Beach Getaway

With so much going on these past few weeks, my stress level has hit its limit. Therefore, Jennifer and I decided that it was time for a quick getaway to the beach. I know people think it's crazy, but yes, I've been known to drive to the beach for a quick day trip. Gulf Shores is only about a 3.5-4 hour drive from our house, so woken up early on many occasions to drive down, lay out about 5 hours, and come home after picking up some good seafood for dinner. We have 3 dogs, so boarding gets pretty pricey! Our neighbors look after them for the day and we are back around 11-12 that night.
Well, Jennifer and I decided that we needed a night, and two good meals, so that is exactly what we did. We left a little after 8, got there around 12 and did not leave the beach until around 6. Our cooler was packed with drinks and fresh fruit and we read all day. It was bliss!!!! Just exactly what we needed!
Little did I know when we planned this that the hubs saw an opportunity for a weekend getaway too! He called me on Monday, and asked if I wanted to go back on Friday and spend the weekend. YES!!!! Did you really have to ask me that!?! We spent the weekend reading, laying out and relaxing at the foot of the ocean or by the pool. I feel very refreshed and ready for whatever happens! I finished one book, read The Help, and bought another book our last day there. (I did happen to finish it tonight too.)
Since it was such last minute planning, we found a great price on a condo on the bay. We'd never stayed on the bay before and I admit, I was a bit hesitant since I love oceanfront so much! I had nothing to worry about! It was beautiful! I loved having a view of the pass and the boats coming in daily to the marina. I saw so many red snapper fresh off of the boat, it made me want to go fishing. We sat out on the dock just watching and loving the view. I really didn't take many pics of either trip, but Jennifer posted a quick synopsis of our trip in pictures here.

Here are the few measly pics I took with my phone:

Thoughts

I've been on a bit of a break lately, haven't I? Although, my life really hasnt been that interesting lately!

I feel like I'm in a weird season right now. I have applied for a new job because my body is telling me that it is time to get off of night shift, so I am in a waiting period right now to see what happens. It's so hard to wait weeks in order to find out if you even have a chance at changing your entire life/schedule around. I just wish things could move a little faster!
I know that there is a lesson in patience that I need to heed, so some days are better than others. I do feel that the first interview went well, so now it's just wait and see time.
I know that whatever happens is going to be the right thing, so I just have to continue to remind myself of that. Everything has already been laid out and I will be alright no matter what.

I am going to the beach for a quick overnight stay on Tuesday with my friend Jennifer and it cannot come soon enough! We simply plan on laying out, reading, and doing absolutely nothing for almost 2 days! We already have our food plans laid out for dinner on Tues night and lunch on the way out on Wednesday. You know that's the most important part-right!?! We just plan to stay somewhere cheap since it's one night and we are not gonna spend a lot of time in the room anyway.

I finally booked our hotel for our Cabo trip in October. I've had the flight for a couple of months, but held off on the hotel thinking that I could score a better rate than was posted at that time. I got a great rate and ended up booking the suite and only went over my original budget by $30. Success! I just looked tonight and the suite is no longer avaliable, so I booked it at the right time! Only 4 more months! Yippee!

Memphis

For Kent's birthday 2 weekends ago, we traveled up to Memphis for a quick getaway. Last year around my birthday, we spent 10 days at the beach, so I just figured that we could do a mini vacay for his. I suprised him by booking the Peabody hotel for 2 nights with a great deal from Priceline.

We ended up getting there too late on Friday to do anything but check in, so we got an early start on Saturday morning. We headed to breakfast, then spent ALL DAY at Graceland. I didn't get our tickets in advance so we got them when we got there around 10am. Our tour of the mansion wasn't until 3pm, so needless to say it was a little boring waiting 5 hours. We did tour all of the other sites there, but it was just too much of a wait. I guess I should've checked into it before we went. Kent had a really good time seeing all of the memorabillia. Neither one of us had ever been, and Kent wants to go back to tour again when it's not so busy.

After the tour, we got back to the hotel in time to watch the duck march. Word to the wise, get there early if you want to get a good view. I was only able to see about 3 feet of their red carpet march, but it was neat to listen to the history of how it all came about.

Then we refreshed ourselves and headed to Rendevous BBQ. Can you say YUMMO!?! I ate a full order for myself.

