recap: a weekend in shreveport.

on friday evening, after justin & i ran some errands in wilmington earlier that day, 

we hopped on board a plane that would take us west, 

toward our hometown of shreveport, louisiana. 

since we got to the airport in raleigh with loads of time to spare, 

we sought out comforts in the form of starbucks, blackened sandwiches, 

& our friends blue moon & sam adams. the flights that evening were good: smooth & quick. 

and before we knew it, we were hugging my parents & standing in the baggage claim area. 

i gave my dad his early birthday present, a north carolina starbucks mug, which - thankfully - 

i found in the airport... not long ago, i spotted this very mug in the wilmington starbucks, 

but neglected to get it, thinking it would be there waiting for me next time. well, it wasn't. 

so you can only imagine my joy when i spotted it while in line for my pre-flight caramel macchiato. 

i have to say, being a home was nothing short of lovely. 

it was so great to finally see my family again, as well as the puppies. 

on saturday morning, i rose around 10 o'clock (which would have been 11 in nc) 

& sat out on the porch with my mom & had a conversation that was long overdue. 

thank you, mom, for sharing those things with me! it helped tremendously. 

as we sat, neighbors & friends alike came to chat. 

that porch is a place i never, ever want to leave. 

but, when laura & sarah showed up, i excitedly jumped into the convertible - top down - 

& rode off toward sushi & long-overdue conversations with those two crazy girls. 

meanwhile, justin was off at old oaks, seeing his friends, playing golf, & getting sunburned. 

after sushi, my mom & i took off in pursuit of birthday presents for my dad. 

as a lot of you ladies will know, dads are hard to buy for. 

but, i think we lucked out this year & managed to pull together some great stuff. 

[this was evidenced when i received a picture message from my dad 

of his assembled presents, with the caption happy birthday to me]. 

the main event of his gift - a couple of hydraulic stools for his new workshop - 

will come in handy during those long hours out in the shop, working on projects. 

i'm glad my mom suggested these! 

i'd like to give a little belated-birthday wish to my dad via this little blog:

happy birthday, dad!

while out shopping, we popped into kings hardware 

- what is quickly becoming one of my favorite places in shreveport - 

and created a wedding registry there. it was so much fun to go around, 

selecting things i like. i'm not sure if any of you are aware of this phenomenon, but at first, 

i was quite timid in my selections... which prompted choruses from my mom & the attendant of, 

'why not?! just scan it if you like it!' i don't know why i was holding back - maybe it feels a bit like 

you are actually buying all those things at one time... or something. 

but, i was able to get over my hang-ups & scanned many a beautiful item while there. 

that evening, justin & i had dinner with my parents around the table on our porch. 

on the menu? shrimp poboys from the real pickle! you'd better believe, i dove right into that 

southern delicacy, realizing how much i have been missing that delicious cuisine. 

after the main course, i got a bit adventurous & offered to try the remains of our delicious

 engagement cake - which my parents had kept safely wrapped up & refrigerated - 

and y'all, learn from my mistakes & realize that you should never eat cake that is old. 

[i guess the only exception to this is freezing & eating the top tier of your wedding cake 

on your first anniversary - though i am told that this practice often yields memories 

of how lovely the cake tasted before it was frozen, thawed out, & eaten a year later.]

what came next was a night out on the town with my long-lost & much-missed friends. after the requisite visit to our usual haunt - stray cats - we hustled it over to a recently re-opened shreveport spot, chicago. boasting live music on the bottom floor, as well as a club scene & balcony on the top floor, we were entertained for a few hours before calling it a night. 

and before i knew it, it was sunday morning & time to rise & shine & get ready 

for our engagement photos with lindsey. we had such a great time - 

laughing, catching up, & smiling for the camera. a huge thank you goes out to lindsey 

for agreeing to snap some shots of us. i cannot wait to see how great they turned out! 

[and luckily, justin's sunburn had gone down considerably the next morning.]

and then, of course, after starbucks & chatting on the couch with lindsey, 

it was time to pack our bags in anticipation of our flights back east. 

i'm not going to lie - i was a bit sad to leave our hometown 

after such a quick glimmer of a fun, relaxing - yet - busy weekend. 

i can't wait for our next trip!