things found while packing, nights 1 and 2:

yes, we're spending our evenings drinking beer and packing. i hate packing (thus, the beer) but i love finding things that i either a) lost or b) forgot that i lost. Here are my favorites from last night:

-boating license

-marriage license

-electronic bugs

-pictures of me as an awkward jr. higher

Tonight got even more fun:

- multiple wedding gifts still in boxes

-box of 'justin things' (yes, as if i were a cheesy teenager). it included concert tickets, valentines cards, 1st anniversary cards, a corsage, and some other sentimental little tidbits. i laughed at myself. but it's kind of sweet, right?

-mothers day present intended for 2007

-and this shirt from my trip to maine with my family

ahem, i have an announcement

well, this will be old news to some of you - but in less than three weeks the husband and i will be leaving birmingham for the gateway to the west: st. louis. then we will be staying there. honestly, it's that second part - the part where we stay there - that is a little hard for me to take. don't get me wrong, i'm excited, we have big plans for the lou. i'm sure it will love us (justin has a past with the city, so we've got that going for us) and maybe, maybe, i will one day love it. but not like i love birmingham, not like i love the south with its sweltering heat, one snow per winter, and football obsessions. i can't talk about it right now. instead, i'll just leave you with this: the view from the nosebleeds of busch stadium. readers, meet my soon to be home.

someone help me

i need new music in a major way. something upbeat, a little indie, and that invites me to sing along while sitting or driving alone. if it were a little southern it wouldn't hurt.

give me your suggestions, otherwise i'll continue listening to this little gem on repeat (which, sadly, has been my default). what is wrong with me?

a snapshot of my actual summer

well, we got home this past friday from a senior high trip to south carolina, which left me with several bruises and pictures of me on facebook looking like this*:

i'm not sure which is more painful. in an hour we're hitting the road again, this time with a bus full of jr. high kids. where are we going? it's a mystery! no seriously, that's the premise of the trip. they have no idea where we're going. and, in the off chance that one of those 13 year olds takes a break from facebook to look elsewhere on the world wide web for yours truly, i can't tell you where i'm going. here's a huge hint though: tonight i get to hang out with the every extraordinary kelley. i'm about to wet my pants. here's to hoping that this trip leaves me with better souvenirs than my last one!

*most of you know me in real life, which means the utter awkwardness of this picture will not shock or surprise you at all. why did i put this here, on my blog? no idea. i guess i feel the need to prove to you all that i'm so secure that i can take it. either that, or it's just the sad truth that this is my life and i want to share it with you as honestly as possible.

summer list

well, here i am again - weeks and weeks after my last post. it's almost as if life doesn't sit around and wait for me to blog before going on and on. then, like with an old friend, it gets awkward that we (me and my readers) haven't visited in a while. so when one of us does call it just seems like too big of a time commitment to answer the phone and catch up. but. that's why me and many of my friends have this deal: when i call, i don't HAVE to hear about the last 4 unknown months of your life, just the funny story that happened today will suffice. and it's ok if our first conversation in tens of weeks is only 15 minutes long. so here is my 15 minutes.

it is full force summer, and by orangette's inspiration, i would like to actually write down my summer list.

iced coffee from o'henrys.

days by the pool with chatty teenagers and the catagories game

doodles

peaches

the lake

youth trips

going to sleep to crickets and cicadas

heat lightening

grills

smell of sunscreen

sundresses

my grandmama's house

the beach

sweet tea

getting used to sweating

yes, these are the things that i expect from summer. so far, she's checked a lot off. there are probably more - so i'm giving myself permission to update the list as i see fit.

also - i'm considering making this my header: thoughts?

those eyes! those ears!

This isn't the biggest or most fun thing to happen recently, it's just the cutest.

today i get to babysit this for a few hours:

quick re-cap

back in my college days we would often do a re-cap at the end of a long but fun night of partying it up. it usually involved me and becca calling each other as we went to sleep in the wee hours of the morning and talking about the various events of the evening. this is going to be like a really quick version of that - except via blog, and you probably weren't there for the real thing:

- purnell vacay 2010! hilton head island, boogie boarding (surfing for sam), cookbook reading, seafood cooking, cabana lounging, free margarita drinking. i love my family.

- sam purnell staying with us for a couple days. we mostly watched x-files, courtesy of netflix.

- the summer has started. i've already been out of town for more than half of the days in june. thanks to a staff retreat and a mission trip. this is the insanity of our summer schedule, and every year it is a harsh reality. i find myself thinking "just keep swimming, just keep swimming" as we power through june and july with nary time for a breath.

-said staff retreat full of great food, fun with our colleagues that we love so much, and paul's poison ivy face. we frolicked in meadows and took hikes to ponds full of giant tadpoles. we cooked smores in the chimney remnant of the 'old homestead' and played nerts (until my constant losing led to waves of hilarious self-deprication. what? it's how i deal, and i'm funny while i deal with it).

-mission trip to Palmer Home in Hernando, Mississippi. We keep having too many kids sign up for retreats, so there were 60 of us in one house. mayhem. but really fun mayhem. i think the highlight of the trip for me was our nightly jaunts to velevet cream, a local drive up burger and ice cream place. OH and memphis - the famous rendevous restaurant wasn't ready for this girl who could (and did) shamelessly finish off a full rack of ribs. by myself. get off my back - i really like ribs.

- oh, and we're moving to st. louis in august. more on that later.

that's all the time i have. i'll be back later. thanks for reading!

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