College at a Glance {Sophomore Year}

I've already prefaced that a whole lot happened my Sophomore year, and I wasn't joking! First things first, I moved into a new town-home with these two crazies, Marissa and Paige. I came into the situation not knowing Marissa very well, but we all ended up being so different that we fit together well. There was constant entertainment in our little two-story abode - Marissa rightfully earned the nickname Shams (short for shambles) haha.

I went through rush, I wouldn't trade that experience for anything. I didn't branch out at all at USC, so I thought I might as well go into the most uncomfortable situation ever - talking to tons of strangers about nothing really. I loved it! I also loved my pi-chi group, we had the best leader, but I feel like everyone is biased. It was a super tiring week, and got to be a bit overwhelming due to that on top of classes starting. I ended up getting a bid from KKG, but decided that a sorority just wasn't me, and that was okay!

Taylor took me to my first FCA. I can't remember exactly how many FCA's there were until they put on "After Dark," which was basically an FCA on steroids. Matt Wertz came to play, which was the main selling point on why I wanted to go. They showed snip its from Passion of the Christ, and I found myself heart broken during the scenes where Jesus was beaten. I didn't understand what was going on internally, but I knew that I wanted a relationship with Jesus - but literally had no idea what that meant. I didn't know it in that moment, but that was the night that I surrendered my life to Christ. This moment literally changed the course of my life, for the better. I am still in awe of how the Lord pursued me even when I had no idea of who He was.

After getting saved, I wanted to get more plugged into FCA and to build my relationship with the Lord. I got invited into a small group with a few girls from my high school, all of which I knew of but didn't really know. We spent a lot of time together during the fall semester. My first FCA event ever was Roller Boogie, and I had a BLAST. This was also the night that I got introduced to over 50 people, at least it felt like that many!

As I said, I spent a lot of time with my small group! We were literally obsessed with each other, more inside jokes than we could possibly count. We made a point to meet up at every event we went to and took a "small group pic," naturally. I went to my first shag ever, the Autumn Shag at the Madren Center. Tay and I mainly danced together, we didn't really know anyone else there. I danced with two other people that I didn't know, who actually ended up being pretty good friends (cough, Tyler Goff). This shag marked the first event of a weekend long of craziness!

Phase two of the epic weekend:  I went to Katie's apartments annual Halloween party! The strangers I met at Roller Boogie slowly started becoming friends at this point, I was actually starting to remember some names!

Of course, I didn't miss a Clemson home game. I had to trade in all of my garnet and black for some purple and orange. It wasn't a tough transition. Plus, we always tailgated with the sweet Wood family and they always made game days so much fun!

I even made it back to USC for a few home games.

I went on my first big hike with a HUGE group of people! At this point, I started to finally feel like I was fitting in at Clemson. Although I didn't have a huge number of friends, the few that I had were so wonderful. Our small group definitely stuck together, but we branched out together. 

 This year was the one and only time I got to see snow in Clemson! Well, a substantial amount anyways. The snow delayed the start of spring classes by two days, which we spent frolicking in the snow and watching every Nicholas Sparks movie created. We all walked to campus, only to catch a ride and come right back to the apartment. The truck that brought us back was driven by a stranger, who turned out to be Elliott, who is now one of my best friends!

An ample amount of time was spent with these two guys and their roommates. The four of us were besties, literally we spent every weekend together just about. We had many Cracker Barrel lunches and spent many nights hanging out watching concerts on TV. 

I got introduced to Starbucks! My very first Starbucks experience was spent with Tay, her mom, our friend Ethan and his mom. We spent a Sunday afternoon in Greenville, walking around Falls Park and taking pictures just because we could. I must say, this was my first attempt at being somewhat trendy.. black nails with Starbucks cup in hand. 

I. had. a. nose. ring. Yes, I had a nose ring! I went and got that little sucker on a whim, I'm still not really sure why. I didn't tell my mom, I just went and did it. Maybe that was my act of being "rebellious," isn't that hilarious. I loved that little thing, though. I only had it for a month, it fell out of my nose in my sleep and the hole closed up immediately. Sad day.

