weekly reviews (I guess I got behind a tad;)

September seems to be a crazy busy month for us....we have a few September birthdays in the immediate and extended family; like in our household alone 50% of the people were born in September, and 50% in January. Add to that: siblings, parents, cousins, nephews, nieces...and we travel for these birthdays...twice, so it gets kind of crazy in September.   But, to help take some of the stress out of the craziness, with more travels coming in October (at least for the hubby;), we decided to forgo our annual camping trip to the Smokeys this year, and camp more locally.  Other than the horrible mosquitos, it was fabulous!


Scenes from the last three weeks of craziness:


bridal shower for my nephew's fiancee':
 


my medicine cabinet, plus Reiki, after I stepped into a fire-ant hill....my foot seriously healed very quickly!

my new nature-inspired jewelry line!

 
celebrating my mom's 69th Birthday, Hilton Head Style:

cool sea turtle sand sculpture:

my container garden update (not much survived...but bell peppers and Meyer Lemons did!)

camping on the beach, cool sun rises (since I had NO excuse not to wake to go see it, since I was literally right on the beach)

our birthday girl turned 11! there was camping AND horseback riding!

oh how quickly they grow:


scenes from our Hunting Island State Park camping trip (one hour by car, 3 miles by boat;):

lots of cool driftwood!

 
me and my mommy and the puppies:


camping in a maritime forest with the ocean just yards away: 


perspective:


 regular visitors to our campsite:


and then there was this time, when J and I kind of took a wrong turn on Hilton Head, and landed at a new rum distillery tour and tasting....ooops:

and a great time was had by all, full of joy, beauty, and adventure! 

date lunch and Christmas season fun

while the girls were at their dress rehearsal....

mommy and daddy had a date night where we had beautiful patio seating, at the Upper Crust, Sun City!  The temperature was perfect, the coastal breezes amazing...life is good:) 

while the girls attended their second annual sleepover party....

we had our second annual date night!  We hit Truffles on Hilton Head island having dinner on the patio, and made a quick stop on the beach (you know, the sun had gone down, it was in the sixties, and we were chilly...pathetic:)


outdoor dining; it was such a beautiful night

me and my date...how do you like my Island Cowgirl starfish necklace!!!!

(we were home by 8:30; more pathetic-ness :D)

Date Nights...

Time sure does go by too quickly, especially when you get caught up in Life's Stuff; and we really have had our share...but we're done with getting caught up, and we are truly living in the beauty of each moment!  Little Miss Angel has been requesting date nights---one-on-one time with each parent----of course!!!  She MORE than deserves that, they both do!  Well, she had her first one a week or two ago with daddy, and they had a splendid time.  And tonight, it was our turn.  I asked her what she wanted to do--the sky was pretty much the limit--and do you know what she chose?  A night remininscent of the first (and sadly the last) time she and I had a date night---this was back in the fall of 2009.  I took her on a shopping spree to pick out some fall clothing--Target has adorable clothing for children, and a snack bar area; so that is where she wanted to go---to have pizza at Target again....because the first time we did that together meant THAT much to her!  Make sure you grab those one-on-one moments with your children; it means so much to them!

 Of course our beautiful Little Fairy Girl was not to be left out---so while one parent went on a date with one child, at the same time, the other parent went on a date with the other child; and then we swapped the next time around.  

Beautiful Date Nights were had by all!

My, how quickly our beautiful princesses have grown!

Girls Day Out

Grandma made the three hour trip down yesterday to babysit, so that daddy and mama could have a night out. We had a blast! My friend and band director invited a few people out for his birthday bash (I'm honored to have been on the "A" list:) We started with cocktail hour, then moved on to hors d'oeuvres and pizza in an Italian restaurant. He brought a birthday cake in, it said "Happy Thanksgiving." Since he's a big turkey, we thought it was appropriate:) We then went back into the lounge for a few more cocktails and to listen to some questionable karaoke--it seemed like a bunch of regulars--they weren't bad, but they didn't let any "newcomers" give it a shot--a few of us were going to go up to sing Summer Lovin' from GREASE (the gals would have been Olivia and the guys John)--but the same people kept getting the stage--so the band people never got their shot at vocal fame:( (I must assume they found out there were a bunch of rowdy band people there, and they knew there was a reason why we play real instruments:) But, as soon as some one went up to sing SWEET CAROLINE by Neal Diamond, a couple from our party literally got up and RAN out of the room, I mean RAN--apparantly Neil Diamond makes her physically ill, and she meant this literally (so sorry Mom:) From there we hit a sports bar that had the band director's wife's guitar teacher as part of a great local band called Mt. Olive--and they were really good, and the music was GREAT--we enjoyed singing, dancing, and more "cocktails"! So we had a ton of fun! Happy Birthday Jay! Thanks for a great night! I think my ears have stopped ringing, so hopefully I'll be able to hear for rehearsal tomorrow:)

So today, as a thank you to grandma for making the drive down, we had a girls day out. We went out for a yummy breakfast. And after I've always wanted to show her The Gingerbread House--it's a very quaint and adorable coffee and pastry and craft shop just a couple of miles from us. I remember not too long ago when it was a beautiful old farm house, and watched the renovation for over a year (waiting and wondering what was to become of this old farm house!). I LOVE quaint shops like this--it seems like everytime I go into a really cute and quaint country type shop, I want to turn my house into that--but then if I start to do that with my home (making it country), I get sick of all the clutter and start bagging stuff for Goodwill and changing it back to more clean and simple (as much as you can with small children--I'm thinking in my next home, I should have one country room, but only where I can close it off if I get sick of the clutter:)--but it was a bit crowded for the girls, so we bought a couple of cookies, took a quick tour, enjoyed the beautiful original wooden flooring and all the decor, and left. Now the girls are enjoying their turkey cutout cookies. (And Thank you to Grandma for bringing the movie August Rush to me, I can't wait to see it!)