It's All Hodgepodge To Me

Welcome to this week's edition of The Wednesday Hodgepodge. So glad you're here! If you've answered today's questions add your link at the end of my post, then leave a comment for the blogger before you. Here we go-  

1. When someone finds out what you do or where you're from, what's a question they always ask? 

When I was in college in Tennessee Saturday Night Live had a regular skit with Joe Piscipo where someone would say, 'You're from Jersey? I'm from Jersey. What exit?' People thought it was hilarious to ask me the same when I would say I'm from New Jersey. 

Of course I'd reply Exit 4 because everyone in New Jersey knows their exit. 

When people are considering retirement or a move to the lake they often ask what we do to fill all that free time.  I tell them there's no shortage of things to do here, and what to say no to is more of a problem. 

2. Did you participate in 'Greek Life' when you were in college, or have children who did? If so what was your experience like? Taking another tack...have you ever been to Greece? If not, is that a destination on your bucket list? 

I was in a sorority and it was a wonderful experience. I made lifelong friends, was given many, many leadership opportunities, I developed skills I've used in work and volunteer positions all of my adult life, and found joy in helping others too. Philanthropy is a big part of sorority life, and if all you know of Greek life is what's portrayed on television or in the movies, your vision of the experience might be inaccurate. 

I have been to Greece, but haven't seen the whole country. We were in Athens in 2005 and had a fabulous time there. Can you tell it was warm? 

The ancient buildings, the history, the beautiful Aegean, the food...such a fun trip. 

3. Do you like Greek food? If so what's your favorite dish?  

I love Greek food. Who doesn't love a Greek salad? That's probably my favorite, but I enjoy lots of different Greek dishes...gyros, spanakopita, tzatziki, and of course baklava. There's a Greek restaurant in a little town outside of Asheville as you're heading towards Tennessee that is so so good. Whenever we're going that way we try to plan our trip around a stop there. 

4. What incredibly common thing have you never done? 

A tattoo? 

5. What is a telltale sign that you're upset? 

I'm an open book and you can probably tell just by looking at my face. If I'm on the verge of tears (which happens easily if I'm mad or sad) you'll know it.     

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I might have gone down a bit of a rabbit hole trying to find pictures of our trip to Greece. 

Look at those young teenagers there. Gulp. 

Monday Morning Musings

Hi Friends. I'm jumping right into the Hello Monday link party this morning, hosted by Holly and Sarah. This is where we chat about our weekends, and here's how ours looked. 

Fun. Fun is how it looked. 

Once upon a time I went to college and was part of a sorority and this weekend ten of those girls came to the lake for a reunion. 

We've gotten together at various times over the years, but were definitely overdue for another in person gathering. Four of us live within an hour of one another, and one of the girls has a house on the same lake as me, so we decided to invite everyone here. 

Three of us organized the food and we had half the group sleep at my house and half at the second lake house. Two of the girls flew in from a bit further away and arrived Thursday night. One  was a bridesmaid in my wedding and she's been to the lake before, and the other I hadn't seen in 40 years. 

We just picked right up like we'd all been together yesterday instead of yesteryear. 

Everyone convened at my house for breakfast Friday morning and the rest of the group rolled in throughout the day so the whole gang was together by late afternoon. 

The weather. Eh. Not the best, but then not the worst either. We didn't see the sun but it didn't rain us out either. We spent the entire day Friday sitting on my patio talking and catching up. Actually the clouds made it really pleasant for patio sitting and it was a super relaxed day. 

Hubs was a rock star all weekend long. He has also known these girls four decades, and enjoyed seeing us all together. He waited on us hand and foot, and cooked the most delicious pork BBQ for our Friday night dinner. We had pasta salad, baked beans, corn on the cob, and cole slaw too, and one of the girls aka another one of my bridesmaids, brought a scrumptious strawberry pound cake from a Tennessee bakery for dessert. 

We stayed up late and talked about all manner of things including old memories and our young(er) selves, new challenges, long ago mischief making, life in the third act, family, food, travels, work and not working, grandchildren, and in some cases what in the world we've been doing for the past forty years. There's nothing like a solid 48 hours spent with friends who knew you when you barely knew yourself. 

Saturday morning breakfast happened in whatever house you slept in, then my house loaded up on the boat and hubs motored us over to the other house. The weather wasn't ideal, but you can't come to the lake and not get out for a boat ride, can you? 

