girl's getaway

A few weeks ago, Mary Claire asked me if I'd be able to get out of town for a weekend with her, to go shopping and just relax, etc. Of course I said "YES", we picked a weekend, and then we talked about it nonstop until the day arrived.

Our first stop was Atlantic Station and H&M!


Since I lived in Atlanta for a few months back in college, I was in charge of navigating/driving. I was successfully able to parallel park the mom-mobile:


We headed to Buckhead to check into our hotel, checking out the scenery along the way:


The Ritz-Carlton looked fabulously all decked out in Christmas attire!


Here's our room, on the Club Level. We were special. We had to use our card in the elevator to get to our floor.


Our room was directly across the hall from the Club Floor Lounge, which offered complimentary champagne, wine, coffee drinks, soft drinks, and snacks all day!


Then we headed to Lenox Mall to shop. I have to admit, I was a little intimidated by this mall. They have shops like Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Prada, Gucci, etc., and I saw a pair of thousand dollar leather jeggings at Neiman Marcus. Oh, and I held a Manolo Blahnik and Christian Louboutin shoe IN MY HAND. It was bananas. I splurged on a Marc Jacobs bag that I absolutely LOVE.


We got tired and decided to retire to our room to wear our slippers and robes:





I love being silly with MC!




Then we got all prettified for drinks down in the lobby. You'll never guess who we ran into in the elevator. He was traveling from floor to floor, tucking all the children in.



We ended up just ordering room service for dinner and drinking way too much champagne. I was ready to go to bed and Mary Claire INSISTED that I wash my face before going to bed. I was just too tired, and I assured her that it would be fine. I woke up the next morning and there were dirty cotton balls littering the floor next to my side of the bed. In true Mary Claire fashion, she had waited for me to fall asleep and had then washed my face for me. That's a true friend right there. I'm so glad to have finally found someone as Type-A as me.

Sunset over Atlanta:


On Sunday we spent WAY too much money at Ikea and headed home so Dirk could put together our new bedroom furniture! I'm already looking forward to making this trip a yearly tradition!

in which the Golden Girls Receive a Special Package

Look, Piper! You got a package from Gypsy, Greta, and Hattie in Mississippi!

Mmmmm, that smells good, better check it out.

Sipsey, of course, needed to see what all the fuss was about.

Red Christmasy Dog Treats?!!?!?!?!?!?!

Delicious green Christmas Stars?!?!?!?!

Gigantic Milk Bones, too?!?!??!?!

Thank you for our delicious treats, Neal Girls!

running - a weekly recap

I went back out on Wednesday, after it decided to rain for three whole days. I invited a friend to go with me, and this may have been a mistake. Not because I didn't enjoy his company, but because he's training for a half-marathon and runs/works out every single day. I've never really been a competitive person, but I really wanted to show Jim that I was good at running. So I pushed myself the entire 2.37 miles, and afterwards, I felt like I was about to puke all over the place. It was humbling.

The next day I was not nearly as sore as I thought I'd be, and then, on Friday, Mary Claire and I attempted to run before work. Like, I picked her up at 5:30 a.m. It's REALLY dark at this time of day, by the way. So we get out on the road, and Mary Claire chooses this time to tell me that she's afraid of the dark. Oh, and did I mention that I had both dogs with me? My first time running with my furry friends was tough, I'm not gonna lie. My form was all messed up from only having one arm free, and I was constantly having to pull back on the leash, because it was their first time out running with me, too. We finished that run and both looked at each other and almost burst into tears. It was awful. I didn't have that shiny, happy, feeling I'd had on my previous outings, and no amount of justification could take away that feeling that I'd failed at running. Brooke reassured me that there will be some runs where you hate yourself, you hate running, you hate EVERYTHING, and, believe it or not, that helped, a lot.

