Prolly a long post

I'll try to make this as "nutshell-like" as possible, but there was a lot that went on this past week.



So...my mom and I had it planned to where she, my sister, and brother would come down for a visit. Well, the week before it was supposed to go down, she called and said it wouldn't work due to owing money for taxes and that it would have to be pushed back to the summertime. I was understandably dissapointed, but since they weren't coming down I decided that our cleaning on the room could wait a little bit longer.



As it worked out, mom called the Thursday before they had been planning the trip and said that she decided to come on down anyway. :-) *squeal* I was so excited that the reality of all the cleaning that needed to be done didn't hit for a while. Then I realized that what D and I had had a week to do, now had to be crammed into three days of intensive work. But we got it done and D was a huge help. I was scheduled to work Friday and Saturday night so he continued cleaning Friday night on his own and I ended up calling in on Saturday because there was still so much to do.



Anyway, after about an 18 hour drive (minus a nap and pit stops) they arrived. D and I met them at the motel and hung out for a bit, but it was pretty late.



Everyone got together Sunday afternoon for Easter dinner/lunch. It was nervewracking for both D and I to say the least. I know that probably sounds bad, but you have to understand...family meeting family for the first time after I've already lived here for almost 2 years... with his family already having developed their view of who I was... But it turned out very well. At the end of the evening it was D, his mom, my family, and me talking in the livingroom. I think that is the longest time to date that D and I have spent in the house during a family gathering. Those of you who know me know that I'm not by nature a social person...this visit definitely pushed the limits of that (in a good way).

The next day was shopping day. And again...the longest time I've EVER spent shopping and even though it was fun, it was a little bit more fun than I ever want to have again. 7 hours (not counting drive and meal time) of shopping is about 5.5 hours more than I spend on a good day. It was mom, Amy, Giggy (D's mom), and I. We left their motel at about 10:30am and got back about 7pm. My feet haven't been that sore from just walking and shopping for years. But, like I said, it was cool. I got a Lynyrd Skynyrd T-shirt, some socks for D, and a few other goodies that were just for the fun of it.

Tuesday was mainly just a hang out day. The fam came over while D was out working and we watched I Am Legend. I'd already seen it but had no problem whatsoever watching it again. It's that good. D picked up Buddy's BBQ for lunch on his way home and we all hung out for a little bit longer before they all went back to the motel at around 6:30 or so.

On Wednesday... D, my fam, and I drove up to a place called Cade's Cove in Townsend, TN. We took both my mom's and my car (me with mom and Amy and brother Matt with D). It tickled me to no end hearing their ooohs and ahhhs while we were still on the backroads driving there. I think I took around 54 pictures (which will be posted on my flickr page soon), but I'm sure mom and Amy took close to 100 each.

After Cade's Cove we drove to a place called Lookout Rock. We stayed in the main parking area which had an amazing view in itself, but there was also a .5 mile path that went up to the actual overlook area. With my mom's asthma and such, we didn't end up going on that trail, but D and I are planning on doing that within the next week or so. We ended the night with Pizza Hut in the house with D's parents.

Thursday, Mom picked me up with her other urchins and we went to Big Lots. I got a few things and she bought some stuff for her townhouse. It was another long shopping trip (about 5 hours or so) which ended in a get together of sorts with burgers for dinner. It was their last night in town so everyone said their goodbyes. D and I were meeting them for breakfast in the morning, but it was still kind of a sad time.

We met up at Cracker Barrel around 9:45, ate and shopped a little bit in their store, and said our goodbyes around noon. Like I said above, they got home safely around 4am. :-)

My mom's wantin' to come down in the fall for the leaf changes and D and I are talking about visiting up there for Christmas, but it's still all up in the air for now.

We didn't get to do all the things we wanted, but there are definitely gonna be more visits. I miss 'em too much for there not to be. :-)

Well, guess that's all for now...like I said, I'll be posting a ton of pictures on Flickr. The link is in a fairly recent past post if yer wantin' it.

Ciao

Visit from the fam

I haven't really had a whole lot of time to post before now, but my mom, sister, and brother came down for a visit this past week. In fact, I think they made it home around 4 o'clock this A.M (central time).

I promise I'll post more on it later, but I'm heading out right now and have to work tonight. So...laters.

Yesterday was a good day

Early yesterday evening D and I were sitting out on the deck and he started singing American Pie by Don McLean. We decided to find it on youtube and sang along with it. He ended up finding another video someone had made with information on the meaning behind the song.

I never really understood who he was talking about, but according to the person that made the video (and Wikipedia), McLean was talking primarily about the plane crash in '59 that killed Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper. When I was growing up, I'd thought that Buddy Holly had taken the Big Bopper's place on the plane, but turned out that it was one of Holly's band members (guitarist I think) that lost the coin toss and had to ride the bus. Guess who....... None other than Waylon Jennings.

Anyway, that was just an interesting tidbit of info. I found out.

D and I ended up listening to music again last night for about 4 hours or so. I'd talked to one of his brothers about a guy named Mark Knopfler. I haven't really thought I'd like him because the brother described him as lighter than the stuff I normally listen to. What I didn't realize was that he composed the entire soundtrack to The Princess Bride. In addition, D played me some Dire Straits (of which he's the lead singer/composer) and I really liked it. Unfortunately that means I've gotta kind of eat my words and tell the brother that I do in a way, sort of like Mark Knopfler.

But regardless of that...I do not want my MTV.