Before we left for the wedding, we wished Peter a happy birthday because he was EIGHTEEN!
We checked with him before we agreed to go to the wedding and he confirmed that he didn't mind if we were gone or not. He had plans with friends and was happy celebrating with the family on Sunday evening when we got home.
We celebrated him at my mom's house with appetizers and birthday cake and presents.
Last Friday morning, as soon as the kids headed to school, Dan and I hopped in the car and headed south to Columbus, Georgia! The son of one of Dan's best army buddies was getting married. And this son just so happens to be named after Dan! (The groom is named Patrick which is Dan's middle name.)
It was a sunny and warm day and we made good time. We arrived in about 7 1/2 hours but that included a leisurely lunch stop and a stop for gas and the bathroom. (Travel time with no stops is 6 1/2 hours.)
We were really surprised at how cute downtown Columbus is. Since Columbus, GA is home to Ft. Benning, we were expecting your typical run down little army town. And while the area near Ft. Benning did live up to that expectation, the rest of Columbus was as cute as a button!
Within just a couple of minutes walk from our hotel were a bunch of restaurants and bars and the downtown is also the home to Columbus State University.
We had dinner at The Cannon. And then headed to The Loft for a drink.
On Saturday morning we had breakfast at the restaurant in the Marriott and then headed to check out the Riverwalk. The Chattahoochee Riverwalk is a 15 mile linear park that runs from the city marina all the way to the Infantry Museum.
Patrick (the groom) was a whitewater rafting guide for a few years at The Rush South Whitewater Express. This park on the Chattahoochee is the longest urban whitewater rafting spot in the world. They also have a zip line course that spans the river. If you do the course you will go from Columbus, Ga into Phoenix City, AL and back again.
Patrick had arranged for out-of-town family members to do the zip line course. We opted out of the zip lining but did head over there to catch up with Doug (Dan's friend and father of the groom) and Tammy (mother of the groom) and watch some of the family zip across the river.
Afterwards Dan and I walked more of the Riverwalk and headed across a pedestrian bridge to Alabama. (This was my first time in Alabama!)
After our walk we drove to Ft. Benning. Dan was stationed there at the very beginning of his time in the Army and completed his infantry training and Ranger school there. Unfortunately, they weren't letting anyone on the base without a special pass due to COVID. Dan also really wanted to tour the National Infantry Museum which, sadly, was also closed due to COVID.
We then headed to lunch at the Dinglewood Pharmacy. It's a full service pharmacy and soda shop that's been in business since 1918 and they are the home of the Scrambled Hotdog. We read about it in a guidebook and decided we needed to find out what it was.
The pharmacy was closed on Saturday afternoon but the place was packed with people eating lunch. We ordered a scrambled dog and were not disappointed.
The scrambled dog is served in a banana split dish. They take a hot dog bun and open it up and lay it in the dish. Then they chop up a couple of hot dogs and sprinkle them over the bun. Then they ladle on a bunch of their special chili and top it with pickles and oyster crackers. We got ours "all the way" which meant they added cheese and onions. It was a delicious mess of food! We couldn't go to Columbus with out trying this local specialty and I'm glad we did.
After lunch we took another walk through the quaint downtown, found a rooftop bar and enjoyed a drink outside in the beautiful weather.
Then we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the 6:00 pm wedding. The invitation said the wedding was formal so women should be in an evening gown, cocktail dress, or formal pantsuit and men should be in a tux or a solid dark colored suit.
I'm wearing a sleeveless pantsuit with a sheer wrap (to cover the old lady arms) and Dan is wearing a black suit. I thought we looked pretty good! My pantsuit felt dressy enough for the occasion (especially with the wrap) and there is a small chance that since it's a pantsuit instead of an evening gown that I might, at some point, be able to wear it again. It also had slits up the side of each leg and when I crossed my legs, I looked like I came to party! (Which may or may not be a good thing!) :) It also had pockets which I loved.
The wedding and the reception were across the street in the convention center. The wedding space was lovely with all the chairs spaced apart to allow for social distancing. There were a lot of twinkle lights and it felt very romantic. They had an artist doing a live painting of the ceremony as it was happening and then she finished it during the reception. I thought that was a really cool touch.
The wedding ceremony was sweet and simple and before I knew it, we were in another part of the convention center having drinks and appetizers and then dinner. It was all very lovely and I'm so glad we were able to attend.
Here's a picture of the happy couple. Aren't they so cute?
I regret not getting a picture of Dan and Doug but they were busy talking and catching up and sadly I didn't even think about it until the next morning.
We had a great weekend away celebrating a new marriage and an old friendship and I'm so glad we were able to make the trip.
