no more drama

one of my friends posted on facebook yesterday about halloween. specifically asking, what happened to homemade costumes and bite-size snickers? it has all gotten so out of hand. i do love our pumpkin lights and will admit that they were strung and hung on october one. but this week has just about sent me over the edge as far as the costume planning goes. my question is, what happened to the simple days of making something at home for a costume? (actually, that was pb's question as i was pacing the floor the other night, trying to figure out which group em was dressing up with and what she was going to be and why she was feeling "left out"). it seems that the middle school takes the dressing up part of halloween to a whole new level. i know that this is a dms tradition and the parents, teachers and students love the parade of ingeniously creative costumes. it is quite the competition. which brings me around to my point here. i love the creative aspect of all of this pagentry. but the competition aspect is what i am not welcoming. wil didn't really care who dressed up as what or who was in a group or not in a group. the boys just dressed up in camo or something easy and all he wanted was the candy. so this year has been a new experience for us. thankfully, em is in a bible study with all of the 5th grade girls and this "grouping" for costumes was addressed several weeks ago. we have 2 great moms that really love these girls and want to see them stay on track through these middle school years. and these years can be torturous. i am so grateful that these moms took the bull by the horns, so to speak, and bluntly addressed some potential issues before the halloween extravaganza today. we had a bumpy week but everything worked out and several phone calls later, combined efforts of a lot of moms to create the costumes, and a craft that involved a ton of glitter (if you know me, you know my feelings toward glitter), we have 5 of the most precious rockettes you can imagine. and i think we arrived at this day with everyone's feelings in tact.

as em grows up and we face more serious girl and friend issues, i hope and pray that i will have the wisdom and strength to not overreact, take it all too personally (amazing what it does to your heart when you think someone is mean to your child), and keep perspective as i try to teach her how to gracefully embrace and tackle these years...sans drama. i love her friends and the moms that care so much about them. i have said this before about this little group of girls...they are special.

love you em.

monday

after this weekend's lengthy post, here is a brief one at the end a lengthy monday. saw this on a painting when liz and i were shopping last friday. so simple and so sweet.

cheers to fall break

it's saturday evening and pb is yelling at the t.v. it's the start of the 3rd quarter of the auburn-lsu game. i am sitting down for a minute to start a blog about our fall break. it has been so perfectly relaxing. we have birthday plans tonight for a dear friend of mine so i will add any pertinent happenings after the fact. but for now, i have a little product endorsement, recap of the past few days and some other thoughts...

wednesday afternoon: left school at noon after turning in the first installment of our curriculum mapping assignment. it is a school-wide project that we are all working on and it is going to be quite labor intensive. the first part of this was due before we could leave on wednesday and i was really dreading it. but i completed it and i think it was pretty good. anyway, a sigh of relief. i ran home and grabbed some lunch and then took off to calhoun for a little shopping. had 2 great finds. great skinny cargo pants at old navy (closer to the j brand ones that i wanted than the target ones) and a precious little floral cami for $5.00. headed home to a night of a fire on the patio with steak fajitas and fresh guacamole.

thursday: a day outside planting some fall flowers and some other home stuff. it was a gorgeous day. i had nowhere to be, got to grocery shop in the middle of the day, have an early dinner on the patio, and the new j. crew catalog came! we went to hear a little jazz band play and have coffee at barnes and noble after dinner. if you ever get a chance to hear the pollard greens, go!(product endorsement #1). home by 8:30 and in our comfy bed to watch 30 rock.

friday: errand day. i finally got my oil changed, my tail light fixed and some other things i just haven't made time to do. i also spent the better half of my morning reading my new favorite blog. the writer is a mom of one, an interior designer and an auburn grad. she is adorable! i am stealing #2 of my product endorsements from her. it is quick slip by paul mitchell...a leave-in conditioner of sorts that cuts down on drying time and smooths hair more easily while drying. (pb would argue this, but my hair tends to be wavy but not cute wavy.) liz was in town so we got to hang out and visit living and giving...another favorite store we could spend a day in. home for a quick shower and tried out the new hair product (love it) and then we went to the lake to meet gk and liz for dinner at canyon grill. yum!!! i must say this might just be our all-time favorite restaurant. we had the best dinner and battle over desserts. the atmosphere is so inviting and comfortable. we have decided to make it a seasonal event to meet there for dinner. we toasted and gave it up for frank and celebrated him in the beginning of our dinner tradition.

