JJ’s Cookbook & Magazine Collection

After my little adventure to Luray Caverns, I headed to JJ’s house.  I had tried to time it right so I would have about an hour before JJ and the crew came home.  An hour would give me plenty of time to get settled, make a cup (or 3) of tea and get a post or two written.  As I sat in the extra bedroom that’s not a bedroom and started typing, I looked out the window and suddenly felt right at home.  And why wouldn’t I feel at home…It was the same view I had seen hundreds of times on her blog… the only difference now was, I was inside her house looking out at the view of the rolling hills… instead of being on the outside looking in from my computer screen.

As I was unpacking my luggage, I decided it would be fun to place the party hat I had brought from home on the porch railing… as if to announce “Mavis Is Here.”

About 30 minutes later, the tribe arrived home…

And then finally, I met JJ, Mr. Handsome, Yo-Yo, Miss BeccaBoo, Sweetsie and the Nickle in person.  With one minor exception… they were in fact the people I had thought they would be in real life.

Later at the pie party, JJ’s mom and I were talking and she said something to me that has stuck ever since I came home from Virgina… “On a blog, you are only telling part of the story, you show people what you want them to see.”  And, its true.  But on the other hand… when we read a blog… WE only see what we want to believe as well.

JJ’s Pie Party was just as I imagined it would be. I knew her house would be filled with people, I knew there would be (lots) of pies and I knew both strangers and family members would make an appearance, but most of all, I knew myself and others would have a good time.  And we did.

As we sat on the porch swing we talked about gardening, Mr. & Mrs. H (and how awesome we think they are) about our children, and how exciting it was to watch car after car pull into the gravel driveway…  For a moment there it almost felt like we were on a reality t.v. show… “Who’s Coming For Dessert.”

We wore hats, we ate pie and then we ate some more pie… It was the coolest party I had ever been to.

Very relaxing, very low-key, very much the way a Sunday afternoon should be.

For once in my life I was at a party in which not one person was bragging about their car, their clothes, or their latest vacation.  There was no trying to one up one another, no snide comments, no trash talking.  It was a little unsettling and amazingly genuine all at the same.  It was very clear to me, from the moment I stepped foot in her house, I was not in suburbia.  Not even close.  In a way it was as if I had stepped back in time… to the way it use to be (or at least how I imagined life years ago would have been).  And for those few hours… it was pure bliss.  Something I have never experienced nor do I think I will have many more opportunities to explore.  At least not where I live.

Maybe I’m just looking back at that afternoon through rose-colored glasses, or maybe I was just sleep deprived from only getting in a mere 7 hours of sleep over the previous 3 days…  But I’ll tell you something, I enjoyed every minute of it. And if I had known all I needed to do to enjoy a little slice of heaven was to hop on a plane and fly a few thousand miles to spend the afternoon with my two favorite bloggers… I would have cashed in my frequent flyer miles years ago.

~Mavis

Mavis Ignores 3 Texts & 2 Phone Calls… Part 1

Mavis Ignores 3 Texts & 2 Phone Calls… Part 2

Mavis Ignores 3 Texts & 2 Phone Calls… Part 3

And let’s not forget these three related stories too:

Mavis Goes To Virginia… Part 1 Getting There Is Half The Fun… Or So They Say

Mavis Goes to Virginia Part 2

Mavis Goes to Virginia Part 3 … The Pie Party