race for the cure! //love loop

picture from John Alexander Photography

What a fun, exhausting, and rewarding weekend! My mom enlisted me to help her with the Susan G. Komen Race For The Cure. She came up with the idea of the Love Loop, and she needed all the help she could get. 

This is pretty much the absolute worst time for me because I have so much to do to finish this semester at school, but we somehow made it work! First things first: I had to make my tutu! Making them is not hard, just time consuming. If you can make a knot, you can make a tutu. I made mine with all slipknots. Seeing how long it took me to make mine, (probably 1 hr), my mom ran her tulle through the sewing machine, bunching it as it was sewn. Her method was so much quicker, but her tutu is also not as poofy as mine! 

Friday was packet pickup day, and Brooke and I were stationed in the Jepson. We had the job of forcing convincing people to fill out a butterfly with who they were fighting for and make a donation. It was a little rough in the beginning, with people ignoring us, but we eventually took on a new sales tactic. I would corral them over the the table, sometimes running after them as they are walking out of the door, and then we could talk them into anything. After a few hours of this, we were getting really into. It became a game for us and we were getting competitive. All for a good cause, right?! 

The butterflies were hung in Ellis Square and could be seen by everyone in the race on Saturday. This became the Love Loop. People could walk around the square and reflect on all of the butterflies. It is shocking to see how breast cancer affects so many of us. If it hasn't happened to you personally, it has probably happened to someone you know and love. People could also walk around the Love Loop and find the butterfly that they wrote. They were also encouraged to bring in pictures of people affected by the disease and hang them up, as well. 

This is almost all of our team: maKEITHappen!

It was so sweet to have so much of our family together to honor Nana and Aunt Lisa. We were the top 7th team and we raised $8499! That is incredible! Participating and fundraising for Susan G. Komen is something that is very important to us, and we will continue year after year.

Volunteering for the Race For The Cure was such an amazing experience. I am so thankful that I decided to help, even with my crazy workload. It was so inspiring. I absolutely loved meeting all of these sweet women that are battling the disease and seeing their beautiful smiles. They are warriors and they are incredible. I love that I was a part of something that helps them feel like they are not alone. We are all in this together. 

For my Nana and Aunt Lisa♥

oh, what fun

Putting cards in the tree is something that my Nana used to do every christmas morning. It was such a surprise to see these in the tree, and made it feel like Nana was still with us.

Mom also busted out the dancing Santa. My Nana had one but it died a few years ago. Amazingly enough, my mom found one on ebay. Man, we love this thing!!

After we had Christmas at my mom's, we traveled to North Carolina to see Bradley's dad and my dad. Stell was, surprisingly, a great travel bud!

She loved riding in the front with us, and pouted when we kicked her to the back!

We can't wait for New Years! We have some pretty amazing friends coming in town, and we are so excited to see them and enjoy some time at the beach house!

thankful

This year was filled with the best food, friends, and family. For some reason, Bradley and I actually took on the impossible job of hosting thanksgiving at our house. Oh my goodness, we bit off more than we could chew! We ended up eating a great meal, but we were behind by about an hour. Maybe next year I will downsize on the number of sides? Ahh, probably not. I love having a little bit of everything! And we had killer leftovers. #winning.

halloween 2014

The weekend before Halloween, we started this holiday off right with Wag-O-Ween! This is Savannah's trick or treating event for dogs, where all the funds go to local pet rescues. This was our first year, but it has been going on for 9 years. It was pretty fun! I loved seeing all the dogs in their costumes! And instead of trick-r-treating for candy, they got dog treats!

Cooper was a crayola crayon in "Fire Hydrant Red," of course! And Ginny was a "Wide Retriever" complete with extra padding. They were both pretty cute, but cooper wouldn't keep his hat on to save his life!

On Halloween, we dressed the pups up again and by this time, we had Stella! Seriously one of the first things I said after we won her was "I have to get her a halloween costume!" By this time, they were pretty picked over, but we did manage to snag an adorable ladybug costume that was slightly too small!

We don't have any kiddos yet, so I love dressing our dogs up for Halloween. Cooper was a prisoner and Ginny was a cowgirl, who wouldn't wear her hat either.

And because this is one of my favorite pictures ever of Coops, here he is last year as a dinosaur. Ahh, I love it!

Saturday night, Bradley's sister had a halloween party, so we got to dress up. This costume was so last minute, but turned out to be my favorite one, yet! The Hunter and The Hunted.

My friend gave us this idea after she couldn't use it! We didn't have anything planned for the party yet, so I jumped on this idea. I enlisted my mom to come help and man did she rock it. It definitely pays to have a mom who's an artist!

