FMM - Vacations!

It's Friend Makin' Monday again and since Kasey is still on her awesome 30 day road trip, Jolanthe over at No Ordinary Moments is hosting today.

The two part topic is: vacations!

First tell us about your best or worst vacation and then list five places you want to go to on vacation at some point in your life.

Ok, you know I haven't really had a horrible vacation. At least not one I can really remember. Growing up, my family would vacation at the best place on Earth the Outer Banks in North Carolina. We always went with this one other family, got a huge house right on the beach and lived it up for a week or two. We always went the first two weeks of August, aka hurricane season. Most years we were lucky, but we did get evacuated by Hurricane Felix one year. I don't actually remember a lot, even though I was like 15 or something. (Guess that goes to show how self absorbed I was as a teenager! lol). I just really remember that we evacuated to this hotel in Greenville, NC and that I was in close quarters with my brothers (ugh!) and that there was literally nothing to do so we walked around Walmart (ugh again!). Fortunately, it was just for a night and then the next day Felix went on its way up the eastern seaboard and we went back to the Banks.

As far as best vacations go, realy some of my favorite vacation memories are from the Outer Banks; boogie-boarding in the great Atlantic waves, sitting the deck of the beach house watching the dolphins frolick in the waves, looking for shells, riding our bikes around Corolla Light. It was the kind of family vacation I hope to take my children on some day.

My other best vacation was our trip to Italy in 2006. My dad had been the highest bidder on this house

at an auction and off we (Alex, me, my brothers, and my parents) went to Perugia, Italy for a week! It was absolutely fabulous. The scenery was breath-taking and the culture amazing. One of the things I loved the most was multitude of artwork in the beautiful old churches that were everywhere! I loved going into those churches and knowing that painting in there were hundreds of years old! We went to Florence, Assisi, and many other small towns and had a great time.

Except for one small detail that really only affected me.

I was 10 weeks pregnant with Melody. And sick. as. a. dog. The whole time. I got sick on the plane when we landed in Rome and was pretty sick the whole time. And tired. So, I missed out on all the great food and wine since basically all I could stomach was bread. I'm planning on going back just so I can eat and drink there!

This was the view from mine and Alex's bedroom

Machiavelli's tomb in Florence
The cathedral in Assisi
Out of all the artwork we saw, this was my favorite painting. Sorry it's so dark, but flash wasn't allowed. It's Adam and Eve blaming the serpent when God confronts them in the Garden of Eden.
Alex in Florence. Yes, that's a Statue of David apron he's wearing. I laughed so hard when we saw the Statue of David (after waiting in line for over two hours, btw) beacuse my brother said, "Wow. David has the biggest hands ever and the smallest penis!"
My brothers and I walking up the road to Assisi.

Anyway, I really could go on and on for hours about how amazing Italy is. It's definitey a place I want to go back to.

Now for my list of where I want to go. It's so hard to narrow it down to just five places, but I'll try.
Ok, in no particular order:
1. Hawaii
2. London
3. Ireland
4. Greece
5. Alaska

Since we're already on the subject of vacations, whenever I need a vacation, I drink of of these;
In my family, our drink of choice, a gin and tonic, is known as a "Vacation" after my mom once said that "drinking a gin and tonic is like going on vacation!"

Friend Makin' Monday - Are you calling Ms Lauren?

It's Friend Makin' Monday and since Kasey it out of town on her awesome 35 day road trip, Kelli over at Outside my Kitchen Window is hosting today.

Kelli's topic for FMM is your best friend. Where did you meet your bff? and was it love at first sight? And what makes this person so special?

My BFF and I met at a Bible Study several years ago. When I graduated college, married, and moved to Atlanta, I joined a women's Bible study to get involved and make some friends. About a year later, in walks this new girl who says her name is Lauren and she just moved here after graduating from Alabama. I roll my eyes towards another close friend of mine and think something along the lines, "Alabama! I'll never be friends with her!" I'm glad I was able to get over it, because despite her bad taste in college football, Lauren rocks!

Since that day, we've been extremely close and sometimes it seems like we do everything together. When I was 8 months pregnant with my third child, and Lauren had just discovered she was pregnant with hers, my mother actually asked if we had some kind of contract or something saying we had to be pregnant at the same time! You would think given this.

Lauren has a fabulous fashion sense and has introduced me to the color purple. As she told me today, "how can you not love the color purple? It's the color of royalty!" We also share an obsession deep love of purses. She also introduced me to Twilight...come on, you can't find a better friend than that! There's not many things that she does that I don't do...in fact, don't be surprised if you find me using cloth diapers soon!

