THE PAST SEVEN DAYS:

One plane flight,

Bunches of friends,

One haircut,

One sweet ride,

A graduation,

A couple happy hours,

Some river floating,

A few tall boys,

One LOST finale,

Hours of truck-packing,

Two hotels, and

Twenty-four hours of Penske driving

Hold on tight while I speed re-cap it for you (you may want to start with Day 1...):

DAY 7: HOME

"Pennsylvania Welcomes You" never felt so good.

DAY 6: FORREST CITY TO WYTHEVILLE

Driving, driving, and more driving.

I made it 10 hours to Wytheville, Virginia where I decided it was time to stop. Wytheville didn't look too desolate and had a bunch of hotels and restaurants. Surely I'd be able to find a vacant room in one of the 8 hotels I had to choose from...

Wrong.

Apparently there's a huge biker rally in Virginia this weekend and Wytheville is the half-way stop that they all migrate to. Every hotel was booked except one where I somehow managed to grab the second to last room they had left. Thanks goodness.

But Wytheville? Really? What are the chances, seriously.

DAY 5: DALLAS AND BEYOND

Driving day 1.

First stop: Dallas to visit Lauren and Lauren (two Lauren's for the price of one? Yes please.)

My goal was to make it to Memphis for the night, but my awake-at-5am-eyes had other plans when they started to close on me just outside of Memphis. So I ended up staying the night for some much needed sleep in Forrest City, Arkansas. 

Never heard of it? Yep, me either.

DAY 4: TRUCK PACKING

I think most of you know, especially if you read this post, that I have a storage unit of stuff in the good old ATX. I've had it for 25 months now. That is a stinkin' long time. And I've put off moving it to PA because I didn't want to come to grips with the fact that Philly might actually be long term; that God might want me right here.

Well, I gave in. And this was the perfect time to for-go my return flight back to Philly and pack up a Penske truck to haul my stuff across the country.

With the help of Allison and the muscles that I've been working so hard on :) the 16-ft. Penske was filled to the brim.

I didn't even open any boxes and it already felt like Christmas seeing all my things and remembering everything I have forgotten about. I can't wait to unpack it all in my own place again. SO EXCITED.

Ironically, packing day was topped off by dinner with this one:

My sweet friend, Hayley, from the DR (the whole reason my stuff went into storage in the first place!)

DAY 3: RIVER FLOATING

Floating the river is a must when visiting Austin. So we made our drinks, grabbed our tall boys, lathered up the sunscreen, and baked in the sun from the comfort of our tubes while inching down the barely-moving river. There's nothing like it.

Unfortunately I thought it would be a good idea to store my camera in the cooler. It was not a good idea. My camera froze and all my pictures turned out like this:

Except this one cute one I managed to get before we took off: 

The Ericksons with Rushmore (er, I mean Sue) in his life jacket...tee hee

Then it was the LOST season finale with James and friends at James' house...SO GOOD. I don't care what anyone says, I loved the last episode; totally not disappointed.

DAY 2: GRADUATION

Slept in, went for a run (well, walk because I'm pretty sure my northeast-weather-adjusted-body would overheat if I tried to run in the heat that is austin now), NeWorlDeli for lunch with Liz and Shannon, then off to graduation!

Here we are in our 5th row seats; what great friends we are.

Me and the cute graduate

The group

Then it was Fleming's for dinner (where I had the BEST salmon I've ever had in my life) thank to Allison's family and out to celebrate the grad!

Day 1: HAIRCUT

Well actually coffee with my wonderful-est friend, James, and theeeeeeen haircut.

Now you see it:

Now you don't:

(this picture makes it look really good...)

I don't love it. I don't even like it yet. But I will (I hope?). And if not, it'll grow back, right? :/

The day ended with happy hour with some crazy people at a bar with free skee ball...HEAVEN.

DEAR BUDGET, REALLY?

I'm here!

Just for the long weekend. Wanna play while I'm in town? You can find me (well, you really can't miss me) cruising around in this beauty:

Really Budget Rental? Out of the entire parking lot of nice black, red, dark blue and white cars, you give me the one and only bright yellow sports car? 

Thanks?

WEEKEND WITH THE NEPH

A weekend with the sister, brother-in-law, and nephew was much needed. So taking advantage of my emptier than normal schedule these days I jumped on the opportunity of a long weekend in Northern Virginia.


On Friday, Kelly, Ryan and I got out to run some errands which involved the grocery store, the library and blockbuster to feed my and Kelly's Twilight addiction :) Then friday night (after the little man went to sleep of course) was pizza, wine and Twilight movie night. Perfection.

Ryan's first taste of rice cereal with Mom

Jealous Jackson

Saturday started out with Ryan/Aunt Kara playtime with photo shoot (duh):

All smiles, all the time; now if we could just do something about that Capitals bib...

I just love him.

Then Kelly, Ryan and I headed out to Reston Town Center to walk around and do some shopping; lucky for us there was also a huge art festival going on and the weather was PERFECT. Then we topped it al off with some homemade fish tacos, wine and New Moon.

Sunday it was back to the homeland. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend too!

