Color Me Rad 5k

        Since I'm a slacker, this post is 2 months old....

In October Cole, Deidre, my friend Karrah and I all participated in the Color Me Rad 5k in Columbia

We had a weekend full of fun.

Friday night we had a big group dinner at Cole's house, before we all crashed for the big race Saturday Morning. 

Saturday Morning we all rolled out of bed and rushed downtown to start our run,

not exactly sure what to expect. 

But man was it an awesome experience,
I definitely would do it again, and I plan to do it again next year!

My shoes are still tinted purple from the run! 

After the run we literally rushed home so we could all shower, 

then we were back out and about...

We ended up going to the South Carolina State Fair! 

Whats better than running a 5k, then loading up on fattening fair food! 

And we ended the perfect day with what other than a bonfire! 

Oh and this was the weekend I gave my dad Clemson! 

Meet the One, the Only Clemson...The Chocolate Lab...

Look at this cutie,
Who could resist? 

           A few weeks ago Nichole, my roommate and I volunteered with her work at a local county fair. She works at a vet clinic, that also does adoptions...and we were helping with an adoption tent with a bunch of the puppies from the clinic. If you know me, you also probably know that I love puppies, well all dogs, and if I could I would own any and every dog I could. So by the end of the fair I walked away 145$ more broke and an additional puppy to add to the clan Cole and I have...but only temporarily. You see my dad had a dog he was very, very close to and unfortunately the dog recently disappeared, and we believe he passed away. Well since that happened my dad has been obsessing over getting a new dog, and begging my mom to go get one. So, Cole and I planned to get a puppy for him for Christmas... Well while I was volunteering I saw this precious adorable chocolate lab mix that was so sweet and friendly I knew my dad would love, and I just couldn't pass him up, even though I was planning on waiting til Christmas. I adopted him that night, and picked him up from the clinic that Sunday, and renamed him Clemson. He spend a few weeks with me and Dusk before I gave him to my dad, and I got super attached to him...

Clemson's first night with me and Dusk

I love his adorably goofy puppy self

He wore himself out chasing Dusk all the time

He loves car rides, and steals shotgun from Dusk

He loves cuddle time

And giving kisses

Again, he LOVES car rides

He enjoyed sleeping out by the bonfire too

He is too cute to handle!

Our last cuddle session before Cole and I took him
to his permanent home. 

Too Sweet

Cole snapped a few picture of dads reaction to Clemson,
He was so excited! 

Me, Clemson, and my dad after I surprised him
with Clemson 

                I am so happy that dad was so excited to get Clemson, and I know Clemson is going to love being at his new home. I am excited to watch Clemson grow up with my parents. 

Charles Towne

           My Fall break was a few weekends ago, and man was I ready for a break! It wasn't exactly a relaxing weekend but it was definitely an enjoyable and very much welcomed break from school. Cole, Deidre, her friend Katelyn and I all met up at the South Carolina State Fair and saw OAR preform, and it was amazing. We were front row and sang our little hearts out. (OAR kind of has a special place in my heart because they were the first band I saw in concert, the very first concert I had ever been to, and that was only three years ago!) I must say though I enjoyed this one a whole lot more because I was much more familiar with their music this time around. When the concert was over we all got some yummy fair food before Cole and I hit the road down to Charleston to meet my family.
           My parents, my gram and uncle from Pittsburgh and some other family from Indiana were on vacation down in Charleston for most of the week. Cole and I drove down and spent a few days with my family, and I must say we had a great time. We both really, really love Charleston, so any time spent there is cherished by us. While we were down there Cole and I got to meet up with my old roomie, Anna, and her boyfriend. They were down from DC visiting her mom, and we got the pleasure to enjoy dessert with them at Kaminsky's in gorgeous downtown Charleston. We also got to go on a tour of Fort Sumter in the short time we were there.

Me and Cole
After enjoying a delicious brunch on a gorgeous day!

Me and Cole
Our traditional "Pineapple Fountain Photo"

An amazing view of the Cooper River Bridge
on the way to Fort Sumter

The fabulous view of the Inner Coastal Waterways
we enjoyed during our last dinner of the trip.

            The trip in a whole was great, it was awesome catching up with family I haven't seen in a very long time, and Cole finally got to meet more of my family. (Since Cole and I have been dating, I have met just about all of his family because all of them live in a pretty close proximity to us, but he on the other hand has not met even a fourth of my family because our family is very spread out. So I was very very excited for him to meet more of my family.) I also had the joy of being able to look through a bunch of old family photographs and other odds and ends. It was great to see a little bit of the family history, as well as catching up with everyone. I am so glad Cole and I were able to make the trip down the good old Charles Towne! 

