Excuse me, do you know where I am?

Unlike Dallas on the 4th of July, I have not been in hiding, I just haven't been home much. I do have one heck of a blog catch-up to-do list. We've been to Texas and back, Ohio, Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Carolina for our 5 year anniversary (go us!) and I just got back from New Mexico late last night.

Somewhere in there I turned 28. The big 3-0 is upon me, and I say this with genuine excitement. Perhaps working with retirees all day has rubbed off on me because I can't wait to cruise around in a golf cart wearing bermuda shorts, socks with sandals, cashing in on that senior citizen discount, maybe make some quilts, and do what ever the flip I want!

phew...

.... I need a margarita, pronto.

I'm here!

Okay, I'm going to just get this out of the way and lay out my explanation {excuses} for blog negligence.


1. You know when you get so far behind on laundry that you just get overwhelmed and don't know where to start.... same concept

2. I stare at a computer for a good part of my work day. I'm like a little kid. As soon as I get home from work, I run in the house and change into play clothes and then play outside until dark.

3. I need some LOVE, comments, some interaction. Bloggers often say they blog to serve as a journal of sorts. I get that, but I also feel like I'm talking to myself on here, and where is the fun in that?


So what have we been up to? Here's the short list:

• Went to Dollywood with our wonderful neighbors and their kiddos. It was a lot of fun and I will certainly be going back for the FOOD! Oh goodness, it was like classy fair food!


• Girls trip to Louisville, Kentucky for "Wicked". It is by far my favorite play. The music, set, and story were fantastic! It was a quick weekend trip, but we even managed to squeeze in Churchill Downs and place some bets. You could say I'm a big deal...I doubled my money...all $2.00 dollars.


• My whole family came to visit from New Mexico! I can't believe we were all able to coordinate our schedules. All the kiddos are growing up and that's getting harder to do. It was so nice to get to share our life in Tennessee with them. We did plenty of sight seeing, eating, shopping, board games, and of course - played a lot of "Just Dance" on Wii {more pictures to come}. Brad and Mom managed to weasel their way out of dancing, tisk-tisk. My brother Justin is a very talented photographer. I didn't even attempt to take pictures the week they were here because I knew I would just steal his. He is editing the pictures, so I'll have to add those later with some more trip details.


• And last weekend I got to visit Kelley, one of my dear high school friends that only lives an hour away in North Carolina. Her and her sweet husband our expecting a baby this fall!
  

And some photo highlights:

In KY with the Colonel

Watch out! High Roller coming through!

The FAM!

80 ft Waterfall we hiked to. Some of the girly girls in our family missed this natural beauty. They may or may not have elected to stay in the car because they didn't want to get their shoes dirty :)

carpool

Can you tell which one is my kid? Ha!

I'm already feeling the need to trade in the ol' 4Runner for a Swagger Wagon:

*Side note, Brad actually rented a Swagger Wagon this week to drive to Nashville for work. I have been singing this song non-stop to annoy him, but I'm fairly certain that he now sees its appeal.

Warms my heart

I hope it was a happy Mother's Day for all the mommas out there...especially our lovely mommas. Even though we didn't get to spend the day with either of them, we get to look forward to seeing my Mom at the end of this month and Brad's Mom at the end of June!

Being out in Tennessee by our lonesome can be a little sad on special days, but we are so very blessed with a couple of different neighbors that have taken us in. My sweet buddy Kylee brought me the most beautiful roses for Mother's Day. She is so thoughtful to think of me as her second Mom. She may be in elementary school, but Kylee is wise beyond her years to know that her kind gesture would mean the world to me on that day.




This next photo was not planned, and it took the trained eye of my sister Kristen to notice the hilarious details between the photo above (my kitchen) and the photo below (my mom's kitchen). We may be 1,500 miles apart, but there is no denying we have some freaky similarities.
1. Flowers positioned in the same spot (our kitchens even have the same layout)
2. Exact same lotion in the same spot to the left of the sink
3. Covered cake plate with half eaten cake in the same spot

So, Happy Momma's day Mom....I've grown up to be just like you, maybe even your clone...and I'm quite proud of it :)

I may not have a conventional baby...YET, but I do have a soft-sweet-angel-baby-bear that warms my heart every day.

You're so thoughtful Kristo :)

Kristen has been very busy with one of her favorite hobbies - faceinhole.com. Thanks Krissy, you are a true artist :)

I can't even begin to describe how much I have loved Pippi since I was a little kiddo. She was independent, strong, fun and had a monkey - everything I wanted to be. Thank you Kristo for making all my dreams come true.