The Craziest Week of 2014

Oooh Lordy - this past week will most likely go down as one of the craziest weeks in all of my thirty years of life. I know what it is to have a week feel like it manages to pass in a blur and still somehow be the longest week ever...because that is what the past week was like for me. The week started with a bang - no pun intended - and ended in a whisper of muscle relaxer induced sleep.

Well...that's one way to start a week!

Monday night has it's own post, so I'm not going into that traumatic experience again. Once was enough and I've already been blessed to have to relive it over and over again....can you sense the sarcasm over the web page? If not, let me tell you...that is SARCASM. I speak it fluently.

We stuck to our plan and left the house at 6 AM on Tuesday, driving to MS for Thanksgiving. Let me tell you something - riding in a car for 12 hours after being in a car wreck, yeah...you feel it. I didn't think I was going to be able to walk when we finally got to MS but I managed to pull it through. I was still under the influence of medication on Tuesday morning when we left and I don't really even remember the first three or four hours of the car ride. I remember trying to be comfortable, struggling to get in a position that didn't cause some part of me to hurt and then when I happened to be awake, trying not to have a panic attack when an 18-wheeler passed us. It was fun I tell you, fun!*

*Sarcasm again

It actually made me look forward to my flight on Friday. At least there are no semis in the sky, right?

Checking out my contribution to the road trip snacks - they went for a ride on Monday night but managed to be unharmed. Miracles abound!

Tuesday night was spent with my sweet little sister - I haven't seen her since early August and I was so glad to see her. Granted, we didn't run and squeeze one another like we normally do...it was more of a hobble on my part and a gentle pat on her part. We had a delicious dinner at Harvey's: I had some kind of grilled chicken smothered in barbecue sauce, thin sliced ham and provolone cheese...let me tell you, it was delicious. It makes me sad now that I wasn't able to eat that much of it because I really started to feel crummy and had to just give up. I'm pretty sure nothing that was eaten on Tuesday night wasn't absolutely lovely. The tortilla soup I had as an appetizer was also delightful. My mouth is watering just thinking about it...

I don't know when I'll get a chance to go to Harvey's again, but I'd go back in a heartbeat - especially if I wasn't feeling like I'd been smacked with a stick. You see - being in pain and trying to eat lovely quantities of delicious food don't always go together quite so well.

A picture from my friend Jen - this was what the day before Thanksgiving in VA looked like!

Watson's first "real" snow. Apparently he loves the stuff.

Breakfast of champions...am I right or am I right?

After a less than restful sleep on Wednesday night (Air Force Inns are always hit or miss...I'll let you determine what this one was) we had to pass the time till Lindsey got off work. She's such a grown-up with a job...it just blows my mind and cracks me up a little bit too! We perused the Base Exchange where I got some new sneakers (yahoo!) and some Aleve (maybe even more of a yahoo, ha-ha) and once Lindsey got off and we had some lunch at Peppers, we went to Starkville for a quick visit to the MSU campus en route to Collinsville. Our Wednesday was rounded out with a visit from the Deans, supper with the Watson side of the family at Outback and getting coffee with David before heading to my Aunt and Uncles to get a good night's sleep.

Wednesday night was the first night I had muscle relaxers at my disposal and my Aunt assured me they would knock me out. She also seemed to think they'd knock me out so much that I'd "sleep through Thanksgiving". Well, they didn't do that but as Lindsey and I were laying in the bed on Wednesday night, I looked at her and said something and she immediately burst into giggles. In between her snorts of laughter, she said "your speech is slurred!" Ha - sounds good to me!

Lindsey showing off her birthday present - a new Kindle!

Bully & I.

You'd never guess 36 hours earlier I'd been smashed by an 18-wheeler, would you?

Y'all...if you haven't seen it, that jumbotron is, well...JUMBO.

Davis Wade Stadium

Leaves as big as your head? Who knew? Of course we had way too much fun with them...

Someone raised us right - Hail State!

