House

Well, we weren't really looking but an opportunity presented itself and it was a great house at a great price. Everything has progressed so smoothly and quickly that we could potentially close next week.

Cards

I went to a friend from church's house to day to do a card making party. We made 7 christmas cards in 2 hours. I learned a lot of cool techniques. Coming soon to your house: A card made by me for Christmas.

Tour of Charleston

My mom and George were in town last week and we took one of the carriage rides downtown. I haven't done that before and it was really pretty cool.

Celtic Women

We went to see the Celtic Women last night. It was really amazing to hear them sing and watch this once women play the violin. Eventhough I am learning to play the violin I don't think I will ever be able to play like this women. She was running around on the stage and her fingers moved so fast I couldn't keep up.

Mud Run

I finally have the pictures for the mud run. Josh said it was a lot of fun and they plan on doing it next year. I was able to look at some of the candid shots from the run and I must say it looked like to much work to be fun.

Scrapbooking

Well I have become engaged in a new hobby. I know most people start when they have children but I am trying to get a head start. I have been scrapbooking for a few months and I started off my creating pages for our current events, mainly things I had been blogging about. Then I got the bright idea to do a book of my childhood pictures. Let's just say I took on a very large project. I went home and got all the pictures that I might use and I organized them so that it would make it easier to do my pages. I have actually gotten quite a few pages done. Most of the pages are just lots of pictures overlapping each other. The great thing is I can cut them down so I can fit more on a page. Well as you can imagine I have acquired quite a bit of supplies for this "hobby". Josh surprised me with a rolling carrier for all my supplies. I had them in a container but it got too heavy to carry.

As Requested: Josh's first day of work

Well, this is actually a picture of Josh's 4th day of work b/c I never wanted to get up early and take his picture. So Josh is now in training at Regions Bank and so far he has been taking lots of tests and going through computer training. What is so funny is at the start of the new year they are changing computer systems so everything he has learned will be void and he will have to learn a whole new system. Anyway, his branch is in West Ashley which is near Downtown Charleston. It only is a 30 minute drive (in the middle of the day or on the weekend). So as you can imagine when he has to make the drive during rush hour it is a different story. His first day it took him 1 hour and 13 minutes. He found a "better route" the next day and it only took him 1 hour and 15 minutes. So the third day he found another route and he shaved off a whole 5 minutes. It takes him roughly an hour to compute to and from work each day. We will have to adjust by budgeting for for gas each month. Even as I type this Josh just called and he has been on the road for about 40 minutes and he is not even half way home b/c of the heavy rain we are getting. He does like his job and the people he works with but I know as soon as it comes available he will ask for a transfer for a closer branch. He also wants to work his way up so he probably won't be in his current position for several months.

Habitat for Humanity

I know it has been a few weeks since I posted and as per a request I will soon post an update on Josh's first day at work but since work started back up not much has happened except school. But this weekend we worked for Habitat for Humanity with a group from church. We were paired with a bunch of Navy guys and one new Air Force guy.

There were actually two houses we worked on. One house was in a stage where floors were being put in and the other house had dry wall going up. So you must be thinking...... which of these jobs did Rachel do?? The answer: Neither.

Linda, Debbie and I were given the task of sorting and organizing all of their hardware. I am not kidding when I say we worked on this for 6 hours. It seems like it would make the job so much easier when you can see what you have and how much you have of each screw or nail. Now, most people may have found this job to be dull or boring but you have to remember who was working on this task. The three of us are probably the best people they could have asked to do this...why? not because we are good at it, no because we actually got excited about doing it.

Josh spent part of the day working on the yards and the rest of the day he helped out with flooring. It really was a great experience and we worked with the people who will be moving into the house. It really doesn't take much to help someone.