BLANK DAY

1. The very best thing about the summer is everything; the warm sun, the long days, laying outside with a good book, floating the river...the list goes on.

2. My first crush ever was in 4th grade...I think his name was Matt. He was a cuuuuuutie!

3. This may sound really silly but I can't sleep with the closet door open or anything covering my eyes; I think I'm still subconsciously afraid of monsters in my closet and if anything were to attack me in my sleep, I want to be able to see it without feeling blind.

4. I squeeze my toothpaste from the top; it doesn't make sense, but it works.

5. My absolute favorite "comfort food" is french fries. Hands down .

6. A random fact about me is that I loved spelling bees when I was in elementary school; I don't remember ever winning any, but they were my favorite .

7. The one piece of technology that truly makes my life better and I couldn't live without is probably the cell phone; that sounds ridiculous, but since I've been watching Mad Men (which is based in the 60's when they didn't have cell phones) I think about how scary it'd be as a single woman with all the car trouble I've been having if when my car broke down at midnight on the side of the highway in the middle of nowhere I didn't have a cell phone to call my dad, I would've been 10x more scared than I was. Granted I don't need all the extras cell phones can do these days, but it is comforting to have around .

Now play along and go link up with everyone else at the little things we do.

Happy Friday, friends!

p.s. I'm spending the weekend in va with the nephew (and sister and brother-in-law) so get excited for some pretty cute pictures on monday!

DEAR DIARY

I've adopted this idea from a few bogs I follow; I think it's cute and fun. I call it, 'Dear Diary...'

Dear Mica,

Please stop unraveling every roll of toilet paper in the house. It's not funny anymore. Maybe you could do something constructive, like my laundry.

 Dear Body,

Summer is almost here...it's almost bathing suit time...please transform from your current winter-blob self to a sizzling summer-time rendition of yourself. If you could do that by the end of the month, that'd be great.




Dear lady-in-line-behind-me-at-walmart-return-counter,
I'm sorry that your in-laws knew you were having a baby girl but bought you blue airplane bed sheets anyways.




Dear iPad,
I'm sorry I compared you to Super Mario Brothers. It will never happen again. Now will you stop acting up and connect to the internet again?




Dear Car,
What's wrong with you? You're becoming so high maintenance; I wish you could talk and tell me why you make some of the sounds you make.




Dear Running Shoes,
It's not you, it's me.
But I'm coming back, don't worry.

IPAD

This iPad makes me think of Super Mario Brothers'...

I love it, but I can't help but get a smirk on my face from holding back the laughter every time I use it. It looks like an iPod Touch stuck in Big World (remember Level 4 of Super Mario Brothers 3?)

Teehee.

SURPRISE PICTURE

Just browsing my favorite blogs this afternoon when I came across this cute little thing:

My handsome nephew and I 

{via: The Emericks}

I just love him. Can't wait to see him this weekend; three days and counting...

A DAY FOR THE MOM

Happy Mother's Day, Mom

For all the homemade school lunches, games of Sorry, skipping into the grocery store together, and loving me even when I gave you toothpaste for your birthday.

Love Always, Scooch

MICA MEETS BUZZER

Before:

During:

Only one minor battle wound

And After:

Ta Dah!

(All that and it doesn't even look like she got a haircut!)

FILLING THE BLANKS

1.  My favorite book growing up was     Beverly Cleary's 'Ramona Quimby...' books. And pretty much any book with big print becuase I could get through a page faster and feel like a speedy reader.   .

2.  The funniest book I've ever read was     ... ya know what? I don't know. I guess I should start reading more comedies! 

3.  The one book that has truly changed my life is      (besides the bible), "When God Writes Your Love Story." It doesn't sound like a 'change-your-life' kind of book, but timing was key    .

4.  If you're looking for a real "tear jerker" you should probably read     "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom    .

5.  If I could meet any author living or dead I would want to meet    Dr. Seuss. I'd love to meet him and see what goes on in the head of a person that comes up with the ridiculous words in the book 'Fox in Sox' that I stumbled through babysitting the other night   .

6.  The next book on my "to read" list is      "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin   .

7.  If I was snowed into  remote cabin in the woods and could only choose three books to bring with me I'd bring      books 1, 3 and 4 of The Twilight Series     .

Link up with Lauren here.

HAPPY FRIDAY!!

BUG GLASSES

The Mom gets a good laugh these days at a lot of the things I buy and how much they resemble things that she bought when she was my age back in the 70's. Everything from the color of dishes to the style of clothes has recycled back into style. 

Now I should preface this by saying, the Mom has been known to hold onto some things for a really long time, which I always give her a hard time for, but it's actually really neat now to be able to compare her original and truly vintage fashions to today's styles. I've already adopted one of the first blazers she bought out of college, a few cute handbags, and a handful of necklaces.

But today the Dad and I got to experience her most prized 'vintage' piece (which I don't think she'll ever surrender to me!):

The Bug Glasses!

(Or so my brothers and sister and I nicknamed them when we were kids...Little did I know I'd be shopping for these in my lifetime!)

I think she bought these when my sister was born in the 70's and has held onto them ever since. Now she loves pulling them out and reminding us all how fashionable and ahead of her time she was/is :)