hunger games comes to town

Shelby is no longer the City of Pleasant Living....its now known as District 12. That's right folks, Shelby is the set for the fictional District 12, the home of Katniss Everdeen from the hit series The Hunger Games.

Filming started when Josh and I were leaving to go to the beach a few weeks ago. We were stopping by Sugerbakers to grab a quick cup of coffee (and chocolate croissant, delish!). It took for-ev-er to order because the place was packed. Turns out it was packed with folks from the film crew. I knew there was some movie coming into town, but the last movie filmed here was Blood Done Signed My Name (yeah, I'd never heard of it either) and no one really cared about it. I figured it was another low-budget, no-name "film." Boy, when mama is wrong she is wrong!

So, I've been quickly catching up on the plot line:

In a not-too-distant future, North America has collapsed, weakened by
drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into
the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each
district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part
entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts, the
televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are
forced to eliminate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to
watch. When 16-year-old Katniss' young sister, Prim, is selected as the mining
district's female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and
her male counterpart, Peeta, the son of the town baker who seems to have all the
fighting skills of a lump of bread dough, will be pitted against bigger,
stronger representatives who have trained for this their whole lives.

Hooked yet?? I'm ordering the series now! Hopefully I'll get them finished by the 2012 movie release.

Here are some pictures from the Shelby set---can't wait to see our hometown on the big screen!

elliot weekly: week 10

10 weeks?!
as in, 2.5 months old?
seriously?!

time.is.flying.

what elliot has been up to this week:

back to work and loving it!
elliot came to work with me this week. it was my second week back at work, but the first time that elliot came with me. my boss dicky is a-maz-ing for many reasons, but especially cool right now because he's letting me bring elliot to work! elliot naps and plays in her pack 'n play by my desk while i'm at work. she's been a great sport. i'm able to get all my paperwork, emails and phone calls done during her naps. i couldn't ask for a better set-up. i've got some reduced hours for the month of june (due to the continued downturn of the economy) but i'm hoping for full hours starting back in july. i'm trying to embrace the shorter work week for now (more play time with elliot at home!) but definitely praying for our company. so, hey, if you need any work done on your bathtubs, showers, counter tops or sinks call Amaya Glaze!

see how happy elliot is to go to work?
she's the best assistant ever :)

jordan's birthday
elliot got to celebrate jordan's birthday on monday. jordan is one of elliot's favorite people. they enjoy playing xbox kinnect, discussing world politics and listening to sugarland.

whitewater center
elliot made her first trip to the whitewater center. the rain and thunder couldn't keep elliot away from the whitewater center this past thursday. she partied until the wee hour of 10pm, dancing to the bluegrass and was eventually lulled to sleep by the sound of the river (and the 20938 dogs barking.) she's going to make it a regular occurrence this summer.

see how she can hardly contain her excitement?
the whitewater center is one of her favorite summer activities

coo and goo
elliot is making some seriously fun sounds. she'll start "talking" and become really animated with her face, regularly raising her eyebrows. josh and i are really enjoying it and have totally become those parents who jump up and down, making stupid faces and weird noises to try and get her to continue. its kind of sad, but really fun at the same time. check her out:

she'd already been "talking" for about 30seconds before we got this on video
hopefully we can get a longer session on camera soon!

love

Elliot loves her Aunt Lauren and Aunt Taylor!

first beach trip

We went to the beach last week for an extended Memorial Day/last week of Maternity Leave trip. We had a blast! It was so fun to share one of our favorite places with Elliot. And, to top it all off, my older sister Lauren and her husband Jon were able to make it up for the long weekend! We don't get to see them that often due to our crazy schedules, so it was really sweet to have some sister time too.

People warned us that we'd be carting around a ton more stuff with a baby in tow. In all reality, we probably packed less with Elliot. We took the bare necessities for ourselves to make room for the baby gear. We normally would've packed clothes for every possible occasion, multiple fishing rods, beach cruisers, road bikes, guitar, ihome, food and more. This time it was more like one fishing rod, too few outfits for casual events only, jogging stroller and baby gear. Here's a picture of the car:

I'm glad that we put Elliot in the car first
otherwise, I'm not sure we would've had room for her!

Our first stop was to Taco Boy. We discovered Taco Boy on our last trip to Charleston courtesy of our friend Grant. He's always got info on the latest and greatest restaurants and this one did not disappoint. The atmosphere is great and the food even better! It was so fun to relax on the patio, margarita in hand. Ahhh, the vacation had finally started!

And, what better way to start out our first full day of vacation than with breakfast at Village Bakery?! Yum. I ran from the Sullivan's Island (where we were staying) to the bakery. This is a must do if you are planning on eating anything at the bakery. The portions are huge, tasty and buttery. We were joined by the local preschool graduating class :)

french toast casserole, yummmmm
if all casseroles tasted this good, we might eat more of them!

Then, it was off to the beach! We hit up Isle of Palms first, because their beach has a little bit easier access. We weren't sure what we'd need with a baby at the beach, so we hauled it all! We're used to taking a bunch of gear to the beach, so it was just a matter of carrying different gear. Instead of fishing gear, tent and cooler it was baby gear, tent and cooler.

like all first-time parents we were nervous
was the wind too strong?
was she somehow getting sunburned without us knowing?
was she hating it?

i don't think elliot much cared
she may have actually slept better on the beach than in her crib!

