daddy's day weekend

stephen was on call this weekend, and that is usually the only thing that keeps us away from the beach this time of year. honestly, the heat is just too much to face anywhere else.

despite the heat, we had a great weekend, filled with errands and to-do's and food. we even managed to fit a date in on friday night, and i have to throw the props to my hubby who PLANNED IT ALL HIMSELF...i know ladies, im starting to get through to him :)

he actually asked me on wednesday if i would like to go to dinner and a movie with him on friday. ummm YES please. and then he said "great ive already called mary katherine" {our go-to babysitter}. woo hoo! since we are old and stuff, we decided to go to the 5:30 movie and then go to dinner.

if you listen to anything at all that i ramble about on this blog, listen and heed this: DO NOT GO SEE THE MOVIE "YEAR ONE". no, it wasnt the movie I would have picked for our date night, but i was letting stephen win this one because a)he DID plan this date and b)im always up for a funny movie, and i think michael cera is funny {not so much jack black}. lets just say i almost walked out far too many times, and am really upset i didnt. it is absolutely terrible in all senses of the word. OFFENSIVE. GRATUITOUS. BLASPHEMOUS. yes, blasphemous. even though i have been found guilty of getting too into movies, as in i have to consciously re-introduce my mind to reality after i watch a good one {hello pride and prejudice}, this was NOT the case with this one. i love a crazy, edgy comedy as much as the next person, but this was the first time ive ever seen a movie that made me literally cringe from being uncomfortable and/or put off. and its not bc it was overly suggestive or profane, bc it wasnt too bad in that area. it was just straight out blasphemous and cracked crude jokes at everything Christian. to the extreme. the entire time. ok im done. enough of the rant {but sometimes things just reallllly crawl under my skin and this was one of them}. ok, now im really done.

ANYWAY - after that mood buster, dinner actually turned out to be FABULOUS. we went to a new restaurant called "cannon grill" and had probably one of the top 3 steaks i have ever had. and that is including home-grilled steaks. that good. plus, its always nice to sit across the table and look at this {the face on the left, not the weird eye on the right}

on saturday, stephen, bennett and i ran tons of errands, gardened, planted and de-planted, ate at firehouse subs - yum

snuck into my parents house (they were at the beach) and went swimming

and had hamburgers for dinner. then fell asleep on the sofa. bliss.

fathers day was all about the dada in this house - we went to the late service at church, attempted lunch at ed's seafood on the causeway {but after waiting 35 minutes of our 45 minute wait and never reaching a core temperature of less than 105 degrees, we decided it was time to call it done and take the sweat soaked baby home}, and then stephen sat in his chair, played with bennett, and relaxed the rest of the day away while i prepared for dinner with stephen's dad that night.

i cooked way out in left field for me, but again, it wasnt about me {even though i snuck in a few natalie twists}: fried chicken {but it was skinless and skillet-fried, dont judge - it was actually delicious}, butter beans, creamed corn, homemade rolls, and sliced maters from the garden. mmmmmmmmm i do love me some food.

it was a wonderful daddy's day weekend, perfect in fact that stephen never actually had to go in to work even though he was on call. i love our little family weekends. hope you and yours had a wonderful fathers day weekend as well. i count myself blessed to be surrounded by THREE wonderful fathers.

first my own daddy, who, even through having three girls, never held me back from learning how to change a tire, go deep sea fishing, shoot a gun, drive a car on the dusty backroads in baldwin county, or shoot some hoops after dinner. i love how he loves his family, and i love how he made even a car ride to the grocery store a grounds for learning something. so many things that he taught me i look forward to teaching my children.

second, when i married stephen i didnt gain a father-in-law, but i gained a dad. i guess its easy to be so close to him, bc he is just a taller, older {sorry}, version of stephen. i love the relationship stephen has with his dad, and i am so grateful for the man that stephen has become because of the parenting of both his parents. i never feel like i am "just visiting" when i am with his family, bc his family has truly become my own. and a lot of that i owe to fred, who may technically be my father-in-law, but really is just my dad.

and then there is my baby's daddy. ooooo i could go on for days but that might become boring to anyone except for me and stephen's mom :). i think the bottom line is i love how he is a man who so effortlessly balances the sensitive with the macho, the dreams with the reality, type A with type B {bc he is definitely BOTH}, the family with the pressures of work, and perhaps most importantly, how he can be the hunting, fishing, outdoorsy, macho, guy's guy type, but then can hold my hands and pray a prayer that makes me cry. i love how he is unabashedly firm in his faith, and how he is truly standing as the head of this Christian family. everyday he is becoming more and more of a role model for Bennett, and i live to watch him parent our son.

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on the bennett front, the antibiotics have really worked their magic and our son is back to bouncing and climbing and throwing and shrieking and running and all that good stuff that comes with a healthy 18 month old. its great to have him back - the sickly bennett was quite snuggly and sweet, but we missed the curious, talkative, hilarious little crazy that we call our son.