Now I have no clue how we are going to top this next year! 

sweet stella girl

I am skipping forward a bit because we have some exciting news! We got a new puppy!

Meet Miss Stella!

How we got her really is a sweet story. Bradley and I had been talking about getting another dog, but had planned it out for years down the road. We kind of settled on a goldendoodle because they don't shed, but Bradley still wanted a german short haired pointer. After losing Solly, I did want another golden, but had questioned if I wanted the hair, too! I decided since I'm the one who always cleans the house, that I get to rule out shedding dogs. A goldendoodle was the perfect solution.  

So, my mom had donated a painting to the Savannah Children's Theater Gala and went to drop it off at the lady's house who was going to take it to the auction. Well, turns out she was also holding a very sweet pup that was going to be auctioned off later that night. We get a call from my mom telling us about the puppy. See, my mom was already going to make a nice donation to the theater because she loves them. It's a great organization that could always use additional funds. If we liked the dog, she could just use her donation in the auction. So basically, we would get a free puppy! 

We drive over to the house and I am more reserved than Bradley. He immediately turned into a little kid and it only became worse when we met her! I admit, we were in love, but it wasn't really in our plan. Do we really need another dog? We already had 2. But she was so sweet. Bradley gave me the look of 'let's do this.' So we decided that we wanted her, but it wasn't that simple! We still had to win her in the auction. 

Later that night, I actually had to babysit so I couldn't be there at the event, but my mom did go so she could bid. I had her updating me all night with pictures. She then texted me that the live auction had started. She said that puppy was the last item. Closer to her turn, I was freaking out. I finally had to tell my mom to stop texting me and focus. I didn't want her to miss her shot! So then I get a facetime call from my mom that immediately gets disconnected. She was trying to let me see the auction while it was going on, but accidentally cut me off. Then I get a phone call. All I can hear is the auctioneer addressing the bids. I had no clue who was bidding what. Talk about nerve-racking! So finally we get to the end and I hear "going once, going twice, Sold!" but still I didn't know who won! I was freaking out. Finally my mom came back on the phone and told me that she got her. I was so excited and the anticipation of it all made me all jittery! I was shaking. Immediately I called Bradley and told him, and the first thing he said was, "When can I go get her?" So sweet. My mom ended up bringing her to our house, but I was still stuck babysitting, so Bradley got a few one on one hours with her. I was so jealous! 

It's so funny how this all happened. When I got home that night, we sat on the kitchen floor, playing with her and watching her with the other dogs. I remember looking at Bradley and saying "Ok, we have a puppy!" It really was the craziest thing, but as we have had her, I've realized that this is the best time for us. I have started going back to school to become a teacher so right now, I'm home a lot. I still work in the afternoons, nannying, but I'm here most of the day. She needs a lot of attention right now. She needs to be fed 3 times a day and let out about 50 (ha!), so it's really good that I can be here. 

Bottom line: we are so in love! And no we didn't plan it, but it has worked out perfectly! And I can't thank my mom enough! As I'm sure you know, these dogs aren't cheap, so this was an incredible gift! Love you, mom!

we'll miss you, sweet boy

On January 2nd, we lost our sweet boy. He was my first dog and almost 13 years old. I am still in shock and just want him back so that I can rub that spot between his eyes once more. He loved that.

It's been really hard to accept this because when Bradley and I left to go to Virginia, we took him to my mom's and he was fine. Normal solly. And within two days, I think, my mom called to let us know that he had started to have seizures. Of course, I immediately freaked out. He's my baby. But my mom assured me that our vet thinks it's just epilepsy, and to not worry. We would get him on some medication to prevent the seizures and he would be fine. They put him on some epilepsy medicine and valium. This combo made him very out of it. When I came home on January 1st, I went into my mom's bathroom. He was completely drugged. He couldn't move. We, and our vet, thought this was just a reaction to the medicine. It was too much. So the plan was to take him to the vet at 11 the next morning. She was going to get an iv in him and get all the drugs out of his system and start over. She said this was normal that there is an adjustment period to find the right dosage.

