American Girls

Back in the nineties my sister and I had a bit of an obsession.  We were lovers of all things American Girl.  We started with the books.  We would go to the library every week and check out all they had (which at the time there were only about 30 books).  We'd get so excited when there was one we hadn't read.  I loved Molly McIntire, her father was a doctor in WWII and she showed us life during the 1940's.  My sister quickly grew attached to Samantha Parkington, the orphan who was adopted by her wealthy grandmother. (which now makes me wonder if maybe she'd been wishing for a similar story).  We read the other girls books and stories but these were the ones we loved.  For Christmas we each got a doll.  I don't even remember when we realized there were dolls but it wasn't until after we fell in love with the books.  

When I think of my childhood, these are some of the most vivid memories.  My mom, sister and I would pile up in our bed and my mom would read to us for hours every night.  Thankfully my mom kept our dolls all these years (at least 20 years, we can't really remember). 

{Side note, I saw the author/creator of the books and dolls on Oprah a few years ago and she said she wrote the books because her daughter hated history.  She wrote about the girls in different time periods so that her daughters could learn history while enjoying the story of their favorite American girl. Made me love them even more}

 Since we found out there was a store and bistro in Atlanta we've wanted to go (I'm talking years).  So this year Elizabeth invited us to spend the night with her in Atlanta and make a girls trip for brunch.

Let me back up and just mention our trip to the ATL.  It takes three hours to get from Gardendale to the area of Atlanta that my sister lives.  We left Gardendale at 4:00 which put us arriving at our destination around 8:00 their time.  I fed Barrett around 2:30 so I'm not really sure what I was thinking.  I thought he'd be happy until we got there and he probably would have been if we hadn't gotten caught in traffic.  He was fine as long and the car was moving.  While we were not moving in traffic he was screaming at the top of his lungs.  It was awesome.  I'm sure everyone else thought it was too.  I was about to lose my mind.  We finally made it after I almost had a come apart with my mom (this was after n

she'd mentioned that we should do something next year for my 30th birthday, problem is I'll be 29 next year.)   But all survived and we arrived just in time for pizza.  I had to feed Barrett and I put him in the floor and he was out.  We stayed up chatting and eating it was a fun evening.  I went to bed a little earlier because I was exhausted after the drive.

Elizabeth woke me up Saturday morning saying that she'd already put Samantha in her birthday dress for brunch.  I was sad because I didn't have Molly's birthday dress but I didn't let it get me down.  We all got ready and were out the door by 8:30.  I was proud of us.

When we got there people were lined up to get in.

My sister and I with our dolls. 

I was so upset because Molly has a cute little hat, purse and glasses that I still had and we brought to Atlanta but we left them at the apartment. 

The group minus mom.  Barrett wasn't really impressed.  I let Harper carry Molly and she was thrilled.

I love this picture of my sister, mom, Barrett, me and of course Samantha and Molly.

We sat at our table and they put the dolls in their highchairs.

Then they brought them each a cup of air.  Harper was in the bathroom when they brought these out and she was so concerned that they didn't have anything to drink.  Elizabeth told her they'd already drank it.  Then she wanted to pour them some cream but Elizabeth stopped her.

Harper is so funny.

Ava's not really into dolls so she thought we were a bit nuts.

Barrett wasn't really impressed.  He did enjoy watching all the pretty girls though.

We got a group picture in the princess chair. 

I'm sure when Barrett is 18 he'll love to tell his friends he got to have his picture made in the princess chair and the American Girl store.

We hung out in Atlanta for the rest of the day and headed back to Birmingham around 7:00.  It was a bit of an overwhelming trip but I had a lot of fun.  I loved seeing Elizabeth in her "natural habitat".  It was fun to see where she lives, works and goes to church. I loved seeing Harper so excited about something we loved.  As annoying as it was, it was special seeing how excited my mom was to get to do this with her girls.  She loved telling anyone that would listen how that this trip has been 18 years in the making.  I could tell that it really meant so much to her.  I loved getting to relive one of my favorite things from my childhood, with my sister.  She and I had so much fun just walking through the store looking at the new dolls and new stuff.  We also had a pretty in depth conversation at the doll salon on whether it would be worth it to spend the $20 to have their hair worked on. (I'm thinking when I go back I might splurge). 

 I kept telling Barrett he better hope he has a sister one day or that may not be his last visit.

Happy Birthday Sister

Today is my sister's 22nd birthday.  She's my best friend.  We pretty much hated each other growing up we shared a room.  I'm very organized and clean...she's not.  It put a serious strain on our relationship.  But now that we live in separate cities it has really strengthened our relationship.  I miss her though.  I hate that I'm not getting to celebrate with her today!  I hope you have a great day Sister!

