The Day my Family Eloped

A Holiday

by Ella Wheeler

The Wife
The house is like a garden,
The children are the flowers,
The gardener should come methinks...

The Husband
Impossible! You women do not know
The toil it takes to make a business grow.
I cannot join you until very late,
So hurry home, nor let the dinner wait.

Source: http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/a-holiday-by-ella-wheeler-wilcox#ixzz3lkPCVlEa
 

This weekend we eloped; we being the whole entire family of me, Jordan, the kids, and the two fur kids. Our elopement was marked by flip-flops, sandy hair, shaggy sweaters, and two overly excited dogs. The Atlantic Ocean was our music and the menu was salt water and jelly fish.

We secretly ran off to become one again. 

Our family needed to run off. We literally were forgetting to look at each other.

We needed to have a reason to take a break from the social media, tablets, and cellphones (especially me).

Outside of work, we really don't travel as much as I would like us to travel.  (Keywords: as much as I would like us to travel).  If my partner had it his way, we would stay within the confines of our 75 mile radius.  I, on the other hand, am a born rolling stone.  I really MUST have the wind beneath my wings.

This weekend, my dreams were temporarily placated with a trip to the beach. We even brought our fur children with us who got to experience the Atlantic Ocean (and sand, and beach, and wind, and everything else) for the first times in their short little lives.

This was probably one of the shortest most entertaining days I've had in a long time.  There's nothing more comforting and absolutely delicious than the looks on my dogs face when they entered the warm ocean for the first time.

xo

Enjoy

Ollie

My Last Trip to San Antonio, TX.

It's almost a year to the date from when my grandmother died. I was extremely close to my grandmother.  Most days, I still talk to her and ask her if my life is going the way she would have it go.  My grandmother was my mother by all intents and purposes. 

When I was younger, I lost my first of many mothers, my maternal grandmother, Margie. After that, I remember praying to God to send me a mother.  Throughout the years, he has sent me numerous mothers including my mother who lives in Selmer, TN, Melinda Ann.  She taught me how to treat everyone like they are blood. He also sent me my other mother in Thaxton, MS.  She taught me how to appreciate every lesson life taught me.  She also sent me my grandmummy, who taught me how to love everyone as if the Lord embedded that feeling in your heart.

I was so very close to  her. She brought so much love to my life. And, even in the last days, when the life started to leave her voice, she was still there telling me to charge forward and do the best I could because she was already proud of me.

I miss her EVERY SINGLE DAY.

These pictures I'm about to share are from the day of her funeral.  We walked around San Antonio, TX. I absolved myself to making this my last trip I would ever take to San Antonio, TX.  This city was her last resting place therefore, it is my last visit.

I know it's taken me a long time to post these.  However, consider this my moment of grief.