bada bing!

so we had a photo shoot last evening to continue the suckers series that we started last summer. however, it seems that someone leaked to the paparazzi about our shoot and reps from the homeowners association showed up to investigate. according to them, the photo is now circulating around the mountain and we were also caught on web cam. cheers!

evening 4

last night we had the greatest dinner of grilled baby red potatoes, sausage and shrimp. it was probably one of the best things we have cooked in a while. maybe because it was different but also because it just tasted so good. we had a fire after dinner and replayed our day of shopping over and over trying to figure it all out. we feel very lucky and are planning to make the trip up here when j crew does another sale like this one. our background tunes for the evening were provided by jam on, a station on xm radio. perfect music for our grilled low country boil.

why pay more when you can pay less...follow us to the honey hole

day 4 of vacation and we have had the best time hanging out, watching some world cup ( : ( usa), sitting on the deck, sitting by the fire and just doing nothing. yesterday after we held out for the usa team and watched their defeat, we left the mountain top and road tripped to asheville. pb has an old friend there that we went to meet up with for the evening. he used to teach at darlington and is now at the asheville school. he lives in the coolest house on campus so we were able to take the tour of the school when we arrived. it is beautiful. so interesting to visit and find out about another southern boarding/day school and make all the comparisons to our school.

earlier in the day, pb had spoken with this friend and the two of them were making plans for our evening. pb mentioned that i wanted to visit the j crew store in biltmore village sometime during the evening. "have you been to the outlet store that is next to the j crew distribution center?" his friend had asked. at that point pb realized i was probably going to lose my mind with this info so he decided to include this stop as the first stop in our evening plans. he was right.

the outlet store was great but we were too late for the sale at the distribution center. it would continue today at 10:00 am so we decided that we would come back to asheville in the morning for the sale. pb's friend said it would be worth it and that it is unlike anything he had ever experienced and that you need to be mentally prepared for the event. that is all the description that he would give us so we had no idea what to expect this morning. we left the outlet store and went to biltmore village to have drinks before dinner. it was a hip little restaurant with the freshest appetizers, yummy desserts and a great place for people watching. we enjoyed our drinks, caught him up on all the darlington and rome news, and then left there for dinner at a different venue. i had the best mahi mahi with sweet potato fries and asparagus. pb had shrimp and grits. it was delicious. after dinner and a really fun time hanging out with pb's friend, we headed home.

soooooo...today. where do i begin? we got up at 8:00 and had coffee, threw on shorts and t-shirts and left for the mecca of all sales. the sale started at 10:00 and we arrived at 9:50. there were already cars in the parking lot and a line at the door. we thought that sunday morning might be a little slow but people were there and ready to shop. we had know idea what to expect. first of all, there were 2 policeman at the door. pb asked the lady in front of us in line if she had ever been to one of these sales. she laughed and said no. her mom had been the day before and called her to come today. she drove in from charlotte. wow. it must be some sale. at 10:00, the policemen opened the doors and ushered the long line of people into the building, down a hall, then down another hall. it was kind of creepy. at the end of the hall, there were double doors opening into a huge gymnasium size room. a lady was standing there with a counter to keep track of the people that would come through today. she also handed each person a list of prices for tops, bottoms, shoes, sweaters, dresses, etc and a big clear garbage bag. and we were off...

there were boxes everywhere labeled women's tops, women's bottoms, men's shirts, men's pants, shoes, boys, girls, and on and on. so we split up to see how much damage we could do. one guy that was working there asked me if i had ever been to this sale before. he suggested just throwing anything i was interested in into my trash bag and going through it all later. i was overwhelmed. how much cashmere does one really need? and as you know, i love j crew and peruse the catalog regularly. it is always an exciting day when the new one comes in the mail. everything i was seeing in these boxes was current merchandise they are selling now. we still don't get it. after an hour and a half, pb and i took our bags to a corner and started going through all of the finds. we tried on pants over our shorts but some people were just stripping down. after we made our final decisions, we piled it all into one bag and headed to a long table where one lady called out the items and another made tally marks on our price sheet. she piled it all back in the bag, taped it closed with bright orange tape and directed us to a table by the back door. this lady took our checklist and totaled our items so that we could pay. on a side note, pb had also been given a 30% off coupon to apply to our total because he has that kind of luck. some man saw him shopping in all the boxes and started talking to him and then handed him the golden ticket. so we applied that to our total, paid and left. we were dumbfounded. it almost didn't seem legal.

