the essence

This weekend has been so fabulous!

Ray actually left me on Thursday to head to GA with his Dad & a couple of friends. Ray isn't great about getting his Dad birthday presents over the years, so this past year he gave him the gift of going to a NASCAR race.

Ray's Dad told him that if Ray helped on building the house for the week that he would pay for all of the extras for him: gas, food, pit passes, golfing. So, I think they've been having a pretty good time.

I enjoy some alone time so I don't mind him being gone, even though I do miss him.

On Friday my Mom drove over to spend some girl time with just the two of us. I was so excited about her coming over because I know this will probably be the last time we get to hang out alone like this for awhile. We went to visit Rachel & Ruth (she is so cute!) - my Mom hadn't seen her since she was three weeks old! We also went to a yummy Mediterranean bakery (today we're going to make grape leaves, Ray will be so happy when he comes home to those). We've stopped at Target a couple of times, of course had our coffee & finished Friday night off with home pedicures (yes, I can still reach my toes & give myself French tips, but they don't look as good as I used to be able to do).

Yesterday morning was my mommy shower! That was so much fun! Rach was the hostess & towards the end of planning Charisse joined in too. I had really been looking forward to it & I loved the ideas Rachel had. Presents for me instead of the baby was a lot of fun. And, instead of games, we took pictures of me with the guests after they arrived, had them printed out, & then had the guests scrapbook the page for a mini album. It turned out really cute!

And the food was delicious! We had creme brulee french toast, two kinds of homemade quiche, fruit salad, a yummy spritzer drink, coffee & mini cheesecakes. It was a nice intimate shower, only about 9 of us were there & to me that was nice, it wasn't too crowded or anything.

I'll post pictures later, but we have to go do coffee again - it's too cold not to!