Sadie Hawkins was approaching, and I still wasn't really friends with many guys at Clemson. Jenn, who was in my small group, was friends with a lot of the guys and had introduced me to the ones I knew. I needed a date, but had no idea who to ask. Naturally, I asked Jenn who was still dateless and she gave me a short little list of 2-3 names. I didn't know any of the guys she mentioned, but I remember thinking that Braden Nichols was pretty cute and seemed nice.. so a few nights later at a bonfire, I ended up asking him to go with me to Sadie Hawkins. I was a nervous wreck, I had never (EVER) asked a guy to anything, let alone someone I didn't know at all. Little did I know, this too was a huge turning point in my life, one I wouldn't realize for a while after the dance.

The weekend after Sadie Hawkins, Tay and I got an invite to tag along to see Ben Rector in concert with a group of people. We had no idea who Ben Rector was, but we were up for any adventure at that point. We went with a group of 20 or so people, Braden included, and had one of the best nights ever. After the concert, Ben and Steve Moakler came out and met everyone in the crowd. No big deal.

I went on my first mission trip with FCA to Washington DC. I was in a group of strangers, and loved each of them within a matter of a few hours. Our group was placed in different homeless shelters and we cleaned, organized, etc each day. I had never experienced God so much. Each night of worship opened my heart more and more, and I hit a breaking point where I knew that the chains I was bound in couldn't hold me down anymore. That was one of the most freeing trips I have ever been on, I was so on fire that I had no idea what to do with it! Coming back home was pretty tough, because I had gotten so acclimated to being around so much love and encouragement. 

Random side note - I also got my first Canon camera, a Rebel XS to be exact. Who would've known that I would get so into photography, and now dream to have a photography business!

Braden and I had been on an actual date by this point (one where he actually asked me, haha). While in DC, we got to know each other pretty well and spent a good amount of time chatting in the hotel hallways at night. I really started to like him, and had no idea if he was really interested in me. Well, yet again I asked him to be my date, but this time it was to Tay's sisters wedding. The night before the wedding we had a chat to see where we stood in the relationship, most may call that a DTR. We were both ready to take our next step, so we started dating. Talk about some serious giddiness!

I had played around with my new Canon for a month or two. I got a Facebook message from Ashley Anne, who went to my high school but was a few years older than me. She asked me to take her engagement pictures and I jumped at the opportunity! This photo shoot was fun and nerve wracking all at the same time, I literally had no idea what I was doing, we just went for it. It helped that I had beautiful people to photograph, but I learned that day that I truly LOVED photography. And there you have it, JC Photography was born!

Right before school ended, Braden invited me on his family's annual beach trip. That year they were heading down to Daytona, FL for the week. I said yes with no hesitation, I was so pumped to spend the week with him and to get to know his family - after all, we had only been dating a month a this point. That was one of the best weeks. I went to my first dog race, which was also a blast!

I turned 20. I always try to have a big dinner with my friends, I love being surrounded by the people I love on my birthday. This year, I had two birthday dinners. One with family and friends of the family, and another with my friends from home!

On May 29, two days after my 20th birthday, I was baptized at our home church. We had only been calling Radius our home church for about a month, but I immediately felt that I was supposed to get baptized there. I'll never forget getting the phone call from Pastor Todd. He wanted to genuinely get to know me and to get know my story. I surprised everyone that day, the only people who knew I was getting baptized was Pastor Todd and my mom. My sweet small group leader just happened to be there that morning, which I think was no coincidence. 

 Jesus is so good, He knew exactly what he was doing that year. It's amazing to look back on all that He did in my life, but mainly how he called me His, even when I didn't know him at all. It is so evident that He blesses his children and looks after us. After the year I had, I am living proof of that. 

Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age’” (Matthew 28:18-20).

College at a Glance {Freshman Year}

With graduation vastly approaching, I wanted to reminisce on the past four years of my life. SO MUCH has happened and changed, it's hard to even explain without starting from square one.. freshman year.

I started off my college career at the University of South Carolina. I was born and raised a Gamecock fan. I moved into South Tower, an all girls dorm, and lived in this corner room - which was actually much bigger than I ever expected a college dorm to be.

My freshman roommate was Jennifer, we hung out a good bit when school first started. Making friends started off slow, but we slowly transitioned into college living. It's funny now to think back on how afraid I was to step out and meet new people. I made a few friendships by living in the dorm, but one really stuck - and that is with my sweet friend Sara who will now be in my wedding!

