whoa.

Last night I dreamed I gave a presentation on African Theater.  [what???].

After I finished the presentation, Warren Buffet came up and proposed to me.




I think The Taj renovations are getting to me.

may i suggest?

 

are you in the mood for something holiday-ish?

this is it.

seriously.  go to trader joe's right now.

and purchase a can [or twelve] of gingerbread coffee.

they get gone fast so you better grab one while you can.

you won't be disappointed.

i promise.

it was a beautiful way to start my monday!

yum.

Okay, so big news on the house hunting front.

We've stopped.

We have been looking since we sold our house.
But, we were having a hard time finding exactly what we wanted.
So, while we've been looking, we have been living with Worker Man's parents.

We decided a few weeks ago that we were going to stop looking for now.
We were settling for things that we didn't love just so we could buy a house.  Which seemed crazy. 

Worker Man's parents have a double-wide trailer on land beside their company that they graciously offered to us.  So, we have decided to fix it up and live there.  [Don't worry, there will be before and after pictures :)].

We have affectionately dubbed it "The Taj".

We can talk more about all of this later.  Lots of things have been learned during this process.  And lots of heart issues revealed.  It has been very eye-opening.   I'm excited to share :)  But, we can talk about all of that some other time.

We are so excited about it at this point. 

Anywhoo. 

On top of Worker Man's parents allowing us a place to live for the last three months, and graciously offering us The Taj, they are also helping out with the renovation process.  

FMIL has been helping us paint.  Which is a huge blessing considering I am terrible at painting.  And I do mean terrible.  But, she's a beast.  And we are so thankful for her help.

FFIL decided his contribution [yes, in addition to housing] was meals.  After a week of Worker Man and I eating takeout and fast food at 10 pm [which disgusts me], he noticed this and offered to cook us supper every night.  So while we work, he cooks and then we get to come home [home being Worker Mans parent's house] to a hot meal.

And not only a hot meal.

But an amazing meal.

Seriously, FFIL is such a great cook.

Last night we came home to this:

Tilapia, smothered in grilled peppers, onions and almonds.  On a bed of spinach and saffron rice.  With baby potatoes.  [I'm definitely a carb girl - so he captured my heart with both potatoes and rice].  And topped with feta cheese.

FFIL fixed my plate because he says "presentation is key".
He told me he probably fixed me too much but that I didn't have to eat it all.
But, I couldn't quit eating it.  That's how good it was!

Seriously?

On a Wednesday night?
Is this a blessing or what?

I told Worker Man that I could only hope that some of that was genetic.

charleston.

Over Labor Day Weekend, Worker Man and I went to Charleston with our friends, Daniel and Ashely.  We had never been so we took off for the long weekend.

Because I took a bunch of pictures and had a hard time narrowing it down, I just made a bunch of collages.  Here they are:

We ate lots of food and did lots of sight-seeing.  It was a gorgeous place.

  

{Top Two Left}:  We saw some million dollar homes for sale and of course rode by Rainbow Row.

{Second Left}:  We took a carriage tour which I would highly recommend.  It was fun and informative.  But a little smelly.

{Top Two Right}:   Beautiful palm trees lined some of the roads and of course there were beautiful sunsets!

{Third Down Left}:  There was a power pole covered in gum.  Gross.  But I liked taking pictures of it.  Yes, plural.  I have multiple pictures of this pole. Weird, I know.

{Bottom Middle}:  We ate at Hymans which was delicious.  But even better than the food was the long-sleeve t-shirt I bought from there.  I'm obsessed with long-sleeve t-shirts.  They're my favorite.  Seriously.  Especially if it's just the right weather for long-sleeve t-shirts and shorts.  Like right.now. YAY!

{Bottom Right} :  My favorite.  A 1500 year old tree.  It was amazing.

Some pictures of all of us.  I am normally terrible at taking lots of pictures of the people I'm with.  I take more pictures of all the random stuff than the people.  So I tried harder on this trip.  I did end up with a few.