Eighteen is....
Eighteen loves to...
So I'm finally done with my "job". In the 16 days that we were open, we voted over 9,500 people at our little polling place. The turn-out was record breaking and my weary body felt it! I'm very glad to be able to get back to my normal life.
I would like to point out that of the 13 people that worked at the polling place (and we all worked almost every day all day) none of us got sick. I was praying hard that we would all be protected. I think we were all praying that prayer!
We wore masks and gloves (and some of the older people wore face shields) and 99% of the people that came in wore masks as well. We issued each voter a q-tip to use the touch screen voting machines so we wouldn't have to wipe down the machine between each voter. Everything worked very smoothly and based on everything I saw on the local Facebook page everyone was pleased with how smooth voting went.
The only problem we encountered was that our county didn't buy "I Voted" stickers this year - instead we were giving out "I Voted" pens so people wouldn't have to share pens. The pens were back-ordered and by the time they came in over half of the people had already voted. (And because we didn't have pens to give out, we had to sanitize the pens between use. UGH!)
I heard, "you don't have stickers?" hundreds of times each day and it got old. Apparently, if you can't post a selfie with your "I Voted" sticker you didn't really vote.
Enough about voting. What else has been going on in the last couple of weeks?
One of the 100-year-old pecan trees in my mom's yard fell over during the hurricane that blew through. I got a text about it from Sarah while I was working. (The kids were out of school because of the storm.) I almost started crying when I saw the pictures.
She has four beautiful pecan trees in her yard and (obviously since they are over 100 years old) they've been there my whole life. Even though I was sad about the trees (the one that fell, landed on one of the other ones and it had to be removed as well) I was extremely thankfully that it fell the way it did. It could have just as easily fallen on my mom's house or on our side driveway where the kids park their cars.
In other news, on November 1st, I got a text from my brother that said there was a gray cat on their porch but that it ran towards our house. I looked for it but couldn't find it. The next day though, Peter spotted it on our back patio but it ran away when he went outside. We spotted it several times over the next week and I finally broke down and fed it. It didn't appear to be going anywhere and it also didn't appear to be eating very much.
And you know what happens when you start feeding a stray cat....
So I took it to the vet on Monday and she was treated for ear mites, fleas, and worms and was given rabies shot and vaccines and now we have a new cat.
He's really pretty and very sweet....
The kids are out of school for Veteran's Day today. Sarah starts swim team workouts tomorrow and Peter starts football workouts as well. Dan and I are headed to Georgia this weekend for a wedding and life is just rolling on along. I hope to post more regularly now that I'm free from my civic duties but we all know how that goes...
Also, as a side note - the menopause hot flashes are about to do me in so anyone with any suggestions on how to get rid of them, please drop them in the comments!
Just wanted to check in quickly. I've been working the early voting polls here in my county and it's been crazy. We've seen record numbers and we've only been open 9 days. In those 9 days I've already worked 89 hours and boy am I tired!
I'm leaving the house at 7:40 AM and returning at 7:45 PM. Dan is having to do laundry and cook dinner. (I usually have the main dish prepped but he and Sarah get it cooked along with the rest of the meal.)
These hours are longer than I realize when I first signed up to do this but I am working with some of my friends and that is making it fun. Plus I'm really enjoying getting to know the other people I'm working with too.
The first four or five days we were open were crazy. Lines were wrapped around the building and into the parking lot. Things have calmed down the last few days and I'm not bone tired when I get home like I was at first.
I've been taking lots of vitamin C, wearing a mask and gloves, washing my hands like crazy, using lots of hand sanitizer and hoping for the best Covid wise. 99.9 percent of the people voting are wearing their masks and when they aren't we ask them to put one on and they comply. There have only been a couple here and there who refuse (and at this point our little precinct has voted 6,000 people so I think that's pretty good).
I would love to post a picture of myself all masked up and helping voters but it is a felony to take a picture inside a polling location so - no pictures on this post my friends!
Have a great week!
We spent a small portion of this past weekend in North Myrtle Beach. If you are keeping up, that makes three weekends in a row that I've been to the beaches in South Carolina.
This time however, it wasn't all fun and games. The father of one of Sarah's best friends passed away unexpectedly and his funeral was on Friday in North Myrtle. Her friend asked her if she would come and how could we say no.
Dan had Friday off as one of his furlough days thanks to Covid so the three of us headed to the beach early on Friday morning. The funeral Mass was at 1:00. Our hotel room wasn't ready so we did a quick change in the lobby bathroom and headed to the church.
