our anniversary trip + satc...again

While I am a big SATC fan I'm not sure how it is our anniversary trips continue to be tied into locations from the first movie. Last year we went to NYC and stayed at Hotel Giraffe. It was the Piano Suite of Hotel Giraffe that was turned into Big's apartment for the movie. I'd read about it briefly before we arrived so you can imagine my absolute shock when we learned our room was directly next door to that room [even more incredible since we were only in a regular room]. Talk about awesome luck! One afternoon the door was left ajar and I just had to peek in. I always get excited when I re-watch the movie and recognize the bits that were filmed there. I especially enjoy the scene on the balcony since that was totally viewable from ours.

This year our short list came down to three beautiful hotels. One was our favorite Ojai Valley Inn & Spa but in the end we decided to take advantage of a great special we found at a hotel we've long had our eye on in Los Cabos, Mexico. After booking the hotel I searched Google for images of its gorgeous locale and [surprise, surprise] learned that another scene from the first SATC movie was filmed at this very resort.

Rather fitting, I guess, since tomorrow I'm headed to see the new SATC movie. More than likely this coincidence will not occur again [unless we plan to head to Dubai at some point in the future, which is highly unlikely!] SATC ties aside, I'm so looking forward to doing some serious relaxing come the fall...

On a separate note thank you to everyone for your sweet words of support after my last post. I cannot even begin to tell you how much they meant to me and I'll hold them to close to my heart as my "test" date approaches. I'm really surprised by how many have dealt with the same issue and it really helps me to know that. Thank you for opening up to me. The amazing friendships I've made in the blogging world continue to blow me away -- thank you all! As for the potential move to "middle of nowhere, USA" - it doesn't seem to be a possibility at the moment so I'm back to enjoying the great town where we've currently built our life. A move is absolutely in our future [at some point] so I'm focused on taking full advantage of all the things I love here for as long as we're here.

what a week.

This may be considered over sharing but given this is a place I use to peek back on and see what was going on in our life at a certain period, I feel I should record what a crazy week it has been.

Lee could receive a promotion that would take us to the middle of nowhere, USA. Awesome opportunity for him but it's made me realize just how much I love the life we've built here. At first I thought my sobbing fits were caused by the knowledge that the closest Target would be an hour from us only to realize it's more likely I'll miss all the incredible people we've grown to love, trust, and cherish here in this city. We have an amazing circle of friends here & I truly can't imagine moving away from them. We'll know more soon but for right now I'm choosing to let go of my fear and trust that God will show us what's right for us.

I made the decision to not attend my 2oth high school reunion that I was looking forward to only months ago. Normally I book our flights months upon months out but didn't for this. Now that our life has gotten so crazy [unexpected trip to NC, changes at Lee's work, the possibility of a move, etc.] I decided that it just wasn't feasible to attempt this trip. At first I thought I'd be really sad but upon deeper reflection I realized that although it would be fun to catch up with friends I haven't seen in 20 years, it wasn't the end of the world. Thanks to Facebook I know what most of them have been up to and the ones I'd really like to see can be seen [hopefully] when we head back there to spend Christmas with my sister & family. Guess there was a reason I didn't book our flight way back when.

After 11+ years of having a wonky belly I finally took a huge step and saw a gastrointestinal specialist today. As with most things that have been going on for a while you have to start with ruling things out. Since it's been going on SO long the doc decided that we needed to do a "colon test." While that may sound better than saying "colonoscopy" it is one and the same. I'm clearly not looking forward to having a test done at 37 that I normally wouldn't need to endure until age 50 but it appears that I will be doing just that. A close friend of mine has had one [her dad died of colon cancer so she has to be screened every 5 years or so] and has assured me it isn't as bad as it sounds. She's a fairly positive person so we'll see how I feel once I've been through it myself. I've never even had an IV before so this should be a very interesting process. I'll take any + all positive thoughts you'd like to send this way. The test is scheduled for June 16.

What a week it's been...and it's only Thursday.

words to live by

I've been neglecting this little series of mine for the past couple weeks and I'm sorry for that. Two weeks ago I was busy enjoying time with my mom & step-dad and just plain forgot and last week I was in NC for Lee's grandmother's funeral. Needless to say, things have been a bit crazy lately but hopefully I'm now back on track.

