A Day in the Life...

It has been a long time since I last blogged!  SOOO much has happened so I won't be able to fill you in about everything right now but here it goes...  So, I quit my job.  Stupid right??  I was so beyond drained and stressed over that stupid sales job. Although I did well (I was consistantly in the top 10 in the call center), I HATED it!  Sales is so NOT ME, and it took so much out of me to constantly have to pretend to be someone I'm not.  It was the week after everything with Grabby and the rest of my family, and I just couldn't take it anymore.  I just called in and told them that I had to resign...  Financially this decision was idiotic. Seriously. But emotionally I couldn't do it anymore.

Luckily, I found another job and I start next week :)  I am very lucky that it didn't take me long at all to get something lined up!  I am going to be working for a company called HTI.  It is basically a staffing firm for local industrial companies.  The bad news is, it is in Anderson, so I will have to drive about 35 mins both ways (a lot different from 3 mins to Charter..), but the good news is, NO MORE SALES.  Instead I will be dealing more with the HR side of things: conducting preliminary interviews, assigning clients to certain companies, entering data, dealing with paperwork, verifying applicants' information - wayyyyyy more up my alley! :)  I am excited but NERVOUS!  I hate being the new girl and of course, don't really know what all to expect. 

So, the above was typed last night - just not posted...THIS is today.................

I had my first experience waking up SUPER early (6am!) this morning.  I had to go to Anderson to fill out paperwork, take a drug test, ect.. Home free, right?? No! I had a little snag with my drug test :( My prescription for Ativan - it's actually the generic brand so Clonazopam (sp?), showed up on my test! Ugh. I didn't even think about it being a problem, I guess because it's never showed up before on my other tests for previous jobs.... SO, basically they had to send it in to the lab for further testing.  She said it could come back that it's not enough to be positive OR if it is positive, I have to have my prescription faxed in to straighten it out..So, either way, it should work out fine, but it still has me nervous because I'm worried my new employers will be worried that I'm some kind of druggie or second-guess their decision to hire me.... Plus, I won't be able to start on Monday, like I was supposed to because it takes at least 3 to 4 days for the results to come back! UGHHHHHHH!! Why is it such an ordeal to get hired?? I hope everything works out fine and HTI doesn't change their mind because of this (innocent) issue... She told me not to worry - that this happens all the time but I can't help but worry.  I'm a worrier.

Anyway, good news: I have a longer weekend :).. bad news: that's another week without a paycheck :(

In wedding planning news, I was SUPPOSED to have a consultation with the florist yesterday at 11 in Inman (I know. Random)  My mom drove from Columbia, and I, obviously was coming from Greenville.  I called my mom on the way and she told me she was running about 10 mins behind.  So, when I got off the phone with her, I called the florist to tell them that we were on our way for our appointment, but we wouldn't be there until 10 or 15 after.  They didn't answer so I left a message.  So, when I'm pulling in to Inman, Mill Street Florist calls me.  She informs me that Karen, the one who does consultations, had to go out of town and that she was supposed to have left me a voicemail to tell me that she would have to reschedule.  Well I didn't get a voicemail (even after I re-checked later) and there we were in Inman for no reason!  I called my mom to tell her and we ended up still going to the shop to look around and then turned around and went BACK to Greenville for lunch.. Annoying.  Maybe this is a sign that we need to be looking at a different place to do our flowers......

So, basically, nothing's really going according to plan these days..lol.  Oh well.  After the drug fiasco today I went with Shelly to meet Melissa for lunch and then to meet her PRECIOUS twin girls, Hayden Grace (my new buddy) and Tatum.  They are both sooooo adorable :)



On Saturday I'm throwing Jessica and Gary a couples baby shower.  In honor of her pregnancy cravings, we're doing a Pickles and Ice Cream theme.  Linsey had seen the idea online and I thought it was cute, especially since Jess LOVES these fried pickles from Quaker Steak that I'm going to order.  In addition to the fried pickles, we'll have an ice cream sundae bar, and I got some ice cream cone and pickle cookie cutters to make some cute cookies, and some other stuff.. 

