God works in mysterious ways

A friend of mine (at the time roommate) introduced me to Our Love Affair...and Adventures in Edwards-ville. The writer is a friend of her's from Florence. It is a beautiful blog in all aspects - the way she writes, her photography skills, her family, and most importantly her word of God. I don't read her blog daily, just on occasion. I happened to read it the day she posted her 2nd to last post, on April 29th. I suggest you read it. It sent chills up and down my body the entire time I was reading it. Not only did it make me think about my relationship with the Lord, but the way she writes made me feel like I was her.

**One day while bored at work, I read her entire blog! I at first thought she had the perfect life just through reading a few posts, but when I made my way to almost the beginning I realized her life was no where near to perfect b/c of what she has experienced. I envy her for the trials and tibulations only making her stronger.

My Best Friend's Wedding

My best friend, Allison Taylor Hook, was married past weekend! It was such a blessing and honor to stand beside her as her maid of honor. I have known Allie since I was 3 years old. She is one year older than me, but we began our friendship at The Little Red School House and continued it through dance at Candice Ralston/Stepping Out/Calvert Brodie. We drifted apart through high school having many different groups of friends, and then parting ways to different colleges, but I truly believe that true friends are inseparable! While now she lives in Lexington and I live in Columbia (yes, I know to some that may seem very short, but for me it is a different country having never lived anywhere else besides those 2 cities!), we don't see each other as much as we'd like, but we make do by talking daily, making time for each other on weekends, etc.

Might I mention that Allie did EVERYTHING herself for this wedding and it turned out beautiful, saving many thousands of $$$! She does have an interior decorating degree which definitely helps, but I have to give her props for handling everything with the grace and self composure she did. She was so carefree that there were many times I was stressing and was told I was going to have to exit the room until I calmed down :) The weekend started with me assisting Allie, her mother, and grandmother in making the bouquets and flower arrangements for the ceremony while her soon to be husband and friends assembled paper lanterns. Friday morning we started by loading all of the decorations Allie had bought, year old raised ferns, rocking chairs, benches, linens, etc. in Bradley's "horse trailor" and transporting them to 701 Whaley. Allie was very fortunate to be able to get in there the day before to decorate. She had an army of friends and family helping so we could be out of there in time for the rehearsal. The rehearsal dinner was at the Springdale House which was just perfect. Saturday began with getting all of our hair done at Salon Saville along with a very casual brunch. We headed to the church to prepare for the most important part of the weekend! Everything turned out great! I leave you with some pictures from the weekend!

The boys batterizing the lanterns...

Allie cutting magnolia leaves from her Gram's tree for arrangements

Mt. Hebron Methodist Church

An up close shot of the wreaths on the doors of the church

Me and Mary, Allie's new sister-in-law

Me and the groom, Bradley!

Me and Allie at the rehearsal dinner

Allie's mother-in-law, Mrs. Doreen

Allie, Adam, and Bradley

The Taylor family

Allie and the guys singing Dixie Land Delight

Jackson, Jeremy, and Shelley Hook

Me and Mallory after finishing getting ready!

Allie putting on finishing touches, only did she come to realize she had put eyeliner on her lips!

My mama and me at the reception...love this picture of us!

Adam and Beau singing to their girl!

Jeremy, Brandon, and Glen...what a crowd!

Brandon and me...

Me and Emily

Bradley and me towards the end of the night

Steph, Mrs. Sherry, and me

Me and the mother of the bride, Mrs. Sharon

Mallory, Allie, Mary, and me...miss everyone so much already!!!

SEC Championship....

I wouldn't have missed it for the world!!!

Our usual traveling crew with Greg and Terri Cupstid

The Stein sisters came to tailgate!!!

With Whit Merrifield before the game

The bestie and me

Our entire tailgate crew

Thanks Mom!!!

What a beautiful sight!!!

A Season to Remember...

...But a Teaser for 2011

I couldn't be more proud of my Gamecocks! (Well maybe, if they had won that really big last game...) This is just a recap in pictures of the last half of the season to remember!!!

GO COCKS! Looking forward to the bowl game in Atlanta!!! Beat the Noles!!!

FOOTBALL 2010...thus far

What an amazing start to the South Carolina football season we have had (excluding our 2 losses)!!! As Todd Ellis said, this is a team filled with EMOTION! I have a ton of pictures from tailgating and the games so far that I thought I'd share. Enjoy!

