I have the best sister EVER!!!

Really, I do...not because I came home yesterday to a mailbox stuffed with this, but because she is the most thoughtful, loving, wise, gracious most precious person in the entire world and I love her with my whole heart!

Last week we had a conversation that went like this...

Kelly: Oh my gosh, Megan I just left Diane von Furstenberg (the store) and found this scarf that I am dying over!

Me: DO NOT TELL ME IT'S THE GRAY AND BLACK LEOPARD SCARF BECAUSE I'VE BEEN EYEING IT FOR WEEKS NOW!!!!!!

Kelly: YESSS!!!! That's it!!! (Let me just say that this sort of thing happens on a regular basis with us) Megan, I have to have it!

Me: No, Iiiiiii have to have it! Scratch that, we BOTH have to have it!!

Well, needless to say we were both pretty much kidding because it is way too pricey for either one of us to have...at least that's what I thought until I ripped open that package to find this...




amen, Diane...and I was loving life right about now...



I wanted to give you a play by play Pioneer Woman style...



Love this lady...



And seeing this tag reminds me of these days...



Look how beautiful!! I will wear it EVERY day of the Fall/Winter/Spring/maybe even Summer!!

And that's not all...



She loaded me up with my favorite magazines with our favorite girls on the cover (I know, I know, they are trashy, but I'm sorry...I love that show)

And here was the best part...



My Birdie colored me a picture!



That went directly on my fridge...




Just imagine my excitement to receive this "Care Package"...geez louise! I couldn't have done better if I were buying myself!





And since I was feeling the love, I wanted to pass that love on...




So I gave Teddy some chips.

He asked that I thank his Aunt Kelly for sharing the love with his Mudder!!



Mmm mmm so good (don't worry you animal rights people...I only gave him one! Just imagine I was eating them and one fell on the floor...)

As soon as I was done rejoicing and running through my house dancing with Teddy and Tucker over my new beautiful scarf, I put it on with my gym clothes and drove myself to the grocery store!



I'm sure I got a couple of odd looks, but I didn't care...I was too ecstatic to notice!

Thank you Thank you, Kel!!! You are the sweetest sister in the whole world!!!!

A Weekend Getaway Part Two

So I told you on the post before that Nikki, my Mother-in-law (I don't even like to call her that, she is way better and much closer to me than an "in-law" but just for those of you who don't know) and I all went to Highlands, NC on Saturday and spent the day shopping. First of all, if you've never been there...book your trip today! It is GORGEOUS!

The town's people sometimes have their noses stuck in the air, but if you just don't talk to anyone, you'll LOVE it! :)

Here are some of the cute little shops and streets...





And I love the churches in towns like this because they're so old and pretty



We mainly shopped for local pottery, but we always make an exception for these...





and when I see these it always makes me wish I had a good pot of homemade beef stew waiting on me in the kitchen on a fall day...



I even spotted my favorite hard to find line of baby products!



If you're going to a baby shower and need some fillers for a basket or just an extra gift the Noodle and Boo line is AMAZING! I have two children... (ok they're my sister's children, but when we're out in public I make her give me the rights to at least one of them so people will think they're mine) and my mom bought this for them...it's like the best smelling baby ever!

Nikki also accomplished finding where she wants to get married...



ok I'm lying...she loved the church and says she wants to get married there, but we weren't really looking for it quite yet, but it was so beautiful we let ourselves dream anyway...





I LOVE these two women more than life itself!

And here was the whole reason we came...



it may not look fancy from the outside, but they have some treasures inside let me just tell you! (They also have a rude lady inside who follows you around holding the back of your purse and asking you "are you ok to hold that bowl" like you're 7 years old...but who's remembering those sorts of things :) )

Seeing as some people were a little uptight in there *ahem*...I decided it might be best not to take pictures inside the store. So I took them outside!



The pottery is made my a local artist named Richie Watts, and there are probably 8-10 different patterns he does. My precious mother-in-law let Nikki and I pick out a pattern for Christmas!

Here were the two I chose since you can mix and match the patterns...(they're also the ones she chose for the lake house a couple of weeks ago so I was able to get pictures!)

This is the "Ginger" pattern



And the other is the Blue Bird pattern (I think that was the name...)