We spent the whole day Saturday at the other lake house. Some of us floated, some tried the paddle board, and some relaxed on the dock. There were lots of little conversations happening as everyone caught up with everyone. It was just a really lovely, special day. 

We all went back to my house for dinner. I'd made baked ziti earlier in the week and froze it before baking, so easy peasy and also super delicious. Another girl made a yummy salad and garlic bread and we sat outside under the twinkle lights and laughed ourselves silly. 

It was another late night, and then before you knew it the sun was up and it was time to say goodbye.

The last car load pulled away around 1 o'clock and I started some laundry, opened the weekend mail, we listened to our Bible recap, and hubs had a nap. He earned it after acting as the cabana boy-grillmaster-bartender-D.J., and chief 'could you bring us _______' guy all weekend long. 

He washed dishes, refilled glasses, ran up and down the stairs for whatever we left up or down the stairs, chauffeured us by boat, all without a single complaint, irritated tone of voice, or roll of the eye. He wanted the weekend to be fun for me and it absolutely was. 

He's a keeper. 

The last semi-large reunion we had was also lakeside. It was 2018 and we got up extra early that Saturday morning to watch Prince Harry marry Meghan Markle. Time flies, doesn't it? 

The world has changed a lot in four decades. When I was an 18-year old freshman phones were on the wall, we wrote checks when we needed money,  and computers were the size of a whole entire room that I had no need to enter since my major was not business. 

Our school was in a small town without a lot going on, but we made our own fun. We didn't take a lot of pictures so the memories live mostly in our heads. 

Today the students there have phones in their pockets, Apple Pay at their fingertips, and laptops with streaming services for their favorite shows they can watch any time of the day or night while typing a paper they'll email not print. The town has grown, the campus has grown...

...but we're still here making our own fun.

So what did you get up to this weekend? 

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 617

Here are the questions to this week's Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop back here on Wednesday (Aug 27th) to share answers with the world wide webbers. See you there!

1. When someone finds out what you do or where you're from, what's a question they always ask? 

2. Did you participate in 'Greek Life' when you were in college, or have children who did? If so what was your experience like? Taking another tack...have you ever been to Greece? If not, is that a destination on your bucket list? 

3. Do you like Greek food? If so what's your favorite dish?  

4. What incredibly common thing have you never done? 

5. What is a telltale sign that you're upset? 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

A Curious Hodgepodge

Welcome to this week's edition of The Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered today's questions add your link at the end of my post, then be sure to leave a comment for your neighbor there before running off. Here we go-

1. What's something you're curious about right now? 

It's hard to narrow this down to just one. I think being curious helps keep you young, and I've always enjoyed learning. Here are just a few things on my list right now -

history, the end times, Gen Z, dough making and baking in general, skin care and aging, people and their stories, and the nagging pain in my ankle. 

2. If you could plan the perfect girl's weekend getaway, where would you go and what would be on the agenda? Do you have anything like this on your calendar in the next few months? 

Pretty sure I sound like a broken record, but I'd love a weekend away somewhere fun with both my girls. I suggested it to my oldest and said, 'we could even take the little girls with us (they're 1 and 2.5) and just leave the boys home, and my daughter said, 'well the girls are the feisty ones, so maybe they stay home with the dads too.' It's kind of true lol. 

A fun weekend away would include leisurely meals eaten on pretty patios, sunshine, shopping, matching pjs, and lots of talking about both the deep and the not so deep stuff of life. I think we'd all enjoy some sort of cooking experience along with what I've already mentioned too. 

I do have a fun girls weekend planned in August with some college friends. We were all in the same sorority way back when, and there are four of us who live in the same general area now, so the lake works. I think there will be about ten of us this year. One of the girls also has a lake house here, so we split the sleeping accommodations between the two of us, and do some meals here and some there. Mostly we spend the days floating and laughing. A lot. 

I see the 'locals' for lunch now and then, but I think the last time we had a bigger group get together was the weekend of Meghan Markle's wedding. 

Remember that? We got up at o'dark thirty and sipped Pimms on my screened porch and watched the wedding all together. 

Hubs acted as photographer. We met in uni so he knows and loves these girls too.

3. What's the most unique item in your refrigerator right now? 

I don't know how unique this is, but I keep these eye masks in my frig because they're better cold.

To be honest I kind of forget they're in there, but when I went to look for the answer to this question I put some on. They do feel so good on your skin. 

You'd also find a little bottle of super glue because that supposedly extends its shelf life. 

