Thanksgiving Pt. III

We went to Oliver Winery while we were up in IN, which is just the prettiest place around! They also have some very tasty wine, and we took the tour and got to see behind the scenes :)

Bajillion gallon tanks for wine making

The smaller tanks were the original, they're being used to cold stabilize at the moment which is why there are rings of ice around the outside!

It was a great trip and we ended up with some great wine to share with friends and some delicious dip to share with Josh and Sarah (who don't really like wine that much) that night while we watched... CondorMan. A crazy movie from the early 80's that was Josh and Jeremy's favorite childhood memory, it would seem!

All in all, it was a pretty great day after Thanksgiving! We love seeing Josh and Sarah and with any luck, we'll get to see them again this summer!

Thanksgiving Pt. IV

Saturday after Thanksgiving we went out to the Traylor's house-- we were sad Earl wasn't there, but I still got to wander around and see the animals and we got to see Grandma and Joyce again!

Tu and Lady (Tu is the adorable puppy seen here a year and a half ago)

I adore Tu-- she's my favorite! I wanted to take her home, but Grandma wouldn't let me!

The horses were actually really good at following me around!

"HEY! You there! C'mere!"

They were generally disappointed that I didn't have treats for them since James had been giving them pears all day long.

Loooooooove the horses! I'm so going back up there to ride them!

Diego is Earl's horse, of course I can't remember what Glenda's horse is named...

Tiniest Christmas tree ever!

Tu and Lady run off in to the pasture

Rooster!

Buckawk!

While I was wandering around outside, Jeremy, Josh, and Grandma made sugar twists!

There aren't pictures of the finished product because... we ate them all really quickly. They were delicious.

Thanksgiving Pt. II

Driving over the line to Arkansas-- I wanted to take a picture of each state sign, but the weather was so crummy I couldn't see half the signs!

There are lots of cool old bridges, though!

Illinois gave us some good weather... for about ten minutes.

When we got there, I cooked Greens for Thanksgiving... which apparently Nala loves!

I mean REALLY loves!

All of us at Joyce's for Thanksgiving lunch

Thanksgiving pt. 1

I really love Thanksgiving, but it's always hard to be away from home for it. I'd thought when we first got married that maybe we would do Thanksgiving in Atlanta and Christmas in Indiana-- Christmas means a lot more to Jeremy's family and Thanksgiving to mine. In the end, I think it's nice to switch it up, and this year has been particularly great with having a whole 9 days off to come up and really spend time with Josh and Sarah!

We drove up to Memphis first on Saturday, and I got to meet some of my amazing extended Alpha family and help out with KO's (my home chapter) elections! I got some great ideas from that to bring back to Gamma Sigma, so I'm excited to propose those for next year.

Andrea, my Great Grand Little! She's from the Atlanta area, so I'm excited to get to see her when she's home from breaks!

Maggie and Morgan are on either end-- they're my Great Great Great Grand Littles, and Sam is next to me in red, and she is their big sis, my Great Great Grand Little!

I love meeting my Alpha family, and it was so wonderful for them to be as excited as I was! They seem like really amazing girls and I can't wait to meet my Great Great Great Great Grand Littles next year!! 

Time flies... even if you're not having fun!

I swear I'm not trying to neglect this poor blog over here, things have just been going a mile a minute in our lives and I don't know how to keep up with everything anymore!

Shortly after we hit up NC, we went to Memphis to see Jeremy's parents and homecoming-- I got to see some of my sisters I haven't seen in a while and sadly reinforced that some of my pledge sisters still hold my illness against me... But, the person who matters most in my swift exit from Rhodes (the girl who unexpectedly got saddled with my rush party) doesn't hold it against me and is still a friend, and that's all I really care about :)

I also got to see Charles and Krystal and the kids for a few minutes, even ran in to Alex and Jay (whom I haven't seen in 4-5 years) and ran in to some of the folks who were seniors and juniors my freshman year and really made my "Rhodes experience" PLUS I got to meet my great great great grand little!!

Andrea, on the left, with HER little Sam and her grand little Maggie! My Alpha family has grown so much and it makes me SO happy. Good job to my little Caroline for keeping up the love!

