SusanintheSC.com

Today was just what we needed. We enjoyed a little more relaxation and down time. It’s been nice! We’ve pretty much been on the go non-stop since we arrived late Saturday evening trying to squeeze in visits with everyone.

Joe was pumped we were able to go to Oishi for lunch! 🙂 We picked up Mom (Boren) and took her with us. We all enjoyed the sushi VERY much!! We’ve tried several different sushi restaurants both here in Louisville and in Charleston and nothing compares to Oishi! The sushi rolls are so fresh and simply delicious. THE BEST hands down! Of course our visit with Mom was just as enjoyable — it was nice to catch up with her.

 

After lunch, it was rainy and cloudy and storming so we just came back to The Foster’s house (our friend’s that let us crash their lives for days on in when we visit). We’ve known them for years and years, we all went to high school together…if that tells you anything. 😉 It was wonderful to just hang out with them and talk about the “old days”. We very much appreciate them!

As day 4 is coming to a close I am reminded that we are so blessed. We are blessed with fun, supportive, loving, and caring friends & family! We are enjoying our time visiting with many people, even if that time is short. By far, the most difficult part of moving away is leaving our people behind!

 

Friends and family. Day 3 was all about both. And, of course food. I was able to meet up with my long time very dear friends for lunch at Chuy’s. I have been friends with all of these ladies for well over a decade! The best thing about our friendship is that we can let months and months go by without talking and when we see each other we just pick up right where we left off. We all have kiddos around the same age and it’s nice to share stories about them, the good and the bad alike.

When our kids were babies and preschoolers we all belonged to a MOPS group. Mothers Of Preschoolers is a group for moms with preschool age children. Our group met twice a month on Thursday mornings and provided childcare for the children while the moms shared in fellowship time by doing crafts, listening to speakers, playing games, and lots of eating. 🙂 Being a mom is tough! So tough! Having that group to connect with was such a wonderful thing for me and I didn’t realize how wonderful at the time, but now when I think about the friendships that I made during those crazy years I am so grateful! Our days back then consisted of crying babies, poopy diapers, teething, and bratty toddlers. Today they consist of teenage hormones, attitudes, car insurance, and ACT scores. As tough as I thought some of those “baby days” were they were nothing compared to the concerns I now have with a house full of teenagers! So, I’m so thankful to have a group of ladies that I can chat with and we can share stories and swap advice with. They are all super special to me! 🙂 And, lunch at Chuy’s was just as delicious as I was hoping. I love me some Chuy’s jalapeno dip!!

This evening we met up with Mom and Dad Dotson at Mike Linning’s. We had a great time!! The food was, once again, fantastic and the company was even better! We have missed seeing and talking to them so we very much enjoyed our time to chat and catch up. It was a really nice night to sit outside and have dinner so that’s exactly what we did. 🙂

Before I end this blog I must post a few pics of my buddy back at home. The Garrett’s are taking great care of him and even sent me a few pics of him today. (Probably so I will not continue to pester them about cat updates 😉 ha!)

Day 3 is a wrap. Our week is going by quick, unfortunately.

 

 

Have you ever been treated like a rock star? Had all the attention on you? After today, my family and I can say we have. 🙂 Today was day 1 of our trip to Kentucky. Since school starts back very soon, unfortunately, we decided to make a trip back to Kentucky to visit with family and friends.

We started the day with our Mercy Hill Church family. We didn’t let anyone know we were coming in town so it was a nice surprise this morning when we showed up to worship with our friends.  They were taken aback by our presence and that is when we suddenly felt like rock stars! 😉 It is wonderful to belong to a church that is so welcoming and real. The people there are genuine and true Christ followers that love their community. We have met some amazing friends at Mercy Hill and now some of those friends are very much like family. Needless to say, we miss our MH church family VERY, VERY much!

