true boy tales: Part 1

Monday, October 24, 2011

Part 1

Just so you don't give up on my blog altogether, I'll probably post our vacation in bits and pieces as I have time. We got back this past Saturday morning after 2 nights with my parents in TN and a week on Hilton Head Island, SC. So here's the first little bit--the full day we spent with my parents. It was such a strange feeling arriving at their house and piling out of the car, knowing we were there for a visit. We've lived in the same city my whole married life so this is taking some getting used to for all of us! I was most looking forward to my mom's cooking and she didn't disappoint :) Pumpkin pancakes and all the bacon I could eat for Breakfast 1 and then homemade biscuits with honey, scrambled eggs and fried ham for Breakfast 2. A couple days later at our hotel, Bennett says out of the blue, "That was a great breakfast". I was thinking, you mean that lumpy microwave oatmeal we all ate this morning?? And then I said, "oh, you mean at Nonny's house?" "Yeah. That was a lot of things."

We crammed in as much as we could. First, a nice long hike through the woods, then to their (current) favorite BBQ place for lunch. Naptime for Dawson and a brief ~~shopping~~ browsing trip for me & my mom while Bennett and Jon braved the chilly pool for a quick dip. Then we all went to the cool park near their house and back home for dinner.

It was so great to spend time with them again and Dawson did not want to leave my dad out of his sight! He says his name, Grandad, with the funniest inflection, I wish you could hear it on here. Whenever he wasn't around, he'd walk through their house calling for him.

Its hard thinking that we probably won't see them again until Christmas (we were considering meeting up with them in Georgia for Thanksgiving but the prospect of another 15 hr trip so soon does not sound appealing). Unless my mom can't stand another minute away and drives up here before then ;)

2 comments:

i'm B.October 24, 2011 at 5:57 PM
oh man. totally burst into tears while reading this. piper looks over & says:
"why are you crying?"
"because i miss nonny and grandad."
"oh. because they're your parents?"
"yeah."
"you should text nonny and say i miss you."
"that's a good idea."
"there are seven days in a week. you should pick one day to go visit them."
(she'd been singing the 'seven days in a week' song all evening.)
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jkottleyOctober 25, 2011 at 5:16 PM
What love looks like...
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for the book lovers {my recent favorites}:

Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan: An incredibly haunting medical memoir. There's a lot of medical info to read through but I didn't find those parts boring and difficult to wade through. I thought she shared just enough. But if you like a book that's easy to read, this isn't it. I couldn't get this one out of my mind for a very long time. An unforgettable true story.
Me Before You by JoJo Moyes and What Alice Forgot by Lianne Moriarty: I'm just going to lump these two together because they're in the same category. I'm calling them deep chick lit. A perfect summer book to get lost in. Read them. Both. I promise you from the bottom of my heart that you will LOVE them. (I liked them both way better than Where'd You Go, Bernadette.)
These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner: Most of my favorite books have a main character with a whole lotta grit. I wasn't quite sure about this one when I first started it but, oh, did it sweep me in and not let me go til the last page. I also love a book that makes me "emote out loud" as I like to think of it. This one had me smiling all the way through and crying my eyes out at the end. It follows a young girl through her life in the Arizona Territories in the late 1800's. A must read for anyone who likes Historical Fiction.
Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill. I LOVED this book. Its a very well researched historical fiction novel about a young girl kidnapped from her village in Africa and sold into slavery. It follows her through her whole life and the unbelievable heartache and trauma she lives through. I've been telling people I liked it as much as Unbroken but the main character is so much more endearing and has so much spunk.
Another Place at the Table by Kathy Harrison. I have a thing for modern day memoirs of utterly heartbreaking stories (Like Breaking Night and Blackbird). This is a Foster mother's first-hand account of the children she took in over the years and the unbelievable trauma they went through before they came to her.
Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls. I loved this lighthearted yet emotional story of a strong woman making the best of a hard life in the Southwest, beginning in the 1930's. I love her writing style--just cuts to the point of every story without too much "fluff" and yet tells it in a way that you can picture everything in vivid detail. Her memoir, The Glass Castle, is one of my all-time favorites, and this true-life novel about her grandmother didn't disappoint.
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. Modern day fiction about a girl raised in Foster homes and her struggles throughout life. She learns about the Victorian Era language of flowers and that becomes a huge part of her life. I finished it in two days. An easy read but very emotional and moving.
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers. The true story of a man's experience after Hurricane Katrina when he decided not to evacuate in order to look after several properties he owned. Quite an unbelievable story and so hard to believe this happened in the US only a few years ago.