Dude.  It’s hot out here.  Get off the Facebook and let me in IMMEDIATELY.

Bartleby!  Let me in!  You’re a cat.  You can open doors, right?

This is me, walking away from you, Dog.  I still haven’t figured out why they keep you around.  Things were just fine WITHOUT YOU.  Excuse me, I’m going to go lay down in that nice cool spot over there.  Enjoy the heat.

That’s it.  When I get inside that house, I am TOTALLY going to chase you around.  And maybe even eat your poop.  SO THERE.

See?  You EAT POOP.  I totally win at ALL things.  I’ve even got my own house.  You?  You sleep on the FLOOR.  You are beneath me, sir.

Sigh.

There were seven of us total–aside from Colleen and I we also had her mom, her two sisters, and two of Colleen’s closest friends (One of whom is also one of my closest friends, David. Score!).*  I’ve known Colleen and David for (gasp!) sixteen years.  That’s over half my life, y’all.  The other friend is the lovely Christina.  I’m sure y’all remember her and her beautiful jewelry.

Colleen’s sisters found us a swanky cabin outside of Dahlonega so that we could take advantage of the area’s many wineries.  David and I drove up with Colleen’s mom Saturday morning.  Our cabin was in the middle of the woods and there were several times where I felt certain that Mike’s little civic was not going to make it.  But it did,  and we wasted no time grabbing a quick lunch and heading out to our first winery.

This right here?  This was a recurring theme throughout the whole day.  I’d never been to a winery before, so this was a completely new experience.  While other people were swirling and sniffing their wine before taking tiny sips and using at mouthwash, we were drinking as quickly as we could.  Not because we’re total lushes, but because we had to make sure to get to the next winery before it closed.  Priorities, people.

At Three Sisters Winery (Get it?  THREE SISTERS.  Colleen has two sisters.  Hence our rush at the last place.)

I hung out with Elvis.  As evidenced by my goofy expression, I was enjoying the wine.  Very much so.  I might have had a conversation with cardboard Elvis.  Maybe.

Why is Colleen hiding behind her wine glass?  This is one of life’s greatest mysteries.  But I can tell you that there were no less than FIVE photos on my camera of her hiding behind various glasses.  I love this girl.  Furthermore, why am I leaning like that?  I am really lucky I didn’t fall over right then and there.

The grounds at Three Sisters were lovely.  So lovely, in fact, that David had an overwhelming urge to frolic in the grass.  And I had an overwhelming urge to document that frolicking.  So I did.  (I hope he doesn’t hate me now.)

After we had our fill of wine, it was time to head back to the cabin and make sure that Colleen looked the part of a thirty year old.  Doesn’t she look dignified?  She totally does!  If I had been thinking clearly, we would have made her wear these out in public.  Oh well! There’s always her fortieth birthday.

Colleen’s sisters made a delicious dinner for us all.  Steaks, chicken, grilled vegetables.  If we had any neighbors at the cabin, we could have invited them over and still had leftovers. But our only neighbors were bears and (possibly) serial killers.  And no one wants those type people at the dinner table.

We played some pool in the scary basement.  There was a talking deer head down there.  I’m not even joking.  It had a remote control and sang Garth Brooks.  This is why no one wanted to sleep in the basement.  What if you’re asleep and the creepy deer starts singing about friends in low places?  No thank you.  There were also no curtains down there and that’s just WEIRD.  And also scary.

David will probably really hate me now.  I’m willing to take that risk.

I made Colleen these for her birthday.  Only substituting the semi-sweet chocolate for milk chocolate, because that’s what she requested.  I wanted to make her a cute Guns n Roses cake, but she told me CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE AND MORE OOEY, GOOEY CHOCOLATE. So that’s what I did.

Colleen loves board games.  So we spent the rest of the night playing Apples to Apples and Taboo.  My stomach hurt the next day from laughing so hard.  I’m happy to report that no bears or serial killers tried to get us in the middle of the night.  But there were a lot of random scary noises and a particularly suspicious WHITE DRESS thing hanging in the closet.  In the room that David and I shared.  Luckily, the wine and beer made us fall asleep VERY quickly.

And that was my weekend spent celebrating all the awesomeness that is Colleen.  It was a great weekend, seeing my friends and hanging out with Colleen’s family.  The awesomeness is quite obviously a genetic thing with these ladies.

