I went to Cantler's and all I got was crabs

So Friday morning I got up at the butt-crack of dawn so I could get to the airport on time. I was really very lucky - I had found 2 tickets for a phenomenal price - and it couldn't have come at a better time.

I arrived at BWI after a non-stop flight from OKC around 12:45. So far things were great, my flight left on time and I arrived 10 minutes early which was awesome since I was needing to find the shuttle to take me to the MARC station and I'd never been to BWI before. I found my way rather quickly and hopped aboard for a quick ride to the train station where I bought a ticket (for $6!!) and patiently awaited the train. It was nice to ride the train from Baltimore to DC - I hadn't been in that area in years and it gave me a chance to stare out the window at a lovely change of scenery. We arrived at Union Station (it's HUGE - it's a mall & train/subway station all in one!) on time and I took it all in as I went to meet my little in the Main Hall. It was in the 80's and I was dressed too warm for walking around, so we grabbed lunch & headed to her apartment in Eckington. After relaxing for a bit and walking around the neighborhood we got dressed and headed to Dupont on the Metro to meet 2 more friends from college for dinner that lived in Baltimore. We went to Lauriol Plaza which is a great Mexican restaurant in DC (and quite the happening bar too) and visited with Brooke & Erika for a few hours. They had delicious food there and the drinks weren't too shabby either! After dinner we headed back to my little's place (they gave us a ride this time though so they could see her place before heading back to Baltimore).

Saturday morning started early - I woke up at 6:15 (remember - we're an hour behind DC) and then dozed off and on for an hour or so before getting up. She made pancakes for breakfast and then we doused ourselves in sunscreen and headed for the Metro. We spent a few hours just walking around the National Mall, occasionally stopping to sit for a while on a bench & people watch. It was in the mid-80's so it was the perfect day for this! We had to be back to meet another friend of hers around 2 so we walked home through China Town and continued to enjoy the weather. I decided to skip out of the walking tour of the rehabbing that the city was doing to the neighborhood, so I stayed home and took a cold shower and a catnap while they went ahead on the walk. When they got home we piled in her car and headed to Maryland for dinner. Before moving to DC my little lived and worked in Annapolis, so we were going to one of her favorite restaurants with some of her former co-workers/friends for dinner. It was awesome - whole steamed crabs that you pick apart and get every last ounce of meat out of!! After dinner we walked around the "downtown" area and got some gelato for dessert - so delicious! Then we headed home and crashed.

Sunday I slept in (until 8:30 EST!) and then got up and started packing and got ready for church. I went to my little's church in Virginia with her. We stayed and joined the potluck lunch after service and sat around visiting with the pastor and the other members. It was a wonderful afternoon - they are all very welcoming and friendly people - I certainly didn't feel like a visitor! After a few hours we headed back to DC and prepared to head to Baltimore so I could catch my plane home.

I had an amazing time - it couldn't have been better timing for myself or for my little. I am so blessed to have her in my life and can't wait to go visit again (maybe this time I'll take Greg though - it's so beautiful there!) As much fun as I had though I am happy to be back home with Greg - I missed him!

Seven Random Things

1. My skin color is unpredictable. I am one of the whitest people I have ever known and usually don't get much color-if any-anymore (I USED to tan beautifully). I am so used to getting nothing from being in the sun. So I sat outside on Saturday afternoon for an hour and my chest and face are BURNT (nothing else even looks like it was outside). I just never know what to expect from myself :-)

2. I hate my job. I am just too indecisive to do anything about it!

3. I check my email about 50 times between the hours of 8 and 4, but rarely after that or on weekends. Internet Explorer is just open all day so it is SO EASY to look at the tab bar and see if there is a (number) next to Gmail. It's a bit OCD, but I just really like to get distracted from work sometimes!!

4. I love bell peppers. I think they are my favorite snack. Green are my favorite - they are tasty with tortilla chips and especially with chex mix (that is the best!!) I love to eat them in salads, on burgers, on turkey sandwiches, on nachos and by themselves of course.

5. I really enjoy working outside and planting flowers & plants, but I am not necessarily fabulous at keeping it all alive. It's hit or miss really, sometimes things thrive and sometimes I just can't seem to get them going.