when we got back to the mountain and unloaded our bag of goodies, we put everything on the floor to try and take it all in. so here is the grand total of what we would have spent in the store...we looked it all up in the catalog at home but most things still had the original price tags on them: $2,414.99. what we actually spent today: $192.04. a grand total savings of $2,222.95. to put it into further perspective, we paid $10.50 for a cashmere sweater that retails in the catalog for $158.00. we walked away with 25 items, some treats for the kids and some treats for us. i need a nap.

night one of national lampoon's mountain vacation

hello from north carolina. pb and i are enjoying a little r & r for a few days. we have been anticipating this vacation for months and could not wait to get up here and build a fire in the new fire pit. when we left the blazing heat and rome on thursday we had visions of the stars, a perfect fire, and cool weather ahead of us for the evening. we even ran back home to get the ipod dock that we had forgotten...can't have a fire night without some tunes....and headed out of town.

the drive was not a bad one and when we arrived in waynesville around 6:00, we grabbed mexican for dinner before heading up to nirvana. once the steep climb was made and my ears had adjusted to the pressure of the higher altitude, we unpacked, opened a bottle of wine and headed outside, music in tow and smiles on our faces. pb started working on the fire, arranging pieces of wood like it was a sculpture, and i got the chairs and music ready. once it was going, we sat down to let out a collective sigh. ok, not that our lives are that stressful, but it's just so nice to get away and have none of the daily demands of life and a change of scenery. we had been waiting for this. and then the thunder started. after that, a few raindrops. more thunder and more raindrops. neither one of us was acknowledging the possible change in plans for this long awaited evening. after the rain picked up a little more, we decided that we would take our party to the front porch. not as much fun, but we were not going to let a little rain ruin our night. we moved the music, settled into some comfortable chairs on the porch, and carried on with plan b. the rain didn't last long so we took it back outside to the fire pit. the fire was still going so we tried plan a again. this lasted a very few minutes and then the bottom fell out. we scrambled to grab the wine and music and resigned ourselves to the fact that plan b was going to have to suffice for this first of many evenings still ahead of us on our picture perfect vacation.

so, we sat on the porch and listened to the rain and wind and talked about all sorts of things. now, some people think ignorance is bliss. and i tend to agree with this on some levels. we had been enjoying about an hour of ignorant bliss when pb got up to go inside for some reason. what we didn't realize was that in the blissful enjoyment of our rainy, windy evening, the door closed sometime earlier, and we had been locked out. our ignorance and the thought of spending the night on the porch didn't seem very blissful anymore. so plan c. send pb to check every door outside in the rain, call my mom, and wait for a neighbor to bring a key. we enjoyed the porch with a now unlocked door for a little while longer, then called it a night.

hair day and hair girl loyalty

today is what my best friends and i call, hair day. we all love this day. somehow, it makes everything better when it's hair day. coincidentally, pb is having hair day too today. but i can guarantee you that he did not (excuse me, will not) jump out of bed this morning with excitement over it, nor will his hair day appointment last as long as mine. for the girls, it is an event. bring a favorite book or all of the magazines you haven't had time to read, go by starbucks on the way, and then sit there for several hours while all sorts of foils and chemicals are applied to your hair. i know...it sounds like torture to some people....but the end result of getting fresh and fabulous highlights is worth the wait. and then of course, you have to go somewhere fabulous after hair day to complete the process.

a wrench can be thrown into the day if you are, however, going back to your hair girl after straying to try a different girl just to see if she will do a better job. we all do that occasionally and that is a whole other subject. my current hair girl is pretty laid back but i recently left and visited my old one for a few months. old hair girl is hard core and when i went back to see her in march, she was kind of snippy. hair people tend to be dramatic and sensitive about client loyalty...which is understandable because it is their business. but old hair girl was intense about my loyalty to her and the million dollar highlights she gives, not to mention the add-on sales that she always seems to make as i am swallowing hard at the checkout desk. she is good, but that good?? so begins the back and forth conversations with my girlfriends who also love hair day and who are also hair whores. "do i go back to regular hair girl?, if i leave old one for a 2nd time, i really can't go back to her." after much conversation and deliberation, and with all the girls standing behind me, i cancelled appointment with old hair girl and made the one to day with my regular hair girl. i'm hoping her laid-backedness will be enough to cut the awkward edge off going back so that i can fully enjoy my hair day experience.