SOUTH CAROLINA vs. Southern Mississppi

41-13

WIN

SOUTH CAROLINA vs GEORGIA

17-6

WIN

SOUTH CAROLINA vs. FURMAN

38-19

WIN

SOUTH CAROLINA vs AUBURN

27-35

LOSS

SOUTH CAROLINA vs ALABAMA

35-21

WIN!!!

This was by far the greatest moment in the history of South Carolina football and I am so glad I was able to be there to witness it! All in all, it was one of th best weekends ever! Two of my very good friends, one of which is a best friend from college and roommate, made the trip down. This was the first time in 2 years we had seen each other! They must've been good luck and need to come down for the rest of the season, despite what happened last weekend :(

Fortunately, I did not make the trip to Kentucky with the rest of my usual traveling crew. That would have been a LONG drive home!!!

I have full confidence in my Gamecocks and will never lost faith!

LOYAL DEVOTION!!!

Facebook...Children...and MY THOUGHTS!

I just happened to be browsing Facebook today and saw that someone I was friends with became friends with a little girl that used to go to Ann Pitts, the daycare I worked at while in high school, and a good bit of college. I was absolutely appalled. This child could possibly be 8 years old! I then proceded to take a gander at this little girl's facebook page to not only see that it was not private, but I could see all of her photos, her friends' (whom also went to the daycare) profiles and photos, etc.

I guess it is hard for me to take in because when Facebook first came out, I was a freshman in college. You were only allowed to join facebook if you went to a university. You couldn't even join if you went to a technical college. They then began allowing technical college students to join, with high school student not long after that! Now, as we all now, ANYONE can join! Even at the age of 25 - although with my new haircut I have been told I look 15 again - I still get "creepo" friend requests! Just thought I'd share that it really erks me that children this young are allowed by their parents to join such a massive social networking site!

Much Love <3>

Katy

Waiting At The Dock To See Em's Rock

July 10 Brent Boyleston asked Emily Cheatham to marry him!!! He has been making not just Emily, but all of us wait!!! Brent, being the sincere man that he is, knew Emily would want all of her friends and family there celebrate with her after he popped the big question! He took her on the boat from his family's lakehouse, and when they arrived back to the dock, we were all there cheering! I was asked to be a bridesmaid, which means the world to me. Emily and I have been friends since diaper days, so you can only imagine how honored I am to be a part of their special day! Here are a few pictures from their special evening.

The happy couple

Jessica with the sign she made

Emily's bridesmaids + Brent

I must also congratualate Emily getting into Charleston Law. She is moving Friday (tear), and will be very much missed! This is a very exciting time in Emily's life and I couldn't be more happy for her!

MoSt AmAzInG TrIp EvEr!!!!!

First things first, WE ARE NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!!! We got the last bat at the Blatt and shut the lights out!

Sunday, the day after we BEAT CLEMSON in the COLLEGE WORLD SERIES, I hopped in the car with Brandon's parents and my mom and we took the ROAD TO OMAHA! This was extremely spur of the moment ~ literally packed in 30 minutes and wasn't even sure what I had packed! Thank goodness my boss was nice enough to allow me to do this! The drive for us was a total of 20 hours. On the way there we stopped to get some sleep somewhere in Illinois - Mt. Vernon I believe it was??? I took a ton of pictures...

AHHH...never thought I would see this place!

The Payne's, my mom, and me before the fist game The famous shot in Rosenblatt The 8 team flags

We went to Henry Doorly Zoo on Tuesday since we had a long day before the game started. This zoo is amazing! Words could never describe it! I will bore you with just a few pictures of the zoo animals!

This GAMECOCK gave us a call as soon as we walked up to it!

Now, I definitely had to get a picture of one of the tigers!!!Mama and her baby...this was just 2 of about 15 gorillas! The Polar Bear - I remember when Riverbanks had a polar bear! My mom and me in the game! GO COCKS! COCKY! So glad he was able to make the trip!
And, the Gamecocks win the CWS 2-1!!!!
Us after the game...NATIONAL CHAMPIONS BABY!
Just when I thought it couldn't get much better...After the game, Mom and I hitched a ride to the Embassy Suites to welcome the team in! My camera had died so I had to get some shots with my phone, which I don't have on my computer yet! We got pictures with Whit, Jackie Bradley Jr., and one with Adam Matthews holding the trophy! AMAZING!!!!

I have been so fortunate to take the road to Omaha! It was a once in a lifetime chance by that time to see the Gamecocks play at Rosenblatt stadium, much less be able to experience a National Championship!