Sundays According to Rya

This morning Rya asked to go to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast.  I said, "No, I don't have the money for Dunkin Donuts today."  She said, "Then we should have a yardsale today to make money for Dunkin Donuts."  "We can't have a yardsale today because yardsales are typically on Saturdays and today isn't Saturday," I explained.  "Oh yeah, today is Sunday" she says matter-of-factly.  I disagreed, "No actually today is Tuesday."  She laughed, "No it's Sunday because the sun is out!"  After an appointment and lunch, I scrounged up some change to take Rya to Dunks because that innocence deserves a damn donut but she changed her mind and wanted an ice cream instead.  Everyday is Sunday with my Rya.  

Friday Favorites—Dunkin Donuts Christmas Ornament 2011

I've been collecting Dunkin Donuts Christmas ornaments for years and this year is by far my favorite.  Be sure to run out and get one before I buy them all up!  Happy Friday!   

My Little Entrepreneurs

Today was our community yardsale and Currier and Rya got up bright and early to sell donuts and coffee to the browsers.  They made a lot of people happy and they made bank! 

Currier and Rya

I asked Currier if he wanted Mommy to have another baby and he grimaced at the thought and sadly said, "Oh no Mommy, I don't want to get another baby. I want to keep Rya."

Friday Favorites- DD Christmas Ornament

Every year Dunkin Donuts comes out with a holiday ornament and this year is one of my favorites. Happy Friday!

Friday Favorites—Dunkin Donuts Iced Coffee

Just in case you didn't already know this. Dunkin Donuts has the best iced coffee on the planet! Happy Friday!

National Donut Day

Don't forget that today is National Donut Day! Get a free donut today at Dunkin Donuts with the purchase of a beverage. This does not help my diet at all!

Iced Coffee Day

Don't forget that TODAY is Iced Coffee day at Dunkin Donuts. For each small 50¢ Iced Coffee you buy today, 10% will go to support Homes for Our Troops. Now that's refreshment you can feel good about! I'm on my 3rd Iced Coffee today and it's only 8:52AM.

Flat Stanley Visits Charleston

Our niece from Florida, Nyah, sent us her friend, Flat Stanley, for a school project. It was our pleasure showing Flat Stanley around so that he could go back to Florida and tell Nyah and her classmates all about his adventures in Charleston. The first place we took Flat Stanley was the USS Yorktown, a Navy aircraft carrier that served in the Pacific during World War II. It is the oldest surviving aircraft carrier still intact and is now a museum ship. We also took Flat Stanley to see another major local landmark of Charleston, the Cooper River Bridge, which has a main span of 1,546 feet, the longest among cable-stayed bridges in the Western Hemisphere. After sightseeing, Flat Stanley got hungry so we took him out for some local food called Gullah Cuisine. Gullah are African Americans who live in the Low Country of South Carolina. The Gullah Cuisine dishes that Flat Stanley tried were fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes and collard greens. After our delicious home cooked meal, Flat Stanley tried a Charleston Chew because you can't come to Charleston and not try one!

We also took Flat Stanley to Dunkin Donuts. Yeah, we know Dunkin Donuts has nothing to do with Charleston. We just really love the place!

Bedtime Story With Carrie and Hilde

Carrie and Hilde came and spent the night last night. Currier couldn't wait to show off his new bed to his aunts. He dragged them into his room as soon as they walked in the door. In their short visit we ate a yummy steak and scallop dinner, watched Willy Wonka four thousand times, shared some candy, read Everyone Poops for a bedtime story, ate Dunkin Donuts breakfast sandwiches, and as always laughed a lot together.

18 Hours Of Fun With 3 Cousins

After a week of camp in Tennessee with Aunt Carrie, Currier's cousins Amanda, Clayton and Jonathan came and spent the night with us on their way back to Florida.

After some serious hell-raising we managed to get the kids to sit down for some burgers and hot dogs that Trent cooked on his shiny new grill that he got for Father's Day.

After dinner the kids decorated cupcakes in honor of Flag Day (any excuse for cupcakes!).

As a thank you for bringing all these cousins to our house, Currier planted one on Aunt Carrie.

We had air mattresses all set up upstairs but the kids thought it best to all sleep together in the living room in front of the television. Being the push over that I am, I obliged and no one had a good night of sleep.

