summer thoughts.

 crisp white sheets and sundresses everyday.

bare feet and never drying my hair.

4 o'clock thunderstorms and counting new freckles.

music up and windows down.

lemon, mint, & ginger water and cold showers in the afternoon.

breakfast on my porch and milkshakes for dinner.

beach walks and sandy toes.

and too much pineapple.

half.

the end of june means that 2010 is half over. can you believe it? the older i get, the faster time goes by. for me, that is the most surprising thing about growing up.

childhood seemed never-ending. and then it did. high school was long. and now i have been out of it longer than I was in it. i blinked and college passed.

i am good about savoring moments as they happen, but that doesn't mean that i don't miss them when they are gone.

2010 so far...

january. my girlfriends from childhood and i celebrated our first friend to have a baby.

february. i turned 22 and charleston saw its first snow in two decades.

march.  spring break in dallas and a family picnic in the park.

april. a weekend at home for easter.

may. i graduated college and my whole family was together.

june. summertime in charleston with my best friend and a new friend from england.

...

 a completely lovely first half of 2010.

hot.

it's too hot to be outside and i would rather finish a book. or four.

because it's friday.

a s'mores brownie from caviar & bananas + a book i can't put down.

the 25th of june.

six years ago this morning, i finished the notebook for the first time, then saw it open in theaters that evening. i read it again every june. two years ago today, i was on a plane to germany, where I would spend the summer nannying three children under 5 in exchange for a european adventure. i was 20, it was my first experience abroad, and it changed me. it was my first taste of the rest of the world and it showed me how big, yet how small, the world really is.

so here's to you, the 25th of june. you have been so good to me.

starnbergersee, two junes ago, my very first morning in germany.

"summer surprised us, coming over the starnbergersee."

-- t.s. eliot

happy place.

 this picture has nothing to do with my day, but it made me smile this morning and i hope it makes you smile, too.

i took it of my cousin jackson when i visited him in the spring.

doesn't it just scream childhood?

glenda.

my aunt glenda is a real gem and my family got lucky the day my uncle mike married her. i have been visiting dallas every year since I was 16 and glenda makes every visit special. a weekend at glenda's means a lot of quality time together in the kitchen. i spend a lot of time talking with her while she bakes homemade coconut cake and banana bread and whips up fantastic meals.

her house smells like fig candles and her guest room bed, with its crisp white sheets and big fluffy pillows, sleeps like a cloud.

every time I visit, glenda always takes a day off work so we can do girl things, like take a trip to anthropologie and stop for lattes at Starbucks. she is sweet and funny and so much fun to talk with.

glenda is a wife, a mom, a talented cook, and she's always so fashionable. on top of it all, she has an amazing career. she inspires me in every way.

she makes my uncle mike so happy and i love to see how much Adam loves his mommy. our family is so blessed to have Glenda!

happy, happy birthday! i love you, sweet aunt!

omaha, part three.

if davey and i couldn't be with dad on father's day, being with each other was the next best thing. it turned out to be one of my all-time favorite days.

we trudged through the rain in hopes of getting into the carolina game. luck was on our side, because we got right in. hot dogs, coke, cotton candy...we had it all and we didn't mind the rain.

when the game was suspended for rain, brother decided it was time for autographs. one of the gamecocks took his hat into the dugout and returned with all of the team members' signatures! my brother's day was made.

in the end, the rain poured and the gamecocks lost, but there have never been happier little boys.

omaha, part two.

i just couldn't take enough pictures of my sweet little brother all weekend, especially on the field. he is just so darn cute.

...

 i spent the rest of my saturday exploring downtown omaha. vintage cars, converted mills, and restaurants that have had the same owners for over forty years give the city a lot of character.

omaha, part one.

i spent the weekend watching my brother play baseball in omaha {where steak can be cut with a fork, the weather can change in five minutes, and the airport is actually in Iowa}

i woke up the first morning to blue skies and sunshine. perfect weather for a full morning of baseball, i thought.

nope.

just as the boys were warming up on the field, i noticed a dark spot in the clouds and even sent my dad a text joking about a storm coming. within minutes, the temperature dropped 15 degrees and the winds picked up to 60 mph. the clouds were swirling and the sky seemed to be folding into itself. it was very dramatic.

and within the hour, we were back to blue skies and baseball.

crazyyyyy!