no longer a teenager

My younger brother isn’t a teenager anymore, since Sunday…this is sorta hard for me to grasp.

Like seriously yesterday we were…

playing cowboys and Indians together

arguing as we hauled maple sap back from the woods together

gleaning corn for the cows together

cleaning his room together, more like I was cleaning and he was watching and talking 

hunting white-tail deer together

swimming in flat rock river together

running all those roads around our old place together

And now that all over and he’s grown living in Tennessee six hours away. We text weekly and call some. I miss him but know this is the way life is indented to go.

 

And this weekend I went to visit him in TN with Christina…enjoy the few photos I remembered to take=) I had all these glamorous ideas of actually writing this post up during our drive home on Sunday. But I regretfully didn’t get to it and so it’s here a day later than I planned but oh well=/

The only picture of me…I know I know…without a schedule and a structured life, I can’t even remember to take a photo!Home at last!!! To lots and lots of snow and sub-below zero weather…just wonderful…

So here’s a quick recap of our trip…

Friday –

Christina came home from work saying her car was acting up.

I test drove it and moved the rattling pens in the console. Moral of the tale the car was fine…really fine!

Started on our six hour drive at 7:00 a.m.

Stopped to buy a sleeping mask for my tired “shot gun” rider. (so yeah it was a quiet and a very boring drive)

Met Samuel in Loblesville, TN. (Think a perfect redneck haven and you will have just begun to imagine what it’s like) TN had just suffered an ice storm and we all know what ice does to southern drivers, so Samuel led us in a less hilly way to his home.

Crashed at Sam’s house. (It’s so small and adorable)

Dinner at the Stoll’s house. We couldn’t drive up the hill due to the ice and snow so we walked up their mountain…I developed a head ache, which made my night miserable. Plus they served pasta and I had cuts in my mouth from a accident driving horses a few nights before. I’ll just stop there. (we were suppose to actually stay with these people for the duration of our stay but it was canceled due to their pipes freezing, poor people were without water for days. Which equaled no showers for them either)

Saturday -

Woke up at 4 and my siblings didn’t start stirring until 10:00 a.m.….I was starving!!!!

All the restaurants around opened late due to the weather….so no breakfast just shrimp alfredo

It was dumping buckets of rain all day long. And that on top of the ice made the road conditions worse.

Shopping…the only thing left to do. Christina and I got some wonderful deals at Goody’s.

Ate frozen pizza and cake at Sam’s house while watching his favorite you-tube singing clips=)

Then back Stoll’s house to watch “The Good Lie” btw: a very very good movie! The ice was still bad so we again parked and trudged to the very top of that pathetic hill.

About ten, after running to a friends house to shower the parents came in saying we were flooded in. GREAT! All the rain and temperature rise had creation yet another problem. Did I mention how much I love Indiana?!?!?

This bad new called for something chocolaty…freshly baked black bean brownies soaked in chocolate syrup did just the trick to cheer us all up.

Slept on their couches, and watched movies all night long. Needless to say we became very good friends with ALL the Stolls,

Sunday – Samuel’s 20th Birthday!!!!!!

Again, I woke up before everyone else.

Christina agreed to walk down and see if we were still flooded in.The water had all gone back down and the roads were clear. Also the hill was melted enough to drive up (so glad we didn’t have to walk that again!!!)

Ate a late but wonderful brunch – they made Belgian waffle with blue berry topping…so good!!!!!!

Everyone hurried back to their places of running water to clean up, then meet at the bowling alley in Dickson.

Samuel opened all his gifts from home that we brought with us=) while Christina and I hurried with our showers and makeup.

Samuel won the only game Christina and I had time to play with them. They continued to bowl long after we left.

Homeward bound by 4;30 p.m. (difficult leaving that sad face, of Samuel, behind us…but thankfully his friends were staying with him the rest of the day…..to help him celebrate his day=)

Home by 11:30 (They last hour I slept…but it was more like a series of a million nightmares. Seriously all the stuff I had to do this week kept playing through my mind)

12:30 p.m I sat in a daze on my bed thinking…inwardly vowing to never leave for a weekend again. even though I know I will…and I’ll regret it then too. Mainly because of ALL the work before I leave and after I get back is so stressful.

All and all it was a wonderful trip. Getting to see the wonderful smile of Samuel and celebrate his day, actually, with him was oh so worth it. All of it.