6. Greg & I both have back problems. He threw his back out while playing pool 6 or 7 years ago and I threw mine out 2 years ago this Mother's Day while putting my youngest niece on the floor (I was even squatting!!) He is pretty much forever screwed up unless he has surgery - I went to physical therapy for a few months and was taught some tricks to help it if it acts up again. Even though I do have problems if I stand too much or walk a lot without wearing good shoes, the tricks Mary Jo taught me have helped tremendously and I have pain less and less. I at least know what causes it and what to do if I do start hurting!

7. I am a never ending hair-twirler. I don't know why, but I love to twirl my hair - it is just soft & I do it whether it is straight or curly - I always have.

Thank goodness for "storage" rooms

Well last night I became truly thankful that my younger BIL hadn't found a house yet. You see, he has 1/3 of our garage (good thing it's a 3 car!) and a whole room full of his belongings (ranging from furniture to appliances to decorative items to cookware) stored at our house. I have been a bit anxious to get his things out so I can organize the room & garage, but the fact remains until we are turning that room into a nursery it's serving a purpose. See, last night Greg & I broke our bed, well a piece of it anyway that caused my side of the mattress to go crashing to the floor. Luckily we had a set of box springs for my BIL's king-sized bed in that "storage" room. So the last part of my evening was spent taking all of the rails off of our bed, setting up the box springs (it has to sit on the floor so we still have a bit of tweaking to do) and putting the bed back together. On a bright note though it makes the mattress sit lower now like we had originally had with our foam mattress and it gave me the chance to put our new bedding on!! I LOVE it! Here's what it looks like...

That time of year

This past week I have been wishing I was my hubby. He had last week AND this week off of work, vacation time galore! He spent the week last week doing odds and ends around the house. He fixed the heater on the hot tub and we bought a new cover for it - our last one had been blown over the fence and ripped in half by a wind storm! It kind of ugly (it's greenish/dark teal) BUT it was on sale (a good one too) and just happened to be in stock and the size we needed (which they don't normally have in stock - this is one someone ordered last year and never picked up). AND it was the sloped design we were wanting (sloped down from the center so ice/snow won't sit on top of it) so I decided to overlook the color and just deal with it - it was too good a deal to pass up, and besides, it's something that sits in our backyard! So on the day that it poured rain we met at the spa store on 39th by Greg's office and picked up the cover and went home to put it on in the rain!

I can't remember that much else this past week. We did watch Last King of Scotland on Thursday - very good movie and totally not about a King or Scotland really. I'm not sure what kind of movie Greg was expecting, but I was thinking it was an old school movie - kind of like Braveheart - and that it was about the last King of Scotland. Silly me - I obviously hadn't heard or seen any previews for it prior to watching it - it was a very good movie though, we both enjoyed it. Friday night Greg went to help Blake for a bit (he was working on his floors) while I stayed home and made dinner. We spent the rest of the evening playing Yahtzee and hanging out together.

Saturday rolled around and we got up decently early and spent the day working outside - me in the flowerbeds & Greg in the garage. We took a break from our respective jobs and cleaned out the hot tub and refilled it - the weather this week is so perfect for a night or two of hot tubbing before closing up for the summer. After working outside all day we ended up being invited to the Green's for dinner, so we went over for burgers and all the fixings and got to hang out with them and visit for a bit.

Sunday morning we went to church - we have kind of gotten out of the routine of going and we both wanted to start back again so this Sunday was the day. We say the Green's there - Henry was SO good during church, even when another baby started crying and had to be taken out he was just content and quiet. I think he slept a bit, but I peeked back at them once or twice and he was just looking around being cute little Henry. I can't get over how fast he's growing up! After church we picked up Robbie and headed home to gather supplies and change clothes. We then headed to the Norman house. This is the house my MIL#1 grew up in and my BIL and his wife lived there until they got divorced - so now we are cleaning it, fixing it up and selling it! I worked in the yard - using the weed eater to chop down the huge weeds that had taken over the lawn. Not as nice looking as mowing, but we didn't have the mower with us b/c the ground was still too wet (there were so many weeds we would've had to do this before mowing anyway!) I'm sure the neighbor's were all just happy that it looks taken care of now. While I did that Greg & Robbie made up a list of all the electrical that needed to be done and took care of some branched that were hanging on the electrical & cable lines out back. There is a LOT of work to be done to that house - we'll see what all comes of it! We finished up for the day and headed home, stopping at Johnnie's for dinner on the way - a nice treat after such a busy weekend! We attempted to watch a movie after dinner, but I was exhausted and fell asleep (as we both knew I would) while Greg watched the movie....a typical end to a busy weekend!

