down in blue ridge

Hello!!  I haven't been to this space in a long time! A lot has happened in the past year with sadly little time for updating about it here.  I most often do short posts with a picture or two on instagram or facebook these days but just had to write about this weekend so as not to forget the insanely ridiculous incredibly awesome time we had...

I hadn't been on an actual vacation since the cruise I went on in 2010! That was too long.  So a few months back, my friend Jennifer and I decided it was high time for a reunion of sorts with some of us girls who were all friends in high school oh-so-long-ago just a few short years ago.  I love planning that kind of thing and enjoyed texting back and forth with Jen to get all the details together.  We originally were going to stay at a cabin in Blue Ridge, GA that belonged to some friends of hers but they happened to book it for the same weekend just as she emailed them to let them know we officially wanted it.  Oh well!  There were only a few hundred other cabins around that area to choose from so we both started looking for just the right cabin - right price, right size, on the pretty nice size cuz why not.  Finally we found the one!  Plenty of space, plenty of beds, a nice kitchen, nice furniture, creek in the back, fire pit and hot tub outside, decent price...perfect!  

Or so we thought. 

Packed and ready to ESCAPE! :) I was riding with two of my friends and we ended up leaving a little bit late, of course. No big deal, that always happens. 

Then they had a nail in the tire of the car so we had to stop and get that taken care of.  Mildly annoying since we were all eager to be on the road but we were later very thankful we had taken the time to do that!  

As we were on the road, I text Jennifer, who was coming up from further south, and found out she was already at the cabin.  That's when the um excitement began.  

I started getting texts from her...

"Did you bring paper supplies?"

As in paper plates, etc?

"Yeah...it's limited here"

(Stop to pick up plates and plasticware...check...)

"Um...there are no towels!" 

"Correction...the towels were in the dryer..."

Right...all eight of them. Including hand towels.  For six girls.  She ended up talking to the office and asking for more towels and they said well, how many towels do you have? 8. Oh, well that's all you get.

Jen said um i just signed a contract that said there would be 20!

Oh. I'll send some over...

gee...thanks? sorry for the inconvenience!  :-p

A few minutes pass...

"smoke detector...that's never annoying...chirp...chirp...chirp..."

"there's only one roll of paper towels..."

I answered back..."is there toilet paper??"

"...one roll per bathroom..."

*blink, blink*

Good grief.

So we finally get there...Jennifer says "the air conditioning isn't working."

This is beginning to make me wonder....

Then Laura and Alison call saying that they are about an hour away and Laura's car just died so they were waiting to be rescued. 

Great. What's next?

Why did I just ask that??

So we wait for people to come and send Carissa and Jennifer to talk to them when they do show up.  Get the smoke alarm fixed. Guy calls the office again about the air conditioner to which Annoyed Office Lady says well....how long has it been broken?   The implication being "did that lady break it when she got there??"  Seriously?

Another guy comes and fixes the air.  Thank goodness.

Heidi (oh Heidi...) comes with more towels and Carissa manages to get more TP and a few other things from her.  She also mentions to Heidi that the hot tub has leaves etc. in it and just needs to be cleaned off a little....Heidi goes to check it out and comes back a few minutes later to say "ok, so I went ahead and shocked the water and got all the stuff out for you...just give it 30-45 min and it should be ok!" 

Great.  Thank you. 

So at that point we just chill and start catching up and reminiscing about high school and people we used to know while waiting for Laura and Alison to arrive.

They finally do and after struggling to park her mom's van on the ridiculous gravel driveway (burning rubber and spinning tires anyone?), we all go inside for a late dinner.

'Cuz everyone needs a swag bag!  :D 

This is pretty much what we looked like all weekend.  :)

Dinner was delicious and fun and included this amazing chocolate strawberry pie for dessert!

{drool...}

Then we headed downstairs to crash on the big comfy couch and chat some more and after a while Carissa says she's going to get into the hot tub and Laura and I join her.  The chemical smell was pretty strong and Laura only stayed a couple minutes before her eyes were starting to burn a little bit and she had to head back inside.  Carissa and I hung out for a while longer, enjoying the quiet night and the soothing water.

Finally we headed inside where I headed to the bathroom to shower off and change...which is when I glanced in the mirror and my mouth dropped open...I had just thrown on shorts and a workout top for the hot tub because I hadn't been able to find my actual swim suit to pack and eh, who cares?  I love this top...it's super comfy and I like the dark purple color it is was...

