get into Brent's shop and thought it was ok to just break in since he had permission to go over there, even though he didn't receive the said permission from myself or Brent.

But who doesn't love good ole country living. I reckon' I'll have to post up with a shotgun and be the crazy lady with wild signs everywhere. I recently read a book called 'Forty Acres and A Fool' and the man in the book had the same problem we are having. He wrote about how the locals would trespass and hunt on his property and joy ride down his road. We have the joy riding and right now the random people fishing in the pond. In the book, the man puts up signs saying 'Beware of the Monkeys!" ... Wendy suggested I try "Beware: HIV patient on the loose" ... it's worth a shot!

Aside from the craziness at the house and the farm, some friends of mine from college are orchestrating a baby shower for one of my best friends, Laura, and that will take place this weekend. I went to Florence on Friday to pick up some things and I will head to Charlotte tomorrow to pick up a few more. I am so excited to see everyone again. It's been two months since we've all been in one place together and I'm just tickled that it is for a baby shower. Laura and her husband Ben are having a little boy and he is due to come into this world on October 20th. Hopefully he will get to come and visit Aunt Carson and Uncle Brent on the farm! :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and a happy July 4th. I am heading to bed to watch some more Harry Potter. The new one comes out Friday so I am catching up with the old ones and Brent is learning who the people are and what's going on. After two days of HP he is developing a British accent and calling Lainey "Hermione" ... but he pronounces it "Her-whiney" :) God Bless y'all!

sweet summertime

I just realized I hadn't even posted pictures of Lainey! Wendy and I had a great, but long, trip to Missouri. It literally took exactly 16 hours. The worst part was when you are going towards Branson on "Old 76" and it's like driving through the mountains for 3 hours on scary curvy roads! But we made it safely and without too many bumps in the road. So here she is: 

Lady Jane Cogdill aka: "Lainey"

So far she has been a good pup. She has had a few accidents in the house but I think it's mostly she is trying to communicate with us that she has got to pee but I just think she's whining because she's bored or hungry or just being whiney. I guess I need to be more in tuned with her needs! She loves to swim in the pond and the lake and enjoys her new brother and sister, Hank and Birdie, and biting their tails and chasing them around the yard. She is very relaxed and laid back and starting to get protective, which is a good thing. Brent and Gavin came to the lake last night and she barked and growled at them until they came in the door and she figured out who they were! She is sweet as can be.

She also enjoys laying out on the boat :)

I had a request for some ideas for July the 4th menus so I'm going to include a new tab at the top and make that a separate post. I have been doing a lot of recipe searching lately. My good friend Stephanie gave me Southern Living's 1001 Ways to Cook Southern and I finished reading it last night. I have also been checking in on Tasty Kitchen and The Pioneer Woman as well for new ideas. 

I can't wait to get into the new house so I can start cooking again. I have been cooking more than usual at the lake, but mainly sticking to pasta dishes so there is less clean up. Last night Brent requested a late night snack of fettucine alfredo and surprisingly I had everything to make it! Mainly because I used the Alfredo sauce in the jar but some good ways to spruce up stuff like that is some good fresh parmesan cheese and salt and pepper. I also cooked the pasta noodles in water with chicken base and salted it well. 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. We are headed to the beach on Friday for a few nights. My brother is flying in from Vermont on Saturday and I haven't seen him in a while so hopefully we will go play some golf on Sunday before Brent and I head back. 

I will post some festive recipes next. Have a fun and safe July 4th holiday!