After church, we met up with my family for a birthday dinner for my niece who turns 18 tomorrow! I can not believe she is 18! I still remember hanging out in the hospital waiting for her to be born…now, she’s turning 18. It’s unbelievable how fast time goes! I don’t think we realize how quickly time goes by when we’re younger, but the older we get the faster it goes. At least that’s my observation. It was so great to hang out with family today to chat and catch up! We miss “our people” lots!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’d say day 1 was a success! Church, friends, family, good food, and even a quick trip to Starbucks for a coffee frap with no whipped topping…it was a great day! Now, good night. I’m beat. 🙂

Caisey’s home–yay!!!! 🙂 Since she’s a working girl now (and travels the country with her job) we don’t get to see her as much as we would like. She arrived yesterday and leaves tomorrow so it’s a short and sweet visit. We will take what we can get. A few days ago she texted me and put in her request for a meal while she is here. We call it Italian Soup, I’m not sure of the real name.

Earlier today I made the trip to Publix to get the necessary groceries to make the soup. I did all of my shopping, getting waaay more than the necessities, of course. When I was finally finished shopping I got in line to pay. The cashier rung up my items and I went to insert my debit card into the machine, the cashier looked at me and said, “Are you old enough to qualify for the Senior Citizen discount?” :/ Ouch!! Now, let me tell you, the cashier was not a high school kid (in that case I probably wouldn’t have thought much of it) she was a lady probably in her 60’s/maybe early 70’s! As I’m standing there laughing because I’m in shock and my face is turning all shades of red the lady that was bagging my groceries comes to my rescue and says, “If she’s a senior citizen then I need the name of her doctor!” Ha! The whole experience was quite surreal. Now, there is nothing wrong with qualifying for a Senior Citizen discount…if you’re a Senior Citizen! As I’m walking out, I think to myself, wow you must’ve really let yourself go! You can never leave the house again without makeup because people will think you are 10-20 years older than you really are!! Then I think, maybe it’s time for a hair cut? :/

Back to our “Italian Soup,” we had it for dinner tonight. As always, it was a huge hit but honestly I think it was better than it usually is although I’m not real sure why. It’s super duper easy and not my recipe, but I thought I would share it in case someone else would like to try it. There’s probably several variations to this recipe, I found it on Pinterest…where I find all my ideas. 🙂

*1 bag cheese tortellini, 1 lb. Italian sausage, 1 bag fresh spinach, 2 cans Italian diced tomatoes, 32 oz. chicken broth, block of cream cheese

Brown the Italian sausage, drain the grease. Add the diced tomatoes and the chicken broth to the sausage. Then add the cream cheese. After the cream cheese has melted add the tortellini. After the tortellini has cooked add in the spinach. Once the spinach is softened the soup is done. Tonight I added an extra can of tomatoes and probably another 24 oz. of broth since we had 6 people eating. I’m not sure if the extra tomatoes made it better or not, but we all loved it! Easy Peasy! 🙂 I usually add a salad or garlic bread to complete the meal.

               

I think she enjoyed it!! 🙂 Now, she’s packing her things up to fly out bright and early in the morning. Ugh!! We will miss her muchly, but love the opportunity that she’s been blessed with. <3

 

I’m honored! As we just wrapped up another visit with a great friend and her family from Kentucky, I feel VERY honored! To have friends (and family) that will drive hours out of their way to come and visit us makes me so happy! We have been blessed with several friend visits since we moved to the Charleston, SC area. Now, I do get that Charleston is a pretty cool place to visit and maybe they are making the trek to do and see the sights and get a free night’s stay out of the deal, but I’m hoping they are wanting to hang with The Dotson fam, as well. Ha! 😉

Stacey, my very dear long-time friend, and her kiddos were on their way back from Orlando and decided to spend the weekend with us before heading home. Since we only had one full day we sure did cram a lot in that day to make it full. We enjoyed some time at Isle of Palms beach while the kiddos played in the super choppy waves. The temp outside was HOT, of course…it is mid July in the South. However, on the beach yesterday it felt great due to the nice breeze and the water temp was perfect. I actually got in above my ankles! 🙂 After, about 2.5 hours at the beach we loaded up and made the journey back home to shower and get ready for dinner.

