swimmies.

There weren't too many bright and sunny days at the reunion, but when there was a break in the storms, the baby cousins sure knew how to do the pool in style.










Miss Rachel has been learning how to swim, and she was really brave jumping into the pool with Mom. Luke was super new to all of this fun — he kinda slept through it all. Miss Ayden was a trooper, and was the first one into the chilly water to show the rest of us how it was done. And Sebastian, well, I think he hasn't met a person, place or thing he doesn't love!

It was pure bliss to watch them all play together for the first time... and, um, can we talk about how cute those suits are? Ra-di-cu-lous! So sweet.

the polk reunion & the announcement.

I left last Friday for the Polk Family Reunion with Witt. It's quite a big ordeal — he has a very large family (3 aunts + 2 uncles + their families + their families' families)! I was so excited to get to spend the holiday weekend with them, and especially excited to meet Baby Sebastian (Witt's nephew pictured above), who had already tripled in size since the first photos I had seen of him.

Little did I know Witt had even bigger plans for our trip... to arrive engaged! Yup, you got it. Flowers, wine, bended knee. Laughing, crying, beautiful words of endearment. A girl's dream come true, and an even bigger dream come true to get to share the good news with family. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm a very lucky girl... so lucky to share my life with my best friend, my Witt. I can't wait to get started.

It's been a whirlwind — I didn't sleep for 2 days out of pure giddiness. I've forgotten all my chores, everything has literally gone mushy in my head. But I sure am enjoying it and I hope to stay on Cloud 9 for a bit longer.

It's quite lovely up here.

a blue ridge easter.

Witt and I got to spend our Easter with the Harper clan in Blue Ridge...










... and in just 24 hours, we...

- dyed 18(ish) eggs
- found 3 hidden Easter baskets
- learned 1 new Nintendo game
- played 4 games of pool
- watched 1 movie
- drank 1 (large) bottle of wine
- feasted at the #1 restaurant in town (well, we think so at least!), Repaz
and...
- caught up on 5 months of missing each other!

Sigh. I love Blue Ridge with the fam. There's nothing better.

she keeps me in purses

I've been meaning to post pictures of these for awhile now:




Mom created them for me out of my favorite Amy Butler fabric — one for my birthday and one for Christmas. They are so well-crafted, so beautifully detailed that when I carry them I am always stopped and told just how wonderful they are. She even has a little embroidered tag in them, attached with the tiniest of safety pins.

I actually keep them both hung on various doors around the house because they are just too lovely to be hidden away.

The Second Pie & Thanksgiving Seconds.

Ok, so I know I'm delayed in posting up my Thanksgiving photos, but my goodness, can we pause just a minute before we get into Christmas? Just for me - for just one second? I'm not ready yet! I'm truly still on Thanksgiving! I still haven't removed the pumpkins from the doorstep and the corn from the door; no red ribbons or lights have been strung. Mainly because I've been sick as a dog, but also because I just can't move that quickly. I like to savor every last bite...

And so we did! Here's the second pie: Apple Grand Marnier. Yummy.



Riley helped set the table by hunting for pinecones and handwriting place settings.




They boys loved their jeep and drove it down to the train tracks by the cabin. I pretty much took my camera everywhere they went, which was fun. I think they think Aunt Ali has a permanent lens strapped to her face.




But even Riley tolerated me taking his portrait after awhile.



And Finley was always a good sport.



We did a separate little photoshoot of her in her ballerina tutu that Mom gifted her. I know, she's simply gorgeous, right?




So let me warn you, all three of them are ridiculously cute. I know, so unfair.




And here's a sneak peak of some of the shots from the family photoshoot we did.



I've got some more on that to share too. It was really fun. I've never really shot anything formally like that before, especially with a gaggle of kids! I learned quite a lot. But mostly, that I'd love to be doing this even more. I can't imagine my life without holding a camera in my hands. I look at things so differently now, just in this past year. It's a hard thing to explain. Well, actually Alicia, explains it quite well in her book, Stitched in Time...

"...Because if you start taking photos of everyday life, you will start looking at everyday life differently. I think it just happens — you don't have to try. Through the viewfinder, I started looking around at my life and realized it looked pretty darn good, actually. Some days, in spite of the ubiquitous stacks of dirty dishes and piles of mail, it even looked beautiful. And I realized that not only did it look that way, it was that way. I had not noticed, not to such an extent, before it all started showing up, day after day, in my little camera. The evidence of how we've been blessed with family, food, pets, a roof over our head, warm blankets on our beds — is in a thousand photos I've taken over the past few years."

It's a pretty amazing realization. All those little snapshots add up to such a beautiful story. I have a lot to be thankful for.

What I Learned on November 17, 2008.

"There is one thing I don't get," I said.

"What's that?"

"How come if your favoirte color is blue, you painted your house so pink?"

She laughed. "That was May's doing. She was with me the day I went to the paint store to pick out the color. I had a nice tan color in mind, but May latched on to the sample called Caribbean Pink. She said it make her feel like dancing a Spanish flamenco. I thought, 'Well, this is the tackiest color I've ever seen, and we'll have half the town talking about us, but if it can lift May's heart like that, I guess she ought to live inside it.'"

"All this time I figure you liked pink, " I said.