I'm worried about how many couples will actually show up though... : /  It seems like the date didn't work out as well as we hoped it would, and a lot of the people that we invited can't come.. We'll still have fun though! Oh, and our koozies just came in! (Finally)


More later.

There have been a lot of things going on since the last time I blogged. First of all - in lighter news - our Honeymoon resort fell through :( We had paid upfront and the website had GUARANTEED that our dates would be available - well, that didn't happen! After we paid we were to fill out vouchers for the days that we needed .....And they emailed us back telling us that the resort will be closed for renovations ALL of September! We were pretty upset because we both had our hearts set on the place and we were getting SO excited... Oh well. It's not the end of the world - we will find somewhere else. It was def a bummer though :( Around the same time we found out about the Honeymoon, some things that I had ordered online (picture frame for guests to sign, water bottle labels) didn't turn out right (broken/wrong color) AND the lady @ Trousseau's lost my rehearsal dinner dress. Lol. It was all happening at the same time and I def started to realize that not EVERYTHING with the wedding plans is going to go as smoothly as it started out! Although things weren't going too smoothly with wedding planning, we DID get some really good news: WE GOT A HOUSE!! :) Ben found an awesome townhouse online just off of Woodruff Rd that we both fell in love with. It's absolutely everything we wanted! :) It's a great size for us (3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths), nice, quiet neighborhood, 2-car garage... We love it. We have been spending a lot of time moving Ben's stuff and some of my big stuff over there and it's slowly starting to feel more and more like a home! BTW - Jessica and Gary are our LIFESAVERS!!!! They helped us with EVERYTHING with the move (Uhaul driving, lots and lots of hard labor (Gary), tons and tons of laundry, even letting us borrow their extra washer/dryer until we get one! Thank yall sooooo much :) With all the excitement going on with the new house, there has also been a lot of heartbreak. When my parents were on the way to Greenville on Saturday for the wedding caterer consultation, my mom called me to tell me that Grabby had passed away, and that they had to turn around and go back to Columbia. I couldn't believe it because everyone had been talking about how much better he had been doing!  My emotions have been hitting me in waves since then. I couldn't believe it at first. It was like it didn't hit me and then when I got off the phone I couldn't stop crying for the longest time. The crying is because I will miss him - of course - but overall, I feel a lot of comfort knowing that without a doubt, Grabby's with Jesus now and he's in no pain at all. He's a million times happier where he is and that keeps me going. We cancelled the caterer meeting for that day but my mom decided that she still wanted to come up for the cake consultation on Sunday afternoon. When she got here she had more terrible news. My Uncle (Grabby's son) was in the ICU. He had spent the night at my Aunt's house Saturday night and no one was able to wake him in the morning, no matter what they did. They called my dad to help with no avail so finally they had to call 911, and the EMTs STILL could not wake him! He stayed unconscious well into Monday. We still don't know all of the details but an overdose of medicine is involved. As if it hasn't been a hard enough time for our family, on the same day that Uncle Bryan was on a ventilator, Grandmuddy also needed to go to the ER. She has been getting very weak recently - so weak that they had to cancel her surgery because the doctors were too worried about how she'd do... I'm very worried for her and the pain and discomfort she's been in lately. It's so hard for me to see my family going through these things and me not being able to do anything about it... Our family needs a lot of prayer right now! This past week or so has been such an emotional rollercoaster! I have been juggling such excitement with the new home and wedding plans, and SUCH sadness and heartbreak for my Grabby, my uncle, and Grandmuddy. I have been a wreck! I'm going back to work tomorrow (dreading it like always) but I'll be taking another day for bereavement on Thursday for Grabby's funeral. It has been such an awful and draining weekend but I am so thankful that Grabby is at peace with Jesus now. Well.... Hoping for a better week!

Later!!

Ben and I are sooooo excited.  We booked our Honeymoon tonight!  I have been researching different places online pretty much all week but nothing has stood out to me as being just right for us.  Ben Googles things (houses, honeymoon, HIDEOUS shows that he wants to wear to our wedding lol, etc.) about as much as I do - A LOT - and he found a place today that he really liked.  Antigua in the West Indies :)  I didn't/don't know much about it at all but it looks AMAZING and exactly what I have been picturing in my head as an ideal Honeymoon destination......