4. In this season of your life, what do you find most challenging? 

How I want to spend my time. Life isn't prescriptive the way it is with kids in the house, and while you might think there won't be enough to do in your 'retirement years' I'm here to tell you there are almost too many choices. We retired young which is a factor, but still it's not boring. I want to make the days count. 

5. Do you collect anything? If so why that? 

Not really. I do have a bit of a running joke with my daughters related to hedgehogs, so I have acquired a few things with hedgehogs on them, all given to me by my girls (and a couple from the hubs). 

They're the only ones I want doing that though. I feel like sometimes people hear you collect something and suddenly you're the hedgehog lady. 

6. Insert your own random thought here.  

We had our monthly wine dinner Tuesday night which is always fun. It's a nice group and the food is so good.  Here's a snapshot-

Let's begin at the end with dessert, which doesn't necessarily look special, but I'm here to tell you every single bite was absolutely scrumptious. African Almond cookies crumbled beneath a chocolate coconut sorbet. Yum! 

The salad was a standout too, warm eggplant and butternut squash with baby spinach, roasted peanuts and a tamarind vinaigrette-

There was also a spicy soup, lambchops which are my fave, and this wonderful fish which is a spiced bronzino with crunchy rice, horseradish potato salad and microgreenns. The portions aren't huge which makes for a pleasant meal. 

If I'm being honest, I enjoy the wine but I'm really here for the food. Can you tell? 

The Monday Morning Weekend Recap

Good Monday morning friends. I'm slowly getting back into the groove here, and by slowly I mean moving at a snail's pace. 

We had a fairly quiet weekend and spent most of it putting the house back in order. There was also some reading and some lounging in front of the TV with the Olympics on, and we got together with some friends, but mostly it was laundry, changing beds, vacuuming, and the great re-set. 

We had a surprisingly uneventful trip to the Atlanta airport on Wednesday and got home about 4PM. We were both completely exhausted. I told hubs I was not cooking, maybe ever again-ha! but we had two burgers leftover from the night before so we warmed those up, put a few things away, then called it a night. 

Thursdays are my volunteer day and I haven't been in a month so was anxious to get back to it. I was up and out by 8:30 and generally am there until about 1 PM. I swung by the library afterwards to make some returns and pick-up a couple of holds that had come in, then I dashed into the market to grab enough items to get us through the weekend. I could not face doing a big shop just yet. I got home around 3, and asked hubs if it was too early to take a bath and put on my pajamas, and he said no, so that's what I did. It felt glorious. 

We baked a frozen pizza then watched a really good movie-One Life with Anthony Hopkins. If you haven't seen it I recommend. It tells the true story of Sir Nicholas Winton, a young London stockbroker who in the months leading up to WW2 rescued over 600 children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. Such courage people displayed in the face of so much evil. 

Friday a handful of my college friends had plans to get together for lunch. There's a restaurant we like in Weaverville NC, not far from Asheville, called The Stoney Knob Cafe, and we we decided to meet there. Originally I didn't think I'd be up for another drive, but I don't see this group very often so carpe diem, right? 

There were six of us meeting, one lives near Asheville, two just over the mountain on the Tennessee side, and then three of us over the mountain the other direction, in South Carolina. I was coming the furthest, but met up with the other two SC girls so we could all ride together. 

It was such a nice day. We made it through the Asheville area without any real delays and then spent the afternoon talking and catching up on our lives. Once upon a time we were all young college students who joined the same sorority and we've been friends ever since. 

We don't see one another often, but when we do it's like no time at all has passed. That's the best kind of friends, don't you think? 

The restaurant is filled with all sorts of very eclectic art work, and their menu features a lot of Greek dishes. I opted for the Greek platter which was so delicious-Greek salad, pork souvlaki, tzatziki, pita, and feta. 

Six spoons and one bowl of their rice pudding brulee for dessert made for a sweet ending to a sweet afternoon spent with sweet friends. 

I hate to mention another meal, but hubs and I ended up going out for Mexican food that night with our next door neighbors, which is alway fun. 

Saturday hubs and I had a long leisurely coffee hour (or two) on the deck. It was nice not to have anywhere to go or anything we absolutely had to do. 

Except all the stuff that still needed doing I mean.  

We watched some of the Olympics, read a little, did several more loads of laundry (will it never end???), and I made BLT's for dinner, which in my book isn't technically cooking. Hubs did get out on the paddleboard for a bit on Saturday morning because somebody wanted to go swimming. 

The little brown dog is not the least bit sad to have his best bud all to himself again.  