The pictures don't do it justice, but it is BEAUTIFUL!





And then we also went to another local pottery place called "Twigs" and picked up a few baking dishes. This was the bowl I chose there...



You can bake in it (as long as you preheat the oven WITH the bowl inside), microwave it and put it in the dishwasher. I'm so excited to make some spinach dip and serve it in this!

So if you're ever up that way make sure you stop through the shops to look at all of the beautiful local art. You won't be disappointed! I was on Cloud 9 the whole time we were there. I came home and told Blake that next weekend I'm dragging him up there and I'm going to MAKE HIM LIKE IT! :)

A Weekend Getaway Part One

My heart is always so happy when Blake says, "Pack it up, we're going to the lake!" I cannot tell you the kind of therapy you get from the drive up there alone.



It's better than anything you can get in an office paying someone $100 to listen to your problems. :) (Although I am pro-counseling when needed, don't worry)

I previously told you Blake had to go out of town so my precious (I feel like a should say sister at this point because that is what she is to me, but for those of you who don't know her, Brent's girlfriend and my best friend) Nikki came to stay with me in Columbia. We had so much fun together! She's one of those people you could talk to for 24 hours straight and still have things to talk about, plus she is HILARIOUS!! Love her...

Anywho, we packed up the car, threw my child in and hit the road running




I love when you start seeing signs that you're in the country...



and especially when you go through this town...you know you're on your way up to the mountains!


That's "Pumpkintown" for all of you non-South Carolinians out there.

And here...

is...

Heaven...


We all got very excited to be getting closer and closer to the house.



We contemplated picking up a few strangers who had lost their "Mudder," but...



I have a no-rats policy. WHERE'S YOUR MUDDER?!

And thissssss my friends is when we've made it...


When you find the quaint little grocery store where cereal peaks out at around $7.50 because there is literally NO OTHER STORES in sight...I LOVE it!


So We finally pulled in, dragged our bags up the stairs, and found our men and father-in-law doing something along the lines of this...



Go Braves!

Some things never change, but we were very happy to see them!!





All day Saturday Nikki, My mother-in-law and I made the trip to Highlands, NC (This will be Part Two of this post...stay tuned! It's good! :) ) and the boys stayed home to fish their weekends away in the boat.

Since I didn't get any pictures of them, you'll have to take this one...even though they weren't in a canoe...(but it's my favorite piece in their lake house so I'm trying to find a way to tie it in to my post!)



The rest of the weekend we did lots of sleeping...



Lots of kissing...


And lots of crying when it was time to pack our stuff up and leave...



Ok the boys didn't cry...and neither did we because we will be back NEXT WEEKEND!!



So load em' up kids...your going to spend a lot of time in the car together.

Technical Difficulties

Please excuse the GINORMOUS picture above...

It's looking like I may have to switch blog templates, but I didn't have the time to do it this week. So stay tuned for a new look to come...at least a smaller picture to come (we hope)!

Organize Me!

Please...do me a favor and hold your judgments on me until after reading this post.

I've tried to be Susie Homemaker. I've tried to make our home a Haven. I've tried to bring in good smelling candles and soaps, cook once a week or so, do the laundry when we've run out of towels, do my job, multi-task every free moment I get, yet somehow parts of our house still manage to look like this...



Santa??

Yiiikes. What is this stuff?!!

So I called in my decorator troops today (aka...my sister) and I'm going to make her help me make this room more welcoming.

The problem was that we thought we would only be in Columbia a year (13 months now...and counting), however Blake's new job will be here so it's time to get ourselves settled!

Here are my sister's thoughts...I'd like to change this room





into a lounge/reading room area, and bring some organization to our lives. Blake and I love reading so I think we might actually use this if we made it cozy enough (along with a desk for him to use).

Here are some photos that got me inspired to get going on the organization.

We won't have a big budget to do this so I will have to find some functional furniture at a great price that we can use for a long time. Here is what I'm eyeing right now...

(Two) of these, please

This chair and ottoman from Ikea (greatest store ever-next to Target of course), and at $249 it would be hard to beat for a brand new one

Then, to bring a little life to the room I'd add these...

This rug
And then fill my coffee table with these...

What do you think? Good idea or bad idea?! Any suggestions? HELP!!!