Saturday night on the way to supper the sun was setting and it was beautiful.  I asked Worker Man to pull over.  So he whipped it in at the first available spot and we all set up, right at sunset for a little mini-photoshoot.  For some reason, I just love these pictures.

Worker Man has an obsession with aquariums.  I'm not sure why but he just loves them.  And begs, like a little kid, to go to any aquarium we come across.  So, we decided we couldn't pass up on the South Carolina Aquarium.  While he oohs and ahhs over all the animals I walk around and take lots of pictures.  It's a pretty good trade off if you ask me.  Minus the ridiculous admission fee at aquariums.

One of my favorite things to photograph at aquariums is jellyfish.  I just love them.  All their motion and the way they look all glowy.  They're so cool.  Until your stung by one.  Which hurts.  Really bad.  Believe me.  But, when they're behind inches of glass, they look all fun and pretty.

And I couldn't leave out Worker Man.  And all his excitement.

Seriously, he's like a kid in a candy store.

It's way fun.

And then my favorite part of the weekend.

We went to see this 1500 year old tree around 5:00 on Sunday night.  We got there at 5:05 and it was closed.  [Who would have thought a tree could be closed?]  But, there are fences.  With barbed-wire.  And no, we don't know that there's barbed-wire because we were considering jumping the fence.  And no, Ashley didn't suggest throwing a blanket over it so we wouldn't get cut.   "Like they do in the movies". 

After much deliberation, we decided to just come back on Monday morning.  And, while we were not contemplating jumping over the fence, we saw picnic tables in there.  So Monday morning we got up and grabbed bagels from Bruggers.  Then headed over to enjoy breakfast in front of the oldest tree this side of the Rockies.

It seriously was the coolest thing.  The limbs were so big that they had grown down to touch the ground and then started growing back up off the ground.  The shade of this thing covers a whole acre.  It was insane.

So we enjoyed a peaceful, quiet breakfast out in front of the Angel Oak Tree. 

Well, except the fifteen times the guard yelled [to the top of her voice from the gift shop - yes, the tree had a gift shop. weird.] at the people climbing and sitting on the tree.

So there's the first update [of many] from one of the trips we've taken.

Hopefully there will be more to come soon!

{p.s.  you can click on the collages to make them bigger}

5.

Okay, so how about a quick list for tonight?

A list of totally unrelated things.   

Well...except for the fact that they're all floating around in my mind.

Which is kind of like a pinball machine.


1.  It's 11:21 and I am posting.  And, I stayed up until one a.m. last night.  I must be sick.  Or I have a wild hair or something.  I normally have entered at least Step 3 [if not 4] of the REM sleep cycle by 9:30.  I'll probably be delirious for the next three days because of this.


2.  I have a ton of stuff to blog about.  But I can't figure out what I should blog about first.  Hence, this completely random and ridiculous list.  I want to post pictures from a few trips lately, give some living situation updates, maybe a couple of diy posts, and some other stuff.  But because MawMaw is lacking in the sleep department this week, she can't figure out where to start.


3.  Last night, after I had already brushed my teeth, Worker Man mentioned that yesterday morning he reached for the toothpaste and as he picked it up, it slipped out of his hand and fell in.the.toilet. So he just grabbed it right out of there, used it, and put it back on the counter.  I immediately knew I should throw it away.  Because...ummm...that's disgusting.  But instead, I've used it twice since then.


4.  I am still on a high from meeting my college roommate for supper tonight.  We ate supper and then grabbed coffee and sat out on Franklin St. just talking for hours.  It was wonderful.  It's crazy how much good that does for the soul?


5.  Did I mention that it's past 11 p.m. and I'm still awake?  If it was only 30 minutes later I could name this post something cute like Five for Friday.  But instead, it will just be Five for 30 Minutes before Friday.

I better take out my dentures and call it a night.

Happy Fridaying!

i'm baaaack.

Andddd...I'm back.

The last few months have been a a little crazy. 

So I've had to sign off for awhile.

But now, I have some fun things to keep yall updated on!

By the way, the picture is completely and totally unrelated.  I just found it today.  Me and my mom trying on some of my grandma's old glasses.  Pretty sweet, huh?