Hello Friends and happy Weekend!
This week - despite an upset tummy that sent me home from work some during the week - I am STILL on cloud 9 from my past Monday. To start my week, I had another vacation day to use and so after a quick appearance in the office to wrap up a few items, I was on my way out to a day of fun by 9:30AM!! And the day ended with meeting Bethenny Frankel!! Stay tuned for that post! :)
June 4 - summer is here. In the DC area we don’t really need a calendar to tell us the start of summer. You can very quickly tell by the hot, sticky air that is now settled on the top of your skin, beading into little sweat droplets that are sure to COVER every part of your body within the first few moments in the fresh air. I love summer - I am a summer gal….but it is HOT. And I got the sticky skin and frizzy hair to prove it! Making this Weekend Wrap-Up a great time to review our May weekends and say so long to spring… we will miss you!
Whether it is health, or work, or family obligations, or exhaustion, or house to dos, or moving, or errands, or holidays, or weather - the list goes on and on, Danny and I felt like we have spent the last two years hiding out. Our world has been a little distracting so in 2015 we really wanted to make a change. I am very happy to say that we had a goal to be with friends a little more often and in May, we did good!
The weekend after Mother’s Day we started with a Friday off of work and on a wedding dance floor! Danny’s cousin Amanda got married to her college sweetheart on a lake in Frederick, Maryland. It was beautiful. The weather was just perfect for a beautiful country drive to the big event and for dancing under the stars after they said I do! The family connection for this wedding is my father-in-laws side, which a is a bit smaller than the crazy HUGE Irish Catholic bunch that dominates both of our moms’ sides. This makes talking a little easier to talk and even more special to enjoy the big moments together. Amanda looked stunning and her groom was the definition of love struck. He seemed to brim with pride at his new wife by his side, greeting each guest with the biggest smile. Everywhere you looked there were little thoughtful touches or fun treats for the guests (we liked the sunglasses best) - so to see them both enjoying their hard work was wonderful. Congratulations Blanchettees!! Happy, Happy Life!!
The rest of that weekend we enjoyed yard work, house cleaning and preparing for our first official spring BBQ with our friend’s the McCombers!! Courtney and I met when we worked together a few years back and just clicked! Do you have those people in your life that just make things so crystal clear? She is always a great voice for being reasonable about any situation - but with a sense of humor that keeps you laughing at whatever life throws your way! And boy have I run the mileage on her lovely ears with ALL that life has thrown to me…. and we are still good friends - PHEW! Her husband Jamie is a little bit on the quiet side (or perhaps just overrun with all the gal chatter??), and a sweetheart with another GREAT sense of humor and a loyalty to Baltimore Baseball that makes me proud… so we all get along really well and always end our visits with a LOT of side pains from just cutting up so much.
The McCombers have just bought their first home and have a few remodels already under their belts, so they were so appreciative of our small efforts and the benefit of our renting after a couple of impressive DIYers left the building. Not only was it great company, but they were so sweet about the house tour. Thanks McCombers - we had a blast!
Our following weekend we hosted a few different groups for Memorial Day - we got that grill cooking now (See what I did there….:) )!!
Friday night we had one of my favorite gals/roommates/friends form college and her boyfriend over. Another couple that we really just hit it off and even though we have gone from talking about drinking shenanigans to now sitting on the deck discussing the frustrations of neighbors not properly disposing of their trash…. it is good to have some of those people who can go the distance with you. Plus they are puppy parents to the most beautiful BIG dog and as they continue their training adventures we love to swap stories. It is not always the glamorous life over here at Casa Bessette - but it is the good life.
Friday night wrapped up and we cleaned and staged for round two - lunch on Saturday! Our friends the Coopers and Mark with his girlfriend Amanda, both suggested getting together this Saturday…so we threw these two O’Connell Knight Groups together and enjoyed a feast! It is a gift to watch people transform into who they are meant to become. Finding their calling, learning their niche, falling in love, making homes, having babies (even if they have four legs and a tail) is a rare gift - with the most important part being not what they do with their life, but seeing who it is they become and how that can lead to dreams. For all of us the paths have been littered with so many different variables, obstacles, wins, losses - all of these experiences, all of these moments are woven together to create each person’s story, and I feel so blessed to be a regular repeat character in many of the tales of my friends’s lives.
Sunday of that weekend we had planned to experience the other side of the BBQ thang - attending. But after two days of master chef like grilling and getting up early to go to mass, Danny was beat. So we had to bow out and Danny logged some very serious couch hours. At first I was really disappointed. We are working hard on being more social, but if I must have downtime - I made the most of mine and logged some serious blog research and blogger stalking hours. It was GLORIOUS! Paired with a refreshing ice tea and the baking magnificence of our guests from earlier in the weekend and I was a pretty happy girl.
When Danny emerged from the basement at about 8:30 looking for dinner - I was armed with the knowledge of the blogging universe! As we cobbled together some BBQ leftovers I shared all the incredible home DIY ideas, party planning tools, faith journeys, books to read, themes I want to incorporate into my blog, new passions he could consider - lucky for me Danny was pretty worn out even after has nap that he just let me go on and on…..
