Wedding Wednesday: Open Doors

On our last trip to North Carolina, Patrick's small group threw us a dessert shower.  I had so much fun getting to know some of the members in his small group.

The delicious food... two kinds of cobbler and homemade ice cream!

The homemade ice cream was fantastic... can you tell?  One of the little guys really loved it!

We had a great time visiting with the families who were there... we played bocce ball and just hung out.  It was a great laid back time of fellowship!

Each member of his small group signed this plate for us... it is so special!!!

Here we are with our generous hosts... the Childs have been such a special family to us!  We feel so blessed to know them.  We treasure their friendship!

It's official...

Patrick has officially finished his seminary studies!! I could not be prouder!!  The program at Southeastern Baptist Theological seminary is very difficult... and very intense!  It's a 90 hour Master's program!

The campus at Southeastern is beautiful!!!  This is Binkley Chapel where the graduation took place.

We had such a great time celebrating with his parents and brother Sid.  We are all so proud of Patrick!

I got a cake from Publix and took it to North Carolina to celebrate.  We forgot to bring a knife to the restaurant where we planned to eat it.  So, we asked the manager if they had a knife we could use... this is what they gave us... crazy!

This is one of the major events we had to get past before the wedding!!  I am so excited we are checking those off... I can't wait until August!!

Wicked!

Last weekend I made a quick trip to Raleigh... I flew out Sunday and flew back Monday... whew!!  It was a wonderfully fast paced trip!

My flight arrived at RDU about 10am on Sunday.  Patrick picked me up and we attended service at Open Door Baptist Church.  That afternoon we decided that we would try our hand at winning tickets to the Broadway show Wicked.  

Two and a half hours before the show the theatre holds a drawing for $25 Orchestra section seats.  We had no idea how many people would show up, or how many tickets they would have available.  When we arrived at 4:00pm, there were only about 10 people there, we thought we had a great shot!  But, by they time they got around to the drawing there were about 40 people in the drawing.  But guess what...

My name was actually the last name drawn.  We were counting the winners and Patrick and I were both pretty sure we were going to walk away without tickets.  They drew my name but there was another girl there who's name was "Elizabeth Newell"... she walked up to claim the tickets thinking they called her name.  We felt really bad... she was so upset!  However, there was nothing we could do because our tickets were the last ones!

Our tickets were in row "G"... very close to the front!!  They were all the way over to the side... but well worth the price! 

This is one of the main reasons I wanted to attend the show... Lindsay Wood... one of my friends from Brookwood High School is a part of the touring cast!  It was so exciting to see her on stage... she is so talented!  I can't wait to see her in more shows in the future!

We loved the show and highly recommend it for anyone!  It was different than what I expected... but it is now one of my favorite musicals!  I have been humming the songs all week!

*I was half asleep when we left for the lottery... I blame the 3 hours of sleep I got the night before... so I forgot my camera... sorry there are no pictures from the actual show.*

Duke Visit

Last Wednesday Patrick and I headed back to Wake Forest for the 2nd half of our time off together. We did some really fun things during our trip. I decided to post a slideshow so I could share many of my pictures from our travels. The pictures in the slideshow are from Thursday when we went to Duke's campus. We visited the Duke Gardens, the Duke Chapel, and we tried to visit Cameron indoor but we were too late... we had such a great time!

If you are ever in the Raleigh/Durham area... I highly recommend you visit these beautiful gardens... one of the most beautiful places I have been in a long time!

Tasty Travels!

This weekend I made my, somewhat routine, journey to the great state of North Carolina. I left bright and early Sunday morning, my IPod loaded with sermons and some new music, and started up I-85. My Camry has a great gas tank... I can make it all the way there without stopping! It is so wonderful to just drive straight through, you never have to lose momentum.

