Catching Up With The Porters!

Some of the fun happenings in the past few months! 

We are especially enjoying the wonderful warm weather and hanging out on the front porch! 

The first 2 months of the year were a little stressful. I was traveling back and forth each week to and from different cities for clinicals and I have to say I missed Porter a lot. We have spent almost 6 months out of the past year apart due to me being away and him being at the police academy, so needless to say we were both craving a sense of normalcy again. I am back in Columbia for now, and it is nice to come home in the evenings to Portay and Lula. 

 Something we have really gotten into here in Cola is the Farmer's Market! It's not technically a real farmers market, because honestly there are probably more baked goods and textiles than actual produce. However, we love the eggs, granola, and amazing goat cheese. Lula likes to go too and see all the other dogs. My favorite part of the market are the homemade apple cider donuts this couple makes fresh and hot! They are to die for! They also sell local cider from their farm in many different flavors and I plan on stocking up before we move home!

 Something else we have been enjoying is Thursday nights. I have class on Friday's which means I don't have to get up at 4:30 am and go to clinical all day, so its a good night for friends to get together, we call it our Thursday night gang hang! So far we have done Bingo night (we won every round and got a bunch of prizes), Jazz night twice where a bunch of local artists come to this great restaurant and just kind of continuously exchange in and out playing their instruments, singing, etc...it is AMAZING! We have gone to a sea food place that had awesome shrimp and grits, a juke box, and skee ball! Mexican is always welcomed, and one night me and Porter had everyone over for a potluck dinner and bonfire. It was really fun! 

 Other than gang hangs, Porter and I are just trying to soak up the limited time we have together, which means we pretty much just chill, play outside, go on walks, etc. Those nights are the best. It kind of felt like we had to re-get used to living with each other the first week I was back home since it had been so long. Not in a bad way at all, we had both just gotten so used to being alone. Although this past year has been hard at times, we both know we are growing individually and closer together. We will never regret moving away because it has really forced us to rely so much on God and each other, and we have had so many learning experiences ( a lot of them we have learned the hard way) that we will be thankful for (someday lol). I know for a fact I am a totally different person I was a year ago. I have had to grow up a lot, deal with a lot, and CRNA school has definitely been the most humbling experience I think I will ever have. But Im so thankful for the encouragement of my sweet family and friends and of course Porter has put up with a lot of crazy personalities from this girl over the past year! haha, but halfway there and eye is on the prize!!