Hello Monday On Tuesday

Hi friends. It's June. Can you believe it? May was choc-a-block full and June will be the same. We have a daughter's birthday, a grandson's birthday, an anniversary, Father's Day, a week with daughter2 and her littles at the lake, Vacation Bible School, various appointments, my brother and sister-in-law in town for a visit, two wine dinners, and whew. It will be fun. 

Now if only the weather would get the message.

I didn't get my weekend recap written as we had company Sunday evening, then I had an appointment that required me to leave the house before 8 AM on Monday so here it is almost 3 PM and I'm finally sitting down to blog. 

Backing up to Thursday because it feels like the start of the weekend. I volunteer from about 9-1 every Thursday, then went to run a quick errand for a friend before heading to the salon for a mani/pedi. So nice. Hubs and I had already decided we'd go out for dinner which added to the enjoyment of the salon treatment. 

I got home and changed and we went to the local distillery for dinner and to hear some live music. I ordered a brisket sandwich and it was delicious but super rich. I only ate half and hubs helped with the rest. After we ate we went outside to hear a local band play. 

We ran into some friends there who introduced us to a couple they were with, neighbors of theirs, and in the course of chatting we discovered they're friends with some of our very best lifelong friends. We snapped a picture and texted our friends who live far from here and in the moment it all felt like such a small world. 

Friday hubs had an appointment to get his haircut in the nearby city and we decided to make a day of it. I tagged along so we could visit my mom afterwards, and we had the most delicious lunch in between these two events. We ate downtown at a small seafood restaurant where I could have ordered one of everything on the menu. 

We opted for a half order of their famous cheddar hushpuppies-

 A sampling of their fish dip which was so good I could have eaten as an entree...

A half dozen oysters from different east coast waters with varying salinity...

And then a lobster roll for good measure...

We got the Maine roll (cold) as opposed to the Connecticut roll (warm), but this place does both. We were full but we did get an order of their banana pudding to go so we could take that to my momma. She loved it. 

We left downtown and headed to her residence next, which is about 20 minutes from the city. We had a nice time chatting outside and hubs had her laughing which makes me smile too. These lilies in bloom in the garden there were beautiful. 

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We made a couple of stops on the way home to drop off and pick up various things so didn't get home until about 4:30. We relaxed that evening and skipped dinner since we were still full from lunch. 

Saturday I ran to the store first thing to get a few last minute party items and hubs ran to the rock place to get filler for a spot beside the patio. I'm sure the place has a name but he bought two buckets of rocks there so I call it the rock shop. We were both home by 11 and then headed out to watch the boys play in a travel baseball game about 40 minutes from here. 

This is how it went down-

We drove forty minutes to a very nice sports field complex. I mean really nice. 

We paid $20 to get in. Yes. $10 per adult. Does anyone else think that's a lot? And y'all. There were hundreds of cars coming and going all day long as there were games played by kids of different ages on multiple fields. I wonder if there are families with a child playing where only one parent attends the three day tournament because they can't afford the entry fee? 

My daughter says probably not because these travel teams are a different level and parents are spending crazy sums on the bats and other gear so paying the $10 to get on the field is nothing. I saw a meme where a mom said 'here I am wearing the same bra I've owned since 2018 while my 8- year old is on the field with a $500 bat'.  Ha! But also kinda true. 

I will stop now because I sound old, plus the facilities are super nice so the money it seems is at least going back into that community. Also, most people don't have a husband who hits the snack bar and spends another $50 on junk food. Not naming names, but it does happen. ahem. 

We came home and worked on getting everything ready for the next day's festivities. 

I cleaned bathrooms and hubs got the outdoor dining furniture wiped down and back in place, the grill set up, the cornhole boards out, etc. 

Saturday night he prepped the pork butt and shoulder. Somehow I bought one of each which I didn't think was a huge deal, because they weighed about the same, but apparently it was a bit of a deal because one had a bone and one didn't and blah blah blah. 

It was all delicious. 

Hubs put them on the green egg sometime between 11 and midnight on Saturday and they smoked happily all night long. There's nothing like the scent of BBQ with your morning coffee.

I'm not joking. 

The weather on Sunday was nuts. It looked like it was going to pour rain all day but it never rained a drop. It was chilly. Then it was warm, then chilly again. But not raining so we'll take it. 

