#1,282 Getting Around A Little Better.

Today I'm still not feeling well (let's not call this a complaint, but a medical diary of sorts?) but I was feeling well enough to finally get out of the room and go spend some time with Ben and the youth for an afternoon in downtown Asheville. Ever been there? It was a super cool place, but much bigger than I thought. We couldn't see it all in an afternoon!

After a long day of worship and music and playing games, we found our kids all huddled together singing The Weight of Lies by the Avett Brothers while 2 of them played guitar. It was so awesome. Quiet hours start at 11 pm, but the singing went well past midnight. I think they're keeping me young.

#1,281 First Day at Lake J.

It was another sick day spent mostly in bed in my room today, but I did get to feel a little sunshine and lakeside breeze this morning. This is such a magical place!

Also, my husband is such a cutie.

#1,280 We Made It.

And really unfortunately, I've had another spell with my stomach the whole day. The good thing is that it seems to be somewhat better than it was a few hours ago and I'm praying tomorrow will be better. It was a packed house on the bus, but Jesse drove a few of us chaperones in our car. I'm so thankful for him today. He's been a great driver and he's had to be my nurse all day since Ben is super wrapped up with his students. If you're reading, I love you brudder!

#1,279 Mark it, dude.

It took every minute of 2 days but we've scratched everything off the 'leaving for camp' list. This is what we achieved in 48 hours:

#1,278 Big Day Downtown.

Summertime in downtown is such a fun place to be. I remember when I was in high school and I worked at Signature Coffee Shop and open mic night was every Thursday. I would play shows there sometimes and that was literally the only thing happening downtown. We had 1 coffee shop, a formal dress shop, and the antique store. There was the predecessor to the Loblolly Festival, the Main Street Festival, and that was the highlight of the year for me besides Pancake Day.

But things are very different now. Thursdays are becoming huge in our little town, and people are driving from the county to be a part of it every week. Next Thursday will be even bigger, since the Rusty Chandelier and 3rd Thursdays open mic will be going on in addition to the regular Thursday events like:

The farmer's market, which was WAY bigger than the already big last week. Over 600 people came to the market today:

Followed by a historic district neighborhood party at Mal and Jim's:

Which was followed by opening night for movie night in Pinehurst Park. There were over 300 people there to see Madagascar 3.

It's so fantastic to finally see this kind of momentum!

#1,277 Twin Lakes.

Today we shipped some of my favorite invitations to date to a sweet couple planning a Twin Lakes wedding. I blogged about it over at Lucky Luxe, but photographing them this afternoon was such a little pleasure it's trickling over to this blog, too.

Gosh that was a fun design to do, y'all.

Also, we listed our oven on craigslist this morning and a guy drove from New Orleans and bought it this afternoon. You can't beat that. The eyes on the stovetop don't really work and we've had 3 technicians check it and they can't figure out why. So we've been basically stovetopless for a while now and when I found Mallorie's awesome Kenmore Pro oven for 50% off at Sears, I bit the bullet and bought it over the phone from a store in Texas. Ben's brother is bringing it to us in a day or two!

#1,276 Shortcut.

I got a haircut today. My normal stylist, Nikki, was all booked up for the week, and I'm going to be gone next week, so I made an appointment to see Daniel, the stylist who cut my hair from the middle of my back:

Hick day, senior year. Weren't we so talented?

To the pixie cut that got Ben's attention freshman year:

So I decided to go shorter today, for kicks. I took a before photo, but I was wearing a scarf so that's moot.

And here's the result:

It doesn't seem much shorter from recent pictures, but there was SO much hair on the floor.

It's fun to talk about hair sometimes.

Also, I saw the new exhibit at the museum today. It's of famous rock star portraits. There are lots of Elvis portraits, and Jim is friends with Elvis's bodyguard from the last 5 years of his life, and managed to get him to come speak at the exhibit. Fascinating.

Kurt Cobain was there, too.

#1,275 Boarding.

So Ben and I are making the annual trip up to the North Carolina mountains for the summer youth trip and we've been going back and forth about what to do about Chevy and Baker since we hate to burden any family or friends with 2 bears for a week. And so. We visited a boarding kennel. And it was impressive. It didn't smell like pee (too much) and it's air conditioned with a yard they can run around in. So, sounds good to me. Especially since it's $12.50 per day per pup. Is that about what it costs everywhere else? I have no idea.

Also, my parents' fancy electric trash can that would mash the garbage down that they've had since the house was built 21 years ago, finally died. So my ever-reasonable daddy, rather than spend $600 on a new one, is just building a slide out drawer for the trash can. And my mother remembered the name and color of the cabinet stain from 21 years ago, bought it, and was correct. That never happens to me, ever.

#1,274 Before Sunrise.

Have you ever seen Before Sunrise?

We've been watching some of our favorite old movies with Jesse since he's never seen them and he's a captive audience. He really liked it, which makes my day.

Ben and I watched it not long after we were married and I loved it right away because it was the first well done portrayal of people falling in love almost instantly. The story is about an American guy traveling through Europe by train, and he meets this French girl on the train. They strike up a conversation and immediately enjoy each other's company. He has to get off the train to spend one night before he boards a flight back home to America, and she gets off with him and they spend the night exploring Vienna, two strangers, who fall in love in less than 24 hours.

People have a hard time believing that Ben and I knew it was forever after 6 days. It was so nice to see a movie dedicated to that very topic, and done so beautifully.

#1,273 Go Outside.

Go ahead and click this link and start this song.

Today was the most perfect summertime day possible. I spent it entirely outside.

Late, lazy breakfast on the porch.

Cuttin the grass.

Unexpected (short) storm.

 

Sun's back out, so a ride in the back of Ben's truck to go swimming.

And as if that weren't enough, I watched a little bit of Head Above Water, maybe the most influential movie for interior design in the history of my life. It's an indy movie from 1996 and Cameron Diaz was just a girl, it's pretty cheesy, but it's set in THE most unbelievable seaside Maine cottage. It was my favorite movie in 7th grade when I started my someday house inspiration file. If I could find images online or if I could take screenshots and show you, it would blow your mind. I noticed so many things that obviously inspired the way I wanted our house to be, that I've been storing away in my memory since I was 12 years old.

If you can find it, just watch enough of it to see that dang house. You can see a tiny clip of it here.Oh, readers. Do you any of you live in Maine? Can I come visit you?

#1,272 Blues Bash.

Summer's here.

Which means a few things. Shedding and porch parties. And Blues Bash.

After Blues Bash, some of our supper club friends came to our house for pulled pork sandwiches on Hawaiian bread, mac and cheese, grilled sweet corn and asparagus, Sangria punch and watermelon for dessert. This might be the best combination of foods I've ever assembled. Note to self.

And my old friend Katie is back in town and wandered onto our porch as it was winding down. I hope I'll be seeing more of her!