It was a beautiful funeral - as beautiful as they can be I suppose. He was retired from the Air Force so there was a flag ceremony, Taps played on the bugle, and a three volley gun salute. It was sad but I was glad that Sarah was able to be there to support her friend.
We grabbed lunch after the funeral and then Dan and I headed to the beach for a little bit.
That evening we went to dinner and afterwards Sarah met her friend for ice cream and they hung out for a while.
Then we got up early on Saturday morning, had breakfast and headed home. It was a quick, sad trip but I'm glad we were able to take Sarah.
Other than going to the beach, here's what we've been up to in list form:
1. Peter's been working on his college applications and I've been filling out his FAFSA. Everything is very complicated and time consuming and I wish we had started on things sooner. But we will get it all done. (I hope.)
2. Sarah's been working on her Student of the Year activities for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. She led her first team Zoom meeting and did an excellent job. I was very proud of her. And right now, she is on a call with her first business owner to ask for his support in the spring when the fundraising begins. By the end of this, she is going to have gained some really great skills that she will hopefully be able to put to good use in the future. And hopefully she will have raised a lot of money to support research for cancer.
3. I will be working the polls for early voting this year! A friend of mine does it every year and asked if I wanted to help. They need extra workers this year because due to the PPE we are required to wear, everyone will need extra breaks and time to just breathe. Most of the people that work at this particular poling place are retires so I think they are also looking for extra help running in and out to do the voting for people who can't come inside due to Covid. At the meeting I attended yesterday, we were told we would need to wear a mask, a shield, and gloves. Part of me is rethinking all of this because guess whose hot flashes have returned with a vengeance?
4. I finally got a few things to spruce up the front porch and make it look a little fallish. Walmart had this little beauty marked down to $5! I had to get it.
Last Friday afternoon, I headed to North Myrtle Beach with 4 of my friends from my old MOPS group. Our 6th member Wendy wasn't able to go and we really missed her.
We had such a great weekend together. We had no plans other than to eat out a couple of meals and hang out on the beach. The weather wasn't the greatest but we still managed a long walk and sitting around enjoying the waves and the sights and sounds of the beach.
Here are a few pictures from our trip:
We arrived Friday night and immediately stopped to see the beach under the gorgeous moon!
After lunch we took a walk on the beach and enjoyed the scenery. The weather was starting to deteriorate at this point but we didn't care.
On Sunday morning we headed out for brunch.
And then we hit a couple of the outlet stores and shoppes near Barefoot Landing. The lines to get in the stores were long and we didn't have time to wait.
It was such a great weekend. I really enjoyed my time with these ladies and we are already planning another trip.
We had a really nice weekend in South Carolina.
We were on the road a little before 9:00 on Friday morning. It was cloudy and rainy most of the way and when we arrived in Charleston many of the side streets were flooded. We slowly and cautiously made our way into the historic district and parked our car.
We grabbed a late lunch at Ruru's Tacos and then headed to the City Market. Sarah was excited because she got a ring there the last time we visited. Since it had been raining all morning and had stopped while we were eating lunch, the vendors were slowly starting to come out.
The shops inside (in the blessed air conditioning) were all open as normal but the ones on the outside were open but you could only access them from the side windows. This was in an effort to keep crowds out of the center aisles. Sarah found a great ring vendor and chose two rings which I am happy to say, she bought with her own money!
After visiting the market, we took a carriage ride. I think this was our (mine and Dan's) 9th visit to Charleston and we ALWAYS take the carriage ride.
Here are some scenes from the ride:
This was a nice way to get a quick view of the campus but we didn't really get to learn anything about it. Sarah saw enough that she decided she would like to go back for a formal tour and I saw enough to wish that I was 18 again and could go there myself!
It was such a neat campus. As many times as we've been to Charleston, we've never set foot in this part of town. It was very near the historic district and the whole campus (or at least the part we were in) felt like the middle of Charleston. It was very cool.
Here are some pictures:
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After our busy afternoon in Charleston we headed to Folly Beach and checked in to our hotel.
We relaxed for a little and then we
Then the kids went back to the hotel room and Dan and I grabbed a drink and listened to some live music on the outside deck at The Wash Out.
It all seems very romantic until you realize that there's a beach volley ball game going on to the left, a bunch of random beach walkers all around and in general Saturday evening beach activites happening.
Then we went to dinner, watched the NC State football game on the hotel bar tv and that was the end of our Saturday.
Because we went to mass Saturday night, we slept in on Sunday. I got up before everyone else and grabbed a cup of coffee and took a walk on the beach.
Then we packed up, grabbed breakfast and checked out right at 11:00 (check out time) on the nose. No sense in leaving even one minute before we have to!
We had a great weekend and are already wishing we were back there!
