Wonderful Time Under Unfortunate Circumstances

I grew up in Chester,Virginia. I have remained in contact with my best friend (who was also my neighbor) all these years. In fact, our entire neighborhood remains in contact (God bless facebook!)

My friend's sister past away last week from a massive heart attack at age 44. I drove to VA on Saturday for the memorial. It was very sad and the circumstances were beyond horrible, but it was also wonderful seeing my friends and old neighbors. I hate that it took a funeral to get all of us in the same space. 

A highlight of trip was meeting my 3rd cousin, Jon David (my cousin's daughter's newborn son)
He had the sweetest smiles--but I think the flash on my camera surprised him each time!

Celebrating with Stacy...and scrapping a little!

This weekend, the girls got together to scrap a little bit and have a bridal shower for Stacy.  As usual, we enjoyed ourselves the entire time.  Stacy said my mom's homemade carrot cake was her favorite part!

Head over Heels

Yep... Literally head over heels. 

Tuesday evening, Will and I had a wonderful date night at Taste of The Town , the Hospice Fundraiser in High Point. We did many of the restaurant samplings, saw several friends, and really enjoyed our evening.

I said goodbye to Will in my driveway since he had to head back to Raleigh for work.  He was preparing to back up as I went down the steps leading to my house. This is where the story gets fuzzy....
Two, tiny frogs jumped, startling me. I tried not to step on either of them, but my balance was TOADally thrown off and I fell into the most ungraceful splat down four wooden steps onto the cement walkway.  My dress was up over my head, my necklace was firmly planted into my chin, I had dirt, debris and probably toad crap --cause let's face it, that surely scared them-- all over me.  I tried to spring back up---but wait, my body said, "Nope! You're 40 now.  Fall back down and get up s-l-o-w-e-r."
And I did.  Just in time to see Will wave goodbye and drive off.  (Stop.  Wait.  Come back!)
WHAT THE HELL???  Did he not see his future wife do the 360 dismount down the steps and faceplant the walkway??? 
:sigh:  I guess not.  I limped into the house and called his cell. 
Needless to say he turned around and came back to help me clean up the cuts and scrapes and bruises--and ice my immediately numbed foot.  It hurt like a mutha.  Luckily I still have pain meds leftover from my surgery.
I woke up today to a nasty colored toe, numb shooting pains in my foot, contusions on my leg, swollen hand and a swollen chin.  I went to the doctor to find out I had torn ligaments, a broken big toe (at the joint) bone fragment,  and something about my tendon I can't remember.  I'm taking anti-inflammatory pain meds, doing the ice and elevation thing for the next 4 days and I have to wear this special boot (aka ugly shoe) for a month.  It's a shame this shoe is so ugly because I bet it costs more than my last pair of Taryn Rose dress heels!
I tried to invent this colorful story about how Will uppercut punched me with his SuperBowl ring and then pimp hand slapped me down the steps.  For some reason, he has this reputation of being this sweet, lovable, laid-back guy so people just laugh when I attempt to blame this on him :-)

So, yeah, basically I'm a klutz and gravity is a bitch.

Just Beachy

We spent a 4-day weekend at Myrtle Beach last weekend with the family.  Spencer and IV had a fantastic time playing in the surf, digging in the sand, boogie boarding, swimming, riding bikes, playing games, goofing off and watching movies.  It was good weather, we got some shopping in, saw two movies (Dinner for Schmucks and SALT) had nice dinners out, relaxed, read magazines and enjoyed our time with the kids before the hustle of school starting back up.

Weekend of Unfinished Business...

Yep-- it was a weekend of "Unfinished" things--but that's not a bad thing.  In fact it was pretty good.

We didn't quite finish the First Friday party with the women's group from church.  We had appetizers at Natty Greens, did some shopping, tried to avoid the folks giving out "free hugs" and tried our darnedest to figure out what "glitter cigarettes" were at a junk store selling bongs, without getting ourselves in trouble....but 15 text messages/calls from her store and 1 stress headache later, Laura had her husband come pick us up a little early. But that's okay-- we had some fun and it was all good!

Will came to town for the weekend. Saturday was a hoot.  Since it was tax-free weekend, we went clothes shopping. I almost got us lost. Twice. 
Will hasn't lived around here in twenty years so he depends on me for directions when we are going places he isn't familiar with (in this case, Friendly Center) and I was playing Car Bingo with Spencer and not paying attention.  Twice.  But the true test of husband material is if he lost his cool about it...and he did not.

After shopping, and meeting my family for dinner, Will and I decided to go to the movies and saw Inception.  At least I think we did....maybe we were dreaming we saw it....or maybe he was dreaming we saw it and I was in his dream.  It was one of those movies where you enjoy it when you are watching it but once you walk out, it's like...meh.

