Home.

For  a couple of days, anyway.  We leave Wednesday night to spend the night in Raleigh, before flying to Houston on Thursday...

Now, I'm going to share some things from my visit with Papa.

We had a really great week together, a week I will cherish for the rest of my life.  I'm going to list out some favorite moments now, in no particular order... Listening to him talk to an African friend in French on the phone.  He switched to French with no problem, and I was surprised that I could understand most of the conversation still.  When he hung up, I was showing him a picture of Bella.  He asked me a question about it in French before realizing he was off the phone, and I still understood the question, but answered him in English.  We both had a good laugh.  Each night, after dinner, we spent an hour talking about everything from his childhood, to meeting my Grandmother, WWII, leaving for language lessons in Paris (I mean what better place to learn French!), the first time they set foot in Africa, my visit to Africa and what memories stood out most for me from my trips, my Mom's childhood, stories of all us grandkids through the years, and so much more.  We had breakfast together in the morning where we watched the hummingbirds fight over the feeder, and squirrels and cardinals share a mason jar tossing of seed on the concrete slab where a nice swing used to be.  I learned a lot about Somba houses (giant mud huts in Africa), how they were made, and what each room was used for.  I read 5 books and watched almost no tv for a week, and it felt super :)  We ate fresh vegetables or fruits from someone's garden everyday.  Each night, before I tucked Papa in to bed, I sat with him while he prayed, and then I gave him several kisses and hugged him tight while whispering how much I love him in his ear.

Papa is my hero, and I love him more than I will ever be able to express in words.  It was really hard to say goodbye.

Now, I'm home, and very happy to be.  It felt really good to see my husband and kiddo's smiling faces this morning <3  As for today, we have a couple of errands to run before heading to swim lessons.  Jen Hamilton is coming over for a bit this afternoon, and I need to finish up B-bo's flower girl dress.  It should be a nice day.

My turn.

It's my turn again, and I gladly accept.  I am headed back to Hattiesburg today to take care of Papa for a week so that my Mom can go home and take care of some stuff before Andrew's wedding.  I will be back on Monday, home for a couple of days, and then off to Houston for the big day <3

June has now become the month of travel.

I just hope I have the strength to remain neutral between my Mom and Uncle Randy.  Things are slightly heated and I want no part of it!

Time to get dressed, finish packing and head to the airport.

xoxoxx

Flower Girl Dresses

As I was working on Bella's flower girl dress today, a fun little thought occurred to me.  My Mom made a flower girl dress for me for her brother's wedding, and I'm making a flower girl dress for Bella for my brother's wedding.  Kind of cool.  All that's left is a zipper and a hem, but I need Bella to complete both of those tasks, and she is spending the night with Allie tonight.  I can finish when I get back next week, no problem.  Now, it's time for a glass of wine and some laundry folding.

What else has been going on...

While Bella and I were at the beach, Vince was at home working and dealing with having water damage to the roof repaired.  Good thing he was there because it turned out to be way more damage than initially expected, which translates to, "more expensive to fix."  This year is quickly becoming the year of our house.  Here is a short list so far... Water damage repair, new fridge, replacement of the bay window, removal of about 10 trees, painting in the interior, and odds and ends here and there.  a.lot.

Sunday, we had to take down 2 of the 3 Bradford Pears in our side yard because they are diseased.  The 3rd will eventually come down too, but after we clean up the 1st 2.  They were all big trees, so it's going to be quite a job, and it's providing me with a free workout hauling tree limbs to the backyard :)

Tomorrow, I leave for Hattiesburg again, to take care of Papa for a week so my Mom can go home and take care of some things before Andrew's wedding.  I won't be home until next Monday, which gives me only one full day at home before we leave for Andrew's wedding.  We will be driving to Durham Wednesday night to spend the night with Keri because it saved us $700 on plane tickets to leave from Raleigh vs. Charlotte.  sucks...  It still cost $1300 for the 3 of us to fly to Houston which makes no sense.  It's cheaper for us to fly to NYC.  And trust me, I have been price shopping for months now and prices have not budged.

For now, I need to switch the laundry, get dressed, and make a Hobby Lobby run so I can complete Bella's flower girl dress before taking her to Allie's to spend the night.  Then I need to make sure everything is in order for Vince while I'm gone, pack, and try to get a little sleep.  All right, time to get moving...

Pawley's Island Trip

On Tuesday, I picked Bella up from school at noon, and we grabbed a bite to eat at Subway before meeting up at Pap Pap and Jamma's to load up our beach gear and head to Pawley's Island, SC to meet up with the Lyday clan for a fun filled beach week.  We arrived around 5ish, just in time for happy hour on the beach.  While the adults enjoyed wine/beer, the kiddos did some wave jumping/castle building before we headed up for a yummy homemade dinner of pasta and meatballs.  The kids were out by 9 and the adults played a game of Set (super fun) while drinking more wine.  Great way to start a vaca at the beach.

Wednesday.  Bella woke up at 5:30 with the sunset, but I made her wait until we heard Pap Pap (6:30 a.m.) before she could get up.  After breakfast, we headed to the beach where we stayed most of the day doing a little bit of everything.  The house is right on the beach, with a private outdoor shower under the deck of the house, so the kids were free to go back and forth as they pleased all day.  There was also a dock across the path in front of the house where we could fish and check the crab trap.  All crabs were only examined, discussed and then set free, none were harmed during our visit.  After dinner, we had movie night.  Bella and I had put together a little popcorn bucket for each kiddo full of movie treats for this occasion.  The movie was Despicable Me, and the treats were devoured entirely.  During the movie, the grown-ups played Bananagrams in which I was quickly challenged for most of my words.  The fun part was watching Katie look up each word only to discover that they were in fact real words.  I play a lot of Scrabble :)  I ended this night sitting on the back deck, looking at the stars and listening to the ocean.  Perfect.

