february 2014.

a recap of the entire month of february is about to happen in one post.

weekend 1 (jan 31- feb 2): i was home for the only weekend of 2014 and got the stomach flu. how special. 

weekend 2 (feb 7th - feb 9): i traveled to the good ol' "city" of hartsville, sc. two of my very best friends from college are from hartsville and they were throwing our pal laura a bridal shower there, so we made a weekend of it. and i sure am glad we did!

there are two bars hartsville, and one is a double wide trailer called j. michaels. an in j. michaels, you can go to the bar and order a PITCHER OF SHOTS FOR $25, which of course we did. and because i've been good friends with these girls for so long, i seriously knew half the people in the bar on friday night. it was amazing. the shower was adorable and i actually really loved their small town. we did every single "must do" hartsville thing and had a wonderful weekend!

and then the great snow storm happened. it was crazy for us southerners! it was the most snow i can ever remember seeing in charlotte. we couldn't drive anywhere for days. luckily, we live in a great spot and can walk to the grocery and more importantly, the bars.

weekend 3 (feb 14 - feb 17): CHEERSPORT! read more here. because of the snow, my flight to atlanta got cancelled and i didn't get down there until friday night. but i hit the ground running as soon as we got there, and i slept less this year than ever before. when i headed home on monday, i had slept for a total of 9 hours over the 3 nights i was in atlanta. but as usual, it's totally worth the work to see all of my cheer friends & spend the weekend doing what i love with my daddy!

weekend 4 (feb 21 - feb 23): murrells inlet, sc. rachel turned the big 26 so a gang of us headed down to her beach house for the weekend. we have spent so many weeks & weekends here over the years that it truly feels like a home away from home. i love everything about the inlet & love it best when i'm surrounded by 16 great friends. saturday was gorgeous and i spent a few hours on the beach relaxing with laura. saturday night we got a limo and went out in myrtle beach (disclaimer: we don't normally go out in myrtle beach) and it was a goooood time. maybe a little too good.

february has been full of fun! this weekend i'll be staying in charlotte for only the 2nd time since christmas. i'm really looking forward to it, even though i have to be at work at 6:45am on saturday... yuck! saturday night is the annual march forth with hope gala and sunday will be spent doing a whole lot of nothing.

bring it on, march!

mini CHEERSPORT weekend {atlanta, ga}

last weekend i went to atlanta with my dad to work a CHEERSPORT competition. {read more about CHEERSPORT here} i was planning to drive myself down after work on friday, but my dad had a busy day and ended up not leaving when he was supposed to, so we got to ride together. we got to atlanta around 9:30pm, checked into our beautiful suites, {thank you connections & omni for taking care of us!} had a beverage at the bar, and headed to bed.

{view from my room}

 

{view from my room - atlanta got a ferris wheel.. not sure how i feel about that!}

my 5am wake up call came quickly! i don't think i've woken up at 5am since nationals last  year. it was a loooong and pretty uneventful day which is always a good thing. we ended the evening having a drink with some of my dad's employees, i love them.

{i love our new backdrop}



{teams competed from 8am-10pm, breakdown was done in an impressive 30 minutes}

 

sunday morning i woke up too early for having been awake from 5am-2am on saturday. i laid in bed for a few hours doing absolutely nothing & it was glorious. i have been on the go non-stop since christmas, and i really enjoyed the down time on sunday morning. dad & i packed up and headed home around 11:30am, but not before i enjoyed room service in bed :)

{i love you, atlanta}

 

it was a quick but fun weekend and what i loved most was getting to spend so much time with my dad! being the baby of 3 girls, it's very rare that my dad & i get to spend one-on-one time together. i cherished our time together this weekend!

after 4 out of town trips and 1 weekend filled with baby showers all in the month of january, i'm looking forward to staying in charlotte this weekend. next up is a weekend in hartsville, sc {aka the middle of nowhere} for a bridal shower & the next week i'll be headed back to atlanta for 4 days for CHEERSPORT nationals!

rachel's going away party - except now she's not going away!

i met rachel way back when in 2006 during my freshman year at south carolina. we were in the same sorority, but i didn't get to do much my freshman year due to cheerleading demands. 36 of us moved into the house our sophomore year and we slowly but surely found our little "niche" in our pledge class of 65. it's safe to say we have been pretty much obsessed with each other ever since.

{carolina cup 2010}

rachel (or bradshaw as i like to call her) is from hartsville, south carolina. never heard of it? what? and while she has a small town heart, she has never had any intentions of being a small town girl. after graduation in 2010, rachel & i both moved to atlanta for work. and since we couldn't stand the idea of not living next door to each other anymore, rach moved into my apartment complex! we had a year full of shenanigans in atlanta before i unexpectedly moved back to charlotte. well guess what? rachel got transferred to charlotte about 2 weeks after i got home.

so last wednesday, i threw rachel a going away party because she was supposed to move back to atlanta this thursday. yes, as in tomorrow. like, signed a lease, bought a car (she had a company car since college) & packed all of her stuff in boxes. well, yesterday she got a kickass offer from the company she had originally wanted to work for here in charlotte. so looks like i get to keep my rach after all :) i really wasn't looking forward to living in different cities for the first time since we met 7 years ago and i'm super thankful that now we won't have to.

here are some pics from her georgia themed going away party!

{georgia peach fizz = vanilla vodka + frozen lemonade}

{the spread}

CHEERSPORT 2013.

about 12 years ago, my dad accidentally got involved in the cheer competition business. you see, he had quit his big time corporate job because he wasn't happy, and ended up getting involved with our cheer gym as a "summer project." at the time, CHEERSPORT was a small competition that had been dreamed up by my coaches. and when my business-minded father got involved, he realized this company had potential. so since 2001, my dad has been running CHEERSPORT, and it has grown into quite the crazy event. according to the atlanta journal constitution, CHEERSPORT draws in over 70,000 people to the city and creates $34 million in economic impact, making it the 3rd largest event in atlanta ever year. even bigger than the final four. pretty insane.

this past december, my dad made the big decision to sell CHEERSPORT. and even though he now works for someone again, business is as usual besides everyone's paychecks just come from a different place. we held our annual CHEERSPORT nationals this past weekend, and it was another great event.

{entrance to the competition; 1 of our 5 arenas; this year's competitor gift; our 200,000 sq ft warm up room.}

i got to atlanta on wednesday evening and grabbed a drink with my sweet little from my sorority. she moved to atlanta a few months ago, and we had a beer at a bar i love that i used to frequent when i lived in atlanta, six feet under. it was so great to see her, she is good for my soul.

thursday started the craziness, but we ended the evening at peasant bistro for a quick valentine's day dinner with my family and brett! we even rode back to the hotel in a horse & buggie... i wish i was kidding.

{our usual weird pic; brett & i at dinner; court & brett stunting...normal;  daddy & mary ann on the ride home}

the rest of the weekend was all work and no play. and as always, the highlight of CHEERSPORT is seeing all my cheer friends, and spending some quality time with my dad. after 5 long/awesome days in atlanta, we headed home to charlotte. can't wait to do it again next year!

 

{view from our room at the omni... i love.}