First weekend in 'Bama

Cravings: a kitchen... I miss having a kitchen

I arrived right on time in Birmingham, and my sweet, gorgeous future sister in law Sarah picked me up from the airport. I was SO excited to see her and we snapped a pic to send Charlie, although we look 12 and 16 in this pic, I will post it anyway because I was so happy to see her.


Sarah and I went to her car where her hubbie Hunter and 4 mo old baby Will were waiting for us. I was so excited to finally meet my nephew, but of course didn't want to wake him up during naptime.


Look at him!!!!! Cutest baby boy.

We stopped at a place Sarah and Hunter always stop at when they go to and from the beach and we all got really good ice cream (except Will) and they got some peaches. I really enjoyed speaking with them in the car since I have spent so little time with Sarah and had never met Hunter. I also snacked on a snicker doodle Sarah made for us, since they are Charlie's favorite. Does anybody have any good snicker doodle recipes?

They drove me all the way to Birmingham and we met Charlie right off base at a Thai food restaurant. It was so good to see Charlie again. I think he actually gave me a hug and a kiss in public (well a pec) which he never does. Tee hee.  He and Hunter were engaging in boy conversation while Sarah and I were engaging in girl talk and picture taking. Of course. And of course Charlie did not cooperate:



I saw him doing the thumbs so I quickly copied him.

Finally he cooperated,

And then complained that pictures always take forever because I take so many. Charlie, I wouldn't take so many if you would just cooperate! Haha.

Here are the Shepherds:


And a close up of Baby Will:


Hunter and Charlie definitely joked that I would catch baby fever to which Charlie replied with the story of when I watched the Mountain boys and he came home and I said "I want a baby". How could you not when they come out looking this cute??

(I meant me of course....)

After a very mediocre pad see ew we drove to Enterprise, AL in the rain to stay with Charlie's dad and step mom Pat. I had never met either although Pat and I have spent hours communicating. We spent some time talking and looking at old pictures and family heirlooms before going to sleep. There is a picture of Charlie's mother Susan when she was a girl, and she looks so much like Charlie's older sister, Katie, I thought it was her!

That night I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep, because my fingers were swollen like giant sausages. It was painful!! My rings were completely stuck. I even woke Charlie up at one point (sorry love). We figured out it must have been from the Thai food, it must have been packed with sodium and I probably didn't drink half the water I usually do since I was traveling.

We hung out at the house and just relaxed. It was pretty rainy, yuck. Pat and Dale have two small dogs who are very sweet (I miss my dogs so much though, pout), and they also have 4 ducks. The ducks live on their back porch, and sometimes peck at the dog door. They aren't allowed in. I was excited about the ducks but not about their food - live crickets!




You can see the rainy yard in the background. They have a pond that is in the background - it wasn't jut a flooded yard.

On Sunday evening we drove to base and I met our next door neighbor. She and I ventured out to Publix, which was nearly impossible to find. I LOVED Publix. It is almost as good as Harris Teeter. They have a section where they have a "featured recipe" and every single item needed for that recipe is featured! Love.

I was also so happy when I found this:

Arizona Iced Tea packs!!!...so no need to send it to me mom.

The gym here is pretty nice and they have group fitness class on demand which is fun. I like it other than the fact that we are living in a hotel room and have no kitchen. I saw a recipe on pinterest this morning and I think I experienced pain knowing I couldnt' make it. Let's see what I can do with a microwave!! I already made a bowl of refrigerator oats...

I will post soon about "Hotel Room Living Essentials".

Also, it stopped raining today, hurray.
I missed the Bachelorette last night so I am off to go waste nearly 2 hours of my life I won't get back.