Back to business

I hate seeing weekends leave. At least this one, being 3 days, was able to stick around a smidge longer than the rest. {Bless you, weekend} Now it's time for another rousing rendition of, "Let's recap Megan's weekend" {Queue the weekend recap theme song that sounds identical to the Family Feud theme music}

Thursday my boss told me to take Friday off as a mental health day. I may have tried to hug him. He may have looked at me like I was crazy. This all hypothetical ..maybe

 I ran home as quickly as I could and packed to try to make it to the cabin before dinner time. Little did I know prior to my arrival, we were going to eat with some of Billy's old family friends--their neighbors of 30 something years from when they lived in Florida. It was great getting to meet and hear stories of Billy's childhood. I love hearing stories of baby Billiam. We ate at one of my Blue Ridge favorites, the Toccoa Riverside Restaurant. It is literally a mile from the cabin, and it is overflowing with guests everytime we pass by. It's a wonderful little restaurant right along the Toccoa River with a beautiful patio area right over the water. It burned  to the ground about a year and a half ago, and thank goodness they rebuilt, because I don't know where we'd be without this gem!

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Friday we had more friends from Miami back to visit while on their way headed back south for the winter from their annual summer road trip. Joy and Tick are such blessings to have around every summer. We had planned on going tubing that day, but of course, it rained again. So our plans changed to a quick trip into town for lots of sugary snacks at Merciers and the chocolate store downtown. After the rain subsided, we got lots of meat to throw on the grill.
Have I mentioned before that Billy is an awesome grill master?! Because he is phenomenal! He even grilled peaches that were out of this world! I had never heard of grilling peaches before, but they were fab with a little cinnamon, rum, and brown sugar!

After dinner we went for a moonlit walk to enjoy the crickets, lightning bugs, and the almost full moon we had. It was so nice to finally take in some of the slower, simple things in life for a change. It was such a breath of fresh air.

Saturday we made plans to head up to the North Georgia Mountain Fair as we do every year. Except, when we got there, we found out we had missed all of the shows for the day :( Instead of letting the trip go to waste, we kept on the highway for an extra 30 mins and found ourselves in Helen for the afternoon.

When I was a kid, we'd go to Helen at least once a summer to go tubing. As I got older, we stopped going. After revisiting for the first time in years, I found out why we stopped going. This place is like Disney meets Myrtle Manor meets gross. I lost count of how many people I sincerely believed were on Meth. We pretty much got out of there as fast as we could. I was too afraid to even partake in the funnel cake for fear it was laced with heroine.. then again, I feel like that might be too classy of a drug.

Sunday we vowed "Good lord willin, and the creek don't rise" that we were going to the fair. By george, we finally made one of our plans work before getting ruined by rain. We got to catch the racing pigs, eat some mouth watering fried green tomatoes and BBQ, and take in a few of the fun vendors. One of my favorite moments was while wandering through the exhibit hall, I found  a very old wood burning stove that once belonged to my great grand parents. I had no idea it was even there! It stopped me in my tracks. What a fun find!

Billy's brother made it a point to photo bomb as many pictures as he could that day. We finally played along.

Today, sadly, it was back to the Monday grind. However, let's keep Mondays as positive as can be. Let's announce the winner of the Escape Monthly Box that I talked about here! Congratulations to Carlee for winning the first box! It should be arriving to you soon in the mail!

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Vacation Weekend Recap

After the wedding was over, I got up early Sunday morning and Denise and I got on the road to head back. I dropped her off in Atlanta at her apartment at SCAD and then I headed north.. very north. A short concert into my steering wheel later, I pulled up to the cabin where I was firmly planting myself for the next week.

I always like to spend the week of the 4th at the cabin. Independence day is my FAVORITE holiday, and there are so many celebrations going on in Blue Ridge and the surrounding area. Much to my displeasure, it rained every.single.day. while I was up there. We got very little outdoor time that didn't result in us coming back inside drenched. Equally not cool, Billy had to work every single day but the 4th.. the rain screwed his schedule up to boot, so his days were extra long and I would see him just briefly before bed. Then he was gone again in the morning before I even woke up.

But it was a week spent better there in the rain than at home and at work, so here are a few highlights that I have to share from the week.

1. We went to the orchard every other day to get more fresh peaches. We were eating them like candy. I  love fresh fruits and veggies from Merciers. We also found ourselves enjoying brain teaser ipad games.
2. Our friends from Miami were up to visit for the week. It is an absolute joy to have them around.
3. I got in a lot of quality front porch sittin' and reading.
4. The one day we actually saw a smidge of sunlight, we went to the lake. The views are hard to beat!
5. We put together a bookshelf that Billy's grandpa got for his birthday to go up in the loft. This is Billy's brother practicing his moves to see if he could make it as a hammer model in the future.
6. We went to watch the fireworks in the neighboring Tennessee town. We stopped by KFC for our traditional 4th of July dinner to take to picnic out with. It rained the entire time, but luckily we were under a pavilion and brought cards to entertain ourselves to the show started. I absolutely love fireworks. I think we should have them for every holiday.
7. Did I mention it rained a lot here in Georgia last week?
8. We went to the 4th of July parade here in town. This was the crazy marching band that came to perform. I was a little let down when the poster for the parade said a Budweiser Clydesdale would be in the parade, and all we got was a plastic statue of one. Rip-to the-off!
9. We went to dinner one night at the oh, so good Rib Country after we went to see Despicable me.


Unfortunately, because of the weather, I have very few exciting pictures to share. I thought I'd share them anyway because I was at least sort of hoping some of you cared.