Thursday.  Mixed in with a lot of back in forth beach time was a lot of board game playing.  Apples to Apples, Uno, Sorry, Risk, Checkers, Chess, and Jenga just to name a few.  Jamma made gin & tonics for happy hour, and we had a delicious shrimp dinner paired with fresh veggies from Pap Pap's garden.  We all watched Kung Fu Panda together, before calling it a night.  Another great day was had by all.

Friday.  Today was our last day at the beach so it was time to soak up as much as possible.  Bella and I headed out early, around 9 a.m., to do some wave jumping and cartwheel practice.  After about my 10th cartwheel, I stopped for a second and happened to look down by my feet.  I found a sand dollar about the size of the palm of my hand.  It was also unbroken.  Bella ran to show Jamma what we found because sand dollars are her favorite, and it sent everyone shooting out of the house to search for stuff on the beach.  We found beautiful conch shells with the creatures inside that we inspected and put back in the ocean.  Lots of starfish and several types of crabs.  Bill and Ben saw a tiny shark some folks had caught, and all of us watched schools of tiny fish swim around in tiny tide pools while we searched.  I felt like part of the Nature Channel, and Bella was loving every minute of sea creature discovery.  After a great last day at the beach, we all got cleaned up and decided to go out to dinner for pizza.  The pizza was delicious, and it was nice to get out of the house for a little bit.  The movie for this evening was Madagascar, and while the boys and Bella watched the movie, the ladies read on their Nooks.  Katie, Jamma and myself all have one :)  I did a quick star gaze before calling it a night, and tried to soak up listening to the waves while I fell asleep one last time <3


Saturday.  We were all up by 7, and packed and with the house clean by 8.  Pretty good for 9 people if you ask me.  We were on our way home by 8:30, and back in Mint Hill at 1.  Vince was certainly happy to have his girls home after a long week of dealing with roof repair, but that's for another post.  I will catch up on all the other fun stuff later today.

For now, I'm off to finish Jenny's t-skirt and Bella's flower girl dress before I head back to Hattiesburg, MS on Tuesday to relieve my Mom for a bit.  It's been a crazy 3 months to say the least.  Now, I'm off to sew, and more to come later.

xoxoxox

Highlights

Here are some highlights from the last 15 days in no particular order.  Well in stream of conscience order anyway...

• At least 7 or 8 fires in the firepit
• A fun project with Bella's class to make an apron for Miss Ensley
• Buying a new fridge in Memorial Day because we had to... Did I mention our old one was full of food.  Bonus!
• We set up our 20 gallon fish tank, added fish, and will be adding live plants once the super cool light comes.  I gotta say, I was skeptical at first, but I am really enjoying the fish tank.  We have 6 fish right now... Red & Fred, Blue & Bell, Molly and Whiskers - a tiny catfish.
• I made a cool tee for Bella's friend Lily for her birthday.  Bella asked what her favorite colors/animals were.  Pink/Purple and Giraffes/Bunnies/Sharks - great combo if you ask me.  I put an "I <3" with silhouettes of her three favorite animals cut from tee scraps onto a hot pink tee which we paired with a ruffly purple skirt.  It.was.awesome.
• Today is Bella's last day of school because we are going to go to the beach this afternoon for the rest of the week!  I am picking her up at noon, and then we will meet up with Pap Pap and Jamma to ride down to the beach house we will be sharing with Katie, Bill and the boys!  Bella cannot wait to hang with her cousins, and I can't wait to go to the beach!
• Vince landed a bunch of new clients at work and earned some hella commissions.
• They added new episodes to "Hoarders" on Netflix... 
• Bella spent one full car ride to school talking and acting like a pirate.  words.can't.describe.
• THE POOL IS OPEN!!!!
• I may be teaching sewing lessons to a few kiddos this summer.  The parents at B-bo's school have taken notice of my sewing (not that I didn't wave it in their faces all year :)) and have begun to inquire about sewing lessons.  I'm thinking, why not?!  <3
• Today will be the last photo of Bella's Fashionable First Year... I did it!  Started and followed through!  I think I will turn it into a photo book and give copies to grandparents and teachers.
• Miss Ensley told me she had to quit doing reading flash cards with Bella and Lily because it was upsetting the kindergartners...  Her response to the whiners, "It's not my fault the 4 year olds set the bar so high."  I'm really going to miss her next year!
• I went to a Volunteer Breakfast at B-bo's school Monday morning.  It was delicious and as an added bonus several classes did little performances for us including Bella's class.  They sang "What a Wonderful World" and did sign language along with it.  FANTASTIC.  
• Our first super sweet peas from the garden are ready to eat and so yummy.  Bella had mulberries from the front yard and peas from the veggie garden with dinner one night.  Half her dinner came from our yard.  way.cool.
• We have been doing lots of artwork and creating in general.  At least 6 paintings/drawings have been created.
• Allie spent the night one night, and Laura and I met up with Jen Hamilton for dinner at RooSans followed by a performance of Rent at the Charlotte Theatre.  I've never seen Rent before and it was a wonderful show.  The girls had a blast, Vince and the girls on the other hand, had a hard night that ended in everyone crying and Allie begging to go home.  What's the first thing Allie asks Vince the next morning, "Can I stay another night?"  Classic.

Now I need to make one of my final drives to Chantilly for this school year, then I will race home to finish packing for the beach :)

I'm back!

Well sort of... I have a Volunteer Breakfast and a Going Away Picnic for Miss Ensley at lunchtime at Bella's school.  That being said, I will catch up a little later this afternoon as to what has been going on around here for the last 2 weeks <3

Happy Monday!