I Love it When We're Cruisin' Together

On Sunday, my brother Neil, Gina and their boys stopped by the house in Neil's newly restored Chevelle.  It's been a slow process to restore this car. . . .what's that saying?  When you have the time, you don't have the money and when you have the money, you don't have the time?  Not to mention, Neil and Gina have their hands full these days with the boys.

As I was out in the driveway taking pictures and talking with them, Gina said, "I bet this isn't quite what Neil had in mind when he set out to restore this car; driving around with the wife and kids."

Well, Gina, maybe that's not quite what he had in mind, back when he was younger and single.

  But I think it's even better.

Back to the grind. I hope everyone had a lovely Memorial Day weekend. Did you get to spend some time with your family and friends? Maybe grill out, run through a sprinkler, and try something new? I hope so.

Country and I packed up the dogs and headed to Michigan to the barn house for the weekend.

It was grey and gloomy the entire time we were there. But we tried to sneak in some walks and gardening in between storms.

Have you ever tried to weed a garden bed that is practically a pond? No? It’s great fun.

In classic Melanie –style, I took one thousand eight hundred and twenty three pictures of the dogs.



And I have not one good picture of any of the people that we spent the weekend with. You’ll have to use your imagination as to what they might look like.

Oh wait, I lied. Here’s one of Country’s sister’s hands chopping an onion. See how blazingly speedy she chops that onion? So fast I couldn’t even get a good picture. Or maybe it’s that I am still learning aperture, etc. so often my pictures turn out like these. But really she cuts those onions so quickly!!



Said sister with said onions made the best. damn. French onion soup I have ever had in my life. I ate two bowls and wanted more. And more.

Justice ran and ran through the field. Then ran some more.

Tripp was on his own agenda; eat grass, walk three feet, eat grass. Maybe moo a little bit.

But after two nights, we were ready to come home and sleep in our own beds. We knew it was going to be beautiful yesterday and didn’t want to end up driving home in horrendous traffic while it was gorgeous outside, so we headed home late Sunday night. After dinner, of course.

We awoke to glorious sunshine. I worked in the gardens all day long. I live for this time of year.

And then in the early evening, we headed over to my parent’s house for a little BBQ action, which is exactly what I needed. I’ve been throwing myself a pity party because our first month of fertility treatment resulted in a big fat negative. I know, I know, it’s only the first month of meds. But it was the 15th time we’ve tried. 15. It’s been a long time to ache for something so badly. Anyway, I really want one of these:

Is he not the sweetest thing? This is Leo. As in Leonardo. He’s my brother’s youngest son and even though we’re not in Georgia, he’s a peach through and through.

Yes, I did change the subject and I think the transition was quite nice.

And remember this little man?



He’s turning in to such a. . . . . toddler? Little boy? I’m not sure what I’d say about Ryan because he is not quite 16 months but sometimes seems so much older than that. As in, he’s been speaking in complete sentences for so long now that it seems silly to think that he ever babbled. And A-B-C’s? Fahgettaboudit.

These two sweet little boys have changed every family gathering for the better.



 

I am thankful for them and my family and for all of the troops that make it possible for me to head off for the weekend and take one thousand eight hundred and twenty three pictures of my dogs and then return home and have a great night with my family.

And a special shout out to my dear friend Heather who is a nurse in the service and probably one of the bravest people I know. Thank you for all you have done for this country.

Ireland, Part 1

We’re home from our trip to Ireland, safe and sound. Wow, am I wiped out though. Time changes will do that to you. That and a terrible cold. Thank you recycled air.


I’m a little overwhelmed from this trip and honestly, not quite sure how to begin to describe the beauty of this little island country. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that the landscape seemed to get greener as the week went on. Everyone laughed at me when I took a drink of water out of the tap and yelled, “The water even tastes green!”

