our second day in charleston was sunny and pretty, so we decided to escape the actual city, and head out to the wilderness for a bit. on our way, we stopped in at bitty and beau’s again. not only was a cute little shop, with good coffee, but the entire reason it exists is to […]
derek
charleston. day one.aquarium, rainbow row, city market.

derek’s parents have like eight billion timeshare points or credits or whatever however it works. and often they get free random extra stuff in the offseason. basically, they can’t possibly use up all the time each year, so they often gift us vacations. such was the case a few weeks ago, when they gave us […]
grandlidbom 50th!and related craziness.

as soon as christmas was in our rearview mirror, and we had recovered mostly from various illnesses, we began planning to host derek’s parents fiftieth wedding anniversary party at our house. i acquired generous amounts of sprinkles and golden decor at post christmas clearance sales. and everything was set. and then mayhem struck. the night […]
december 2019 miscellany.

firstly. let me go ahead and throw this out there. this post is disorganized and all over the place. i did my best to group like activities and such. but mostly, it’s just 100% random. but that’s sort of how our december was, i suppose. our first order of business in december was procuring a […]
all the christmasses, 2019.

in all the years that we have been local, we celebrate christmas early, with derek’s parents and his sister’s family, with a semi-swedish themed meal and gift exchange, at his parents house. i suppose they have celebrated it without us in the years that we weren’t local, but i guess i’ll allow it. anyhoooo. here’s […]
polar express(great smoky mountain railroad).

we love watching and reading the polar express every year at christmas, and always say that someday we should ride the one of the many polar express themed train rides offered in our neck of the woods. well, our “maybe someday” turned into this year, when our family gift from the grandlidboms was a polar […]
november, randomness.

after a month filled with exciting travel in october, november was pretty chill. even though it’s not quite the same as fall in western new york, it’s still my favorite season in north carolina. cooler temps. pumpkin themed foods. upcoming holidays. falling leaves. fewer bugs. you get the idea. here’s how our november went. we […]
being thankful in batavia.

now that we are (stuck) back in winston-salem, we are back to figuring out how to spend various holidays. i was determined to spend christmas in the stupid new house, because the ONLY time i ever missed having a house while we were on the road was christmastime. so, that made thanksgiving a perfect time […]
forty three.

in november, i turned 43. sounds very old when i say it out loud or see it in writing. like a grownup, even. anyhooooo. the derek and the kids kicked off my birthday morning but going out and picking up a starbucks peppermint mocha and bagel station salt bagels and chive cream cheese. so good. […]
shenendoah national park.part two.

our second full day in shenendoah was beautiful. unfortunately, so overnight wind and rain had knocked a LOT of leaves off the trees. there was a distinct difference in fall foliage between the two days. on tap for the day was a short little hike that derek discovered that took us up to bearfence mountain. […]