It left me thinking the following–

Friendship is a blessing in every sense of the word.  Friends that have been your friends for over half your life?  Well. That is the absolute best kind of blessing.  The friends that have known you since you were a dorky freshman in high school, and have been with you through every little thing that’s turned you into the person you are today.  The friends that stand beside you as you say your vows.  The friends that are there when your first child is born.  The friends who cry with you when something very terrible happens.  Those friends are more than friends; they’re family.

Your family has to love you no matter what–but to have people in your life that choose to stay?  That is quite possibly the most special thing of all.  And I am so blessed to have those kinds of friends in my life–old ones and new ones.  There’s a lot of space in my friendship vault, but at the same time, it always feels very full.  Just the way I like it.

P.S.  Colleen shares her birthday with another of our friends, Mandy.  I’ve known Mandy for EVEN longer.  Geez this post is making me feel positively ancient.  Anyway, she celebrated her thirtieth over in California.  I’m told that her sweet husband did a fantastic job making sure her weekend was extra special.  One of these days, I’ll get to celebrate their birthdays with BOTH of them.  And that will make me a happy girl indeed.  Happy Birthday, Colleen and Mandy!  I love you both!

*That is one of the ugliest sentences ever.  Sorry.

**The rest of the pictures are here.

Avery started school a few weeks ago.  Yes, she’s technically been “in school” for two years now, but this year is special.  This year she’s in PRE-K.  That means that she’s there from 8am until 2:30pm.  She’s totally a big girl now.  It’s been wonderful to watch her slide back into friendships and routines.  Not a day goes by that she doesn’t bounce right out of bed, ready to get to her classroom.  For the record, her favorite discovery of this school year? “Mom, the dead frog is still in the jar!”  (Nasty dead frog in formaldehyde that Avery insists on carrying around.  Why yes, she WILL be the one merrily dissecting fetal pigs in anatomy class.  I just know it.)

One special friendship is standing out this year.  A little girl started out in Avery’s classroom last Fall.  She and her family had just moved here from Taiwan.  She arrived at Avery’s school speaking no English at all.  Avery told me last year that Jada spent most of her days crying.  Probably out of frustration and confusion, no doubt.  But I encouraged my girl to be nice to her, told her that Jada just needed a little extra help until she could learn the language.

Avery ran with that–she is nothing if not empathetic.  She would tell us here and there that Jada had a good day, or that they had played tag outside.  Avery was friendly toward her, but she was also easily distracted by her other friends.

This year though?  Avery and Jada are full-on BFFs.  Every day, it’s “Jada this” and “Jada that”.  Avery needed to buy a blue headband because duh!  That’s that Jada wears.  Avery took a cue from Kai-Lan and started telling Jada “Ni Hao” in the morning.  When I asked her what Jada said to that, she said that Jada smiled.  And then they ran off and did the kinds of things little girls do together.  (Hint:  Play House and also Flying Dogs.  Didn’t you ALWAYS play Flying Dogs as a child?  Of course you did.)

All this brings me to last week.  I came in to get Avery from school and saw Jada and her mom.  Jada takes one look at me and says, “Avery’s Mom!”  And then she looked at her mom and said, “Avery’s my FRIEND!”

Jada still doesn’t know many words in English, but she knows two quite well.  The fact that she says “Avery” and “friend” perfectly makes me one proud mama.  Ultimately, Avery doesn’t care how many words she and Jada share–she just knows they share their friendship.  And when you’re four, oftentimes that’s all you need to know.

When my dear friend Stephanie requested a Dora cake for her daughter, I was all in.  Ana is very special to my two girls.  I can see them getting into lots of trouble as teenagers.  OK, Zoe and Ana will get in trouble.  Avery will be the one covering up for them.  In any case, Ana turned two recently, and this is what I came up with for her Dora-obsessed self.

Dora Cake with buttercream and fondant accents.  Dora doll on top–I’m not a miracle worker, y’all.

Another friend from my Moms Group, Kelly, told her sister that I make cakes.  Kelly’s sister needed a Minnie Mouse cake for her daughter’s first birthday.  And you guys–here’s the crazy thing.  I got paid for this one.  Yes.  My first paid cake.  The start of things to come, I hope.  Here’s the Minnie Mouse cake.  I hope they loved it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Minnie Mouse tiered cake with buttercream and fondant accents

Will I turn this little hobby into an actual J-O-B?  We shall see.  For now, it’s a good creative outlet.  If I can get paid for my work here and there to cover supplies, I’m happy.  As soon as I can get Crazy Zoe into school, I’ll be getting really serious about it all.  So if you need a cake–call me.  We’ll talk.

