The royal baby (I’ll refer to him as Prince, because how cool is that?!) has arrived! I thoroughly understand the American obsession with the Royal family because we don’t have monarchies and thanks to Disney, every girl grew up wanting to be a princess. For Kate Middleton, that dream actually came true, giving the rest of us normal girls a sense that dreams really do come true. Besides, who better to admire than the people we fought so diligently to break away from? (Only kidding…)
So now the question remains: what is Prince’s name? People have been betting on it for 9 months now. Surprisingly I haven’t read much into it. I’m sure it will be a family name- and probably a very long one at that. Unlike us normal people, Prince will probably have about five names before they ever get to his last name. I didn’t know that monarchs even had a last name until I googled it about five minutes ago. I thought they just went by their first, middle, second middle, etc. names and ended it with something fun and royal like “the Duke of Cambridge”. Their last name however is obviously very English and very royal sounding…nothing as plain as Smith would do… which is why their last name is Mountbatten-Windsor. Good luck trying to teach Prince to write and pronounce that in kindergarten.
Not gonna lie, I was really crossing my fingers for a little princess, but I’m sure Prince will be just as dashing as his parents and just as fun as his Uncle Harry. Can I be his godmother? And I was also very glad that he arrived at a decent time of day so that I didn’t have to pull an all-nighter like I did in college to watch the Royal Wedding. (Ok, but seriously I probably wouldn’t have pulled an all-nighter to wait for the announcement of a baby that I will never meet. Watching the wedding was worth it but somehow waiting up just to hear a Royal crier make an announcement didn’t sound appeasing. Not to mention that in college, my body was trained to run on no sleep, but now that I have a job and a real-time schedule, I’m more of an in-bed-by-10-at-the-latest kind of gal.—But for the record I would, however break my schedule to watch another wedding of Royal or Kardashian magnitude on any given day. Yes, I’m that girl. Slightly obsessed.)
Is anyone else shocked at how quickly summer is passing by or am I just getting old? It’s almost August for crying out loud! I feel like say this every summer…but such is life. And what a difference in this summer and last. First of all rain, rain, rain. It rain an inch last week and is currently raining now. Not so bad since hardly any one down here irrigates and most crops are laid by at the moment. But the boys back home are singing a different story. Spence sent me a picture from the field last night after they got- wait for it…4 INCHES of rain the night before last. And guess what, they’re supposed to get more today. So instead of pumping water into the fields, they’re retracing all their previous steps and pumping water off. Fun fun. Compared to last summer which was one of the worst drought seasons ever with the some of the highest crop prices…God sure does have a sense of humor.
Another difference in last summer and this summer is my lack of tan-ness. Direct quote from my mother last weekend: “Wow, this is the palest I’ve ever seen you this time of year!” Thanks….I am becoming more cautious of sun damage after finding a few wrinkles on my face and my dad having skin samples sent off to be tested. So I catch rays when I can but am not exactly the sun goddess that I used to be. Instead, I now resort to sunless tanners- they stink, but they work. And to me, the cost of stench is much easier to pay than other potential costs.
Speaking of wrinkles, did you know that sleeping on your face (stomach and side sleepers) can cause wrinkles!? Engineers have built a pillow with a hole cut out so that only your ear, jaw, and hairline take the pressure, leaving your precious face unharmed from the ruthless wrinkle causing pillow while you snooze all night. While this may sound ridiculous, I have been overly aware of the way my cheeks smush into my pillow, creating an obsession of caution when I’m trying to sleep. The past few nights I have spent a good 3-5 minutes situating myself just so that my face feels as little smush as possible. “Prevention is key”…but somehow I still wake up looking like the Nightmare before Christmas every morning. Maybe I should just accept the fact that raisin skin is worth a good night’s sleep on a smushy, fluffy pillow (no matter how contradicting that sounds). Right…?
Last but not least, I would just like you to know that I fried my first ever batch of green tomatoes last night. And they were awesome. I also used my potato cutter to make my first batch (okay, actually the second because my first attempt was an utter fail) of homemade French fries. I’m becoming a decent gardener and cook while living down here- Mississippi makes me sustainable, and it feels so good. I posted a picture of the fried, unhealthy, goodness-es on my Instagram (another one of my obsessions) with the hasttag #BHGsummer in hopes of winning the weekly contest that Better Homes and Gardens is hosting all summer long. So far, they haven’t “liked” my photo…but it’s only Tuesday…there is still time. They’re probably just too busy gushing over Prince to notice me at the moment…
Stay hopeful my friends. Enjoy the summer and the rain. And remember that Jiminy Cricket was right when he said “dreams come true”.
Love always,
“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Breaking out of the Bootheel 