We spent last week with my sister, brother-in-law, and two nephews in Chattanooga and my heart is full. Your’s would be, too, if you had a whole week of this goodness:
Miles will be 3 in April and is currently potty training, which provided some top notch entertainment! We pulled into the driveway to see him practicing his aim on their retaining wall. Then, after we unloaded our (second) cooler full of elk meat into Katie’s freezer, Miles helped us empty it of ice. AC made a game of throwing the ice against the concrete to break it up, all while singing “ice ice, baby” which is now a permanent fixture in Miles’ vocabulary!
Baby Thomas is probably the most zen baby you’ll ever meet. And he’s very generous with his adorable smiles. He’s working on his roll-overs and even graced our visit with a few of them.
I love visiting Katie and crew because life is easy. We just enjoy each others’ company and the silly antics of a threenager. We have plenty of time to catch up, we take naps, we cook at home, we go to bed early, and it’s wonderful.
Toward the end of our visit, college basketball conference tournaments began. For anyone new-ish to us, AC used to be the Director of Operations for UNC Greensboro’s women’s basketball team. She is still close to the coaching staff and some of the players so we continued following their season this year. We watched them play in the SoCon conference and, when they won their semi-final game, we made plans for a stopover in Asheville so we could watch the championship in-person. It was fun being back in Asheville, seeing all of AC’s old colleagues, as well as some of her former players from 2019, and cheering on the Spartans. They put up a good fight, but, unfortunately, did not come out on top this year.
In between cities, we drove by 3 potential properties. One of them was gorgeous, but too remote for me. Two of them were mountain-side, which makes it hard to do homesteady things like garden. We also met a very interesting fellow, named Sharky, at one of the properties and he cautioned us against driving too much farther up the mountain because his neighbor, Ernie, might meet us with a shotgun. ‘Nough said, Sharky, thanks for the warning! Needless to say, those three spots are no longer on the list.
Now we’re back in Greensboro (again) for AC’s 6-week post-op follow up. We were each able to schedule several other doctor appointments while we’re here so it’s been a productive visit back in our old stomping grounds.
Until next time,
Charli
Keep pushing forward! That right spot will come along, in time.
Clare Blackwell
A shotgun? Oh my!
It was only a matter of time, given the places we’re looking lol