sunday six, weekend recap edition

(Editor's Note:  Should I acknowledge my lackadaisical approach to this blog in recent months? Do I apologize for my apparent slothfulness? Do I pretend we visited just yesterday? Do I go on and on, ad nauseum, trying to excuse myself while simultaneously convincing us both that I'll do better hereafter?  Sigh.  
I vote no - let's just jump back in & call it a win!)

Pure swoonylicious, is what he is

1.  It hit 80 degrees on both Saturday and Sunday.  Also, the sun was shining, it was breezy, and no humidity.  I do love me some spring.

However, all the warm did remind me of a couple of things:  First, a warm sunny day heats up the inside of an un-air-conditioned car considerably.  Second, little rids the neck of kinks and the stomach of knots like a ride down the highway with the windows down & the radio up.

...aaaand thirdly, riding down the highway with the windows down and the radio up renders one's hair a "little crazy," which was the assessment of the five-year-old.


2.  You just know it's going to be a good spring when you kick it off by attending a Food Truck Festival(!) downtown with the littles in tow.  That's right... food trucks stretched out over a city block (or more, who really knows) (it's not like I got past the designated littles area to actually measure) (it seemed like more).  Frankly, it was too crowded for me to delight in the actual dining possibilities because I'm immediately rendered non-hungry when lines wrap around for a sweet forever.  No lie, I ate nothing at said Festival, save the Pepsi we picked up on the way downtown.  However, it was still Big Fun for perhaps no reason other than it was clearly supposed to be.  As I told Kate, any time music is blasted through very loud speakers on a 79-degree evening it's an instant party.

I might have awkwardly pretend-danced a little with Norah while not one person paid me any mind at all.  Owo happily demonstrated his award-winning (not even kidding, he's a bonafide winner)  (I'll tell you sometime) booty-shaking skills for me, and I giggled more than once from the sheer happy of warm spring & crazy surroundings.


3.  Ironically, after eating absolutely nothing shifty and/or shady at the Food Truck Festival(!) I awoke with a stomach bug.  Seriously.  You can't make this stuff up.  


4.  Speaking of Owen, it's possible that I allegedly taught, encouraged him to engage in some problem-solving behavior that turned out to be new to him.

It took him approximately 30 minutes to get me into all kinds of trouble.

Which led me to shamelessly beg the little mister to please forget all he'd learned from me that day, before it was no longer funny & I landed in BIG TROUBLE with his mama.  He found the whole situation delightful and that's all I'm going to say about that.


5.  Audrey and Owen belting out "Let it Go" with no theatrics whatsoever (ha!) with Norah occasionally adding her two-cents.

Amen.


6.  Kari sent me the above sweet picture of Peyton at the Easter egg hunt after church today...You know, the Big Fun I missed because of stupid aforementioned stomach issue.  A big shout-out to my girl...receiving the pictures helped just the littlest tiny :)

sweeping over

Audrey spent the night with me on the 26th.  She told us she just needed to snuggle with Naynay for a while. 

(Just go ahead and Insert swoon here)


Here she is early in the morning (after trying her hardest to push me out of my very own bed all night long.)  The precious little angel...

The next morning we hit the road to Virginia to celebrate Christmas with my family.


She pooped out in less than an hour and spent the rest of the drive looking a little bit exactly like this:

I don't have photographic evidence, but I might have felt pretty much exactly the same way :)

we both vacated and recreated, and it was swell

So it's been another full-of-the-busy week, but the better kind of busy and not the cry-our-eyes-out kind.  Unless you are two years old or four years old or 15 months old. 

With that demographic there might have been the occasional cry-fest but that's only to be expected. 


Last weekend Donna schlepped all the way down 220 again and we finally(!) made it to the beach.  It's common knowledge that we have a bit of a vacation/road trip/plans-of-any-kind curse so it has surprised no one that we've scheduled said trip three times. 

The first postponement was due to dumb Sandy, and the second time we had snow and ice and also fluish miseries.  Therefore, we were so going to the sea this time.  It was now-or-never time, and never was not an option, come stormy weather or runny noses.  


So here's how it went and aren't you sorry I'm pretending you asked?


Friday afternoon was lovely at home, and we had a very nice day meandering around and getting tickled at stupid things and eating a super yummy lunch, and perhaps the best part of all, not freezing our toes off. 


Saturday was chilly but not awful, and the sun played hide & seek all day long, which made the drive pretty and happy. When we arrived we took a long stroll down the boardwalk, and although we laughed at the mere thought of swimsuits, we were mostly okay in our jeans & sweaters & sweatshirts & what have you.

Sunday was mostly great!  We contemplated sitting on the beach for approximately three minutes but ultimately decided there was nothing at all wrong with our oceanfront balcony, which was shielded from some wind that was trying to knock us around. 

We eventually donned capris and short sleeves and took a very long walk up the boardwalk.  At one point we stumbled upon a charity event and stood around enjoying the music and dancing and general family-ness taking place, and we might have proceeded to eat even more overpriced, ocean-front goodness while pretending we didn't have a care in the world. 


Note:  "Getting away from it all" is pretty much as nice as it sounds. 
Getting away...I'm a fan.


Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and it's all fun & games until the rain pours, which can mean only one thing...

It's time to find my reindeer jammies and warm socks, and on Sunday evening that's exactly what I did.  The rain came rolling back, and that was the end of the sunshine for the remainder of our vacation.  It's entirely possible we ordered room service and watched a lot of television that was just "eh" and loved every minute of it. 

We drove home Tuesday evening and I'm not lying when I say we never once saw the sun.  It was hiding but good.

I was kind've bummed that I had to work while there, but it couldn't be helped seeing as how my vacation time was g-o-n-e after the events of the last six weeks, and anyway I'm not allowed to complain because how many among us can take their work to the sea with them?  Not many that's how many.

And besides, I'm not sure you're even allowed to call it work when you can hear the surf pounding, your buddy is sitting alongside pinning like a fool for her son's upcoming nuptials, AND the Pepsi is flowing freely. 

Anyhoo, that's what I did last weekend a whole week ago. If things go well I might tell you about this weekend sometime before next weekend. I'm timely and relevant like that.



(p.s.  Sorry for the sad little photographs of us but I think we are all aware of my photographical limitations and someone once said better awful than nonexistent. 
Okay it was me.  I said it, but still...)



Y'all have a great Monday!

so, since we chatted last...

I did a little of this...

...and a whole lotta this.

Rain or shine, seaside is still one of the happiest places on earth :)

 

 

 

yesterday in excruciatingly detailed, detail

Hi Peyton!  (He isn't here.  His mama texted me this picture this morning to remind me of where I belong.)

You'll be glad to know that yesterday was full of several kinds of great.

Tana works at home in the mornings & I suspect that has aggravated her a bit, but I'm fine and completely content just lying around sipping my Diet Dr. Pepper (ugh) and generally just being a slug in the mornings.


I was fine anyway because it took me a good while to wander around her house in the bright, sunshiny light of day, just...looking. Y'all, it's so wonderfully pretty.  It's all southwesty and colorful and warm and mostly just her. I told her the night I arrived that it feels like where she should have been all along. Their home just feels like their home. Isn't that interesting?  (Frankly I would enjoy that insight much more if Houston wasn't A ZILLION MILES away from me.)  (NO BUENO.)


Anyhoo, we went for a quick walk around the neighborhood.  Note the quick because THE WIND.  In spite of our brisk trot I still got a good look around, and I know it's an awful thing for a transplanted Virginian to say but I'm really digging all the flat. I suppose it would get old after a while but I LIKE seeing miles of sky all the time.


After lunch we went to Tana's dental appointment and that was some BIG FUN going on right there. The man sitting next to me lied to my face and told me he had the flu just to watch me squirm, and frankly that kinda made him a friend for life even though I never got his name. Seriously y'all, how fun is it to look at random strangers in close spaces and tell them you're contagious?  That right there is some good funny.

As soon as Tana's teeth were all sparkly we did the only thing we could do. We hit Sonic for Happy Hour and enjoyed our large soft drinks with much sugar. Oh how I love my Tana and our shared appreciation for the sugary beverages.


Drinks in hand, we ventured forth to The Hobby Lobby. Y'all, that place is not overrated. It was my first visit but I loved everything about it.    I might have found many things I would have loved to sneak on the plane but I think they would have noticed, so I settled for some super cool decorative knobs I will hang on my bedroom wall just because I can.


(Have I lost you yet? I apologize for all the rambling but unfortunately I have no intention of stopping any time soon. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves...)


As soon as we sprinted out of Hobby Lobby we made our way to her church for a meeting of their benevolence committee. I'm so glad she brought be along because I enjoyed every single minute of it. I loved meeting some of her friends from church, and I really loved peeking into their process and hearing them discuss the different ways they are trying to love the people in their community. All I can say is they are doing a good amount of loving on people here in Texas, and frankly that just makes me love them.

After grabbing some yummo fast food chicken from a place of which I forgot the name (they had great fried okra! and rolls to die for!) we came home and watched 2016, an appropriately disturbing episode of Wife Swap, and then scored with the season premier of Project Runway.


And then I went to bed.

The end.

p.s. Today we were planning to go to The Galleria, which by some accounts is the fourth largest mall in the United States but Tana may need to work and you know how much I enjoy staying home, so it's fine by me if it doesn't work out.   Especially since neither Prada nor Gucci is in my budget this particular week. Although, I do have it on good authority CHEESECAKE FACTORY, so there is that.

p.s.s. Willie comes home tonight and I can't wait to hug his neck and then chatter on incessantly until his eyes roll back in his head. It's going to be GREAT!

y'all. there's a palm tree in her backyard

Here's the thing...

 

 

 

I may never leave.

so do I go with the window or aisle?

Okay.  So here's the deal.  I know I'm not supposed to tell you that I'm traveling because of all the BREAKING AND ENTERING and what-have-you, but no one knows where I live and even before I moved the only people who knew where I lived were you guys and you would never break or enter.  So y'all, I'm traveling today!


I have embarked on my first official vacation.  And by vacation I mean I am NOT WORKING EVEN AT ALL and not only that but I'm leaving on a jet plane.

