Kenny Chesney Concert

As a celebration of completing my first day of school (with children), I spent the evening with some of the ladies from school at the Kenny Chesney concert. We did some chatting and played some cornhole before the concert started and then headed in to find seats. We caught a bit of LeAnne Rhimes before Kenny came out. I met up with Mike and Ashley and hung out with them for a while to listen to Kenny perform. It was a really good concert and a fun way to relax after day one of school.

Charleston, here I come!!!

I took a weekend excursion to Charleston the first week of school to visit with Kerri for a bit. I haven't really spent much time with her at all in the last year and a half or so. Even though we talk about once a month, it was nice to hang out with her like old times. We spent all day Saturday walking around the market and downtown Charleston. We took a walk along the Battery and ended up down in Battery Park. Luckily, we made it back to the car before the flood poured down. We went to California Dreaming for dinner. Sunday, we met Emorie for lunch at The Crab House. It was on the Intercoastal Waterway, so we sat outside while we enjoyed our meal. It was a nice relaxing weekend before the start of a busy school year.

Sweet grass baskets in the market

Along the Battery

Believe it or not, pirates used to 'hang' here

to warn others to stay away

Kerri Lynn, Emorie, and I

Goodbye Babysitting!!!!

Seeing as how this was my last full week with my girls, I decided to get them out of the house and do a few things different with them.


On Monday, we picked up Ms. Sarah and headed to the mall to run some errands. Since the girls behaved as we dragged them to 4 different jewelery stores to get stuff cleaned and inspected, we let them play in the play area for half an hour. They had a lot of fun climbing through the tunnels and playing on the cars. Aurora made friends with a little girl who was about 2 years old at the most.

Friday, the girls were real troopers. I had scheduled an appointment to get the brakes on my car fixed in Chester at 9am, under the impression that I would have the day off. Well, they ended up having work and needed me at 11am. Needless to say, I had to pick the girls up super early and drag them with me to make it on time. I then had to drag them to Indian Land with me, where I am currently dog sitting for the weekend, so that I could let the dogs out. They did pretty well overall with their behaviors, so I decided to take them to Coldstone for ice cream before we headed home. In the new Rivergate Plaza, they have little squares throughout where you can just sit and relax, including this one right by the ice cream shop. The girls all got a penny and made a wish in the fountain (I did too!!). We will see if they come true!!!!

New Hair Style

So, it's the end of the summer and my hair was at a point where I couldn't do much with it. It was time to get it cut and colored. I went in with a picture that was a brunette with hi-lights that I really liked. I wasn't sure about going brown since I have always had blonde hair, but I asked Donna (my hair dresser) for her opinion on how to get close to the picture without going too dark. She tried something new, using a gloss treatment that darkened my hair and then adding the hi-lights to it. She trimmed the length and added more layers to it. I really like it (so far)!! I haven't had to style it myself yet, so we will see how I feel when I have to start fixing it.

Graduation Day

For the last year, I have been spending every third weekend at York Comprehensive High School taking graduate classes through Columbia College. While teaching full time, I have been taking 12 hours of classes a semester. I spent a lot of hours outside of class time working on all of my projects and communicating through e-mail with group members. I made a few really good friends throughout the year, ones who will always be important to me. I am going to miss seeing them all the time.

The York Cohort

Carol Claypool, Michelle Campbell, and I

In celebration of my graduation, Sarah got us all together for a cookout and pool party at the Yorkshire pool. Due to travel complications, Ben and Matt weren't able to come. But the rest of the Pinti clan were there. It was nice getting to see everyone and playing with the kids in the pool. Bryce and Nolan each took turns swimming with me.

Small mishap at the store smeared the icing

Sarah and I

Future parents-to-be, Sarah and Jim

Finally, the big day! Mom, Dad, Sarah, and I headed down to the Columbia College campus for the graduation ceremony. It was a very nice ceremony, small and intimate. My friend Carol and I enjoyed the festivities together.

Mom hooding me

All the hard work, stress, and lack of a social life have come to an end. It was definitely worth it!!

Maroon 5 and Counting Crows Concert

The Monday after my last weekend of grad school classes, Brigitte, her mom, and I headed up to Verizon Wireless Amphitheater for a night of good music and fun times! Sara Barellis, Maroon 5, and Counting Crows were touring together. After being stuck in major traffic back ups (worse than I have ever seen for a concert there) and a long line at the will call, we finally made it inside. By the time we got in, Maroon 5 was about halfway through their show. We really enjoyed listenting to them and singing along. We watched as one of the men sitting in front of us chose to light up a joint and smoke with his friends. The people-watching kept us pretty occupied (lots of interesting people were sitting around us)! When the Counting Crows came out on stage, we lost some of the interest in being there. With a storm heading in (lots of super bright lightning) and only knowing one song out of the first ten that they played, we chose to head home early. We did have a fun night, regardless!!!

Maroon 5

Brig and I waiting for Counting Crows to come on stage

Counting Crows: the lead singer has a cane b/c he sprained his ankle

A Weekend at Home in Clover

I spent some time in Clover recently. Some exciting news...daddy finally got a new truck!!! His previous truck has been braking down and had over 200,ooo miles on it. He got it when I was in the 2nd grade. It was a straight drive, no automatic windows, doors, no power steering, no a/c. After being stuck on the side of the road a few times, the search began for a new truck. He found one at a used car lot in Rock Hill near my house. The new truck is an automatic, with power steering and a/c. It still doesn't have automatic windows or doors, but it is definitely an upgrade!! It is also very nice to drive!

The old truck

The new truck
Inside of the new truck

I got some really cute pictures of Sasha and her boyfriend, Tater. Tater is the neighbors dog, who seems to know the sound of my car, and comes running to the yard every time that we pull down the driveway. She gets excited every time that he comes over, even though he chases her and sometimes gets her pinned under the cars or bushes.