Sunday night some neighbors invited us over for a BBQ they were hosting for two new neighbors and we enjoyed that a lot. I was supposed to bring a broccoli salad and deviled eggs, but the eggs refused to peel in a way that was pretty so I had to quickly regroup. I turned the eggs into egg salad, then sliced up some fresh from the garden cucumbers and put a dollop on each with a little sprinkle of dill. Voila! Plan B. 

One item of business-I've had a few new visitors to my blog recently so here's a friendly reminder letting you know I host The Wednesday Hodgepodge each week, and you're welcome to join. I post the questions on Tuesday and the link is up on Wednesday. There's no real rhyme or reason to the questions, hence the name Hodgepodge. Random is my blog lane and I try to stay in it. 

Have a great week everyone, and thanks to Holly and Sarah for hosting the Hello Monday party each week! 

A Right Royal Weekend

Good Monday Morning! I guess it's technically now Monday afternoon, but it was a.m. when I started this post. Monday mornings quite often get away from me somehow.

I'm regrouping here after a fun weekend on the lake with nine of my college sorority sisters. In spite of the less than stellar weather we had a fabulous time catching up with one another in person. One friend was there who most of us hadn't seen in 36 years so that was really special.

There were ten of us all together and two of us have houses on the same lake so we spent Friday at her house and Saturday at mine. Half the group slept there, and the other half here, everyone brought food and drink, and it was all so easy peasy. We talked and we laughed and we told stories and put our collective brains together to remember things we'd forgotten. So much fun!

It was mostly cloudy all weekend, but we still spent a lot of time outdoors, sitting on porches and patios and docks. The sun popped out long enough for a boat ride Saturday evening which was nice. Hubs acted as Cabana Boy and waited on us hand and foot and took pics so yay hubs! He knows all the girls and I think enjoys catching up with them as much as I do.

Hey, did you hear there was a wedding this weekend? Ha! The hype leading up to the day was a little over the top, but we loved watching it together. I thought she looked lovely and let her natural beauty shine. People are sometimes just plain awful aren't they? So many mean spirited comments in the world of social media. What is it about weddings that brings out the inner critic in everyone? She might be marrying into the royal family, but I thought the ceremony felt like it belonged to the bride.

I have to say I felt for the mother-of-the-bride. How hard to be on your own in that particular setting, but she seemed to handle it with grace and I admire that so much.

Also, Windsor. Sniff. How I miss you. I loved seeing the town almost more than I enjoyed watching the wedding. We spent a lot of time in Windsor back in the day and have our own favorite photo taken on the long walk.

And now it's Monday and we're back to a quiet house. Hubs has already repaired a broken door lock and is power washing the dock because he always needs to be doing something. I'm tackling the laundry mountain, straightening the house, putting away stray dishes-table leaves-and the like, catching up on my blog, and drinking gallons of coffee. There was a whole lotta fun packed into these past three days, but not a whole lotta sleep.

So did you watch the wedding? What did you think? Happy Monday all!

Life And Stuff

My daughter and I were talking about how she had recently gone back and read a blog post written in 2006 by someone who went on to become a very popular blogger. This particular blogger had taken a trip somewhere my daughter plans to visit and she remembered this blogger writing about it.

She told me how much she loved reading the post and how it was written in the format of here's what I did on day one of my vacation and here's what I did on day two of my vacation and here's a picture of every single dessert we ate and here's the beach we walked on and how there wasn't a single link to anything commercial and it wasn't polished but it was oh so real.

And we both agreed this was why we became bloggers and it's the thing we miss when we don't blog.

I'm bringing it back. Here's some stuff from the past few weekends that I never got around to mentioning and that maybe isn't worth mentioning because it's just friends gathering and reminiscing and people coming and going and babies being adorable and isn't that the stuff life is made of?

Two weekends ago I was here-

Hilton Head Island.

It was a too quick weekend spent with girls I pledged a sorority with nearly four decades ago, but who are still eighteen in my head. We laughed until our sides hurt and remembered how good that feels. There was some beach sitting, some shop til you drop kind of fun, shared appetizers and stories and a brilliant sunny Saturday. There was birthday cake (pink of course) with too big candles and heartfelt wishes.

We chased down a sunset but were laughing too hard to run so almost missed it.

Almost.

The kind of weekend you want to tuck in your pocket and pull out from time to time when the world feels gray and your heart needs a pick-me-up. That kind of weekend. These girls. The stuff life is made of.

