I know what you're all thinking...

Finally! Tara Jane updated her blog!!! Christopher and I have officially moved to Columbia! We're having soooo much fun learning a new place and spending time together, since Christopher's last day at work was Thanksgiving night. He starts class January 7th (we thought it was going to be a little earlier than that, but that's fine because he's gonna need this time to get his brain together for the next 27 months!!! I'm still working at McLeod every other weekend (I stay in Florence when I work). It's really great because Christopher gets to do whatever he wants to do while I'm at work, then we can hang out together when I'm off!

So here are a few pictures from our new house!!! The neighborhood is all duplex-style homes. It's super-cute!!!

We actually tore up brand new carpet to put down those wood floors. I'm telling you, though, it was worth it!!! I LOVE how they look. Christopher, my brother Spencer, and our family friend Mickey put the floors in and they did SUCH a good job. My mom, Christopher's mom and I handled the painting, which was WORK!!!! But I love the way it turned out. Our house is 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. And yes, that's our tiny backyard. :) It's small enough to cut the grass with a weed eater!! :) But the cat loves it...he's never been outside before!

It's funny, though, because when you live in a small house, you have to do things like this...


I'm sure you're all thinking...is that her shower? Are those storage containers? And YES! They are!!! We though we weren't going to have any guests before Christmas, so we utilized that space for storing Christmas decorations!! When Christmas is over, they will go to my mama's house in Lake City. And then when people come over to spend the night, they can take a shower! Bad thing is, though, Shelley Benthall ended up spending the night with us the week of Thanksgiving...needless to say, the decorations remained where they were. It's bad when you have to treat Miss South Carolina like that!!! :)

Mali Gator Floyd-Snead

So I felt as if it would only be appropriate to show everyone a picture of our exotic, mountain lion housecat, Mali. I swear, it's legal for this animal to be an inside pet, but if you saw him in person, you'd definitely question it!!! When we got him from Ms. Judy, the "cat lady" as we call her, he looked nothing like he does now. As a matter of fact, he looked a lot like this...

He was so light colored and small! And sick. Of course he had some kind of respiratory cat disease when we got him, which was why he was so calm all the time and let us pet him. Now he's a wild cat, weighs 13 pounds, and is 3 feet long when you stretch him out (and that doesn't include his tail!).

He's so much fun, though. And he's such good company. And I don't mind that he's really my cat and he likes Christopher better than he likes me. WHATEVER CAT!!

Men in Uniform...

Just a little note about Christopher's Citadel picture below...the guy in the middle is Chad Bryant and the guy on the right is Derek Love. Both of these fellows are from Florence and grew up going to school and church with Christopher. They're both in the military... Chad is in Iraq and Derek is in Afghanistan. They're both newly married and I know their families are going through so much with them being gone. Please pray for them and all the men like them who are sacrificing so much for our freedom!!

About Us

So a little bit about us...Christopher is from Florence. He is 4 1/2 years younger than I am, let's just go ahead and get that out of the way. :) He grew up going to Florence Christian and graduated from the Citadel in 2004.

He finished his courses early from the Citadel and moved back to Florence in December of 2003. He had gotten really involved in Campus Outreach in Charleston and had some friends who attended church in Florence that prompted him to visit the Church at Sandhurst. At that time, I was going to church there and went out to eat at Zaxby's with a group of people after church and so the story begins. :)

I grew up in Lake City and graduated from FMU in December of 2000. In July 2001, I was in a swimming/diving accident in which I broke my neck and had to wear a halo for 3 months. It was the craziest, most rewarding experience of my life. And God used it to totally change the direction of my future. At that point, I decided I wanted to be a nurse...and as soon as I recuperated, I started finishing up my prerequisite classes and began nursing school at FMU/MUSC in 2003.

At Zaxby's that day, Christopher and I started talking...mostly about the turquoise belt buckle he was wearing. :) We found out that I was in nursing school and he was applying to nursing school and we both had the same aspirations...to be a nurse anesthetist. Ashley Rhodes had people over to her house that night to hang out and we met up again...and we just kept meeting up. :) We were really good friends for about 5 months...and I went to London, England to take an international nursing course. And while I was gone, I just KNEW that he was the one for me. :)

We started dating that July (on his mom's birthday). I graduated from nursing school in 2005...

And Christopher graduated in May 2006...

And right before he graduated, he surprised me after we both worked night shift one night...

with a breakfast picnic, a beautiful ring, and the question I'd been waiting for for 3 years. :)

I know we look amazingly bad in this picture, but you try working 13 hours all night long and having the guts to take a picture in the morning! :) We were so excited that we couldn't even go to sleep...we ended up going all over Florence to see family and friends to tell them the good news.

My First Blog!

I've never written a blog before! I thought that since Christopher and I are making a big change in our lives and moving to Columbia, this would be a great way to keep up with family and friends. And apparently since I'm going to be at home by myself all the time, I'll have plenty of time to keep up with it! :)