Cocos Hotel where we will be staying:



I can't WAIT to wake up to this view....... Incredible!

It's Easter Sunday and it was such a beautiful day!  Ben and I, Lacy, Flex, AND the last two kitties (Piston and Mary) went down to Columbia last night so that we could be with my family for Easter (Ben's family has been at the beach visiting his grandmother and we weren't able to go). We didn't get to Cola until late because we were at my friend Lauren's bridal shower at Jessica and Gary's house until around 11 or so....
We had a good (and sometimes hard) time in Columbia - even though it was very brief.  The family loved the kittens :)  We went to my parent's new church this morning (great Easter message!), then went to visit Grandmuddy.  It was hard for me to see her because I was not expecting her to look as unhealthy as she did.  She was VERY thin (down to 109 pounds), very tired looking, and had a lot of built up fluid in her abdominal area so it almost looked like she was pregnant.  She did not have very much energy at all - she was not her normal lively self that's for sure :(  This was very hard but we just have to keep praying and hope that she was just having a bad day, and will feel a lot better after her surgery on May 2nd.  After we left Grandmuddy's, we went to Grabby's to visit.  He has been doing miraculoulsy well these days! :)  The doctor had originally only given him a couple of days to live, but that was weeks ago and he seems to be doing better and better instead of declining.  This was very encouraging after seeing Grandmuddy in her state.  I think our constant prayers are helping him a lot :)  We only stayed at Grabby's briefly.  Uncle Bryan went with us out to eat and we got to ride in Grabby's 76 (I think?) Caddy convertible.  Mikey got to drive it and he was super nervous at first bc that car is HUGE - it didn't even seem like it was going to fit inside the lanes!  Ben LOVES this car so he asked Grabby if we could use it to drive off in for the wedding. So Uncle Bryan will be chauffering us away in it - him and Ben are very excited about this, lol - I guess it's a guy thing......


After lunch we headed back to Gville, drove by a couple of houses that Ben has been looking at online, then went out to eat at Mimi's (one of my absolute favorite restaurants here), and then went to see an Easter movie Hop, which was cute :)  I dared Ben to hop up to the movie ticket place..  I didn't think he would do it but when it came time for us the pay for tickets, he said "Hi, 2 adults for..." <and then he hopped in place>  I was hiding behind him laughing at him bc he looked so stupid..I couldn't stop laughing.  The girl was just like, "I can't hear you. What?"  and he said "2 for Hop please".  It was a total bust.  Lol.  He is so silly......I'm about to fall asleep typing this - off to bed!  More later!!!

I ordered my wedding shoes!  I'm really excited about them - I think they are so pretty :)
Here are a few pics.......
LOVE THEM!

Also very excited about my invitations coming in today.  They turned out really pretty!

 AND my pashmina came in - test for the bridesmaids' - I wanted to see how they turned out.  I like the way it looks, so I MAY order more for gifts but we'll seeeeeee.....


Well, I'm going to go shop more online LOL.....
See ya.

Monday again :(  But I had a fabulous weekend - until the very end..

When Shelly, Linsey, and I started our weight-loss challenge a while back, we had set April 15th as our 'half-way point' to reach our goals.  We said that if we stayed on track with our weight-loss that we should treat ourselves to a girls' trip to the beach. So we did :) - but Lins was not able to come because she had plans with her family... :( 

We had a blast though - AND we got to take Lacy and Zsa Zsa :) !!!!

Even though I had the whole day off on Friday (amazing), Shelly didn't get off till midnight!  So we definitely didn't pull into Charleston until around 3:45 or 4 am!  We stayed with Shell's brother, Adam.  It was so much fun to hang out with him and his fiancee Kelley (who is SUPER sweet :) AND their beautiful black lab puppy Rudy!

