Best Buds

           I am doing a Co-Op near Charlotte working with an engineering company, and to say I was freaking out trying to find a place to stay is an understatement. Either everything was way too expensive, or everything was way too far away from the office I would be working at. Not only did I have no idea about the area, I also had very little to spend on rent since I planned on saving as much as I could. The one place that I did find in my price range I attempted to visit, I even made an appointment to see an apartment. Cole and I drove all the way up to the apartment to see what it looked like to find out it was CLOSED. Now how in the world you make an appointment with someone on a day your closed still baffles me...I was livid. I called the company and rescheduled to come again, the apartment was decent, the deposit and the increased rent for the short lease was decent but not great...my head was spinning trying to figure out how to save as much as I could. Again I was freaking out, huge changes in my life seem to do that too me, especially when I have no idea what to expect.
             Now I believe in fate and that everything happens for a reason, and if I didn't believe in that before I definitely do now. During my frantic searching and a billion phone calls and very aggravating visits to sub-par apartment complexes I had been conversing back and forth with the lady that interviewed me for the job. She responded to me one day saying that another lady at work was looking for a roommate, and gave me her email address.  I proceeded to email back and forth with this said lady, during which I learned her name was Anna, that the rent would be much cheaper than anywhere I had found and that she had a dog too. Anyways, we decided to meet, so that we could see how her dog, Bella, and Dusk got along, and also to meet each other. I drove 2.5 hours out of the way on the way home to meet her at the place she was renting. On that long drive I had a ton of thoughts going through my mind, am I crazy? How old is this Lady? and many others...but boy am I glad I went. We seriously spent two hours talking, about school, our dogs, our families, and anything else you could think of. I found out she is only a few years older than me, she just graduated from Clemson and our dogs got along really well! Needless to say I decided to move in with her and it was probably one of the best decisions of my life. We get along really well and have honestly become really close friends. Our few months living together we have done a lot together, she convinced me to start learning how to play guitar, we have gone line dancing a few times, we have gone to visit each others home towns, met each others families, and we have had plenty of girl nights! I am so thankful that having her as a roommate was my fate, because it has truly been a fantastic experience that I don't think I would have gotten with anyone else. We mesh together sooo well, and have very similar senses of humor.  Not only have I gained a great friend, Dusk has as well he loves Bella.
            Sadly our adventures as roommates is going to end short, she has accepted another job. I am very excited to see her happy and excited about being out in the field doing road construction, but her and Bella will be greatly missed. I am however confident that we will stay in touch and continue to be good friends, because well I just can't let a friendship like this slip out of my hands.


Some things I'm really gonna miss:

• Listening to Anna play guitar, I think Dusk will miss this too. She always puts him to sleep when she plays. 

•  Playing ball with Dusk and Bella, they love it! They are so much fun to watch cause you can tell they have a blast, and love each other. It won't be the same with out Bella. 

•  Going to the little coffee shop in Waxhaw after a long day's work and chit chatting for hours. 

•  Going out on the town with all the girls (The photo is from the Matt Nathenson Concert)  

Mommy-Daughter Weekend

      This past week has been pretty hectic, our office is moving from one building to another so there was a ton of packing (which I hate, because I feel like I do it at least twice a year because of school and co-oping.)  Anyways my loving, sweet mother dearest decided to come visit me and this weekend couldn't have been a better weekend. We did what all mothers and daughters do together... we went shopping...and watched movies...and ate yummy food...and laughed at my silly Dusk-Dusk. I don't care how old you are, you are never to old to have mother daughter time. I really cherish and enjoy spending time with her and I am thankful to live close enough to be able to enjoy that time often. Unfortunately my lovely weekend is coming to an end, mom is already on her way home and I unfortunately will be faced with mounds of things to unpack and organize tomorrow at work I am sure. However I am excited about being in our new office, and I am really excited about next weekend even though it will be a busy one!

