Atlanta native

I'm an Atlanta native. I read this list on fb tonight and was startled at its accuracy on 1-18 (after that I started skimming... Also, whatever one that was about beer, I've got no experience with that) and wanted to share it here. Seriously, I have to explain things from that list allll the time.

30 Things People From Atlanta Have To Explain To Out-Of-Towners

And man, what I would give for some varsity right now. 

french toast bake, the varsity, and atlanta!

first off, before i forget...  i have to post this amazing and easy french toast bake recipe.  i pinned it to my pinterest forever ago and forgot about it until i was browsing my food board for some mealtime ideas.  since we had the derenthals in town saturday night to sunday and i had ward council sunday morning, i thought this recipe would be perfect because i could make it the night before and just throw it in the oven before i left for church.  and POOF!  i'm an amazing hostess.  anyways... christopher said it was a little too sweet for him but tracy said it was the most divine thing she's ever tasted.  and my goodness it was delightful.  and just for history's sake... and because i'll want to know for next time and surely not remember... i cooked mine for 52 mins and then left it in the warm oven for another minute or two (i think).

second... and more importantly... baby girl and i made it to atlanta!!!  the drive to the airport was kinda rough with baby girl being tired and whiny (i had to wake her up at 8 because we needed to leave at 8:15) and refusing to eat because it was too early in the morning... but the rest of the day was great.  she was an angel for all of the checking in, going through security, getting moved from gate to gate, and waiting for our delayed flight.  the actual flight was as good as it could possibly be with a 23 month old that was awake the entire time.  although i actually fell asleep several times so maybe she wasn't as well behaved as i think she was but i we survived without any tantrums.  and although no one directly complimented my child on her behavior, the guy sitting next to me commented to the guy next to him "they did really great"... referring to my child and the kid in the row behind us.

the best part of the day though was that my mom flew in from buffalo (she drove out there with my sister emmy who is ENGAGED to a wonderful guy from buffalo!!! - i've been meaning to do an official post on that but short story = i suck... i swear it'll happen eventually) 30 minutes before we got in so she could meet us at the gate!  and although i actually enjoyed the rare experience of flying into T (it's the closest to baggage claim since it goes: baggage claim - T - A - B - C - D - E - F, it was wasted because we actually hopped on the train and went all the way down to F to visit the new varsity that just opened up a few weeks ago!  it was amazing and delicious and even though it's more fun to go to the real thing, this was the perfect option for us because we were getting home by way of marta and my brother in law and it was either airport varsity or none at all.  and although the onion rings are always delicious... they were especially piping hot and perfectly crispy today.  oh my heavens!  perfection!

and then we hopped on marta, hopped off marta, drove home with jeff, ate and hung out til bedtime and then our day was complete.  i'm pretty sure this is the first day that baby girl has ever not taken a nap.  like the first day that she has woken up in the morning and then gone to bed that night without falling asleep in the middle.  although i'm not actually counting it as legit since we lost two hours and i would never in my right mind put her down for bed at 6pm.  but if it's 8pm east coast time... i'm all for it.  sooo, as i said, if we'd be in colorado she would have just gotten a late nap... but since we had the time zone change i just kept her up.  my mom can attest to the fact that by 7:15pm atlanta time, baby girl was begging me to go to sleep.  "naaaapppp.  i want naaaaapppp.  baby naaaaaaappppppp."  well, okay baby, you can have your nap (nap = naps and nighttime sleep)... in 45 minutes.  hang in there.

and on that note, i'm off to take a nap myself.

a wedding!

my favorite brother ever got married today!!!  and hopefully sometime i'll post pictures and commentary.  right now though, i'll be going to sleep.  we're going to napa tomorrow and i need to wake up in about 4.5 hours.  wish me luck with that.

trucks and stuff

today was spent at liza's house.  making/prepping food for the weekend and sitting in tonka trucks.

not really the picture i was going for.

because quite often, the outtakes are better than the real thing.

we'll pretend this is good enough.

i love my mother.  isn't she adorable?!

my day

waking up with uncle wally

eating chick fil a chickin minis on the way to the strawberry fields

loooove

just a girl and her goldfish.  i needed something to keep her hands busy.