We had BBQ with beans and slaw and then all the other yummy sides plus two desserts people brought.

 We played cornhole and fun fact-we've owned boards for ten years and I still am not great at this game. 

Here we are trying to do math. If you play cornhole you get it. It's all friendly and we had a great time chatting, eating, tossing the bean bags, and celebrating the start of summer. 

Also, this turtle lives here now. What should we name him?

Linking today with Holly and Sarah's yesterday hop Hello Monday and Joanne's 

Talking About It Tuesday

Weekend Chatter

Hello Monday. Can you believe next week it's March and then summer and then Christmas? A slight exaggeration maybe, but only very slight. 

We had a nice quiet low key weekend here. It felt good to be home sleeping in my own bed and catching up on things here. Friday the sun shone and it was glorious. 

Hubs and I opted for a hike in a nearby state park and the weather was perfection. 

Thermometers don't lie-

The little brown dog was along for the ride, or maybe I should say run, because we moved at a clip the first two thirds of our walk.  

I think he smelled water and was itching to get to it. There wasn't a great swimming spot so that didn't happen, but it wasn't for his lack of trying. 

If we were following the strict rules of 52 dates in 52 weeks we'd be at number 20 this week. We're at 15 and we'll take it. We had company one week, hubs was away one week, I was away one week, there were holidays in the mix, so it's all good. We make the rules, right? 

We were home for lunch and then spent the afternoon chilling aka napping and reading. We made Greek chicken bowls for dinner and they were super delish. 

I used this recipe (more or less) and the marinated chicken grilled was really good, as was the dressing drizzled on top. 

Saturday we watched Olympics, jimmy rigged an electric shade we have that's ridiculous in design, and did a lot of lounging-reading-blogging. The shade is up high and has a battery that needs recharging, not often but often enough to be annoying. Hubs has to get out the extra tall ginormous ladder to reach it, on a staircase to boot, so he came up with a solution to make it easier next time. No pictures because I was responsible for holding the ladder. He survived. 

Saturday night we had dinner plans with friends. We went to a new-to-us Italian restaurant and enjoyed every bite. They started as a pizza place but are more than that now. I could have made a meal of appetizers.  Turns out we knew the wine manager and he brought us a plate of their arancini to start which were scrumptious. Hubs and I both had their lasagne (it's somebody's grandma's recipe) and it was served in small iron skillets which made for a great presentation. Also the portions were enormous and we took half home for lunches. 

Sunday we watched as much of the hockey game as we could before church and were excited to hear the final score when we came out of the service. I saw a lot of the Olympics this time around and loved all that viewing. There were some exciting moments, some beautiful moments, some patriotic moments, and overall thought they were exceptional. 

I spent a lot of Sunday afternoon organizing a few things I'm in charge of organizing and it felt good to get that done. We tried a new recipe for dinner and it received mixed reviews. Bun-less burgers which meant a lettuce wrap in place of the bread. I used this recipe, and I liked the lettuce wrap which was less filling. Hubs wanted a bun. 

I'm joining Holly (Pink Lady Blog) and Sarah (Sunshine and Books) today for their Hello Monday blog hop. I have a busy week. Honestly the next several are full to the brim with a combination of fun, family, tasks to complete, appointments to keep, relationships to manage, and people to love. 

One of my very favorite verses was part of my last week's lenten reading in the Psalms, and it's one that helps me stay grounded when life is moving fast-

"I love you, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." Psalm 18:1-2

Have a great Monday everyone. 

Hello Monday, Hello New Year

I say every January the official start to the new year for me is this week, sometime five or six days into the month. Christmas is still up at my house, but today is the day. Hubs took down the outdoor lights yesterday, but inside I'm still fa-la-la-ing. 

We had a nice weekend beginning with a walk to a nearby waterfall Friday morning. Let's go ahead and call it day date episode 12. 

I was wearing a hat. I forgot there would be a picture. 

The little brown dog loves this particular hike, and in fact he'd made this same walk just last week when he spent Christmas with my daughter1 and her family while we traveled. 

The minute he gets out of the car he starts panting like crazy because he smells the water and wants to get to it pronto.

We came home and had lunch, then mid-afternoon hubs and I went to the movies (episode 13). We were trying to remember the last time we went to an actual movie theater and couldn't be sure. I think it was way back in May when Mission Impossible came out, and before that who knows? We don't go to the movies often, but happened to be there twice this weekend. 

