Currently, April

• Wearing  this shirt and leggings around G&P's house. Note: a messy bun may or may not be part of the look ;]
• About to start reading  my third Rainbow Rowell book. If you've never read her stuff, start here. Such a simple read but so addicting. I'm a huge fan of how she writes and so far I've finished two of her books in a couple days each.
• Watching  and re-watching  Maroon 5's new video for "Sugar" & wishing they'd show up at my wedding (date: TBD, lol) 
• Laughing  so hard at this opinion of Coachella, lmao.  
• Amazed  at how fast AND slow the last 7 months have been. A piece of my heart will always be with this Metro academy class. 
• So excited  baseball is back. #GoBraves!
• Wanting to create  a mini book of lists similar to my blogging friend Monika. I love knowing I'm not the only list-lover in the world. Page one may just be a list of all my lists :]
• Playing  everyone I know in Trivia Crack (you play too? @jennbartley
• Planning  to try dinner at The Southern Gentleman while I'm here. With a name like that, I'm sold!
• Still using  the best after-shower hair product I've ever found. Smells amazing and works magic if you blow-dry. I'm hooked.
• Starting to brainstorm  Mother's Day ideas with my sister. This card and a waffle bar for brunch sounds like my kind of party!
• Missing  Pepper. Because, well duh :]

Part 2: a little G&P update

Before I get into part 2 of my trip update... today may have been the prettiest day, ever. Staying on track, of course, with the most unpredictable weather I've seen in a long time! In a world full of all the best filters, this didn't need a single one :]

 

It's been an event-filled past few days. I've always said I need to write a book. Not necessarily to be published and for the public to see, but for sure to have some of the funny and memorable stories of my life written down in one place to look back and laugh at. You know, when my memory may not be so clear on that horrible first date with whats-his-name or the time my sister and alcohol convinced me I'd look great with a pierced lip (Sorry Mom!). Finding a frog next to my bed the other night would most definitely make the book.

Before you judge, I get it. Everyone from my mom to the neighbor next door has reminded me that frogs are harmless. I get it. But it doesn't mean you'd sign up to share a bedroom with one overnight! And I'm from the desert. Regardless of any desert myth, I've never had a scorpion or tarantula in (or probably even around) my house. Thanks to land development and pest control, unless you're living in a tent near the mountains, I don't think many people ever see one themselves. But in Georgia, I swear there has to be a new breed of insect and any animal you can think of, all living directly in the woods in your backyard. That scares me so much!

I went into my room to head to bed around 2am (fact: Pops doesn't share the remote, so I have to catch up on my shows after he's gone to bed. We're all addicted to the Duggars, Royals and Married At First Sight, right? Right! :]) I saw a spot on the wall and thought "that's a huge cockroach", but getting closer I realized it was really a frog. A little one, just a tree frog, about 3 inches big while sitting and more like 6 inches stretching out. It really sucked to be the only person in the house that could handle that problem. Right then and there, I wondered how to tell my grandparents I was heading back home, haha! I seriously considered waking Pops up, but he can't move fast enough to catch a frog. Granny was actually my first thought, but nothing scares her and at this point it was literally climbing around the crown molding on the ceiling, so I just knew she'd say to leave it be - and that wasn't an option. It took 40 minutes, a phone call to a friend in Vegas to hear me use every curse word I could think of, 3 trash cans, and a whole lot of courage to catch him. Or her. I don't like things that move or jump faster than I can think. I really hope there's only one frog story in my to-be book. I haven't gone to sleep since without doing a full scan of the entire room and walls...will life ever be the same?!

