We had a snow day! 
While the rest of the East Coast was getting totally blanketed in snow, we were getting our yearly max of 1-3 inches of snow mixed with some nice solid ice. People either were off or home early on Friday, and then Saturday morning we had pretty snow to play in!
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On Saturday two of my best friends threw me a baby shower (it feels selfish to say that like...they threw the baby a shower and I'm just her representative) and it was lovely and wonderful and I'm going to tell you all about it. The party was in our neighborhood, so before we headed over my sisters and mom came over to take some pictures because 1. we didn't at the beach this year, 2. we were all showered and looked pretty good and 3. we won't all be together at Thanksgiving, which is when we usually have this ritual of kind of fighting about pictures but then being really happy we took some. 
It's always kind of a process.
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My mom's birthday is today, and we had a big fun celebration for her and my grandmother and sister earlier, who ALSO have birthdays around this time. It was a great time, and it's been so much fun being pregnant and spending time with my mom - the girl has some knowledge about the fact since she birthed 4 of us, and I'm trying to soak up everything she tells me so that I can be just like her. 
Seriously.
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So, after our beach rescue and ambulance ride, we finally made it to the hospital, maybe an hour and 15 minutes after the actual breaking of the leg, per text messages I was sending around the same time. Jay was taken in the special way and I walked in front to wait for him to get a room.
To back up just a minute, you'll remember that no one "could" advise us on which hospital to choose, and we were all kinds of baffled because we were from out of town and obviously don't know things about hospitals when we travel. There was some kind of discussion on the ability to find a pulse in the foot on the injured leg: if they could find one we'd go to a close hospital, if not we'd go to a far hospital better equipped to deal with trauma. As luck would have it the ambulance EMT workers FOUND A PULSE and we got to go to the close hospital. A stranger watching the scene at the marina said that he'd had great experiences at this particular facility and the EMT told Jay the same thing, even though she wasn't technically supposed to say anything.
In addition to coming highly recommended, the ER (and hospital in general, we later discovered) was DEAD. Now, this can be a good or a bad thing when it comes to a hospital. On the one hand, empty means staff dedicated to you. On the other hand, empty can mean not enough staff dedicated to the patients that ARE in the hospital. In the case of East Cooper Medical Center, a quiet hospital was a wonderful thing, and we both received care and attention that we were very happy with....
Oh yes, there are multiple parts to a story about leg modeling. 
And by that I of course mean Jay Broke His Leg in 2 Places And Now We're In 2 Different Cities Trying To Not Fail At Life And Also Recover At The Same Time On The Busiest Week Of Our Lives.
Let's get some history first before we start down this long road together. As a child, Jay broke his right leg twice, in VERY short succession. He had the cast off for 1 day, did something dumb, and was right back in the OR. So now we know that.
Then, last weekend! We headed down to Sullivan's Island for a beach weekend with Jay's family. Then, the plan was to come back to work this week and go BACK to the beach next weekend for an entire week with my family. Our families rent the same beach house and this year the weeks happened to be back to back. That's key to this story later.
So, on Saturday we woke up and walked on the beach, which is my favorite thing to do almost in the entire world. Then, the family got ready to head to the marina where we'd rented a boat for the entire day. The entire day! On a boat! With 9 family members and 2 kids! Besides obvious family drama jokes everyone was excited and the plan was to boat around the waterway, have lunch on the water, stop at a beach to play, and head home where Jay and I would make fish tacos for dinner.
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Last night I had the pleasure of watching my sister Emily's production of Tom Sawyer and Company, a glorious musical.
To clarify, this was her spring production, and she is an elementary music teacher. So, the stars were 4th and 5th graders.
The show was fabulous and the children did really wonderfully. I've seen lots of Emily's performances over the years, and after each one she always asks for notes. So, to beat her to the punch, I texted her throughout the show with my incredibly insightful thoughts on the production. She also asked me to take pictures of the show and I didn't really want to because it was 40 kids standing on risers for an hour so one picture kind of told the whole story. And so now I share these texts with you, for your reading pleasure.
