It's like erin with a p: August 2011

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

happy birthday, mama jean!

The past few summers, including this one, I have been able to cut my grandma's grass. For some reason when I tell people I mow the grass they just laugh. They think me in all my preppiness can't handle a lawn mower. Well believe it or not, not only do I do it, I actually enjoy doing it. AND I can tell you all the ins and outs of a mower and where the spark plug and all other parts are. I know, weird. Right?

Every Thursday morning I would head over to Norfolk and find my grandma sitting on her screened in porch expecting me.  She would have the mower out, gas already in it, and oil filled to the perfect amount. All I would have to do was start it. After I was done mowing, I would blow the driveway while she got my cranberry juice and BLT ready.  We had a system. A good system.

We would sit on the porch and talk about life. The best times were when she would tell me about growing up. I love hearing my grandparents tell stories of what it was like when they went to school, or when they were in the war, or when they had to work the farm. It fascinates me.

Today is Mama Jean's birthday! Wahoo! We are celebrating with steak and cake tonight at our house. My grandma is one of the most selfless people I know.  Anytime we have a family gathering she is always the one to prepare the meals, clean the meals up, put fresh sheets on the beds, make sure we have clean towels, etc.  One day this summer we got into a discussion about our quiet times. We had never really had a conversation about our faith before. I mean, she knew I loved Jesus and I knew she did, but it had just never come up in conversation before. She showed me where she had her quiet times, what she did when she has them, and what she had been learning lately. She said everyday she reads a chapter of the Bible and writes down what she learns. She said she been doing this for at least the last 50 years and had been through the Bible multiple times.  Then, she told me every morning when she reads it she is always surprised by how the Word never gets boring and how it teaches her something new each and every time. I loved being exposed to this part of my grandma's life. How had we not gone this many years without talking about our faith?! I don't know, but I'm so glad the Lord allowed us to share about it then. My prayer is that I will be at least half the person is my grandma is, following the Lord with her whole heart and serving everyone around her before even thinking about herself. Happy Birthday Mama Jean! I love you!!

Mama Jean!

The whole family!

Cousins with Mama Jean this past Christmas

MJ and Jack, the newest addition to the family, this past June!

My grandma and probably her 2 favorite granddaughters at my cousin's wedding in June!

Always cooking something in the kitchen!

We love you Mama Jean!

xoxo,

erin with a p and a double r

Sunday, August 14, 2011

a last hoorah

This weekend was filled with celebrating the end of summer and going back to school. I use "celebrating" loosely because of course we are sad to leave each other, but we can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for us this sophomore year.

We started Friday night off with dinner in Towne Center at Bravos. We all ordered something different so we could pass our dishes around the table and try everyones. Our waiter was awesome. He wanted us to draw him flow charts on the table to help him understand what I was talking about. I know, sounds weird. So, I drew him some flowers while I was at it to show how much we liked him. We sat around the table laughing and laughing. I haven't laughed that much in awhile. I think everyone around us must've thought we had something to drink we were so loud and crazy! But it was joy. Just pure joy. Anyways, after dinner we went to go see The Help. Such a great movie! Again, everyone had to get a different snack so we could all share. It's the best way to do it. It was our last hoorah before everyone went back and it was a great one. I love you girls and can't wait to visit!!!

Lauren and Kelsey!

mmm Lauren's dish

my "pasta mediterranean"

flowers for the waiter!

LOVE THEM SO MUCH!

Happy Sunday!
xoxo,
erin with a p and a double r

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Vacation 2k11: Lenox, MA and Lake Placid, NY

We woke up the next morning in Lenox feeling refreshed from our great night of sleep. We grabbed some breakfast downstairs and went to "town." When I say "town" I mean the maybe 2 streets of shops and restaurants. I'm going to be honest and say I was not crazy about Lenox. Sorry if I offended you. It is a very artsy fartsy town. You'd walk by benches and see people sketching or writing while wearing their Birkenstocks. Most of the shops were filled with abstract paintings and the streets were lined with rod iron sculptures. It's definitely for some people, but not for me. The one place Mom and I did really well at was Talbots. You can never go wrong at Talbots, especially when they're having a sale. They lady there even told us we had southern accents. Me? Have an accent? I don't think so.

After our quick visit to Lenox, we made our way to Lake Placid. And since Dad, the driving hog, wasn't around anymore I got to take reigns. We made it to Lake Placid and found our way overpriced room that wasn't so nice. But the view was definitley worth the money. We put our stuff down and hopped in the car to go to Saranac Village in Saranac Lake, NY. It's also known as the best place ever. Seriously though.

