Busy bees...

That is why I haven't blogged in a while... we have been Busy Bees!

Thursday, 8/11 - Sunday, 8/14, my Mom came into town for a visit. It was a fun Mom & Daughter weekend. Sadly, my Mom and I are failures... she is an avid scrapper and I am a blogger and we didn't take a single picture the entire visit!!

I had taken that Friday off of work to spend time with Mom and we started our weekend with lunch at La Madeline. We were joined by my Mom's cousin, Cindy and her granddaughter, Jade. It was a nice girly lunch with laughter and catching up. After lunch, we headed to the Outlet Mall and began our path of retail destruction that would last most of the weekend! After we had checked out all of the kitchen gadgets stores and a few clothing stores, we headed to our next stop... the holy land of home furnishings... IKEA. Not only is it a fun place to shop but it is a time black-hole. By the time we finished there, we were exhausted. We went home so tired we couldn't see straight. After Brad got home from work, we grilled some yummy pork tenderloin for dinner and called it an early night.

The next day we were out and about early. First stop was a large scrapbooking store so Mom could stock up. Hattiesburg isn't exactly a hotbed of scrapbook supply stores, so she took advantage of our Archivers store. I killed time in the TJ Maxx next door and got into trouble of my own! The next stop was Wild Birds Unlimited. My Grandmother was an avid birdwatcher and had several different kinds of bird feeders outside her windows. She bought my mother her first bird feeder stand... and as a surprise, my Mom bought me mine! I will post a separate blog about this as soon as it is installed in the back yard and I can take some pictures!

With my new bird feeder stand loaded up, we headed back to Georgetown for lunch. I took Mom to a new local favorite of mine... Laurie's. It is a fun little place with yummy salads, soups and desserts. Once we were stuffed, we swung by the house to pick up Brad. (He had stayed home to work on his brakes while we shopped.) We went to a movie called "The Help". This was based on a book that my book club had just read, so I was very excited to see it. All of us thoroughly enjoyed it and I really recommend it. The casting was perfect and they stayed VERY close to the book. After the movie we got Rudy's BBQ to-go and enjoyed a low key dinner at home. After some TV and reading, we called it a night, exhausted... again.

Sunday morning Mom joined us for breakfast at Taco Cabana. We visited and then said our goodbyes. We headed to church and Mom hit the road for the second part of her road trip- seeing friends in Bastrop. It was a jam-packed, fun weekend and I am so glad she made the drive!


This past Sunday, we drove to San Antonio for lunch. It was our Sister-in-law, Gina's birthday. So, after Sunday School we headed south to a yummy Italian restaurant called Maggiano's. We met Brad's parents, brother Doug, Gina and their daughter Irina. It was a quick trip down but it is always nice to see the family!

Since then, Brad and I have been busy painting. Do you remember what I said after we painted our master bedroom? "As much as I would like to get the living room done, the high vaulted ceilings may have to be left to some hired pros!"... well, we have decided to do it on our own. Pictures and a blog to come... it will take us two weekends to finish it!