Catching up, and the best fortune cookie of my life

I’ve been way off the grid, guys.

My mom visited for a long weekend, and I completely unplugged for 4 days. No blogs, no working out, and very very little social media…it was a nice break, but I’m itching to get back on track. (Especially with my training—I have a race to run in less than 2 weeks!)

Today, I feel like I’m waking up from a dream, and I’m still pretty groggy. So bear with me until I snap out of it! In the meantime, here are some pics of what we’ve been up to…

First of all, check out this amazing Mother’s Day watermelon:

…courtesy of the chef at a little rustic spot called Quivey’s Grove, where my mom and I had brunch on Mother’s Day.

You could eat in either the farmhouse or the barn—we ended up in the barn. Which isn’t a bad thing at all, as you can see:

The first part of our meal involved a giant buffet with different cheeses, fruit, and pastries. I could have gone home happy with just that.

For my entrée, I ordered chicken and biscuits. My mom got the omelet—she won, hands down. (Mine was just a lot saltier than I’m used to, but still very good.)

After brunch, we did some shopping, and then spent the rest of the day doing—wait for it—yardwork.

Sounds like a pretty lame way to spend a holiday, I know. But we actually had a really good time working outside together. The weather was perfect for it—a little chilly and overcast, not too hot or cold—and let me tell you: once you get into weeding, it’s (weirdly) addictive. You start out with the intention of cleaning out a little area, and before you know it, you’re halfway around the house.

Or maybe that’s just me being Type A. Anyway.

Our main project was to dig 20+ hostas out from under our deck. I’ve been dying to get them out of there for 3 years now. Every summer, it’s like a mini jungle under there, and so impossible to maintain, given the 5 foot ceiling overhead and my total lack of ability/interest in maintaining landscaping.

The result: a mole city.

We replanted some of the hostas along the side of the house in a neat row:

…moved some plants around, divided a few overgrown plants, and did a MASSIVE amount of weeding. Meanwhile, Brent replaced some dead trees in our backyard.

By the end of the whole adventure, we were all exhausted, and pretty dang deserving (we thought) of some greasy, naughty-but-oh-so-good Chinese takeout.

And that’s when it happened.

I got the most accurate, and possibly most important, fortune cookie of my life.

I mean, RIGHT??

So, see? It’s my destiny to go on a vacation. And you don’t mess with destiny.

Yesterday, we worked on the yard for a few more hours in the morning, and then hit up CherryBerry for frozen yogurt in the afternoon.

Somehow, during the time I wasn’t eating dairy, all these self-serve frozen yogurt havens popped up all over town, and I had to wait for months to actually go to one. Torture.

Finally, the wait is over.

I regretted the coconut…and maybe got a little heavy-handed with the Kit Kats…but the chocolate-covered cookie dough bites were unbelievable. My yogurt flavor picks were espresso, cookie monster (cookies and cream), and salted caramel pretzel (or something like that). Oh, baby.

Since it was a chilly Monday afternoon, the place was empty, so we let Mason roam around while we ate. (I got him a tiny bowl of dairy-free mango yogurt, but he wasn’t a fan. Got a great video of his way-too-cold sour face expression, though.)

He was obsessed with that textured table for some reason.

Mom and I—blurry pics for the win.

So there you go! That’s what I’ve been up to. I should be officially back to real life and regular blogging soon…stay tuned!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day!