Lindsey in Lowndes County!

Hail State!

As my sister so cleverly pointed out - the B is for Bulldogs!

Bye for now MSU...

Donuts make a perfect road trip snack.

Thursday was another day that felt like a blur...oh wait, that was almost every day this week. We visited with our friend Hope on Thursday morning before having Thanksgiving lunch with the Watsons. We also visited with our Summerlin family members and my Mamaw before making the drive to Birmingham...because my flight left from Birmingham at 6:15 on Friday morning. We had supper at IHOP, which was one of the only places open on Thanksgiving night and let me tell you, those cinnamon roll pancakes were absolutely delicious...even if I was so tired I felt like laying my head on the table and sleeping right there. Our waitress was so nice and I was impressed - it has to be hard to be working on a holiday, but she was so kind! I did want to smack the people sitting near us who were rude to their waitress; I mean...people need to be nice to those who are working on holidays. Have a little heart!

Lindsey & her Thanksgiving spread...

Feeling a little sleepy on the way to Birmingham.

Friday is such a blur - truly. I woke up at 4:30, caught my flight to DC and got a drive home from a friend. I didn't get home from work until 11:30 on Friday night and let me assure you, by the time I crawled into my bed I felt a little bit like I wasn't even human anymore. I had to work on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and my mantra for the weekend was "just make it to Sunday at 2" and honestly, muttering that to myself might have been one of the only things that got me through the rest of the weekend.

The best part of coming home was seeing my sweet pup - he was wagging his little tail in the backseat of my friend's car when I strolled out of the airport and gave me kisses as we rode home. There is nothing quite like the love of a dog.

Sunrise from the skies on Friday!

I spy with my little eye...Mount Vernon!

Hello DC!

Welcomed home to a wintry wonderland!

Y'all - I wasn't really sure what Watson would think of snow when it finally arrived in full force but can I tell you....loving it was not one of the reactions I imagined he'd have. There was quite a bit of snow still blanketing the ground on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning and he just reveled in it. He would bound around in it, listening to the sound it made as it crunched under his paws and don't even get me started on how funny he was to watch bound over tall grass and into little snow piles. I guess I have a little fan on my hands.

Now that the snow has melted, he seems to always be on a hunt for the stuff. I've assured him it will return sooner or later...

A Winter Wonderland!

Meal of champions...

Struggling pretty hard on Friday night at 10:30. Thank goodness Josh got me coffee or I'd have laid down & slept on the very hard floor of Hallmark.

The power plant looking like some kind of henchman's nefarious hideout in the winter night...

A post snow romp session nap - he loves the yellow chair!

My final tale from this week took place on Sunday. A young woman came into the store to purchase a Frank Sinatra ornament for her 5 year old daughter - she told me that her daughter cannot get enough of Ol Blue Eyes and it just cracks her up. Her little girl literally opened the ornament catalog, found the picture of the Sinatra ornament, circled it and was done looking. I asked her why she was so enamored with Frank Sinatra and she smiled and said "oh - a Sinatra song was playing when she was born." I told her I understood that well; shortly after I was born, my Dad placed a small red Snoopy in my bassinet at the hospital and I've been a fan ever since. I brought home my new Christmas favorite on Sunday - my amazing Peanuts nativity set and I do love it. Sometimes love of a thing is ingrained at birth - for me it's Peanuts, for that little five year old it's Frank Sinatra.

And that's what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown!

My favorite little gift, all year long.

So, there was my Thanksgiving week...in something of a nutshell. I both looked forward to and dreaded this week for a while; I knew it would be hectic, tiring and maybe even stressful but after it is all said and done, even though it was all those things (moreso I'm sure because a sore and battered body never helps those things much) it was also a good week. I'm so glad I was lucky enough to be able to see my friends and family and spend even just a little bit of time with them all.

Hopefully your Thanksgiving week wasn't quite as wild as mine - but even if it was, I'm sure; like me, you too are thankful for the time spent and the people you spent it with.