Life Updates

First things first: Happy May (rabbit rabbit)! Second of all, my apologies for being so quiet the past month. I have realized that every time some event happens in life that upends my normal daily routine, this little blog suffers the most. I apologize for my long absence, but promise I will be getting back on track this next week. For now, here is a whirlwind recap of the past several weeks:

We went to our first Sunday Norfolk Tides baseball game as Sunday season ticket holders, and it was a blast! It was a little chilly in early April, but the sun was shining, and the Tides won, so we were happy!

One of my childhood friends got married, so we planned a weekend with my family to coincide, which was so much fun! We had a lot of fun with my parents at the wedding, and Lauren, my friend, was a beautiful bride! We also planned it so that Harris took his first vacation since our honeymoon, and we went to go visit his family (who we hadn't seen since last Memorial Day!), and also spend Easter with them!

The morning after the wedding, my Nana had a heart attack. She was in the hospital for several days after that, and I went down to Florence to spend a few days with her, and sent Harris and Lucy on to Greenville, where I met up with them a couple of days later. Nana was sent to rehab a few days after her heart attack, but ended up back in the hospital that very next weekend. There has just been a lot going on with, seemingly, everything - her heart, kidneys, lungs, having an infection, so on and so forth. She has been in the hospital ever since, and I have been back and forth between South Carolina and Virginia spending time with her. I really wish I had answers for the inevitable questions here, but I think we are all just taking it day by day and seeing what happens. We are thankful that she is still with us, and still fighting! We do appreciate all the love and support floating around out there, more than you know.

Our time in Greenville with Harris' family was really great, though, and we loved getting to spend time with everyone! Most of his family comes together for Easter at his granddad's house, which includes the annual Ligon Family Easter Egg Hunt Extravaganza! spoiler alert: I am a really bad Easter egg hunter, apparently!

Harris went to Arkansas on a business trip last week! He is in the early stages of traveling for work, so he is not yet jaded like I was toward the end of my business-travel time. Actually, I hope he never gets that jaded, but, nevertheless, I think he is enjoying it!

This past weekend, Harris was on-call, so he worked a lot, and I played a lot of catch up on things that had fallen by the wayside the past couple weeks. However, we did manage to make time for brunch on Sunday morning before our second baseball game of the season!

This week has been a good, but busy one! We are both really glad that tomorrow is Friday!

Recently

I almost titled this post "Lately", but I immediately  started singing this 90s ballad in my head, and had to nix that from the start. You're welcome for getting it stuck in your head too.

Now that we have that out of the way, I am not going to waste my time or yours apologizing for taking 3 weeks to craft a blog post. It happens. I am sure you three religious readers will forgive me. Maybe. Hopefully.

At any rate, since my last post many exciting things have happened! Allow me to enumerate them for you (with as many accompanying pictures as you and I can both stand). Ready, set, go!

Lucy turned 4 years old! I cannot believe this little puppy is now 4!

Lucy at 6 weeks old - her first weekend at home with me & Harris

For her birthday we spent the afternoon at the park, and then took a ride. It was a glorious day for a little pup!

Little Goose - we love you so so much! You make our lives so happy every single day, and you are the cutest little dog in the world!

The weekend after Lucy's birthday, my best friend, Erica, her hubby, Michael, and their puppy, Loki (aka Lucy's boyfriend) came into town for the weekend! It was so wonderful to spend time with them, and get to share our home and town with them. We tried to cover as much of downtown as we could, and just enjoy our time together. I can't wait for them to come back for another visit!

That next week, I went to New Jersey for a few days for work. Additionally, after almost three years of traveling to Jersey on the regular, I have decided that Princeton is the only part of the state I would deem pretty. 

This logo always makes me think of the circus, anyone else?

That next weekend my little sister and her beau came into town to celebrate her 20th birthday! Holy wow I cannot believe my little Kayla is 20! We had the most fun weekend celebrating and just spending time together! She requested a strawberry birthday cake with hot pink frosting, which resulted in the pinkest cake in the world!

Lucy and the boys were tired! Who am I kidding? Kayla and I were probably passed out right beside them.

Kayla's Birthday Video from Courtney Ligon on Vimeo.

It was also Halloween while they were here!

The week after that, I went to Texas for the week. It was long, and I didn't take any pictures. I know you are disappointed. Oh wait, I forgot. I took pictures of my super bourgeois hotel room the last night. I stayed at the Grand Hyatt at the airport. When I opened the door to my room, I thought for a moment someone was in the room because as soon as the door opened, the tv turned on, started playing music, and showed this message:

The shades also started opening, electronically. And then I took this picture:

And then I ordered sushi and a martini from room service. The sushi was delicious. The martini too strong. Such is life.

I got home from Texas last Friday afternoon, and then left for California for my monthly mentoring circle meeting first thing Monday morning. Harris also started a ridiculously long work stretch this past weekend, and is still going strong. Le boo.

This month's mentoring meeting was hosted by yours truly. So naturally, I made everyone go to California. I mean, why not.

Sunrise from my hotel room. Mountains in the background.

Sunrise from the other side. Ocean in the background.

Pink starfish! First time I have ever seen one in nature!

View from our boat tour.

Sea lions and seagulls going for some fish being thrown from the docks

Sea lion!

A Maersk ship being unloaded. Not the Alabama, FYI.

My mentoring group after our boat tour.

At the top of the Port Authority building in Long Beach.

After our session, we decided to do a little sight-seeing, and hit up Beverly Hills and Hollywood!

Tory Burch

Cartier. They started rolling out the red carpet as we walked by - I wonder who was coming in!

Chanel

Loving the palm trees. Guess they aren't palmettos in Cali?

Bugatti parked on Rodeo

Couple stars from Walk of Fame

Something was going on at Grauman's Theatre (now known as TCL theatre, FYI). We didn't spot any celebs, but we saw the paparazzi and the red carpet, so SOMEONE was there!

Dolby Theatre (aka the Kodak)

Phew. Okay, if you actually made it through all of that, congrats to you! As a treat to you for being so resilient, I have saved the very best for last! Drumroll please....

Harris got a promotion!!!!!!!!!

As of next month, he will start training for his new position, which he will assume January 1st. He will be leading a team, and, most excitingly, will be working normal office hours: Monday through Friday, 8am - 5pm. We could not be more thrilled, and I could not be more proud of him!!! This has been an absolute blessing, and the answer to many, many prayers! He is so excited about the opportunity, and we are both excited to have some normalcy in our lives! I can hardly imagine having my hubby home every night, and weekends together! Ahh...so wonderful!

With that, I will bid you all goodnight. I hope to be better, and to write before 3 weeks pass us by again...