Sisters Beach Trip

Sunday afternoon my sister and I loaded up for our annual sisters beach trip.  We've been going this time of year for 6 or 7 years now.  It started as more of a father/ daughter trip.  My dad has to go down for these meetings so each year in May just me and my sister would go with him.  It was always so much fun! So we had a 4 day window that we could get away so we did.  Now the drive to Panama City Beach is approximately a 5 hour drive.  My sister's best friend Amy is from Wilmer, Alabama.  Wilmer is a small town just outside of Mobile very close to the Mississippi state line.  Amy's mom is a seamstress and my sister had a dress that needed some work done for a wedding Friday (yes this Friday she is a bit of a procrastinator) so my sister thought it would be a good idea to swing by Wilmer on the way to Panama City and drop off her dress and then swing back through on the way home.  We also were going to pick-up Amy so she could enjoy the beach for a few days with us.  She practically a sister too!  I was not thrilled with this idea (not that I didn't want to Amy to go I just wasn't excited about driving 3.5 house out of the way.)

This is the map of our normal route to the beach.

5 hours; 294 miles

This is the route we took this trip.

8 hours 25 minutes; 460 miles

So as you can see it was really on the way!  I may or may not have complained about this for a week before we left and may or may not have continued to complain the entire trip!   We didn't leave Gardendale until 4:00 Sunday afternoon.  About 2.5 hours into the trip my Garmin GPS fell off the windshield and hit the gear shift and cracked the screen.  I totally freaked out.  I didn't know where I was going.  I didn't have a map or directions and my sister wasn't even concerned.  She said I was over reacting that we could stop and ask for directions.  I was not to keen on this idea.  Amy's mom told us to just get on I-10 and get off on 98 somewhere and we'd be able to find our way! We missed the turn to get on I-10 and called our Daddy.  (I may have slightly freaked out again)  He asked where we were...I wasn't really sure.  We were on a two lane road that felt like it was about a foot out of the water.  Dad said we were over Mobile Bay.  We turned around and were on I-10 headed East. 

No sooner than 3:00AM Monday morning we arrived at the beach!  We were all wired once we unloaded the car so we decided to go to Wal-Mart to get a few essentials.  We got back to the room a little after 4:00AM.  I seriously thought about putting on my swim suit and greasing up and sleeping on the beach but decided against it for fear that someone might get me! 

We were up pretty early and headed to the beach.  I was so excited because I got a new beach chair and towel.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  It was sunny and the sea breeze was perfect.  It was the perfect temperature.  I never got hot which is why I didn't notice the flesh on my stomach burning.  My tummy looks like a bullseye!  It hurt so bad!

My burnt feet. 

This little guy hung out with me for awhile.  He actually started posing for me when I got my camera out!

Monday night we went to dinner at The Back Porch.  It was pretty good.  I didn't get any pictures!( I didn't really take a lot of pictures the whole trip)  We were going to get in the hot tub but was to hot.  I know it's supposed to be hot but I felt like my flesh was being burned off my body.  So we got in the pool instead!

Tuesday we decided that we'd just go shopping at Pier Park.  It was so nice I got a really cute shirt for $6.49 at Old Navy.  The plan was to go back and sit on the beach in the afternoon sun but it started raining. so I watched some TV.  Mom and Dad came down they didn't get down there until about 10:00.  The room we stay in is small. Like an efficiency with one bed and a fold out couch.  When mom & dad got there we had to swap up our sleeping arrangements and my sister, Amy and I slept on the fold out couch.  

Here we are all tucked in and ready for bed!

I didn't get the memo that we were smiling in this shot.

Wednesday we got up and there were two huge schools of manta rays (well we think that is what they were) right at the shoreline.  It was so neat to watch them.

We went to lunch and then loaded up and headed home.  It was a nice trip even if drove 16 hours round trip! I wish I could have stayed and stayed.  I was so happy to see Ally last night and Patrick this morning.  I missed them both so much! 

Sister's UA Graduation

Today my little sister graduated from Alabama.  We couldn't be more proud of her.  She will be going to grad school starting in the fall.  My sister and I are so close.  We shared a room until I was a junior in high school.  Then my last semester at UA we shared a room again.  I thought it was going to be the worst semester of my entire college career but it actually turned out to be one of the best.  We went to sleep most nights laughing until we couldn't breath.  When I graduated from Bama and came home my sister had pretty much taken over my closet and had all her laundry piled on her bed and had been sleeping in my bed well I had no where to put my clothes so I piled them up on my bed.  Neither of us could sleep in our beds so we ended up sleeping on the fold out couch in the living room for about a week.  (We'd have slept that way the entire Christmas break but Dad said Santa wouldn't come see us if we slept in the living room!  So we had to clean off our beds! Ha!) Anyways, all that to say my sister and I are polar opposites but best friends and we continue to grow closer and closer.  I'm so thankful to have her as a sister and I can't imagine life without her!

