Thursday, September 23, 2010

Summer Does Not Want To Give Up

Well, we FINALLY made it to fall.  The weather here still feels like summer, with daily highs still in the 90's.  The days are definitely getting shorter, though.  It is dark when I get up in the mornings.  I hate trying to get woke up when it seems like it is not even morning yet!  And then, it is also getting darker earlier.  I'm really not the outdoorsy type, so the evening don't bother me as much. 

I have been looking up easy fall centerpieces online.  I will be attending a school office personnel meeting in November, and another co-worker and I are decorating a table...which will also be a door prize.  There are some very clever centerpieces out there.  I have enjoyed looking at all the fall decor and crafts that everyone in blogland seems to be doing.  I have been itching to get out my fall decorations, but I was afraid that people would think I was crazy since Summer is not ready to give up!  But now, since it is "officially" fall, I dug around in my closet & pulled out the box of fall decor.  I have some new items since I scored some really good clearance deals at the end of the season last year.  I love opening up my decorations & having this new stuff that I don't have to now go out and buy at full price.  It's a little like Christmas.  I really shouldn't have said that, because THAT holiday will be here before we know it! 

I wonder if summer will have given up by then!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Do You Ever Wonder?

Do you ever wonder what it would be like to have a totally different life?  A life in another place, another part of the country?  I do.  I wonder what it would be like to be an single executive in New York City.  To walk from my NY apartment to an office in a high-rise building.  And on my walk to be surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the city.  People in a hurry to get to where they're going.  The roar and hum of the traffic all around me. 



Go to my office and do whatever fabulous job that I would do.  Get off at 5.  Walk home, but on my way home, stop by a shop and pick up dinner for the evening.  Hang out in my apartment, maybe watching a little t.v. while having my dinner.  All alone.  To get up the next day and do it all over again.  To have the world by the tail with endless possibilities.  Maybe go to a Broadway show on the weekend because it's right across town.  So many choices.  So much excitement.

What if our lives were different?  We wouldn't know it because we started it out that way.  But in hindsight, don't you ever wonder? 

Don't get me wrong.  I love my life.  Some things are similar to the other life that I wonder about.  I go to work, come home everyday, have dinner.  I come home to a house with laundry, dishes, sweeping, and mopping that needs to be done.

 (I'm sure all this would be done for me in my other life!)  But, I also come home to a husband and two sons that love me.  On the weekends I look forward to having my other son with his wife & my granddaughter to come visit me.  I look forward to hometown football games where I know a majority of the people there, because we live in a close-knit town where our kids have grown up playing ball together.


 I look forward to going out to eat with close friends, occasionally.  I wouldn't trade my life now for anything else.  But, what if things had started out differently? 

But I also wonder....does that NYC executive ever wonder how her life could be different?  Calmer, slower, filled with a family that she loves and that loves her in return? 

I wonder...

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Bridge Street: The Rodeo Drive of Huntsville

I had a nice Labor Day yesterday.  We had spent most of the weekend at home because my husband was on call.  But, on Monday he was free!  I had heard great things about Bridge Street in Huntsville, so what a better day to go check it out.  Just he and I set out for Huntsville.  We hadn't been anywhere together alone in awhile.  It was a nice getaway.  When we got there we saw this.


That is a very nice Barnes & Noble you see.  The place looked promising.  So we parked and walked down outside the shops.  We saw these kids playing in the sprinklers while their parents watched.


They were laughing and having a good time.  We walked into a few shops, but it wasn't long before I realized that we were way out of our league on this Bridge Street thing.  While the kitchen store was more my speed, the rest of the shops were for people that have money to spend. Let me rephrase that...LOTS of money to spend.  I likened it to the Rodeo Drive of Huntsville.  In the Lucky Brand store, a pair of jeans was $129!!  WHO pays THAT?!!  I found a pair of Lucky jeans for my son one time at Factory Connection for about $40, if I remember correctly.  I just don't understand how someone could pay such a high price for something that you could get somewhere else for much less.  I guess it's the bargain shopper in me.  Or, some people have more money than they know what to do with.  I doubt I'll ever know that feeling.  But anyway, I got off on a tangent, there.  Sorry.  Now, back to the day.  Here are a few pictures I took of why I think that it's called Bridge Street. 




I did enjoy the atmosphere.  There was a band setting up to play.  It made me wish that we had waited just a while so that we could enjoy them.  There was such lovely scenery.


And one last shop that we went in was a fine wine and cigar shop.

Which put me in the mood for this...
We traveled over to Lone Star steak house and had lunch.  The drink above cost as much as my entree.  But, it was worth it.  See, I have better things to spend my money on than a $129 pair of jeans!  A girl has to have her priorites right, after all.  ;)

Sunday, September 5, 2010

A Hint of Fall in the Air


It's been a lazy day.  I have hardly done anything.  I did manage to straighten the back deck, plug up the mini-fridge back there, and hook up the stereo.  Later I found Jordan and Chase sitting out there listening to music.  I decided to go out and join them awhile.  You could feel Fall in the air.  It was nice.  Chase got some sticks and wood and built a fire.  I had forgotten how much I love Autumn.  Although it is still technically Summer, there are hints of Fall all around us.  I love when the leaves begin changing colors.  I love Fall decorations, scarecrows, wreaths, hay bales, football, and Halloween.  Millie came down yesterday, along with her mom and dad, of course, and I thought about how she will get to go trick-or-treating this year.  She will probably have no idea what is going on, but I can't wait to see what little costume she wears.  She is just the cutest little thing!  She is almost 10 months old now.  Wow.  Time flies.