Now it was time to go to bed, but I couldn't sleep, and I needed it because I was supposed to work at 9 the next morning. Every so often I would hear Solly whimpering and I would go lay beside him and calm him down, then go back to bed. This happened repeatedly throughout the night. Morning came and I went to take a shower. I found that Solly had thrown up and pooped during the night. I felt so bad because he was so drugged he couldn't move and we couldn't get him to go outside. And he's the kind of dog that never uses the bathroom in the house. So I'm sure he was doing everything he could not to go. After my shower I kept waffling on whether or not I should go to work. I decided not to. Within the next few hours he had thrown up again, but then seemed to be sleeping really well. But he still couldn't move. He would try to lift his head, but nothing. And then it happened. I was sitting at our kitchen table and my mom told me to come in there. I knew by the sound of her voice what was happening. He was gone. How did this happen? He was fine and now he's gone? How did we not know? So many thoughts were going through my head. I wasn't ready to let him go.

Our vet now thinks that he had cancer and that it had gone to his brain- causing the seizures. It's just so hard to believe because he had a full workup at the vet last March, to check everything. Something they offer for senior dogs. And nothing showed up! And in less than 5 days, all of this happens.

I keep battling with the fact that I want him back, for purely selfish reasons. But he was almost 13. He deserved to be able to go. I guess it's just hard without warning.

christmas lights don't like me

Ahh! It's that time of year again! I was so excited this year to get our christmas tree. It's our first Christmas in our new home, so I wanted to make it extra festive. Bradley works for a landscaping company/ nursery so we got a free tree! I couldn't wait to pick him out. He has to be a little chubby and have some awkward branches that Bradley would want to cut off.

Going through these aisles of trees was a little weird though. I got this unsettling feeling that the trees would all fall like dominoes and I would be burried alive. Haha, so much for it's the most wonderful time of the year!

These lights were my Nana's. I found them after she passed away. The woman kept everything. These are really old and they get super hot. Like so hot, I wouldn't dare put them on a tree. Unless I didn't care if our sweet little home burned to the ground. But I do. So they have a new home, adorning our arch!  

This sweet, little picture is from the third time that I strung the lights. The first time, I included some purple lights that I figured out I didn't like so much. But I didn't know this until they were on the tree. Guess I should have re-read this post! Would've saved me some time and frustration. The second time, I think I connected too many strands together because about 5 minutes after it was perfect, all the lights went out! Talk about a sinking feeling in your stomach! I had no idea what happened and the last thing I wanted to go was take them all off the tree, but that's what google told me to do, so I did. Sure enough, I blew a strand, so they all went out. I was just happy that I didn't have to go buy 15 more boxes of lights. The third time, I strung on all the white lights and plugged it into a power strip. Then I strung all the colored lights, not connecting them to the white lights and plugged them into a different outlet on the power strip. And then I strung all the white globe lights and plugged them into their own spot on the power strip. So far, so good, but I swear if something goes wrong and I have to take down all these ornaments and restring the lights, so help me God.

our thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2013 really tricked me! A few months back, my mom let me know that she and my stepdad would be spending thanksgiving in California with his kids. Um, but we always do thanksgiving here. I'm not so good with change, you see. This left Bradley and I stranded. Where do we go now? My dad's? His dad's? His grandparents? Our friends in SC? Stay here and eat with my brother? So many choices, but we couldn't decide. Then my stepdad had some health scares (no worries, he's all better now) about a week or so before thanksgiving, and they decided not to go to California. And one by one our family made it work to be here for thanksgiving. We had the whole crew! I just think it's so funny because none of us were going to be together and then it all worked out in the end :)

via

This past year my mom has also had some health issues that have led her to go gluten free and dairy free. We were so proud to say that our entire thanksgiving feast was gluten free AND dairy free! I mean, who does that?! And the best part... everything was SO GOOD! And I bet if you had been a guest at our table and I didn't tell you, you wouldn't have even known. 

I really wish I had photos of every dish to show you, but I guess we were all too excited! Here's what we had:

Turkey

Honey Glazed Ham 

Brown Rice with Pecans + Cranberries (this year's dressing)

Roasted Sweet Potatoes + Butternut Squash

Roasted Asparagus with Parmesan Cheese

Grilled Basil Corn

Sweet Potato Casserole with marshmallows

Maple Brussel Sprouts (Aaren's specialty! So freaking good)

Collards

Cranberry Salad (This weird jello that my Nana always made)

Deviled Eggs

And for dessert:

Mini Pumpkin Pies

Mini Chocolate Chess Pies

Chocolate Chewies

And more sweet potato casserole!

When planning this meal, we also decided to change some of the traditional dishes for healthier options, like instead of a greenbean casserole, we had the roasted asparagus. But we still had to have a sweet potato casserole! That is a thanksgiving staple! Roasting a lot of the veggies was so easy and fast! Just drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper. And when it came to dessert recipes we just made a few substitutions. We used Bradley's Meme's Chocolate Chess Pie Recipe but just traded out the evaporated milk for evaporated coconut milk so it was dairy free. And my mom had already been trying some gluten free pie crust recipes, so she was all set. Instead of butter she uses ghee, which is clarified butter. This option still gives you that great flavor.