It was such a memorable weekend=)

 

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BTW: here’s a few pictures from the making of my first cake, frosting and all=) sadly I only took some on my phone…it was late at night, so I’m giving myself a break. Samuel loved it!!!

camouflaged cupcakes and a birthday party

I love, let me repeat LOVE, to plan a party. And I feel like I’m pretty good at it…

… well at least I FELT like I was, that was until Jamie. Now that she’s came along, I KNOW I’m not very good at all, haha. Because who can compete with the best?!?!? Let me back up and introduce Jamie. Jamie is my brother Jonathan’s girlfriend. (Pictured below, and I know I’m bias, but aren’t they cute together?)  Wow this girl can plan a party. And still she looked beautiful that night…I need to work on that part: plan, execute and look good for the event. Beside everything else I need to learn from this fantastic woman=)

All I had to do was make the cupcakes…with Victoria’s help, of course. We made camouflage cupcakes…inspired by this (they looked so much better than ours, oh well we tried…and we had fun-which is the most important part! Right?!?!?) Mom snapped some pictures of us. And yes we don’t wear aprons…I only think to wear one when I start cooking in the morning. We made these late Friday night, so no aprons it was….if you spill something, you’re changing in a few anyways=) We made the icing together the following morning and we got covered with powdered sugar…again no aprons. And you’d think we would have learned our lesson…wrong…haha.

The theme she picked, was perfect for this family, camouflage…for JT’s seventh birthday party=) We have enough of this colored clothing between us all, to probably cloth our entire neighborhood, not that we would of course…haha…we don’t part with our camo very easy. Jamie brought all the decorations (I could so get used to this!…did I mention that she’s amazing…no well I’ll do it now, she’s REALLY amazing) I worked late that night, jogging horses, so I only made it to the party…but that’s the Best Part. Most of JT’s gifts…were, you guessed it, camo=) Jamie’s decorating his room in camo...so he got a lot of stuff along those lines. Seeing my, now, seven year old nephew opening these kind of gifts and truly appreciating them was something=) My favorite moment of the night was when he opened this coat, Jamie bought for him. He got so excited he jumped down. from the chair he was standing on, and ran over and hugged her tight around the waist. My heart melted, too adorable!

A lot of camo…huh?!?!?!

My family is the best! I’ve always happiest when I’m with them. Most of the time it’s just so I don’t miss out on any of the drama…it’s never fun to hear about it second hand=)

I’m just loving this cold weather…scarves and boots are my favorite=)

Have a wonderful weekend!

My trip to New Bern…=)…

 

I spent the night of my birthday packing. I was flying to North Carolina early the next morning for a quick weekend trip to visit a girlfriend of mine….a birthday gift to myself, hey! it was my 21st haha=)  ….and I didn’t get started packing until about 12 o'clock (when all my siblings had finally gone home or to bed) and so when I finally had my shower etc. and was completely ready for bed it was way after 2:00 am. And on top of this I had to get up at 4:00 am…surprisingly I woke up to my alarm and I was pretty much awake, after only a few short hours of sleep=) (I slept a lot on the plane) My first trip to do solo and it was so much fun! It was so enjoyable traveling alone that I will be doing it A LOT more before I die=)

You know those trips you look forward to and think about so much, that when they happen there kinda a let down. Due to your expectations being way too high. But this visit wasn’t like that at ALL.  It was everything I imagined…no it was even better! Anne worked out all the plans, what we were doing each day etc., before hand and it turned out to be a magical weekend…one spent with such an incredible family. I will never be able to be thank them enough, for everything! They have no clue how welcome and special they made me feel.

Anne is a wonderful friend, we met several years back at a mutual friend’s wedding… She’s put up with me growing up, all my awkward life phases etc. I don’t know how and she still likes me…haha=) She’s a dear friend and I’m so blessed to have her in my life. I’m so grateful that God allowed our paths to cross.

So naturally I took pictures…enjoy=)

A turbo prop was the plane that flew me into New Bern NC from Charlotte.  The left landing gear had some problems and so our flight was delayed an hour, waiting on this to be fixed…sitting in this stuffy, warm little plane…with all those other people..fun right?!?!?Finally here at the Robinson’s home…this is the lovely mom of the family. she loads of fun=)and Kate…if I didn’t already have so many sisters I’d want her as my sister…=)And the incredible Anne…with the birthday cake she made me=) it was soooo good! This is Nicholas Spark’s house…no kidding! this completely made my day/weekend=)We went into the most darling toy shop… It really was…Mini photo shoot of the ANNE=)Kate=)Sisters <3Sharing coffee…I LOVE this one! She’s so beautiful!It was closed, but I got to look through the window=)The Robinson’s home…On our way to Cape Lookout we passed an island with wild ponies…they were perfectly perfect! I’ve only read about these and have never seen them before. Incredible! I left my zoom lens behind so this is as close a picture, as I could get…The Mr and Mrs=)She laughs all the time…you can’t help but be happy when you’re around her.There was barely anyone at the beach…it was sprinkling on our way out to this island, but it stopped. And we were just there for the window of good weather, it started raining on our way back=)  We went and saw The Hundred Foot Journey (just us girls) the last night I was there…we headed outdoors to take pictures of their dresses=)Lunch…did I say the food was amazing?!?!?!?And Anne took my camera=)hot chocolate…don’t tell anyone please=)Indianapolis at night…from the sky=)

And thus concludes my 21st birthday! It was so fun and relaxing.

Have a wonderful weekend! And enjoy this weather, fall will be here before we know it. Personality it could come sooner than later, I’m ready for summer to be gone…can’t wait for Autumn=)