Month: April 2022

Early February brought us a last minute trip to Illinois to check on Roy (Carl’s dad) who’s been having a lot of health issues. We flew in on a Friday and out on a Sunday and tried to knockout some productive things regarding finding Roy a new place to live in addition to spending time with him and my family. Time with Roy consisted of watching a lot of tv and movies (as usual). We got to see my parents and Amanda for a while at my Mom’s and Facetimed with Chris and Maya so it felt like more of us were together. We also got to stop by Ryan’s apartment in the city on our way to the airport on Sunday so glad I got to see my IL fam (missing Trev and Al) for even just a little bit.

In preparation for Peyton’s Wild & Wacky 10x5K race, my friend Helen and I started meeting up weekly in Hampton Park to run together which is always lovely.

Coming at a much-needed time was a trip to New Orleans with our fantastic friends, Melissa & Will. We’ve know them since I was in grad school at U of I (2007) and even though we’ve lived in different states ever since, we’ve done a pretty good job of seeing each other over the years. This was our first opportunity to go on a trip together and it was as glorious as I expected. It was early in Mardi Gras season so we got see see a parade (WOW) as well as check-out the WWII Museum (so much to see, almost too much to see) and just wander around. I love any time we get to spend with them.

Early in February we also found out that our lease is not being renewed this year as our landlords are going to be redoing the house and moving into it themselves. This unfortunately means we’ll be moving off of IOP as everything has just gotten too expensive. We started looking into other long-term rental options in both Mt. Pleasant as well as downtown, but struck out so the housing search continues.

The end of February is my birthday and worked out pretty cool this year as Chris and Maya had a wedding to attend in Kiawah the weekend before my birthday. They flew in the Thursday before the wedding so we could do dinner together and they could spend a night with us before the wedding festivities. We did dinner at R Kitchen because Chris had been eyeing that place for a while and then had drinks at The Royal American because I pass it all the time on the way into the office and was intrigued. The rest of the weekend included watching dachshund races (yes, that’s right, it was amazing) which were the cutest thing ever, trying some beer and chili at Holy City Brewing, and spending the entire day on Sunday just lounging at the house. Iris didn’t get to participate in the races because we couldn’t make the original date and didn’t sign her up, but I’m looking forward to getting her involved in the future because OMG will that be the best thing ever.

January is the month we celebrate the birth of the wonderful Carl Schmidt. This year to celebrate we had a delicious dinner at Coda del Pesce here on IOP on Friday night, did a scuba class then grabbed some beers with our friends Allison and Jon at Frothy Beard on Saturday, and did a walking tour of Charleston that ended in a wine-paired lunch on Sunday. To say fun was had is an understatement.

Carl’s been interested in getting scuba certified for quite some time so the class we took was just a kick-off to see if we liked it enough to move forward with the certification. We got comfortable with the equipment and just swam around a rec center pool throwing toy torpedos at each other. It was a great day and although Carl is wanting to take certification classes, time just hasn’t allowed recently.

The walking tour we did was called Undiscovered Charleston and I highly recommend it! It was led by a chef who integrated culinary historical facts with the rest of Charleston history. The tour ended at a little bistro where the chef prepared us lunch and the wine was flowing. It was weirdly chilly in Charleston that day, but we dressed appropriately and had a wonderful time.

In addition to celebrating Carl’s birthday, I also was able to visit my grandpa in Florida for his 91st birthday with all my siblings and my dad. It’s rare these days to get that many of our family members together so it was awesome that we were all able to make it. The 4 of us Ritchie sibs actually got to spend one whole night together just ourselves and that honestly never happens anymore (since we all have wonderful significant others) so that was pretty cool. Grandpa’s doing pretty well considering he’s 91 and my grandma’s been gone for just over 1 year. We actually got him out and about in his neighborhood and enjoyed drinks and lunch as the golf course clubhouse one day.

To continue the awesomeness of seeing my family in early January, Amanda drove back to SC with me and stayed at our house for the rest of the week. I’ve loved that she has a work-from-home job now and can spend longer periods of time visiting! We got to hang out, see her BFF Lindsey (who now lives in Charleston), and eat a delicious dinner at Rappahannock while she was here. I will always enjoy every minute she can spend here.