The One with the Weekend WrapUp

My parents came for a 3 night visit this weekend. 

It had been too long since we last saw them.

Christmas I do believe. 

That's crazy.

I rearranged our office twice since they'd last been here.

At Thanksgiving. 

Wow. 

Either that's a long time or I'm really restless about decorating and furniture arranging. 

Or both. 

Either way they arrived late Thursday night and we started catching up at warp speed. 

They came with overflowing arms as per usual.

Mom's always finding this and that to make us cozy and happy and healthy.

So thoughtful.

Before we knew it it was past 11pm and beds were calling our name. 

I love having a guest bedroom (complete with a bed!) for our visitors!

Friday felt like Saturday as Kevin didn't get called to work.

I think he enjoyed watching lots of college basketball, though. 

And my dad was loving the first day on the golf course.

It really was amazing weather. 

Mom and I found time to race through Goodwill right after I had pulled Dad's belated birthday apple pie from the oven. 

We found some great deals!

I haven't had such clothing success in...well..I can't remember when. 

I fit into almost everything I tried on.

And did I mention that last week I tried on all my pants and skirts (9 total) that I haven't fit into since April 2008?

I've tried to squeeze into them multiple times since that long-ago spring.

But to no avail.

One pair of black slacks and a black dress skirt still had tags on them.

Yeah. That's how fast I apparently gained weight.

But last week, they all fit!  What in the?! 

I was ecstatic, but I'm sure you cannot imagine why.

All that to say in these last two rummage sale trips I've had SUCCESS.

Multiple dress shirts/tops and sweaters, 4 pairs of bermuda shorts, 3 pairs capris, 2 pairs of lightweight dressy-casual pants, a brown corduroy blazer and a genuine leather sage green blazer. 

All for around $45. 

Favorite thing ever! 

All that to say Mom and I had a blast rummaging together. 

It's really one of our favorite pastimes.

And I think we would both admit that we are each other's favorite shopping partner. 

It just works.

And it's just plain fun.

(And neither of us are much of a "shopper" in the traditional sense of the word. 

But Goodwill?! Bring it!)

We got back home at 3:55 and by 5:00 I had dinner on the table.

My dad's belated birthday dinner.

Homemade ravioli (as in, homemade pasta with homemade filling).

Fresh garden salad (complete with green peppers, pepperoni--it's an Italian thing, tomatoes, mozzarella, spinach and red leaf lettuce). 

Homemade wheat bread turned garlic toast. 

My mom joked that by 5pm she wouldn't have even had the ingredients out of the cupboard. 

She'd still be trying to decide where to start. 

It was quite delicious (though I must admit, having a pasta machine would make the pasta that much more amazing.) 

And by 5:45pm we were all four walking out to the car to head to a dollar movie.

The dollar theater was surprisingly busy (but it was Friday night and I don't think I've been to a Friday night movie in ages.) 

And get this, we almost went broke having to pay $2 for our tickets. Eeek. 

*wink*

All of us were really looking forward to seeing The Blind Side and we're so. glad. we did! 

It was phenomenal. 

We didn't get home till 10pm, but we made a quick stop for vanilla ice cream and were soon enjoying a late night plate of homemade apple pie with Breyers vanilla ice cream.

Perfection.

Saturday morning we decided to sleep in. 

I still woke up at 7:30am, but managed to snuggle back up until 8:40am.

Dad was apparently waiting for me to wake up so I could show him where the coffee was. :) 

I went out for a great (albeit brisk) run and came back to start on our brunch.

French Toast. 

Eggs. 

Apple Raspberry juice.

The rest of the late morning, mom and I looked through the family photo session we had had with Emily back in October and finally placed our order.

Then us girls decided to wander around our quaint little downtown.

It was unfortunately much cooler than the previous days, but we still had fun.

We found more great rummage deals at the downtown thrift store.

Then shared some Aaamazing ice cream at a new venue called Craving. 

(VERY aptly named establishment. I hope they do well.)

We wandered through a new and used book store that had been around since '69 and were soon ready to head home.

Mom and Daddio headed back for a nap and I started getting ready for another dinner.

Kevin's family were enjoying a three hour high school production of Peter Pan at a school just 30 minutes from us so they were bringing burgers to share at our first cook-out of the season. 

Kevin fired up the charcoal grill, I baked brownies and whipped up another salad and we were soon sitting down to dinner.

I devoured my food and ran out the door just 45 minutes later to head to small group.

Yes, I'm so thrilled to be a part of a small group Bible study.

My friend Amanda invited me and a couple other girls who invited a couple other girls to start a weekly group. 

We're all 20 somethings in similar stages of life and needing some solid friendships and accountability.  

I think this is going to be amazing. 

I loved getting to know the girls last night and I don't foresee any problems in developing some great relationships.

I've been praying for this type of opportunity for the almost 2 years since we were married and out of college. 

It's so essential for growth on every level. 

I made it back home at 8:30pm and both sets of parents were still sitting around the dinner table enjoying conversation. 

Some of them were anxiously awaiting the brownies and ice cream, so I served it up as soon as I got my coat hung up. 

We had another hour or so of solid fellowship and said goodbye to Mom and Dad E. 

Brian stayed the night and the boys had their usual guy fun for the evening.

I spent an hour or so of unwinding and preparing for Sunday and soon hit the sack.

And that brings us to today.

God was so present in the worship service this morning. 

We were challenged. moved. experiencing Him.

I pray we were not alone in that. 

We waved farewell until next time to my parents after church and now it's off to wrap of youth group agenda for the night. 

That was supposed to be a 10 lined post. 

Sorry. ;)