 

Yesterday was a blog post writing itself. I woke up to Granny at my bedroom door saying "Jennifer, he's really gonna do it this time!" I don't even know what went through my head. Pops has and will always do absolutely anything he wants (fact: it took so much convincing to have him pay his taxes this year lol, "the IRS can just come and ask me for them if they really want it!" was his mindset). I like to think of it this way: when you have twenty years on the door greeter at Walmart, you kinda walk around life doing what you want. He's not my 89 year old badass for nothing! I follow her outside to find him behind the wheel of my new car. Mr. One Eye doesn't drive anymore, you're welcome Atlanta. "I'm just seeing what it feels like" he said. He asked to drive down the street...and I caved. I'm pretty sure that's illegal on every level, but it was worth letting him feel independent and be in control (with my hand on the E-brake!). Granny wasn't happy, but she still got in the backseat for a quick ride.

 

Ironically, he did really well. He's a huge fan of having cameras that show what's behind and next to you on the screen. He can't believe he didn't think of that himself and wants to know if he can play a movie on there as well :] I can't wait for him to pull the "one eye" card with me next. I'll have to remind him of his little rendezvous driving the car....so remind me again why you ate pie for breakfast and are making a milkshake for lunch? You can't see what?? (fact: that happened today.)

Can we love these two any more or what?!

A little G&P update...

I'm back in the South.

Don't act so surprised :] It was planned to come towards the end of April, but life doesn't always (read: ever) work as planned. So I'm here now, just in time for Spring to be in full effect and witness the most bipolar weather going on in the States. It's no exaggeration when I say my suitcase has a little of everything in it - you'd think I was leaving for a year...but nope, just a couple weeks in Atlanta, where we've experienced about all of the seasons on an every-other-day basis! It's currently raining, which was supposed to happen all of last week. But instead, last week we had 80 degree weather for a few days followed by a couple nights of weirdly cold temps, and absolutely no rain besides one random downpour on my way home Friday morning (where I learned windshield wipers are nothing but a joke on the GA-400 when you can't even see the car next to you). Coming from Vegas, I can so appreciate a nice rain (aren't they supposed to happen something like in The Notebook?!), so no real complaints over here on the current situation. Tomorrow may be a different story :]

I don't know where to begin with Granny and Pops. Honestly, the only real routine we have each day is Judge Judy at 4pm. Everything before and after that is all over the place. We usually have an idea of what we they need or want to do. But timeframes don't exist in retirement, and it's so much fun that way :D

Easter might just be Granny's favorite holiday. I woke up extra early with her that Sunday morning to share my makeup and let her browse my closet to get ready for church. I love how she asks me about the kind of makeup I use, where I got my shoes, or if she can wear one of my jackets. Proves that being a girl is fun all the way through ...80 something? I actually don't know how old she is. I'm pretty sure I ask every once in awhile, but she does an amazing job at avoiding the answer or distracting us long enough to forget why it even matters. Haha, I guess a lady never tells!

I convinced Pops to dye eggs with my cousin, Granny and I. He says he's never done it before - but I think there's no way you raise 5 kids and get a pass on dying Easter eggs. I mean, there's no way, right?! He wasn't a fan. He dipped his egg in the green dye, dried it off on his paper towel, poured a glass of wine, asked if they were raw or cooked, and started cracking his open before I'd even finished my first multi-colored masterpiece :] His idea rubbed off on the rest of us though. My cousin started eating his, I stopped caring about the cute picture of all of our eggs and started eating mine, and Granny held onto her pretty blue one for about 15 minutes before we convinced her to let us have hers as well. He doesn't know it yet, but we're so doing it again next year. If I can get him to show up to the table I'll even let him use wine to dye his egg like he was asking to do this year lmao. #thesunneversetsonabadass

We've had doctor's appointments, trips to Home Depot, lots of icecream and we're currently planting and placing flowers all over the place. I'll be back tomorrow to catch everyone up to date to now about my visit. I left out the most recent things, like finding a frog in bedroom at 2 am (currently the scariest thing in my life!) and waking up today to Granny knocking on my door saying "Jennifer, he's really gonna do it this time!" ... lol, there is never a dull minute over here :]

See y'all <3