FINALLY a quick update on Spunky (isn’t the first child always ignored and neglected?!).  [Well, Spikey was really the first!]

November 14th, 2011 – the last documented mention of Spunky on the blog ::GASP:: (Me and Lisa from her and Seth’s 36 Hours of Fun!!!) 

Yesterday – July 24th, 2012

Check out those ridiculously pale tree stumps AND THEN check out Spunky (holy overly-pregnant-and-swollen monster legs — yikes!).

Hopefully you can tell that Spunky has grown quite a bit and is looking more and more like a real palm tree!  We are very proud!  It was quite windy when this photo was taken, so Spunky was definitely one with Willow Smith — “I whip my hair back and forth, I whip my hair back and forth…”

Please, for the love of the [dry] earth, check out our HORRIBLE lawn.  We’ve had NO working sprinklers all year.  The HOA has been working on it (something about salt water in the well), but for now – we have very burnt “grass.”  Gross. This drives my poor husband to CRAZYtown on a daily basis!

Happy Dr. Appointment Day Hump Day – I’ll keep y’all posted!

xoxo

 p.s. I fulfilled my fish & chips craving last night at Pearlz downtown.  YUM!  We headed to Bakehouse for a decaf frappe afterwards and then sat at Waterfront Park by the pineapple fountain for a while.  A perfect pre-baby date night…love my hubby! ♥

Beach Count: 77  

Pool Count: 32 

High Temperature: 96° 

Lisa and Seth came in Friday night at 6pm.  We had approximately 36 hours to spend quality time with them (we hadn’t seen them since June) AND show them around Charleston for the very first time.  Nooooo pressure.

thirty!six!hours!

This is how we do it…

(no pictures – sorry – I was too busy staring into Lisa’s eyes catching up!)

{My eyes were closed in the pic of Scott and I…shocker!}

Don’t get between girls and their cupcakes!!!  But seriously, the boys like them too.  ;)  We got 2 cotton candy, 1 chocolate peanut butter, 1 black bottom, and 1 pumpkin.  Y-U-M!

Lisa and I thought this was adorable, so we had to take a pic  =)

We had a great dinner!  Here is the only picture of the 4 of us…I failed at getting rid of our red eyes.

We had a FANTASTIC time with our guests and cannot wait for them to visit again – for 48 hours or more!!!  

Lisa and Seth – 5 more weeks until we see YOU in NEW YORK!  LOVE YOU!!!

Until then, 5 more days until my brother in-law arrives and 7 more until my brother comes to Charleston for the FIRST TIME – YAY!!!!

After that, more great friends will visit for the 2nd time in January…we LOVE visitors!!! 

p.s. Christmas came early for my husband…I’ve been voiceless for 2 days!!! ::Thank goodness for blogging!::

p.s.s. How could I forget this picture?  Me, Lis, and Spunky  =)

Beach Count: 64  

High Temperature: 73° 

I am not normally a person who does roundoff back handsprings carwheels somersaults for fried chicken.  I can take it or leave it.  But, Jestine’s Kitchen made me wanna find a gym mat.

Jestine’s Kitchen has been featured on Rachael Ray’s “$40 A Day,” the Food Network’s “Best Of,” Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” and in Oprah Magazine’s “O’s Charleston’s Travel Guide.”  In 2009 it received the “Readers Choice Award” from Southern Living magazine.

Jestine’s Kitchen is known for home cooking in a warm atmosphere.  A lil’ history… Jestine Matthews was a native to the low country who worked for the Ellison family in Charleston.  Ms. Matthews and the Ellisons built a lifelong friendship.  The owner of Jestine’s Kitchen is Shera Lee Berlin, the daughter to the only Ellisons’ child.  Jestine lived for an amazing 112 years, but her Southern home cooking lives on – on Meeting Street in downtown Charleston.

The rest in pictures -

Thirsty?  Have some water from this jug strapped to a tree outside of the restaurant (there’s no reservations and often a line long around the corner!).  We probably waited 30 minutes on a Friday night at 7:30pm.  FYI: There are fans running outside for comfort.

Pickles while waiting?  Yes, please!

 Ridiculous salt & pepper tchotchkes?  Check!

::holy cannoli, that’s how you spell chotchkey?!::

J’s “Kitchen” 

Scooter’s cuteness + sweet tea 

Yummy cornbread with butter swimming in maple syrup

AND DRUMROLL (US-gymnast-in-the-Olympics-style)…

Fried chicken (white meat only – that was our choice), mac & cheese, and mashed potatoes

If you can’t tell, there were 2 HUGE pieces of chicken.  It barely looked like I made a dent into this dish by the time I was full and we got 2 of these identical plates!!!  Needless to say, we had a lot of leftovers!!!

You probably think we spent a fortune, right?  Think again!

$32.87 before tip for 2 nights worth of dinner!

I very much enjoyed this dinner, but Scott CANNOT stop talking about it.  Time to go back AANNNNDDD invite my father…because he has yet to have fried chicken live up to the fried chicken that he ate in D.C. on a school trip when he was 13.  Yeah, he dreams about this chicken.  Time to make a new memory, Dad!!!

Are you a fried chicken lover?  What’s your biggest comfort food downfall?

I have many, but I’d say nachos and chili cheese dip top my list!

p.s. There were lots of Southern food choices on Jestine’s Kitchen’s menu including “Jes’s Meatloaf,” “Pecan Fried Chicken Breast,” “Okra Gumbo,” and “Peanut Butter & Banana Sandwich with potato chips.”  

p.s.s. Forget the fried chicken, that was THEE BEST sweet tea I’ve ever had – wheeeeeeeeeeee!

Beach Count: 61  

High Temperature: 74°