A month and a half?

Boy, this was a long dry spell, even for me!  No excuses, other than that I just am too tired to blog. 

At the end of May, Rebecca and I went on a  trip to Tennessee.  We had a wonderful time with Grammy and got to see so many friends.

Rebecca enjoyed a lot of time playing outside.

The hydrangeas were in full, glorious, showy bloom!

One of Rebecca's favorite things was playing in the sprinkler in Grammy's front yard.  The only thing that could make a summer day in the water better is for the ice cream man to come by!

 

My mom has a friend named Marta who lives in Albuquerque.  Mom and Marta have been friends since they were young 20-somethings.  When I was growing up, most every summer Marta and her family would come to visit Tennessee.  I always looked forward to seeing good friends Sjaak and Bram.  Thank goodness for Facebook or we might have lost touch. Fast forward more years that I care to count and it just so happened that Sjaak's family was road-tripping across the country and came to Lincoln County when we were here. It was so nice to catch up with Sjaak and Ginny and see their children.



Rebecca with her new friends Ariana, Karina, and Alex.

 

We also got to hang out with Aunt Molly and Jack.  We met up with them for dinner at Cahoots, and then the kids somehow convinced us that we should take them to the park.  They were climbing on the monkey bars, swinging on swings, and sliding down all manner of slides, having a ball.  Molly and I got to catch up a little, but not nearly enough!  All of a sudden, the sky turned black and it began to thunder, so we quickly hugged them goodbye and ran for the cars. By the time we were pulling out, the sky was falling!

Just in time for our visit, Aunt Margaret was adopted by two cats who were with kittens.  Some were about 2-3 weeks old and some were just starting to open their eyes.  Though I am terribly allergic to cats, I just couldn't help but love on them a little.  Rebecca was delighted to get to hold the kittens, which were the first ones she'd ever seen.  I tried to play a little trick on Ramy by texting him a picture of Rebecca with one of the kittens and just said, "Guess what???"  I thought he would think I was bringing one home, but he knows me (and my allergies) too well for that.  Good thing, or he might have had divorce papers drawn up!

Aunt Charlotte also happened to be visiting Fayetteville while we were there.  In true small town style, we happened to be browsing at an antique store on the square when we ran into her and her sister.  The next night, we met up with them for dinner at Cahoots.

I had two nights out with my girlfriends while I was there.  We had a Memorial Day cookout at Lucy and Ricky's house.  It was the first time I had visited their house, which is gorgeous!  They've lived in their house about the same amount of time we've lived in our "new" house, and they have it all completely painted and decorated.  Meanwhile, all our walls are still white!  I need to get on the ball.  Anyway, we enjoyed a long night of laughing and gossipping.  Then before we left, we met up again with those who could make it for some Mexican food.  I miss my Girl Posse!

I also got to have lunch with my good friend Brian.  Unfortunately, Stephanie was working, but since I hadn't seen him the last couple of times I was home, it was really nice to hang out with him. There's something awfully comforting about being with friends who've known you most of your life and have seen you at your absolute worst! 

Rebecca spent a lot of time in the back yard picking flowers.  And dandelions.

 

 But of course, the best thing about being in Tennessee is getting to spend time with Grammy!