Make Yourself At Home

This post is LONG overdue, but it just feels like things have been quite busy around here during this past month.  October was a  month full of very wonderful things! I made a quick, surprise trip home to celebrate the upcoming marriage of a good friend of mine.  Then, three days after returning to Kentucky our house was filled with lots of love, family, laughs,wine, and yummy food. My Mom, Dad, Sister and Nephew endured the long drive to Kentucky so we could all spend some time together, and so they could see some new sites.  

While they were visiting I wanted to make sure we packed a whole lot of Kentucky into one weekend! While our visitors were here there was one thing that we needed to do and that was celebrate some birthdays! Since Fall is pretty much like Christmas in the Fogarty Family-- between September 20 and October 16th we have five birthdays-- celebrate, we did! My Dad's birthday fell on the weekend that they were visiting, and then a couple weeks prior were my Mom's birthday and my sister's birthday.    

The explainable highlights of the weekend include going to the Keeneland Horse Track and betting on some ponies (my dad on $50!), visiting a beautiful winery, touring the town, going to Pop's BBQ (I am going to find a way to get them on the Food Network- so amazing!), and watching a Fall Ball baseball game.  The reason why I say "explainable highlights" is because those are the highlights that are in pictures and that are easy to tell people about... but man, oh man, there were so many more highlights than just those.  

The highlights that are my favorite are the ones that can't be seen in photographs, but rather pictures in my mind... they're those funny "you had to be there moments." While you are cracking up telling the story to others they all just stare at you with an amused look on their faces not really finding the same humor in it as you.  Those were my favorite- like spending practically an hour picking up leaves right outside the Visitor Information center when we had a whole park to admire, to petting the not-so-happy donkeys, to being called rude (in accent that is best repeated by my mom) for parking NEXT (not in) to someone's driveway, to my dad pondering why hospitals are always named after Saints rather than just some regular ol' guy's name like Hubert. Trust me... you had to be there. 

While there are times that I miss home more than I ever imagined I would, I am also so grateful for this experience.  I am almost  certain that if we lived five miles down the road from my family the memories of our weekend together wouldn't have happened. Our time spent together would be quick rather than seizing the opportunity to spend quality time with each other.  The hustle and bustle of life can drag a person in all different directions, but having family visit from far away made me want to put all of the over-rated things in life on hold and soak up every second and every memory.  

As weird as is sounds, after my weekend at home followed by my family visiting I now feel more at home here in Kentucky than I ever have since moving.  I think it was the fact that people I love were able to see where we now live, and that being away in Minnesota made me think and wonder about the things I was missing in Kentucky.  I have to say that the month of October has given me feelings of positivity, contentment and finally feeling like this new place is now my new HOME.