This weekend was Memorial Day weekend. For those of you who don’t know this holiday it is observed on the last Monday in May and commemorates U.S men and women who died while in the Military service. It was first enacted to honour Union soldiers of the American Civil War but was expanded after WWI.
Many people observe this holiday by visiting cemeteries and memorials. A national moment of remembrance takes place at 3 p.m. local time. Another tradition is to fly the flag of the United States at half mast from dawn until noon local time and volunteers often place American flags on each grave site at National Cemeteries.
For us, it also means a long weekend. The US doesn’t have bank holidays as such, but there are certain days that Col gets off and this is one of them.
He worked from home on Friday as he had no meetings in the office; he took me to the pool for my water aerobics class (I couldn’t talk him in to joining me!) and when he picked me up, we waited around the YMCA (for a whole dang hour!!) to add him to our membership. Hopefully this will encourage us to go to the pool together (or perhaps even the gym) over the summer and if nothing else it’ll mean I can get both Helena and Amber in to the pool with me when they come to visit in October for the wedding!
I spent most of the day fighting an upset tummy, but rebounded by early afternoon and around 4pm I was impatient to go out and get the weekend started. We decided to go to Pearland since it had the shops we needed all within a short distance of each other and we picked up a few things.
Col got himself (yes, you read that right, he bought himself something without me even having to bully him into it!) 4 cds, which were all ‘bad’ 80’s music (which he tormented me with on the drive home!) and cheap as chips in Half Price Books, while he did that, I picked up some Christmas presents for some of the many babies that are on our list and my ‘treat’ this week were to invest in a pair of Skechers tone ups – (Regularly $50+ and I got mine for $20, score!!!) that a friend of mine had recommended I try out. They are ugly as heck but designed to help burn more calories, tone muscles and improve your posture – and my calves certainly feel like they’re getting more of a workout than normal from even just walking around shops in these things. I’ve worn them every day since (they are the most comfortable things my feet have ever had on them!) I got them and my calves are surely feeling it!
Saturday morning I got up early. It’s always the way. When Col has no work, there’s no alarm ringing to wake me up, I’m wide awake first thing! I gave Col a couple of hours sleep (while I clipped my weekly coupons and did my ‘match ups’ for shopping deals in this week’s groceries!) before I flicked on some Jason Mraz to wake him up (yeah, I’m a meanie, I know! LOL!).
Col suggested we head up to Katy Mills, a sort of outlet ‘mall’ that has gone downhill even over the last two years, but still has a bunch of pretty good shops. Col was in the market for some shorts; the only pair he owns was bought in 2003 and has no button to keep them closed. He was long overdue! We dandered around the shops and didn’t find much of anything really, a few more Christmas presents and Col did manage get his shorts though from the Ralph Lauren store (another great thing about Memorial Day weekend is the excellent sales!) before we headed home to watch the Grand Prix qualifying for this weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix.
We had just enough time to see the qualifying as we’d made plans to head to Pearland again – only this time for a BBQ at the Stevenson’s house with another SLB couple Mariano and Catherine (together with their two kids Lucas and Mateus and Catherine’s mother who was visiting from Newcastle). I’d not seen Colin in 6 months or something insane (Stevenson not my own, cause that’d just be bizarre!) so it was long overdue. He (as always) put on a great spread of food and piped me to the post (only just, I was a VERY close 2nd!) in our game of Dominoes. I drove the whole way home – in the pitch black and by the time I got home I was exhausted and tense. Turns out that Highways/Freeways here aren’t very well lit and it’s quite stressful driving at night here!
Sunday was the Turkish Grand Prix (which we both enjoyed greatly!) before we hit up Target for our groceries (with some couponing magic and great deals on some meat!).
Monday’s Memorial day went down a storm! I got up early, left Col in bed and drove all by my lonesome!!! I drove to Walgreens, CVS and since the Walgreens didn’t have everything I wanted, I drove up HWY 6 to another Walgreens. I was confident, comfortable and both the car and I got home in one piece – I even reverse parked in the drive! When I got home, Col was still unconscious so I made some cinnamon rolls and smoothies for breakfast before we headed out to Richmond to my friend Lisa’s house for a cook out. We spent the day eating delicious homemade chocolate cake and drinking rum and coke (well, Col ate the cake and I drank the alcohol!) and swimming in Lisa’s pool.
In spite of my factor 50 sunscreen, the sun tore me up! All I can think of now, is how I’m going to have some striking tan lines in my wedding dress in October! Well, that and just how freakin’ sore sunburn is! *grumbles* Col has been applying after sun lotion regularly (cause he’s quite the gent!) so it doesn’t dry out or blister – we keep it in the fridge and I shriek like a banshee every time he applies it, but it helps!
This morning I was babysitting little Michael Stevenson, while Amee went to the dentist and after a quick pitstop and catch up (non fat) hot chocolate in Starbucks, we hit up the city for some wedding shopping up in the city (stopping en route to pick up some sunburn spray with lidocane to cool and numb my sunburn!).
Speaking of the Wedding, wedding plans are coming along smoothy! There’s a bunch of smaller things that need done but we’ve gotta wait until our RSVP’s trickle in and give us a better idea of numbers and the bachelorette party and day after the wedding plans are in full swing!
