easter, sun day and my girls

-Coming home to discover that my Mom left out all of the Easter decorations because I couldn't be there for Easter this year and she wanted me to be included. How thoughtful! I told her that it was also very theologically appropriate that the Easter decorations should be left out. She quipped, "Oh, well of course that's why I did it!" I'm such a nerd.

-Oh the food when I'm at home: grilled steaks with new potatoes dug right out of the garden, grilled salmon with asparagus (see a theme here?), blueberry pancakes and to top it off: a raspberry martini before my Mom and I went to see the Sex & the City movie. Delicious!

-Like my new room decor? Actually this is in a great little beach shop (not sure I'm allowed to take pictures, but living on the edge!) and I just was so inspired by it.

-Seeing a cloud that I swear is giving me a thumb's up. See it?

-Sitting on the beach reading a book and eating fresh cherries and feeling that utter sense of deep relaxation that only comes from the beach.

-Seeing my adorable nieces and having so much fun with them. Gianna is the happiest child I have ever seen, you simply have to glance at her for her face to light up with joy. Natalie has taken to calling me "Weeza" (if you've seen Steel Magnolias, you'll know where this little nickname of my family comes from--though I'm not nearly as grumpy as she is!) except that when she tries to say it, it comes out "Meeena!" We played so much and she would call out to me to come upstairs and play with her saying, "Meeeena, come ON, Meeeeeeeeeena!" It just made my heart melt to hear her calling for me. So precious. We also developed a very advanced dance routine where we kick our legs in the air saying "go, go, go, go!" and laughing hysterically. Whenever I told her I had to go "bye-bye" she just looked at me and said, "No." Ash said that when she came back from the airport, Natalie kept looking around her saying, "Meeeeeennnaa!" because she thought I was hiding.

-Sitting with Ash on her front driveway having a glass of wine and talking in the way only sisters can with the humid Texas evening breeze blowing and lightning illuminating the sky. We saw a lone star shining and I made a wish and then later, we saw a big white crane just walking down her street. Bizarre! It was wonderful to just be able to sit by her and talk (as opposed to skype).

-Clay and I swapping nerdy jokes and laughing a little too hard at them.