Then we headed to Beale Street to listen to some music before calling it a night around midnight. It was quick, but a much needed weekend away for the 2 of us.

Tannehill

For my sister in law's birthday last weekend, she decided that we would all get together at Tannehill state park and grill out. I decided to just go early and take the pups since my mother in law was there. Let me just tell you, three dogs by yourself on leashes is some work! When I first got there I just tied their leashes off on a tree so that I could go and get their cables and bowls. Before I walked off, Max decided to take a leak at the waters edge. Of course he's a little unstable and plopped right in the water. I quickly pulled him up and directed him away from the creek. When I got back from the car, Donna was yelling at me to hurry. Max had jumped back in the water after the ducks and when she tried to pull him back to safety, he got out of his collar/leash and was walking in the water with nothing. Every couple of steps he was going completely under so I yanked off my shoes and socks and jumped in to retrieve the old man before he stayed under. It was disgusting! He attempted several more times to get in the water, but I made sure the cable was short after that fiasco! Poor Lucy really doesn't know what to do being outside for extended periods of time. Everytime we walked by the camper, Lucy tried to go inside. She is not much for the outdoors! After about 5 hours of being outside, Max finally gave it up and got in his bed. He was so tired. When it was time for them to eat, Max decided he needed dinner in bed, courtesy of the hubs. Those are the only 2 pics that I took, but we had a really good time! Our great friend Mark grilled some yummy steaks, and Donna fixed a salad bar that would put Ruby Tuesday to shame.

Pending Vacay...

If you know me, you know that I'm always planning some kind of vacation. We always do something big in the fall for our anniversary. We went to Cabo for our honeymoon and have been wanting to go back since, but it's just been too pricey. Well, when I started looking a couple of months ago, Cabo was in my price range and I was super excited! I was so afraid that with the way that gas prices are, the flight would go through the roof this summer, so I booked our flight last week. We are so excited! I haven't decided where we are going to stay yet, but I am hoping that those prices will go down a bit before I make my final decision. I would love to stay where we stayed on our honeymoon, but they have built a new hotel right beside where we stayed that is not a palace version so it's a bit cheaper. Every time we've done an all inclusive, we've stayed at the Riu hotels. All three times, we've been very impressed with all of the amenities, service and food. I may just go with the cheaper one and we could at least go and visit the other to reminisce on 4 years ago. But it doesn't matter, because on Oct 15th I will be looking at this:

Words Could Never Describe...

Over the past few weeks we've had several pretty rough storms. In another life, I really think that my husband was a storm chaser. Or he at least wishes he was. Every time Kent hears that a storms a coming, he goes crazy! He loves to sit outside and watch the lightning, wait on the rain, anything that involves a storm, Kent is all about it. So last week, Kent decides that he wants to wait for the storm to come through. He pulls our rocking chairs out on the porch and sits down to wait for it to hit. I love my husband therefore, I took part. Plus the fact it was already dark and no one could really see what we were doing. Last night however, here was the scene: Waaaaaay closer to the road and let's be honest here-he looks ridiculous! I did not take part in this and fought with him for 15 minutes before he finally pulled it back at a semi appropriate spot. He did for a second have the chair all the way in the road and asked for popcorn to watch the "movie."

My Dad Turned 60!

Last week was my dad's 60th birthday.

I spent the day in Cullman with Loni getting some orders done then headed to dinner at my mom's. Kent wasn't able to go since he doesn't get off owrk until late and it takes 1.5 hours to get to my mom's from Calera. Plus, I had to go to Cullman during the day and order a bridesmaid dress for a wedding I'm in this summer. Therefore, one trip to Cullman was enough with these high gas prices! Anyway, mom cooked a feast! We had smoked ribs, smoked chicken, fried okra, mac and cheese, green beans (my fave!), baked beans, texas toast, cheesy potatoes, slaw, and 2 cakes. I brought one with me from Edgar's bakery and my mom's pastor's wife made the chocolate cake with strawberries.

It was great to go and hang out up there for a while and just chit chat and celebrate my dad. There were 12 people there and we had such a good time. I also delivered Aubrey's new outfit that I made.

These were my first set of ruffle pants to make and I think they turned out really good! She has hit a growth spurt and they will probably only fit her for a month, but at least I know what I am doing now-ha!