Fabulousity Weekend

It’s Tuesday and I’m still feeling the effects of the weekend. I’m sleepy, my feet hurt… but I had a great time. It’s fun to see this place where I live through the eyes of someone who doesn’t live here. It’s all too easy to take for granted this incredibly beautiful part of the world that I’m fortunate enough to call home.

It seems like every minute from the time I picked Candice up from the airport to the time I took her back was filled. Thursday we tried to pack in as much time as possible with Purple Michael. He had other commitments – his reason for coming was to sing at a friend’s wedding so he had lots of wedding related stuff to do. It took awhile to find a place to eat… and then the service was horribly slow. We were only with him a few hours and then had to drop him off… and tackle the Atlanta afternoon traffic. It was after 8 when I got home that night.

Friday (as I mentioned before) was a comedy of errors for me – but thankfully, a restful and relaxing day for Candice. She got to spend some quality time with Sarabeth and Jamie – painting fingernails, playing – I had a ridiculously busy day at work with a few personal issues that popped up. I was doing a very stressful juggling act that day but I was soooo thankful for the diversion that evening, being able to spend time with family. Angie had her own comedy of errors that day trying to make it back home from a conference with a co-worker with appendicitis. Me, Jim, Candice and the girls went to North Georgia BBQ for a twilight picnic dinner – it was perfect weather and perfect scenery and good food! We went back to Jim and Angie's house and Angie made it home finally - exhausted - Austin and Jim played Wii and we all just hung out.

Saturday we maxed it out… did the tourist thing in Helen – shopping until I dropped, had a nice lunch (again, with really bad service), went to the local winery for a wine tasting, visited with Angie and the girls. (Jim had gone to a funeral in Atlanta). I crashed and burned around dinner time and left Candice in Angie’s capable hands…

*sidebar* I said to Jamie, “If I go home will you take care of Aunt Candice for me?” Jamie said, “isn’t she a grownup?” Jamie is such a funny kid!

I only made it through the first quarter of the Florida / LSU game before I fell asleep. Go Gators!

Sunday I went to church… then went out to lunch at La Cabana (our favorite little Mexican place) with Candice and Austin… went to the peanut shack… Betty’s grocery (it’s a little grocery store with lots of treasures like RC cola, hard to find “old” candy, etc) we did more of the tourist shops in Helen… drove through the countryside, went to a big farm market… took Candice back to Jim and Angie’s for a few minutes while we went home to “freshen up” (throw in a load of laundry, take out the trash, have a cup of coffee) … then it was back to the church to drop Austin off and pick Candice up. She and I went to the Nacoochee Pizza Tavern for a nice leisurely meal (again, outside… we did a lot of al fresco dining this weekend as the weather was perfect!) Austin went with the church youth group to dinner and to the Corn Maze. Candice and I met them at the corn maze. If you haven’t done a corn maze in the dark – you haven’t lived! Actually… we didn’t go through the maze… we sat by a nice campfire and just enjoyed the atmosphere and the people. I had a hard time winding down to sleep afterwards…

Monday I was up at 5am to pick Candice up from Jim and Angie’s for the drive back to the airport. The weather was horrible… it poured rain on us almost the entire way… but traffic was manageable since it was Columbus Day and a lot of people were off work. I heard that it was the most rain ever recorded in one day at the Atlanta airport… definitely not good travel weather… but we survived! I made the four hour round trip drive, grabbed a frappucino and was at work by 11am. I worked straight through without lunch and left work a few minutes early (which I made up this morning) because I was sooo sleepy. I made biscuits for dinner and was asleep around 9pm but I could have slept another nine hours, I think.

Candice’s trip was to take her mind off of the anniversary of her grandmother’s death. I think it worked. She was able to use my secret weapon – the Gant girls – to ward off unhappy thoughts. You seriously can NOT be around Sarabeth and Jamie and feel doom and gloom! They are simply too sweet, too funny, too full of life… and although Candice isn’t really a “kid person”… she really enjoyed the girls. Of course, she made the same observation that I always have – they are really well behaved. It makes a difference. Jamie had a bit of birthday envy when Aunt Candice bought SB a beautiful ballerina music box… but that happens. There is strength in sisterhood… and although I grew up in a home with no sisters, I definitely had sisters of the heart then… and have lots of sisters now. Someone took a picture of me, Angie, Candice and Jamie on Sunday night and I said, “this is almost all of the Gant girls…” and then I realized that there are actually ELEVEN Gant girls now! Mom, me, Angie, Mechelle, Candice, Katherine, Tiffany, Elizabeth, Madie, Sarabeth and Jamie! Candice enjoyed getting to know Bryan’s family without the stress and chaos of a holiday… and we enjoyed having her around, getting to share the simple life that we have here.

After months of feeling bad and being tired and doing only the things I HAD to do, it was nice to get out of my comfort (lazy) zone and spend some time with the three dimensional people. There is so much more I wanted to show Candice and so much more I wanted to do with Michael. Cody was hurt that I wasn’t able to spend time with him in the few short hours I was in Atlanta on Thursday. I’ve learned to just accept what you have and not mourn what you don’t. for my entire adult life I’ve had limited resources of time, money, energy but I’ve always managed to make memories. I don’t want to not do anything at all because I can’t do it all and sometimes lately, that’s how I’ve lived – in fear of using up resources and then having to do without. Sometimes you have to cast caution to the wind and live the best life you can.
Hope you all have a great day! The sun is shining here!