My office has a 100 mile rule

that means you can’t spend the night if your destination is within 100 miles of your ‘base.’ So it was back-and-forth for me a couple of days this past week; two hour drives both to and from makes for long days –

Lots going on in our lives right now so I tried to slow down and see the beauty in the journey – like the fog on the lake [not so much fun on the road…]

And when I travel I like take my lunch hour to explore the town I'm in and this has always been a favorite place to shop. It's an "old-timey five and dime" store complete with soda fountain bar - FUN! And they have some great deals too!

The bathroom is almost done – as noted in the post below – they’ve only worked on it eight days and they told us it would take 14 days when they started so I have to hand it to them for a job well-done. I look forward to sharing it all with you soon. Afterwards you’ll have no doubt that we’re [more than a] bit quirky.

With so much dust in the house there was very little decorating for Valentine's Day - just a little banner on the mirror of our bathroom [which also needs a little updating!]...and a delish meal at Old Heidelberg -- my all-time favorite restaurant here in town.

We got some fun [and exciting] news from the youngest this week [crazy photo he posted on fb a couple of years ago - lol. Love those eyes -] – he’s been chosen as one of ten engineering students to study abroad for a mini-semester --- in China! He’ll be gone most of the month of May and I’m just tickled pink that he has this opportunity. [And yes, my old nemesis, anxiety, is already visiting – but we let the oldest go to France with a group of high school kids when he was 16, so why not?!] We have a friend who visits China regularly for work so it really doesn’t seem like such a far away place anymore…and really, he's an adult now and doesn't need our consent anymore - how's THAT for a wake-up call?!?

Craig had a family friend [who has been ill for 18 months] pass away this week [and a year ago this week his dad passed away] so not a great week... He was in The Shoals for the funeral while I stayed with the workers and caught up on my Letter Love 101 class. Please pray for this family as they come to mind as the wife and son both have serious illnesses they are dealing with right now in addition to the loss of their husband / father.

He and the oldest went hunting on the weekend – here is oldest with his first two rabbits. Since I didn’t grow up in a hunting family it all still seems a bit odd to me. But I can see the need to clear out the population a bit and from the amount of droppings I’ve seen in my backyard, I think they could just sit on the patio and get all they wanted – if that was legal.

I did some thrifting on Saturday – favorite finds were a handmade Mardi Gras pin [you’ll see it tomorrow,] and a typing textbook from 1952; {{{love}}} that it has handwritten notes in it.

I also picked up some books for smash journals for a quarter each – Salvation Army is the best for books! Then I had lunch with some friends I haven’t seen for a while and we started planning a couple’s shower for some of the youngsters in our group…they’re growing up fast…