I went to every Carolina home game, always dressed in my garnet and black. If you would have told me that I'd end up at Clemson, I would've laughed. I loved being close to home and I loved being with a good many of my friends from high school. It was comforting and it was what I knew, no real change. 

I went to the SC State Fair with a few of my best friends at the time. I spent the majority of my time with the same group of people, some from high school and some who were new friends of my friends.

Some home games were graced by the presence of my best friends from high school. We all seemed to go separate directions. Marlie went to PC, Lauren went to Clemson, and Tay ended up in the upstate as well. I always loved when they'd come to games, because we would always pick up right where we left off. 

I trained for a half marathon during the fall semester. I spent many days a week running with a group at Strictly Running and my sweet friend Krista. Krista and I spent many afternoons running that the river walk, she definitely pushed me and helped me to become a runner, when I clearly was not. We made it up to 8 miles one Saturday morning, and later that week it was all I could do to walk on my foot. Turns out I had a baby stress fracture.. so I sported this fashion statement of a shoe.. I've got to mention though, my mom made fun of my grandma shoe, and soon after she fell and broke her ankle. It's funny now when I think back on it, but having a broken foot was no joke!

I may have never missed a Carolina home game, but when USC's games were away I would make my way up to Clemson to a few games and to visit. I hardly ever wore orange.. but I wasn't opposed to the idea. The game atmosphere was vastly different, and I always loved making the trip up to Clemson.

I mentioned earlier that I spent most of my time with the same group of people. Well, these are the people who were my best friends and my tailgating buddies. We always went to the games together, and always managed to sit together. They all made my game day experiences so fun! 

Fun fact: I played on a co-ed intramural volleyball team! I seriously don't think we ever won a game.. not a single one. Well.. We may have won one, but that was it! I learned that volleyball just wasn't my thing. But hey, you win some and you lose some. We had fun meeting once a week to play teams who were much better than us.

I threw my mom a surprise 50th birthday party with the help of Paige. That night Paige, Lachlan and I went on a spontaneous trip to Charleston to put our feet in the ocean. That was probably the most spontaneous thing we did that year, definitely one of my favorite memories! We spent the car trip up there and back jamming out to 90's music and telling stories. Side note, Lachlan forgot to wear shoes.. so he walked around the beach in the beginning of January with no shoes!

Another fun fact, I was on a co-ed basketball team. I only went in a few times, but our team ended up making it to the championship game! I was more of the team cheerleader and photographer, no surprises there haha.

I went to my first Carolina Cup experience. I had to borrow a dress and hat, but I was so excited to go with Lachlan. We spent the day walking around and hanging out with random people. I made quite a few friends that day. We ran into a lot of old friends from high school and repped our '09 graduation date, we were so cool I know!

 

Later on during the spring semester I realized that maybe Carolina wasn't really for me. I talked to Paige and she wanted to try somewhere new, too. We took a trip up to Clemson and the rest is history. We both decided to give it a try, and we also decided to be roommates. Who would've ever known that this would've been a huge turning point for my life's path!

Soon after school ended, I turned 19. I celebrated with my best friends from home, we always made a point to have big birthday dinners and I always looked forward to them.

 Freshman year went by extremely quick. College was what I expected, and then it wasn't. I made a few friends, but I didn't make a substantial amount of new ones. However, the few friendships I made at USC have lasted. I wouldn't trade my freshman experience at USC for anything, I learned what I truly wanted in a college experience, and just had to accept that I was going to get that somewhere else. It was a huge step for me, especially moving away from home, but I am so thankful that I decided to transfer to Clemson.

Be on the lookout for a recap of my sophomore year in college. Let me just preface by saying my sophomore year was my biggest year, maybe even one of the biggest turning points in my life. Do I have you hooked now? Haha, I doubt I'm that interesting, but that year was truly one of the best ones to date. 

Wedding Festivities and Crossfit Community

I've been blaming my lack of blogging on the fact that I have very little time.. well, I'm graduating in 13 short days, and then I'm not sure what my excuse will be! It's hard to believe that graduation is just around the corner. No more classes, no more tests, no more being a Clemson student. I'll be an alumni, I hardly feel old enough to be in college period. I'm constantly blown away at how fast time really does fly. It's so cliche, but when you sit down and think about it, where on earth have the past few years gone?!

