Back To Life... Back To Reality

Aaaahhh!!! My blogging frequency is the pits! Especially considering I have so many fun and happy things to report :)! My apologies blogosphere buddies.

This is a song title post, by the way. Because after a lovely vacation (and I do mean lovely), I was thinking this song in my head. And dreading it. Blah. Because our Alabama adventure was absolutely astonishingly awesome. I know you like all the a’s :). And I, frankly, was not looking forward to a return to reality. (I wasn’t the only one feeling that way, either). But, though we did return to reality, it hasn’t been a bad return at all ;). It’s actually been quite lovely back here too.

And now for the re-cap. With pictures, of course ;).

I left off in the middle of November in my last blog post. But that is about right. The only thing noteworthy (in my opinion) that happened that following week was that on Wednesday night, Jeremy and I watched A B.C. Thanksgiving on my laptop. Love that cartoon! “And that’s a turkey?” “Well, it ain’t Barbara Streisand…” and “We must give thanks to the Great Provider.” “That ain’t you is it?” Haha… I’ve been watching that cartoon for ages and ages. In fact, the copy I have available to myself is the one I transferred from Betamax to DVD a few years back. So it’s my DVD with tracking issues… Hahaha. I think it’s funny that even Jeremy has been quoting a few lines from this gem of a cartoon ever since ;). Yep, I definitely like the cartoon. And I like making it part of my Thanksgiving tradition :). Oh, and did I mention I don’t have a tv, so Jeremy rigged my laptop so that I can hear the volume out of my old stereo my parents got me for Christmas around 1994ish? (My laptop speakers are pretty lousy as far as playing DVDs goes…). Yep, he’s pretty handy to have around. Did I mention that before ;)?

But I digress… I’m supposed to be filling you in on our Alabama trip!

So on Thursday, the day before vacation, I left work a little early. Not for the most exciting of reasons, of course. I had that fun little female doctor visit. Yippy skippy. (In case you couldn’t tell, that’s dripping with sarcasm…) But once done with that fun experience, I was able to get on with my day of tasks in preparation for leaving for a week! So laundry, cleaning, paying rent early (so it wasn’t late), packing, my mom and Sue stopped by my place so Sue could get the grand tour – now that most things are put away and in their place… Then Jeremy stopped by for a while and helped me finish off my list of tasks… Then I had to go pick Christina up from work and take her home. And I was home and in bed by about 10:30, since Jeremy would be there at 4:15 the following morning.

And he was. I slept mostly well, even though I did wake up a couple times in the night. But that’s just to be expected. Anticipation and all that :). So we packed up his car and drove to my mom’s. Unpacked his car and parked it in the driveway. My mom took us to the ferry terminal where we caught the 4:50 ferry. That was one packed ferry! I guess all the Seattle workers head in on that one! I would not enjoy that every day! So we made it to Seattle and then walked to the light rail. This is a train that will take you right to the airport. For cheap. Our total cost to get to the airport was $5.50 plus whatever was used in gas and wear and tear on my mom’s car. Since anytime I take the airporter, it usually costs $36 round-trip just for me, this was quite a nice price tag! So we went through security at SeaTac and they now force everyone to go through those full-body scan things. Slows down the process a lot. Especially when they have two lines going through one scanner. But we had plenty of time, so though it was annoying, it didn’t impact our flight. And you know how I like to document things… So here was our first picture of the trip… Don’t we look lovely for having been up since 4 in the morning (or earlier…)?So we had a brief layover in Denver. There are a lot of birds in the Denver airport. The flight from Seattle to Denver went by fast enough. We played Phase 10 and Jeremy was whoopin’ me, but then we had to land. So he never officially “won” that game ;). On the flight to Atlanta, we mostly worked on snoozing. And we were mostly successful, even though we won’t call it restful sleep. We landed in Atlanta at a little after 6 p.m. local time. Julie and Alysha were waiting for us in the airport – and we spotted them before they spotted us! So it was off to the van (or truck) and then a lovely driving adventure to get out of Atlanta before we stopped somewhere to eat. So where did we opt to go? I thought Jeremy needed a true-blue Deep South experience. The two choices I thought of were Cracker Barrel and Golden Corral. Fortunately for us, both of these restaurants were pretty much at every exit! That’s the South… Golden Corral won out, because Julie and Alysha said they hadn’t been there in a long while. Plus it’s all you can eat and already prepared for the eating. And Jeremy and I were pretty hungry by this point. I ate fried okra (which I have done so before when I lived in Alabama) and I actually really liked it this time! Jeremy tried it too, but I don’t know what he thought of it. We had a pretty intense conversation about Brussels sprouts. Haha… And what they look like. And after filling our stomachs full of food, we piled back into the van and continued the drive to Julie’s. And yeah, we were exhausted. So was Julie. Her “eyes were blurry” a lot. Hahaha. But we survived and made it to their house. Where we said our good-nights (after seeing Jon and doing a brief introduction) and I got my shower and went to bed! I started the next morning pretty early and met Callen, Julie’s little man. He saw me go into the room and sit on the floor and he went crawling right over to me and crawled in my lap. And then he looked confused. I’m pretty sure he thought I was either Julie or Alysha because of the long dark hair. After he realized I wasn’t, he turned and looked at Jon and you could tell he was a little curious about that situation. Jeremy, Julie, and I got dressed and ready to head to April’s house. April lives only about 10 minutes from Juile! How crazy is that!?! It was awesome to be able to do that, even though it was such a brief visit. April cooked breakfast for all of us and we got to meet Bennett. He and Callen are only a few days apart. It was wonderful to get the chance to see April, Greg, Courtney, and Bennett, even though it was only for about an hour. We did take a group picture, but Julie said I wasn’t allowed to post it. Haha… So instead I am posting the one of just me and April :).

