Sunday, that's my fun day

Sunday was actually fairly relaxing-- Jeremy went to church with his parents-- I didn't go, partly because I don't do church and partly because Marc reports their sound system/band is through the roof; almost literally! I slept in a while and then when Jeremy got back, we went over to Buffalo Wild Wings to see Suzy! I was so glad we got to see her and see how well she's doing-- back in school, living with a guy she really likes, enjoying Oxford, and having the life she deserves!

After that, we hopped on home to get ready for Valerie and Ana to arrive! As you may have noticed in an earlier post, that didn't go as planned... Chicago (their connection between Europe and Memphis) was slammed by storms and the flight from FRAORD got diverted to DTW. Of course, United managed to not record the flifo correctly (flight information) and so it showed that Valerie had landed in Chicago NOT Detroit! She doesn't have a US phone (being as she's here infrequently at best) and we saw her ORDMEM flight had been canceled, so we were very worried when we couldn't get in touch with her!

After several rounds of talking to United customer service representatives (who weren't so much with the service or the brains), we finally got one to tell us that he was fairly certain she wasn't on the plane that got to Memphis at 10 something that night. Thankfully, none of us felt like going to bed until after her potential flight had landed because sure enough, we got a call from the Memphis airport that Valerie and Ana were there! We hopped in the truck and ran up to grab them. Valerie was exhausted, and Ana in all her PK glory was wired from being trapped on a plane all day, and when we got home Ana suckered Jeremy in to sleeping in her room that night! Valerie shared a few items while unpacking for nightclothes, including some delicious smelling Ethiopian coffee! Finally, we rolled in to bed at about 1a and slept till morning!

Saturday

Saturday was also excellent-- I went shopping with Sophia and got a ton of cute stuff! OK, maybe not a TON, but a handful or two :)

The GAP outlet in Tunica is probably the best outlet I've been to-- I always manage to find something I really like at a great price. You would think the great price part would be guaranteed at an outlet, but not so mon frere! The GAP and The Children's Place were the only ones having sales, so I picked up some stuff for me and some stuff for Violet, then a couple of kitchen items we needed for back home.

Sophia and I had a blast at the shoe store where not only did we find jellies, but Sophia decided she wanted to try on the most ridiculous shoes she could find!

CLEARLY we were having a good day! I went to Target afterwards and found some shorts for Jeremy, then got my toe ran over with a shopping cart-- people are so rude! After getting it to stop bleeding, someone spit gum on it on my way to Office Max! Unbelievable.

We got home, got ready, and raced over to see Charles and Krystal-- the older kids weren't there, but we had some amazing lasagna, got to hang out with little Felix and hear about Charles's newfound place at the police academy. We ended the night by watching some Top Gear; how awesome is that?

Felix!

Jeremy teaches Felix how to play Angry Birds

Felix tries to help Jack with his sound mixing

Me and Krystal-- so glad she's back stateside!

Krystal and Charles were stationed in Japan for a while, but I'm so excited they're back in the states and I get to see Krystal now and again. It's funny, we were never entirely close at Rhodes, but I guess we just always got along really well and bonded more than either of us ever knew!

That, too

Friday I also managed to almost literally bang out a collection of blog posts-- the joys of scheduling on blogger!! I've tried to be really on top of things with the web content since that's all I really have going these days *sigh* One day someone will hire me for a party, any party, and I'll be good to go!

Check them all out at Agape Events!

Friday, Friday, Friday!

Friday was totally low key, it was AMAZING! I did a little bit of work and then watched HGTV and a very cool show on the History Channel about acids! Jeremy and Marc went to Lenny's sub shop for lunch and brought me back an Italian which was sooooooooo good! I miss Lenny's a lot... definitely going to take advantage of the one up by Emmy's more often!

Friday night, we went to a new restaurant in Hernando called Buon Cibo-- it was Panera/Atlanta Bread Company kind of food for the same kind of price, and it was surprisingly good. Marc had a Cuban sandwich (that he said was nearly as good as the ones he used to get in Miami) and a cup of roasted red pepper soup (which was delicious, and much less of a bisque than we expected!), Jan had a Chef's Salad, Jeremy got a ginormous meatloaf sandwich with house chips (also delicious!), and I had an apple/walnut/bleu cheese salad and a cup of coconut chicken soup. My salad was good, but I would have preferred for the apples and walnuts to be chopped so I was able to mix the flavors a little more, but it was sopping with dressing which is just the way I like it! Jan loved her salad because of the addition of pickled onions which were very well done! The whole thing was apparently started by a chef who used to run a restaurant in Memphis, and it's a nice little startup, so I hope it lasts. There aren't a lot of healthy, affordable options in the area and this is a decent alternative to Sonic!

To end the night, we decided to watch the original Tron which we got Jan for mother's day! It was a lot of fun since the Clarks hadn't seen it in ages and I'd never seen it! It was an interesting story line, and how awesome to see young Jeff Daniels-- The Dude was a suave looking youngster! I also got interested in the timeline from the original Tron and Tron: Legacy.

Oh, hey there blog, what's up?

So, we're sitting here waiting... Valerie and Ana's flight was canceled from ORD to MEM so we're assuming she'll be here in the morning but have been unable to get in touch with her. In the meantime, we took Jan to dinner and now I'm watching HGTV with her while Marc assists Jeremy with his obsessive sound deadening of my car! I'm also researching Ethiopian cooking for that fated day when the kids finally arrive in the States. I figure that with so many Ethiopian restaurants in Decatur/Atlanta, and with YDFM right up the street, we're in the best place to pick up spices and whatnot to cook for them!

The last week and a half hasn't been quite as productive at work as I'd hoped, but that's life in the fast lane-- it feels like every time I need to be super productive, the only thing that will get me there is an 11 hour day and I just can't do that to myself! I did get a little bit of work work done here on Friday, but the rest is all paperwork related and has to be done in the office. YIKES what a crazy day Tuesday will be!!

I've taken a few pictures this weekend, and will post those throughout the week since we're starting our 7-3 schedule! 7a is hard for me, but man oh man do I LOVE those extra hours in the afternoon! I'll finally be able to get Alana's cookies out, I'll be able to mail something to Joe, and I'm going to really toughen up on myself and start cleaning out my closet-- things I haven't worn since college, things that just plain won't ever fit again, and stuff I haven't used in a year or more (and not just because I don't own a study where I can hang things on the wall) will ALL be sorted out to go in a yard sale! After the yard sale, whatever's left will go to the Sal Army to get it out of our house! This fall, we hope to come up to Marc and Jan's and get some of our mess out of the way here as well. I'm hoping by then we will have maybe found a new apartment that will fit the desk I painted when I lived in midtown. Jeremy hates that desk (it's too bright for his tastes) but I LOVE that desk!!!

That's all for now since the computer's about to die, but there will be more and I PROMISE I'll be better about updating!

So tired...

Will make a real post from Memphis on Friday, I'm SO TIRED this week!!!

Exhausted inspiration

Big thanks to Krystal for inspiring tonight's Agape Post on Cake Pops!