I won't get sentimental about Clemson (yet), I'll save that mushiness for another week or two :)

Let's back track, shall we? Wedding planning takes a lot of time and energy. Some aspects are stressful and some are so fun that you want to do them again and again. Finding a venue for the ceremony and reception have been our most stressful aspects so far, mainly because the fall months are so booked with other weddings and events in the upstate. Once that got crossed off the list (woohoo!), we have been able to enjoy the smaller details of the wedding.

Cake tasting.

I must admit, cake tasting has been my favorite wedding "chore." Our wonderful wedding planner recommended Kathy and Company, located in Easley, SC. On the day of our appointment we couldn't find the place because it is tucked away behind Kathy's home. The building is nothing extravagant, just a little house built behind a normal house, sounds silly right? We were welcomed with the happiest of hellos and they took care of us our entire time tasting. They offered water and coffee, and we were served with a plate full of flavors!

We tried everything. The wonderful women at Kathy and Co also provide homemade frostings, so we had our fair share of those with each of the cake flavors, too. Our favorite was the strawberry & white chocolate swirl with strawberry icing. For those of you coming to our wedding, you're in for a real treat - our cake has over 5 flavors, but I'll keep those a secret!

I loved every moment, and I loved every bite!

And so did he :)

I'm jumping around here, but I have a few weeks to catch up on!

July is our official "Crossfitiversary," which I will be posting all of my own personal improvements. I'm pretty excited about that post! However, I thought it was appropriate to brag on the wonderful people at our Crossfit gym. Since day one, we were welcomed by some of the sweetest and most encouraging people. We have made great friends during our 9 months at Crossfit Proverb. We've been spending more and more time there, and our friendships have grown!

I've made my way to two competitions to watch Braden compete. When it comes to building relationships, Crossfit competitions are a perfect way to get to know those at your gym. You spend a day watching your friends do work on some tough workouts, and you get to fellowship with all of those who are there to spectate.

I would say it's not all fun and games.. but it is!

I look forward to going to workout every day. The days I don't make it I feel like I've missed out on all of the fun. Crossfit builds such great relationships because you're surviving through tough workouts with everyone around you, you've accomplished something, and you've done it alongside others who were right there with you the whole way. You can usually hear someone say "this sucks" during a workout, and as soon as it's over "holy cow that was an awesome workout!" Isn't it funny how that works?

When we do silly things such as supermans, which I like to call penguins, it turns into a laughing matter. I mean come on, how ridiculous do we all look?!

We also spend time together outside of the gym. Braden, Alex and I have made some wonderful friendships that have extended past our daily workouts together. Our wonderful gym owners and trainers have become some of our great friends, and we've found ourselves spending more and more time with them. I don't think that this comes as a surprise in any circumstance that puts Jesus in the center. Crossfit Proverb is built on a foundation of Christ, and it shines through the way our trainers treat their members. 

There are occasionally some perks involved.. like free smoothies for CFP members :)

I'm looking forward to the upcoming summer months. I will be spending a good amount of my time at CFP, and I am sure that I will be spending even more time with the wonderful people who train there. We have an upcoming lake day on May 4th and I'm already pumped!

I mention Crossfit a lot, but that's because it has become something I enjoy and love. I wouldn't advocate something if I truly didn't believe in it. My fitness capacity has changed exponentially, you'll see that when I write about my successes in my Crossfitiversary. I think everyone should give it a try, especially if you find a gym that is built on a foundation of the Lord. If you're growing spiritually, you're also growing physically. 

That's all for now!

"For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come."

- 1 Timothy 4:8

As Much As I Hate Defeat...

Let's just say that my paleo sugar detox did/did not go according to plan. I completed week one of the detox a few days shy of 7. You know how things go.. snack attacks while studying, road trips, and Easter didn't help me stay on track! For the 5 days that I did stay on a strict sugar detox, I felt incredible.

I felt so sluggish the few weeks prior to the detox. It took a lot of will-power to get off the couch and get moving, especially when it came to working out. I would get tired by 8pm, but still couldn't fall asleep until well after 12. My body was out of whack.

I never really craved sugar during the first week. As a matter of fact, I felt great without having any sugar. My body had been craving lean proteins and vegetables. A week of giving my body what it wanted did wonders for my metabolism, mood, and motivation (I love alliteration). Although numbers aren't super important, I went from 122.2lbs down to 118.6 after those 5 days on the sugar detox. For someone of my size, I'd say that's pretty significant in a 5 day period.