 The chemicals in the hot tub were so strong they bleached my shirt!!!  :-o  Turns out, you're supposed to wait 24 hours after shocking the tub - not 30-45 minutes!  

(Girls...say it with me..."That's not good..."!)

I still smelled like chlorine the next morning. 

So one by one, the girls all started getting sleepy and ready to head to bed...first Laura, then Andrea and Carissa...finally Alison...so Jennifer and I start getting ready for bed when she decides to go up to the kitchen for some water...where she runs into Alison who says she found dead stink bugs on the top of the comforter on her bed....pulled back the sheets and found dirt, pieces of leaves and fir tree bits all in the sheets!!  Ew. 

So Jen comes back downstairs and fills me in and proceeds to check her bed for dirt...she didn't find dirt...she found hair.  ALL. OVER. THE. SHEETS!!  People hair, animal hair, and as she later told her husband, "hair I shouldn't be seeing!!" Again. Ewww.

She decides to steal the sheets off the single size bottom bunk under where Laura was sound asleep and I follow her part way upstairs...which is when I hear giggling from her and take my phone with flashlight on up to see what's going on. The side of the wooden bed almost comes off as she pulls the blanket off! Of course, lol! We used my phone to inspect the sheets on the bed before pulling them off...more hair all over! What the heck?! This place had obviously not been cleaned before we got there!

So by this time it is about 1:30am and she and I are now wide awake and a little wound up and end up cracking up over all the ridiculousness of the day.  She kept wandering from her bedroom out to the couch (where I had already decided to sleep earlier...best decision of the weekend ha!) saying "I just...I...I don't know where to sleep!!"  Finally she crashed on the couch and we stayed up just talking for another hour.

The next morning we fixed breakfast...eggs with all kinds of goodness in them, coffee, muffins...

 ...and this was Jen's plate.

"Jennifer...PROTEIN!!"

She called the office again and Heidi answered.  She told her about finding hair in the bed to which Heidi said (girls...) "That's not good."

No kidding!!

"Which bed?"

All of them!!

Seriously. Not..."oh my goodness I am so sorry! I will come change the sheets right away!"

Nope. Just..."which bed." 

What is the least amount I can do to fix this?

Then she said well do you want me to bring you the sheets so you can change them?

*blink, blink*

Really?

We have to change the sheets that you should have changed when you cleaned the cabin? Wait, I mean when you were SUPPOSED to clean the cabin? 

Nice.

So we plan to be out when she comes so that she can change the dadgum sheets herself like she should have in the first place...

And we enjoyed walking around the little town and eating lunch and wandering in the little shops...

Olive Oil place. Who knew this could be so cool!

Hahahaha!!!

Um.

No. 

We stopped by to send J and C in to chat with the supervisor who never called back...but of course no  one was there...

So we head back to the cabin... 

...where we find sheets in an open box (never mind that it's in the middle of the woods on a breezy day so that more dirt and leaves can land on it...) on the porch with a note saying "I left these on the porch for you."

No kidding. 

But we really did have an awesome time just being together, laughing a lot, sharing what's going on in our lives and just having time away where the labels we wear every day (while we all enjoy what we do and where we are in life right now...) could be set down and we were each just ourselves for a couple days.

Twinkies and cups...

Those poor people in the next cabin...

:D 

Peaceful view from the back deck. 

Deliciously looking at the delicious potatoes deliciously. 

Fuzzy dinner time groupie pic... (As opposed to selfie pic...lol)

Yes, she is standing in the trash bag.  :}

Alison getting ready to do my big, frizzy, poofy hair like she's a doctor about to perform surgery...

"here, you might need some of this..." 

Another groupie pic...kind of challenging to fit us all in...but we did it! Ha!

The other trauma of the day...getting all three cars up the dadgum driveway!

This is why we were thankful we had taken the time to get Andrea's tire fixed...spinning on the gravel like we all did, we did not need a popped tire on top of everything else!

EMERGENCY BREAK!! 

Jennifer flooring it...in reverse (!) with me in the car...and almost backing us over the cliff...

Carissa calling down so sweetly through the trees from the top of the driveway, "Are you guys ok?!"

Back to the little town for coffee together in a coffee shop set in a former bank.