 

 

 

 

 

when mom and i were picking i told her i felt like the bear cub out of  blueberries for sal.  she picked strawberries at least twice as fast as i did.  

what's better that picking strawberries with your mother and your baby?!

and then we came home and crashed.  we both slept soundly, even through all of the construction noise downstairs. 

playing with grandpa

 

 

i love when she comes to me to hug my leg.  it makes me feel like a real mom.

 

eating club crackers with that delicious cheese spread.  my dad was telling me how he discovered it on his mission in france and it was love at first taste.  hooked ever since.  

baby feels the same way.

 and then we had hugs and kisses goodbye and i was off to the varsity!

and it's almost 3:00 am

i suck at keeping track of my days when i'm away from home.  i can't believe i've already been in atlanta for three days.  it has flown by.  today was amazing.  i woke up and got ready and since my parents house is in the "completely demolished" stage of their kitchen/main floor renovation, it took me a million hours to figure out breakfast.  luckily my best and childhood friend, diana called to ask if she could stop by!  twenty minutes later when she arrived i was still making the sandwich i'd been working on when she called.  being without a kitchen is pretty inconvenient.  pictures to come.

we hung out for a while and it was so much fun.

then baby girl and i went to sarah's house.  we're like lifelong bff's that just happened to meet less than two years ago.  since our entire friendship has been long distance, our reality bff time is extra special.

mary and baby girl.  they played sooooo well together.  it was precious.

holy guacamole!

 

this giant boy is luke.  he is three months older than baby girl and about three times her size as well.

 

or at least two times her size.

 

then we headed over to my oldest sister liza's house.  we played, cleaned, cooked, and ate for four hours.  it was perfect.  then my mom showed up with my grandparents in tow (she picked them up from southern georgia tonight) and they were as sweet and adorable as always.

 

sister picture with liza!

 

she protested her nap earlier because we were at liza's and she could hear skye and will playing without her.  so of course she crashed two seconds after we got in the car.

baby girl and i drove got home at 8 45 and she went straight to bed and i went straight to diana's house because lisa told me there was a party going on over there.  thanks for the invite diana!  just kidding... kinda.  apparently it was a going away party for some guy i'd never met.  he turned out to be very nice though and i wish him all the best in his internship on the west coast.

playing with lisa and diana made my life feel complete.  we were the three musketeers for the first... oh i dunno how many years of our lives.  probably 26 and counting.  we've been best friends since birth.  literally.  we talked and laughed and hung out til 12:30 in the morning and since that wasn't enough, lisa called me five minutes later to talk on the phone on our drive home.  sadly, my crappy battery life phone died and cut the fun short.  

but good thing there's tomorrow night.  i can't wait to hang out with those girls again.  a-s-a-p.

so today was a really good day... it is so very rare to hang out with so many very favorite people in one day.    i really really really love georgia.  and oh my heavens it is gorgeous.

less than 48 hours till my honey gets here!  he's been working 17 hour days and traveling while i've been gone.  he needs a break and i can't wait to celebrate our anniversary together!  he's so great.

my daddy

here's a video from a few days ago.  my honey really loves this new and very frequently used phrase...

we've been experiencing a vocabulary explosion over here this past week.  much like when she was "learning to walk," baby girl has been holding out on me.  i've known it but now i'm seeing proof as she spouts out tons of new words each day.  and she almost always speaks in sentences even if the first few words sound more like a grunt.  to the trained ear (honey's or mine) it is easy to decipher the difference between "i want daddy" "where's daddy" "that's daddy's" "there's daddy" etc.  the number of words a stranger would be able to understand is probably still under 20 or so but the words, phrases, and sentences i can understand are growing exponentially.

just today new words included teeth, backpack, welcome, a number of different letters (Y and A were the clearest though)... actually never mind because there is no way i can remember all of them.  the thing that was cracking me up today was that all of the sudden baby girl has decided to vary her yes and no answers.  nevermind that just last week she was answering questions by just saying "no" or nodding her head...  this week negative answers include but are not limited to "no" (in all of its intonations), "nope" and the ever popular "naaawwwwwhhhhh."  positive answers range from "yes" (that's the cutest because of the slight speech impediment sound from the ssss), "yeah" and "yep."  

anyways, it's hard to get videos of these things because she doesn't perform well, but constantly she's saying things like "there he is!!!" that i was counting as mumble before i realized that actually it's pretty legit and getting more recognizable by the day.  

my goodness my baby is growing up!

ps- baby and i are leaving for atlanta on sunday!!!  and holy cow i've already been experiencing packing anxiety for days.  oh my heavens i have so much to get done before we leave and all i wish is that i could just lay down and then wake up in georgia.  who wants to come pack for me?!  and who wants to play next week?!?!