Girls weekend - here I come!!!

So not a whole lot has happened in the past week - we went to Eichen's with the Taylor's, Blake and Stephanie on Monday for dinner - it was so good - Jen & I even drank a beer!! It was the first time in a long time (only the second time since my Grandma's funeral last May) that I have been down to Okarche - it was a little strange feeling considering it used to be a trip that was made every other week if not every week since I can remember. The time with friends was nice though - we never seem to get good quality time with friends anymore - everyone's lives are so busy! The Green's seem to be the only people we see on a semi-regular basis and I'm not even sure how that happens as much as it does! Our schedules just seem to cooperate with theirs whereas it doesn't with most of our other friends.

The week went on as it usually does. Wednesday the women in my family (and the little girls) got together for our annual pedicure (and toe painting for the little ones) while my dad watched my nephew and kept him entertained. After, we all got dinner together - Greg was working (big shock!) so he couldn't join us :-(

Friday night was the start of our movie night. We decided that we wanted to see all the movies that have ever won "Best Picture" at the Oscar's, giving us 80 movies on our list. We also decided to add a few that we wanted to see that hadn't won, such as Casablanca, Citizen Cane and a few other "classics". Greg's older brother Brian came over and we grilled burgers and ate dinner and then watched the first movie "Wings". It was a 1927/1928 silent film that was a love story taking place during WWI - it actually wasn't bad, although it was about an hour too long! Over 2 hours with a huge chunk in the middle primarily of dog fights, all aerial shots....it got a little old after a while. Other than the length though it was a good story we all thought - much better than we had anticipated considering it was the first silent film any of us had seen!

Saturday we had planned to help Jon finish the laminate floors by installing the bedroom flooring. About 5 minutes before we were to leave Greg got called into work in Norman so our day got postponed. I started some laundry and decided to wait and see how long he'd be gone before calling Jon. After about 20 minutes the phone rang and I got called into work too - which NEVER happens!! They had a salesman that REALLY needed a job on Monday and so they needed to have it set and have plates run that day so it could be picked up on Monday - so I went in to work (they offered me 2 "bonus" hours of overtime plus however long it took me to do the job if I'd do it - I wasn't going to turn that down!) So I went in for an hour and got the job to the press and headed home. I had called Jon and left a message as I drove and he called me as I pulled into the garage. I told him if he would come over & help me load the saws in my car then I would come over and we would get started without Greg. Shortly after Jon arrived Greg called and said that there was a chance he'd be flying to Phoenix so we decided to get started and do what we could. Greg ended up at Jon's house by the time we had a little over 1/3 of the floor done and found out a bit later that he would be staying in OKC and starting his vacation time as scheduled (today is the start of 2 weeks of vacation for him!) By 8:30 the flooring was done and the room was put back together with everything being cleaned and the bed being made too! We kicked some serious butt on Saturday - and my leg muscles are killing me to prove it!! I was trying to be good and take care of my back - and I must have succeeded because I was lifting with my legs and squatting down so much my quads and hamstrings are SO sore!! Oh well, it's good for me, right?

Today is the start of another week. I just purchased my plane ticket to DC for the end of this month so I am VERY excited about that! My "little sis" lives there and a few friends in Baltimore so I am flying into Baltimore on Friday around 1 and then spending the weekend in DC with my "little" before flying home late Sunday night. It'll be a fast trip, but it'll be nice to get away and get my head clear and stop dwelling on things that I have no control over. It'll be Greg's first time to stay home without me since we moved in - I told him to have a poker night with the guys or something - we'll see if he misses me as much as I miss him when he's gone!!