Living the Small Town Life: Visiting with Our Mississippi Gals

Late Sunday night January 16th, Anna (David's 15 year old sister) flew into Dallas. We flew her here with one of David's free flights to help take care of Brieleigh because work needed me four days in a row. David is unable to work from home for the time being when I need him to, and he had jury duty and did not know how many days he would have that (It ended up being only one day- he was too smart for them). So we were very thankful that Anna was able to come help out.

It was a very fun week and a half and a very trying week and a half. Neither Brieleigh nor I are used to being apart for so many days in a row. Anna said that Brieleigh would walk around the house and into my bedroom when she woke up and towards the end of the day saying, "Momamama?" I would always come home to her crying and trying to get into the garage to see me because she heard the garage door open and knew what that meant. Some mornings she just would put her hand on me, then David, then me, then David with the look that said, "Please don't leave me again!" She did fine though during the day without me I think. She took great naps for Anna- maybe even better than for me! She had some whole milk (in addition to the breastmilk) which she had not had much before and did great with it. She and "Aunt Anna" became big buds. They rode to the park in the wagon, read books, and ate lunches together. Anna's last day here Brieleigh started saying "Ana" and would try to say Aunt Anna as well. Whenever we dropped her off at the airport she kept looking around me for Anna and would say, "Bu-bye!" because she knew we had just left Anna.

We also did fun things together with Anna while she was here. We shopped at resale shops for clothes (and got some great deals!), ate ice cream, yogurt, watched a few movies, played games, got our hair cut, got Anna's ears pierced, ran errands, served our church Wednesday night meal together, etc.

My Mom and little sister Madeline also came the Friday that Anna was here and stayed until Monday night. We had a big weekend filled to the brim! Our main objective was to get Maddy some Junior Miss dresses which we successfully found and they looked gorgeous on her! We did that for almost 7 hours Saturday. We ate out alot (since small town MS does not have many eating out options). We had Twisted Root Burger, Cyclone Anayas (mexican), Desperados (mexican), Corner Bakery Cafe, Main Street Bistro and Bakery (breakfast), and Central Market (samples and lite lunch)- we of course ate the Crawford way- water and sharing meals! My favorite! The Bakers and Burghers came over for lunch Sunday- we made Tomato Cream Pasta (Pioneer Woman), Romaine Crunchy Salad, bread, and Hot Chocolate Marshmallow Cake. The cake was amazing as usual. It was for my Mom's birthday and we had so much fun making it together. Us girls made everything and David iced and decorated it. We even made the homemade marshmallows- yum-o! We played Clue one night, got Maddy some shoes for Jr. Miss another day, and just had alot of fun together. Brieleigh loved having so many friends here! She could say Aunt Maddy (MaaMaa) and Millie when they left too.

It was so fun to have family here! I miss them so very much. It has been so quiet today. I am glad to not be running around, but I sure do miss them alot! It makes me want to move to MS so badly so I can see them more. Brieleigh is a little confused without the company. Today we are trying to get back into a routine, washing laundry, catching up on cleaning and blogging, and praying for God's direction for where to go from here. Enjoy the few pictures I remembered to take!