After dinner I went to go walk the dog and Danny rigged up an outdoor movie theater with the little remaining energy he had from his naps. He was looking for something we could do and still soak up the spring…but be quiet. And I think I got my answer about his interest in my dinner monologue - oops. But it was a fun springtime evening under the stars watching our version of the silver screen.
We rounded out memorial day weekend with a new hair do for me thanks to my sister and some yard work. It is AWESOME that my hair appointments with my sister translate to meals that then lead to Starbucks, which is followed by a stroll to her salon and some magazine time for me while my mane is shaped, washed, and colored. Plus I still pay family rates for one of the TOP stylist at the salon (#myhusbandhasnoideahowmuchwesave), it is a HUGE treat. While I secured my summer hair Danny braved Home Depot along with every other Ashburn resident, but he got us what we needed to do some yard sprucing.
Finally for dinner that night we had our last bit of BBQ food for awhile - I think it is safe to say we have enjoyed the heck out of the grill - but now Mama needs a little more pasta in her diet…… :)
And finally to our last May weekend - this past one! Sunday we had a final BBQ planned with the William’s. They have been so excited to see the place and Libby’s husband Doug has wanted to meet the pup (he is in for quite the surprise with my little monster). Since they had a Charlottesville weekend planned already, it made sense to pop in on their way back home.
So Saturday was free and I was dusting off the to do list, looking for the Dyson, and hoping to work on the old tan out back - Danny had bigger plans in mind. We have been having a lot of fun with friends or enjoying the house, but we had not done the date thing in quite sometime - specifically the kind where we load up the car and get lost for awhile. So after some back and forth with a variety of ideas - he nailed one down and told me to be ready to hit the open road at 11AM. Which was the PERFECT news - since i was also dreaming of a pedicure with a side of Starbucks after the week I had endured. So pedicure done - car loaded - Shiba beyond excited ….we headed out.
The landscape of VA and into Maryland and West Virginia are just beautiful. The rolling hills, farm houses, plentiful wild flowers - it can’t be beat! And yes we did hit all three of those states - including one of my personal favorites Harpers Ferry, WV!
Now Harpers Ferry was packed with a variety of furry friends, so we did not get out (Quinlan is not super friendly with any animals #understatementofthecentury), just drove through as Danny assured me we had a fun destination to come- so no need to waste too much time here. So I awaited my destination and just enjoyed the scenery. Every once in a while Dan would curse at Google maps or even have to pull over and check the directions - which worked for Quinlan and who used that time to cow spectate - but for the most part seemed pretty confident on our route.
Finally we made it….Williamsport! Danny announced it like I should know, which threw me a bit, but I tried to go with it. We drove a around some, but it was a pretty teeny tiny town - so I felt like we really were seeing it all. Danny kept checking the map, searching until our pup made his need to GET OUT known and we stopped at a little swimming hole. As Danny looked over the maps, Quinlan explored …..and than I heard it… “I am an idiot”. Two springs ago Danny and I had been driving home from a friend’s wedding (The McCombers' actually) and stopped in a Williamsport to see the little league fields about 2 hours from home….only problem? That was Williamsport, Pennsylvania. OOO man was Danny upset. He had this plan in mind for a good meal, touring of the baseball sites, maybe sitting out in the sun at a park….. and now he felt like it was all destroyed.
No matter how much Quinlan and I tried to show how much fun we were having - a forrest, smells galore, some geese to bark at - one of us was VERY happy…. Dan was just bummed. I was not comprehending the importance of today until later that afternoon we talked about how wrapped up in my world I can get. Day job work, night time work, blogging plans, house plans - it seems that no matter where we are or what we are doing I am always staring off or distracted. And the truth is I am thinking - thinking about what I need to do, what I want to do, when I can do it, how I can do it. I am sending myself email reminders or doing a quick post draft on my phone. I am reading something or suggesting something or planning something to do with these aspects of my world - and my husband and pup are stuck in the back seat.
Danny had really hoped this day would be the distraction that would break through to me (he even included he ultimate junk food stop). Well the trip itself was not what Danny had in mind - BUT the conversation was exactly what we really needed. That afternoon we got back and Danny was drained. So Quinlan and I had a Starbucks date (they have a “pup-a-chino” and Q was in heaven) and some down time - but I continued to think over what Danny had said and how I need to work hard to unplug.
Sunday morning Danny woke up still really exhausted and just sore. He has had a rough week of health and it was not letting up. Mix that with a full and somewhat disappointing day and we turned Sunday into a lazy, quiet down day full of laundry, house chores and some work - before I too started to feel just off. Even today I could not shake it - so needless to say we had canceled the plans with Doug and Libby already - but it looks like that was the right thing for us all in the end.
Well there you have it - our May weekends! BBQs, friends, house time, family time - we did it all and although it felt like spring has sprung and is already long gone, I am so glad we had a lot of fun memories and I look forward to what the summer (with a special effort to unplug) holds!!! Happy Summer!