Today's words are ones I think we can all use at some point. With the emphasis these days on doing more, being more, and always trying to outdo our neighbors/co-workers/friends/other bloggers I think it's good to remember that we all have a lot in our life to be thankful for and happy about. It's so easy to find ourselves feeling inadequate and when those feelings take over the good things in our life tend to become invisible. No more! Try to focus on the beauty in your life more than on the things that aren't quite as pretty. Know that we all face challenges but even in those challenges we still have a plethora of things in our life that are good. Things that are blessings and should be celebrated, not taken for granted.

I struggle with this as much as the next person and hope to begin focusing more on the positives in my life beginning today - Happy Friday!

::print found here

what a difference seven years makes

Mother's Day in 2003 was an incredibly special day to me and is one that I'll likely remember forever. Why? That was the day Lee proposed.

The whole weekend I knew something was up and while I though it might include a proposal I didn't know for certain. We were spending the weekend with Lee's family for Mother's Day and he definitely wasn't his normal calm, cool, and collected self. I teased him relentlessly about what surprise he was planning and the more he assured me he didn't have anything up his sleeve, the more I thought he was full of it. However, as the weekend wore on and nothing out of the ordinary happened I began to think that maybe I was imagining things and there really wasn't anything exciting planned, let alone a marriage proposal.

His odd behavior continued. After lunch at his parent's house Lee & his brother-in-law, Rich, got up to serve dessert. I'd long heard amazing things about his mom's key lime pound cake and I was excited to finally try it. They first served it to his mom and grandmother (as they should) and after they set a piece down in front of Chapel (his sister) I knew I'd be next (it's southern "law" that the women are always served before the men). Imagine my surprise when the next pieces went to his brother and dad. WHAT?! Where's my cake?! It was then the butterflies began going crazy in my belly. Would this be it? Was a proposal coming?

At that point Lee & Rich were still cutting the cake in the kitchen and their backs were to me but I distinctly heard a clank as something hit the plate. The next thing I know my dessert is in front of me...a lovely piece of key lime pound cake, whipped cream, strawberries, and the engagement ring Lee & I had looked at several weeks before! This is where my memory gets fuzzy. He talked about how special I was to him and how he hoped I could make him the happiest man in front of his family. (He said much more than this but I was so excited that I can't remember it word for word.) What he didn't do was ask the ever important question of, "will you marry me?" I knew it was implied but given those are the words most girls dream of hearing I do remember saying to him, "you have to ask the question!" He did and I said "YES!" Five months & one day later we were married. To this day our wedding is one of (if not THE) best day of my life!

[Sidenote: I was so excited after his proposal that I never did eat my key lime pound cake.]

Seven years later we found ourselves celebrating Mother's Day with his family again and I couldn't resist having Connie (Lee's mom) take one of us. I thought it would be fun to see how different we look seven years later...

P.S. Our wedding anniversary is exactly five months from today. Is it bad that I'm already looking forward to celebrating?

mama jane

Mama Jane is Lee's grandmother and I'm sorry to say that she passed away last week. She had been in declining health for the past several years and suffered a massive stroke about a week before she passed. Because of her poor health we knew it was coming but that knowledge didn't make it any easier to deal with. She's been a large part of Lee's life since he was born and I know he's going to miss her terribly. [The picture above is the last picture I have of Mama Jane. I took it of her & Jordan this past Thanksgiving.]

She lived next door for all of his growing up years and after we got engaged we found ourselves living next to her again. I wasn't sure what to make of it at first but soon grew to enjoy living in such close proximity to her. Granted, I'd be lying if I didn't say that sometimes it was a tad awkward. I wish now that I'd taken more time to listen to her stories & learn from all of her wisdom + experience. I guess that's the problem with looking back, we often find that we do have regrets.

She was the epitome of a Southern lady and I could tell from the very beginning that she ruled the roost. She was a very strong willed woman and loved her family very much. Lee credits his strong academic performance + study habits to his fear of disappointing her [she taught 4th grade for 25 years!] and over the past several days I've heard many stories of how she encouraged others. She was a lovely woman and I'm so thankful to have had the opportunity to be a part of her family.

The past week has been hard but there were some glimmers of happiness while we were in NC for her funeral. Lee's entire family was together and I know Mama Jane was beaming with pride as she watched over us. It was the best visit I've ever had with Lee's family and really feel that it brought us all closer.

While we waited to head to the service I think Roger needed to take his mind off what was about to happen so we had a quick + impromptu photo session. Although it's only been one month since we've seen the girls I swear they've grown, especially Natalie.

Lee's brother, David, loves Jordan + Natalie and insisted he get a picture "made" with them too. This one's for you David!