Shortly after loading up 2 adults, 5 kids, chairs, towels, bags, and of course lots of sand, we were on our merry way home. As I’m driving a really nice man slowed down beside me and started waving to me and motioned for me to roll my window down. I rolled down my window. And, I’m guessing I was frustrated in the moment because I was trying to drive and traffic here is a nightmare, so immediately after I roll down my window I yell “WHAT? What do you want?” in a very hasty tone. He then tells me there are a pair of sunglasses on my rear bumper. I quickly tell him thank you very much and he drives away. As I pull into the nearest turn to get the sunglasses that were probably free somewhere I immediately feel AWFUL! The man was trying to be helpful and I yelled at him! I didn’t mean to yell, I just did. Geez!! :/ Everyone in the car thought it was hilarious. At least I could give everyone a good laugh, I guess. So, Mr. Nice Man, if you are reading this (I’m sure that he is, right? ;)), I am VERY sorry for the way I behaved!

We then went to the downtown area of Charleston to have dinner and sight see. We had dinner at Rutledge Cab Company (despite it’s name it is indeed a restaurant!) I had fish tacos and french fries…we all gotta splurge every now and then…it was delicious!! After dinner “Tour Guide Joe” (if you’ve been to visit us you know he is a pretty good tour guide, if he doesn’t know something he just makes it up) drove us around. After a while we parked and walked around near The Battery. There is so much to see downtown you really could spend a few days walking around and just looking. I love to look at all the different houses and the character of the homes and the gardens and the window boxes with flowers. I get really excited when someone has their blinds/curtains open and I can see inside their home! Damian thinks I’m stalking them, I’m really not, I just like to see how they decorate. 🙂

After all of our adventures we decided to head home and enjoy some Moose Tracks ice cream on the couch in our pj’s. Perfect ending to a pretty much perfect day, I would say. So now, have I enticed anyone else to make a visit to The SC to visit The Dotson’s?! 😉

 

 

Today was another rare day, rare as in I didn’t HAVE to go anywhere. Hallelujah! Twice this week, I’ll take it!! 🙂 So, we had a decision to make, the beach or the pool? I decided on the pool because as much as I LOVE the beach it’s quite a bit more work to enjoy a lazy day at the beach mainly because we live a good 45 minutes away (sometimes it takes closer to an hour to get there). The pool is right in the neighborhood and it’s just easier. I wasn’t feeling super ambitious, but I definitely wanted to get the boys out of the house and away from the video games for a bit. Bradley had the day off so he was able to join us. I love when he gets to hang with us! I’m trying to savor all the moments with him that I can. He’s growing up waaaay too quickly!! 🙁

We got to the pool and grabbed our lounge chairs. After hanging out with me for a few minutes the boys decided to walk over to the water. I look up and see Bradley and Addison sitting on the edge of the pool chatting. I quickly snapped a few pictures. As their mother it warms my heart so much to see them willingly hang out together and enjoy each other’s company (most of the time…keepin’ it real)! *My “mom-prayer” is that all of our kiddos will always be close and have good relationships and want to be a big part of each other’s lives.* Of course, just a few minutes after that pic was taken the other brother, Damian, walked up and pushed Addison in the water from behind. There went my serene moment. Boys! Gotta love ’em! 😉

After a couple hours at the pool we came home. Then, the rain and storms started up again. We really have had no shortage of rain, but I do hear that it is very dry and hot back home in Kentucky. I will pray for our Kentucky peeps to get a little break from the heat and to get some of our rain, we don’t need anymore!

I woke up this morning and felt amazing because I had NO where I had to go. I think this is the first time this entire summer that this has happened…or maybe the second time, I’m not sure. It is definitely a rare treat. Usually I have to shuttle a teenager somewhere on any given day. So, I was able to leisurely get up, feed the cat (anyone that has a cat knows that HAS to be first on the daily agenda!), have my coffee and just enjoy some quiet time. Heaven, right?!?! 🙂

After watching HGTV (watched three episodes of House Hunters — one took place in Louisville, KY another in Charleston, SC!! say whaa?! the other was somewhere in Florida) and lounging for a while I finally did get up. Looked outside and noticed it’s raining AGAIN today. I think it has rained 3/4th’s of this summer so far! I am so so so over the rain!! As I’m watching the rain and looking at the gray, overcast skies I can feel myself getting more and more grumpy. Ugh! On one hand, it’s nice to have a lazy, rainy day at home, on the other hand, I might loose my mind if I see one more rain drop!