We went back to Julie’s and by this point Shayla was up. She has really grown up and gotten so interactive! And not very shy at all! She loves taking pictures. And she loved playing with Jeremy, who stuffed a purple boa into his back belt loop as a tail and ran around with her chasing him. She thought that was the most fun game ever. Julie took a nap and I mostly just relaxed. By around noon, Julie, Alysha, Jeremy, and I headed to Dothan. We talked while we drove. About a lot of various topics. It was a good drive. So much fun to go through Brundidge again, the city with the horrible speed limit. Haha… Julie dropped us off at Lowe’s, since my dad was working. So Jeremy met my dad, who still had an hour left of work, so Jeremy and I walked around Lowe’s looking at appliances and kitchen stuff and discussing our likes and dislikes. It was actually a lovely little hour we spent ;). When my dad got off work, we drove to Publix to pick up a few groceries to get us to Monday. Then we went home and I gave Jeremy the grand tour of my dad’s house and then got a shower while my dad made dinner. We enjoyed sitting and visiting at the dinner table. Actually, it was quite a lovely night. We turned in around 10, because we had church the next morning, and Jeremy and I were still very tired. We really hadn’t gotten much sleep to this point, so it was good to finally turn in early and get a good night’s sleep.

And it was absolutely lovely to wake up and see Jeremy’s smiling face in the doorway to the room where I slept – seeing if I was awake yet and ready for morning prayer. Oh so happy :)! So we had prayer and ate breakfast and headed to church. My dad gave us full use of the PT Cruiser while we were there. Church was at 9:00 and we got there just as Relief Society/Priesthood were starting. So Jeremy and I split up and went to our various classes for the first hour. Then we got to sit next to each other during Gospel Doctrine. I know it’s so gushy and dorky to be all giddy about these things. But even now, a month later, it still makes me feel that way :). And after Sunday School we went to Sacrament meeting and then I got to take a few minutes to say hi to Becky and Brian. Then Jeremy and I headed home. We ate some lunch and just relaxed and talked until my dad got home for lunch. Then we sat and visited with him while he ate his lunch. He headed back to work, so Jeremy and I just relaxed some more and talked. It was a very relaxing day, actually. A nice day. We started cooking dinner around 5:00 in preparation for my dad getting home from work. We made arroz y guandu (rice with some peas that we used to eat in Panama, but they sell them in the grocery store – Goya brand). I think I made chicken to go along with. Nothing fancy. Just sprinkled with garlic and pepper. So we enjoyed another nice meal together, and then, after showers, Jeremy and I did scripture reading and talking some more. We had our nightly prayer and then went to bed. Oh, and because I like to document our trip – even the stuff where we aren’t actually doing anything… here’s a picture of me and Jeremy in the kitchen on Sunday night as we are making dinner :).

Monday brought another early-ish morning. My dad had to work again, and Jeremy and I had a 9:30 appointment with the fabulous Stacy at the Dothan Botanical Gardens (where I’d never been before…). So we ate breakfast and headed out – after getting all spiffied up (well, as much as Jeremy and I “spiffy”) of course ;). We arrived just a few short minutes behind Stacy and her sweet Ammon boy, who patiently endured a photo-shoot in the hot, humid, gnat-infested weather (that was ridiculously draped about us like a wet blanket that day… Seriously 80 degrees in mid-November. That’s hideous). And following are some lovely samples of Stacy’s wonderful talent. Oh how I love love love these pictures. I love the happiness and fun that is captured. And the love :). Yep, there I go feeling all giddy again ;). (I know I gave you a little taste of these pictures, but wait until you see more… Scroll away!).
The following photos courtesy of stacy thomas | photography.







