practically perfect

...in every way. Seriously!



In stark contrast to last weekend, this weekend has been fab! You better not read on unless you're prepared to be jealous. My Saturday might kick your Saturday's tail. Just so you know.



Our weekend started with a happy bang when Matt's younger brother, Stephen, proposed to his girlfriend (and she said yes). This meant our whole family + her family needed to gather to dine at one of my favorite restaurants, Cali 'n Tito's. Never mind that it's porch seating only and it was a torrential downpour with truly scary lightning-- nothing could stop the good times from rolling on. Afterwards we went over to one of her relative's houses for dessert and coffee and it was an altogether great evening. Yay for adding another (really fun!) girl to the family!!



Today started off with a few yardsales (you know I'm happiest when yardsaling...) and we made a really fun purchase: an old (I would say 'antique' but I really have no idea...it's just old) beat-up china cabinet! I guess technically it's a buffet with a china hutch, but that doesn't really matter. It's in pretty awful shape, but as best our inexperienced eyes can tell, it seems like most of the mess is cosmetic (needs to be stripped/refinished, needs new hinges and hardware, new drawer rail things, the glass needs to be re-attached to the doors, etc) and therefore something led Matt and I to believe this was a project we were capable of tackling. Although we don't have any actual experience refinishing furniture, we feel like this task is within our zone of proximal development and we're excited to take it on! Not to mention, we got the cabinet for only $30...so if it ends up that we can't make it useable...well, we haven't lost much. (Note: I linked to the definition of ZPD just in case you were interested in learning all about one of my favorite educational concepts.)

Anyway, here it is in all its "before" glory. Hopefully one day soon I'll have some lovely "after" photographs...and a pretty piece of furniture for my dining room!

After sealing the china cabinet deal, we headed over to Matt's parents' house, where Matt and Jonathon (Mollyanne's husband) had planned a surprise (to us) swimming get-together!! Yay for a pool on a hot summer day, and SUPER yay for husbands planning a fun Saturday! We had lots of fun, especially since it was baby Hudson's first time in a (non-kiddie) pool. He was a little unsure of things at first, but he warmed up to the idea pretty quickly!

Apparently the idea that those cupholders in floats are designed to hold drinks is something humans are born knowing. No one even told Hudson those were drinkholders-- he just innately sensed he should drink all the water out of them. Brilliant!


In addition to planning lunch (pizza, yay!) the boys also came out with a surprise happy half-birthday ice cream cake...complete with a candle and a rousing rendition of "Happy Half-Birthday to Yall"! Both Mollyanne and I have December birthdays, a fact that neither of us is thrilled with, so the boys capitalized on that in order to have an excuse to get ice cream cake. And it was good. SUPER good.

So we had a long and fun afternoon enjoying the caliente weather...which is MUCH more bearable if you're submerged in a pool!

We had to stop by the mall on our way home so that Matt could be measured for his tux for his sister's wedding (I know, lots of upcoming weddings in that house!) and that was pretty much the only negative in our day-- WHY does a one-day tux rental cost so freakin much?!?! Unbelieveable. But anyway, then I got a free sample of a frozen coffee drink and another free sample of a cinnamon-sugar soft pretzel, so I figure my mall trip about broke even. Ha.

Since we came home, Matt's been watching the recorded USA-Ghana game. I, of course, couldn't care less about soccer...not to mention I checked Facebook the minute I got home so I found out how the game ended. Matt didn't want to know, so instead he's sitting through 90 minutes of soccer that will end in disappointment. [Note: annnnd he just comes in to tell me that it's going into overtime which he didn't record. So I STILL ended up being the one to tell him how it ended!!] Poor thing. I cooked us a perfect summer dinner (okay, Matt did the grilling, but still): grilled steak, roasted zucchini, and Caprese salad with tomatoes and basil from our garden!

And right before we ate, right when I was thinking that the day just couldn't get any better...it did. I saw on Facebook (from a reliable source-- a lady I used to babysit for whose husband is a major commercial developer in Athens) that TRADER JOE'S has signed at lease to open a store in Athens in late 2010!!! (At the Markets at Epps Bridge for you Athenians dying to know) Um, hello, Trader Joe's??! Could life BE any greater?

So that's my great day. Tell me about yours! Or tell me your favorite thing I should stock up on at Trader Joe's once it opens! EEEEEEKKK I can't wait!