While I was away hubs drove over to Tennessee and picked up his mom and brought her to the lake to spend a few days with us here. The weather was glorious and we had a wonderful time showing her around tiny town. On Tuesday she visited Daughter2's classroom and read a book to her kindergarten students. So special!

We had an early dinner afterward and enjoyed hearing about her day, and then we spent most of the next day on the lake because it was too nice to do otherwise. This summer weather in October is something, isn't it?

We drove my mother-in-law back to Tennessee Thursday evening, then went on up to collegetown Friday morning for homecoming festivities. We had lunch at a little spot called White Duck Taco where we sat outside and caught up with some of our favorite people also in town for the homecoming shenanigans. White Duck does fancy tacos and I had one Thai chicken and one pork belly and both were scrumptious.

That evening we went to dinner with a big group of friends and then Saturday was game day. Let's just say it was warm. Have mercy! 

Still we tailgated and enjoyed seeing the brand new stadium, but by halftime we were melting so we called it a day and headed back to the hotel for a nap before the evening party.

I know this picture looks cloudy, but those clouds lasted just long enough for me to snap a picture. The rest of the time the hot hot sun was staring us down.

I love visiting campus even if they did take down 'our tree' and put the stadium in it's place. The grounds around the school are still so pretty and hubs and I always take a walk hand in hand and remember why we fell in love. It's good to remember.

Are you still in touch with your college friends? Do they still know how to make you laugh, pull at your heartstrings, say remember when, sense you need a hug or maybe lemon drops and a reality check (hi Amanda!)? Ours do, and for that we are truly grateful. Who knew thirty five+ years ago our lives would be so entwined still?

I really need to blog more because now here I am many paragraphs later and I haven't even mentioned baby boy being adorable. He needs his own post anyway, don't you think? No worries...he'll get one. Or ten. Or maybe a hundred. teehee.

Happy Thursday everyone!
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So Long January, Hello Hodgepodge

Here we are at the beginning of a brand new month, and with it comes a brand new edition of the Wednesday Hodgepodge. So glad you're starting your February here! If you've answered this week's questions add your link at the end of my post. And be a good neighbor by leaving a comment for the blogger linking before you. Here we go-

1. Can you believe it's the end of January? What was the best day of January 2017 for you, and why?

We had a busy January so I'm looking forward to a little less on the calendar this next month. Best day? That's easy...January 4th. Nothing like stepping into the waiting arms of your grown up daughter on the other side of the country to make it so.   

2. What sounds make up the background noise in your life?

To be honest I love a super quiet house. The world is noisy and our lives are busy so I enjoy a quiet home. We do play a lot of music here, but if you dropped in on me on an ordinary Tuesday morning you'd find a quiet house. I almost never turn on the TV during the day. 

I love to hear the bass boats out early in the morning. The splash of a fish leaping out of the water. We have a lot of birds in our yard too, and I enjoy listening to their songs. Nature is my favorite background sound. 

3. I read on the Power of Positivity website a list of ten things to drop from your life right now. They are-

anger outbursts, people who put you down, regret, negative self talk, being a people pleaser, the notion you need to be perfect, the past (but keep the lessons learned!), gossip and judgment, comparing yourself to others, and the word hate (focus on what you love instead)

Which thing on the list do you most need to drop? Are you trying or will you try?

Gossip and judgment. Spending less and less time on Facebook helps. It's just a horrible place right now and while that sounds like a judgment I bet most people agree. When hubs and I were stuck recently, sitting for a day in the Seattle airport,  a gentleman struck up a conversation with me that has stayed on my heart and mind. 

He looked like an average Joe, had a good job, education, was in Seattle to visit friends, etc. but as we talked he began sharing with me how he'd left his wife four months prior and it wasn't turning out the way he thought it would be, how he was feeling so lost, and how his two teenage daughters were struggling with it all. He just kind of poured out his heart, and our time together reminded me that everyone has something going on 'behind the scenes' and to just be a little more gentle with the people who cross my path. 

4. What is sacred to you?

I've seen this word defined in a couple of ways, one relating to spirituality and the other used to describe something very precious to you. I always associate it with the spiritual and also think it applies to something I couldn't or wouldn't want to be without. God's word is sacred to me. My faith also feels sacred. It's a very personal thing and something that impacts every area of my life. It's what carries me through hard times, and helps me navigate the ordinary days too. I treasure it, rely on it, and would feel lost and alone without it. 