"granny caught an alligator"

when i got that text yesterday i completely imagined my grandmother wrestling a 6ft alligator with her bare hands.  if you knew her like i do, this idea wouldn't seem so wild.  but, as it turns out, it was caught by a beaver trap.  and it was caught in that very pond you see pictured in the link.  

looove that life on a farm.

colorado weather

today it felt like atlanta weather.  it was soooo nice and pleasant outside.  baby girl and i went on a walk this morning with kirstyn and michaela and then came home and walked up and down our street exploring for a while until lunchtime.  baby girl didn't wake up from nap til after 5 but we immediately rushed outside and played on the driveway and sidewalk until after dark.

the funniest part was when i called my mom around noon and said "it's so warm here!  it feels just like atlanta!"  and then as baby girl went running down the driveway i grabbed her hand and said "careful baby girl... it's ICY.  can you say, icy?"  and then mom replied "yes, icy, juuuust like georgia.  there may be a few differences still."  HA.

my camera batteries died so i couldn't get a picture of it while it was light but with the way the sun is, half of our street looks like spring and the other half is covered in snow.  we're on the covered in snow half so the grass in our yard has at least a foot of snow still on it (most of which was already there a week ago when i got back) and our driveway still resembles a glacier.  maybe because earlier this week it was in the teens.  like on tuesday when i went to baby's doctors appointment i didn't even bother grabbing a jacket because it looked warm and sunny.  i had on a very light sweater and assumed that would be enough.  half way to the appointment we passed a bank that had a marquee (is that the correct term?) with the time and temperature on it 14ºF.  FOURTEEN?!?!  and i have no jacket?!  i guess i can call myself a coloradoan (ps- that is the correct term... and spelling) now.

i vow to be better about shoveling our driveway before driving on it and packing the snow down into the beginnings of a never melting glacier.

finally... the varsity!!!

this morning

i spent some time at the lovely hartsfield-jackson atlanta international airport yet again.  (i arrived on the 18th and have picked up three people since then.  at the airport four times in nine days?  and i'll be going again on saturday... and maybe even tomorrow.  but only maybe).  anyways, i love that airport.  sara snow loves the atlanta airport too.

on our way...

honey played with baby's mittens

i discovered that freedom pkwy is exactly one mile from mlk jr drive.  how did i not notice that before?!?!

we saw many coke billboards

passed by turner field... home of the braves

chick fil a.  what clever cows.

i'm a mormon billboard!

hello airport!

then we got there early and decided to make a sign for our friend darren... out of a long paper towel

we were coloring our sign in with pen
(side note, i have nursed baby in that very spot... what great memories)

and then this lady told us she had markers we could use and pulled them out of her purse for us!

our finished product

the markers really helped... don't you think?

and we're off!

off to the varsity that is!  every time i come in town, i stop at the varsity on my way home from the airport.  but this time i came on a sunday and although i was dying to partake of some onion rings and a chili slaw dog, i decided to be holy instead.  so this was my first time eat here this trip.  favorite food ever.  ohmygoodnessidieandgotoheaveneverytime.

my honey and baby like the varisty too.  because it's amazing.

and i love sharing the varsity experience when it's someone's first time!

it's good.

that's a whole lot of grease.  i literally closed my eyes and sighed when i put that first onion ring in my mouth (although that was at the counter... no way i'm gonna wait to get to the table for that.)

and although baby's been to the varisty many times (since she's always with me when i come), this is the first time i've let her actually eat it.  so she enjoyed some of honey's slaw dog.

adorable

and all was well.