Terrible Tuesday, but Thankful Thursday

Tuesday was a very bad day. The day started out with my boss totaling her car in a pretty bad wreck when someone ran a redlight on Lakeland Drive. She was okay for the most part - some pretty bad bruises and soreness, but no broken bones. It could have been a lot worse.

Then Tuesday night my mom fell down the stairs in our garage and split her head wide open on the concrete. They rushed her to the emergency room, removed a blood clot and now she has eight staples in the back of her head.

I knew nothing of this until around noon yesterday when she called me from the hospital, so I immediately packed a bag and headed to Hattiesburg, even though they told me not to go. I don't know how much help I was, but I just wanted to be there with her. It scared me to death, and I know it scared them, too. My dad doesn't usually handle situations like that very well, but he went into emergency mode when it happened and wouldn't let her move, called 911 and even helped clean up the blood. Then when they were released from the hospital, he went into nurse mode and was taking such good care of her.

I couldn't relax until I knew without a doubt that she was okay. I just needed to see her and talk to her, especially after everything with Derek's mom. I'm so thankful she's doing fine. She's very sore and will have the staples in for a week, but I don't even want to think about how much worse it could have been. I'm so, so, so thankful.

So overall, Tuesday was a crappy day, but it could have been much, much worse in both situations. Trust me, I'm saying an extra prayer or two today for that exact reason. You can never be too thankful.

Spa Day + Girls' Night = Perfection

What a beautiful weekend for our second annual Girls’ Spa Vacay! I hit the road around lunch on Friday and rocked out to my new “Liz’s Favorite Summer Mix” cd, courtesy of my sweet husband. It was a gorgeous day for a road trip, and I enjoyed all three hours of highway time to the Coast.

Friday night Brooke, Katie and I went to eat Mexican then just visited for a while before calling it an early night in preparation for Saturday’s spa day. Saturday morning came bright and early and we headed to Biloxi for a round of mimosas before our appointments at The Grand.

My appointment was at 11, and this year I decided to go with an 80-minute hot stone massage. Let me just say this was absolutely the best choice I could have made, and I’ll definitely be getting the hot stone massage again next time. FABULOUS. I didn’t have a single complaint. After I was totally relaxed from my massage, I enjoyed some time in the hot tub and steam room while I was waiting on everyone else to finish.

Once everyone was finished, we headed back to Christy’s for a girls’ night slumber party. SO much fun. Lauren even bought Baby Cooper, who is now almost six months old, and we made fruity drinks, played with the baby and laughed until we cried. It was a perfect night.

I just love these girls, and it’s so much fun to get together and catch up. And I love the spa, so the two combined made for an absolutely wonderful weekend. I’m ready to plan the next one already!

Random Thought Thursday

Derek just burned me a new CD for my girls' weekend road trip (yes, we still burn CDs - we're a few steps behind, sorry) and it got me thinking. I thought I would do a post about my favorite song lyrics. Pretty random, I know, but hopefully a little insightful. Some are sentimental, some are somewhat deep, and some are just plain brilliantly written. Here are some of my favorites...

JESUS, ETC. - Wilco
Our love is all of God's money.
This is one of my favorite quotes of all time. To me, this says that if we don't make it, nobody will. God is playing a winning hand with us, and nothing's going to beat it.

BAREFOOT CHILDREN IN THE RAIN – Jimmy Buffett
Wrinkles only go where the smiles have been.
This is my mantra. In the end, who cares about getting old as long as you've made it all worthwhile.

BEST OF WHAT’S AROUND – Dave Matthews Band
And if you hold on tight to what you think is your thing you may find you're missing all the rest.
This lyric is especially close to my heart because Derek was not a happy camper about leaving Ole Miss to go to to Southern, but his grades needed a break from Oxford. Little did he know he would meet his future wife once he got to Hattiesburg. You have to be open to changes in life or you'll miss out on life in general.

TWO STEP – Dave Matthews Band
Celebrate we will 'cause life is short but sweet for certain.
No explanation needed for this. It goes hand-in-hand with the Jimmy Buffett lyric. Make the most of every day. Don't let life pass you by.

WADING IN THE VELVET SEA - Phish
You won't find moments in a box, and someone else will set your clocks. I took a moment from my day, wrapped it up in things you say and mailed it off to you.
This to me says that you can't always get what you want when you want it. More specifically, I think this is about a relationship that wasn't meant to be, regardless how much the two people wanted it.

INTO THE MYSTIC – Van Morrison
And I want to rock your gypsy soul just like way back in the days of old. And magnificently we will flow into the mystic.
This song as a whole is very special to me because it was our first dance at our wedding. I love the idea of finding your true soul mate. I think a soul mate is designated for you at the beginning of time, way before you're even born. Cheesy, I know, but I was swept away.

BE MINE – David Gray
Everytime I'm talking with you it's always over too soon. Everyday feels so incomplete til you walk into the room. Say the word now girl - I'll jump that moon.
What it feels like to be totally, completely and utterly in L.O.V.E., especially in those early dating days.