Then I wonder, how do I go from feeling excited about the lazy day ahead (…we can all stay in our pj’s and watch movies and read…) to I want to pull my freaking hair out because it is raining again for the 45th day this summer (…now we can’t go to the pool or do anything fun!…)!??!

Oh yeah, I’m female. Ha! That pretty much sums it up, I guess. I’m sure Joe would agree. 😉

I’m trying to choose joy today. Trying.

There’s nothing quite like trying to set up a blog to make one feel old and dumb. Geez!! This really shouldn’t be this difficult…and it probably isn’t to most. :/ I’m trying and I’m “showing up” is about all I can say. So, on that note, I’d like to explain why I’m blogging these days, if I may? To be quite honest, I’m not a writer, but in the past few months I have had this feeling that I need to be blogging. After blowing it off for a while I started giving it some thought. I kept having this nagging feeling that I needed to blog. Then, it occurred to me to blog about our life here so family (and friends) could read about what we’re up to and the transition (or lack thereof… some days ;/ ) to our lives in a new state. As a little more time went by (and more nagging thoughts) it finally occurred to me that maybe this is what God is calling me to do…for some (strange) reason. 😉 So, yesterday I finally gave in and started my blogging journey. And, it’s been an interesting journey thus far.

This morning, while on my walk around the neighborhood, I listened to one of my favorite bible study-ish podcasts. I say ish because these ladies are extremely funny and get easily side-tracked, so it’s not your typical bible study. Not that you can’t laugh and get off track at a bible study…ok, I’ll just leave that alone while I’m ahead. 😉 Anyway, I felt like they were speaking directly to me! I believe God had me listen to that particular podcast for the reassurance that I needed to hear today. I felt so strongly about this that I found myself wiping the tears away from my eyes as I walked. I was so glad that I wore my sunglasses so my neighbors didn’t wonder what was up with the crazy lady walking down the street. Ha! Funny thing is, as I left the house this morning, I tried to play a different podcast at first, but it was unavailable at that time! God knows what He’s doing, why do I doubt so much?!

After my walk, Joe noticed that all of my lovely sweat was in the shape of a heart on my back so he wanted a picture. It was a quick pic so I didn’t even take the time to straighten my shirt, you get the gist of it though. I just find it kinda cool how my morning played out.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in your dream location…the mountains, the dessert, the beach, east coast, west coast, …whatever? Well, we wondered and we made it happen, sort of. 😉 My husband and I deeply desired to relocate to the beach “one day”. After giving it much time (about 17 years), thought, and prayer we decided to go for it!

Late one Sunday evening in July, after more discussion about the same topic…should we or shouldn’t we…he sent his resume to a company that he had his eye on. We decided to “just see” what happened. Bright and early on that very next Monday morning he had an email response from that company, wanting to talk with him. To make a long story short, 10 days later we were in Charleston, South Carolina for his interview!!  While he interviewed, I was with a realtor looking at homes!! Talk about a whirlwind of emotions. Needless to say, he was offered the job and we had some big decisions to make.

So much thought, stress, and anxiety went into making such life altering decisions (at least for me!)! How would our kiddos adjust?? What would our family and friends think? Would we find a new church home where our friends are like family…like the one we would be leaving? I think I thought about everything that could happen and go wrong while also feeling excited and hopeful about this opportunity. Throughout the entire decision making process, I prayed diligently that the Lord would not allow this to happen if it wasn’t in His will for our lives. So, after much prayer, we indeed decided (since everything seemed to be falling into place) that our family would relocate from Mt Washington, Kentucky to Summerville, South Carolina! Yikes!!

My hubby moved before us so he could start his new job while the kiddos and I stayed back to sell the house and take care of things on our end. That’s a whole other story on how that went down, but I will tell you we listed our home for sale the day BEFORE school started, if that tells you anything. ;/

So, fast forward almost 2 years later, and we are in South Carolina. It’s been…something, to say the least! 😉 Moving two high schoolers and one middle schooler 600 miles away from home has been a HUGE adjustment, not to mention myself! I am an introvert (shocker, right?! ;)) through and through so this move has knocked me on my tail time and time again. As much as I think, maybe we made a mistake and maybe we need to move back, I believe God put us here for a reason. So, I keep chugging along, praying diligently (once again :)) for that reason. Ha!