Home Sweet Home: Part Two

The pictures have been posted! I can now provide you with a visual of one of the most glorious weekends of my life. Sounds like an exaggeration, but it really was so good to be home and with my family and friends. And here are a few of the reasons why the weekend was so memorable... We had a good time catching up and sharing stories Thursday night at Nicole's house... Deirdre and I stayed up talking once we got ready for bed when it dawned on me that we had been discussing the storylines of shows and lives of TV characters for a solid 45 minutes as if they were our friends. This should embarrass me, but it is so me and Deirdre, that I just think it's hysterical.


We woke up in the morning feeling like P-Diddy and started off our morning with a trip to see Nana and Uncle Jerry in Alexandria! Nana was so sweet to have breakfast ready when we got there even though it was so early... french toast, yum! Nana told me that she enjoys my blog and it sounds like I am eating and drinking my way through Texas - haha, she's totally right. I better write more about my adventures outside of restaurants and bars. After spending time at Nana's, we jumped in the car and were on our way to good ole' Charlottesville! Mom greeted us in the driveway by giving a big hug and kiss, Lilly (our crazy little fur-ball) greeted us in the driveway by peeing with excitement. Some things never change. We were on our way to Sam's Club to prepare for the big weekend at the Lauer house. As to be expected, the shopping trip was pretty uneventful except for Deirdre running into Nicole's heel with the grocery cart, bringing me back to moments of terror as a child when I accidentally did that to my Mom. It really is one of the most surprisingly painful things in the world. We headed home and got to work... preparing fruit trays, slicing veggies, whipping up red lobster cheese biscuits (I had a hard time eating these knowing what went in them.... well, I had a hard time eating more than two... eh, three), stocking the coolers... we were quite the team with Mom as our captain. After we had finished all the prep work, Dad returned home from work! It was so much fun being with the whole fam. We spent the rest of the night relaxing, grilling out, drinking wine... I was even able to sneak away for a couple hours to meet my good friends Vail and Elizabeth at Arches, our favorite high school hot spot, for frozen yogurt. Such a treat to see them... and to enjoy Arches! Fast forward to Saturday morning...
It's hard for me to write about Foxfield without feeling like I'm sharing a hundred inside jokes or moments where you just "had to be there". That's no fun for those that weren't present, so I will sum it up in a list of my favorite things from the day...

• Apple Pie Shooters (a Lauer tradition) - I threatened people to take them insisting that it was a part of Lauer initiation... gets 'em every time.
• Meredeath. She gets a bullet point all for herself becuse she is my third sister and I was so excited to see her! Dad has nicknamed her D4 = Daughter #4. It's official.
• Spending the day with my Richmond pals... Jobe, Courtney, Brad, Allison and Kellen... so glad they could make it, and Richmond kids know how to have a good time.
• Auctioning off Jobe while walking around the field... "22, single, white, female... only 22 for 3 more days, get 'er while she's hot"..... BAMA BANGS!
• Getting a good laugh out of classic and not-so-classic Foxfield attire (paisley button-down with plaid shorts, seersucker snuggie, girls in spandex and t-shirts, etc...)
• Watching people steal food from our plot and being reprimanded for it. I understand taking one chik-fila nugget (who can blame them?), but six at a time? One girl from the next plot over grabbed seven reeses cup cookies, placed them in a napkin, and started to walk away... my sweet friend Amanda Jobe with her sweet southern accent was quick to corner her and ask if she was part of our plot.... the girl claimed that she thought our plots were joined, and Amanda set her straight by grabbing the cookies from her hand and placing them back on the food table. I realize that I sound like a middle schooler in the middle of a fight on the playground, but it was priceless. I love that girl. Jobe, not the cookie thief.
• CHEESE BALLS. This jar had at least 87 hands in it by the end of the night. These cheese balls were famous, Foxfield-wide. I even danced with them on stage to Madonna's "Like a Prayer". Yes, there was a dance floor at a Foxfield plot this year. We continued to eat them up until the end of the night... it was like the never-ending jar of cheese balls. Gross.
  
• Brad and I yelling "COLLEGE" at the top of our lungs while we were leaving the field.
  

We returned home to Mom's baked ziti, relaxing around the fire-pit, card games at the kitchen table, kickin' music by DJ Dad, and good company. Sunday came way too fast and after everyone took off, it was just the six of us (Tony too, this time!) again. I must say that the favorite part of my trip home was sitting in the bonus room with my family and watching home videos from wayyy back. We were practically crying from laughing so hard. I don't know how Mom and Dad put up with the three of us, especially me... I wouldn't have blamed them if they had locked me outside after I was constantly jumping in front of the camera every time they were trying to film someone else... "LOOK AT ME! I CAN SING! I CAN DANCE!" Wow. I'm glad they put up with me though. Best family ever.