Mullets and More

I'm absolutely exhausted.

Having Brad's buddies, Chase and Matt, over (I guess you can call them mine too, but they were really here for him) has been so fun, but for me, it's meant staying up way too late and getting up too early. Of all weekends, Noah decided he wanted to get up at 7am everyday.
You never really realize how much noise your baby makes until you have other people in your house trying to sleep. Friday night, the boys went to see a late movie and didn't get to bed till almost 4am. Obviously, they weren't ready to get up at 7 with Noah and me.
I did my best. I tried to take him where nobody could  hear him, but that's pretty hard. Noah likes to squeal and "talk" very loudly. Lots of "eeeeeeeee!!" and "DADADADA"s going on. Not very conducive for sleep. :) I even took him outside for awhile. I didn't let the dogs out, because our garage is right underneath one of the bedrooms. But of course, they heard me outside and started barking. This kind of thing makes me so darn stressed.

Anyway, I had a blast making food for them. Friday night, I roasted some chicken and made some roasted garlic mashed potatoes. They didn't eat it till 3am, but it didn't matter to me, as long as they ate it and liked it. Saturday morning, I made them scrambled eggs, bacon, grits, and biscuits (with some homemade Boysenberry jam from the Farmers Market). They ate every last bit of it. I was good and ate my Kashi cereal before I started cooking, so I wouldn't be tempted to eat any of it. I did have a slice of bacon, though. I think I deserved it. :)
They helped Brad with the fence.

I swear, if this thing gets finished before Noah's 1st birthday, it'll be a miracle.

We had my cousin's wedding to go to, so while we headed for the boonies of SC, the boys enjoyed some time on the lake. Jealous.
Some of the highlights of the trip:
- keeping tabs on the location of the rest of the fam with constant phone calls
- my aunt's new husband (who was leading the way for the majority of the family) getting them all lost, including my grandparents who had to walk down the aisle... my other aunt called us for help, giving me intructions to hold off the wedding, because if MamMaw misses this, she's just going to die of embarrassment.
- the signage: Possum Holler Rd and Swamp Rabbit Storage were the top favorites
- the mullets... no trip to SC is complete without several sightings of the infamous mullet

We had a great time with the family. The wedding was sweet and definitely their style. It was in the mountains (I didn't realize SC had mountains) at this outdoor facility. It was originally supposed to be outside, but it started to rain, so they did the next best thing and used their reception site. We really enjoyed it; they're a sweet couple. It's so weird that he's married. I still picture him as the little 11 year old that tagged along on our beach trips and shared my birthday song at the grandparents' with me (he also has an Oct bday). Now he's the 23 year old that tags along on our beach trips... with a wife in tow. So weird.

Noah did amazingly well on the trip. It took us 6 hours in all, to and from. He only slept for an hour of it, but he never fussed. I think we could've made better time, but we now have to factor in diaper breaks.

(Noah playing with his uncle Harrison during the ceremony)

We didn't stay too long, since we had a tired baby and guests waiting on us at home. Once we got back, we grilled out burgers and just hung out. I think they were just exhausted from the weekend, so we all crashed kinda early. Ok, they crashed early. I stayed up to clean and prepare breakfast for the next morning.

I made this French Toast Casserole. It's sinful. Paula Deen's food always is. Matt even took a picture of the recipe with his phone, so he could make it when he went home. I'd been dying to make this for at least a year now. I just knew if I made it, there wouldn't be enough people around to eat it. It was totally worth the wait.

The guys went to the NRA convention that was in town. Only one of them actually owns a gun, but they were all excited about going. I'm sure they saw their fill of mullets there too. Matt went home last night, and I dropped Chase off at the airport this morning.

On a more depressing note, Brad's uncle Tommy passed away this weekend. It was unexpected, and we're all pretty sad about it. He was the one who told Brad to marry me when we were kids. He was so fun and always made a point to tell Brad to watch out or he was going to steal me away from him. He was one of my favorites out of all the relatives. We're going to miss him.

I guess on the plus side, this means Brad's brother is coming into town. He'll be staying with us, so he and Brad will get to spend plenty of time together. And he's never met Noah, so that'll be fun.

My ankle is doing much better. Fortunately, I didn't miss too much of my P90x. I was on week 4, which is a more relaxed week.

Guess what else is coming up in a couple of weeks??

My high school reunion!!