And we were very thankful

Mom arrived last Saturday night for a week-long visit. Having recently been laid off, with plenty of options on the horizon, a Florida vacation was in order. First stop from the airport: Shrimp Shack.


Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday are a bit of a blur. I worked, Mom read novels, we rested. But on Wednesday we took the convertible down to the beach. First stop: Gramma Dot's for shrimp.



Then the beach, for some reading. We thought for sure we'd be cool as the air was cool. But the sun was quite warm and Mom got some sun. I just got more freckles.


Thursday was Brad's birthday. We started out the day by eating chocolate cake for breakfast.



Then we went and surprised twin sister Shelley at the Emergency Room where she works. Surprise! (And we were told by the other nurses to be careful... the bathroom has two exits. Go out the wrong one and you'll be in the morgue. Yum.)


The birthday kids.


Then it was off to Gramma Dot's again for seafood. Our excuse: it was one of the few restaurants open on Thanksgiving.


Then we went to see a movie and vegged the rest of the lazy day. On Friday we had the family Thanksgiving at Ralph and Chris's house. We celebrated birthdays there, too!


On Saturday Mom, Steph, and I went back to the beach to catch some sun. This smarty was throwing bread upwards and the birds were all catching it!


And on Sunday it rained. We ran a few errands, lazed, and Steph and Brad worked on school work. And then it was time to bundle up again for the trip home to Chicago. Which was delayed and delayed. Poor Mom and Steph got home at awful hours.


It was a lovely time and I can't wait to do it again! I took quite a few days off of second-job and LOVED the break. So nice.

This past week second-job had a big meeting, so after a particularly rough day (14 hours away from home), I came home to this:


Vases are packed up, so a water bottle is the vase. :) The hot chocolate mix is from Norman Love, the gourmet chocolatier here. I married so well. Thank you, love.

We're still waiting on house news to tell you. At this point we have a tentative closing date of December 15th (!!! 10 days away!!!) but that's not certain yet. I'm going a little crazy trying to stay sane with this process. All our paperwork is in, and now the buyers are getting their stuff in order. Eesh. But at least there are steps forward.

This weekend is Brad's last school weekend for the semester. He'll have a month off until the spring semester starts up... hooray! Have a lovely weekend, everyone!