Laborious Labor Day

hallelujah! it's already tuesday!! i vote for 4 day weeks EVERY WEEK!

upon reflection of the past weekend, i want to say that i am thankful for my job and the opportunity to take a paid day off just for that purpose. i have a job. i am thankful for my job.

having that said, i had a great weekend celebrating my paid day off from the job in which i am thankful. and, i enjoyed every play, every minute, every touchdown, every rocky top tune, and every speck of orange that i was able to take in! go vols!

our weekend to SEARK (southeast arkansas) was packed, as it always is. we spent friday and saturday night with j's parents. they are always super hospitable and have "happy" gifts for us upon our arrival. this time - we got some yummy dip and soup mixes! i cannot wait to bust those out this fall!

we really enjoyed our visit with j's family. we had not seen them since Christmas!! we shopped around the local stores and ms. jenn took us to a fresh market. lawd. they had fresh farm grown veggies galore.oh how i miss fresh veggies from the garden. one of my favorite vegetables growing up were purple hull peas. i have yet to find them here in TN so when i saw them bagged up laying on that table ready to be eaten, or frozen - i felt like i had struck gold. i think we bought them out of all of their purple hull peas, not to be confused with crowder peas - so not the same thing. the same place that was the veggie haven also would prepare catfish fillets and fried frog legs. holy canoly. i was in southern soul food fried heaven! guess what we had for dinner that evening? you guessed it - fried fish, frog legs, and purple hull peas. this southern gal couldn't have been happier.

thanks for a wonderful weekend, hurst family!

Justin and his Ma & Big Dad

The Fam.

remember in this post when i said one of my favorite things about fall is fun fall wreathes? ut ohhhhhhhhhh. j and i may have purchased the most fun fall wreath i have ever seen! after striking gold with the peas, i struck double gold at the florist. if you live in SEARK and have a slight obsession like me with wreaths or fun decor - go visit Shepherd's florist in pine bluff. omigoodness. i loooove their wreaths - they are all different and very whimsical. here's my new little orange-y, fall-y, yummy piece of door goodness.

sunday, j and i headed further south to my dad's house and he did not disappoint in the dove department! he and his buddies had a blast blastin' the doves and we had a blast devouring them! and, he let us bring some home for future enjoyment! thanks, dad!!

since it's harvest time in SEARK, my dad was going to have to get up and go to work early on monday - labor day. i know, it's a sin. he said that the crops don't celebrate labor day, so he must labor. boooo. meg, j and i decided to go on and load up to head back east on sunday evening - at 10pm. go ahead. you can call us crazy. we have this sick little reasoning in our heads that once the dinner and party is over - we might as well just go on home. we got home at 4am. the frazzlin' morning news had already come on when we finally rolled back into the nashvegas.

it was so nice to have yesterday to sleep, rest, regroup, watch football, and catch up on laundry, as opposed to spending our entire day off in the car. and, did i mention that i took a nice long 5 mile run to try to 1/2 way forgive myself for the fried gluttony of the weekend? oops.

that was our labor day treat to ourselves. being home. together. enjoying the day.

and, it's already tuesday :)