in all seriousness, this is another one of those little things in life that makes some girls happy because it bonds us together and is just a fun day...if you can get out of there in under 3 hours: )
and we are going somewhere fabulous tonight, after hair day. a great pizza place in atlanta that my friend has been dying for us to try. i wonder if pb is as excited as i am about having plans after hair day?

happy father's day

we went to visit gk at the lake in mentone today. we also decided to celebrate father's day with pb while were there...'step-father's saturday' we were affectionately calling it. em and i made a chocolate cake and gk treated us to steaks for dinner. before dinner, we sat on the dock for a while and watched wil and em try to catch some fish. pb joined in while gk and i observed and provided the witty commentary. there was a new tackle box with new toys when we arrived so wil and em were excited about that. however, one activity seems to move into another rather quickly with them so after a little fishing, they were ready to eat. while pb was grilling his own father's day steaks : ), gk was inside, and wil was making sure his facebook page was still ok, em and i decided to walk back down to the dock. i guess this is what they call cocktail hour on the lake because all of a sudden there were a lot of boats taking cocktail cruises on the water. em decided to stick out her thumb like a hitchhiker and before we knew it, a boat was heading our way. there were some romans on board waving at us and with her first attempt, em had gotten us on a boat and getting our first tour of lake lahusage. we went up one fork and down another and heard all sorts of interesting tales. when we finally arrived back at gk's dock, everyone there was starving. we had a great dinner, opened gifts and had the chocolate cake for dessert. staying true to form, wil and em had us moving on to the night's next activity before we could really finish our last bite of cake. we were each given or could find our own rocks for our 2nd rock-skipping contest. pb won round one and wil won round 2. em was the score keeper....some scores could possibly have been challenged but for the most part, i guess the wins were legit. we had a wonderful evening and wil and em are already asking when we can go back.
happy father's day!

HEALTH CLASS BY WIL

Now i've been watching mom and kelly do this blog for some time now and at first i didn't, well, think it wud go over that great. but now i guess it's my turn so i don't really have that much to "blog" about. so i'll talk about health. this week i experienced my first taste of high school. it was painful. i had to take summer health so i won't hafta take it next year. now in summer health all you do is txt and play on facebook. and i learned a lot of things, just not about health. like me and three of my friends cud get 300 comments on my status in under 20 mins cuz we were that bored. i found out my friend anna killed my dog scooter with a nail (and no not really for u more literal readers). also i found out about the best video ever, leeroy jenkins (if u have time , which if ur reading this i bet u do, look it up) . and now i'm finally out and made it with a B. sooo i really don't have anything to talk about, so for the first and probly last time, this is wil.......bye...... now stop reading....i said stop....... :p

artistic expressions

today has been an unbearably hot day in rome g-a. i am doing a camp, artistic expressions, with another teacher from school. this morning we took a break from our painting, acting, and singing to go on a field trip downtown. we began our trip at pb's studio. he talked to the kids about photography and such, and did so in his typical, charmmmming way. the kids loved him. he took their photo and we moved on to our next destination, the historic desoto theatre. we had a complete tour and got to see all of the renovations that have been done since 2008 to preserve the art deco style of this theatre. and we learned that it was the first movie theatre in the state of georgia to have sound to be played with the movie. other buildings in downtown rome that were also theatres back in the day...darling pets and the partridge. who knew? next, we walked down the street for sno-cones at kaleido-sno. there is a heavy new orleans, mardi-gras theme going on in there....go figure. but, it goes along with our theme this week, the princess and the frog, which takes place in new orleans...so go figure!
we ended our trip at the fountain on the town green. the kids played in the water and soaked up the sun on this unbearably hot day. as we were loading the bus we had a siting...gk was in town and leaving pb's studio. em was excited.

shake it like a polaroid picture

pb planned a great last hurrah dinner saturday night to wrap up birthday week. downtown rome was hopping with entertainment as the "classic car cruise in" was in town, a bike race, tennis tournament and the sky-high heat index to go along with the crowds. my best friend from atlanta and her husband came into town around 3:00 so he and pb could play some golf and we could hang out. we all met up for dinner with an assortment of friends later in the evening. dinner was followed by fun with the polaroid, a lot of laughing and a lot of music at our house. a good time was had by all. thanks everybody!