OOTD

I am very excited about the cool weather because I love layering clothes. It has been freezing all week so I decided to finally pull out the warmer clothes and of course some boots! Boots are a staple every fall and winter but these boots are my favorite for cold weather because they have built-in sweater material leg warmers making them super cozy and comfy! Also no girly outfit is complete without pearls :)

Jeans-American Eagle (fall 2012)-$30 during their jean sale
Top- Belks (fall 2012)- $20 on sale
Boots-Alloy (winter 2011) $50 full price

Mid-Semester Craziness

I always come into a new semester thinking I am going to be on top of my work and be prepared for everything, as well as have plenty of time to have a life outside of school. It's always about this time every semester that I fet hit by a brick wall and I realize that I have soooooo much to do, and the stress settles in and sleep begins to slip away. I'm not sure why I always forget this fact, and it always surprises me when it happens, I should be expecting it by now.... But I don't. This week is when I faced that brick wall. I have a class this semester that several of my friends are retaking and to e honest it scares the crap out of me. My first test on the class, which is 30% of my grade in the class, was yesterday. I spent this whole week freaking out, studying my butt off, and trying to retain the information for the exam. Thankfully I think I did decently on the exam.

Does this happen to anyone else? Does your stress suddenly hit you?

Because of my obsessive personality I haven't been able to make time to write a blog post in over two weeks! For that I am sorry! I do have material to post about and some funny photos and stories to share as well so keep you eyes our for them.

Did I really go to a USC event?!

     This past weekend was definitely not what I was expecting at all. My plans were to go home friday and spend the night with Cole. Then Saturday I had a hair appointment and a wedding to attend, and the rest of the weekend was going to be spent studying and having some much needed down time...but when does a weekend ever go as planned?!

      The weekend actually went as follows:

      Dusk and I left Clemson and headed back to Columbia to see my cuddle bug (aka Cole). On Friday nights Cole and I normal go out to eat cause we don't really have time to go to the store and buy food and cook. This Friday was no different, we made it our date night, and went out to the local German Restaurant...which might I add is my FAVORITE restaurant. I may have a slight obsession with German Cuisine ever since I went to Germany. The restaurant we go to has two options, an all you can eat buffet or ordering a meal...the prices are very, very similar. The buffet is obviously all you can eat but the food isn't as fresh...and the ordered meals are much fresher, and huge! and I mean Gigantic! The very first time Cole and I ate there we both ordered a meal and neither of us could even eat half of them! Since then we have gotten the buffet, but we have decided from now on to stick to ordering meals cause they are just as much food, and are much fresher, and make our tummies just as happy as the buffet would, if not more so! This was the first time however that we were old enough to order beer with our food, and what German meal is complete without a beer?!

None I tell you, None!

My Cutie, with a plate full of deliciousness!

Me with a yummy German Beer

             Once we got done with our sweet little dinner date, Cole hit the road to a Bachelor party that he got invited to at the last minute. It was for the guy that got married Saturday. So while Cole was off with the Boys getting schwasty i was at home studying. My studying was complimented with the babies running loose in the house and a big ole glass of a frozen peach daiquiri.

               Saturday was supposed to start off with Cole and me both getting our hair done...but I am an absolute retard and I got my appointment time wrong and missed mine, so only Cole got his done, and I rescheduled mine. My day got slightly better with....

Cole and I both got our first Salted Caramel Mochas this fall
and our first slice of pumpkin bread! mmmm....

       On a side note, when I go to starbucks they always spell my name wrong...so everytime I go in there I like to see if maybe by a very small, tiny, itsy-bitsy chance it is spelled right...Clearly this past weekend that was not the case...it was incorrectly spelled just like it is 99.95874% of the time.

       After our starbucks Cole and I returned home and spent the rest of the morning getting ready to go to the wedding! We really enjoyed the wedding, and it was great seeing a lot of people we don't get to see very often, including the bride and groom.

Cole and Me at the reception :) 

Ashely and Stefen
 aren't the adorable?!

         After the reception Cole and I decided to go out and tailgate for the USC game with our friends Stefen and Ashely. I know what is wrong with me, I went to a USC event, and actually had a good time. Stefen was in the wedding, he and Cole have been buds for a very, very long time so hangout with him and his girlfriend Ashely is always a good time! Cole and Stefen always end up hanging out and Ashely and I spend the night joking around, picking on the boys, or just chatting.

