More than just baby on the brain: Leadership Camp & Nashville

Yes, it's true. I think about the baby about 90% of the time.  But I promise, we've been up to so much more!

Two weeks ago my nephew was born. And I continue to get precious picture updates from my brother and sister-in-law, like this:

Have you seen anything more adorable? I didn't think so.

I told you I was getting worried about having the baby, asked you to guess if it's going to be a boy or girl, gave you a 19 week update and then I disappeared for a week!

Sunday night I left for Oxford, Georgia.  Don't know where that is?  It's in the middle of no where, about an hour and a half from my suburb of Atlanta.  It's home to the orignal Emory campus.  It's charming, quaint and adorable.  I wish I'd brought my camera.  

What did I do in hotter-than-hell middle Georgia?  I co-directed a week long Archdiocesan leadership camp for teens known as Christian Leadership Institute or CLI.  This is a nationally recognized program that we facilitate locally for our teens, and I am pleased to be a part of it for the last four summers. Our group was smaller than usual this summer, but a pleasure to work with nonetheless.

CLI ended on Friday around 7.  I quickly headed home, but not without a trip to Target first.  I found a few accessories to complete my look for the wedding on Saturday. I bought a super trendy headband with some embellishments on it (think Blair Waldorf on Gossip Girl) and a few new pairs of big earrings.  I needed a splurge after the long week of camp.

Saturday morning we were on the road by 8:15.  And that included a trip to/from the farmers market.  The drive to Nashville went by quickly, as Eric and I had to much to catch up on from being apart for a week. He shared about his kayaking trips, the book he's reading, his first tweet up (he doesn't even have twitter!), and the new company his company acquired.  We also talked about our 5 year plan and our 50 year plan.

Once arriving in Nashville we checked in to our hotel (love the Hampton Inn & Suites!) and found a local pizza place (working on my 20 pizza places before my 30th!) to grab lunch before getting ready for the wedding.  We drove through the old money parts of Nashville that remind me of Dunwoody and Sandy Spring before we found our way to the church.  I wish this was part of our 50 year plan ;-)

The wedding Mass was incredible and beautiful. Elisabeth & Billy looked amazing and so in love.  It was so obvious that their love for one another was founded in faith.  

Please pardon my horrible point-and-shoot candids, to make it worse, I'm too lazy to try to edit them. Sorry, Elisabeth :)

Elisabeth's sister, Katherine has been very close friends with my husband since high school and then they went on to Notre Dame and Saint Mary's and have remained friends.  Because Katherine & Elisabeth are so close in age, Eric has always been good friends with Elisabeth as well. Doesn't hurt that she joined them at Notre Dame two years later.  I have only met her and Billy a few times, but it's always been such a pleasure.  They embody friendship and hospitality. Such a joy to spend time with them, especially this weekend - in sharing their big day!

After catching up with the Bride, Groom, Katherine and her parents this morning at brunch, Eric and I made the 4 hour drive home.... expect this time it seemed to take forever!  We were both exhausted and Eric now has a cold.  Between potty stops, sniffling, and holiday weekend traffic I thought the drive would never end.

To break up the monotonous drive home, we stopped at the Lodge Cast Iron outlet store and bought a few new pieces for a total of less than $40.  We're excited to be able to make our eggs on cast iron every day - this will be great for our low iron counts.  I also had a coupon for 20% off a single item at Babies R Us (why is this place already so addicting?!?!) so we stopped there so I could pick out a body pillow.  It was time, and the price was right.  Looking forward to snuggling with it tonight :)

And that is it folks!  I hope you have a blessed 4th of July!