5. January is National Oatmeal month. Are you a fan, and if so how do you like it?

I do like oatmeal and in fact made myself a bowl for breakfast this morning. I have it at least a couple mornings a week and my favorite is cooked on the stovetop as opposed to instant packets. I love it with a little sliced banana, a few dried cherries, and a splash of cold milk. I don't like warm milk on my oatmeal. 

6. What feelings does twilight stir up in you?

Sometimes I feel a bit wistful when twilight settles in. It's not sadness per se, but there's a longing for something at that time of day I can't quite define. It's much more noticeable in winter months when we have shorter daylight hours, but I feel it in the summer months too. There's something about twilight that makes me think of childhood, my own and also my girls. 

7. Something you're looking forward to next month (February)?

A free weekend? We've been away most of January so I'm pretty happy to think we're sticking closer to home for most of February. 

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Super fun weekend with girls I've known almost forty years. Forty years? That can't be right can it? 

Apparently it can and it is. We were all sorority sisters way back when and whenever we're together we pick right back up where we left off. 

Hubs acted as photographer/cabana boy/D.J. so we included him in our selfie. He's known them all nearly forty years too so he's used to us. More or less -ha! 




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On the Road Again. Or Still?

It's Monday which means time to check in here. I'm so ready to get settled into our apartment and then hopefully into some sort of routine with my writing. We shall see.

Hubs and I have been on the road all week which I know surprises no one, and guess what? We'll be on the road all this week too. As I've been saying for several months now... 'tis a season.

Except I think 'on the road' is a way of life here as opposed to just a season, but I like to pretend one day we'll be settled down with our feet up and no place to go.

Also we really do enjoy all the going, we just need a little staying now and then for balance. ahem.

We left NJ last Tuesday and took our time getting to SC. We arrived on Wednesday morning, and headed straight for the lake to dump a carful of belongings. Not in the lake, but in the storage unit we're renting near the lake. We've got the little red car in storage there too, and she started right up on the first try. That doesn't always happen with the little red car, but apparently heat and humidity agree with her, so whoohoo!

Next stop was back to town to my sister and brother-in-law's home to dump the rest of our luggage, shower, change and then head back over to the other side of town to collect Daughter2 for dinner with the in-laws. Not her in-laws or our in-laws, but Daughter1's in-laws.

Course Daughter1 and her hubs were way over on the west coast where they currently reside, but their families had a lot of fun catching up over dinner. Both sisters were there too, just no newlyweds. Pretty sure we're going to see the kid's in-laws more than they do, but that's okay because it gives us a chance to talk about them. Hi kids!

Thursday I broke down and got a haircut, my first since we moved. I went to my daughter2's stylist so it wasn't too traumatic. Y'all finding a new girl to cut my hair ranks high on the list of move stressors. We had a nice lunch afterwards with Daughter2 (I'm not even living there yet, but already loving how easy it is to see her) and then we drove back out to the lake to meet up with our builder.

He had our actual large blueprints and also the gazillion pages that go behind the floorpans. All the lines and squiggles and footnotes referring to insulation and electricity and foundations and muckity muck muck. Oh I know it's all important, but I want hubs to worry about the part that's not fun. Just skip straight to the pretty drawings of my house please.

It feels very official to have blueprints, although there are still one or two little bits and pieces that need correcting, and we have to tag trees on the lot as to what stays and what goes, and then somebody has to come say it's okay because you can't just knock down all the trees when you're beside the water, nor would we want to, and then there's all the choosing and the paying of course, but still... it's nice to have blueprints.

On Friday we met Daughter2 for breakfast, then hubs drove me to meet up with some college friends so we could transfer my luggage to their car for the ride to North Carolina. We're moving to South Carolina which I know is confusing, but I was going to a sorority reunion in North Carolina. And hubs was going on to Tennessee to catch up with his folks, because we were in the neighborhood.

More or less.

I had a fabulous weekend in the mountains with college girlfriends. The kind of weekend where we talk too much and laugh too much and relax to the nth degree. In other words-perfection. 

The view's not bad either.

The weekend went by way too fast, and on Sunday hubs picked me up and we headed back to NJ. It was slow going because have mercy, the traffic! Yikes! What should have taken ten hours took fourteen so we didn't roll into my mom's driveway until 1:30 in the morning. I know! 

We have a glorious forty eight hours with no where to be, then it's back in the car and over the border. Legally of course-ha! We're going to a wedding in Canada, and since Prince Edward Island is basically the end of the earth, we're making some stops along the way. It's a beautiful part of the world, and we are so looking forward to catching up with friends as we travel north.

Life is a highway, and we're riding it that's for sure!