We begin with:
Step 1: we got here really early and I already have to pee. You have done one song so far and your hair looks really good from the back.
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It's my sister's birthday today! Last night we went out for a girl's happy hour to celebrate HER, and so now we will continue to do so with some fun facts about Emily.
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In review! How the heck is it New Year's Eve?
What are you doing tonight? We're having people over and making a thousand sausage cheddar balls because WHY NOT, and there will be babies (not mine) and dogs and food and champagne and it's going to be fabulous but low key.
I might not shower beforehand. Not sure yet.
This is one of my favorite days of the year, not just of course because of the excuse to overeat and over drink or the sparkly everything, but I really do like reminiscing and thinking about our year - the good, bad, and ugly. We've had a GREAT year, for the most part, and I consider myself so lucky to be a part of this life.
So, let's look back!
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Dear Jay,
Happy Birthday! I'm obsessed with you. Did you know that? The word obsessed has a really negative connotation sometimes, but it is also defined as "to preoccupy or fill the mind continually, consume, have a hold on."
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My mom's birthday was on Saturday. 
And yesterday we celebrated! Her birthday, my sister Olivia's birthday, and my grandmother's birthday are all within a few weeks of each other, so we had a great big old family celebration with lots of stellar food and wine and giggles.
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So, we've been home from the beach for a week. 
I saw my dad on Thursday night and he was all "ya recovered from the bummer of being home yet?" Poor guy. He had a good time.
So, to celebrate a weirdly rainy Monday with way too much to do this week, let's look back, mmkay? We don't need to get into busy week stuff just yet.
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Guys guys guys. 
It's time! Because you're so concerned about my friends' lives and neighbors' lives, right? I know, me too. 
Like I told you, last Saturday our dear friends and neighbs Scott and Belen threw themselves a little partayyy to announce that they weren't having a girl. More on that in a minute. It was a GREAT party, and while I was super mad that they wouldn't tell anyone before the party, it was totes worth the wait and so stinking cute that they kept this secret from all of us and got to kind of BE with the news before telling the world.
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Isakaya snacks for dinner! Easy yakitori (grilled chicken skewers) with a quick marinade and grilled scallions. I serve this with plain white rice and grilled veggies for an easy, FAST healthy Japanese dinner.
HELLO, easy Japanese bar food at home.
Yakitori is probably in the top 10 of my all-time favorite meals, and DEFINITELY my fav Japanese bar (isakaya) food. The great thing is, it's EASY to recreate at home and tastes just like the real thing, promise. These grilled chicken skewers make a really fun, healthy weeknight dinner that everyone will love!
...No, mothers, not tomorrow. No need to anxiously text.
Guys, we're moving. From Greenville. To somewhere. In an amount of time that we haven't yet determined.
See why we don't need to freak out, mothers? Promise, we don't.
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My mother has this thing she does where sometimes she'll tell a really unimportant lie for fun to mess with people.
Does your mother do that? Probably not. She's probably not as funny as mine.
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Nothing groundbreaking, just an observation. Don't worry. Also, a picture of me and Jay dancing at our friends Addie and Rick's wedding:
Yesterday, we had a really productive day in our house. I realize this sounds weird, so let me explain.
Before Jay left for work he vacuumed the house, made the bed, and started the dishwasher. I know this isn't a big deal, but he gets off work late and uses morning as his relaxing time, so chores aren't usually at the top of his list of things to do.
When I came home from working (I teach yoga a few mornings a week) and saw all that, I was inspired to do laundry and finish cleaning the kitchen before I had to go back to work. It was little, but that was more chores than we usually get done on a busy Tuesday, and I think it was because we both did helpful things to make the other person's day a little bit better. Jay did chores without being asked before he left, which inspired me to return the favor and do laundry (and fold, the putting of the laundry in the machine ain't the hard part) and finish what we'd started in the kitchen so that when we got home there weren't chores that had to happen before the day could end.
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