Weekend Visitors

I am eagerly anticipating a wonderful, whirlwind of a weekend.  My sister, her daughter, one of our friends and two of her daughters are making the 4 hour trip south to spend the weekend with me and B.  They want to go outlet shopping on Saturday - the girls all have money they earned during potato harvest burning a hole in their pocket. 

I love all these girls and can't wait to spend 48 hours with them.  B will, once again, retreat to his man cave - his beloved Red Sox will be playing.  He is excited for another house full of females for the weekend, but he also loves to just chill with the game on.  And we will let him, probably.

We're going to order pizza and chicken wings from our local favorite place.  We'll blow up air mattresses and have snacks for the girls to raid at midnight.  We'll chow down on tasty breakfasts and I will probably cry when they all leave me.

I look forward to these too brief moments and cherish the memories we all make. 

Comfort Food Kinda Day

What's your comfort food?  I love chips and brownies and apple pie.  I love spicy, warm food and I love to cook these kinds of foods in the fall - not sure why.  Once the days start getting cooler, I feel like nesting and staying home and just kicking back and today, that's just what we are doing.

We went to our church's Saturday night service, so we slept in this morning and have just vegged all day.  B is recovering from bronchitis.  His beloved Red Sox are in the playoffs and their games aren't until 8 p.m. so he's trying to rest up to stay up.  Plus he has to work tomorrow and needs to be up by 4:30 a.m. (Just thought I'd point out - it's a day off for me!!)

So in honor of this stay-at-home, nesting, vegging kind of day - I've got chili in the crock pot and chocolate peanut butter chip brownies just came out of the oven.  Can't wait to indulge!

What are you doing today?

We didn't make any plans for this weekend.  We have no visitors this weekend and I have Monday off, but B has to work.  So last night, we had a little date night.  We went out to dinner, later than normal for us...we even had to wait for a table.  It was fun to just sit and chat while we waited.  After dinner, we went and bought B's mom a 70th birthday gift.  Then I had something to return to a local department store, so B hung in the vehicle listening to baseball stuff and I did a little shopping.  It was a great way to end my work week.

This morning, I felt like doing a little cleaning - the kind where you have a bag for Goodwill and a bag for the dump.  We are on "break" for breakfast right now, then we will get back at it.  I am a hoarder and but I'm ready to get rid of things...lots of things.  Thankfully we have a Goodwill nearby and our dump has a Trash & Treasure building that we can leave things in.  It makes me feel a little better to give things to those places rather than just completely throw perfectly good items away.  Oh, and we also have laundry going!  That was piled sky high - we sure go through a lot of clothes for 2 people.

I think we are going to go see a movie this afternoon, then who knows where this day and weekend will take us. 

I'm not usually a go-with-the-flow kind of gal, but I'm kinda liking this weekend without plans! 

It's Friday!

This is a first for me, writing on here before work!  I'm celebrating the fact that it's Friday morning, it's going to be a 3 day weekend for me, and I only have 8 hours of work until that starts!

Now, to decide what adventure we are going to go on this weekend.  Hiking?  Leaf peeping?  Shopping?  Movies?  Or maybe all of them! 

I'm ready for whatever adventure we decide to embark on....but until then, it's off to the coal mines! 

What I discovered this weekend

I am back to work after a wonderful weekend with my forever friends.  They surprised me with a little birthday party - cuz I'm a half century now and they thought they should mark that occasion, I guess.  We wore party hats and they gave me depends....fun was had by all!

Anyway, during this weekend I learned a few things:

1. Each of us nodded off at least once while we were sitting up talking - some at the dining room table.  I'm thinking it's because we are so tired and nothing to do with our age.
2. If you don't turn your furnace on in October, your house is cold.  I don't think I need to say much more about this one.  We are trying to just use our little electric fire place until it gets "really" cold.  We just wrap up in a blanket....all of us did this weekend.
3. I don't sleep as much as my friends.  They all were in bed by at least 11 and up by 6:30 a.m. or earlier.  I, on the other hand, didn't fall asleep until after 1 a.m. either night and was up at 7:30.  I need to figure out how to get more sleep, or how to make myself fall asleep earlier.  
4. We all go through the same things - two of my friends are going through health issues with their moms.  I've been there.  
5. I'm getting forgetful.  This weekend alone, I forgot my phone in the car and had to go back to get it.  I lost my debit card in Old Navy - and thankfully it was right where I dropped it when I went back an hour later.  
6. And finally, two days is not long enough to catch up with friends you haven't seen in over 6 months!

Forever Friends

This weekend marks the 10th year that my wonderful friends from the north will make the 4 hour trip to our house for a visit. I worked with these three beautiful lades for over 10 years and they were there  through my meeting B online and our initial dating, our break up, our dating again, engagement and then our wedding.  They were there for me when I had cancer and through my surgery and recovery.   Next to my family - spending time with these ladies are one of the things I miss most from my life before marriage.

We stay in touch via email and meet up at least once a year in the fall.  We try to throw a spring trip in every once in a while too.  When we are together it sounds like the hens are loose and on the move.  B visits for about 30 minutes, then retreats to his man cave, with his headset on.  We all talk at once and follow each others conversations and somehow it doesn't confuse us or seem strange.

The visit always includes a little shopping, apple pie and apple buying, and a lot of talking and catching up.  I've been readying the house for their visit, bathrooms are clean, supper is planned for tomorrow night, apple pie fixings are ready to be assembled.

They are taking the day off tomorrow to make their journey down and will text me along their way so I can feel like a part of their trip.  I can't wait to see them...but I know these 2 days are going to go by in the blink of an eye.

Everyone said we would grow apart, that we wouldn't keep this up.  But we knew different, we made a promise and we are all married to men that support this time together for us.  They know how much it feeds our soul.

Forever friends are hard to find, but somehow I have been blessed with quite a few, and I am so thankful!