“across the U.S.A”

Last week we went to the beach for a few days, it was our anniversary! Neither of us are huge beach people but I do love listening to the waves and feeling the breeze…..if I had a book and umbrella, even better. We walked on the beach some, read books, hubby hit golf balls on the driving range every day, went shopping some, ate seafood every chance I got and went to see a movie. Mostly relaxing except for the work calls he kept getting each day; this time of year is his busy season and work is hard for him to get away from!

View from the balcony…….it doesn’t show up once I sized this picture down but way off in the distance were quite a few oil rigs. They seemed to be everywhere down there.

One morning we noticed quite a few dolphins swimming/playing in the water close to shore. I took a few pictures from the balcony and then we walked down to the beach to see them even closer. They were hard to catch when they were out of the water!

And yeah, that doesn’t show up well after sizing!

We had fun company over the weekend, more golf was involved! We gave a wedding luncheon for a young couple and I’ve been trying to regroup this week but not having much success getting back into the swing of things. Thank goodness it’s almost the weekend again!

“that leads to your door”

The trip between my house and Charlotte is a long one! And could be even longer with the 2 year old that came back with us because we made a few more stops than normal. We had to find a McD*nalds that had a place play for lunch, sometimes not an easy feat we learned. Then we packed up the rest of Liz’s things from Tuscaloosa. Katelyn was actually very good and never whined or fussed at all. I’m thinking it wasn’t our company but some magical, special things we had with us that she is allowed to have on car trips!

1. a paci……she’s been calling it her “nappie” lately because she normally only gets it at nap times, car trips are an exception!
2. a pink blanket
3. “baa baa”….a loved and wee bit worn lamb that I hope they don’t lose anytime soon!

Oh and this feature in my car that I used for the first time on this trip came in very handy as well!

4. The drop down dvd player; she LOVED watching movies! Yes that is a christmas one, she didn’t care….but Dora and Diego were popular too!

We were thrilled to have all those things with us on a long road trip!

I’ve been thinking for a few weeks that I might should make another quick trip to North Carolina before the kids moved back. It would be a good time for Elizabeth to go with me and Kathryn thought we could help keep the kids occupied for them. So this past weekend when E got through with her classes we headed out. We shopped in Birmingham a bit for her but she didn’t find what she was looking for. We stopped and spent that night on the road so we could break up the driving. Then in South Carolina we made an impromptu stop at a farm stand we kept seeing signs for! They had tons of peaches and peach related foods, so we bought a bottle of Cheerwine to split! I have read the Mitford books which mention someone having a bottle of cheerwine but had never had it or heard of it. It’s more of a Carolina thing I think; we decided it was a bit like a cherry coke.
We’ve been here for a few days just visiting and trying to help out some. We’ve played with the kids, been swimming a few times, packed a few boxes, and hustled everyone out on short notice so the realtor could show the house. Tuesday someone looked twice and has emailed back with questions so we’re praying that something will come from that showing!
We’re driving home today; bringing Kathryn’s china with us and stopping in Tuscaloosa for the rest of Elizabeth’s boxes from when she moved out a few weeks ago. We’re a little tired and might be even more so after an 11-12 hour drive home but it was a fun last minute trip that I’m glad I was able to make with a sweet daughter along for the ride!

I got home from North Carolina late Tuesday night and was pretty much good for nothing on Wednesday. One way is roughly 655 miles, which makes for a loooong drive by myself! This time I made a stop in Atlanta to meet Lynne, another blogger. What fun! We had lunch and visited for a while and I enjoyed talking with her so much. She was sweet to come meet me along the road! It was only after Atlanta that I got bored and really tired. I listened to Atlanta traffic and weather for about 30 minutes straight while navigating the roads there. Then I flipped through all 247 xm radio stations at least once but mostly listened to the Blend, a country station some (hence the title!) and one or 2 others……..you can hear a lot of the same songs on different channels! I tend to munch and eat when I’m bored too so that’s not a good thing. The last couple of hours was hard, there seemed to be nothing left to do! Next time I do a road trip I need to make sure to get to the library ahead of time to check out some books on tape.
I had wanted to stop when I got into Mississippi to visit with Jenny but it was dinnertime, she was keeping Mandalyn’s kids and couldn’t get away then. I hope to catch them another time.
I’ve caught up with Idol, a netflix movie and a few other tivo’d things. I judged one bible drill competition last night, got one more tonight. I’m mostly caught up on blog reading (you girls sure write a lot!). And I should probably get all the sewing paraphernalia out of my car before it starts raining again!
Here’s a picture from my lunch with Lynne on Tuesday.