saturday: we got a coffee at starbucks and went to chiaha. this is an annual arts festival that we have all grown up with every fall. liz, pb and i walked around and looked at all of the arts and crafts and again asked ourselves, why we are not showing artwork, photography and jewelry this year?? we could have a killer booth. but it is a weekend commitment that we somehow keep talking ourselves out of doing. i think we need to commit to doing it next year. we'll see...
left chiaha and had lunch outside at harvest moon with gk. interesting people watching in downtown rome for a saturday afternoon. after that, home to get ready for the big game. quite the afternoon for auburn football fans. since i am finishing this post after starting while the game was still on and pb was still yelling, i can say we won and he was beside himself. whew! drinks followed the game at the 5th avenue house where liz was staying for the weekend. this was in honor of our dear friend's birthday. we walked downtown for dinner and had birthday s'mores and prosecco by the fire at our house for dessert. a fun birthday celebration with family and best friends.

so today is sunday. the break is about over and it is another beautiful day. i am cleaning the house and getting ready for the week. here are some thoughts i have been pondering this weekend:
writing about the ordinary things we are doing everyday is such a creative outlet for me. i hope these words will mean a lot to wil and em one day. i hope they mean a lot to our friends and family now. when we first started this last spring, a friend at school told me that she hated reading about how beautiful and perfect our life is. she laughed when she said it and so did i. have you met us? have you been to our house on a wednesday evening when we can't get homework done, wil and em are fighting, i am stressing over something unimportant and we are unloading the dishwasher for the 3rd time that week? our life has just as many ups and downs as everyone else but i think taking the time to stop and reflect on the simple things that we do love, helps us to see the big picture a little bit clearer.
another thing i have been thinking about since friday evening is our "giving it up for frank" at dinner. we started this little ritual with wil and em at dinner in the evenings. before we eat, we think of one person that we want to "give it up to" as a celebration, a good luck wish, a memory, or just in support of somebody that may be having a hard time. sometimes it is serious, sometimes hilarious. the little traditions like this or our new canyon grill seasonal dinner one are just more reasons to appreciate our life. and writing about them helps me to see past stressing over the little things that just don't matter.

final product endorsements #3 and #4 are a rose wine by columbia crest (cheap and good...thank you larry for bringing me 3 bottles from trader joe's) and white rain (can't personally endorse this, but doing it for frank). i feel a little cheated that i never got to know him...

lucky to know you

so we have successfully survived two back to back weekends of fun, old friends, and a lot of great times. it is the start of our fall break today and i am so ready for it. i need a few days of complete nothingness and low key time at home with family and close friends. anticipating a fire on the patio tonight and a chance to decompress. i do love fall but it seems as though the air of nostalgia can hang a little heavy at times. i know i lean toward the nostalgic side anyway, but let the temperatures cool down and the leaves start to change, and i jump head first into it.

monday morning i finally got my new laptop at school. i have been asking for one for 4 years. it has arrived and it seems like christmas. but now my efficient ocd side is colliding with my wistful nostalgic side. can you say gemini? i want everything on there from my old computer, cleaned up and organized. so that means sifting through music, photos and saved emails. i am on track with this process and then i'll get caught up listening to old play lists that i made over the past 5-6 years. i think music tugs at me more than old photos at times. i can remember exactly where i was, what struggle i was facing, what excitement i was feeling or what my state of mind was at different times of life just by listening to so many of these songs. one labeled,"october '06", is a favorite and very fitting for reminiscing. then there are photos to sort...and i see how much wil's face has matured in just one year...and how tall em has gotten in such a short time. where is it going?

last night as i was walking around the block and pb was playing wall ball with em in our driveway, i thought, these are the days we need to remember. big weekends and big plans are great. they give us something to look forward to and some great memories to share. but the crisp tuesday evening in october, with our pumpkin lights on the porch, the cat running around the yard, and pb and em yelling over a game...these are the times to cherish. where was wil during all of this? he is 14, so he "took the night off" to "chill" upstairs...

two turntables and a microphone

so we have found ourselves full throttle in the month of october. and this year, it seems as though we have a particularly eventful october planned. we kicked it off last weekend with a trip to south carolina for a wedding. i don't think we have laughed as much as we did this past weekend in a long time. to sum it up, it was a perfect weekend weather wise, a perfect weekend amenities wise, and so perfect to see pb enjoy some old friends as much as he did. that part was completely endearing.

the house we stayed in was incredible. pb found it through some connections that the sister of the groom had and it was beyond what we had anticipated. two other couples stayed with us and we could not have asked for a better house with a better kitchen or a better porch to hang out on...lots of wine, beer, stories and laughter. my face hurts just thinking about it.

