home sweet home

It's so good to be home.  Back in my calming, enlightening and rejuvenating comfort zone.

While I thoroughly enjoyed being back East around family and friends, home just has a special vibe that cannot be replicated.  So I am soaking up the pleasure of mi casa today.  Piddling around (country term which means doing nothing), thinking about doing laundry, resting, unpacking very slowly, and putting up Christmas decorations while Star Wars-The Phantom Menace plays in the background. I really like the fight scene with Qui Gon Jinn, Obi Wan Kenobi and Darth Maul.  Makes me wish I had a light saber.  I can see myself flipping, using the force and working my light saber like Obi Wan!  I want a cool Star Wars name too.  Something royal like Princess Leia...  Princess Shar!  Can you come help me wind my hair in two big circles on either side of my head, please? I found some Star Wars Random Name Generators, but their ideas were not as good as Princess Shar LOL!

In continued random news, I discovered my first gray hair. I found two, actually and I'm really excited about em!!!  You know, the whole wiser-better-stronger thing!

Have you heard about 25 Days of Free Holiday Music from Amazon.com??? Starting December 1st, every day through Christmas, Amazon unveils a new holiday song and you can download it for free!  Click here to check it out.  

Here are a few savory, sweet and hilarious spots from my travels:

Getting my hair cut (6 inches!) and flat ironed:




and then remembering why I rarely ever get my hair flat ironed:




Watching the little ones romp in the very place I romped as a child...  FUN times!


Dunkin' Donut Munchkins (chocolate and blueberry only) :)





Chicken Biscuits from Bojangles.  Bless your heart if you've never had one.  

Visiting with my great Aunt Lucy who is almost 104 years old and sharp as ever!

Eating @Chow Time in Memphis... giggles about the shenanigans between me and my mom

Cheering for my cousin, yelling at the ref and laughing hysterically @high school BB game

Great conversation with my Uncle John

The awesomeness that is Brooke, my sister-in-love

Getting to see my brother perform (singer/songwriter extraordinaire)

The sun shining brightly the day after we buried my brother Josh  

Attending a World Aids Day Awareness Event

The most darling turquoise shoes confiscated from the closet of my mother

Zaxby's vanilla milkshake

Remembering to give thanks each day

Riding home with my husband... that is when I realized that Dorothy had it right.  

Home: there's no place like it.  



Hugs, Love and Happy Holidays to you and yours!!!

Things I Miss...

I usually don't miss anything.  

However, I came across this picture of me and my mom:  

...  and it started to stir up some sentimental nostalgia.

Here are a few things I miss:

Simple Times 

(eat, play, sleep, poop & pee)

Friends &  family members who live out of state/overseas

My sweet cousin who just left for college

Spending time with my Granny

My abs

You missing anyone/anything today or is it just me?

On Waxing Nostalgic

I'm in a sentimental mood.  Many young people I know are venturing off to college starting tomorrow.  It is such a beautiful thing that makes me laugh, cry and contemplate rolling up into the fetal position in that corner over there... all at the same time.  The time passes so slowly and yet so quickly all at the same time, which makes no sense. How can something pass slowly and quickly simultaneously?  I don't know, folks.  That's just the way time rolls, I guess.  


Nevertheless, I am so proud of these young whipper-snapper world changers because they've  worked so hard to get here and I know that their future is bright and powerful like lightning.  These parents who are so brave inspire me as they launch their arrows into the bright blue sky and boldly move forward to embrace the next chapter and season of life.  Change is a lovely and beautifully awkward experience, isn't it?


My awesome auntie says, "Senior year is the long goodbye."  


This post goes out to all of you who have said or are in the process of saying the long goodbye.  My heart is right there with ya and to take the melodrama over the top, I want to share a lovely site with you that brilliantly captures the reality of change through the perspective of photography then and now.  It's a really beautiful and amazing site called dearphotograph.com.  It is a bit of a tearjerker so don't say I didn't warn ya...  Click on the link if you dare...  




I love you all dearly.