I've reintroduced artificial sweetner with my morning coffee. I'm a personal fan of Stevia and sugar free hazelnut creamer. I have also only been having one serving of fruit a day, not because of a detox, but because I really have not craved fruit that much. For those of you who know me, I'm a fruitaholic, so this is pretty out of the ordinary for me.

I hate to admit defeat.. but I must say, 5 days of the detox were plenty to recharge my body! I would still recommend the detox to anyone who is looking to jump start eating Paleo, or even those who just want to jump start eating healthy period. You would be surprised at how much your body craves meat and vegetables.

I may do a week sugar detox once every other month just to put my body in check, but I am not looking to do anything outrageously crazy in the next coming months. I plan to eat mostly strict paleo, with an occasional treat now and then - we all deserve that!

Hope you all are having a great week!

Spring Cleaning {internally}

I've been quite the stranger to blogging recently. Let's just go ahead and say life got in the way of all my extra time. I'm currently balancing 3 "mini" jobs, in addition to class 4 days a week. Needless to say, I stay busy every day from the time I wake up until the time I go to sleep!

After all of the schedule craziness, I was more than excited about heading to Daytona for spring break. We flew down to Florida last Monday and stayed until Friday. The weather was a bit chillier than any of us had anticipated, but it was still wonderful to get away for a week and relax.

We climbed 203 stairs to the top of the second tallest Lighthouse. I'm terrified of heights but I was encouraged every step of the way. I will admit.. I didn't look over the edge!

With relaxing comes eating, and with eating comes laziness, and with laziness.. well you get the point.
I've mentioned before that I did a strict month of eating Paleo. That month transformed my metabolism, my attitude, and my body. After a month of eating so well, led to a few weeks of eating well with a "little bit of this, little bite of that" of things that aren't so great (treats, sugars, etc) and I started getting extremely sluggish. My body was yelling WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!? I decided to have one last "free for all" week of eating at the beach during spring break, after all, what's a vacation without dessert every day?

I want to go back to strict paleo, but needed a little jump start to get me there. After a week of eating anything and everything, I decided to go on a paleo sugar detox.

I am doing a 3 week detox that goes back to strict paleo in the third week. The objective is to cleanse the body of all sugar, and to gradually start adding elements back in to reset my body and stabilize hormones. Have I mentioned that when I was eating poorly I had minimal to no energy. This cleanse should rid my body of any cravings and clean out my system to start eating strict paleo again. I've got to get ready for a wedding  in 5 months!

The rules for each week are slightly different. Week one is supposed to be the worst.

Following are the rules specifically laid out for each week…

Week 1 

No Sugar (including fruit), No Dairy, No grain, no legumes! No sugar includes artificial sweeteners, stevia, honey, agave.  NO Fruit.

Vegetables

Artichoke Beet greens Bell peppers Brussel sprouts Carrots Celery Cucumber Eggplant Green onions Mushrooms

Onions Parsnip Radish Seaweed Tomatillos Turnip greens Asparagus Beets Broccoli Cabbage

Cauliflower Collards Endive Lettuce Mustard Greens Parsley Spinach Tomato Turnips

Proteins

All fish Shellfish Any Game Meat Eggs

Lean Pork Lean beef Lean Poultry No Processed lunchmeat or bacon week 1

Fats

(with cutting out sugar and fruit will need fat as energy) Still don’t overdo !!!

Olive oil Coconut oil Avocado oil Almond oil Walnut oil Flaxseed oil Almonds Cashews

Pecans Pine nuts Pumpkin seeds Sunflower seeds Macadamia nuts Pistachios Sesame Seeds Walnuts

I am on day 3 of week one. I'll admit that I've missed my normal coffee and stevia every morning, but I've actually felt pretty good just eating protein, vegetables, and fats. Cutting out fruit for a week hasn't been as tough as I thought it would be, but I am still not even half way through the week. I've had a few minor headaches due to lack of sugar and caffeine, but nothing too unbearable.

On the brighter side, I've felt so much more energized and don't feel so weighed down by all the junk I was eating. Going strict again has led to new recipe discoveries, like my new personal favorite, kale chips (thanks Katie!) I'm also going to be trying some paleo pizzas later this week.

