The Weekend I became a Lively...

Ok...so I didn't technically become a Lively...but I sure had fun being adopted as one! 

My poor husband has to work all the time. Ok...so it's not necessarily all the time, but because it's when everyone else is off, it feels like it. For 4th of July weekend (yes, I am that late at blogging!), Matthew, of course, had to work. We weren't able to go to the Lake house for the weekend like we usually do. So I settled for all day Saturday instead. Josh and Audrey Lively picked me up at 8:45am, we said goodbye to Matthew (as well as try to convince him to call in) and headed off to Paris, TN! After an awful stop at McDonald's,  having to stop at another one just to get a yummy chicken biscuit (6 biscuits?), and bonding over yelling at Josh to stop doing stuff on his iPhone and drive, we finally made it! We enjoyed a great day on the lake with great friends! The usual gang: the Parkers (duh...their family's lake house) and the Hesselrodes made our day wonderful! I even drove a jet ski! What?! Thanks Audrey for the lesson and encouragement! We had an incredible dinner - that obviously included the great chicken that made Matthew not care about Abby's fingers getting smashed in the door years before, and Nanny's friend squash! But, all good things come to an end, and the Lively's and I were pooped and ready to go home to go to bed. Although one long winding road made it almost impossible to get home! The name escapes me, don't know how. Maybe the real Lively's can tell you.

The next night was the 4th. The Lively's again picked me up and we traveled downtown to see the fireworks. Now, I don't want to sit down there for hours until the fireworks start, but maybe we should have left the house earlier than 20 min till! :) Amazingly enough, we did arrive at a new found destination  (kinda shady--glad Josh the Bodyguard was there to protect us!), and found the BEST hidden place to see the fireworks! We were basically right under them! We discovered that traffic was ridiculous on the way home, and it got to some people. Like our friend beside us. I was staring them down to let us over - because they had just let like 50 other people over - and the man got out and grabbed a long bag out of the trunk. The bag held either a baseball bat or shotgun, but we didn't stick around to find out! We also had to make a potty stop at this way awful and shady gas station. Audrey and I did what we had to and ran! We finished off the night getting Matthew a disgusting black olive pizza and ourselves some ice cream and laughed about our crazy night!

While I would have loved to have my darling husband to share the holiday with, becoming a "Lively" was the next best thing! Thanks guys for the wonderful weekend and taking me in!

Things to walk away with:
-when talking to the McDonald's drive thru, speak clearly. Otherwise they may mistake "chicken biscuit" for 6 biscuits
-also always ask if drive thru's take cards. Otherwise, you'll wait in line just to be told they can't take cards. That info would be helpful up front!
-also (sorry, McD's kinda let us down that weekend) have them push down the buttons on the drinks so you can distinguish drink preferences. Isn't that what they are there for?
-Avoid cute, sweet road names. They are more than likely hiding the secret that they are awful streets who make you want to scream!
-DO NOT MAKE PEOPLE MAD IN TRAFFIC, they may have a shotgun or baseball bat in the trunk. You never know when too far is too far!
-No matter how badly you have to pee, don't stop at shady gas stations. It just wasn't worth it! We would have been better of squatting somewhere!