Christmas In July And MUCH MORE!!!

Saturday Caitlin flew in from Cleveland to spend a week here doing some computer training.  Of course,  I was SUPER EXCITED about this visit!  I hadn't seen her in person since our beach vacation.  Lucky for us, our lazy little town was bustling with things to do on Saturday.

Her plane was supposed to arrive at 10:30.  I say, "supposed to", because it was delayed and she arrived about 30 minutes late.  As I sat in my vehicle, anxiously awaiting her arrival, I checked off all of the things I wanted us to do that day.  A little group of area gift shops had dubbed today, "Christmas in July" and HEY!  I absolutely LOVE Christmas.  That alone got me in the mood for a wonderful Saturday.  It was going to be like Christmas in July for me in more than one way...My daughter was coming home for a week; THAT was a "Christmas in July" gift enough for me!  When her plane finally landed, our first stop was to be the nail shop.  I knew that Caitlin hadn't had the funds to get her nails done up there in Ohio, so we were going to pamper ourselves first...

            I impatiently waited for that plane to land so we could begin our Saturday adventures!

 OK...so we BOTH got these colors!  My idea and Caitlin decided to go along with it.  I'm not sure she's really glad she got that blue now but it sounded like a good idea at the time!


After our manis and pedis, we headed over to Copelands of New Orleans where we enjoyed a nice lunch and then it was off to check out some of those "Christmas in July" sales!  One of the best things about attending this event (other than getting to attend it with my daughter...) was the fact that we know most of the shop owners and LOTS of the shoppers.  Caitlin KNEW she was back in the south when she hit the doors of each shop because almost everyone gasped at seeing her and then with huge smiles on their faces ran around and gave her a HUGE hug.  Now THAT is the south!  Unfortunately, Caitlin has found what we all know to be true:  those people up in the north are just not as friendly as we are down here in the south.  Anyway, we did a fair amount of "window shopping" but did end up purchasing a few items too...

 This fringed scarf is one of the favorite things we BOTH purchased at "Her Closet";  this cream colored one is mine and Caitlin chose a pale turquoise one.


The rain had ceased after a week and it had really heated up so, naturally, we had to stop and grab some frozen yogurt on our way home.  It had been a wonderful day spent shopping with my daughter; I had missed her even more than I thought.  As we retired for the evening, I smiled, knowing that she was sleeping just down the hallway from me once again.

Sunday morning came and Caitlin would be joining Robby and me with our babies in Sunday School.  Before we left, she got her dad to snap a picture of us about to leave...

I bought that cute little maxi dress that Caitlin is wearing at "John Ward Interiors" during the Saturday sales.  Notice I chose to wear a dress with turquoise in it since it would obviously match my newly polished toe nails!


Caitlin was very excited about returning to her home church since, although she had visited three churches in her area, she has not been able to find the one for her yet.  After the service, we grabbed a quick lunch with her Mimi and Papa and then prepared to head out to my mother's house to visit for a couple of hours.  Mam-Maw and Caitlin usually talk about once a week and she was so happy that Caitlin would be coming out to see her.  While there, my sister walked up from her house.  She had just made a trip to her garden and came in with a big ole basket of fresh butter beans that needed to be shelled.  When I saw those butter beans, it immediately took me back to my childhood when we would visit my grandmother's house in the country.  We didn't watch television in the evenings or play video games; we sat on her front porch with a big bowl of either purple hull peas or butter beans and a brown paper bag to throw the empty shells in.  And with this nostalgic thought running around in my head, Caitlin and I joined my sister in the middle of the floor to begin the task of shelling those beans, while catching up...

When we returned home, Justin took Caitlin back to Natchitoches with him so she could begin her computer training bright and early on Monday morning.  Robby and I would be heading that way later in the day and planning to stay until the end of the week with her there. 

This week will fly by, I know that to be true.  However, I intend to cherish each and every moment I have with Caitlin this week.  I already have plans to visit her at least once a month throughout the fall but realize that there may be months that we don't get to see each other  in person.  Those months will be difficult.  But I choose to make the MOST of every moment I DO have to spend with her!  SO...Let's make some more wonderful family memories this week!