This is one of my most favorites :). I love that face -- that smile -- those eyes! :)

While at the Botanical Gardens (where we fought off a cloud of gnats… did I mention that already?), Jeremy also got to look at and feel red clay (well, that explains all the brick houses in the South!) and there was even a random stem of cotton. Which was pretty cool, because it gave Jeremy the opportunity to see and feel cotton that was just grown. And I remember the first time I ever saw cotton on the plant – it was pretty cool to me. We spent maybe an hour taking pictures. We didn’t want it to be a long and laborious event. Just a simple, quick photo shoot to appease my love of pictures and my desire to document life ;). And how sweet that Jeremy humored me and endured ;). We headed back to my dad’s house to deal with laundry and also get the shopping list for Wal-Mart. But we didn’t head out right away. Instead we lazied around a while longer. All this lazying around stuff was pretty awesome. I’m telling you… this going to work every day and being stuck at a job is over-rated! (Too bad that’s how you get the money for vacations… ;)). We eventually decided to head to Troy Dothan to see Donna. We had definitely wanted to see each other (me and Donna), so though it was only for lunch, we made the most of it. And we went to one of the foodie places on my “must go there in Alabama” list: O’Charley’s. I craved that potato soup. And so why, once I got there, I chose to order half a sandwich and a cup of the wonderful soup, I will never understand. Donna was the smartest of the three of us and ordered a full bowl of it, because I’d raved about how delicious it was. Jeremy went with the soup of the day, which was 3 Cheese and Broccoli. We don’t talk about that much, since it’s a sore point for him ;). He took a taste of my soup and was highly disappointed in his choice of soup. Which he stated. And Donna said, “Well, you should have listened to her. I did.” Haha. Oh Donna. How you make me laugh. And yeah, I was sorely disappointed in the lame-o sandwich. I should have gotten a huge bowl of the addictive cheese-with-potatoes-floating-around-in-it-soup instead of a small cup. Sigh. My gift card from Julie for my birthday came very much in handy ;). We went back to Troy, said goodbye to Donna, and then I tried to go visit my former Dean there, but he wasn’t in. We stopped by to say hi to Jo Ann in the College of Arts & Sciences, and then swung relaxedly (I’m making up words…) on one of the bench swings on campus. Until we started experiencing more gnats and mosquitoes. Then it was time to go. Oh! But let’s not forget the picture of me and Donna!

Plus, we had to go to Wal-Mart and it was around 4:00 by this time. I know. I think we may have been insane. Wal-Mart at 4:00 p.m. the Monday before Thanksgiving? Ugh. And Super-Wal-Mart at that. Which is pretty much your only choice in Dothan. I’m sure Jeremy was thrilled with this experience. We divided and conquered and found out Wal-Mart was sold out of strawberries, so we had to come up with alternative fruits for the fruit salad we were going to take to Thanksgiving. And we did. Then we headed home to my dad’s and I started working on the arroz con pollo. Which I probably should have saved for another day, because that takes time. And we still had laundry to do, and then I was going to rush off to Target just to have the opportunity to see a bit more of Stacy and a quick visit with Tammy, since they were headed on their own vacation the following day. So Jeremy and my dad hung out and ate dinner while I went to Target. Stacy, Tammy, and I lolly-gagged and talked in the aisles while Stacy’s husband ever-so-patiently waited for his wife to visit and entertained their little boy. Much appreciated, Brian. Thank you! By 9:15 or so I was back at my dad’s, eating dinner. And before long it was time to turn in for the night. But here is a picture from the Target rendezvous ;).

Tuesday was a different type of day. My dad was off work, so Jeremy was planning to stay home and help my dad while I went off to visit with my friends. I didn’t leave first thing in the morning, but stayed to help rake leaves. Holy cow. I forgot how fun that is. (That’s sarcastic for me, but it wouldn’t be for Jeremy… he likes that kind of stuff). I got a blister. And I am not so good at big piles :). But we got a significant portion of the yard raked before I headed to Baskin Robbins for some mint chocolate chip ice cream to take to HLML to surprise Kristin with! And so I did! So much fun! She and I sat and gabbed for an hour until she had to leave. Here’s a picture of the two of us.

