Soccer, Parties, and a Date

This weekend seemed to fly by with one fun activity after another. The best part is we now have less than 2 weeks until we're home! Friday night was a birthday party for a friend at The Beach House. The gorgeous setting was the perfect backdrop for our color scheme of white, cream, and gold. Decorating the tables and designing name cards kept me busy last week. We topped the white linen tablecloths with Birds of Paradise in rectangular vases surrounded by gold sashes. White and cream rose petals and gold beads were sprinkled around the tables. And a brown and gold wrapped chocolate sat at each place setting.





While the USA was still in the World Cup, we watched all the games with our friends at De Big Fish, a great little restaurant on the beach. Here are a couple pictures of Ryan and I on our way to the game this weekend. Even the sides of the road are beautiful down here!



On Sunday afternoon we had a barbecue at a friend's house to say good-bye to some of the favorite professors in the MPH program who are leaving after this semester. There has been a lot of drama among the faculty in recent weeks. A couple of the best and most qualified professors did not have their contracts renewed due to disagreements with the department chair. And a few other professors decided to leave when they found out. One of the professors who was asked to not come back is a Christian and has had a remarkable testimony of God's sovereignty in the situation. Ryan has enjoyed the time spent talking with him, and we'll miss him and his sweet family.

Yesterday Ryan and I stopped by the location where the banquet will be held next Friday. The restaurant has put together an incredible menu for us, and I can't wait to see it all come together. We'll have more pictures next weekend, but here is a sneak peek at the invitation and place card we created for the occasion. (Menu choice is listed on the name card to help the waiters.) The colors of the flowers match the decorations at the resort.



After our quick stop at the resort, Ryan and I headed to IGA. The grocery store is actually located at one end our little mall. We decided to check out the food court first, and ended up splitting a small cheese pizza. We both saw the Chocolate Espresso Milkshake at the same time and ordered one of those while we waited for our pizza. We ended up sitting in the food court and talking for a couple hours. I love spontaneous, unplanned dates!

These next two weeks will be a blur of banquet planning, baking cupcakes for another birthday next week, and packing our room. Yes, even though we are only gone for a month, we have to pack up our entire room and lock it in our closet. This also means we have to buy a padlock for the closet. We've been told that it is not wise or safe to leave anything accessible to the maintenance people or other workers who have access to our room. It makes for a lot of work and planning, not to mention that we are now trying to eat things we have on hand and not buy extra food unnecessarily. It will all be worth it, though, when we're back in Greenville spending time with our friends and family again.