ALL THESE THINGS THAT I’VE DONE – The Killers
I got soul, but I'm not a soldier.
Nothing deep here. It's just catchy and I love it. I guess I should just say God bless America - home of the free and home of the blues.

Hippity Hoppity, SPRING is here!!!

We had a wonderful and BUSY Easter weekend. Friday night we met a big group of friends at the Crawdad Hole for a little crawfish, some live music and some cold beer. It was SO nice outside. We ended the night with a little deck-sitting at our house with Drew, Kristin and Ben. It was perfect, even though we all had a bit of a yellow tint to our skins from all the pollen! It just felt good to be outside enjoying springtime.

Saturday morning we hit the road to Hattiesburg to boil shrimp at my parents’ house. We had a great visit with Mom, Dad, Gran and Pap and totally stuffed ourselves with shrimp, corn and potatoes. Our ride back to Jackson Saturday evening was pretty miserable with full bellies, and we hit the couch as soon as we got home.

Sunday we got up bright and early and hit the road again – this time to Eagle Lake. We spent the morning and early afternoon getting the lake house ready for summer by cleaning out the back bedrooms and washing all the sheets and comforters. The sun came out just as we were finishing up, so we sat outside in the sunny breeze and relaxed for a bit before eating another big meal on the grill with Derek’s dad and heading back to Jackson.

We are still worn out from being on the road all weekend, but it could not have been a more perfect weekend with great friends and family. Spring is definitely here in full force, and I just hope we can get in a few more nice weekends before it gets to be full-fledged, HOT Mississippi summer weather!

¡Sacuda su bon-bon, Scott!

So, Ricky Martin is finally out of the closet, which reminds me of a funny little college story… Cassidy, this one is for you.

Freshman year, Cassidy and I were in the same Spanish 101 class. I think almost everybody had to take a first level foreign language regardless of their major, so this class was a random mix of people. There were a couple of idiots in there for sure – one being Scott, and one being this football player named Dirty Bird. He’s a separate story by himself, so we’ll save that for another time.

When it came time for group projects on famous Spanish-speaking people or something like that, Cassidy and I were lucky enough to get Scott as our third group member. He was a total freeloader who paid zero attention to anything the teacher was saying, never did his homework and barely came to class. That being said, of course he did nothing when it came time to put our little project together. Cassidy and I did everything. I don’t remember if we chose Ricky Martin or if we drew his name (keep in mind that “Livin La Vida Loco” and “Shake Your Bon Bon” were popular then), but that’s who our project subject was. We cut out pictures of Ricky Martin and glued it to poster board, then wrote adjectives the poster along with a short report about him to read in front of the class. You can probably see where this is going now, especially since Scott didn’t contribute a single thing…

We each had a paragraph to read in Spanish about Ricky Martin’s life. Cassidy read about where he was born and his early years, I read about his hit songs and popularity all over the world, and then it was Scott’s turn. Scott read about how handsome and sexy he was and how he loved it when Ricky Martin shook his bon-bon. (We had a little help on the verb conjugation from www.freetranslation.com since this was indeed Spanish 101.)

Scott had no clue why our professor and a few of the smarter students in the class were laughing hysterically at him. Even if they couldn’t understand every word he was reading, it was clear enough that he was reading aloud that he had a crush on Ricky Martin. Needless to say, Cassidy and I both got A’s, and I’m pretty sure Scott failed. Lesson learned.

When you try to outsmart the smart girls, payback’s a bitch. I'm sure somewhere out there Scott is shaking his bon-bon today. Good for you, Ricky... you have a fan in Scott, whether he knows it or not.

River City Heart Walk

Saturday morning we headed to Vicksburg for the American Heart Association's River City Heart Walk. Katie organized the Grey Gone Red team in memory of Candee, so we were proud to be a part of it.

Katie was recognized being one of the team leaders with the most walkers as well as being a high fundraiser by raising more than $4,000.

Congrats, Katie!!

Gary, Mamaw, and Kevin and B came to be a part of our team, as well as many family friends. It was a total success, and we had a nice time catching up with everyone on a pretty (but cold) Saturday morning. A mile and a half later, we hit the outlet mall for a little while and ate lunch with Katie and Neil and were home before 1 p.m. Gotta love some fundraising with family and friends! :)

Poor Poor Puppy...

As we speak, poor Bentley Warren is slightly sedated and in recovery at Dr. Lester's office. We finally decided to bite the bullet and get him "fixed." He turned five last week, and we just decided it was time. We've had good intentions to breed him all these years, but we never did, so Sir Bentley Warren Christopher Lamar Bice Grey can now no longer be a baby daddy.

Bless his heart... he loves going to the vet, but probably not after today. Hopefully he won't hold it against us.

The good news is that now, friends, you can come to our house and worry a little less about that big dog. I can't promise he won't sniff your butt, but at least he will leave your leg alone. He means well, he really does. :)