Getting Antsy

This time next week I will be pacing back and forth at my desk (literally, I just got a standing desk, whoop whoop!) waiting for 5 p.m. when My Hunka Hunka Burning Love and I get in the car and head to the beach!!

I CAN'T WAIT! I love the beach. I honestly don't think I'd mind too bad if one day My Hunka Hunka Burning Love wanted to buy his family a beach house, then me and the (hypothetical) kiddos would go down for the month of June (or maybe even June, July and August) and Dad would join us on the weekends. We've been watching Mad Men lately and in one of the episodes we saw recently the women were asking, "Where are you summering this year?" I think I could handle quite nicely this notion of "summering." I'm not sure why it disappeared. Let's bring it back... PLEASE!

Oh wait, people still do this! I just spoke to a woman and she is taking her two kids up to the Jersey Shore for the entire summer - sign me up! I will admit there are many perks to marriage, but one is definitely that you get to go on two summer beach trips.

For our summer's first family vacay, we'll get to see both families. We'll make a pit stop in the Outer Banks for a day to celebrate the Fourth of July, catch some rays and watch the fireworks with these goons.



Sassy!!

Then we'll continue on to Isle of Palms, SC for some R&R craziness with these cats. I didn't realize there were multiple ways to spend time on the beach, but after spending 26, ok, ok... 28 years on beach trips with my family and a few with My Hunka Hunka Burning Love's family, we definitely do it differently (but that's another story for another day).

OBX 2011 (Tootie and Squishy weren't even thoughts yet).
We had some good eatin' this year, tuna and mahi mahi (not pictured).

OBX 2012

Tootie's first birthday, April 2013 (now insert My Hunka Hunka Burning Love).

To prep for my R&R on the beach I reached out to many a folk to compile my summer reading list (which really consists of me finding 10 books I want to read and ultimately only finishing one, two if I'm lucky).

(I have to admit I basically stole this idea of compiling my summer reading list from a dear friend, but hopefully she won't mind that I'm borrowing her fantastic idea).

• What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty


• In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez


• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt


• Divergent by Veronica Roth (I was told this has a good love story)


• The Death of Santini by Pat Conroy


• Me Before You by Jojo Moyes


• Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter


• The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman


• Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

You know the books on your list are good when you have two different library accounts and every book on your list is checked out. I have access to the U.Va. libraries and My Hunka Hunka Burning Love and I just went and got our accounts at the city library too - no books to be had at either. I put my name on a list for three, I'm 10th in line for one book, 13th for another and 64th for the last. UGH! Good thing I have about another 200 pages in my current Pat Conroy novel to keep me occupied until it's my turn for any of these. I sure do hope I get one before next Thursday though, so I can have a backup with me at the beach.

Oh the beach, CAN'T WAIT!