friday- check
road trip- check
good company- check
holiday on monday- check
SUPER EXCITED- check, check

sometimes you try to prove a point...i decided it was kind of liberating to mow the grass...you know, in a "i'm a girl and i can totally do it" kind of way (and i thought it burned calories).  well, it bit me in the you know what, b/c i am now covered in poison ivy.  awesome.   yea, i think i'm done with you mr. lawn mower.  conquered and totally paying for it....right before labor day.

*images courtesy of pearls and peonies, phoebe howard, gardiner & larson, muse interiors

i hope y'all had a wonderful weekend....ours ended too quickly.  i have been cooking w/ pinterest again and we are officially back friends.....i'll do a post on some of the recipes i tried that didn't make me look bad later this week.

racing out the door for meetings today, but i wanted to leave you with some pretty things to help start your day....

wow.  so this is what silence sounds like.  it's officially the first day of school.  we managed to get two kiddos off to school...and no tears were shed by walker (a pure miracle), taylor, or me (i got them out last night).  while having the house to myself is nice (and much needed), i must say, i miss those little munchkins.  

Dear Pinterest, i don't know how you do it but you make me cook stuff i would never even image doing before you came along.  and 85% of the time, mine turns out terrible.....this is what i decided to make last night for dinner: chik-fil-a bites and crispy edamame.  i was excited about it, really i was.  just an hour before i began, my friend and i had a huge conversation about recent pinterest recipes we had pinned.

 i wish i had taken a picture of what mine looked like.  it was pitiful.  first of all, i have never fried anything in my life (again, a perfect example of how pinterest gets me to do crazy things).  i usually eat pretty healthy and here i was with my dutch oven and lots of cooking oil, burning pitiful chicken that i had marinaded in pickle juice for 3 hrs.  then i pulled out my crispy edamame from the oven....oh, i wish i had taken a picture, it was awful.  they tasted horrible.  my husband asked what they were (and we had just eaten these this past weekend)...they were unrecognizable.

here's a picture of my cooking....for walker's b'day i decided i had to make these elmo cupcakes.  the picture below is mine and it says it all:

they tasted so awful i wanted to cry.  especially since it was for walker's b'day.  the red food coloring never mixed w/ the homemade icing i made.  and on top of that red food coloring taste awful.  

ending on a positive note, i made this on monday night (despite never eating korean beef in my life).  it was delicious!!  and it was easy and quick which is a total plus in my book.  of course, mine looked nothing like the picture!!

in true darby fashion, we made a huge decision yesterday (basically 1 wk before school starts) to take tay out of her small, church school she has been in and send her to big school to start 5k.  i have realized that maybe i am the one who doesn't like change.  i want to keep her in a bubble (forever).  it's hard to let her grow up...i want to protect her from everything.....i feel like it's the right decision but it's still so hard, for me i guess.  it's going to be ok, no it's going to be good, and i'm not looking back.  done. wipe your tears away. she'll be fine, right?!!!

we're actually staying in town for a weekend!!  i plan on going to the farmer's market, having a date night, and de-cluttering our house.  hope y'all have a wonderful one...see you next week!

i hope to do a dark room in my next project....i love it in a bathroom or powder room!  speaking of loving, i wish my ponytail looked that pretty...not so much, still feel like i look like i'm in elementary school every time i sport one :)

just a reminder.....

cheers.  i survived the week w/ my husband away for work.  i have successfully been to the zoo, library, children's museum, target, the mexican restaurant, doctor and my hometown.  i think wine tonight is a must :)  hope y'all have a happy weekend.  speaking of wine, this guy is my new fav!

on monday, i surprised my mom for her b'day and went home.  my hometown is small; i grew up downtown next to the college.  we could walk everywhere: to church, to the bakery to get candy and smiley face cookies, to my parents' offices, to school (i actually only did it twice & hated every minute of it), to restaurants, and to our favorite hangouts to meet old friends....
i love going back.  i always go to the same places, now w/ my kids, maybe to recreate my childhood memories: smiley face cookies, chocolate glazed doughnuts (my dad got these every sat. am), story time at the library (which happens to be done by my mother still)...i've added a few new things: a walk to get the best coffee (drew barrymore stopped here too), i pop into the local antique stores (that don't have air conditioning for some reason), i always visit the post office (i haul fabric everywhere), and a quick trip into the cute clothing boutiques.  yesterday, i walked to pick up my mom's favorite chicken salad, i took the short cut through the bank to get there, and i passed so many familiar faces.  it made me smile.  that is something that you cannot replace....it's just home.  and it feels so good.