beach trip

From four different states, we brought with us countless memories and shared experiences that are bound to be relived: tinders waiting to be ignited by a mentioned memory or the tone of a voice or a familiar look.

Our trip reminded me of the goodness of quick vacations with your girlfriends. It's good because we get to live life together in a way that we don't normally get to share: pouring cereal next to one another, grocery shopping, taking naps on neighboring sofas, cooking dinner for multiple nights in a row, laughing until everything hurts. It's good because we get to hear those family and life and work updates all at once and face to face without several rounds of phone tag.

I like to think that we'll add this trip to the books. That we will one day talk about these soon vague memories and try to remember which trip that was - 2009? 2012? 2017? - and how we can't believe it's been fifteen years since that trip to Panama City Beach. That year that we watched countless hours of Olympics, ate lots of late-night frozen yogurt, and continued to face the growing changes headed our way all within our lovely floral wallpapered walls. And when we do, I'll be glad, as I always am, that we're still friends.

if you want to have a great weekend...

...you should fly through two neighboring states in order to pick up your four-going-on-fourteen-year-old niece from her [beautiful] preschool.

Make sure you bring her some ever-so-pink fingernail polish so that you can have mani/pedi conversation where she begins her stories with "Well..." and uses shockingly large words. Oh, and sparkles in the polish are good too. 

Then it wouldn't be a bad idea to chalk up some serious sister points by working a fundraiser with her in the blistering cold. Don't worry, the [FREEZING] weather is worth the seven hours of sisterly talk time. And chapped lips.

For your Grown Up Girls Only day out, I'd suggest picking a sunny Saturday. And cool too. But mainly sunny. 

Pick a perfectly picturesque neighborhood with great shopping and even better eateries [Our pick: Homewood, AL. Favorite stops: AtHome and Three Sheets]. 

If you happen to be near a place that sells 2,000 pounds of your mutual favorite lunch food per week served with about thirty different kinds of fruit and the best limemade you've ever tasted, it's worth a try. 

Bonus points if it's comfortably crowded with history-splashed walls and layers of mementos on top of serving dishes on top of produce. 

Even if you eat the best chicken salad you've ever had at one o'clock, it's good to go to dinner too. A dinner with high ceilings and clinking glasses and white napkins and wedge salads and rosemary flatbread. Oh, and handmade pasta. Handmade pasta is required [source: Brio].

Go early so that you can have plenty of time to talk about life and kids and spouses. Enough time to be reminded how beautifully linked your lives are even though you will soon be living in three separate states. Enough time for the serious and enough time for plenty of laughter. Enough time to offer much needed rest with two people who know you so deeply. And always will.

Then you will be glad you ate early because there is a Jimmy Buffet concert in the arena next to your concert hall. You wouldn't want to be late for your third viewing of the best Broadway show there ever was and probably ever will be. Awesome seats come highly suggested, as well. 

After three hours of laughter and tears and breath-stopping high notes, your cold walk back to the car won't be bad at all. You'll be on a Wickedly green high. And after the seat warmers make you forget how cold your legs were, ice cream makes for a great ride home. 

When you've dragged yourself home in the early hours of the morning, say goodnight with an unexpected group hug. There is no better way to end the night before you crash into bed. And I mean crash. 

If you want to officially lose all inhibition of the fact that you were eating light, go to brunch with your family and order apple cinnamon granola pancakes. They were whole wheat, OK?

Enjoy a Wicked-filled drive home to a hard working husband who you missed very very much. Be sure you tell him. 

Any questions?

labor day surprise for an animal lover

On Labor Day, D picked me up early and we headed south to a previously undisclosed location [to me, at least]. We were driving through Small Town USA, passing your standard local grocery store and world-famous fried chicken hot spots, flying by several different camp grounds. All of a sudden, we were turning into Global Wildlife and quickly surrounded by lots-o-animals. And, of course, I was in heaveeen!

Be prepared for an above average amount of pictures. Mainly because I couldn't choose what animals to include and which animals to not. They might feel left out. Animals have feelings, right?

Creation is SO COOL, don't you think?

You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you. Nehemiah 9:6

an earthy day

This year, the end of a crazy week and Earth Day coincided which called for some down time spent celebrating relationships and the world we live them in.


Traveled via motorcycle all afternoon and evening.

Embraced our inner 2nd grade art student at Whole Foods. I tried to be interpretive. Slight fail.

Perused World Market before buying a super cool Chinese soda.

Moved an outdoor picnic indoors due to unhappy weather.

 Watched Disney Oceans. So cool. God is so creative.

Seems like there were many more happenings including these. All surrounded by cruising and laughing.

How did you celebrate Earth Day?