“It’s a long trip alone over sand and stone“

Last week we went to a business meeting in Florida that hubby attends; it’s always in different spots but this year it was held in Marco Island, Florida. It’s south of Naples and they told us it was the largest of the ten thousand islands, I didn’t know about all these islands! We spent Sunday traveling and when we drove from the airport to the hotel it was extremely foggy. I went shopping most of the next day with a group of ladies and didn’t really buy anything but lunch & ice cream for a snack. My sister in law and I tried to sit out by the pool to read the next day…………
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Plans were made last week for me (and other family members) to come to Charlotte on Friday when K thought she would have her baby. I would drive to Tuscaloosa, AL to spend the night with my other daughter and then make the rest of the trip Friday. When Kat called Thursday afternoon to say the dr. didn’t help get her labor started I figured I should stay home until something was happening. I quit loading my car and settled in for the evening….then she called back and said Jeremy’s family was coming anyway and that I should come on! It was after dark by then, I was undecided about what to do. Don told me even though it was dark he thought he’d like for me to break the long trip up, so I should go ahead and drive that night to E’s house anyway. By the time I got the rest of my things together it was almost 8:30 before I left. There is one stretch of road before I get into Tuscaloosa that seems a little deserted with no cell phone coverage. I called several friends to let them know I was travelling so they could pray for me, I was worried something would happen to my car after dark. A little after 10 I came upon a license check roadblock around Starkville, MS. No problem, I always have everything with me! He shined his light everywhere, looked at my license and then told me my tag had expired on Monday, argghh! He asked me if I was going to take care of it and I told him I would so he let me go on! The rest of that leg of the trip was uneventful.
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Here’s a few more pictures from our trip, some of just random things. I bet I’m enjoying this more than you guys ……except for my family maybe.
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Most of you probably know that I took a girl’s trip last week, with both daughters and my sweet daughter in law. SK’s little girl called it a “woman’s” trip though because if it was a girls trip then she was supposed to have gone. Maybe she can go when she gets a bit bigger. We went to Las Vegas, survived the heat and had lots of fun! I’ve been working on getting my pictures transferred from my camera, in between bouts of my internet service going out! They’re on the extended page in case you want to browse……
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“..with your neon flashin”

I’m home, after being gone last week on a trip with all my girls! We decided in the spring to do a girls trip this summer and after much deliberation about where to go, Las Vegas was the final decision! Which sounded good in April and May but by the time August rolled around, it sounded way too hot. We left early Wednesday morning and got home Sunday night……..we had such a fun time! I’m very tired and need to unpack, wash clothes and buy some food for D.
So more on our trip later, hopefully! (Not our video but we did take pictures! These are the fountains at Bellagio)

I flew home from Charlotte early yesterday morning! Stacy picked me up at the airport and as we are prone to do, we shopped and ran errands for a bit, ate lunch and then drove to her house. I was very tired and just didn’t go home yesterday afternoon; I barely stayed awake through supper, then promptly fell asleep and slept most of the night. But I am going home this morning sometime so maybe I can regroup and get caught up. I’m very behind on blogging and visiting all of you! I hope to get around later today or tomorrow to see what’s going on. I missed being able to visit with you guys!

Yesterday I flew to Charlotte to visit with Kathryn, Jeremy and little Katelyn. My flight was early out of Jackson and Stacy graciously took me to the airport and is keeping my car at her house. On the second leg of the flight, from Atlanta to Charlotte, the flight attendant got on the intercom about midway into our short flight to make an announcement. She said that there was someone special on board, a soldier who’d been serving a long tour of duty. He was sitting toward the rear of the plane and she asked that we allow him to get off the plane first. He’d been traveling for three long days and was anxious to see his wife. I wondered briefly what the reaction would be at the end of the flight, usually my experience is that everyone gets up immediately to get out into the aisle first. When we arrived at the gate everyone stayed seated; the flight attendant got back on the intercom, announced his name and asked that he please come forward to exit the plane. As he stood and began to make his way down the aisle the plane erupted into applause and continued until he was off the plane. I got a bit teary eyed when it happened! We saw him in baggage claim when Kathryn picked me up, I pointed him out and told her about it and she got teary too!
I’ve not experienced that when flying before, but thought it was kinda neat. It does make me proud to be an American! I’m thankful that we have men and women that serve in the military to defend our country and keep us safe.

