Life is Full of Ironies!

For those of you who follow me regularly, you may remember that my last post was about a "faux" dough bowl that I finally bought after lusting after a "real" one for so many years and finally giving up the hope. Well, life is full of little ironies. We went down to daughter #1's house last week - more on that in a minute - and I immediately spied a "new to her" antique dough bowl in her dining room. As we were all just meeting our new grand dog and giving hugs all around I didn't say anything but when we sat down to catch up, she asked me if I had seen her newest treasure. Of course, that started me on my lamenting dissertation of how I have wanted one forever and ever and....! She then told me she had found it at a wonderful salvage shop and they had many! Thankfully, before I could remind her of how much I have sacrificed in my life for her (labor, teenage years, college years, hormones, etc.-lol) she got up and came back into the room with the most beautiful thing I have ever seen and told me that since it was Grandparents Day very soon, they had all decided to get this for me us. The irony of the whole thing is that they had not seen my latest post so it truly was just by chance that this all happened within the time frame of two days. Luckily, I found the receipt and the fake is going back tomorrow. The other irony is that she bought the authentic antique bowl on a 50% off day so it wasn't too, too terribly much more than my fake!

Isn't it just beautiful? Thank you family!! I We love it!! This will be another of those decorative items that I love so much that it will probably stay out all year! Can't you just see it full of antique ornaments in December, vintage Valentines in February, shamrocks in March,...well, you get the idea.

Now, on to our fabulous, whirlwind trip! Arrived on Thursday evening and the highlight-after seeing our family of course-was meeting this guy!

We are all dog people so this was absolute LOVE at first sight. This is Jasper and for anyone who has missed the previous post, he was rescued from a Korean meat packing plant. He is still young - they're guessing between 2 and 3 - but he is truly the most calm and loving puppy ever! We couldn't get enough of him! But, we were here for some other special moments as well.

Friday morning after the girls headed to school, we headed to Tampa. We decided to try a restaurant we hadn't tried before and were so glad we did!

We got to sit on the upper level so this was our view. Those wine bottle chandeliers were beautiful. I think I "pinned" something like that once. Who knows, that just may have to be my next DIY project-lol.

This was my lunch-homemade black bean and fresh corn burger with a sriracha aioli and caramelized onions with a side of sauteed spinach-yum!!! Before anyone gives me too much credit for making such a good choice of a "side", I will admit that we started this meal with an appetizer of loaded homemade potato chips!

My husband decided it was time for a splurge for him so he went for the macaroni and cheese stuffed meatloaf. Yes, you got that right! That things was truly large enough to serve a family!

After lunch, we headed to the International Mall for a bit of birthday present shopping and a stop at the Cheesecake Factory to pick up a lemon-meringue birthday cheesecake as well as slices of key lime, salted caramel and a chocolate-coconut explosion-kind of like a Mounds bar meets cheesecake.

We had a bit of time back at the house to visit with Liv and Caitlin before the Devilettes all showed up and they were off with us to follow shortly!

To say it was a little "toasty" would be an understatement but getting to be there to watch this special young woman who we all love so much perform was well worth it! Wish we lived closer so we could be there for her every week!

Saturday was our chance to celebrate Olivia's 14th birthday by having lunch at her favorite restaurant in St. Pete. Can't believe we didn't get one picture of the birthday girl but by then I think we were all just savoring our last bit of time together and none of us even thought about it.

We arrived home just in time to head to Harrison's football game which took place even though there was a pretty good rain coming down so us "old folks" got a pass and didn't end up sitting through it in the rain. We decided to make lemonade from lemons so we ran and picked up some Chinese food and got home right about time for the Gator kick-off. We won so it was a wonderful end to a wonderful weekend.

Today we are catching up and getting ready for another full and fun week ahead. Stay tuned.