Here are some pictures from the day.  

Bullet and Elizabeth showing their #1

Besties!  Amy and Sister (I love this girl like a sister!)

The Alumni of the grand kids.  (There are 3 more but they weren't present.)

Roommates.  Mark (our cousin), Elizabeth and baby brother John

Siblings.  We are all so grown up!

I wanted to get a picture with Porter and he did not want his picture made finally I made him smile (but I can't remember how!)

 I have tons more photos but that's all for now.  I'm exhausted and trying to rest up for Mother's Day tomorrow.  We'll be visiting all day with our Mother's and I can't wait!

Weekend fun...

Warning... Lots of photos!!!
We had a busy weekend.  Friday night I let my nephew and neice spend the night with me. 

We watched a movie and drank hot chocolate. 

We played The Sims on Elizabeth's computer and told ghost stories unter the blanket!

We played outside on the swingset

We ate pototoe soup!

Ally and Daddy napped on the couch!

Then Saturday night Patrick and I went a wedding.  It was one of my good friends from high school.  The wedding was beautiful the bride was beautiful.  The only problem was I didn't watch one down of football Saturday night.  We got to the reception and the bartender was told not to turn the TV's on until after they had cut the cake.  By the tiem they turned them on it was halftime in both games.  The men got to watch most of the second half but my and my sister decided to hit the dance floor.

Mr. Jones, me and my sister.

Patrick and Matt

Sister's friends.

Sister, Clay and me! (We were roommates at UA for a semester!)

Me and Gab

The beautiful bride

Bride and Groom (I'm pretty sure they didn't know I was taking this!)

Sister had a long night!

Most importantly...

Alabama 31- Mississippi State 3

Roll Tide Roll!!!

Kentucky

We had a wonderful weekend road trip! Friday afternoon we met at my parents house for the trip. Bullet was already there when I arrived and we quickly started putting our things in the car waiting on the girls from t-town. Bullet had prepared an itinerary and our scheduled departure time was 4:05. The girls arrived and immediately started to paint the windows of the car with window chalk. This was not on the itinerary. We finally got loaded and hit the road.
Our first major set back...we got on the interstate and it was at a complete stand still. We weighed our options and decided to back up the on ramp and go down the highway. Glad we did because we talked to people that were stuck in it and they said it took forever. We made it to Nashville (well Hendersonville for the Battle of the Bishops Cup) around 7:15 to watch Coley cheer. It was cold. I knew it was going to be cooler but I didn't intend for it to be as cold as it was! Father Ryan won. It was a fun time. I miss high school football so it's nice to go every now and then. We headed back to Chris and Karen's house to settle in for the night. The 5:00am wake up call was going to come very early.
According to the itinerary we were meeting our caravan at 6:15am so we needed to leave the house at 6. We made it. We met an old friend of Bullet and Chris, they went to High School and College together and she goes to all the bama games. She was gracious enough to allow all five of us to pile into her Honda Pilot for the three hour tour to Lexington. We had a great trip. I laughed till I hurt at some of the stories they told us about college and growing up. Bullet and Chris rehashed every Bama game they had ever watched. It was funny to listen to the talk. Even though they are my cousins they are alot older and my parents used to go to Tuscaloosa and party with them when they were in school. It is always fun to hear stories about my parents when they were young.
We finally made it to Lexington (about 20 minutes ahead of schedule) Commonwealth Stadium wasn't in the center of campus like Bryant Denny is. People actually drove right up to the stadium and parked in the parking lot to tailgate. We had awesome seats on the second row. We are told we were on TV several times. It was such a fun game. Bama didn't bring a band which makes it difficult to sing Rammer Jammer at the end! But we did the best we could. We left the stadium, met our group, took our post game victory photo, and then headed back to the car.
There is nothing worse than the feeling that you are about the be car sick and you aren't in your car. I felt so bad but the driver pulled off and let me puke on the side of the road. I was so embarrassed. We stopped I got a Pepsi and we were back on the road. I felt much better. We made it back to Nashville in great time. We were a few minutes behind according to the schedule but we had not scheduled a stop for me to hurl. We went to a little sports bar to watch the Auburn game. Then headed back to house.
We had such a wonderful weekend. I love the road games. I think we are going to try to go with Bullet to Columbia, SC next year. Bullet has been to all of the SEC stadiums (Kentucky was the last one he needed.) Now he wants to see Bama win at all of them. I think there is only one or two that he hasn't seen them win at!

Amy, me and my sister in front of the stadium!

Our awesome seats

Big AL

Roll Tide Roll!
Elizabeth's "A" sunburn!

My camera batteries were dying so I didn't get to take as many pictures as I wanted!