Atlanta Trip - part 1

I traveled to Atlanta for Thanksgiving and a baby shower our families put together. I left Tuesday Nov. 23rd and came back Sunday Nov. 28th.  Here's part 1 of the trip details.

Tuesday-
Tuesday afternoon I rushed home for work to grab my luggage and wait for the cab.  It was a few minutes late, making me anxious about my already tight timeline.  But everything went fine and security at O’Hare wasn’t bad.  The plane trip was good except the part where they announced we were delayed because we didn’t have a pilot.  Turns out what they meant was that the pilot’s connecting flight was delayed but he was on his way through the airport to our plane.  Oh, and the loud little girl behind me.  I needed my headphones to drown out her inquisitive little voice.

Wednesday-

It was a lazy morning for me while my mom whipped up a few dishes to take with us up to the cabin, where we would be having Thanksgiving.  So here’s the deal with the cabin.  My dad’s cousin Danie (who lives in Florida) bought a place in the north Georgia mountains a few years ago.  The term “cabin” doesn’t really convey the beautiful 4 bedroom, 3 bath dwelling with gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains.  It has two back decks, with a hot tub on the bottom deck and an outdoor fireplace on the top.  Needless to say, my family likes to go up whenever they can.  The times I’ve been key activities include eating and drinking good stuff, riding 4 wheelers, hot tubbing, playing cards or Scrabble, and making S’mores by the fire. 

So anyway, my mom and I arrived early afternoon.  My dad, my grandfather, Danie, her aunt, and her son Cody were already there.  We arrived just in time to watch some chainsaw repair going on.  They needed this chainsaw to finish cutting down a tree and get the other chainsaw unstuck from said tree.  Of course, the whole process was lubricated with a little beer.  Ah, power tools and alcohol!  But I guess that’s less scary than hearing Jeff talk about using a chainsaw while up on a ladder.

We puttered around for the afternoon, eventually settling in for some card games.  For me going to the cabin equals making s’mores in the fire, once it’s gotten dark and a little chilly.  So I eventually checked the s’more supply to see if we had everything, because that can be an issue.  Sure enough, we were out of graham crackers.  We texted my sister to ask her to pick some up on her way up that evening, being sure to add that her pregnant sister wanted them to increase her willingness to pick up supplies (apparently she gets frequent requests).

But unbeknownst to me, apparently the cabin equals s’mores equation only still exists in my head.  Because I got grief for it.  Let it be known that I only ate a grand total of 4 s’mores.  Two on the first night and two on the second.  That is not an excessive amount of s’mores!  Even for a regular person, let alone a pregnant one!

Thursday – Thanksgiving day! 
All my favorites were there – fried turkey, mashed potatoes, butternut squash, cranberry, plus much more.  Mmm, mmm!  I started slow since I didn’t know how much I could fit in my stomach.  I made sure not to overload my plate and did have room to go backs for seconds of a few things.  I don’t think I consumed any more than a typical Thanksgiving meal.  Jeff, stuck back all by his lonesome in Chicago, was well fed by the Schulze extended family.

The rest of the day there was some 4 wheeling, card playing, and hot tubbing.  None of which I participated in.  The belly was feeling pretty tight, so I was not up for sitting upright in a chair long enough for multiple rounds of cards.  I did a lot of reading so I could stretch out on the couch.  We also went for a walk to burn off a little food.  Oh, and my brother busted his head while out on the 4 wheeler.  Yep, the guy leaving for his honeymoon in Costa Rica in 2 days got a head injury! He was still feeling off a while later so he visited the ER to receive one staple in his head and some meds that made him quite loopy.  My mom had a very entertaining phone conversation with him that evening.

Friday –  

On Friday, my mom, sister, and I headed back home.  But we stopped to do a little Black Friday shopping on the way.  We hit a mall in the early afternoon and were surprised at how quiet it was.  We weren’t in there long before we got distracted by the Costco just outside.  A few free samples and a few Costco purchases later, we decided to move on.  My sister had to split off to get ready for a date.  So my mom and I went and did some damage at JCPenney (mostly buying for ourselves!) and a few other stores.   Then we had a quiet evening with a little veggie pizza because I had left my to go container of turkey and potatoes at the cabin.

Ok, that's the end of part 1.  Shower details to come in another post.