Saranac Village is Young Life camp that I have spent a lot of time at the past 5 summers. To me, it is a glimpse of what Heaven will look like. The lake is so serene and all the buildings have that perfect Adirondeck feel to them. The summer after junior year in high school I was able to go there for a month to do work crew. It was an awesome month and I was able to grow so much with the Lord. Each morning I would wake up and get to spend time with Him on a huge rock overlooking the glassy lake and the majestic Adirondeck mountains. There's nothing like it. This year it was my sisters turn. She was a server during the month of July and our whole trip was based around picking her and our friend, Hannah, up from there. It was neat getting to hear them talk about the same exact experiences I was able to have. They had met new life-long friends and had grown in their walk with Christ.

My mom had never been to Saranac before. We wanted to show her one of the most fun nights there, so we brought her to 50s night! This is a special night because kids are introduced to what sin is and how it has separated them from God and usually the speaker leaves them with the idea that there's nothing they can do about it. Kids are pretty discouraged after hearing this because a lot of them have never heard it before. So, we make the night fun for them and nonstop to take their minds off of it for awhile. As soon as they leave club they run to the boat dock for the tableau, then they run to put their best 50s attire on, then they have pizza and wings in the "diner," then it's time for the opera (where program guys put on a "play" to resolve a problem and usually and the bad guy turns good and where they take popular songs and change lyrics to fit the situtation they're in hence the name opera), and then it's time for the crazy, sweaty sock hop in the game room, and then it's finally time for ice cream sundaes!! See? It is a nonstop night.

50s Tableau!

Morgan and Hannah

Glow Sticks!

Work Crew Buddies!

The rest of our time at Lake Placid was pure relaxation. One day we layed out by the pool, which was on the lake, for 7 hours just reading and snoozing as we pleased. It was great. The next day was rainy so we went to all the fun shops they had (including a Gap outlet!!). We discovered a sandwich/salad place that we fell in love with! We ate 3 out of the 5 meals we were there for at this place. It is called Simply Gourmet and I highly recommend it!! One night, we went to the 1980 Olympic Ice Rink to watch the Ice Dancing Championship. It was really neat. I will never understand how they do what they do. We ended our Lake Placid trip on Saturday by kayaking around the lake and picking up some more sandwiches for the road! We picked Morgan and Hannah up, drove 11 hours to Winchester to pick up my dad, spent the night there, and headed home on Sunday to a large group of girls waiting to surprise Hannah and Morgan in the kitchen!

Ice Cream!

They had Black Raspberry for their flavor of the day and that's my ultimate favorite!!

This was a yummy Italian place we had dinner at one night. I don't know if I can go back because I will never forget it was the place that an old man threw up right beside us and the color was the same color as the sauce we ate. GROSSSS

Lake Placid seriously had the prettiest flowers all around!

The Sandwich place we were obsessed with. It had 46 sandwiches all named for one of the mountain peaks in the Adirondacks!

Cute Lake Placid!

View from our room!

The End! That was the last of our Vacation 2k11. It's almost the weekend which means only 1 more week until I go back to school! Ahhh, so much to do! Hope you're enjoying these beautiful days of summer :)

xoxo,

erin with a p and a double r

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Vacation 2k11: Newport, RI Part 2

Tuesday morning had a different start to it than any other morning on vacation. I woke up with a text from a friend saying 3 trees had fallen in the front yard from a bad storm we had. I went downstairs to tell my parents the bad news, but they already had bad news of their own to share. My uncle had called my dad to say that my Granddad had been in the ER all night and that he was having emergency surgery that day. My dad's reaction, of course, was to pack all of his things, book a flight to Dulles, and be with his family for my Granddad's surgery. My mom and I hopped in the car to drive him to the Providence airport without even brushing our teeth or combing our hair. I know, disgusting. But he made it there with about 15 min to spare, praise Jesus! We knew and understood that's where he needed to be. My Granddad is doing so well now. Recovering like a champ. The doctors had removed a tumor from his colon about the size of a golf ball and removed 2/3 of his colon and he will start chemotherapy in a couple of weeks. He's going to do great though! I'm praying for you, Granddady, and love you lots! :)

So with Dad gone and Morgan at camp, it became mother/daughter bonding time. After we got back from the airport, Mom and I quickly showered and brushed our teeth (I know you were worried whether we were going to do that or not) and headed straight for some more mansion touring. We toured 4 mansions that afternoon and we were utterly exhausted by the time we finished the 4th. We had lunch at the Elms, then went to the Marble House, then the Breakers, and then Chateau-sur-Mer (not my favorite, but we needed 1 more to see). They were all breath taking! And the stories behind each mansion were so interesting.

Then we drove along Ocean Drive and saw all the massive mansions people actually live in and the country clubs they go to. We were so tired after such a whirlwind of a day that we started our journey to the Berkshires in Lenox, Massachusetts. We might've stopped and bought Auntie Anne's pretzels for dinner, but don't tell Dad that. We arrived to a big king size bed and lots of comfy pillows and we were both completely out in a matter of minutes.