We woke up early (6:30AM) on Sunday morning and ate Dunkin Donuts on the Isle of Palms, searched for sand dollars and didn't find any, played in the surf and drove along Ocean Boulevard admiring the mansions. It was a good time and we look forward to more visits.

Am I Making Friends?

Hell yeah, I'm making friends! This is my best friend Holly. Holly makes me iced coffee every morning, serves it with a smile and calls me Honey. Being friends with Holly is effortless considering she doesn't know we're friends.

Dunkin Donuts Iced Coffee

This morning Currier pointed to the iced coffee on the counter and said, "Mama". I'm actually honored to be associated with DD.

ChErYlEEsKi Visits Charleston

"Marn" is my cousin Cheryl’s made up word for "dork", so when we picked Cheryl up at the airport last week for her 6 day Charleston adventure, Currier enthusiastically greeted her!

After a few beers at the apartment we hit the Sullivan's Island oyster roast. We’re now experienced enough to know that you don’t show up to these sort of things sober! Although Cheryl doesn’t like seafood, she does like firemen and since this was a fire department fundraiser it was the first stop on our week long adventure. Cheryl was forced to try at least one oyster by a friendly local. Thankfully she had two beers handy to wash it down. We had such a good time; we stayed until the kegs went dry and the last oyster was shucked.

The following morning we drove to the Isle of Palms to check out the incredible waterfront mansions on Ocean Boulevard. It was fun to collect the property information on the ones for sale—all of them priced over 5 million. I’m sure we looked like serious investors driving around in our Chevy Malibu rental drinking Dunkin Donuts Iced Coffees. I bet if we had that fancy Starbucks coffee, we would have been more believable. After choosing which houses we would buy if we ever won the lottery, we took advantage of the gorgeous weather and walked along the beach, dipped our toes in the freezing ocean and played in the sand.

On Monday, Cheryl, Currier and I went to John’s Island to see the Angel Oak tree. Over 1500 years old, the Angel Oak tree is the oldest living thing east of the Mississippi River. We determined that the second oldest is our Papa. He turns 90 on March 2nd.

On Tuesday, we went to one of America's oldest working, living plantations—Boone Hall Plantation. Unfortunately Currier wasn’t up to sitting still or being quiet so Cheryl took the house tour on her own while Currier and I walked around and took a nap in the car.

After touring the plantation, we headed across the street to Boone Hall Market because we misunderstood and thought this is where we could buy some of that delicious, fancy flavored wine—Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill. It turned out to be a farmer’s market filled with fresh produce and other products produced on the plantation so we bought sandwiches for lunch instead.

Oprah made us do it... Later that evening, we went to Jestine’s Kitchen for some good ole Southern cooking—fried chicken, fried green tomatoes, meatloaf, fried okra, shrimp Creole, fried oyster po' boys, country cream corn, black-eyed peas, and blueberry cobbler. Many of the dishes on the menu are recipes of Jestine Mathews. Jestine, who lived for 112 years, was the housekeeper for the owner of the restaurant. Celebrities such as Oprah and Rachel Ray rave about the place and so do we!

After dinner, we went on the Charleston Ghost and Graveyard Walking Tour. The tour guide was thrilled to have Currier on the tour. He said that children and animals see the things that our brainwashed adult minds can’t. He told our group to keep an eye on the baby for his reactions to the ghosts. Unfortunately, I think Currier was a let down to our group because the graveyard night watchman was there with his two dogs and Currier kept chasing the dogs around and couldn’t be bothered by the ghosts. However, even with my brainwashed mind, I see a man on a horse on the walkway in the photo above. Do you see it?

The next day, we decided to work off some of the Southern cooking and walk across the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, also known as the Cooper River Bridge. It is the bridge that connects Charleston to Mount Pleasant. The length of the bridge is 2.5 miles. We made it half way and then turned around because we are lazy it was so windy.

For Cheryl's final day, we went to The Spa at Charleston for a little pampering. I got a massage and a facial and Cheryl got a facial and a mani/pedi. We sipped tea, we relaxed and we giggled. It was the perfect way to end her visit. We miss you already Cheryl!

Dunkin Donuts At Last

Every morning should start out like this!