you can take the girl out of the south, but...

you can never take the south out of the girl.



































sometimes you just need to go where your heart is and be reminded of all the things to be thankful for. this weekend was quite the homecoming...

1. my dad picked me up wearing a tux (he just got back from a work function) and my mom was in the car. when i came home she showed me all of her thrift store finds she has been collecting for me and eddie. and she made the best chocolate chip cookies which i ate promptly.

2. ed brought me back to athens after stopping at star provisions so i could get coffee and vanilla soft serve ice cream with sea salt and olive oil.

3. met all of ed's sweet law school friends, it was so nice to finally meet all of the people he talks about so fondly. i love the company he keeps.

4. eddie humored me while we thrift shopped. it has been soooo long since i have found stores that had vintage clothing at thrift store prices. i couldn't believe the amount of treasures i unearthed for such steals. i cleaned up!!!!!!!!

5. dinner at last resort...praline chicken and grits...god i love the south. so dang good.

6. the GIRL TALK concert at the Georgia Theater. amazing amazing amazing. best show i have been to...hands down. ed and i danced the whole time at warp speed. we were full body soaked with sweat when we left and could hardly move.

7. seeing spring in full bloom. it was balmy weather and the town was bursting with cherry blossoms, dandelions, daffodils, forsythia, and magnolias. have i mentioned i love the south????

8. ed pointed out all of the R.E.M album monuments like a certain sweet old bridge and slightly overrun steeple.

9. the colorful houses in athens. and managing to snap a photo of a cat on a hot tin roof!

10. my sweet family all together under one roof (plus eddie) celebrating my oldest sister's 40th birthday and watching the davidson/kansas basketball game. for a family full of girly girls and one man we sure can holler at a t.v. when the game got tense!

11. 40 pretty balloons and lisa's orange race medal.

12. seeing my future in-laws, i can't believe i will finally get to call them that!! his dad is so funny and his mom is just all i could ever want in a mother-in-law.

13. looking at the stellings' wedding albums with his family and laughing a lot!

14. realizing that ed designed my ring after his mother's engagement ring. i never noticed before and its that more special to me now.

15. visiting serenbe with ed and my dad, the two most important men in my life. its a sprawling self-sustaining farm/community near palmetto georgia where ed and i are going to get married!!!! its so lush and beautiful and it looks like a scene out of the movie Big Fish. horses, goats, chickens, ponds, hay rides, oh my! and a bakery and a general store to boot!

16. had dinner with rankin and travis, my favorite couple to go on a double date with. that is one couple that is just as attractive now as they were in 10th grade. those children are going to have some hot genes!

17. came home to see my roomates had cleaned the apartment and decorated my bedroom with paper heart garlands and hand written love posters. i love my roomates so much. i keep looking up at my room and smiling from ear to ear!

18. found mail from some of the most special people to me laraine, nikki, and amy merrick. i love hearing from laraine and nikki. nikki got into the savannah arts academy (not that i ever was worried for a second!). i'm so proud of nikki and i know she and her mom think good thoughts for me, chelsea, and pete. i can just feel it.

19. amy merrick's sweet letter made me wish i was working today so i could run up and hug her. she, chelsea, ed, pete, and my family have been my support system when times have been hard. new york winters can be brutal, but it is almost behind us...

20.. i am grateful for that when you feel like all hope is gone, life has a way of bringing goodness to you if you just believe... and if you have dear people thinking good thoughts for you all at once. it was like they willed a miracle to me and i will be forever grateful. its all uphill from now on.