On Saturday I went to an out of town wedding with my hubby and several couple friends. The bride is a high school friend of one of my daughters and her parents are some of our church friends. Six of us piled in my suburban and the other couple had to leave a bit later than us but we did manage to all meet up around Jackson, MS and caravan the rest of the way. The wedding was in Mobile, Alabama at a museum downtown. Another lady from our church does cakes and she made the wedding cakes and had them in the back of her van! It smelled so good in her car I could have gotten in but I would have done some damage to the cake. When we stopped for lunch in Hattiesburg, MS she had to keep going so the cake wouldn’t sit too long in the car. Once we got there, we found out that a few more people from our area had come down as well. Had just enough time to check in and change clothes before the wedding and reception. We stayed until the bride and groom left, which wasn’t that late and then helped get all the cake plates/paraphernalia packed back into the van for the trip home. A few of us piled up into one room late that night and watched a movie on pay per view……A Night at the Museum. Anyone seen that one yet? We slept in just a bit on Sunday, ate at the breakfast buffet in our hotel and headed out. One from our group wanted to find her grandparent’s house in Mobile that she visited every summer and it wasn’t far from us so we found it easily and took pictures. Drove through the University at Hattiesburg for another couple to find some of the places they lived while going to school and got more pictures! It turned into a “nostalgia” trip for the ones in our car!
We laughed, danced at the reception, acted silly and in general had a fun time. I enjoy being with them all so much. A few pics on the extended page, if you care to be bored today!
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Oh my 3 girls would SO know what that’s from but they never read my blog. No one else has probably seen this movie and it’s not quite the time of year to watch it!
We went to Colorado for spring break to ski and got home last week. Two of our four kids were able to join us and we missed the others terribly! We did get to see Kat & J’s baby though and what fun that was. She’s 14 months now and wasn’t walking last time we saw her, now she is constant motion! The sky was so blue, the weather very warm and it was typical spring skiing. I took way too many pictures and tried to pare it down but still got quite a few!
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Just got home this evening from a spring break trip with some of the kids! We went skiing in Snowmass, Colorado and had a blast. One of our favorite places to ski……the weather was great, sunny and warm.
But now I’m all thumbs, thanks to a weird fall I took on the snow. Details later, maybe! Sister Stacy asked to see my hurt thumb, how sweet! But I’ll tell you, a picture of your thumbs is not good no matter how pretty your hands are (and mine aren’t). So enter at your own risk:
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This past weekend Don & I flew to Houston to surprise our son for his birthday, a belated birthday surprise. We were in Charlotte a couple of weekends ago when Trent had his birthday so SK decided to have a family get together for him after his big day and for it to be a surprise. We flew out on Friday about midday to spend the weekend. We just hung out and visited mostly; D & T went to the driving range on Saturday and we had to fly back home Sunday for D to teach a class at church. And of course we got to play with the babies, hadn’t seen them since Thanksgiving so that was fun.
I totally forgot to take pictures during the birthday party! I was rather bummed when I realized that none of us had gotten camera out at all………so all I really got from the weekend are pictures of the little ones.
AC in her dress up dress

Gray just goofing around and for some unknown reason, he started making signs with his hands! How do you know at 4 to do that, maybe he’s seen it somewhere and is copying.

And I got one when they were taking naps…..I love sleeping kids! T & SK had moved a big bed out of G’s room and put twin beds in for them to share the room for a while because they like to be together, but for their nap they ended up on the same bed.

For the birthday dinner we had Catfish Allison, a specialty dish made by a local restaurant/tea room here in the Mississippi Delta. I’ve had it before at the restaurant but have never known the recipe or that I could even get it! But SK had the recipe so click below on “more” in case you want to see the recipe, it’s really good but NOT low fat at all! Mississippi farm raised catfish all the way out in TX!
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