The Big One

i had the Big One on Monday - I faced down the 4-0 and am still alive.  So, how did I celebrate?  I worked Camp Hickory at church.  But I did get to remember some lovely moments from my "Say Goodbye to My 30s" cruise.  The ship was wonderful, but I did miss my fam after a while.  My husband made this trip possible for me so I could have something I have always wanted - a real vacation!  It was great to get away and enjoy lots of pampering and meet lots of people from all around the world.  And getting a real breakfast every morning that I did not prepare was priceless.  And the flirty, Italian maitre d' was fun, too.

I watched about a dozen movies on the ship and lounged on the decks and was thoroughly entertained without having to lift a finger.  (But I did lift my feet - I stuck to the stairs on the trip.  It helps justify the evening desserts and the pastry cafe.)

I went to Maine and enjoyed a truly beautiful part of the country I had never seen before.

I ate my very own lobster in Maine.  I ate a lot of seafood on this trip and I saved enough calories so that I only gained two pounds total.  I did pretty good.  I have already knocked off those two pounds since then.

I went to Boston and roamed around that large, crazy city.  It was pretty cool, but noticeably dirty, too.

I went to Rhode Island and toured some ridiculous historic mansions and soaked up the yachting culture of the tiny state.  Profane wealth is kind of interesting to me.  Then I at ice cream filled with chocolate covered potato chips and it was perfect.

It's Been a While

 Not only did I take a blog vacation, I went to Mom camp.  On a cruise ship.  In Canada.  And New England. 

Best Mom Camp Ever.

Unlike most bloggers I know, I have absolutely no photography gifts, so you get what you get and you don't throw a fit.  And honestly, I am not sure how to capture the true beauty of Prince Edward Island.  It was a cold and windy day, too, and 3,100 of my closest cruising friends descended on the little island waiting for our big excursion - the Anne of Green Gables estate.  That place was perfect and had the biggest hostas I have ever seen, since the climate there is ideal for picturesque gardens.  I can see why the author loved it so much and was so inspired by it.  And nothing smelled like fish out there in the country, as opposed to everywhere else we visited in Canada.  But I do love fish and ate lots of it, and brought home lots of Roots Canada shirts for the whole fam.  This was a fun day at Mom Camp.

Tracks

 We took some random shots on a short road trip to Talking Rock, Georgia.  Tiny but charming town with stores I liked and a picturesque park with the perfect stream running through it - and some train tracks plus and old train.  The schoolhouse museum was cute, too.  I wonder how there ended up being so many charming towns in North Georgia.  Follow this up with some good southern barbecue, and my day was complete and happy.  Thanks, babe :)

The Target Equation

We just got back from a trip to Target.  I went into the store, knowing that I needed some specific items.  Let me set this up like a formula:  put the things you know on one side of the equal sign, then solve for what you do not know on the other side (this is the variable.)

The things I know:

1.  I will need to buy multiple hair products for all of our multiple hairs.
2.  I will get sucked in to the book section, because for some reason the Target marketing team knows how to appeal to my Mom demographic.  (i.e. a picture of a woman/child from behind, standing on a sandy beach, with a subtitle about strength to move on after tragedy/perseverance in starting her life over/finding a long lost love/discovering a new purpose in life.)  You get the picture, right?
3.  Roxy will be bound and determined to spend all if not most of her allowance.  On mindless plastic crap.
4.  I will talk Roxy out of the plastic crap, then she will move on to the DS game section where she inevitably finds just what she wanted.  Sigh.
5.  Darby will have to visit the rest room.
6.  I will have to send Roxy with Darby so that Darby returns from the restroom, where they will find me reading book jackets in the book section of Target.
7.  Darby will get lost anyway, typically in the make-up section.
8.  Roxy will see someone she knows from school.
9.  I will see someone I know from church.
10.  There will be at least four items in the cart that I had no idea I was going to purchase.

This is the thing I don't know:

x=how much my grand total will be.  (There is no telling what it is when you are buying make-up, that's for sure.)
y=how much time we will waste in this store
So the equation looks like this:

((1+2+3)+(4+5+6)/(7+8+9))*10=x+y

Based on tonight's trip (and every other night's trip, in all honesty), the answer for x is always around $80, including the DS game purchased by Roxy.

As far as y goes, it's usually about an hour.  But I do love this hour with my girls, in my quiet and not-at-all creepy Target.

Another Lady in the House

I am sharing this with the world, much to Scott's chagrin.

There is another lady in the house.

There are already three lovely ladies here, but Scott went out and got another one.

Scott refuses to name her, so I have taken that task upon myself.  Her name is Manda Lin.

I can't tell you how thrilled I am that Scott is learning to play an instrument.  And it is a normal instrument, unlike some of the crazy ones he has looked into lately.  If you don't know what a crazy instrument is, you apparently don't troll YouTube often enough.

So, now my husband is learning how to play this great instrument.  He better learn some Avett Brothers, cuz that would make Momma really happy, too.

Hip to be Square

Scott and I hosted a class party on Sunday - a Four Square picnic and tournament.  We used washable sidewalk paint to make the four square grids, set out a bunch of orange cones to block off our parking lot, and let everyone play.

Most adults did not know how to play four square.  That did not prevent the adults from immediately getting competitive, though.  We started a bracket for a competition and had an overall winner of our Quatro Cup.  It is an enormous trophy with a giant ball on it (reminiscent of a tumor), spray painted by my lovely daughter Darby.  It was a fun evening with lots of kids enjoying just being together, playing four square, then kick ball, then pushing each other around in big wheel bikes.  We found that the best and easiest party could be made by simply painting the pavement and letting the kids run around.  Who knew?

Hen and Chicks

Something interesting about this photo:  Roxy's nametag.  She labels herself "Roxy the Alien."  I don't know why.  It just needs to be documented since she thinks she is from another planet, or another country or whatever.  She labels herself as different and has no problem telling the world about it.  I kind of like that.