Sunday, Will and I pulled the broken gutter off the house, weeded, repaired the bathroom wallpaper, made cookies, re-soiled the rosemary plant, fixed the toilet seat....uhmmm...not necessarily in that order---haha! We couldn't finish the gutter because I didn't have the right tools and he didn't have his with him.  We'll get to it next time.  Then we had to say goodbye again.  For over a year we have been making this long distance relationship work. We can do it  for another 7 months, right?

We decided to marry on St. Patrick's Day 2011 --hopefully--- assuming Will can transfer to a state job here in the spring.  Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Interview with Spencer (age 9)

A very enlightening experience!

1. What is something I always say to you?
Do a great job in school.
(okay..this is true)

2. What makes me happy?
Seeing me happy
(Awwww. This warmed my heart.  Seeing him happy does make me the happiest!)

3. What makes me sad?
When a pet dies.
(Wow. This answer surprised me.  We haven't had a pet die in years and even then it was a very, very old pet and it was a natural progression.  I kind of expected him to say something different here...)


4. How do I make you laugh?
Do silly things like make jokes with words.
(Yep.  Nail on the head.  He even went on to include an example from last night when my brother accidentally partly ripped Spencer's $100 bill he was saving for Disney and Spencer got mad and demanded "You're buying me a new one!"  We laughed, of course!)


5. What do you think I was like as a child?
Cute, fun little girl who played softball, had lots of friends, and read all the time
(sounds about right)


6. How old am I?
40
(damn.  This one he gets right.)


7. How tall am I?
Six feet tall
(sigh.  only in 5 1/2 inch stripper heels!)


8. What is my favorite thing to do?
Read
(yep.)

9. What do I do when you're not around?
Work and Cook
(Too bad the correct answer isn't attend glamorous parties, workout, invest my lotto winnings...etc.)

 10. If I become famous, what will it be for?
Reading
(If you can become famous for this, I might have a chance!)

 11. What am I really good at?
Cooking
(Bless his heart.  He thinks I'm a good cook.)

12. What am I not really good at?
Climbing trees
(He missed the obvious answer: SINGING!)

13. What is my job?
Bank of America
(Even when pressed, he couldn't tell me WHAT I did for the bank other than talk on the phone and type on a computer. )


14. What is my favorite food?
Grilled Chicken Samich
(I guess he figures if I order it all the time it must be my favorite, right?)


15. What makes you proud of me?
You help people and you cook for people.
(I think he means I do Mobile Meals.  I just deliver, I don't cook it. But I do bring the folks on my route goodies every now and then.)


16. If I were a cartoon character, who would I be?
Goofy
(Really Spencer? Goofy? I'm more of a Bugs Bunny!)

 17. What do you and I do together?
Legos, Board games, bake cookies, walk Bowser, watch TV, movies, cards, shop...
(I'm proud to say, Spencer had no trouble firing off several things easily to answer this question.  We do lots together!)

18. How are we the same?
We both like cherries and we have blue eyes.
(I found it funny that the first thing he thought of was Cherries!)

 19. How are you and I different?
I'm a boy and you're a girl---and I like to swim and you don't!
(Yep.  I have a water phobia!)


20. How do you know that I love you?
You give me hugs and kisses and always help me.
(Sweet kid, huh?)


21. Where is my favorite place to go?
Barnes and Nobles
(Word.)
 
 
22. What has been my favorite vacation so far?
Alaska!
(Thanks Nana and Boppa!)
 
 
23. If I had $1000 what would I do with it?
We would go on vacation to Disney or the Beach.  Because hotels are expensive.
(I love how cost conscience my kid is about travel expense--ha ha  He always wants to go on a trip and I'm constantly telling he that we have to save up for it!)
 

I can afford Crab Legs but not DumDum suckers....

Will and I had "date night" with the kids on Saturday night.  The boys wanted the steak and crab leg special from Outback so the special pricing combined with our coupons for free appetizers made for a reasonably priced good dinner out.
Then, instead of movies, they chose bowling.  Even with the bumpers up, it was an exercise in humility. But we laughed the entire time and all the goofy pictures from the evening are priceless.

And when did bowling get so expensive? $52.00 for the four of us to play two games (with shoe rental)
Holy strike and a spare!  And that doesn't even include the quarters wasted in the arcade trying to win 40 tickets to cash in on a dum-dum sucker.  Yeah, you read that right, it took 40 tickets to get 1 cheap piece of candy. 

But that's okay-- our boys had fun and made some great memories ♥

We're U9 but U10 feels so good we play U11...and U12

Spencer and IV play in a soccer challenge league.  They are eight and nine but play up a league. Although they should be U10, we have them playing in U11 tournaments. Their first two tournaments, including the one this weekend, had some U11 and U12 combinations.  Kids at that age take a massive growth spurt so they really outsize our kids!  Plus, this is our first year in the league, and although our boys are good players, they are new to the 3v3 format--and it has been quite the learning experience.  That's the polite way of saying the poor kids are getting whipped by bigger, more experienced kids.  But it's good for them-- after this season, they will have lots of experience and toughen up, right?