Our First Baby...Shower

This weekend we celebrated the upcoming arrival of a new little bundle of joy in the MUSC resident family! John and I hosted a resident baby shower at our house for our good friends Connie and Daniel, who will be having a baby girl in the end of March.

I started planning this shower pretty much when Connie first told me she was pregnant last summer. I'd never thrown a shower before and was excited to put it together! Especially when they found out they were having a girl and I knew I could do everything in pink!

The dining room set up before the food was put out. 

Connie and Daniel are keeping the baby's name a secret until she arrives, so for now we just call her baby Cornett.

Since Daniel is the actual MUSC resident, Connie is a pharmacy groupie like myself, we decided to make it a co-ed shower, inviting all the residents and their significant others. The girls in the group helped me provide all the yummy food and while we opened presents and played baby shower games, the guys played in a diaper poker tournament. To buy in, they had to bring two packs of diapers and $5. Daniel got to take home all the diapers, and the cash went to the winner of the tournament. 

The guys enjoying the food. Thanks ladies for all the yummy dishes you shared!

While the girls chatted and opened gifts in the living room...

John hosted a poker tournament for the guys in the spare room/ man cave.

Daddy and Mommy to be laughing during one of the baby shower games

Me and the baby mama!

All the girls at the shower

Great Eats: Birthday Party at Rita's

This week, our friend and John's co-resident Branden celebrated his birthday. I signed up to make his birthday cake for John to take to work and I made a french vanilla cake with cream cheese frosting. I would have taken pictures of the cake, except I hate to say, it was not my best work. Lesson learned: when you're rushing to make a cake before going to bible study, you're likely to not let it cool all the way before icing and then the icing will get all melty. Oh well! Still tasted good!

Friday night we went out with all the residents to really celebrate Branden's birthday. We went down to Folly Beach and ate at Rita's, one of the Folly restaurants we had not been to yet.

Beach restaurant- food still good in the winter!

I had the Cantina Burger because it's served with guacamole on top, which I love! The fries were spicy and really good too! Ate way too much!

After dinner we went over to Loggerhead's Beach Grill for some drinks with the birthday boy.

Branden, Brittany and me

John and Matt being weird

Despite the placement of that beer bottle, I swear Connie, the pregnant lady, was not drinking!

Fun night out with friends!

Lowcountry Oyster Roast

Last year in Birmingham we learned all about the Southern tradition of crawfish boils. By the end of the year, I'm pretty sure we attended about 5 crawfish boils and John (I don't eat seafood) was crawdadded out.

In the Lowcountry, it's goodbye cradads, hello oysters! Lowcountry oyster roasts are pretty legendary, and we experienced our first one this week!

For Pharmacy Appreciation Month (yay October!), MUSC hosted an oyster roast for the pharmacists, alumni, sponsors, students, etc. Even though I'm not a pharmacist, I appreciated the free dinner and drinks!

The event was held at a restaurant right on the water of Shem Creek - a main inlet that connects to the Charleston Harbor.

Beautiful Charleston sunset!

With the beautiful sunset and a cool breeze coming off the water, the scenery was almost as good as the dinner! We even saw several dolphins swimming through the creek out to sea and enjoyed watching the yachts sail through.

John embraced the oyster eating like a true Charlestonian. These oysters were steamed and John said he actually prefers them raw! (Yuck!) Again, I don't eat seafood, so I didn't partake. Maybe I'll try them fried one day.

That's a bunch of oysters! Apparently the table with the hole in the middle is key here.

Beautiful weather, great scenery and a wonderful evening appreciating my pharmacist :)

Bevo Bonfire VICTORY Party

Last week John and I were really bummed that we weren’t going to be going to the OU/TX game in Dallas again this year. It is definitely my favorite Sooner football tradition and I miss getting to partake in it at the Cotton Bowl with other Sooner fans. Since Charleston is incredibly far from Dallas and plane flights are expensive, John had the great idea of throwing a victory party at our house on Saturday night instead.

So last week we invited all John’s co-residents over for a Bevo Bonfire on Saturday night. Several people asked us what we were going to do if we lost…those silly doubters. We didn’t have that problem because, of course, we won 55-17! John and I were jumping and cheering so loud during the game, I’m sure they heard us all the way from the Lowcountry.

Before I get into the awesomeness that was the Bevo Bonfire. Here’s a short montage of what I love about OU/TX from the five years we did get to go!

1. The student lottery for seats. My freshman year (and our first OU/TX game) we got tickets on the 4^th row! In the following years we learned how to sell those good seats, buy crappy seats and still make a profit to fund the weekend! Sooner entrepreneurship at its best.

Our first OU/TX game in 2005...on the 4th row of the stadium!

Second year in the nosebleeds. Still fun!

2. The crazy atmosphere of the West End on Friday night. One year we saw a Texas fan fall out of a tree…then get arrested.

West End with friends on the night before the game my junior year

3. Riding the DART train. To get to the Cotton Bowl, the DART is the fastest and easiest way. You park on the outskirts of town somewhere and ride the rail, now directly to the stadium. Oh the amount of people on those trains wearing crimson and burnt orange.

Where's that train?

4. The crazy fandom in the Cotton Bowl.

Crimson and burnt orange split 50/50

Sooners!

5. Fair food! Need I say more?

John loves him a turkey leg. My favorites are corny dogs and salt water taffy!

6. Family. We took my mom and my sister to their first OU/TX game. Now my mom is hooked and continues to go every year! I also have some cousins in Dallas who we usually get to visit when we’re in town for the game.

Though we weren’t there this year, the Bevo Bonfire turned out great! We fired up the grill in the backyard and had a nice little buffet of sides and appetizers. We had some Arkansas fans in the group (Woo pig!) so we watched the Arkansas game while we ate.

We roasted marshmallows, made s’mores and enjoyed sitting and talking around the fire in the backyard.

And we played cornhole by torchlight, which actually makes the game very challenging!

It wasn't the same as being there, but we had a great time celebrating our win with friends! Thanks for helping us celebrate everyone!