It's nice to be home...

after traveling more this Summer than ever before!! Russ and I kicked off our Summer with a trip to Lake Martin to celebrate the engagement of my precious friend Jessica Embry. Russ and I along with all of our closest friends packed up and headed to the lake for what would be one of the best surprises ever! Jessica thought she was simply going to dinner for a friend's birthday at the lake but little did she know there was much more fun in store for her. After weeks of careful planning and lots of secret keeping the night had arrived where Jessica's boyfriend (Josh) would propose and after dinner they would go to the lake to visit Josh's parents and tell them the news of their engagement...SIKE they were really coming to the lake to see all of us!! When Jessica opened the front door of the house she was in total shock! I have to say it was one of the best surprises I think we have ever pulled off.

The following Tuesday Alice and I along with way too much cargo for one person and a dog hit the road for Houston, TX to stay with my parents for a few weeks. I am so blessed that I have had a job with the summers off so that I can have the opportunity to visit my parents for an extended period of time. It was so nice staying with my parents again :) Houston is a place I think you either love or hate and it would be an understatement to say that I love it! Even though I grew up in a small (or should I say very, very tiny) town I absolutely love a big city!!

Mom and Dad purchased a new house about a year ago in Houston; so the main thing that I did during my visit was help mom make their new house a "home". I don't think I have ever been in Pottery Barn and furniture stores as many times in my life as I was in the few weeks I was in Texas. Mom and I would buy, bring home, change our minds and exchange many, many times until we felt just right about the way that something looked :) I have to say that I am pretty meticulous when it comes to decorating...if something doesn't "sit right" with me I am not one to settle (hence the reason that I have just about as many return receipts as I do sale). Towards the end of our little project we were both burned out on decorating. One of the last things that we purchased was a beautiful and HUGE rug from Pottery Barn. HUGE being in all caps because it was one of those things that once you get it where you want it you don't want to have to ever, ever move it again! Well the time came around for us to...yep you guessed it...exchange again; only this time it would not be because we didn't like it but rather because the rug had a hole in it!!! Yes a HOLE...I had just taken all of the plastic off and began to unroll the rug when I noticed what appeared to be a hole and I said "you have got to be kidding me...are you for real?" and yes it was very real. So after my dad tried to break his back by loading the rug into his truck by himself we were off to Pottery Barn yet again. About an hour and a half later we were back at home enjoying the new addition to the house :)

On a completely different note...Dad got Mom and I tickets to see Cirque du Soleil Alegria. We enjoyed the show but it was interesting to say the least. It literally is a circus that has been made into a musical performance. To say some of the acts were amazing would be an understatement...the characters truely have incredible talent!!! If you were to watch it on TV you would think the show had been edited because some of the things these people can do seem humanly impossible.

http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/alegria/show/about.aspx

Russ also got to come and visit! He flew out the week before the fouth of July and stayed for about a week. After being a part for so long we decided to have a date night :) We went to La Madeleine, which is an adorable Country French Cafe. When you enter the cafe you are overwhelmed with the sight of handmade bakery items (which make you not want to eat dinner but have one of each pastry, tart, danish etc. instead) and the delicious smells of homemade bread and pastas!

After dinner we went across the street to see the movie "Grown Ups" which was surprisingly really funny :) If you haven't already seen it you should rent it when it comes out on DVD.

The next day was the fourth of July and the neighborhood that my parents live in had a wonderful fireworks show that we watched. The weather actually turned out to be fairly nice beating the odd that the forecast had of thunderstorms.

Well after a few fantastic weeks my visit was coming to an end. I took Russ back to the airport on Tuesday morning and then I loaded up myself and headed back for Alabama on Thursday. Although I hated to leave it was nice to be back home :)

I know this was the longest post ever so I will stop here...but our traveling still continues as we head to the beach with The Walters clan...