Since then, there has been more drama at work that I won't go in to, but suffice to say it's wearing me thin... we have an abundance of workers here today and I'm soooo tempted to skate out but I've left a few Fridays in October and I'll be out for two solid weeks in December so here I stay...

I've been trying to distract myself with my Pinterest blog and trying to put more of a concerted effort in to AEA and getting that off the ground and rolling since one of the other staff members here has been handing out my business card for me! I also coordinated my friends Della and Brent's wedding last weekend to great success, and I'm hoping they'll write a nice little testimonial type piece for me!

Since then, the weather has been fluctuating ever so much and so now I'm back in the fall cycle of trying not to get bronchitis! Which is awesome since I have four weeks until surgery and really can't afford to be sick at the moment...

Other than ALL of that, we're just preparing for Thanksgiving and a trip to Indiana-- we get the whole week off this year! We were really hoping that Ana would still be around to see, but we're not really worth much in the big scheme of things so they vamoosed a while ago. Oh, well, we'll just go up to Memphis and see Charles and Krystal and their kids, and pick up all the baby stuff they're giving us for whenever the heck that happens, and help Marc and Jan out a day or two before we head up to Indiana to see Josh and Sarah!

Then, we get back, and it's a week until surgery... yikes!

Well, that's all I have-- ciao for now!

In my mind I'm goin' to Carolina...

But only because we were actually there this weekend and had such an amazing time!! My Aunt and Uncle live up there and we used to go all the TIME when I was little-- that place is the best! We drove up Thursday after work and we made the first half in fantastic time since you can average 76mph, and the second half made me want to fall asleep since you can average 45mph...

We drove past a beautiful fair that I would have stopped to take pictures of if we'd known, a couple of places that sounded like cheap strip clubs (but were not), found a Chinese restaurant that popped out of Decatur existence suddenly last summer (hey, they were both named Jin Jin and both had the same sign-- coincidence, I think not!, and arrived unharmed just before Aunt and Uncle hit the hay.

Friday we slept in a bit and then talked Uncle in to taking us out on the boat-- MY FAVORITE THING!

I even "caught" a Spanish Mackerel! Couldn't get any baitfish, of course, but there you go! Afterwards, we went to lunch at the Inlet View which was DELISH. The hush puppies were yummy, then I had a scallop burger with the biggest, juciest scallops I've ever had in my life! They get them fresh, apparently, and you can tell! Before we left, we also picked up some bacon wrapped scallops which I can still taste they were so good!

Me and Aunt Linda before lunch

Inlet View. And a large boat!

Eupogia-- my cousin's idea for keeping bait fish for the many tournaments they fish!

That evening we went to The Cattle Barn and WOW it was amazing. The sushi there was probably the best I've ever had in my life! 

Fresh grouper sashimi-- straight from Uncle's boat!

I ate until I could eat no more, and then Chef Mark stopped bringing food out which was good, because I totally would have kept eating!!

Saturday was a lazy day, we went to lunch at the G-Mac with Aunt, Uncle, and my cousin-twice-by-marriage Stephanie and new baby Blakely-- just pretend like there's a picture of them here that I actually took...

But, there's one of them anyway-- Stephanie is so sweet and Blakely is going to be Trouble (with a capital T!) but cute enough to be worth it!

We ran up to the little farmer's market up the road and picked up some produce, then the grocery store for some wine, and back around to the house for a relaxing afternoon!

Watermelon colored gourds

Stripey gourds

Turban squash

Aunt Linda and her Baby Squash

Later that afternoon, we got to work cooking and then had a great night with my cousin Brant and his family-- the best part? Discovering that all three of the cousins have the same memory of the 4th of July Uncle blew a hole in the beach!!

Guacamole? Check

Pico? Check.

Apple Crisp ready for the oven? Check

Fire pit? Check.

Apple Crisp ready? Check.

Toddler double fisting said apple crisp? Sweet.

Adorable family-- triple check!

Thanks for sticking through this long-- it was a fantastic weekend and we can't wait to get back!