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we loaded up the car and headed to NOVA this past weekend.  we stayed for three nights with the mcconnells and visited with them and will’s sister’s family.  we had three fun filled days full of great food, playing with the niece and nephew, and hanging out with some great friends!

thursday night we finally got on the road out of wake forest around 7:50PM.  we stopped to get gas and then headed up route 1 to 85 and made our way to 95, all the while making pretty excellent time.  we did not really hit a snag until we screeched to a hault on 495 before the 66 interchange.  seems they decided it would be a great idea to close the formerly 6 lane route down to 1 lane at nights.  texted melanie and she confirmed we were in for a long stretch of stop and go, and that we had best avoid 66 for the exact same reason.  will and i made our way off 495 at the next viable exit and were headed to fairfax via 236 LRT, when we had to make a quick change and head to annandale – WHY? – well, you see they decided they would also close the exit ramp off 495 to Fairfax via LRT, so we had to get off in the wrong direction and find some place to make a U-turn.  What a mess?  will and i just kept reminding ourselves why we moved away from all of this wonderfulness!  we finally made it to centerville around 1am.

melanie and nick greeted us with open arms and hot lasagna!  delish!  i could not believed they stayed up until we got there!  i forced them to stay up even longer to listen to our traffic woes and then we all finally went to bed around 2am.  you know me, i never sleep in a bed that is not my own, so i stayed up  counting the hours till time to head to work.  will went to spend friday with his sister and meridith while i worked at the office.  all of the ops people headed to lunch at cee’s thai in fairfax, so we had a good ole time yapping it up before it was time to get back to the grind.  work was good and after everything was wrapped up we headed out for some dinner at a steakhouse later.

nick tried to convince us all that the restaurant we were at (Texas Roadhouse) was the place where you sat on a saddle and got a huge “YEEEHAAWWW” for your birthday.  unfortunately, we could not get anyone to saddle up and claim it was their birthday for the evening.  on the way out the door we all got a good look at the saddle by the meat counter.   perhaps if we had consumed a frosty beverage we could have pulled it off!  after dinner we headed to the movies.  “the hangover” was playing at the $4 theatre and mel and nick were flabbergasted when they found out that will and i had not seen the movie before, so we made it to the theatre in time to laugh our butts off!  (if you have not seen it, add it to your queue.)

saturday morning we got up bright and early to make it over to the witwer’s in time for the kid’s soccer and baseball games.  sadly, it started to rain just as we made it to the fields.  the boys hung out at ethan’s baseball game while the girls drove across town to reston to watch meri kick around the soccer ball.  after about 20 minutes out in the rain meri decided that this was not all it was cracked up to be and we headed back to herndon to meet up with the boys.  apparently the rain was following the girls around town and after about 30 minutes of watching ethan’s team play ball this game was rained out.  we all re-grouped and got the kids changed so we could run out to lunch.  will and i voted for taste of saigon and lynne agreed that would be delicious!  beef in grape leaves, imperial rolls, and two orders of black pepper seafood really hit the spot!  yummay!  after lunch we headed out for some bowling.  the kids really showed off their skills and we all ended up with pretty similar scores…  meri decided that aunt anne and uncle will should really be “horsies” and should trot her on their laps between every bowl.  by about round 5 our legs were wobbly like jello.  after dashing through the rain, back out to the car we realized that will’s cell phone was mia.  i called the number and we found that the phone was laying on the back bumper of the car the entire time we were bowling, while it was raining cats and dogs.  luckily, by sunday night, his phone had dried out and was working again!  (thank goodness considering it is the 4th phone of this model he has had since last year!)  after bowling we headed back to lynne’s house for meri to open her belated birthday present.  she opened the box and exclaimed “how did you know i love blue!?!?!”  too cute!  she was in love with her tiny treasure trove and proceeded to try everything in the box on and do some modeling for us.  very reminiscent of lori.  after the prizes we hit the trails to meet up with nick and mel for dinner reservations.

after we got out of our waterlogged attire and redressed for dinner we headed to the melting pot in arlington.  a fun fondue time was had by all as we tempted ourselves with the alpine big night out.  dinner was full of cheesy, oooey, goooey, goodness!  after dinner we met up with jason (baby BARE) over at artie’s in fairfax.  he showed off his new car (after my insistance) and we all chatted to catch up.  some people came in saying they had been across the street and it was a real “cougar den” at renee’s.  melanie and jason were brave enough to go in and check it out, but after they found out there was a $10 cover charge, they made the next “legal u-turn” and we headed home.