Can you even believe it?  It's been a million years since I flew the friendly skies and I just now realized I might should be mildly nervous.  Whatever.  I'm just relieved that my senior-citizen-vehicle made the drive to Raleigh and also that I made it through security with no beeps or alarms and only suffered the mildest of indignities during said security check.  I'm calling it a win.

Of course in my desire not to be stressed out by all the busy and unfamiliar I wanted to get here nice and early, and I'm thinking we can call that mission accomplished because HERE I SIT, completely through security a solid two hours before my flight.  I suppose I overshot things a bit but better safe than sorry is my motto. 

(I don't really have a motto but I'm thinking if I did that could be it.)

Whatever. 
I made it, and barring any kind of me-like unforeseen catastrophe I should be good to go.


Now my big decision is whether to purchase that Dramamine Tana keeps NOT SO SUBTLY encouraging me to purchase.  Apparently Texas is a stormy destination this afternoon and she is concerned about my gastrointestinal comfort.  I'll let you know later if I commence with some upchucking.

p.s.  I'm so weird.  I hadn't been sitting here five minutes and I was thinking about how it was a shame I hadn't brought my foot pedal so I could work a bit because HEAVEN FORBID I just be still.

timhntty part four (and this one's a doozy)

I'm moving!


(Again!)


But this time I'm crossing state lines.

Yup.  It's true.  I'm off to Carolina.


Sorry I didn't tell you sooner, but Big Things have been happening very fast and I've been a little a lot on the busy side helping Kari get moved while simultaneously getting myself packed up and holding down my day night job.


I'll share more details later (ad nauseum no doubt), but for now I'll just tell you that on this very day I am moving into a little apartment almost exactly between Kari's new home and Katie's home.  

I had no intentions of moving again, like ever, but when God put Kari and Drew less than an hour away from Katie and Jeremy it only seemed right to consider...and then this apartment became available at a delightfully reasonable price, so it only seemed right to grab it and go all YAY ADVENTURE.  (Three cheers for move-in specials!) 

Anyhoo, that's what I'm up to.  I hope y'all have a wonderful weekend :)
I'll be in touch when I crawl out from under the boxes!

best laid plans

In honor of my long-awaited vacation I thought I would share a few pictures...

...of where I am not.


sigh.

I would say something like dern hurricane!, but that would be an example of some ungrateful cussin.'


So I won't. 


Instead I'll just suggest we all make a great weekend wherever we find ourselves :)

a different tradition wouldn't be the worst thing in the world

So I left the house yesterday.  

And yes, that is noteworthy.  It doesn't seem to matter where home is; I inevitably like to stay there!


That being said, as much as I like home I don't hate getting in the car and schlepping to the vicinity of the mall for a bit.  (Especially when the weather is as nice as it's been lately!)  Yesterday's big adventure involved a visit with the eye doctor with the accompanying confirmation that six years is long enough to wear the same pair of glasses.  (That's one of my specialties, you know, sticking with what I already have for approximately three years longer than I should.)


After finishing up with Doc D I headed on to Ross Dress For Less to amble around and chat with Katie and Owo on the phone for a bit while shoppers stared, and then I rounded out the day at my Happy Place, aka Target.  I might or might not have wandered around for an hour or two, looking at I-have-no-idea-what and sipping on their dependably-good fountain Pepsi on ice.  


And then I came home.  

And went to work.

And massaged my temples dramatically as I moped about my headache.


...And tucked two little boys with very good report cards into bed.

The midday calm before last year's doggone storm

I might also have deliberated with Donna about our burning question of the day, which would be this:   

Exactly what is the acceptable level of gale-force-windy-ness??  

Our long-awaited, mini-vacation is this weekend, just in time for what has apparently been dubbed "Frankenstorm."

sigh.

Can you even believe it?  Another trip and we are again considering things like The Cone of Uncertainty.  We're completely fine with rain and wind and un-beachy weather because I do not have to log into my place of employment for several days in a row which does not happen often.  

However, I am a fan of  neither beachy evacuations nor power outages. 

It's all vacation-y fun and games until the cable goes out and you can't watch 37 episodes in a row of NCIS, and then things can turn ugly in a hurry.   

We're supposed to hit the road bright and early Saturday morning, so we have another day to think about it until we can stand to think no longer.  Donna's determined to embrace the adventure, and I myself love a good story to tell the kiddies, but still, the question.   

How hard can the wind blow before we would need to hide under the bed?  


This is not a rhetorical exercise, so please feel free to share your two cents.



It's FRIDAY, y'all...let's make it a good one!

the (very green) greenway

Elijah and I have started taking a daily constitutional on our local hiking/biking trail.

It meanders around the city for miles & miles... and miles.

Sometimes he's really excited about it and sometimes he throws a fit and proceeds to share in a loud voice how exhausting it is to be seven.

I've been known to ignore said bellyaching and drag him along in his jammies.

I'm not known around these parts as Aunt Meanie for nothing, ya know.

These pictures were all taken during a 30-minute stretch along the trail last week.

Country living in the middle of the city.

Pretty terrific :)

Happy Wednesday!