(Disregard baby-clothed-in-only-a-diaper. We had an especially messy dinner this night.)

If we had, we couldn’t have given Jim Bob and Holly a big fat “YES!” when they asked us to go with them on a little vacation to Chattanooga.  The beach is swell and all, but the beach could not offer a reunion with some good friends.  So Chattanooga it was.  If you’ve been around here for any length of time, you’ve heard me mention Jim Bob and Holly once or twice.  We’ve been missing them since they moved to Memphis.  AND they went and had another baby (a girl!) that we had yet to meet.

After many, many IMs and phone calls, all the plans were made.  So we set off last Sunday.  Instead of going through every little detail, I’ve chosen a few (19)  interesting pictures.  If you’d like to see all 176 photos, go here.

We met up at the Tennessee Aquarium.  It didn’t take too long for these three to become friends.  (Again.)

We met Baby Janie.  And yes, she was JUST this sweet and precious the whole trip.  I think I heard her cry twice.  Other than that, she was this happy, cooing, chubby little thing and I could have eaten her with a spoon.

I really like to take photographs of jellyfish.  That is all.

The house we rented was not without its flaws.  We spent a good half hour sweeping up dead fruitflies off the floor.  Ew ew and EW.  The refrigerator was broken.  But!  The owner very graciously provided us with a functioning COCKTAIL refrigerator.  Which was PLENTY big enough for the food, milk, and most importantly, beer/wine we required.  Actually, it was NOT big enough.  We bought a lot of ice and got very creative.  Also?  When we tried to grill?  No grill utensils.  So Jim Bob literally risked his hands to grill our dinner.  Using a kitchen spatula.  It’s a wonder the tiny little thing didn’t catch on fire.  The spatula, not Jim Bob.

The following day, we took the kids to Coolidge Park early.  They played in the splashground for a few hours and then we had a picnic lunch.  And also some ice cream.  I asked for a waffle cone and would you believe they MADE me one?  They did.  It was divine.

Holly and Dylan riding a very ferocious looking horse.

We had some company during our picnic in the form of dozens of small birds.  I think Avery had maybe two bites of her banana-peanut butter-honey sandwich.  The rest went into their little bird bellies.

After Coolidge Park, showers, and naps, we drove through a downpour to get to the Children’s Museum.  Lucky us, they had an exhibit called Grossology about all the nasty things the human body does.  This little exhibit allowed you to squeeze a rubber thing that would then shoot out some nasty bodily odor.  I think this was feet.  The rest of the day, that “smell” kept coming back to me.  Matter of fact, as I write this, I can smell it again.  LOVELY!

Dylan climbed some (clearly diseased) skin with a little help from his dad.

Would you like some peaches?  These were discovered in a cabinet at the house.  I don’t know much about canning, but I’m pretty sure that once homemade canned peaches are opened, they should probably be refrigerated.  Am I right?  I totally am.

Our last day in Chattanooga brought us to Lookout Mountain and Rock City.  This is me on the Incline Railway.  You can’t tell, but my hands are sweating.  I don’t like heights.  Not at all.  We’ll get back to that little phobia of mine in a minute.

This?  This is my preferred vantage point for “scenic views”.  Safely AWAY from the edge.

Annnnnd this is Zoe attempting to stand on her head.  While on a large boulder.  Jim Bob was laughing at me for being so nervous in Rock City, but when you have these hooligans to chase around, it can’t be helped.

Here’s Avery making me nervous on a ROCKY BRIDGE OF DOOM.  I feel certain Mike took this picture because my hands would have been so sweaty I would have dropped the camera.

But amongst all the doom and imminent peril, there was also THIS.  And it totally makes up for the gray hairs I acquired on this day.  Zoe has told me many times that Dylan is her best friend.

Holly has SEVEN STATES coming out of her head!  Or is it SIX STATES?  I’m not sure, but I know it must be shouted at all costs.

When I was a kid, my parents took me to Fairyland Caverns inside Rock City.  I do not remember it being so creepy.

Seriously?  These little girls are going to eat me in my sleep.  Probably while I’m falling off a large cliff.  I JUST KNOW IT.

And that was our little trip in (barely) less than 900 words.  We had SO much fun and we’re really looking forward to the next one in 2012.  Nashville, baby!