Lauren and her husband Brad have the same values as Alex and I. I know that when I come to her in need of advice or with a problem, shell listen and help me with a true Christian understanding. She's also one of the most honest people I know; she will always tell me the truth, even if it's not what I want to hear. She's also very trusting. In fact she trusted me with the biggest secret ever!

Since I have two boys and a girl and Lauren has two girls and a boy, I'm hoping we'll get lucky and find a match there somewhere! It would be great to not only have Lauren as a friend but also as a family member! I have brothers but no sisters, so my girlfriends have always been important to me. Lauren is the the sister in my life. Despite the miles between us, we are fortunate to see each other on a relatively regular basis. And when we're not together we're probably chatting on the phone. In fact, frequently when I pick up the phone to make a call, one of my children will ask, "Are you calling Ms. Lauren?"

This photo was taken at the 2007 Auburn/Alabama game. It is one of the few photos we have where neither one of us are pregnant. Lauren is holding Jack, who was 3, and I'm holding Melody was about 10 months old. (I got pregnant with Charlie the following month!)

it's time to confess

It's Friend Makin' Monday again over at Kasey's. Todays topic is *gulp* confessions *gulp*. I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to totally come clean, but here it goes....

1. I have a major weakness for chocolate. I keep several a hidden stash and permit myself to have multiple chocolate fixes every day. It's like a drug to me.

2. You might have guessed (if you recognized that last line or have ever read my blog before), but I totally love love LOVE Edward. He's better than a drug to me. This isn't really a confession though...I'm usually pretty up front about my feelings regarding Edward Cullen.

3. I let my children cry it out and sometimes let them fuss when I think they just didn't sleep long enough. For the record, sometimes they will fall back asleep.

4. I buy way too many shoes. (I have no intention of stopping.)

5. I buy way too many purses. (I have no intention of stopping.)

6. I am madly in love with Edward.

7. Sometime I let my kids watch TV if I need to do something. You know, like blogging. (SuperWhy is currently on.)

8. I totally love raunchy, inappropriate TV and movies.

9. I procrastinate but then get angry when my husband other people in my life procrastinate.

10. I would totally run away with Edward.

Whew! That was rough. But now it's mostly all out in the open! Head on over to All That Is Good for some more Friend Makin' Monday!

friend makin' monday

This is my first week participating in Friend Makin' Monday over at All That is Good. Kasey has an adorable family and picked a fun topic for this week;

10 things I love about summer!

1. The heat. I know a lot of people love the AC more than the heat, but I can sit outside all day long! All I need is a gin and tonic, you know! I also love working out in the heat. Nothing feels better than coming back from a run drenched in sweat! And even if you didn't go very far, you're so hot, sweaty, and tired that you feel like you did!

2. The beach! You all know how much my family and I love the beach!!

3. The smell of sunscreen. Ahhhh, it reminds me of being at the beach!

4. All the cute clothes and fun shoes I get to wear.











5. Getting a pedicure. The shoes aren't nearly as cute if you don't have cute toes, know what I mean!?

6. Ice cream. When it's hot outside it's always OK to splurge on ice cream!

7. Time off from school. Now, it is only the beginning of summer, so I might regret writing this in a few days, but I do enjoy the flexibility we have. It's nice not to have to get up early every morning and rush to get Jack ready for school. I enjoying having my coffee on the deck while Jack and Melody fight over ride around in their Cozy Coupes and Charlie crawls around looking for dirt to eat.

8. Road trips. I wasn't crazy about our road trips when I was younger. Probably because my brothers were always bothering me (I know my mother is rolling her eyes right now!). But, I always had fun on road trips with friends in college and then with my husband. And now I even have a good time with my kids. Not long road trips with the kids...about 6 hours is my limit (which coincidentally is how long it takes me to get to my parents' house). We definitely use the DVD player but we also like car games and car dancing! And it's one of the few times that I bend the rules and let my kids eat in the car. (Yes, I'm that much of a neat freak.)

9. I love that is stays light out so much later. The summer Jack was born, Alex and I used to sit outside almost every night (for some reason, Jack was much less fussy outside), have a beer, and talk about the people we saw driving or walking by. Good times.

10. I love that we get to eat almost every meal outside. It's just nice to be outside and I also don't have to clean up my kitchen. (There's that neat freak in me again!)

Too meet some more friends at Friend Makin' Monday check out Kasey's blog!