Then yesterday happened, we tried a new route, and were prepared to try our original format of walking for a little ways, running for a little ways, repeat, repeat. We walked the first half mile, then ran the second half mile, and my legs felt like lead. It was awful, it was all I could do to pick them up to keep moving, so we walked a little ways more, and I'm not sure what happened after that, but we started running again, at a slower pace, and we hit our stride and ended up running the last mile with no issues, whatsoever! And guess what?! I'm not even sore today! I think that the fifteen minutes of yoga stretches I did before and after the run helped tremendously!

So here's my issue, followed shortly by it's resolution. I'm having trouble with my diet. Since Dirk's been working at Cantina and my nights haven't revolved around what I'm making for dinner, I've kind of just been eating when I feel like it, and if it means I have cheese and crackers or a handful of pistachios for dinner, then that's what I have for dinner. This is horrible, I know. Add to that the fact that I usually just drink coffee for breakfast, the most important meal of the day, and I realized that things are going to have to change if I'm going to be running and be healthy.

So I went to the store yesterday and stocked up on protein-rich foods: eggs, nuts, tofu, edamame, and I got smoothies to sip on while I'm at work. I went to brunch with Granddaddy yesterday and instead of just drinking mimosas for brunch I ordered this:

It's cheese grits, spinach, butternut squash, and grilled shrimp. Mmmmmmmmmmmm. I'm going to force myself to eat three meals a day plus one snack at work. And to drink lots and lots of water. I love food, I just get too lazy to eat it. Ha! So that's my goal this week! Oh, as well as to take my first solo run on Tuesday!

Giving Thanks with the Young South Amyses

I hope you're ready for the most photos I've ever shared in a blog post before. There's just too much to share from the first time all the Youngs have been together since Dirk and I got married. These photos are all really raw, straight out of camera. Who has time for photo editing these days, anyway?

Mama, Daddy, Dirk, the dogs, and I rented a cabin not too far from the Amyses. It had an amazing view:


Daddy came up with four rules for the Golden Girls: no nudging, no barking, no whining, no begging. Basically, no being a dog.


We watched Peter Pan at least twice a day during our visit:


It's a big joke in our family that Mama always asks whoever is traveling from Birmingham to bring her Savages cookies. And so we carry that durn box across the country and she'll eat one bite out of one cookie and then they'll sit there and get stale until someone throws them away. This year I said a big "NO!" to bringing her Savages, but then Will begged me, so I caved. At least someone enjoyed their cookie that traveled across the Southeast:


Luke likes to nurse shoulders:




The guys tossed footballs in the cul de sac while Brooke worked her magic in the kitchen:








Taylor LOVES her Uncle Dirkee:




There was a game on every single day, so there was a lot of football watching going on:




Taylor and I opted to play princesses:


The spread:


On Friday, Mama and I decided to get out in the woods for a little bit, it was therapeutic:


The dogs loved lounging on the cabin deck:


I enjoyed wandering around, taking photos:


On Saturday we hit downtown Asheville, to spend some time stimulating the economy:






Then the guys took the kids and Mama, Brooke, and I got to go to a fancy lunch, just the girls. You should have seen the look on poor Taylor's face when we told her she was going with the boys. "But I'M a girl!"




We did some shopping. Believe it or not, we couldn't convince her to buy these pants (?)


No trip to Asheville would be complete without a visit to Woolworth Walk. The only place other than Ida Grove's Albrechts Pharmacy that I've ever been able to find Phosphates on the drink menu:


I wish I could afford to have a display of these amazing tiles in my home:




I love Asheville for reasons like this:

Will and Devon's flight left from Birmingham, so after a very cramped car ride to Alabama, we were able to freshen up before heading to Granddaddy's and introducing her to the Blackwell side of the family.

Blair & Sarah were in charge of the brownies. This is a hot mess right here:


The first thing Granddaddy said to Devon was, "What's a lovely young lady like yourself doing with my grandson?!"


Granddaddy with his grandsons:

A memorable holiday, for sure :)