the South.

Not too long ago, my blog buddy Kodi wrote a post that got me thinking. I could completely see where she was coming from and I told her so, but then it made me do a bit more soul searching.

I am ridiculously proud to be from the South. Call me closed minded or whatever, but there is nowhere else I want to live. I've lived in the Midwest, my parents live up North and they are both great places, but my heart is deeply rooted in the South.

Why is that?

When I think of the South, I think of deeply rooted family ties, pride in where you come from, Spanish moss, long summer days, history, boys in seersucker, little girls in smocked dresses and big bows, sweet tea, a big front porch, pearls, and old ladies in hair parlors. I. Love. It. Here.

I think sometimes the pride that Southerners have can come off a bit as arrogance. And maybe sometimes we are arrogant because 99% of people I know down here, truly think the South is the best. It's a deep, deep pride. People from Texas to me are sort of the same. They just love where they live.

Tradition is big down here. From how we dress our kids, to how we dress ourselves, to how we decorate and take care of our home. Things are instilled in us at a young age down here that maybe aren't hit quite as hardcore elsewhere. Manners are HUGE. Yes ma'am, no sir, please, thank you, thank you notes; they're not optional in many families and I love that. Perhaps a good dose of politeness would do this country good no?

Because we live in such a traditional part of the country, I think we fight hard to keep those alive in a country that seems to be moving so fast away from the slow, easy paced lifestyle we try to live. Maybe that comes across as snobbish to some when we talk about our stationery, our homes, our children in the way we do, but we won't apologize. This is important to us.

I'm not saying we are more polite than everyone else for sure. I've met some rude people all over this country. Another thing I think is the sign of the times. Sadness. Someone also made the comment about us not going out "not done". Well.. that's sort of true. While I will go to Wal*Mart in my pajamas, my makeup will be done. That's from my Grandma and I love it. I think it's another Southern thing. It's different down here y'all.

All this to say, the blog land is so awesome because it opens your eyes up to so many different areas of the county. Most of my closest blog friends are from up North and do things a lot different than me. And that's totally cool. They don't judge me when I dress my kid in the big 'ol smocking they don't care for while I don't judge them when their babies wear jeans which I don't care for. And isn't that the point of blogging? So you can meet people from all over and see what different areas of the country are proud of and whats important to them?

I love the South. I'll never apologize for that. So you tell me... where are you from and what do you love most about it?

accessories

I posted recently about how much of a girl BG is becoming every single day. Every day I see less and less baby and more and more of how she is becoming an independent little girl.

Case in point:

This morning, I got her up and dressed to head to her sitter. We'd spent a leisurely morning playing and watching tv so at lunch time, it was time to get dressed. I picked out a dark colored romper for her to wear since I knew they would be having a cupcake at the sitters today.

I wanted her to wear her white sandals with the romper but could not find those suckers anywhere so I gave up and grabbed her new pink flowered sandals. We sat down on the floor to put them on and homegirl LOST it. I'm talking hysterically crying.

I figured that I had tightened them too much and was hurting her so I loosened them up but the crying didn't let up one bit. I stood her up and she would. not. move. She actually stood bent in half just crying her eyes out.

So I took the shoes off.

The crying stopped. I went and grabbed one of her pink sneakers and one of her glitter flip flops and brought them to her. She picked up that flip flop and then helped me find the other one, walked up to me and said "dues?".

Okay.

So she picked out her shoes because she was fine with these. Nice. As we were walking to the front door, I called out for her to come on and she came walking out of her room carrying a pink knit hat saying "dat?".

So she wore a hat.

My sixteen month old is accessorizing. How is this happening?

And she's looking pretty darn cute while doing so.

wordless wednesday: family time afternoon

homesick.

I'm going to go ahead and give myself a little pat on the back for a second. I have handled this move to small town South Carolina much better than I've been known to handle change in the past.

As I was driving home (wow, home?) the other day, I was laughing about something a friend said at work and thinking about our weekend plans when it hit me; we are actually building a life here.

I'm figuring out these roads, finding the good places to shop, slowly making some great friends, booking photo shoots, and carving out a life for us here.

Unfortunately we still haven't found a church yet (sigh) which is wearing me down. Sunday morning as I sat in church, I saw a guy that I thought looked just like one of my favorite people at church back home. Before I knew it, I had a lump in my throat the size of Texas and I was homesick.

I try not to dwell on it too much because I truly, truly do like it here, but today, I miss home.

I miss being in a church where people know us. Where the nursery workers look forward to seeing Baby Girl each week. Where our friends are in Sunday School with us and our kids are growing up together.

I miss my friends. I miss that we're all finally in the same stage of life again (married with kids) and I'm no longer there. I hate that I'm not seeing those babies grow up and the life I envisioned with our kids being best friends probably isn't going to happen (although I'd be lying if I said I wasn't still hell bent on making that happen).

I miss the beach. I miss sitting on my grandparents back porch watching the boats on the river. I miss skiing and boating. I miss swimming in the river.

I miss girl's nights out. I miss Riverstreet. I miss downtown. I miss Cancun for mexican. I miss Sakura and how they knew my name and my order every single time. I miss the Crab Shack. I miss Tybee.


I miss my soccer team. I miss my work buds. Heck, I even miss my job. I miss my grandparents (especially now). I miss Sunday dinners.

Le sigh...

It's just hard signing onto Facebook and seeing pictures of the Savannah summer that I'm missing.

Dang it Savannah, I just freaking miss you.

Although I do not miss your heat but South Carolina is giving you a run for your money.

I'm doing fine here, I am. I have everything I need in this little house, I'm just a tad homesick. I think I just need beach time....

guest post

So check it out, Jess over at The Poop Whisperer needed some guest posts a while ago and somehow I got lucky enough to snag a spot! I'm writing about the elusive work/home/Mommy balance that I'm still looking for. Obviously when I wrote that the big upheaval of going back to work part time hadn't occurred yet, but even still, the point is the same. So head on over and leave me a little bit of love so I'll know you stopped by! While there, check out some of the other posts from the amazing ladies that write over there.