sunday morning we were exhausted and hit snooze on the proverbial alarm clock about 400 times!  once we finally drug ourselves out of bed melanie treated us to a yummy breakfast in centerville.  we all enjoyed waffles and pancakes with our cappuccinos that really hit the spot!  once we made it back to melanie’s we loaded up the car, said our goodbye’s and scampered down the road as fast as we could so we could make it back to the boarding facility to pick up the sisters.  we made it back just in time, with about 5 minutes to spare.

now if we could just take a nap, we’d be good to go again soon!

went out for lunch today to enjoy the gorgeous nc fall weather!  it was 75 without a cloud in the sky!  fantastic, for sure!

while sitting outside the coffee shop enjoying my dirty chai tea latte i spotted this – something i had never seen before – graffiti in wake forest.

most of the time if you said that you found graffiti somewhere you might get upset or be scared of what photo was going to be attached to this statement.  however, before you make a judgement that all graffiti is bad, just know that i found this peacefully sweet.

i love this town.

so the original plan was for lori and i to spend the week in roanoke helping mom and dad pack and get settled into their new house, and to have beth and james join us all for a celebration party on friday night.  well, if you know any of us you know this – things never go according to plan.  however, i have also learned this – in the end – no matter how difficult the struggle was, we will come out better on the other side.

mom and dad got a really great deal on the home of their dreams.  they put in the offer while will and i were in the bahamas.  according to the first contract (prior to amendments) they were going to close on october 5th.  however, they found out shortly after the offer was accepted that the fella who currently owns the home filed for bankruptcy.  since the home had a contract, the bankruptcy judge allowed the sale to go through, but because some corrections needed to be made to the home prior to closing the house was now tied up with the seller’s court hearings.  this pushed closing back to the 9th.  however, with court on the 8th, we found out that the fella had an undisclosed lien on the property that had to be rectified at next month’s bankruptcy hearing, thus pushing the closing back at least another 30 days… we are now looking at thanksgiving.

mom and dad are resilient and bounce back like nobody’s business, but this was just a little much.  sometimes timing is everything, and this was just bad timing.  mom gets really busy with the store around the holidays and knows that moving during the holidays is just not ideal.  however, that being said – we reassured her that if we have to unpack boxes and decorate the tree on christmas, this is what we will do.  afterall, we are all taylors (deep down), and we will get it done!  so – in true taylor fashion we spent the week rolling with the punches.  lori and i ran a billion errands for mom and dad and helped them get lots of furniture ordered for their new place.  lori and i both felt like we had a new friend (Scott) at Grand Piano.  I am sure he would run the other way if he saw us come through the doors ever again!  we visited the store three days in a row at the first of the week, and were so happy when the final purchase was made!  everyone is really happy with the furniture picks and we know it is all going to look great in the new place!  we also helped mom get fabric picked out for her wingback chairs in the sitting room.  this was a task, since the fabric had to blend with an antique oriental rug and also pair nicely with their new open concept floorplan – however, we figured it all out and got the fabric ordered and ready to go!  sadness set in with lori and i when the reality of the packing actually set in.  we went through old memories in our dresser drawers and boxed up old trinkets, trying to clear out our rooms.  both of us knew this was the last time that we would be together staying in this house, our childhood home, with our parents. 

the three sisters are so grateful to have had such wonderful childhoods filled with tons of memories based in our home at 51 Lois Lane (formerly known as Rural Route 3 BOX 150, and 4061 Lois Lane).  we compiled a sampling of those memories into a book we entitled “51 memories on 51 lois lane” as a coffee table book for mom and dad in their new house.  we really could never completely compile a complete list of fond memories of our childhoods because, as we grow older, we become evermore aware of the fact that nobody had as good of a childhood as we had.  we have, without a doubt, the world’s best parents. (which is why the bad news of the delayed closing was hurtful for all of us, just knowing how excited they were to get into the new place.)

our basket of goodies that was intended to be opened at the new home celebration ended up being opened in the living room at 51 lois lane.  we threw in an extra present of the sugarland cd so that mom and dad could find comfort in knowing that “..it happens”!  we all danced and sang rounds of the song knowing that sometimes the reality of the situation is just a little too much when you have to chime in with:

 “Now it is poor me, why me, oh me
Boring the same old worn out blah blah story
There is no good explanation for it at all

Ain’t no rhyme or reason
No complicated meaning
Ain’t no need to over think it
Let go laughing
Life don’t go quite like you planned it
We try so hard to understand it
Irrefutable, indisputable
The fact is –
It happens”

however we can all take comfort in knowing, when the time is right and GOD is ready for them to close on the house and move in, they will and we will all be right there on their doorstep.

love ya mom and dad.