the whole weekend was full of great food, people watching and amazing scenery to boot. to try and recap the whole trip would be almost impossible. you know how there are some things just can't be put into words. and some things, well, you you just have to be there to appreciate. so here is a montage of phrases, things, words, etc. that will forever remind me of the weekend that started with a bluegrass band by the marshes and ended on the slow sunday morning of 10-10-10:

walking into our fabulous house on friday afternoon...squeals!
an electronic key that no one could figure out
the rocking chairs on the back porch
a blue grass band that could rock the commodores and michael jackson
a toast to a groom that was nervous and ready to intervene at a moments notice
"sir, do you think this is a good idea?" followed by, "you might want to start by turning the on the lights."
scaring the hiccups out of somebody
a yummy breakfast
a great little market
some shoe shining
blood orange mimosas
safely avoided mint julip martinis...eck
s'mores
cheeseburger sliders and fries
a lot of bad photos
a lot of vertical, club dancing (no brick house)
a lot of sore legs
"sir, is this your golf cart?"
an ardent request for beck on the ipod
and a lot of laughing over things and at each other

cheers to pb and his buddies and for a super weekend, laughter over the stupid things, and memories to make us smile until the next time we meet...

cupcakes, my birthday and super glue

so glad october is here. loving the weather. em and i took the day off on friday to play in atlanta. we left on thursday afternoon and spent the night with one of my best friends and her girls. the drive down was full of music and chatting. em and i had been looking forward to this trip for over a week and could not wait to get in the car and away for a night of just girls.

we arrived at their house just in time to help with the finishing touches on her reduce, reuse, refashion clothing show that she puts on in the spring and fall. she is and has always been one of the most innovative, creative and motivated people i know. she can do anything. so she decided to put together this little clothing business a few seasons ago. in a nutshell, she sends out an email to a vast group of girls asking them to gather up the clothes that they no longer want or wear and she will sell the clothes for them at a consignment sale in her home. she has a system involving tagging, pricing, the percentage the sellers will make, etc. and holds this sale in her home for a weekend. this past thursday evening was the cupcakes and champagne preview show for the girls that had contributed clothing to the sale. this is the time to come. you get first dibs on all the good stuff. so when em and i walked in and saw the house we formally knew transformed into a consignment boutique full of prada, marc jacobs, tori burch, calypso, j. crew and more...we lost our minds. em started trying on boots, i was thumbing through the things my friend had pulled for me (love having the friend benefits), and in short, we were in heaven. it was a little chaotic and my normally calm and collected friend was a little freaked when she realized she had 30 minutes until party time and still had not had a shower. nothing a glass of red wine couldn't fix. i had the bottle in tow. the party was a success and a lot was sold. i met a girl who is the cousin of the bass player for drivin' and cryin' and almost had her do my highlights on friday morning. opted out since em and i had our day already planned but did get the scoop from her on all of their stolen equipment for any of you followers...

friday morning my friend and i enjoyed some coffee as she got ready for the show. em and i headed out with our directions and plans around 10:30. first stop was trader joe's. we love it. we got giddy just pulling into the parking lot. once inside, we explored each aisle and picked out a handful of nonperishable items that we could take home. yum. our next stop was woo. we love this beauty mecca too. it is a small makeup boutique that has the best hair accessories. we bought some really cool metallic hairbands and another one of our favorite headbands, but in a tortoise shell this time. we left there and ate at another favorite spot, zoe's. we sat outside and had grilled chicken and a greek salad. another yum. we ran into publix after lunch to grab tylenol, super glue and gum. don't ask. em and i were cracking up as the guy was ringing up these random items...

em is great with directions and the perfect person to read them to you while driving. we left peachtree battle shopping center and headed toward howell mill to our next destination. i took her to star provisions and ann mashburn. ann mashburn was a vogue fashion assistant, glamour editor and j. crew stylist. her husband, sid, has a cool mens store right around the corner. her store is the epitome of elegance and style. everything in there is simple, chic, timeless and utterly incredible! i could spend the night there surrounded by must-have wardrobe necessities. after we left, we walked next door to star provisions. love this store. i want my kitchen to look like this store. it's amazing. we stepped into the bakery and found ourselves in line behind vern yip of hgtv. our star siting for the day. we really looked like country come to town as we tried to snap his photo with my iphone and at the same time were oohing and ahhing over all the things we loved...

our last stop was atlantic station for target and ikea. em wants a bedroom makeover for her birthday, so we went to ikea to scout out some ideas. we found several things that she was interested in and i found a faux cowhide rug that might just suffice for the real thing that i have been coveting for our home some day. we didn't buy anything, just idea shopping. we took lots of photos of fabrics, chairs and lamps before leaving...

what a day. we had the best time and to say it was priceless time spent together doesn't do it justice. we headed back to our friends' house to meet up with pb and wil. they were joining us for friday evening. my friend's husband and son had been on an overnight field trip and were returning as well. we all reunited, enjoyed some drinks on the deck and then went to have dinner at a mexican place they love. at some point in the evening, i went to the ladies room and when i returned the whole mariachi band was singing happy birthday to me. it wasn't my birthday. i exclaimed this several times before ruining the fun and blowing their plan. i now have a framed photo of me in a sombrero that says feliz cumpleanos from this place...

sooo....a great weekend and great memories. i love the times we spend together with family and friends. it really is priceless.