She laughed again. " You know, some things don't matter that much, Lily. Like the color of a house. How big is that in the overall scheme of life? But lifting a person's heart — now, that matters. The whole problem with people is—"

"They don't know what matters and what doesn't," I said, filling in her sentence and feeling proud of myself for doing so.

"I was gonna say, The problem is they know what matters, but they don't choose it. You know how hard that is, Lily? I love May, but it was still so hard to choose Caribbean Pink. The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters."

- The Secret Life of Bees

Can I get a "Yes"?

Surgery went double thumbs up good. Better than expected, even. I look like I've been sucker-punched though. Kind of like the mugshot of when Jasmine Bleeth got arrested. It's a terribly disgusting healing process (don't worry, I will spare you the details). The part that is more sucky than I imagined is that I have to sleep in a chair for 3 weeks. Well, either that or choke on my own goo. Fun!

But guess what?
I don't have a headache. Or a migraine.
And I feel like screaming that from the rooftops!

If only I could move my upper lip. Yup, got some nerve damage in the sinuses, so my upper lip is puffy and somewhat non-responsive, but that should go away.

The best part about the surgery is that they wrote "Yes" in big purple marker across my cheek so that the surgeon remembered the side of the turbinate and polyps he would be removing/working on. Too funny. I kept it there for a day and then found it actually wasn't that funny when I couldn't get it off. I have a nice red mark there now to remember it by.

Thank you all so much for all of the support and kind words and prayers you've sent my way. It means more than you know. I can't wait to get back to a state of normalcy and know that it is just around the bend. I am so blessed to have been in such good hands and surrounded by such amazing friends and family (and my Witt). Yes, I'm convinced that is why everything went so smoothly, so perfectly.

Yes.

Farmer's Pasta Dinner.

Witt and I were invited to spend last weekend with my bro and his stellar wife while they were relaxing (for a week sans 3 kids!) at their cabin in Blue Ridge. And wow, this kind of weekend couldn't have come at a better time for me. Sometimes, getting away from the responsibilities of the house and all that it entails plus physically un-gluing myself from the computer is just what the doctor ordered.

Their cabin is nestled near the Aska River — tons of trails to hike, rivers and lake to swim in, antique shops to peruse — truly a wonderful place to vacation to, and only an hour and half away. But this time, we chose to do things a little differently. The first evening, we we went to the Farmer's Pasta dinner at Crane's Creek Vineyard. (The second day we all chose to enjoy a round of golf at Brasstown Valley, but that's another story!) I don't think I'll need to do much explaining here to get the point across that this place is pure gorgeousness wrapped in a fairytale. The people who run the vineyard are just lovely, and they literally open their farm up for everyone to explore... plus feed them a yummy dinner and give everyone their fill of the wines that they produced for the season. Their wines are damn good, too, and you can't find them in stores. (Yes, we came home with a few bottles, not to worry!)











After I got a look at their abundant vegetable and herb garden, I said to Witt, "Gosh, one day, can we have a garden just like that?" And he replied, "Of course! And how about the vineyard, too?"

That's what I'm saying!

Nobody said 33 is glamorous.

And I sure did prove that point at the beach this past week. (Say what you will, but I will always prefer a cowboy hat over a baseball cap for beachwear attire. Better coverage, less sweaty.) I don't know how women do it — look so beachy. I just end up looking like a German tourist no matter what I wear.

And that being said, the beach is not particularly kind to me, since I'm 2 shades off from a translucent blue hue, plus I require an entire bottle of 55 spf to even step foot near the water. Nevertheless, the clan meets at the same place in St. Simon's every 4th of July for a little celebration, ahem, my birthday (and the State's, of course) for a little together time. It's a cherished tradition.

As always, we biked around the beautiful marshes...



... to the pier to see if anything was caught by the fishermen.



This wasn't caught but was washed up after a storm.



Here's the door to the same place that we stay every year.



The deserted pool after a storm...



...and the Greyhound station.



And why did I post a picture of the Greyhound station, you ask?



Because the best gift that I received arrived via bus. That's my cousin Meg. Yes, 4 months pregnant and she flew all the way from DC then hopped on the Greyhound to S.S. to see me. I just love that about her... she's unstoppable. And I'm loving this picture because it looks as if we we are famous people caught by paparazzi photo fire. Ridiculous, yes?

Also ridiculous is the a chocolate on chocolate cake with cherries in the middle — and sparklers on top — that gets devoured year after year. So yummy.



Yes, nobody said 33 was glamorous...



... but Mom knew how to make me feel very glamorous with a handmade dress. Uhuh, she made that and it fits me perfectly. The woman is damn talented.

Thank you all so much for the well-wishes, thoughts, cards and gifts. This birthday wasn't particularly easy for me (in fact the word dread comes to mind) but being surrounded with such warm fuzzies made it all good. My friend Moo said it best: many wishes for a lovely 34th year of life and congratulations on a very full and fascinating 33 completed years. What a great way to think of turning a year older — it's not about what you haven't accomplished, it's about congratulating yourself on what you have. So I'm putting away the mental checklist that I get out every year and instead focusing on all the amazing things I've been able to do that have gotten me to where I am today. And being surrounded by dear friends and family, my Witt and a spotted dog... what more can a girl ask for?