who says home can't come to you??

my mom came to visit the weekend before last.  it was much needed momma-daughter time for both of us i think.  i love my sisters dearly, but sometimes i just want to have my mom to myself. especially considering the crazy days i had leading up to her getting here. 

i realized, two days before the due date, that i had a term paper due on friday, the same day my mom was flying in.  i had somehow convinced myself that the paper wasn't due until the first week in december and that i had plenty of time to do it over the thanksgiving holiday.  so, as you can imagine, i was a stressball, trying to get a 5-7 page paper done in two days, while working my regular hours and getting my necessary amount of sleep.  not.  easy.  and i will never, ever let that happen again.  the good news is, i got it done in time about 30 minutes before my mom's plane landed on friday night.  the bad news is, my mom's plane actually landed 3 hours late.  haha.  but it was turned in on time, and since it wasn't my best work, i'm not expecting a good grade at all.

i took riley with me to pick mom up.  he was so excited to see her!  he almost jumped out of the car when we pulled up to the arrivals terminal.  our original plan for friday night was to maybe go out to eat, but since my mom's flight was delayed so late (she landed at 10:30 pm), and i had spent most of my day working on my paper, we decided to go to sleep instead.

we spent the next day eating and shopping, our two favorite things.  we had breakfast at ihop, stopped by target, where i planned to only spend a few dollars on some tampons, but ended up spending a lot more, because there is NO WAY my mom and i can walk by books and not browse!  i picked up jodi picoult's newest book on paperback, house rules.  i was excited to see that that one was finally on paperback.  earlier my mom noticed that i only had the first two books in the twilight series, and when i saw that target had eclipse with the author approved cover, not the one with kristen stewart, robert pattinson and taylor lautner, i got a excited.   since the movie came out i can never find the original cover, so mom bought me that one and breaking dawn, to complete my collection.  she also picked up another vampire novel for herself.  i think she has a little thing for bloodsuckers, haha!

then i saw that the original version of "the grinch" was on sale, so she offered to buy that for me, too.  now for those of you who don't know, "the grinch" is my all-time favorite christmas movie.  i especially love the one with jim carrey in it, but the original will always have a special place in my heart, because i am a huge, huge dr. seuss fan.  so, needless to say, i was very excited to get the movie.  finally, she split the cost of a duffel bag i had been eyeing for a few weeks with me.  considering all the traveling i do, and plan to continue doing, i've been trying to find the perfect carry-on duffel to fit in all the things i usually take with me, ie. books, laptop, running shoes, etc.  i know most people like to travel light, but i always like to be prepared.  :-) 

after target we headed downtown to go to the shops at canal (where they just opened a new anthropologie store!) and walk around the french market and art boutiques.  we started out at anthropologie, and found a bunch of cute things for my apartment.  i've been looking for little pieces to make my apartment feel a little more cozy, and who better to help me than my mom (who i think is an excellent decorator)?  after we touched and oohed and ahhhed over pretty much every piece in the store, we walked around the rest of the shop, lusting after all the things we can't have, just yet.  i had no idea all of my favorite stores were in the shops at canal (like, bcbg max azria, coach, etc.).  we browsed through francesca's, but didn't find anything we wanted to take home.  we stopped and had pizza at sbarro, with pretty nasty cucumber salad (it was more like tomato salad w/a few slices of cucumber, but that was probably for the best since the cucumbers looked gross). 

we then walked to the french market, where i looked for some christmas presents for my cousins, and we picked up some local beer.  we sat and drank and people-watched for a little while.  it's things like that that remind me i'm my mother's child.  we both LOVE to people watch.  after hitting up the french market and some of the art stores nearby, we were both too tired to stop for beignets or cafe au lait.  so, we headed back home, but not after stopping in a little sweet shop and buying a caramel apple to split.  for dinner we picked up some cooked boudin.  then we nestled in my little apartment and watched a movie and went to sleep.

on sunday we pretty much planned to hang out and not do anything, but i needed to get my oil changed, so after mom made me breakfast (bacon and egg and beans!!!), we watched a little tv (who knew, we both love ghost whisperer!!) and got ready to head out.  first, we dropped my car off at pepboys, then, we went BACK to target, because i wanted to look for a shelf to hang in my room.  we didn't end up finding a shelf, but we bought a few other things (a new sponge!  oh the things we get excited about...) and then mom wanted to go to ross, which is right next to target, to try and find some flats.  she found a super-cute black pair there, and then we saw a set of owls that were really cute, and since owls seem to be my new obsession, we bought those and a tuscan looking spoon dish (you know, for when your cooking and you need to put your spoon down?).  after that we went to eat at chili's, where we had 2-for-1 margaritas.  by the time we were done, my car was ready and after we picked it up we headed home to watch more tv and veg out.

mom had to leave early the next morning, so our momma-daughter time was short, but very very sweet.  i miss my mom a lot, which is probably why i call her, pretty much every single day.  one of the reasons i can't wait to move back home is to spend more time with my mom.  i was very grateful to get this weekend with her.