-Stacey

Dusk's Goat Friend

Dusk has a strange desire to be friends with anything with four legs, this includes all dogs no matter the breed or size, cats and oddly enough goats...At our house we are staying at during my co-op there are several goats that live behind us. Anytime they are out Dusk feels it is necessary to howl at the one small little goat that seems to really like him. This little guy will hear Dusk go outside and as soon as he does the little guy comes running to the fence and just stands there and stares at Dusk. Strangely even though Dusk howls his cute little beagle bark at him the goat doesn't run away in fear, but if I walk even semi close to him he runs... which makes me come to the conclusion that the goat and Dusk are friends... Check out the videos of him and the goats!

Disk Golf

       I never in my life ever heard of the game Disk Golf until I started college. I had heard it being thrown around in conversations and had seen pictures of the holes through out college but I never ventured out to play it or even knew someone who had played it...until now. Disk Golf is just like it sounds...you play it like regular golf: there are 18 holes, and your goal is to make it in the hole (in disk golf the hole is a basket attached to a pole with chains hanging down) with at least a par, but instead of hitting a golf ball you throw disks...which are glorified Frisbees. 
        It has quickly become a weekly event for a group of us at work. I guess it came about during lunch because on nice days we would sit outside. Well a lot of the time we would finish eating pretty early and play Frisbee in the parking lot to pass time until our break was over, which I am sure is quite a sight for all the other people that work in the building we work in. During one of those lunch breaks a discussion came up about disk golf, and well we decided "what the hell, lets go play sometime." We conveniently have a course that is literally less than five minutes from our work that is free to play at you just have to provide your own disks.
        The first time we had gone to play Anna (my roommate) and I sucked, horribly...we still suck now, but not quite so horribly. Anyways, this is the third week we have played and we are honestly getting better, and it really is a lot of fun, so fun that some of us played three times this week! There is always something to laugh about when we get together. A lot of the time it is because we suck, someone did/said something stupid or someone [me] threw a disk in the lake. The said disk wasn't my disk either...I felt awful, so awful that the next time I had my own disks to play with so I wouldn't lose anyone else's disks. I guess the point of this post is that I am glad that I was enlightened about disk golf and finally tried it because it is a fun and interesting game. For all of you that haven't heard of or played it I recommend it! Go by a 10$ disk, find a course near by (hopefully its free) and go try it out!

-Stacey

Don't forget keep reading Poppies, Puppies and Pearls! :)

Introducing Dusk:

                If you happen to know me, there is a 99.999% chance you have heard stories about my dog Dusk. No his name is not Dust (I get asked that all the time!). It is DUSK…Yes I know it is an odd name, but there is a story behind the name. He is from a litter of puppies my parents’ dog had when I was a senior in high school. The litter was full of different colored puppies; several black and white, a black and brown, a neat brown one and one little tiny blonde one. Well I got to keep one of them, and since I am a sucker for the little itty bitty runts I chose the little tiny blonde one. He was just too cute to pass off to someone else! Well anyways this little guy had a microscopic black patch of fur at the base of his ear (another thing I just couldn’t resist about him along with his adorable white chest and paws). One day it dawned on me to name him Dusk since he had a blonde shiny fur coat (that reminds me of the sun) with that little black spot (signifying the night), and since Dusk is the time during the day where the day shifts to night I thought it was perfect! My family and I all thought eventually his little black spot would grow out and turn blonde but to this day and four birthdays later the spot has stayed the same if not gotten bigger.

Dusk was kind of a mystery dog since his mom was a mutt we weren’t sure what exactly he had in his gene pool.  I was banking on him looking like a lab but boy was I wrong, he is all Beagle!  Even down to the bark, the sniffing and the stubbornness that is associated with beagles. So much so that I am often asked what breed of beagle he is, and I just politely smile and respond “oh he’s just a mutt!” I never ever wanted a beagle but I must say I love him and all his beagle-y aspects. He is a very calm mannered dog, but gets these random burst of energy that are hilarious for anyone that happens to be around to view it. He is also a big chicken when it comes to people (mostly strange guys) but he loves anything with four legs, seriously anything…including goats. His favorite things to do are to go out for runs (he runs faster than me…he kicks my butt when we go for runs).

If you stay tuned to Poppies, Puppies and Pearls I can guarantee you that there will be many a stories about good ole’ dusky boo. Old and New.

-Stacey and Dusk