We wanted to see Song Sung Blue and had to drive a couple of towns over to where it was still playing. We loved it. Neither of us had read anything about it, and turns out it wasn't at all what we thought it was going to be. Still we loved it. I thought Hugh Jackman was playing Neil Diamond, but he's actually playing Neil Diamond in a tribute act. So good! The camera absolutely loves Kate Hudson, and the story was unexpected. Bring your kleenex. Just sayin'. 

We're rarely in this town so I checked the always trustworthy internet for a dinner rec. We ended up at a place called The West End Dinner Club which we enjoyed. It has a speakeasy vibe and the food was good. I had salmon and hubs had mahi and both were tasty. 

Saturday we did a few things around the house and I picked up a few groceries we'd be needing for the grandkids overnight visit. These two were celebrating their wedding anniversary and we said the kids could spend the night so mom and dad could have a night out in the city. 

They arrived just in time for us to load them back into the car to go see the new film David. This was the first movie in a theatre for Little Miss and she had a grand time. I mean there was popcorn and a comfy recliner so what more do you need? We liked the movie a lot and the message is excellent. It's an especially good boy flick which is rare. Also very true to the Biblical account which was nice to see. 

We came home and had a fondue party. You haven't lived until you've made fondue with a three year old lol. Little Miss pours and mixes with great confidence.  

I thought ahead and covered the table with a disposable cloth, but it still felt like there was chocolate everywhere. 

We started with cheese fondue and hubs also grilled some small steaks because it seemed like we needed more than cheese and chocolate for dinner. And popcorn. 

Hi. We're the grandparents.  

There were vegetables for the cheese and fruit for the chocolate so calling that a win. 

After dinner it was showers for the boys and a bath for little miss, and then pjs and basketball on tv. Everyone slept and we had bacon and waffles and leftover fruit before church. Shout out here to parents getting three kids dressed and fed and in the car along with themselves for church every Sunday. I felt a little like I'd run a 5k. 

Our sermon yesterday was on 1 Samuel 17 aka David and Goliath. We'd just seen the movie the day before so my ears perked up when the pastor mentioned the chapter he would preach from. Coincidence? Not likely.  In short...we all have our giants. Be like David and think less about my giant and more about my giant God. 

Wishing you a wonderful start to this brand new year. 

Joining Holly (Pink Lady) and Sarah (Sunshine and Books) today for their regular Monday morning hop. 

Christmas With The Vanderbilts

We had a fun and festive Thursday in spite of the gray skies and drizzle. Friends had some complimentary tickets to Biltmore House and invited us to use them. 

They actually had four complimentary tickets so another couple of friends came too, and since their car held us all we didn't even have to drive.  

Did  I spend an entire day out of the house doing something fun with family coming to town tomorrow and just a week to go before Christmas? 

Yes I did. Carpe diem!  

Also day date episode eleven if you're keeping count. 

I've been to Biltmore a number of times, but not since 2019 and never at Christmas. Biltmore is known as America's largest home, and was built by George Vanderbilt in the late 1800's.  I've always heard it's extra beautiful this time of year and it's true. Wow. 

Every room has a beautifully decorated tree-

Most light fixtures are adorned with some sort of gorgeous ribbon or embellishment-

Bannisters are wrapped-

And fireplace mantels are draped in garland-

I cannot imagine the amount of work that goes into getting the house ready for Christmas. 

It takes me weeks to get my own tree up and finished, and Biltmore is over the top in terms of decoration. This Noah's Ark tree was adorable-

Animals hanging two by two...

The trees fit the rooms they're in and the decor is appropriate for the period furnishings. 

Christmas dinner anyone? 

You need to reserve tickets this time of year and entry is timed. We went into the house at noon and spent almost two hours walking through. 

After we'd seen all there was to see (or all that's open to the public anyway...apparently the house has 250 rooms so we didn't come close to seeing it all) we drove about thirty minutes up the road to Sierra Nevada for a late lunch. Hubs and I shared a burger and their famous duck fat fries which were yummy. 

We got lucky with traffic and in spite of the dark, rainy, fog made it home about 6:30. It was a fun, full day and while I could have been at home ticking off those last to-dos, celebrating the season with friends is always on my list too.

Check.