Our Week - The One with Summer, Week 2 (Unpacking from the Beach, a Special Mass, and a Birthday Lunch)

We spent most of last week at the beach, and I’ll be recapping those in separate posts, but I did want to pop in to recap our weekend after because it was a good one!

Saturday, June 7

Saturday, we were up at 7 AM our time and we left the beach bright and early so we could make it home by lunchtime.  We swung by Chick-Fil-A on our way in and we brought it home to eat since we had no food in the fridge after being gone for so long.

After we were done eating, we got the car unloaded, and then I got everything completely unpacked.  Fun fact about me – I LOATHE packing for a trip, but I actually don’t mind unpacking.  That’s probably weird, I know, as most people are probably the opposite.  I really also love coming home from vacation.  I know a lot of people get sad when they have to leave the beach, but I actually get excited about going home… I think it’s just so comforting settling back in where I belong.  :o)

I had everything completely unpacked and put away in just over an hour, and then I did three loads of laundry and got the dishwasher unloaded before settling in at my desk to catch up on all the things.

Meanwhile, the kids unpacked their suitcases, did their laundry, and got showered, and then they settled in to play Minecraft for a bit… they’d both missed it all week while we were gone!

I had a productive time in my office getting all of the photos transferred from my phone to my computer, catching up all of my planner stuff, checking up on a bunch of blog stuff, going through emails, and organizing the photos once they had transferred.  I barely put a dent in organizing the photos as I’m still having technical difficulties with some of them transferring wrong, but I felt pretty darn accomplished by the time 4:30 rolled around.

Usually when we get back from the beach, we’re all so exhausted that we tend to skip church, but our favorite friar who was with us from 2018 – 2022 was in town and he was celebrating 5:30 Mass, and I wasn’t about to miss that!!  I’d had it on my calendar for months!

Brian’s tennis team made it to the state tournament this year, and it happened to be played here in town, so he left at 3:30 for a tennis match, and he didn’t join us for Mass.

My parents and my Aunt Joy and Uncle Greg were all out of town, so there weren’t many of my family members at Mass – it was just the three of us + Mama Cass and my Aunt Becky – so we didn’t have dinner plans afterward, which was good because we were able to hang out and talk to Father Manny after Mass.

His homily was fantastic, as always – it made me cry… we miss him so dang much – and I enjoyed every single second of Mass even though it was terribly hot in the church for some reason. 

After Mass, we snuck out before the last song was done because Mama Cass has to leave before the rest of the crowd since she’s a bit unsteady with her bad knee.  We all gave Father Manny huge hugs and then the kids and I helped my Aunt Becky walk Mama Cass out. 

Once they were settled, the kids and I went back into the church because they wanted to see my friend, Jeannine, and her kiddos who were also there.  We chatted with them for a while, and then we waited in the commons area for Father Manny to come back inside so Jeannine’s mom could say hello.  Jeannine asked me if I cried during the homily and she said that she did, too.  Haha.  I wish everyone could hear Father Manny’s messages!  He has such a way with words.

He was so well-loved at our church that every single person wanted to stop and say hello on their way out (our church holds 800 people and there were several hundred there Saturday evening), so as you can imagine, he was tied up for quite a while. 

About 45 minutes later, he came back inside, and then we chatted with him for about 15 more minutes before saying our goodbyes.  He is truly the best human and we all love when he comes back into town! 

Brian happened to finish his match (he won!) and finish watching the rest of his teams’ matches right as we were getting ready to leave, so he called in pizza from our favorite local place and picked it up on the way home.

We got home just before he did, so I had time to move the towels to the dryer, get my PJs on, and mix up some Moscow Mules, and then we all ate dinner.

After dinner, I got some laundry put away, and then we got the kids in bed around 9:30 so they could get a decent night of sleep since they’d been staying up so late at the beach.

Brian and I started the show The Better Sister, and OMG it is so good!!!!

 

Sunday, June 8

Sunday morning, we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and I made a meal plan and grocery list while they baked.  Then, I headed to my office for my Sunday things – yoga, sermon, planner ready for the week ahead, quiet time, and then I got back to organizing photos.

I had to stop and get ready around 11:15 because we had lunch with my mother-in-law and step-father-in-law, and we headed there around 12:30 to celebrate my sister-in-law’s birthday.  We hadn’t gotten together with any of them in several weeks, so it was nice to catch up with everyone, and we ended up staying much later than usual because we were chatting for so long.

On the way home, we swung by Publix to grab a few things that we needed urgently, and then we stopped to fill my car with gas since it was nearing empty.

The rest of the afternoon was spent organizing photos in my office (seriously, it took forever), and I also started on my blog post for Tuesday. 

My parents were just getting back in town, so we didn’t get to see them Sunday evening for dinner.  Instead, Brian and I had some wine and cheese and crackers and fruit for dinner (we were still full from our big lunch), and the kids had fish sticks and fruit.  It was a very laid-back, low effort Sunday dinner.  Haha.

After dinner, we watched Lego Masters from the previous week.  We had told the kids at dinner that we are going to Universal Orlando for Fall Break (our first time!), so they also wanted to watch some of the rides on YouTube. 

While Brian and the kids watched rides, I watered all of the plants and got ready for bed, and then after we got the kids in bed, Brian and I watched some more of The Better Sister before calling it a night!

And that was our weekend!

Happy Wednesday, y’all!