On Sunday we all headed to Lee's sister's house to celebrate Mother's Day. While trying to find a nice spot to capture Connie surrounded by all of her kids on Mother's Day I snapped this one of little Kaitlyn hanging out with "Pop" doing a little fishing. Given his emotional turmoil of the past several weeks I'm happy he was surrounded by his favorite things [fishing] and people [family].

Here are Connie + Roger with all of their kids. I have no idea when they were all together for Mother's Day last but know it's been a long, long time. I couldn't resist documenting the moment. Connie, I hope you like it!

Mama Jane, you will most definitely be missed. Rest in peace and know you are very loved.

playing catch up

We've had so much going on recently that I just haven't had a spare minute to do any posts. My mom & step-dad were here for about 9 days and each day was filled to the brim with hard work, laughter, and lots of fun. Not only are they loads of fun to be around but they are incredibly handy and we just so happened to have a few projects that needed to be done around the house. Truly a win-win for us and while they might not agree I'm fairly certain our "payment" of wine & chocolate cake may have tipped the scales in our favor. Seriously, this chocolate cake was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I hate to say it but I was never able to get a good shot of it in all of its glory so you'll just have to take my word for it.

I'm sorry to say that I wasn't very good at all while they were here at taking pictures, especially of our completed projects. Thankfully my mom did snap a few so I'll share those with you. The picture doesn't do it justice but here's a shot of our dining room that's been unfinished since we moved in FIVE YEARS ago!

I've had the curtains sitting in a box since they arrived from Ballard Designs months ago, the picture has been collecting dust for darn near a year, and the sconces have been waiting for someone to show them some love and get them hung on the wall for longer than I'd like to admit [there is a matching sconce on the other side of the picture]. Thank you, mom! Truly, without her everything would still be just sitting and waiting. I wish it wasn't the case but hanging things [straight] is not a skill of mine. As soon as I get some good light through that window I'll try to capture another shot and show off my favorite seat cushions.

This next picture is not one I'd really like to share but since my mom was sneaky enough to get it, I thought it was only fair that I share it [and I know she'll get a kick out of me actually posting it]. One of our projects was to have some decorative woodwork on the front of our house replaced. It was so damaged from the intense sun & some water issues that it needed to be completely replaced. Luckily my step-dad is incredibly talented and was able to get it done in about a day. Of course that meant it needed to be painted and since we were painting them we needed to ensure the wood on the outside of the dining room window matched. Ugh. Painting is not my fave and taping prior to painting is even less of a favorite of mine. But I did it and my mom sneakily captured me doing a little of the work...

I know, I know...clearly not a flattering picture but given my mom helped me SO much this past week I figured posting it would be the least I could do! Although we had some rocky moments [the ladder wasn't exactly steady] she & I got the job done and all I need to do to finish is clean the windows. If only I didn't need to use that unsteady ladder again!

We spent most of the week working on projects [others were much smaller & required less work] but when we weren't working we were either a) playing games or b) eating great food. Case in point...

This lovely chocolate creation was discovered at a restaurant just down the road from us and although we were fairly full from lunch we couldn't turn down something as intriguing as a "chocolate bag." They use a paper bag as their mold for yummy belgian chocolate and once it's frozen they fill it with cinnamon ice cream, graham crackers, some kind of heavenly pound cake, strawberries, raspberry drizzle, marshmallow goo, and slivered almonds. You knock it on its side and dig in. It was SO good!

On a trivial side note, this same restaurant and the area around it will be featured as a backdrop for a new ABC series debuting in June called The Gates. It's being filmed in Shreveport and crews have been out and about in our neck of the woods for the past 6 weeks or so. Lee & I caught a quick trailer for it on ABC the other night and, sure enough, we recognized a few spots already!

Enough of that...back to our visit.

I was really happy that their visit coincided with the big fundraiser event we do each year for the children's hospital where I volunteer. It's normally at the end of June but was moved to the beginning of May this year. It was so fun to take my mom & David and introduce them to some of the people I spend a large portion of time with. It seemed to be a good turnout and I'm hoping we raised a large amount of money for this awesome cause.

One of my new favorite pictures of my mom + David...

Aren't they cute? I sure do think so!

The lighting was way too yellow in this one of Lee and I but I like it anyway. What do you think of my new necklace from Lush Boutique?


Huge thanks to my mom + step-dad for all of their hard work! Our house is beginning to feel even more like a home and that's in large part to them. Hopefully some of their handiness will rub off on me!