We had such a wonderful holiday and I am so thankful to have my family in my life. I hope you all had a great thanksgiving, as well!

front porch: saying goodbye

It completely breaks my heart to say that Front Porch has closed it’s doors. I honestly don’t know what to say. 

27 years. 

The Front Porch is older than I am. I grew up here. When I was little, my mom would set me up a pallet in the back dining room for a nap. I started cashiering with Mary Lou at an age so young, I don't even remember how old I was. I do know that I was so young that I had to stand on a drink crate, just so I could see all the buttons. It wasn't long before I could do the job all on my own. I was the last face each customer would see before leaving. It was my job to make sure they enjoyed every bit of their time dining with us and leave them with a smile. A few years later, I was promoted to waitress. Soon enough, I had the whole back room to take care of. You wouldn’t believe how many tips a 13 year old can make waiting tables. Oh my gosh, you are so cute! How old are you? Here let me give you all my money! At a very young age, I learned to work hard for money. And I learned to save it.Working at the restaurant was the best thing my dad could have made me do. Sure my feet were killing me everyday after a long, busy shift, but it was worth it. So many life lessons, but most importantly, I learned how to treat people. And I think that is the best quality that one can have. The restaurant showed me tons of different people of different ages, races, and financial standing. Everyone deserves the same respect.

The restaurant will always have a special place in my heart. There are just so many memories. Seeing Ms. Carol whipping up a fresh batch of biscuits or Ms. Pam stirring the pots of green beans and lima beans. Helping my dad make some homemade fudge. Sharing a waitress station with Bertha. Cashiering with Mary Lou. It’s just such a big part of my life. Of my dad’s life. He has worked his butt off everyday in the last 27 years to see the restaurant succeed. He gave it everything that he had. So many times, he would drive to Savannah to eat dinner with Rob and I and then turn right back around because he had to work the next day. Every time that I would call my dad and ask what he was doing, I would always get the same response. Working. Like, duh, Larkin, you know that! It was his dream. And he never stopped working for it. 

I'm very sad to see the doors close and I worry for my family. What will my dad and uncle and the rest of the employees do for work? All I can do is keep good thoughts and pray that God has a plan for everyone. 

On behalf of my family, I want to say thank you to everyone that has joined us in the last 27 years. It has been truly wonderful.

life lately in five

one.

This has been on my extra long to-do list for quite some time. And at this point in our home renovations (feeling like it never ends), I needed a project that I would enjoy and see quick results. I went with Martha Stewart's Sea Glass and I couldn't be happier. It is the perfect turquoise that we are all looking for. 

two.

I have had a lot of cake orders recently, which makes our house smell awesome! But I was feeling bad for Bradley and myself because he could never eat any of these cakes. So, I dug up his Meme's pumpkin cake + cream cheese frosting recipe to surprise him. Halfway through, I realize I don't have any baking soda. Of course. This sent me to google to find out what you could substitute it for. They said to triple the amount of baking powder to equal the amount of baking soda. Mistake. It was terrible. It didn't have it's usual spongy consistency that was light and fluffy. Instead, it was dense and didn't taste the same. So, in the trash it went :( Better luck next time, Lark!

three.

 Round two of baking a cake for us. We won. It helps when you plan ahead and make sure you have all the necessary ingredients. Who would've thought! This is my grandmother's chocolate chip cake. It has chocolate chips obviously, pecans and rum. Can't go wrong with that combo!

four.

Our kitchen remodel. Honestly, I think this is the job from hell. My mom and I started it. Ya know, just two gals with hammers and crowbars, chipping away at 7 layers of various tile. It took us about five hours to get that an eight foot area removed, where the wood is. Then Bradley comes in and suggests we use a sledge hammer. Thanks honey! He showed us, and removed about a twelve foot area in 45 minutes. Ok, I'm gonna let you take this over now, because you have muscles and I don't and because I have better things to do with my time! Once this part is finished, we get new cabinets, new countertops and then a new fridge! Thank God, because this almond colored fridge from the 1980's that the previous owners so generously left us is just not cutting it. 

five.

 Bradley made us our first fire of the season, and I made us a pinecone garland! So festive around here! I'm going to do a tutorial on this for anyone that wants to make one, so keep an eye out for that this week. And of course, when I show Bradley, he gives me that really? face. You know the one that says you have to stop at some point. Um, no I don't. Now grab the other end and help me hang it.