           Once we left the tailgate we ended up making a spontaneous stop at Krispy Kreme and got donuts, before we said our byes and headed home to continue our night with some more friends. Deidre, Sam and Brian all came over and we continued to enjoy our night and got some adorable pictures!

Deidre and Me 

My Boys! 

Me, Sam and Deidre

              Needless to say anytime this group is together we have a great time, and we always end up with some crazy late nights that lead to some unforgettable memories!

             The only thing that could possible make the weekend better would be hitting the lake, which we did on Sunday! Cole and I made breakfast for everyone that stayed over, we all were lazy and laid around for a bit until Brian came back over.

Best Friend Cuddles including Diedre's puppy, Easton. 

 When he came back we took the boat out for the last time this summer, and I must say I couldn't have asked for a better day.

Besties enjoying the last day out on the lake! 

Our adorable captain for the day!

Best, Best Friend Picture Ever! :)
I love this girl!

...well it would have been better if I could have stayed out the whole day with everyone but I had to go home and study for my test I had on Monday...talk about serious bummer.

        After I studied for several long, boring hours I decided to take a break. Cole and I got dinner with Stefen and Ashely and watched a movie together, it was a great way to end such a busy Sunday!

First Friday, and the First Home Game

                   Clemson is huge on traditions from Solid Orange Fridays, to the Welcome Back Party to Rubbing the Rock, the list seriously goes on and on and on! One of my favorite traditions here at Clemson would definitely have to be First Friday. First Friday is a celebration held the day before the first home football game to welcome the much awaited football season. First Friday includes a parade full of all the student organizations, big names of Clemson, the Tiger Band, Beauty Queens and much much more. Directly after the parade a huge pep rally is held out on Bowman Field (for those of you not familiar with Clemson's campus, Bowman Field is a huge open grassy area right in front of the center of campus. For me First Friday isn't just the mark of the beginning of football season, its also the mark of the beginning of Fall too!
                  This years First Friday was pretty sweet for me. When I got done with classes Nichole and I went to a pool party at our apartment complex, and then headed to campus to watch the parade. In the four years that I have been here at Clemson I have never missed the First Friday parade. This year I decided that I wanted to bring Dusk along for the adventure, and to be honest I was kinda nervous cause he has never been around a huge number of strangers in one place. He did really well though, he got pet by several people and got a bunch of "aw, puppy" or anything along the lines of that and he handled it really really well! He also enjoyed the parade very much, he especially loved watching the Tiger Band! He sat with ears perked and his eyes were glued to them until they were out of sight.

Dusk at the parade, watching the Tiger Band! 

                To end my great night Cole came into town and he and I went out on a dinner date to Brioso's, one of my favorite restaurants in Clemson and caught up and then Deidre came to town too! We ended up staying up til 3 in the morning chit chatting. Oh and did I mention that we needed to be up before 8 to go to campus for the football game?!

Deidre was begging Dusk to take a picture with her...

The adorable picture that was a result of the said discussion! 

                  Saturday was gameday! Cole, Deidre and I drove to campus around 8 to tailgate with several different groups. We had tickets to sit on the hill, which was awesome we ended up down at the gate, which is literally right behind the goal post! To make it better Clemson seriously spanked Ball State, by half time the score was 45 to 10.

Welcome to Death Valley

Deidre and me with Howard's rock!

Cole and Me with Howard's Rock, A huge tradition at Clemson.

Deidre and Cole were really excited for the game to start

The Tiger getting ready to run down the hill

The hill, where the most exciting 25 seconds of college
football take place!

Cole getting high fives from players while they ran down the hill

Another tradition, balloons rising through the air
while the tigers run down the hill! 

The Central Spirit Flag Runners singing the alma mater.

(all photos from the game were taken by Deidre*) 

                   The only negative of the day was it was extremely hot, and I got pretty sun burnt so we left at halftime and went back to one of the tailgates. Once the game was over and we hung out for a little bit Cole, Deidre, Loren, Cole's friend Mason and I all went out downtown to eat dinner and to get Spill the Beans ice cream (seriously the best ice cream on earth!). All of us were seriously so exhausted from all the sun, alcohol and lack of sleep that we seriously fell asleep before 10 pm. All in all it was a great weekend!! I am excited to do it all again at another home game!