Lauren and Jon got in late friday night after a long drive from Birmingham, AL. But Lauren was up bright and early the next morning for a trip to the Charleston Farmer's Market. With the tons of merchants, food vendors, flowers, clown parade (yes you read that correctly) and pony rides (what?!) it was just a bit different that our local farmers marked in North Carolina!

Jon and Josh hung out while we were at the market. We're so lucky that everyone gets along so well. Jon is like the brother Josh never had and Josh is like the 5th brother Jon never had.

And a trip to Sullivans Island would not be complete without a trip (or three) to Poe's Tavern. Josh, Jon and Lauren all enjoyed burgers while I got a veggie quesadilla. I'd never gotten the quesadilla before, because with amazing burgers why would you ever need a "veggie" anything? The last time I was at Poe's I got a chicken sandwhich, attempting to convince myself that eventhough I had been a vegetarian/vegan for about a year (at that time) that I wouldn't get sick. The chicken sandwhich was phenomenal....the pain afterwards, not so much. So, I'm happy to announce that I enjoyed the appetizer menu and was happy as a clam thankyouverymuch. On a side-note, Elliot found the crazy-yell-across-the-table-but-i-can-still-hardly-hear-you environment pretty soothing and slept almost the whole time.

We also got to spend some time checking out some of Lauren and Jon's favorite places. Jon moved to Charleston while Lauren was in medical school. Its where he pursued music full-time and where he and Lauren got married (still probably one of the most beautiful weddings I've ever seen.) We snapped a few photos at the Battery Park. Like most of the rest of the trip, Elliot slept through it all.

this, my high school friends, is a pay phone. this is how you'd call someone if you weren't at your house. you'd insert these things called quarters to pay for the call. strange i know!

battery park is where jon proposed to lauren
he was (mostly) a good sport when i asked him to recreate the moment
he did get down on one knee when he actually proposed

And, just like that, the trip was over. We packed up and headed back to NC, crying the whole way home (not really.....well, kind of.)

ahhhhhhh Sullivans Island
you are so good to me!

elliot weekly: week 9

sorry if brief baby nudity offends you
it was 309823094 degrees in our house
clearly, elliot does not mind :)

As I mentioned last week, Elliot made her first trip to the beach! It was a week full of firsts for Elliot and here's what she's been up to:

Elliot is getting better and better at finding her thumb:

these pictures were actually taken on two different days
she just loves her play yard and that outfit, what can i say?

Elliot's first "sorority-smush" photo:

**photo removed due to post-ocean-exploring-nastiness**

lauren (older sister, the doctor) and i can make fun of the sorority smush
because we were both tri-deltas at clemson
i think i have 12039484019 pictures like this from college
this is also proof that, contrary to public belief, elliot does not smile in every picture

Elliot's first trip to the beach:

look how happy that beach baby is
and elliot is loving it too
hardy-har-har
elliot did like the beach, she said it was like a live version of her sound machine from home

she was totally digging the sunglasses
thanks amy brown!

Elliot's first time to play in the ocean:

sadly, elliot did not love the water
or maybe she didn't like trying to stand up
or maybe she didn't like that everyone thought she was a boy in this rash guard shirt

Elliot's first post-day-at-the-beach-nap-fest:

turns out spending half the day at the beach was a bit much for baby girl
and baby mama
elliot was looking pretty puny and just wasn't herself
we spent a lot of the day resting, cuddling and sleeping
i'm glad to say that elliot quickly bounced back and was ready for a night of partying (also known as sleeping and eating)

Elliot's first trip to the Charleston Farmers Market:

can you tell how happy baby is for local arts, crafts and produce?!

lauren and i caught up with her friend beth
this is beth's son who coached me on how to best shield elliot from the sun
he also had a full conversation with her about the beach and farmer's market
kids are just too cute some times!

speaking of cute kids!
i hope you have a great weekend--i look forward to sharing some more pictures from our first beach trip soon

back to the grind

Today I'm heading back to work. Maternity leave is over and it is back to the real world. Oh, the joy of it all.

I'm fortunate enough to be able to take Elliot with me to work. I'm so glad that she'll be there with me, although I haven't totally figured out how its going to work. My hours have been reduced for the month of June. I think its good on one hand (more time at home with Elliot) but it'll also be tough to try and get everything done in a shorter ammount of time (and throwing in getting Elliot adjusted to life at the office!)

I am going to put it out there, mommy-blog world be warned, that I'm actually glad to be a working mom. I'm fortunate to have a steady, flexible, non-stressful job that pays well and I'm excited that Elliot gets to see me doing something that I can do well (outside of picking out her outfits and changing her diapers). I don't think that it makes me a bad mom or a good mom....it just makes me Elliot's mom. And her mom works. Her mom also enjoys pop music, running and can make a mean salad.

Sadly, a lot of America (women specifically) seems really opinionated on the whole "working mom" issue. Personally, I'd rather focus on more important and/or fun issues....like when is Ashley (on the Bachelorette) going to wise up that Bentley is a giant turd? and when am I allowed to paint Elliot's fingernails? and what race should I sign up for next? and who's coming to the White Water Center to listen to music with me?

So, don't judge me for being a working mom. I'd much rather you judge me for my high-school-girl taste in music or my rockin' zumba moves or the fact that I haven't washed my hair in three days (sidebar: I have actually showered, I've just been dry-shampooing it like a rockstar!)

Peace out friends, mama has got to get to work!