And then I went to the front desk to visit Miss Hilda and show her a picture of Jeremy. Miss Hilda was tickled and said, “You guys look like you belong together!” in her Miss Hilda way. (You’d have to know her to understand what I mean by this, but I can seriously hear her voice in my head). I went downstairs and visited with Nancy and Rebecca for about 10 minutes and then was planning to leave, but Bettye was there when I went on my way back upstairs, so I ended up chatting with her for a good hour. I tried to stop by Waffle House to see one of my former Young Women, but she wasn’t working that shift. I was kind of sad about that – I’d hoped to catch her and say hello. And then I got gas so that the car was ready to go for Thursday (and also because the light was on, and let’s face it… running out of gas is one experience I can live without…). So it was back to my dad’s where he and Jeremy had been working very hard all day. They were dirty and smelly. And it’s a good thing dinner was just leftovers! I didn’t feel like cooking. It was another lovely night of visiting and laughing. This may have been the night my dad told me and Jeremy about the doctor that drew a smiley face on his ankle. That still makes me laugh. Oh man. I laughed sooo hard. Classic. It’s fun to sit around and tell stories. It’s easily one of my favorite things about being with old friends or family. The memories. And it’s part of what I love so much about making new memories – like with Jeremy. I know there will be a day years from now when we reminisce about these times. And laugh :).

Wednesday was similar to Tuesday in that Jeremy and my dad were working on projects at the house. Oh, I should also mention that Jeremy made breakfast (oatmeal from scratch) pretty much every morning from Tuesday on. And okay, so he’ll probably gag with all the gushiness of this blog post, but seriously… It was just so joyful to see his smile first thing every morning ;). Anyway, I digress. So we ate breakfast and had morning prayer. And actually, we did kind of do some lolly-gagging ourselves before finally getting motivated to start the day. So he joined my dad outside and helped my dad get the weed whacker working. And I swept the floors inside and then met up at Italian Express with Kristin and Anne. Oh. My. Goodness. This was as fabulous as I remember. I even took a picture to help you see what I’ve been going on about:

Roast beef sub with gravy on the sandwich and on the side. For French fry dipping. And okay, so it’s like a heart attack waiting to happen. But man. It’s so good. I told Jeremy if I couldn’t finish it all (one of the “hazards” of losing weight is that your stomach shrinks), I’d bring home the leftovers so he could try this delicacy I’d been ranting about. No such luck. I wiped that plate clean. And I’m still not sorry ;). It was nice to spend an hour or so visiting with Kristin some more and with Anne. Anne who stopped in the middle of making her dressing to come and eat with us so she could see me :). Thank you Anne :). (For those who may not know, Anne was my very first supervisor. She was an awesome boss.) And if she reads my blog and says I can, I will post the picture of she and I. I forgot to ask beforehand.

So I drove some back roads back to my dad’s. And can I just say I started feeling really nostalgic. Seriously nostalgic. And that surprised me. I knew our time in Alabama was drawing to a close, and I was starting to feel the sadness of that eventuality. And that surprised me even more! I have missed the people I left behind ever since I left. But I had never missed the place. Especially not Dothan. But this trip… This trip made me realize that I do miss Dothan. It really is a simpler way of life in lot of ways. One day, as Jeremy and I were relaxing at the house, he said to me, “I can’t believe how quiet it is here.” And my dad doesn’t live out in the country. He lives in the middle of the city. And yeah, every once in a while, we’d hear a siren going by (because there’s a main street about a block away from his house). But other than that… It was quiet. In all the years I’d lived there, I’d never noticed that before. No dogs were barking. No kids (or others) were yelling, screaming, airing their dirty laundry outside the house as they are walking down the street (ummm… that’s a frequent occurrence at my current residence). Not a lot of traffic was constantly driving by the house (also a frequent occurrence where I live now). It was quiet and peaceful. And Jeremy thanked me so many times for this wonderful relaxing vacation. And I was so glad I could give it to him :). I still am.

Anyway, so there’s my nostalgia. It’s weird. I still sort of feel it. And I never ever ever thought I would.

