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...