Check back in for another week 1 update! I'll also be blogging about weeks 2 and 3. Anyone care to join me?!

Happy cleansing!

You Said Blueberry What?!

It's been a while people. And by a while I mean like two weeks. How was everyone's weekend?! I spent mine relaxing mostly (watching The Hills on Netflex), I felt pretty lazy if I'm just being honest. We need days like that sometimes to re-cooperate,  no shame in that! Due to the last few weeks being devoted to getting into the swing of school, wedding planning, and catching up with friends, I haven't had much time to write about our most recent endeavors.

Where should I start?

This one needs a little background info.

Braden and I spent a few days in my hometown the week after Christmas. While we were there, my wonderful friend Paige and her family had the two of us and my mom (+ our friend Megan) over for dinner. Her mom is infamous for her awesome mashed potatoes, so naturally she made that the star of the meal. Dinner was delicious, but dessert had us especially intrigued. Paige's parent served everyone vanilla ice cream, but brought out a mysterious bottle and said "I'm not going to tell you what it is, just try it." Braden and I are usually adventurous, so we decided to go for it.

Blueberry balsamic.

Yes, I said it, blueberry balsamic paired with vanilla ice cream. Sounds awful right? Trust me, it is SO good. Of course, this turned into a great conversation about where the balsamic originated. They told us that there are two stores, one in Columbia and one in Greenville. Bray and I put it on our "to-do" list as soon as we got back to the Upstate.

Fast forward a few weeks.

We went to Greenville to check out a reception venue, and as soon as we let Braden mentioned the olive oil company. It was still pretty early (around 10:30am) so the last thing I wanted was to taste test olive oils and balsamic dressings. But, we went for it anyways, you only live once right?

As soon as we walked in we were greeted by the co-owner of the company. He explained to us the process of taste testing the olive oils. They give you a bowl with little pieces of bread so that you can test each olive oil. He explained many combinations, normal and strange, and told us about each olive oils health benefits, origin, and their best sellers. Once he got done explaining everything we were set lose to try everything!



So many great choices, they were all so good. He told us that the Tuscan Herb was one of their best sellers, which we ended up leaving with. It was too good to pass up.



After tasting all of the olive oils, you're in for a real treat. We were given a bowl of ice cream and got the run down about each of the balsamic. There were flavors from dark espresso, peach, to lavender, all of which are awesome. One of my personal favorites was Dark Espresso and Dark Chocolate. We already knew blueberry was a great choice, so we tried it in variations with the chocolate and other flavors.

Taste tester in action.

After trying multiple flavors and combinations, we ended up purchasing the blueberry and the dark chocolate. Both excellent choices.

Give Palmetto Olive Oil Co. a try! It's a fun little date spot, they make it a great experience. Not to mention that olive oil is great for adding depth to the flavor of foods and offers many health benefits. It wouldn't hurt to give some fun flavors a try when you're cooking, we've loved having the Tuscan Herb.

Here's the company's info if you're interested:
2247 Augusta Street, Greenville, SC 29605
http://www.palmettooliveoilco.com/index.php

Hope you all have a wonderful week, happy tasting!

The Day I Said Yes to My Best Friend

It was December 7, 2012. My Friday morning started out like any other. The only difference was that I had a text from Braden, which wasn't completely out of the ordinary, but it was a witty little poem asking me to FCA's tacky sweater shag that evening.

"I love you Jess, what more can I say

I guess I'll show you in a romantic way

I'll pick you up around 5:45

So that we can celebrate all the good in our lives

Dress nice because we will start our evening

at one of your favorite restaurants in Greenville

But this is just the start of our night,

Will you go to the tacky sweater shag tonight?"

I got excited and spent the day trying to figure out where we could possibly be going in Greenville. I have quite a few favorites and I couldn't settle on one! After class I started getting ready for our date that night. I had trouble picking out an outfit because I had no idea where we were going. I settled on a black and white dress with a red scarf that my wonderful friend Brinley let me borrow.

As promised, Braden showed up on time with 20 beautiful red roses in hand. He has only brought me flowers on one other occasion, our one year anniversary. He handed the flowers to me and said happy 20 months. At that point I didn't see any red flashing signs, because he is quite the romantic anyway. 