So, yes, our flight(s) out there went off without a hitch. Our plane had screens built into the seats and they had a pretty decent selection of new release movies to watch. I watched Black Swan then took a couple of Benadryl and fell asleep. We landed at 7am and once we got our luggage, hopped on a shuttle over to the rental car place.

Have you ever been in a car that has the steering wheel on the passenger side? And then driven that car on the “wrong” side of the road? Through 7 or 10 “roundabouts,” trying to make your way out of the airport? At 7am, after hours of travel and Benadryl? Oh no, you haven’t?

I felt like we were in National Lampoon’s European Vacation, trying to get out of the roundabout. After the nice woman on the GPS said for the 5th time, “Enter Roundabout,” I had a fit of the giggles and couldn’t stop. Slap happy.

You don't realize how much driving is kind of an "automatic" thing until everything you ever thought about it was wrong.

We found the place where we were going to be staying but unfortunately couldn’t check in until 2 pm, so we went and had breakfast. Nothing special, just food in our bellies. Next we found a grocery store where Country and I proceeded to get into an argument over a pineapple. Don’t ask—I’m not even sure why we were fighting over a pineapple, but at that point everyone was tired and crabby and we just wanted to get unpacked and relax. I actually slept in the car for a couple of hours while it was parked right in front of a busy hotel and I was just too darn tired to even move the car. Finally, 2 o’clock came and we checked in.


We stayed in a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom townhouse.

The place was a decent size and it had a washing machine and a small fridge. We unpacked our groceries and then everyone tried to take a nap; some of us had better luck than others.

For dinner that night, we walked over to a local pub called Durty Nelly’s. We had fish and chips and it was fabulous. Something about their batter is different than here---it’s light and flaky and not so heavily breaded.  Now here's we need to talk about beer for a second.  You see, I am not a beer drinker.  Never have been and probably never will be (unless I move to Ireland.)  Before we left, several people told me that I must try the Guinness while there.  Yeah, okay, whatever.  But just for fun, I had a Guinness here in the states before we left so that I had a reference point.  It was just okay to me.  But WOW!  Guinness in Ireland is a whole 'nother story!  It is delicious!  Don't believe me?

The next day we got a late start (there is a 5 hour time difference) and jumped in the car. We headed to a tourist spot called the Cliffs of Moher. 

Beautiful, right?  Afterwards, we went to a town called Ennis and had some lunch (and also the best red berries tea I have ever had in my life.)

Wednesday we slept late again (well, considering the time difference, we actually woke early) and got out of the house at about 11 am.  Before we left for Ireland, I had purchased a book called The Backroads of Ireland or something like that.  We knew we wanted to head towards the coast and in the book there was a picture of an old stone mill on the way to Killinabaoy that we thought looked pretty cool.  Country drove us over there and when we got there, we realized that attached to the mill there was a house where someone obviously lived.  Oh, and a Private Property sign.  We were bummed out. . . .until Country talked to worker on a neighbor's roof that said the man who owned the mill was nice and we should go knock on the door.  And that he had a really, really big dog.

We ended up chatting with the owner, Dick, for a couple of hours and had coffee, tea and bisucts with him in the house!  To say he was a pleasure meeting would be a complete understatement.

More to come. . . .

Happy 60th Anniversary

This couple, my lovely grandparents, are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary this weekend.  More to come.

Happy New Year

I've been thinking about this post for a few days now.  I thought about posting about the highlights of the past year, listing my resolutions; you know--a new year, fresh start and all of that.  But I really just want to recap the past couple of weeks, ummmkay?  So here are a few tidbits.

1. In my dark cloud of pregnancy woes (or rather, lack of pregnancy woes), I failed to announce the arrival of a new little bambino in the family.  Yes, Brother # 2, Neil and my sister-in-love Gina have a new little bundle of awesomeness.  His name is Leo and he is perfect.  Throughout the pregnancy, they thought they were going to name him Kyle, but once they saw him, the did not think he looked like a Kyle.  Where the name Leo came from is anyone's guess, but I like it.  On a side note--I am pretty sure that if or when I become pregnant and Country and I pick out names, I will probably want to keep them to myself.  It seems everyone has an opinion and expecting women do not want to hear that you knew a kid in 4th grade with that name that beat you up on the playground.  Moving on, I am super happy for them.