I spent the rest of the day talking with my friend Karen on the phone and making the fruit salad to take for Thanksgiving. And getting a shower and starting dinner. Because I was of no use outside with the men. We laughed some more at dinner. Mostly about Jeremy’s ability to eat a lot of food. My dad joked with him and told him it’d be a sad day for him when there were no “seconds.” We made a valiant effort to go to sleep early, since the day would start early enough the next day (2.5 hour drive one-way for Thanksgiving), but truthfully… Jeremy and I enjoyed the time to spend together and talk for hours about nothing and everything. So we took advantage of it :). And paid the price later…

Because it was a long drive on Thanksgiving. And I did the driving. Jeremy got a few light snoozes in in the back. He missed most of the 20-something cotton fields we passed, but was able to snap a picture for his parents to see. We arrived and I started helping with the bird. My cousin Greg and his wife Jenny and their daughter Jaina were all there. It was really good to see them again. It’d been over 4 years since I’d last seen them. Possibly as many as 6 or 7! Jeremy and I took a walk through the woods a bit later where I got a tick on my pants. Yuck! Then we played croquet – me, Jeremy, and my dad. My dad won. But we had a lot of fun! And I was really tired, so I took a very quick nap and then dinner was ready. The food was wonderful. Well, except none of us was a fan of the blue cheese-stuffed olives… Between the amount Jeremy eats and the 4 pounds of salt my dad put on his food, we certainly had a few laughs during dinner-time ;). I didn’t actually take any pictures there (shame on me!), but we had an enjoyable time. But most good things must come to an end eventually, and this was no exception. We had a drive ahead of us and Jeremy and I had a day full of travel to look forward to (read: dread) the following day. So we packed into car and I drove home. The drive home actually seemed to go by faster than the drive to Georgia. Which was a good thing. Because I was tired. And actually quite emotional. I really was dreading leaving. The vacation had been so wonderful. The visit with my dad had been priceless and precious. I didn’t want it to end. (And okay Dad, you don’t know this, but I cried a lot at the prospect of leaving… And I will always treasure this trip. Thank you, Dad, for one of the best weeks ever and for some of the sweetest memories that were made and will forever be treasured :). I love you.)

And as it always does, morning came. And though it’s not a bad thing for morning to come, this time I just wanted to hold on a little tighter to the wonderfulness I’d had. Yes, that’s slightly pessimistic. And so I had to tell myself not to cry because it was over, but to smile because it happened. So we got up early to drive to Montgomery. Yep, more driving! Me again, and I was still tired. Let’s just say I’ve had better driving moments… But we made it alive to IHOP in the ghetto where we met up with Julia-Ann! It was good to visit with her, though it was very brief. And here are a couple pictures from that. It’s always so nice when friends take time out of their busy lives to see you, even if it can only be for a brief time. And though we had plenty of time, we had nothing else to do once we were done eating, so we headed to the airport. My dad stayed with us for a little while. We took a couple pictures (seen below). But then he left. And I cried some more. And truth be told, just sitting here remembering it, I’m kind of tearing up again. Phew… I’m far too sappy at the moment.

I love my dad.

So one good thing about Montgomery airport (which was a box on Jeremy’s airport diagram… ;)) is that they didn’t have those ridiculous full-body scanners. We got through security quickly enough and sat at our gate for a little while before boarding. We didn’t do anything but try to sleep on the way back to Washington. And unfortunately it was a 4-hour layover in Atlanta (gross). We did play Phase 10 there. And then a hideously never-ending flight to Seattle (and I slept for over half of it and it was still way too long). And don’t you love drooling in your sleep on planes? Haha… So attractive. Jeremy’s poor sweater was the recipient of my drool. Sorry Jeremy. So we landed in Seattle at about 9 local time. We walked to the light rail (it was very cold, by the way). We relaxed on the light rail for our 40 minute trip. Then we walked to the ferry terminal, bought our tickets and waited for the 10:30 ferry. Much thanks, once again, to my mom, for picking us up at the ferry and bringing us to Jeremy’s car (which was waiting patiently for us at my grandmother’s house). And since Jeremy and I hadn’t eaten all day – and though we were tired, we decided to end our vacation with a midnight meal of grilled cheese and tomato soup.

And so then it was back to reality. Life returns to normal. You try to catch up on your sleep. You try not to miss vacation too terribly much. And you work to find joy in the hum-drum of daily life ;). And it’s there. It’s just a little less obvious. But life goes on. You make even more memories of Mongolian grill food, a Christmas tree that Jeremy cuts down off his parents’ property (thanks for letting me have a tree!), and the simple joy of sitting together, enjoying the glow of the Christmas Tree lights. Yep. Vacation was wonderful. And I wish it could be that way every day. But then that would be life – and not vacation, right ;)?
So I’m thankful for the beautiful moments we are given to cherish and hold dear as we plug away at life. What a blessing this Alabama trip was for us. What a joy. I’m ever so grateful to all who made it such a wonderful experience for both me and Jeremy. :)