We got in the car and headed to downtown Greenville. We chatted like normal on the drive, but he mentioned that he had some exciting news for me once we sat down to dinner. Naturally, all I could think of was what this "exciting news" could be, and why did it have to wait until dinner? We pulled up at Nantucket Seafood Grill, one of my absolute favorite restaurants that I've only been to one other time on a date with Bray. I knew it was a fancy date night when we had the valet park the car. We were seated by the window where we could see people ice skating, it was such a beautiful backdrop for the evening.

We went all out, ordering an appetizer of crab cakes, huge seafood entrees, wine, and dessert. As soon as we ordered our drinks he finally found an appropriate time to tell me the exciting news. Braden has been co-oping at BMW Manufacturing for the past year, and that night actually marked his final day as a co-op. That was huge news and extremely exciting. The only time we had been to Nantucket prior to this night was right after he got his first pay check at BMW, how fitting right?

After dinner we were stuffed and felt the need to walk it off a little. We walked past the ice skaters and ran into Santa Claus, yes, I did say Santa Claus. I've got to admit that running into SC himself and seeing his sleigh made my night. 

We headed back to the car because it was so cold outside. I had no idea where our next stop was, but as soon as he pulled up at McPherson park downtown I knew something special was about to happen. This park is special to us, because this is where we first said I love you on July 15, 2011. At this point, I was thinking "okay, maybe it's about to happen here" thinking I had figured out what was going on. We got on the swings and he asked me if I remembered what happened there. I said of course, it's the exact place where he told me he loved me. Right after that moment, he jumped up and got on the rocking horse and pretended to be a jockey.. we can only be serious for so long!

We started walking around and after a few more minutes we went back to the car. I felt a little disappointed because I thought I had solved the mystery. I was sure that he was about to propose in the park. Well, I was wrong. When we got back in the car he asked if I wanted to head to the tacky sweater shag. With a disappointing sigh I said "sure." The drive back to Clemson was a little quieter, my mind was wandering trying to figure out when on earth he was going to ask me to marry him.. and the fact that I did not want to go to the tacky sweater shag!

We pulled up at the Madren Center, which has held many FCA dances during our relationship. I didn't think much about the Christmas lights on the dance floor, because I figured the Madren Center had held an event there. I'm one of caution, so when we started walking towards the dance floor framed by lights I thought we were somewhere we shouldn't be. He plugged his iPod into the speakers that had been set up earlier in the day. I figured out then that he had already planned this, and it was no coincidence that the dance floor was set up for two.

We shagged and danced to "our songs," three of them. As soon as Rascal Flatts "When the Sand Runs Out" started playing, he started dancing much slower. At this point, I could tell he was getting a little emotional. The song says "I want to be running when the sand runs out," so he asked me, "Do you want to keep running with me?" At that moment he dropped down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I was overtaken by surprise, excitement, and emotions so those few moments are a blur to me. All I can remember saying is "IS THIS REAL, is this really happening?!"

As soon as he proposed, my two wonderful friends Annabeth and Jen came out of the bushes, they had been taking pictures the entire time! Braden grabbed my hand and we ran towards the lake. Before I knew it, fireworks started going off over the lake. Talk about a perfect moment, I was still in such utter shock that it was hard to pay attention to the beautiful display going on in front of us! All I could do was look up and smile at him so big, I still had to keep asking "is this real?!"

We danced for a song or two and enjoyed the giddiness that had overtaken us for the past few moments. Once we got our bearings he said that we could leave. I wanted to call my mom, but he convinced me that my sweet friend Brin would want to see me call her and hear my moms reaction over the phone. Obviously not thinking clearly, I agreed, under normal circumstances I would've thought that was kind of random. We pulled into where Brinley lives and Braden started distracting me, he kept telling me to look at my ring and telling me about it. When I looked up we had pulled up to the clubhouse. I don't remember what he was saying, it's still all a blur, but the next thing I knew he had opened the door and all of our family and friends yelled SURPRISE!!!

We spent the remainder of the night celebrating with friends, taking pictures, and basking in the fact that we were finally engaged. I floated on cloud nine all night long, I hardly slept.

The moment I woke up I looked at my hand, it still didn't feel real.

It STILL doesn't feel real. I am marrying my best friend, the biggest blessing I could ever ask for!