Lessons from Granny

Most of you know that the spring and summer months have been really tough on me and my family. Both of my grandmothers have been through the wringer in terms of their health. Just when we thought all things were looking up, my 89 year old granny had emergency surgery 2 weeks ago and right back in the hospital she went.

It was a very scary 48 hour period.....really scary, but after almost three weeks of being in the hospital she is now home. I sure I hope I have inherited her genes!

Kev and I have been traveling home on the weekends to spend time with family. Something you can never get too much of.

The hardest part with my sweet Granny's situation has been her change in cognition. She is pleasantly more and more confused and her dementia was exacerbated by her recent anesthesia. Don't get me wrong, some days are good - no, actually more than good - they are GREAT. But some days are not so great and just down right heart wrenching. 

When Kev and I visited last weekend, Granny laid down the laws of the kitchen. Although I know most of her best recipes by heart, I had her write them down for me one more time. I love listening to her talk all things country cookin'.

And she once again taught me her secrets of the kitchen that included cornbread, green beans and soup beans. YUMMMMY!

It was such a sweet visit.

 

Sunday Funday

Who doesn't love them a good sunday funday? 

Last Sunday Kev and I started our morning off with church at Southland. I just love that place and love that we call it our home church. 

After church, we did the usual lunch/brunch routine at Josie's. Sooooo darn good.

My girlfriends Lucy and Angie met us for brunch, too.

We then headed to the annual Woodland Arts Fair at Woodland park to enjoy art booths, live music, local food and local brews with my gal pals. 

Kev and I finished our sunday with a trip to the Grocery, time on the couch and a Buffy The Vampire Slayer marathon on DVD. 

A much needed relaxing Sunday indeed! 

and yes - i choose the blue MK bag, but i must admit - the striped one has not been returned yet. hehe. i am trying to convince Kev I need both

My Go-TO Hair Products

Now I don't claim to be a hair expert, but I know two things - 1. I love me some volume/texture and 2. I love me some poof.
So here are my go-to products. The basics that I always keep in stock under my bathroom sink.

It's a 10 miracle leave in product.
I put this stuff on my hair every time I wash it. I towel dry and then apply this all over and comb through. Now let's keep in mind, sissy here only washes her hair 2-3 x per week tops. If I was a "wash your hair every day" type of gal, I probably would use every other day or so. Sometimes it's heavy and weighs my baby fine hair down. 

via

Big Sexy Hair Root Pump plus Humidity Resistant Volumizing Spray Mousse
My favorite root pump EVER! I love the texture it applies after I blow dry.
On days I don't wash my hair, I will wet my hair and apply this at the roots and blow dry my crown to get a little uumph back in my hair game. 

via

Straight Sexy Hair Smooth and Seal Anti Frizz Shine Spray
Love this stuff . It sure does help with good ol' Kentucky summer Humidity when I want my hair straight. It helps so much with frizz and gives straight hair a more polished and sleek look. 

via

Big Sexy Powder Play Volumizing and Texturizing Powder

Listen up gals - if you have fine hair - RUN and get this product. 

It is a miracle product for fine and thin hair. It gives so much texture and fullness. I apply on the crown of my hair when dry and then use my teasing comb for some va-va-voom. 

via

Pssst Dry Shampoo
My girl Brooke recommended this and for a drugstore product, I LOVE!

It's the perfect trick for getting me through one more day without having to wash my hair (aka when I am a grease ball and I am too lazy to wash it) . I lift sections of my hair and spray at the scalp/root. I then usually wait a minute or two and then brush it out and a apply a little bit of tease via my favorites zigzag teasing comb. 

via

Redken Shampoos and Conditioners
I am a Redken girl through and through. I have used everything from their color protection shampoo/conditioner, to the body full shampoo/conditioner, to the blonde glam shampoo/conditioner. That's right...BLONDE glam on this brunette. My hair dresser recommended it and I thought she had lost her marbles. Turns out this stuff makes brunette hair super shiny and sleek. It's my fave. I switch up shampoos and conditioners regularly, usually I have two types at home and switch them in and out. When I run out, I will by something totally different. It works best for my hair to avoid dullness.

via

So there ya go ladies - my go-to hair products in a nutshell.
What are some of your faves?
Share the love! :-) 

Summer Nights: Thursday Night Live

So us Lexington gals know what happens every thursday night downtown during the months of April - October ....a little Thursday night live.

Complete with live music, outdoor drink sippin and lawn chair sitting,all in the heart of downtown Lexington.
Last thursday was GAWWWgeous and we headed to TNL to listen to one of our new favorite bands that we discovered at the Little Big Town concert. The band is called 64West and we loooove them. 

Meet Lexington's newest natives - John and Tommy. Both are college friends of Kevs and we are so happy they are in the same town as we are.

After TNL we headed to dinner at Parlay Social and met up with one of my besties, Caitlin.

 
It was the perfect evening to start the weekend a little early :-)
Love me some summer nights. 

WILW - wish list edition

It's been a while since I have done a what i'm loving Wednesday.....so without further adieu I give you a good ol' WILW compliments of my pinterest wish list board that you can find here.

This quilted Michael Kors bag. It has a such a Chanel feel at a much cheaper cost

via nordstrom

Hunter Wellies!

It's time for these to finally be in my closet. I can't decide if I like red or navy. Thoughts?

via

Nike Free Runners. Hubs just picked up a pair and they look so comfy. He loves his so i think his lil wifey needs some too.

 via nike

This adorable KY necklace

via etsy

ALL THINGS MARLEY LILLY! I can't get enough of ML. I feel like I have a constant lust list going for them. All things should be monogrammed right? Right!

 via marley lilly

Love these super cute cross body envelope bags.