I planned to arrive in Wake Forest about 2p.m., on my way in to town I figured I would pick up some lunch for both of us. However, when I called Patrick, he suggested I go ahead and come over, then we could decide what we wanted to eat. Well, much to my surprise my sweet and thoughtful boyfriend had made us lunch... FROM SCRATCH!! It was amazing! We had tilapia, mashed potatoes, peas, and Texas toast. It was such a fantastic surprise! I am so blessed!!!

Our yummy lunch! I was so hungry I took a bite before the picture... ooops!

Monday we planned to run some errands and just hang out... it was supposed to be cloudy and rainy most of the day so we did not want to do too much. For lunch we ate at CookOut... a North Carolina speciality.

CookOut! No place to sit and eat, just a drive through and walk up window... it was packed!

Patrick has been telling me about this place for a while... we would always talk about going, but there is not one close to his apartment so we hadn't been. Well, it was worth the wait!!

We got a hamburger combo... I don't think I have ever been anywhere where corndogs and chicken nuggets are side orders... YUM!

Awesome selection of handmade milkshakes!! 36 flavors!! Way too many to choose from!

Our lunch... burger, fries & onion rings... and we splurged and got a shake (I got Peanut Butter Banana... Patrick got chocolate) so YUMMY!! And all for $5.25... my first reaction... I'm never going to eat regular fast food again!

Monday night it was my turn to cook... I made ranch chicken, mashed potatoes, and broccoli. Stayed tuned for recipes in an upcoming Foodie Friday!

The dinner I made...

I'm excited that we took pictures of the food this time... the problem is... we forgot to take any pictures of ourselves... maybe next time we can find a happy medium!

We had a great visit, but if we keep eating like this... I think we are going to have to join one of our favorite shows... The Biggest Loser!

Science and Snow-cones

Day Two of my adventure to visit Patrick:

After a delicious omelet for breakfast we headed out to explore the North Carolina Science Museum in downtown Raleigh... the best part, the museum is free!

There was a beautiful planter full of HUGE sunflowers outside the museum... too bad it was covered in bees!

Inside the dinosaur part of the museum... we are getting to be pros at taking pictures of ourselves.

Watch out for giant bugs!!! They also had the largest cockroaches I have ever seen... too gross for a picture though.

Sorry Mr. Frog... I'll just have to blow you a kiss...I'm sure you've heard the story about the girl who kissed a frog then he turned into her prince. Well, this girl found her prince without ever kissing any frogs... I am so lucky!!

Have you ever heard of the comedian Brian Regan? He has some pretty funny sketches... one of our favorites is about snow-cones, so when we saw a stand outside the museum selling them we had to get one!!! It was banana flavored.

After a quick drive through the N.C. State campus. We stopped at Snoopy's for a hot dog lunch. It is local favorite, and it was GREAT!

Off to Raleigh I go...

I have been making regular trips to Raleigh ever since Patrick and I met back in December. I usually set out early on my "Saturday" morning and head back to Atlanta very very early "Monday" morning. It's been a while since I made the trek north, but I was happy to see that all my quirky but familiar landmarks were still there. More on those in later posts...

This time, I planned a picnic surprise for Patrick a few days before my trip. So prior to arriving at his apartment I had to make two quick pit-stops. The first place I stopped was Cafe Carolina. It is a bakery that Dana introduced me to a while ago, they have GREAT cupcakes! Patrick and I also ate there once and we still talk about how delicious they are... if you are ever in the RDU area I recommend you try them!

My second stop was at Kroger... I picked up the rest of our picnic foods including one of Patrick's favorite... steamed shrimp!! Apparently, while I was in the store Patrick tried to call me 3 times because I was later arriving than usual. When he didn't get me he decided to go looking for me... luckily I was coming down his street as he started to leave, so the search was called off.

Our picnic was a little rushed because we got to the park at 4:40pm... and it closed at 5:30pm... so here we are about to get kicked out of Falls Lake Park... it is so beautiful there!

More Raleigh adventures and photos in my next post...