Sunday, May 4, 2008

Ormond Beach, Je'Taime

I flew out of Orlando on Tuesday for Atlanta. I was definitely drained from all of the packing and leaving my wonderful friends, but everything went smoothly on the flight and all 3 of my huge bags arrived immediately after the belt started moving! Praise Jesus, because I've had some trouble with that in the past. My Aunt Suzanne and Aunt Shirley picked me up from the airport and we stopped at THE original Chickfila Dwarf House to pick up some lunch before heading to the house. We drank my Aunt Suzanne's famous sweet tea, chatted, and relaxed for a while but the "less drowsy" formula dramamine I took for my flight made me REALLY sleepy, so I took the kind of nap that is really hard to come out of before we had dinner. Then we waited around until my mom and sis-in-law pulled in from Texas at about 12:30am.

The next morning, we met the whole family at a BBQ place known for their amazing ribs. When our waiter heard that we wanted to buy some BBQ sauce to send to my brother in Iraq, he gave it to us for free, which we all thought was really nice. My Uncle Sam and Aunt Linda met us too, and I realized how much I love hearing my uncle talk. He has one of those true, deep, story-telling, Southern voices. He sounds a lot like Shelby Foote, a major civil war historian who I could listen to forever. It's the kind of voice you envision Robert E. Lee having. I love it! My cousin Jennifer left Sarah, who turned one in February, with us to spend the night and can I just say that we had a blast! My other cousin Franklin and his wife Amanda, who is due like NOW, came over for dinner and we all played with Sarah outside. It's so beautiful and green right now. Sarah loved Hannah (Adam/Krista's doberman) and Krista even let me take a picture or two of her, growing belly and all. We even got to take a peek at Franklin and Amanda's nursery, which is adorable and gave Krista some ideas.

Thursday, mom, Krista, and I drove to North Carolina and we spent the entire 8 hour drive just talking. Obviously, I would much rather have Adam here to be with Krista, but this has really given us a chance to get to know each other and grow closer which has been so nice! Friday was Krista's sonogram and the woman who does it was looking at different things and measuring stuff and then she goes, "OH, this is a money shot!" and points out to us that baby Weathers is, without a doubt in heaven, a girl. I can also assure those of you who caught this weeks Grey's Anatomy that all of her organs are growing inside her body. Oh, and she also has ginormous, Angelina Jolie lips apparently. That night, we watched Amazing Grace, which is an incredible movie that I recommend to all of you. It's about William Wilberforce, a British politician who helped end the slave trade and it's about the actual song. It's a great historical representation as well as a genuinely good movie. I own it so you can borrow it, but definitely see it!

Saturday was the most fun! We went to Baby Swank, a shi-shi baby place in Wilmington where Krista found her crib bedding as well as furniture. That night, we went to Mike's Farm, which is kinda like a homemade Cracker Barrel, only even better. They serve you family style and you only get one choice--fried chicken, pork, green beens, corn, mashed potatoes, biscuits with ham, and the best mac n cheese I've ever had in my life. The farm is also an actual Strawberry farm and they're in season, so for dessert we had delicious strawberry shortcake and strawberry topped cheescake. Needless to say, we were completely stuffed after our delicious meal!

Today (which was Sunday when I first started typing) I made chicken tacos for lunch while they measured, we ate, then painted pink stripes on one of the mocha brown walls in her nursery. We had cereal and popcorn for dinner while we watched August Rush.

I knew that I would be having so much fun, and I have so much to look forward to still, but I really miss my Floridians. I feel a bit stalkerish, I'm always texting Cara, Leah, or Lindsey, finding out what everyone is doing, etc, etc. I'm looking forward to being back too! Sorry this is ridiculously long and void of pics. I will adjust the latter and exacerbate the former soon!