Precious!

via marley lilly

Look at this one with the anchor.

I'll take one of each please.

via marley lilly

and this cute necklace, also from marley lilly

via

I am loving the ever so popular round monogram necklace. I keep forgetting to

pick one of these up. I love the medium to larger sizes

 via

this rain jacket, perfect for cool/crisp Kentucky days this fall.

bring on fall cause this gal is ready!

via

and because I can't get enough MK...loving both of these gold watches

via

via

What are you loving today?

Family Road Trip

Momma, Daddy, Baby Bro, Britt (aka Baby Bro's GF and better be my future sister in law ahem ahem), Hubs and I had a lil road trip planned for the end of summer.

Back story:
My parents have been through  hell the ringer this summer with both of their mothers being in and out of the hospital. It's been pretty tough to watch and even tougher being 3 hours away from it the majority of the time.
This trip was planned the week before both grannies would be coming home. One permanently living with my parents, the other in her home next door with 24/7 care. This would also be the last week of my parent's summer vacations as both work in the school system.
To say my parents needed a mini vacay is the biggest understatement!

We wanted something easy. A place that we could drive to and back in a weekend.
So we headed to the smokey mountains in Tennessee and would end our trip in Cherokee, North Carolina.

And who doesn't love a lil weekend road trip re-cap.....so here ya go

We met my parents about an hour outside of Lexington. I was so excited that we would be able to share the time together in the truck. It was so much fun.
We played road trip games, reminisced, laughed and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company.
What better way to start our day than the first official photo of the trip.



Baby Bro and Brittany were able to catch up with us a little over halfway through the trip.
Does he look like a little redneck or what?

First thing on the agenda was to hit up the Apple Barn in Pigeon Forge.
Two words: Apple Fritters!
We chowed down on some good country grub and made our way into a solid food coma before going wine tasting on the property.
Kev and I picked up a delicious bottle of apple-peach wine that was so sweet and refreshing.

 

 

That afternoon we hit up the Tanger outlets. Kev and I picked up some new workout gear.
After some brief shopping, we got all checked in at our hotel in downtown Gatlinburg.
We relaxed for a bit before getting freshened up for dinner at Cherokee Grill.

We rode the trolley all around downtown Gatlinburg....and boy was it crowded down there








Unfortunately, the rain put a damper on our friday night plans. So we called it an early night and were up the next day with the chickens for breakfast at Flapjacks.

After breakfast we set out to drive across the Smokey Mountains toward Cherokee, North Carolina.

 

It was a foggy/hazy kind of morning, but we still got some great photo ops.

The mountans are gorgeous!

 

We made it to Cherokee and hit up the local souvenir shops and checked out all the little odds and inns at the village area. But the real reason we were there was for this........

 

Harrah's Casino

I swear my daddy-o was like a lil boy. The man loves casinos in a very innocent (plays slots only) kind of way. Just picture this 6 foot 9 inches tall man sitting at the slot machines smiling from ear to ear. And dang it, he wins every.single.time. On slots!!
I kid you not... we were all still in our hotel rooms and my dad was gone for maybe 45 min and had already texted my mom he had won already won something like 400 dollars on penny and nickle slots.
craaaazy!

 

We soon joined in all the fun.
(and they let us take photos in there! what?!?! yep, as long as there was no flash and the person at the table gambling wasn't taking it. Hey vegas ..did you hear that??)


Our plans to have a nice dinner Saturday night at Ruth's Chris turned into us gambling all day and night in our casual clothes. We refused to go back to the hotel to freshen up, afraid lady luck would leave us. No lie I wore a workout top all day and evening. You can do that on vacay!

The next morning Baby Bro and Britt had to leave early to hop a flight to sunny Florida with Britt's family.
Momma, Daddo, KR and I had plans to stop and see my grandfather who just so happens to live right outside of Gatlinburg in Sevierville, TN.
Grandpa was giving his wife (and my third grandmother- Della) a Christmas in July so to speak.
He bought her an ipad and we picked it up and set them up with wi-fi.
Hot diggity dog! My grandparents are so two thousand and thirteen.

Teaching my grandfather about face time was priceless!
I am so excited about having this avenue to stay connected with him.
His health has been bad for a while and trips to see him are shorter an shorter as he can't tolerate very much activity.
This was a very special moment for me and my momma.  



And Kev was such an incredible teacher in introducing Della to the ipad. The man is amazing at giving instruction and direction and is so patient. Soooo patient. I mean he has to put up with me on daily basis :-)
I love his heart!
and i love this photo!

Della made us an amazing brunch!
biscuits and gravy, hash browns, waffles, bacon, sausage, fresh 'maters - finger-licking-good!
It was a great way to end our three day trip.

Love me some family road-trips!

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my favorite inside highlights and jokes from the trip
-that darn agenda
-my camera in all our faces
- my dad losing his cell phone in the casino
-my dad 's cell phone getting turned in and returned to him
-kev and i posted up at the black jack video machine. we would loose our money, win it all back, and sadly lost it again the next morning
- my dad being the luckiest freakin man and winning at every stinkin slot he touched. i swear it's not fair how lucky the man is at gambling. it's crazy! once he again he out won all of us.
- teaching my grandfather and della how to face time
-kevin rex teaching della how to use her ipad - melted my heart
-playing "adam from arkansas" in the car with my parents
-charlie making buddies with the man from south carolina at the roulette table
- watching someone place a 1200 dollar but at the roulette table and winning something like 7400 dollars. it was craaay.
- the lottery ticket frenzy
- scared we would be late riding the trolley and getting off half way there and deciding to hoof it the rest of the way, only to have the trolley pull up at the exact same time. so much for thinking we could out run it
-planning our lake house for the grandparents' retirement and their grandchildren ;-)