Skip September, Welcome October!

Hello, sweet readers of mine. How are y'all doing? :) I apologize for my month and a half hiatus, but it was much needed.  I have missed blogging so much, and I'm finally ready to begin writing again on a consistent basis.There were a few times last week where I could have written, but it's been difficult finding the right words to say. Where do I even begin? 

Well, for starters, life is slowing down considerably. Still busy, but slowing down. My family and I moved back into our house and we are beyond thankful to be back home. So much has happened since my last post, and the easiest way to catch-up will be to do a recap....so here we go!

* For Labor Day weekend, Keith, Gavin, and I took a trip to Gatlinburg, TN with my bro/sis-in-law, Stephen and Ivey. If I had to rate this trip, I'd give it a 4. Our cabin was crawling with bugs, Gav's ears were hurting from the altitude, we got stranded in Ober Gatlinburg thanks to some bad weather, and we kept comparing everything to our much more pleasant 2010 cabin trip. We weren't completely  miserable, but  I don't think we'll be heading back to the mountains anytime soon.

Gav hanging out in Tennessee

* I slightly mentioned that we had trouble with the tenants that were living in our house, but I've never really explained. To sum it up, last July Keith and I moved to Atlanta for Keith's job. We rented our home to what we thought was a nice family. Well, we were wrong. They rarely paid on time, and come July of this year they stopped paying all together. We filed for eviction, and one month later we regained possession of our house. We discovered a trashed, abandoned house. They turned off the electricity and left meat in the freezer...and the smell that came from our house was worse than anything I've ever smelled. Keith and I, along with many family members and friends worked very hard over the last month and a half to make our house a home again. We succeeded, and here is the finished product.

This was definitely a learning experience for us and I don't think we'll ever be renting property out again. If we can find them (apparently they've moved out of state), we'll be taking the tenants to small claims court. We know that we'll never recoup the money that we've spent fixing everything, but at least they'll have consequences. There has to be consequences for behavior like this.

* On a much happier note, baby boy is CRAWLING! On September 19th I placed him on a blanket and said "Spread your wings little buddy! Crawl!" And he totally did! It was such an amazing moment and I am very proud of Gavin. He is getting so big and I am just cherishing every season with him.

After he crawled the first time, I grabbed the camera and filmed this video. :)

* I am two weeks away from finishing two of the last three classes of my undergraduate career. My final class begins at the end of October and wraps up right before Christmas. And then that's it! Undergrad will be DONE. Praise. The. Lord!!!

* Last week, Gav and I took a walk with my mother-in-law, Pam on what is a Charleston landmark, The Ravenel Bridge. This was his first time experiencing the bridge, and while he didn't enjoy the walk, he did enjoy hanging out at the park afterward with his Grandma. :)

The top of the bridge :)

Gav and Grandma Pam

I think I covered everything! I'm really excited for October, as it is one of my favorite months. Mellowcreme pumpkins, MLB playoffs, pumpkin spice candles....OH I just love it! I'm not a huge fan of Halloween, but there's just something about the month that ushers in Thanksgiving and Christmas that makes me happy. Plus, you can't beat the cool weather. I'm off to spend some sweet time with my son. What are your plans for the day?