2.)  I just finished reading this book: 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think

In a nutshell, we all have 168 hours per week and it poses the question:  Are we using those 168 hours the best ways we can?  Obviously we need to work, eat, sleep, perhaps take care of children.  But after that, this book makes us think about how we really want to fill those remaining hours.  Do we really want to be scrubbing the toilet every Saturday, or is there a better way?  In this new year I intend to apply what I learned from this book; that I want to spend more time exercising, reading, meeting up with friends and family, and crafting.  Some ways that I can put this into motion is by bringing my reading to work.  I get an hour for lunch and usually am done eating after about 15-20 minutes.  Usually I wander around the Internet aimlessly for the remaining time but if I bring my books and magazines with me, I can squeeze in some extra reading.  I also recently bought an elliptical machine.  I know that I am not a morning exercise person, mainly because my long hair is a pain to dry so I usually like to shower at night.  I am now making a date with myself to exercise when I get home from work at least 3 times a week. 

3.)  Weeds is our new obsession.  Country and I recently downgraded our cable and signed up for Netflix.  At the suggestion of my co-worker, I started watching Weeds from Season 1.  I think this has to be one of the best shows I have ever seen.  Country agrees.  We have been having Weeds marathons, watching hours at a time.  Good think the elliptical is parked in front of the TV!  Oh, and for New Years?  You betcha, we watched while bringing in the new year.

4.)  And finally . . . .we're going to Ireland!  This has been a dream of mine since before I can remember (and especially since I watched the movie P.S. I Love You).  Well, a couple of weeks ago a package deal came up on my favorite website, Travelzoo.  It was such a good deal.  Across town, my dad had mentioned to my mom how much he wanted to go to Ireland.  After my mom fell off her chair and got back up, she told him that there was a deal posted that very day.  So, Country and I are going with my mom and dad!  We leave at the end of March, so it will still be cool there, but hey, we're not going there to hang out at the beach. 

So now, off to read a book about Ireland while I work out on the elliptical.  Happy New Year everyone.

Older, Yes. Wiser? We'll see.

Something happened these past couple of days that doesn't often happen. 

Or shall I say that I don't often let  happen. 

I woke up on Saturday morning and just let it all go. 

You know how it is. . . .working full time, taking care of so much. . . .and always feeling like there is still so much to do on your "list."  You might not even have an actual list.  But I do.  Always.  But not today. 

Lately my mind has been buzzing as loudly as the whirlybirds falling from the maples.

I've been fighting with Mother Nature for about a month now; not quite forgiving her for the shorter days

and longer nights. 

I've been cherishing every last ray of sunshine.

 

Okay, okay.  We've all been cherishing every last ray of sunshine.

My half-hearted attempt at decorating for fall went something like this:

And I am tired.  Punkered out.  Dunzo.

For the past 6 years or so I have had a huge party celebrating Fall and this year I just didn't have it in me. 

I was exhausted just thinking about the cleaning, decorating and prep involved with having 100+ people at my house.  So I decided to have just my family and closest friends over for a tiny birthday celebration.

And you know what?  I'm was okay with it.  Better than okay. 

We chit-chatted the night away.  Told stories.  Laughed.

We made raunchy jokes about the neigbor's even raunchier music.

The jokes (and music) got even raunchier as the night went on.



We posed for pictures.

Some of us watched Princess and the Frog on an iPhone!



Tripp kept our feet warm and our hearts even warmer.



And of course, we hung out in the teepee.



And as I looked at each of the smiling faces to my left, to my right and all around that bonfire circle. . .

I exhaled the last of the summer air and thought that even though the warm summer days were gone,

my heart had never felt so cozy with love.