First day of fall

Today is the first official day of fall, and I am more than ready to welcome a new season. I couldn’t be happier that fall is in the air! It’s my favorite time of year (now if only the weather would reflect the actual season here in Mississippi, we’d be good...)

The summer of 2009 was a long and hard one from the very beginning. We stayed extremely busy for three months straight, which wasn’t a bad thing, but I know I’m not alone in saying I’m very ready for a change. Sometimes a change in season is all you need to change your outlook on things, I think.

The only sad part about leaving summer behind is the thought that all our beautiful plants that Derek has taken such great care of might only have a few more months to live. He has been so dedicated to keeping them watered and happy, and in turn, they’ve bloomed all summer long. Maybe now that my parents have a nice, new greenhouse in their backyard they wouldn’t mind fostering their “grandplants” for the winter. :)

Now that fall is officially here, I greet it with open arms as I get ready for firepits and fireplaces, red wine, long sleeves, warm socks, holidays, fleece blankets and hot chocolate. My only complaint is that we’ll say goodbye to our frequent visits from fireflies…

I can never pass up a good porch party!

We headed to Vicksburg yesterday for a shower for Lauchlin and Olivia. We saw lots of old friends and stuffed ourselves silly with plenty of great shower food.

Afterwards we headed back over to their house for a good, old-fashioned porch party. Back in the old newspaper days I spent many a late night on that screened-in front porch, and it's been entirely too long since the last time. We talked, laughed, told stories and even decided it would be a good idea to decorate ourselves with some temporary tattoos (why, I have no idea, but I spent half an hour this afternoon scrubbing my butterfly off). It was great!

And an extra special treat of the evening was an inaugural game of Rock Band - BEATLES! It was so much fun! It's definitely on our must-have list now. I doubt we can even wait until Christmas. :)

It was a fun night, and it was just like old times. Congratulations, Lauchlin and Olivia! I'm happy for you two, and I can't wait until your big day!

Oh, Lynyrd Skynyrd, I'm so sorry...

I just had to share this, especially after watching "Glee" last night. I'm not quite sure what to think, but I thought you'd feel the same way. I mean, seriously??

DISCLAIMER: If you, by chance, have ties to Clinton High School's Attache' Showchoir, I'm sorry if this offends you. I'm not saying these kids aren't truly talented, but some songs should just be left alone and not choreographed and split into five-part harmony...

Happy Birthday times two!

This week we're celebrating two very special family birthdays... my mom's was Saturday, and my father-in-law's is Wednesday.

My mom and I will have a belated celebration in a couple of weeks in between her birthday and mine on the 28th. We're going for dinner tomorrow with the Greys for Gary's birthday.

To both of you, a very, very happy birthday! We love you very much!

Hello, Lover...

I have an old guy named Joseph Pilates to thank for my new found love of fitness. I went to a Pilates Reformer class yesterday for the first time, and while I felt a little awkward when I couldn’t quite catch on to the inhale-exhale timing, overall, I loved the way it made me feel!

Once I got focused, I found myself very relaxed. All I could think was, why haven’t I tried this sooner?

I’m very, very sore today, but it’s a good kind of sore. My hips, thighs and sides are a little achy, but any exercise that makes me that sore without breaking a big sweat is right up my alley. Plus, you do it barefooted, which is even better! I feel very "new age." :)

I’m going again tomorrow. And Saturday morning, too. Hopefully I will actually stick with a real exercise plan this time. We shall see…

Atta Girl

I'm patting myself on the back this morning because after a long-awaited two and a half years (almost to the day), I finally got a promotion at work, effective today. State government can be tricky as far as promotions/reclassifications go, so I'm pretty excited.

Derek's mom would have called this an "atta girl," so I'm calling it that myself. If you don't toot your own horn, then who else will? :)

Lovely Labor Day Weekend

We started off the long weekend by heading out to the lake on Saturday morning… it was a beautiful day, and it was so much fun to have a family day out there with a few babies running and crawling around. Ryan Hadley was there, as well as Trey, Melanie and Jane Reynolds, plus Ben, Kristen and Mary Hogan. For once, we non-parents were outnumbered! :)

After spending most of the afternoon on the water, we had some great ribs on the grill with all the fixin's and then took the boat out after dark to ride over and listen to a few members of The Chill (our wedding band and one of my all-time faves) play at a house down the lake. Sometimes there’s nothing like dancing barefoot in your bathing suit on a Saturday night!

We headed back Sunday morning and enjoyed a lazy afternoon watching the Ole Miss game followed by some HGTV (for Derek) and Lifetime (for me).

We slept in Monday morning and I ran a few errands before getting some food together to take across the street for a cook-out at Ben and Tina’s. It, too, was a family event with Baby Brady and our friends John and Susan and little Eli. Was someone trying to send us a message this weekend or what? Ha!

A few hours later and bellies full of a smorgasbord of food, we put on our pajamas, watched an hour of “House Hunters” and were both falling asleep on the couch by about 9.

It was such a nice weekend. It was nice to do something low-key like that instead of a having a three-day party. It was even fine with me that we spent the majority of the weekend around a bunch of babies… I guess it comes with the territory of being in my last few weeks before my last year of my 20s. We are getting O.L.D., and I’m proud of it. :)