have you missed me?

Over the past 10 days I've been on the computer only once to check email. I've been up in the Northeast totally enjoying the cooler temperatures. First stop was Long Island for a reunion of my husband's high school friends, and then on to Newport for the week for my niece's wedding.

We stayed with my sister and her family while on LI and visited the yacht club where I'd been a member since I was 12 years old, until age 35.
I can't believe I've been in Atlanta 20 years!
~Jen and Hanna~ thanks for your hospitality!
On Sunday afternoon we drove out east to catch the ferry from Orient Point to New London, with a stop along the way to visit a winery and have lunch in Greenport.
Our historic house in Newport
The Baldwin Cottage

my beautiful room
It was Father's Day and the dads opted to stay home, watch the US Open Golf and barbecue while the rest of us who came the first day headed to town for some fun!
We started off walking to town and then took the trolley, which actually let us off for a longer walk then just walking in the first place. Our house was only a few blocks to town and I don't think anyone rode it again all week.

Our welcome to Newport dinner with a "party of a cocktail" for the entire table. A great kickoff to a fun filled week!

~more Newport fun in the next post~

Dear Mother Nature...

Please be an angel and keep my plants watered until I get back to them.

With all the scattered storms we've been having I hope you'll be able to answer my request.

I'd love for my Petunias to be this healthy when we get back to the Lake for the Fourth,

and my ever hearty Begonias too!

I've got the red, white and blue all ready
to decorate for the July 4th weekend.

See you in 2 weeks Lake house for some more family fun!

playing dress up with a boy?

Okay... he wasn't crazy about it... he cried when I put the hat on, but we wanted to see if his new sailing outfit would fit. If he's going on his first sailing adventure he has to look the part, right?!

our little sailor man

view from the back

"are we done here"

Okay Baby C, thanks for humoring us,
but... you look sooo cute in your new sailor duds!

to all my blog friends and gal pals...

Recently, a friend sent this to me and I want to share it with you...

"A thought to share… on the mind-body connection--the relationship between stress and disease. The speaker (head of psychiatry at Stanford) said, among other things, that one of the best things that a man could do for his health is to be married to a woman whereas, for a woman, one of the best things she could do for her health was to nurture her relationships with her girlfriends. At first everyone laughed, but he was serious. Women connect with each other differently and provide support systems that help each other to deal with stress and difficult life experiences. Physically this quality "girlfriend time" helps us to create more seratonin--a neurotransmitter that helps combat depression and can create a general feeling of well being.

Women share feelings whereas men often form relationships around activities. They rarely sit down with a buddy and talk about how they feel about certain things or how their personal lives are going.

Jobs? Yes. Sports? Yes. Cars? Yes. Fishing, hunting, golf? Yes. But their feelings?--rarely. Women do it all of the time. We share from our souls with our sisters, and evidently that is very good for our health. He said that spending time with a friend is just as important to our general health as jogging or working out at a gym!

There's a tendency to think that when we are "exercising" we are doing something good for our bodies, but when we are hanging out with friends, we are wasting our time and should be more productively engaged--not true.

In fact, he said that failure to create and maintain quality personal relationships with other humans is as dangerous to our physical health as smoking! So every time you hang out to shmooze with a gal pal, just pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for doing something good for your health! We are indeed very very lucky. Sooooo let's toast to our friendship with our girlfriends. Evidently it's very good for our health!"

You are all good for my health and I thank you for that! A cyber-toast to us... and let's all keep shmoozing!

something's fishy

Our lakehouse cottage has quite a few "fishy" touches here and there...

The antique chest hand painted by an Atlanta artist
holds our board games.

He also did the two benches we use at our dining table.

Every room's gotta have a few plates!

And you always need a rug by the back door...

Of course it's not all fish themed, I wouldn't go "overboard" and do that.
I'll show you some more of our little summer cottage next time.
In the meantime have a great weekend!

3 months of joy!

I love being a grandma!

blue in bloom

We came home from the Lake to the Hydrangeas in our front yard in full bloom. These are the stems that were touching the ground so I had to save them and bring them indoors.
Simply gorgeous... don't you think?!

sharing a bit of beauty with you

love this face!

So many cute faces from one adorable little guy...

I am one proud grandma!