Saturday we slept in (obviously, lol) and then took showers, ran some errands, and finally made it out to the beach.  We went to Folly Beach.  I had never been there before but the little town seemed really cool and Bohemian-esque :)  We didn't spend much time there.  By the time we set our chairs up, realized that I left my phone @ Wal-Mart, went and got it, and THEN came back to lay out, everybody was kind of miserable.  It was EXTREMELY windy and sand was blowing all over the place and all over us and it was just uncomfortable.  I was fine to stay at the beach but the overall consensus was to go lay out at the pool in Adam's neighborhood.  It felt a ton better there :)

After we laid out, we took showers/got ready, went to Kelley's (BEAUTIFUL) house for a while, and then went downtown to Wet Willie's - which was pretty fun but pretty much the only place I have ever been out at in Charleston, so I was kind of wanting to go somewhere else....... BUT we had a good time :) 

Sunday we went to Adam and Kelley's church - a cool little church downtown that I really liked.  It was Palm Sunday and I found the sermon to be very moving.  I really enjoyed it :)  It can sometimes be hard to comprehend exactly HOW MUCH Jesus sacrificed for us and the price that he paid - and we don't deserve one bit of it!  I never want to take for granted the amazing gift of eternal life that the Lord has so generously given me..

After church we ate lunch, laid out at the pool for a while, went BACK downtown for awhile to walk/shop around, and then went to the MOST AMAZING Mexican restaurant everrrrrrrrrr, Zia! Seriously.  It is amazing. We actually ended up eating there twice while we were there - which I was excited about lol :)

Shelly and I headed out after dinner :(  Of course the weekend went by TOO fast.  We didn't get back to Gville until around 12:15. I was so exhausted. ..There were some troubling things that came to my attention that night (hence the part of the weekend that was NOT fun) but there has been a lot of praying and there will continue to be......God has a plan.





I think they will be so cute to put in favor bags :)

Soooooo, on Monday I found 4 PRECIOUS little kittens on Ben's porch!  I didn't know what to do!  I went off to Wal-Mart and PetSmart and bought a bunch of supplies for the momma cat and her kittens.


Haven't seen much more of the momma.. but I didn't want her to take them anyway because 1) they are ADORABLE and I wanted to keep every single one lol, and 2) I didn't want them to be stray cats for the rest of their lives wandering around and searching for food and probably getting hit by a car...... :(

Here are the little angels:









Aren't they so cute?? I can't believe how different each of them look!  I am already growing attached to all of them - even though I know there is no way we can keep them :(  Ben has always told me how much he "hates cats".... That's funny seeing as when I came back from work the first day, he was sleeping on the couch with all 4 of them curled up on his stomach and he had named them all, AND he said it was ok for me to keep one :)  hmmmmm... He def loves them!  He named them: Nanner (yellowish-beige one - he is VERY vocal and the biggest pig when it comes to eating), Piston (grey one who gets very possesive of his food and hisses at the others when they come near), Moe (orange one - total cuddle bunny), and my favorite Mary (the little calico who is sooooooo sweet and playful).  All of them are boys except for Mary, the little girl :)  I love them all so much lol.  I had decided that as long as Flex was ok with her, that I would keep Mary, but Uncle Bryan called me yesterday and wants her very badly.  I agreed because he recently lost his cat, Scamp, of like 17 years and I know he will love her very much, AND I will still get to see her when I go to Columbia.....  So I am sad but also happy for him.




Haha. I think they are so cute :)  And don't worry - I researched it - M&M's stay good for 13 months so they will be fine by the time September rolls around...

- I ordered some koozies for the bar area:



Koozies will be black with white print.  I thought this quote would be kinda cute/unique but Ben HATES it! Lol.  He thinks it is making fun of his name..?  Oh well, I already ordered 100 of them ;) ....  I told him that if it would make him feel better he can order some that make fun of my name (i.e. 'What the BUCK did I just do? September 4, 2011'  lol)  What are everyone's thoughts?  Are the Chappell ones too cheesy? Or cute?

- I also ordered some water bottle lables for the guests that won't be drinking alcohol.  I don't have a picture of the end result of what they will look like but here is an idea:




I hope they turn out good :)

- I also ordered a coral monogrammed pashmina from marleylilly.com (really cute website).  I ordered one for myself to see what it looks like before I decide on those as a bridesmaid gift...

I had so much fun last night online shopping/ordering :)  I didn't end up going to bed until super late (like 4am!)  I don't know why but I just could NOT fall asleep - may have something to do with the Diet Coke I drank at dinner... Oops.

Well. Back to online shopping/getting ready for work (ugh).......

See ya <3