Reliving my childhood

I used to go to Gatlinburg pretty much every year for fall break with my family. Often, other families from our church would go at the same time. There are many good memories of those trips. This weekend, I went to Gatlinburg with eight people from my small group. It was a lot of fun reliving some of those things...

We packed a lot into a few days. We went to Fannie Farkle's three times, went on the sky lift, into the mirror maze, to the outlet mall, the aquarium, mini-golf, and the Pancake Pantry. Plus, we still found time for some quality porch-sitting and hot tubbing. We tried for the alpine slides, but they were closed because of rain.

What's with this? We used to eat at the Brass Lantern. But apparently it's just "Brass" now. Where did the lantern go? (I think it might be under that fall foliage.)

In middle school, I spent hours and who knows how much money at Fannie Farkle's. It turns out my friend Jess did, too, so we were super excited to introduce this amazing place to our friends. We played ski ball, and redeemed our tickets for a frisbee and a magic wand, among other things. I can still smell the sauerkraut... And where else can I hit Mark with an inflatable hammer?

Top of the sky lift!

Yummmm... the Donut Friar. Always a favorite.

My friend Ashley from middle school lives near Gatlinburg, so we got to spend some time together on Saturday. It was great to catch up with her... we've only seen each other a few times since she moved away in 9th grade.

Best purchase yet?!?

This week Target has their Wii games buy two get one free. I 'needed' to replace my Guitar Hero, and I also wanted Wii Music. So that left me with a choice. Because I could justify it as being free, I chose High School Musical 3 Dance.

I bought these three games last Sunday, and HSM Dance is the only one I've opened so far. It has provided hours of fun for Meg, Jess, Jordan, Mark and me. 

Some things overheard while playing:

"You know I'm white, right?"

"How do you skip?"

"Why does it think I didn't jump?"

... and of course, "TTTTRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"

Seriously, this game is awesome. It has tons of songs from HSM 1, 2 and 3. There are quizzes like, "What's in your lunchbox?" and "What is your school mascot?" Here's to more hours of fun with good friends and the HSM cast! 

Embarrassment.

I've never been one to hide my embarrassing moments from people, so I'll just go ahead and tell you what I did today. It probably won't sound as funny as it really was, but I'll give it a try anyway.

I was going through the drive-thru at McDonalds for my hamburger, fruit & walnut salad, and Orange Hi-C... It was busy and there were several cars behind me. Not sure what I was thinking, but I drove right past the speaker where you order. My first thought was to just bail and pretend none of this ever happened. But there was a curb there so that wasn't an option. "Crap," I thought to myself. I looked behind me and started to back up a little. There was a man in a pickup truck behind me that was laughing harder than me. I backed up as much as I could, which wasn't much. I was still pretty far from the speaker, but I just yelled my order into it. 

Even when I pulled up to the window, the man in the truck was still cracking up. He's probably blogging somewhere about the stupid girl who forgot to order. Glad I could provide you with some material, pickup truck man.

Weekend of Fun (or stupidity)

I think it would be fair to say that this month has made its way onto my "Top 5 Craziest Months Ever" list. (No, I don't really have a list like that, I'm just saying...) It has been busy, frustrating, challenging, hilarious, exhausting, thought-provoking, fun and terrible... all at the same time. 

In the midst of the mayhem, I had a really fun weekend. I traveled most of last week for work, then ended by flying to Chicago to meet Kelly and Jess for the New Kids on the Block concert. If you knew me in the late 80s/early 90s, you know how big of a fan I was. Ok, and still am. It's funny how songs that you haven't heard in years can instantly come back to you. NKOTB, you were worth the 15 year wait! Here's a shot of my boys:

Jess, Kelly and I had fun times in Chicago!

Some say I'm spontaneous, but I think sometimes spontaneousness equals stupidity. Jess and I had talked awhile ago about going to see Steven Curtis Chapman and Michael W. Smith in Merrillville, but knowing it was the day after we were driving home from Chicago, we had decided to forgo that one. But... on our way home from Chi-town, we saw the billboard... and were unable to resist. So, just a little over 24 hours after driving from Merrillville to Indy, we drove back to Merrillville for this once in a lifetime (ok, maybe not) opportunity. Saturday evening and Sunday on the way there, we were rocking out to some old-school MWS - the Go West Young Man and Change Your World albums, to be exact. On the way there, a crazy wind storm was blowing corn across the interstate. Welcome to Indiana. We were waiting for a cow to hit the windshield.

Needless to say, it was an awesome concert! We heard great songs, new and old... including "Friends." Ahhh, the memories.

Then we had to drive home.

Getting home at 1:30 am isn't the smartest thing to do on a Sunday night. But alas, we did have a good time in the car pretending to be Jennifer Knapp (and drinking our gas station coffee).

Here's a shot of two of the hottest 40-somethings out there: haha.

Sometimes, all you can do is laugh.

It's been a crazy few days!

Comfort & Joy

One of the things that's good about crappy situations is that I tend to learn something about myself. Here's this week's lesson: When something bad happens, I tend to run for the comfortable and familiar. 

Last weekend, that meant tagging along with Jordan for a quick visit to Nashville, Tennessee, where I spent time with my friend Chelsey. I've known Chels for about 13 years. (Wow. That's a long time.) Even though I only see her a time or two each year now, she knows me, and she gets me. She asks the right questions, and speaks the truth when it's not always pretty. We didn't do anything amazingly spectacular - just kind of hung out. It was relaxing and refreshing. Just what I needed.

Ten hours in the car with good company and good music + ten hours with Chelsey + ten hours of sleep + a quick visit to the Pie and Ice Cream Kitchen with mom, dad, and Emma = the perfect weekend.

Good & Evil

Because this is the Internet, I'm not sharing details of what happened to us last weekend. Most of you already know. I will say that I'm pretty sure it's been the second worst experience of my life. It's going to take awhile for things to get back to normal. 

What I do want to share is how thankful I am to have some really amazing friends. Your prayers, emails, dinners, phone calls, gelato, offers to stay at your place, offers to stay at my place, chocolate, amusement park tickets... and the way you force me to use the "good shampoo" have all been very much appreciated.