Last Day of June

summer is slipping away and i have not spent enough time at the pool! bah hum bug. but – i have a crazy busy july ahead of me with all my work travel. so, if it am MIA for a long period of time ... again ... I now have a documented reason.

3 out of 5 weeks in July I am on the road for work.  I am 100% home this upcoming week and am 100% taking Friday the 5th OFF! ....and i plan on sitting by the pool as much as humanly possible. Right now on the 4th i plan on waking up – hitting zumba & then staying by the pool. But is sounds good in theory – but zumba is at 8:30 AM and we all know how i love to sleep. Then, I head to Augusta {leave Sunday night} ... then Bucks County, PA ... then I have 1 week off ... then off to Oklahoma City.

Best part of all the work travel: meeting a bunch of people who i talk to on the phone a lot but could never point out of a crowd. the hotel and airline points. being able to have the AC on 62* and just snuggle in the covers. finding time to read more than 15 pages of a book in 1 sitting. seeing cities i would probably never ever see.

....but with all that said. i do miss being home with K and the puppies.  And – if anyone has any recommendations of things to do in any of these cities – places to eat – sites to see, i am all ears! =D

September Can’t Come Soon Enough!!

K and I have a fun filled September planned and let me tell you – it cannot come soon enough.

...see for yourself...

{Erin Condren Life Planner}

We are taking a little weekend trip up to Charleston, SC for a friend’s wedding & since a  weekend trip to that city is on my 30 before 30 list we decided to have Saturday be a sight seeing day to see what all the buzz is about.

Then midmonth we are going to Sanibel Island for a short trip. Sun. Sand {pool for me}. Good Book. And I have a hunch that after all my work travels, this will be a much needed break from reality.

.long.overdue.wordy.i blogged.

i would first like to make it known that i am alive. kyle and i are still living. breathing. and having a good time. we are still enjoying our patio furniture with a bottle or two of pinot grigo on the weekends. we LOVE having a pool in our neighborhood {we actually have two but go to the same one. every time}. i am constantly missing sunscreen in spots and getting sun burnt – kyle makes fun of me and laughs. i am traveling A LOT for work. and i mean A LOT. Spent time in Greensboro & Winston Salem 2 weeks ago – then spent time in Birmingham – now I am off to Sarasota. Then I go to Oklahoma City, followed by Langhorne PA.  I have an awesome new girl on my team and I feel like I am neglecting her training & growth since I am out – and I want to promote another girl on my team amidst all my traveling which is a GREAT idea for her and maybe not a fabulous idea for me and my sanity levels ... I feel like the whole team that i manage needs a little bit of love once all my traveling is done.

...but i digress...

Life update for K and me.  A few weeks back we headed home to Northern VA to celebrate the wedding of Kyle’s good friend JL and his new wife Kelly.  What a fun wedding and it was so pretty and just laid back. Kyle had a VERY good time – not only because I was his designated driver – but because he got to catch up with some of his friends that he has not seen in YEARS! Plus... it was fun to just get dressed up and GO OUT.  ..something that K and I do not do nearly enough.  And look at us ... we clean up well! :) HA!

While we were up there we always make time to see our families. My parents were not in town, but Kyle’s were so we of course hung out with them and saw his little sister.  Sadly, the drive up and back down were 10+ hours a piece and we are just getting tired.  We are talking about cutting out our summer trip to VA. My parents are normally gone and it is just SO much traveling and traveling around northern Virginia for not a lot of down time.  Instead – we will take those 3-4 days and vacation together, somewhere low key but away from Atlanta to just RELAX!!

...in between our trip to VA and then me going to Greensboro and then me heading to Birmingham I spent an afternoon at the spa and it was GLORIOUS and so very very needed! ....thanks for the 15% off birthday deal from the spa I LOVE! #highfive #gooddeals {why am i using hash tags in my blog?!} ... Kyle dragged me to some legit boxing/kickboxing class at TITLE Club Boxing where they had to wrap my hands & I had to put on boxing gloves. I pretty much complained about needing hand sanitizer the whole time and my hands probably still smell like those boxing gloves.  Kyle however, loved it and he will be back and i told him that if he joins and buys gloves he needs to Lysol wipe the insides every time because dark damp spaces = mold and i am pretty confident those gloves were growing mold. yuck

Today Kyle and I headed to Montaluce, a vineyard in the North Georgia mountains for a hike, wine tasting, lunch, and me crossing something off my 30 before 30 list {visiting a vineyard}.  And we legit had PERFECT weather – not too hot for l gate June in the southern summer & pretty much NO humidity. We got lucky. The hike was about 2 miles – 2 fairly easy miles, minus 2 killer hills through the vineyards at the end.  The “tour guide” was super nice and educated about the river, the area, the vineyard, and wine. We really enjoyed it. The North Georgia mountains really are rich with history. I think K was a little nervous that I would talk all about the wedding I had wanted to happen there  {since we looked at Montaluce as our venue & it was my top choice, minus price} and I talked a little bit about it, but not too much. Nothing unbearable. Didn’t beat a dead horse. I think K was  shocked.

At the end of the hike we got to taste 5 of their wines and then have a full glass of our favorite and they had some pretty good wines that I had never heard of.  I tried a Viognier for the 1st time and it was amazing – we tried a Mead and it was just too bubbly for us. And we are non-red wine drinkers and were surprised when we liked the Risata. Granted, it was more of a blush, but it was still good. 

Overall. the Hike & Wine Tasting was fun. We talked to some really interesting people {who were for sure vineyard and wine lovers – but they were not pretentious} who made the day just that much more enjoyable.   ...And we capped our “date day” off by dinner at a cute little town near by. 

....despite being exhausted.... I now get to pack my bags! I am off to Sarasota for work tomorrow! 

working from home.

yesterday i got to work from home. this is a rare occasion for me, but after my 46 minute flight out of Greensboro, NC to Atlanta turned into a 4+ hour flight {with a slight detour to Montgomery, AL since we were RUNNING OUT OF FUEL due to circling the Atlanta airport for a hour or so – thanks weather!} and getting home around 1:15 AM and in bed by 1:45 AM ... i was one exhausted lady.  ...and my boss told me to work from home rather than head to the office... so i worked all days. in bed. it was GLORIOUS!

Well. my two doggies have been glued to my side since getting home and they were my coworkers yesterday.

Mulligan: bad coworker. laid on my laptop and my work and me.
Kennesaw: good coworker. laid at the foot of the bed and was out of my way.

They loved it and were so happy to be FREE all day long with their momma! And after a house burned down in our neighborhood this week and the owner lost their pets it makes me wish i could work from home everyday so i can keep a protective eye on them. losing my dogs in any fashion, but as devastating & destructive as a fire is a huge fear of mine.