I spent my first week back in Virginia at my parents house in Roanoke. It felt weird to come "home" and call it "vacation," but it somehow managed to feel like both. I spent time with friends, getting drinks, having dinner, and going on coffee dates. I went to the gym and then to the spa with my mom, had a wedding dress fitting, got dresses for my bridesmaids, cuddled with my dog, and read a book. It was great.

On Friday morning, Rob flew in from Minneapolis and I picked him up at the airport. We got coffee and did some grocery shopping for my mom before heading home, then back downtown for lunch with his friend, Ed. A few hours later, Rob's brothers and their friends were arriving, and we went back to my parents' house for beers and hard cider on the back deck. The next day his parents arrived with his oldest brother, his wife, and my sweet nephew-to-be. My best friends Tina and Emma came over, and everyone got acquainted and we had a little engagement party.

There's not much better than having so many people you love all together under one roof.

I landed in Virginia yesterday and it is so good to be home.

I'll be spending the week with my family before Rob lands on Friday and his family gets in on Saturday for a little engagement dinner and celebration before we head to Williamsburg for another week. Until then, I have friends to catch up with, morning workouts and a Tuesday spa date with my mom, a wedding dress to try on, and a really sweet old dog to snuggle and go on walks with every day.

I have some posts scheduled to go live while I'm away, but feel free to follow along with me in real-time on Instagram.

Wishing you a warm and happy Monday wherever you may be!

I was homesick this weekend.

It happened in the strangest way--right alongside feeling like I'm more at home here than I have been in the past month. There's one lone box of clothes to be hung up in a corner of our bedroom, and everything else is more or less in its place. All of my books are here. I've cooked countless meals in the kitchen already. Every morning, I wake up beside the man I'm going to marry in less than nine months and he goes to work and every evening he comes home and we have dinner. And yet, I have parents and a brother and a sweet old dog in Virginia, and when I talk about them, they are always "back home."

I'm now trying to accept the fact that it's okay to be happy and sad at the same time--to love it so much here and miss my family and friends and mountains so dearly. Life is rich and complicated, and the shiny vacation feeling of a new place and new furniture and a farmers' market every Saturday might be rubbing off a bit, but real life is just as beautiful.

"You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you."

--Frederick Buechner