W but decidedly not southern

I am a shabby chic kinda gal - no question - but the conference that I'm at is at The W Hotel - Midtown, most decidedly un-shabby chic.  So super modern I think they may have spacecraft hidden away somewhere.  I am for sure not cool enough to be here!

They change the door mats in the elevators for each time of day:

The have a guy that goes around and creases the pillows so they are all the same - I'm a fluffed pillow kinda gal.....and the check in is so sleek and small!

The bar is right by the lobby and has very low seating fun funky furniture - I felt a little cooler having a drink in there - it helped the bar tender was a really cool chick.

Then theres where i had breakfast - I found a really cool restaurant, figured out how to get there, drove through the ghetto, didn't get lost and now its closed this week!! So we made our way back - not getting lost, saw a pastry shop, found parking downtown and when we walked around to the front -  it was out of business!!! So we made it back to the hotel and ate in the ultra cool, odd place....good natural light....

The entry way has cool lights too - I want a 10 story house so I can have one.  Anything less than 10 stories really loses the effect ; )

The bedroom has a strange headboard..... I am not a modern, cement, metal, barbed wire bed frame kinda gal

The South

A long time ago I started reading a book series by Eugenia Price about the city of Savannah, Georgia.  It is beautiful, amazing historical fiction following the settlement of Savannah from the beginning settlements to the Civil War.  She paints such a picture of the area and captures the hopes, dreams, struggles and desires of the founders in a way that I've always been in love with the area.  I've felt a connection with the dreams of building something better, creating a legacy.  So when I had a chance to take a quick road trip to Savannah from Atlanta I decided to defy logic, jump on the chance, drive the 4 hours down there and live a dream I've harbored for over 15 years. 

And then there I was! Although it was quite a bit different than the pre civil war pictures I had in my mind - it was still pretty amazing. The history, architecture, raw brute strength of the river damns, the actual buildings that housed titans of industry.  The watch towers that people waited for ships to return to harbor from months at sea.  The counting houses, the trees draped in moss, the salt bayous, light houses, the rivers, the ocean, brick streets, parks in the squares, fried green tomatoes and Tybee Island, it was all amazing and a heck of a lot to cram into 5 hours of site seeing!!

Best part of all - I'm skinny on in the Atlantic Ocean!

Shoulda stayed on the Atlantic ocean cause once I finished dinner at the impenetrable "The Lady and Sons" restaurant featuring Paula Dean's cooken'  - and as she told Oprah "Honey I'm your cook not your doooctottooorr." And DANG her cooken' proved that was true.  I looked at her menu and said - ehhh I can see that at home no biggy....but I got in without a reservation and so I thought what the hey - well DANG I had the fried green tomatoes, light and delicious, then the crab soup - pure butter and cream with a slice of crab to make it "healthy" and as a glutton for punishment I added pecan pie with ice cream - DANG.  Needless to say - should let the street bouncer keep me out. 

Seriously - you have to check in with the hostess on the street - if you have reservations - you get a card, and are told to go through the Paula Dean store into the waiting lobby where another hostess will validate you have a card and seat you as it is available.  If you don't have reservations and I didn't - you can wait on the curb / sidewalk until you are summoned to the hostess stand, handed a card for the bar area, then you go in a separate door, hand the hostess your card, go up an elevator to the 3rd floor where you can dine in the nearly empty but apparently very exclusive bar with full menu..... Crazy times.  Not looking forward to my next cholesterol reading!

I think someday when I am older and have time and a roundabout to cruise me through town I'd love to go on all the historical tours of the town and breath all the history of the area - just not too deep cause the morning river smell reminded me of burnt hair..... still a dream was lived and who can put a damper on that!

And as a teaser for something in the future:

Gotta do better

This whole once a month update thing is a bad habit! Plus I probably leave out a lot of stuff...... 

Biggest non news ever - Josh and I are now sharing a google calendar! I LOVE my paper planner, flesh and pen is my thing, but hubby loves his technology - A LOT.  I've had to learn its a man thing.  He loves changing phones, trying out new programs, getting the latest blue tooth.  Me - if it ain't broke it don't need fixen'.  Even if it is broke I'm too lazy to fix it/update it/learn a new way to do it.  So now you know, and I am sure can sleep much easier at night now.  ; )

Since Josh helped make August literally almost a birthday month for me I'll start on August 7th for the Family Olympics Part II and then slowly post from there!

This year due to location and time changes it was a smaller event than last year but ran much more smoothly - and although my team came close - it was no cigar.  However we totally were the best dressed.  Josh, Gail and I had a great time making the shirts together.  Craft time is great time!!

We were the Anchors Away Team - Like the USS Winner
from Left to Right: Buttercup, John, Magnus Victor, Wampinator, Fisher, Momma Amy, Head Honcho 

Go TEAM!

They were leftover gym clothes!