Who knew there were more than one of those? 

I predicted what would happen all weekend and I was right...we chatted pretty much nonstop the whole time. Six girls. Who haven't all been together in years...what else would you expect? :)

So. Good. 

Aw, aren't we cute.  :) 

Girls, despite all the crazy, I had such a great time catching up, laughing, and just hanging out! I am so thankful for old "pick up where you left off" friends and while we were missing part of our group, I am thankful for the time we had! Next time maybe more girls will get to join us...

...NOT in that cabin...!!

Lol!

A few more quotes from the weekend...sorry if you're reading this and have no clue what these are about! Feel free to ask us and we may or may not explain...heehee!

I'd tell you but you'd have to kill me.

That's not good.

That's how drunk people die!

Uhoh, Kathryn...I can't dye your hair...the box says your tattoo could affect the hair color! 

I could really use a utensil...

...you wanna fork??

I think she's gonna make it!

That's going on the list!!

I don't know where to sleep!

There's ANOTHER funeral home!

Love you girls!!

so guess what?

Remember this picture?

This is the picture we posted to announce that after bringing home our two little China princes...just a short six months later Anastasia was going to have baby boy number 5...and sure enough...precious, funny, sweet Patrick was born!

Snuggling with Kiki last week. :)

Well...take a look at that picture again....

I'll give you the link to Anastasia's blog in a minute to read more of the story from her perspective, but yes, their family is growing by two more BOYS!!  

YES. that will make a total of SEVEN. BOYS. 

Are they crazy?  Maybe! lol  But when God says go, who are we to say no??

Over Christmas they hosted a 16 year old named Kolya from the Ukraine through an awesome organization called Project143 and long story short, are in a race to adopt him and his 7 year old little brother Vova before Kolya ages out of the orphanage this summer.  

This is a step of faith, as all adoptions are.  You can imagine the thought of the cost of two adoptions...after doing just that less than two years ago, plus multiple surgeries, specialist appointments, etc. in between!  But we know and have witnessed many times before how God has provided every penny needed to bring just one of his children home to their forever families...and we believe He will do just that once again!  

They have started a fund raising page that you can go to and read more about the story here:

http://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/help-write-chapter-1-of-a-forever-family-for-kolya-vova-/307728#.VOEZnFwDYgk.facebook

(You'll also get a glimpse of sweet Kolya...and you can be sure I will post a picture of Vova as soon as we are allowed...for now just know that he is adorable and my heart just melted when I saw him!)

This is the link to Anastasia's blog if you'd like to follow the story there:

http://www.windowlamp.blogspot.com

We'll keep you updated!

a new year

Hello!  Happy New Year! I'm excited to be at the beginning of a new year.  Last year was hard in some ways and wonderful in others.  I'm excited to see what new adventures this new year will bring!   To start with, here are two exciting events from this year already!

Mr. Happy turned 8!

I have gotten to see me three kiddos quite a bit recently and I am so thankful for the time I've gotten to spend with them!  They are such a joy to be around!  Sadly, Little Miss Giggles was in the hospital for a couple days, which is why I got to have Little Miss Sunshine and Mr. Happy stay at my house, but LMG is fine and back to her happy, silly self, thank the Lord! :) 

The other fun thing that happened the other day is this popped up on facebook! This music video was done by the band the Monday Movement, which is a group of high schoolers.  It is so well done - the music and the video!  Why is this so important?  Well...if you watch closely you may recognize one scene in it...(*hint*...my header picture)...and the guy in it just so happens to be my best friend (and the history teacher of those in the band!).  :)  I've known for a long time that Michael is a great actor (and dude, he can sing!!)...I'm just excited to get to share him with the world now! :)  So watch and enjoy!

three decades?!

Today is Little Miss Giggles tenth birthday.  She is a whole decade old.   Amazing.  (See the post just below this to see how much she's grown!)

This month also marks another pretty amazing "anniversary" of sorts.  I have officially known my best friend for three decades.  Thirty years!  That is a long. time.!!  Not often do you know someone for that long much less stay as close as we are!

I am not a huge "anniversary" person - but thirty years is a big deal.  So I told Michael I wanted to do something fun to celebrate - but something we both would enjoy doing.   So today we headed to Oak Ridge where we grew up and had a great afternoon driving around seeing familiar places....

Starting with lunch at Bid Ed's Pizza.