ta-daaaa

the house painting i finished to replace the one we sold off the wall...

lazy susan

here is a cool item for the kitchen table or island. this is what i got for my birthday. i have been wanting and looking for one for a long time. a friend of ours is re-opening his kitchen store this month after moving to a new location. one night a few weeks ago, we walked downtown and stopped in to see the progress. he is also going to be selling wine so they were wrapping up a wine tasting. not only did he give us several bottles to take home and sample, he also showed us the best lazy susans that he will be selling. they are made from old wine barrel tops. i couldn't believe i had finally found one large enough and rough (in a good way) enough for our island. surprise! that's what i opened for my birthday! i used it monday night for girls' night. and check out my other find...also very cool blue glasses i found at an antique store downtown that is going out of business. we used those on monday night too...

diana

today i went to atlanta to see the diana: a celebration exhibit. i went with my childhood friend, a faithful diana supporter and fan, and em, a now faithful diana supporter and fan. so where do i begin with telling this story? we have been trying to make this pilgrimage for months and finally put a date on the calendar when school got out. but to say it started there would be denying any insight into why this was such an anticipated day...as well as not telling the whole story.

i don't remember the exact date that my friend, mary hardin, and i became so entranced with lady diana. it had to have been sometime in 1980. i just know that all of a sudden, she was everywhere and we were mesmerized by her story. we wanted her haircut. we wanted her clothes. we followed every detail of her engagement to the prince of wales(who?) and her life as she became his princess. we both got up early on that wednesday morning in july of 1981 to watch their royal wedding. july 29th to be exact. she gave me a book about the wedding for christmas that year. we took the book with us today. we loved her and we wanted to be her.

we both followed her life over the next 16 years. we followed the births of her sons, watched her become even more of a style icon, saw her grow as a charitable woman to many countries and causes, cringed as the media tormented her over marital issues and health problems, and we sat stunned on august 31, 1997 as the news reported her tragic, senseless death. i was in total disbelief. now once again, i sat glued to the television as the news replayed the horrific details of her last hours. and i watched as her two sons walked behind her casket in the cortege leading to her funeral, masses of people weeping and mourning the loss of their nation's princess.

so....this morning, mary hardin arrived at our house with tiaras and we left for atlanta, trying to explain to emily who diana was and why we grew up loving her so much. we tried but could not think of anybody in this present day to make a comparison to for her. the exhibit tour lasted about an hour and a half and met our every expectation. the photos, the tiaras, the video footage of her childhood, wedding and funeral were so moving. everything from her tiny ballet slippers to her grown up couture gowns was just amazing. i think the heart-grabbing moment for me was when we turned the corner and saw her glass encased wedding gown. the lighting on it was so dramatic. i could not believe that i was seeing the dress that i had been so enthralled with so many years ago. if you are not a huge fan, it's too hard to explain. if you are, then you get it.

as we left the exhibit, it all just seemed so surreal. emily signed the guest book at the end and commented on what a special lady diana was. she got it. we took her to virginia highlands and had lunch at a fabulous thai restaurant. we had coconut soup and now back to reality, i realized that i had never eaten soup with em while sitting to her left. she is left-handed and we kept bumping elbows. we followed that with ice cream for her and some shopping for us. it was such a great day to be with the girls, seeing this once in a lifetime exhibit, and walking around the quaint virginia highlands area on a beautiful summer afternoon.

d-day and my b-day

painter girl is taking the weekend off to celebrate her birthday. stay tuned for some upcoming photos of the food and gifts we enjoyed...

it's not show friends, it's show business

despite the weather and it being memorial day weekend, we had a nice party and art show on saturday night. a small crowd but a really fun time. i sold something off the wall that was not part of the show. but as i have been told, everything on our walls is for sale. so now we have a pretty big empty space. i happened to have a blank canvas that can fill the spot perfectly. so today, after i painted a rocking horse for a friend's little girl, i started on the new canvas. right now it is yellow. i think i am going to attempt to paint a version of our house that it not the typical house painting. we just went outside in the rain and took a few photos. here is the one of the photos i am going to work with...i will post a picture of the painting when it is finished. i am being prompted right now to 'go paint!"...