Small Group

James, Scott, Josh, Scott, Flat Greg, Michael,
me, Sheryl, Jackie, Debbie, Marianne

Every Friday night we get together for our small group. We fellowship and have bible study. This past Friday was Sheryl's last Friday. She leaves next week and Michael and the kids will follow in the next few months. You will notice that "Flat Greg" also makes an appearance in our pictures. We got Flat Greg for Debbie and the kids when he left for South Korea a month ago. You can check out their story under the Sweitzers. (he has really gotten around)
This is something new for me. There are a lot of our friends here in the military and they usually stay 2-3 years before they are re- stationed. I guess that is one good thing about blogging. If I can get them all to start their own blogs we can keep up no matter where they live.

back to school

I thought I would put a picture of me going back to work. All my friends put pictures of the kids going back to school so I thought I would do the same. Of course, I got this bright idea after I had gotten home and changed clothes but you get the idea.

Night Out

Josh and I attended a banquet for the Harry Hamptom Wildlife Memorial Fund which was sponsored by the Department of Natural Resources. We were invited by Meagan and Jeff and we had a lot of fun. There was a silent and live auction. Josh bid on some jewelery in the silent auction and we won it. It is made my Charleston Charm
The design is called the gate jewelery. Here is what the card said:
Charleston Gate Jewelery
This decorative ironwork has been used as early as 1739 at churches and homes as gates, window grilles and balconies. During the civil war some ironwork was taken from buildings and churches to make weapons. Our presentation of the Charleston Gate Jewelery is a symbol of Charleston you can keep forever.

New Job

For those of you who don't know Josh decided a few months ago to stop coaching baseball and get back into banking. He had and interview with Regions bank this week and was offered the job. It doesn't start until Sept. so he still has 2 more weeks to play golf. I think he has played more this past month than the whole 2 years we have been in charleston.

Boating

Alex, Adrian and Zach

Josh trying not to fall off. He did pretty good.

We went boating on the Cooper River yesterday with our friends Marianne and Scott. It was nice b/c this was the first day in over a week that it wasn't 115. It was still hot but when we were moving it wasn't bad at all. I have one more week before I have to go back to work. I am sort of looking forward to it. I have really enjoyed having the summer off.

Game and Jars of Clay

We went to another Riverdogs game. After the game Jars of Clay performed on the field. We had a picnic before the game. It was a long day. I started out at 8:30 for worship team practice. Then we had church. After church we came home packed up our lunches and headed out. Well about 10 minutes down the road I realized I had left the tickets at home so we headed back to the house. We finally made it downtown and had lunch at 2:30. Let's just say I think it was the hottest day of the summer. As we were watching the game I didn't know I could sweat that much. Our group seemed to be a little rowdy which attracted the attention of the MC. As I was walking to my seat our group started cheering my name...so the MC gets on the mic and says "We would like to welcome Rachel to the stadium today". All I could do was wave b/c there was an outbreak of applause. Then he approached our group to sing "take me out to the ballgame" during the 7th inning stretch. So they all got to sing and be shown on the jumbo screen. We had a good time but we didn't get home until 9:00 and I was exhausted. I think it was mainly from being out in the heat all day.
So Jars of Clay come out and if you can click on the picture I posted you will see what they were wearing. Short gym shorts and tube socks...the kids Loved it!

USMC Mud Run

Josh and a few of the guys from church have signed up for the USMC Mud run on Sept. 22. Let's just say Josh may not have realized what he signed up for. Here are a few pictures from previous years of the Mud run. I'm not sure if I will go to the event and I don't know if anyone will take pictures but I will do my best to report back after the event.

Hattiesburg 2X

Boys doing what they do best

Nicole, me, Carson and Ashley(& baby Quinn)

Carson and Brent

We went back through Hattiesburg on our way back to SC and stayed a few more days. Here are a few pics from that trip.

USM

Thad Cochran Center. It houses the new bookstore and eating area and have conference rooms and who knows what else...

Here is construction on the Reed Green Coliseum

One of the new sorority houses in the new Sorority village. Not sure which one this is. Most look like this, some were smaller. There was one house that was 2 times bigger than this one. They kind of look like churches to me.

USM baseball complex addition and below is their new scoreboard