Yum.

Big Ed's is just an OR tradition.

If you've never been there, I'll be happy to take you sometime! 

That's Big Ed right there.  He used to always be there in a white tshirt sometimes with a white apron hanging around his neck. 

The highschool....where neither of us went to school haha.

The library...where we both definitely went often. 

This is where the church met where our families first met when I was three and he was six! 

Robertsville Middle School where he went for the first six weeks before being homeschooled...also my first year of homeschooling but I was in third grade.

When we were little, there was a little grocery store here called Bruners.  And to the right kind of back behind that tree was a restaurant called Eddie's Malt Shop that's not there anymore but oh was it awesome!  Lots of good memories from there. 

Such a familiar sight turning into our neighborhood off the turnpike! 

Finally up to our street where we parked and got out and walked around past familiar houses....

Our neighborhood had lots of kids.  This is where Mandy and Monica lived. 

My brother's friend Jennifer's house 

Someone decided to get creative with the mailbox lol.

Billy, Jennifer, and Ellie lived here first.  Then Jack and Anna and Sarah.

The crazy dog lady lived here. Er. I mean.  Eh...yeah, that's about right.  lol

"You are behaving worse than a child!!" 

Seriously. Words we heard her say to her dogs.

His house. Floods of memories.

 And diagonally across...my house.  

Minus all the beautiful trees that used to be in the front yard.  

Those flower beds are new.  And that's my old bedroom on the front corner there. 

My dad built the deck on the back.  Someone else apparently added a screened in porch to it. 

This is a very familiar sight to me.  :)  Except we didn't used to have cell phones in our hands.  

We did used to stand in the middle of the street all the time and talk for hours.  (It wasn't a very busy street.)

Selfie standing in our "spot" in the street.  :)  Best friends for 30 years.  Good grief. 

And really, I should clarify. I would stand in the middle of the street...he would walk in big circles around me lol.

 This was one of my favorite things to do - lie on my bed and look up out the window at the sky through the leaves on the trees.  I love TN.   :)

We used to think it was amusing to drive out past our neighborhood to the "rich neighborhood" and check out all the big houses - this one in particular - at night you can see that it has stairs going up and then splitting to the right and left in that big window above the front door.  :)  

I'll say it again:  I love TN! 

Across from our neighborhood was a sportsmans club where there was archery and skeetshooting etc.  I grew up with the sounds of guns going off all the time - and still barely even notice the sound it's so familiar ha.  This is a pond that Michael and his brother used to go fishing at a lot. 

"Kathryn, take the picture quick as I drive by!  It says no "stoping"!!"  lol  No stoping.  ok. 

Our elementary school!

Where we had the same kindergarten teacher a couple years apart. Took bus #7 in the mornings and #18 in the afternoons. Which is just one of many little details that he remembered during our day yesterday. 

Yep.  Looks the same.  We went up and peeked in the doors. It even smells familiar.   

 I remember swinging on those swings.

Children's museum.  I think we both took classes here at different times.  There's so much more to it now.  The one thing that I always remembered was right when you go inside there was a huuge stuffed (real) polar bear. I'm talking it was enormous! It felt like I had to look up a mile to see it's head.  A couple years ago I took my kids for the first time in years and on the way I thought about that bear and how if it was still there, I was sure it was going to seem so much smaller now that I am an adult...and then to my surprise and happiness - it was just as huge and tall as I remembered it being!  I'm glad some things don't change.  :)

We drove around to a few more places that I didn't get pictures of and then stopped in front of the science museum where there were some picnic tables.  I hadn't told him what I'd brought for us to do lol but I knew he'd go along with it just cuz.  When we were little, we sometimes sat underneath our old deck where there were lots of rocks and we would paint them, with the goal of selling them like a lemonade stand, planning to make big bucks.  Although we never actually did anything with them.  lol  But I remember painting them.  Although he says we mostly just dumped the tempera paint powder on them. lol  

So I brought rocks to paint.  Just for the heck of it.  Kinda fun just sitting there outside painting rocks and talking about old stuff....who our teachers were...did we eat lunch at school or take it...etc. 

 My "souvenir" for the day...those are our thumb prints on the back.  :)

Thanks for taking the time to take a drive across town and into our past today M! I am thankful for the past 30 years and everything we have been through together...and that we are still good friends.  

P13 as always. :)