The events were a mix of Minute to Win It events and Olympics: so we had dodge ball - so fun! sled pull, swim laps, battle beam, cookie eating thing, ice bucket thing, board walk, and dinner. 

This was the board walk - we lost so bad!! Can't do it with Crocs on - have to be barefoot dad!

This one was the most humiliating - you had a bucket with ice in it and you had to get the ice with your mouth then spit it into the bucket.  Everyone ran out of ice and had to get a refill and then the ice was melting which made total count a little hard - but team gym clothes won quiet handily..... Maybe we were just so blazen hot we melted ours?

The cookie thing you put a cookie on your forehead and then you have to eat it without touching it with your hands or having anyone else help you - it was the funniest part of the night no doubt!!!

Wolf Pack Continued

You probably know this but hubby and I have known each other/dated/been best friends since high school - so like a super really long time - already close to half our lives! So fun and wild to think about!

The longevity is the key here because every year Josh and his family go to Michigan for the 4th of July and usually stop in Indiana because it is a mere 7 hours around the corner and pick up loads of fireworks that would make a Texas Rangers home run show look kinda lame.  However in my many many years I have never been blessed enough to be privy to this extraordinary eardrum shattering event.  I am a Texas girl - give me some sparklers, black cats, roman candles and snap pops and I am a way happy camper.

Last year they didn't get the fireworks cause we flew - but Josh raced to the store at 9:00 pm on the 4th and got me a variety pack that had all the good stuff you can buy at a grocery store. 

I was raised on - it made my 4th and I had them all to myself which had never happened before in my life - ever! Everyone else sat back a bit sour because nothing I had could blow off my hand or cause a fire 10 houses down if they misfired - but I was in heaven - a little color, a little snap and a whole lotta fun!

Well this year - oh my word - they drove up as previously discussed and bought man fireworks that I wasn't allowed to be around and bought me girl fireworks that once unpacked was about 1/2 that I wasn't allowed to be around - holy moly they went crazy!

In the words of Joe Dirt we had "whistling bungholes, spleen splitters, whisker biscuits, honkey lighters, hoosker doos, hoosker don'ts, cherry bombs, nipsy daisers, with or without the scooter stick, and one single whistling kitty chaser"

And my "girly pack" was insanely full of lots of things that go boom sparkle.  I tried setting off a few things and then they fired down the beach and exploded in a very unsettling manner and then Josh helped me out. Look at all the fun stuff I got and got to help set up and off.  It was all for me!

It doesn't look super impressive sitting there on the beach but great scotts alive it made a crazy show! Josh looked like he was in a war movie!

It was all laid out on the beach in rows and rows and then in the complete dark Josh and his dad worked from the outside in lighting them all off - it was awesome heart pounding, ear drum shattering entertainment and we had the best show in the beach. Oh did I forget to mention that lots of families all up and down the beach did this so we had almost an hour of panoramic amazing fireworks to enjoy and then when it was over more stars to see than a planetarium video!

Steps to an impressive fireworks show:

1. Buy copious amounts of fireworks

 2. Set up base camp

3. Set up fireworks

4. No women allowed

5. Light in pitch dark but don't run

6. Enjoy the awesomeness

7. Once supplies are exhausted search for more

Boys Perspective

A very well known fact is that I grew up with 3 younger sisters and that I knew nothing about boys at all - they horrified me.  They ran around the pool!, threw things, yelled, played in the dirt, shot things, used a farmers Kleenex, punched, kicked and pee'd off my porch!

Then my sister got married and I got nephews.  They were horrifying boys, dirty and loud and very much not like sisters - but then a funny thing happened..... I started adapting and realized that they were boys and boys were loud and dirty and fun. A total brain shift but now I just wanna eat em' up with a spoon. 
Here are my cousin (and his sister my cousin too - but a girl, wonderful, great nurse in training and AWEsOMe even if she's a jayhawk! ) and nephew - aren't they just gobbleishous!

I had the pleasure of a family reunion recently and my nephew who is 5 got a hold of the camera with my cousin who is 6 or 7 - not only are they completely adorable but its fun to remember what it was like to have the viewpoint of a 5 year old.   I remember when I couldn't see over the glass or the counter at a buffet - same from when I was 5 to now!

The boys were losing so bad - therefore uncle josh wasn't happy

My nephew's dad Ricky - happy about losing graciously ; )

My sis Gail and Daddy - check out those guns!

yummy 5 yr old feet self portrait by Fisher ; )

Searching high and low for special pictures

The one thing that I learned during the family reunion weekend was that 5-7 year old channel some weird energy and watch too much TV or rap videos or something - cuase where else would they learn these nonsense moves?  Getting giggy with it nanana na na na na naaa - seriously will smith wasn't even rapping when they were born - but hey got his moves!!

And that ladies and gentleman is what I have learned in my short 1 year of being a aunt - and I can't imagine how much more I have to learn and grown when my turn comes to being a parent.  The heart has a unimaginable capacity to grow and I hope mine grows to the size of King Ranch!