Alabama 2015 (Part I)

I'm loving this going to Alabama every year thing.  But one of these days, it will probably stop happening.  I mean, it's pricey to fly with lots of kids.  And we now have to buy 3 tickets every time.  Plus, it's super-long days.  For us and the kids.  It's like we're carrying a ticking time bomb, ya know?  The kids could explode at any second.

But we haven't reached that point yet.  We went this year, and it rocked.  As always. 

We woke up bright and early (like 4 a.m.) to get going.  Truthfully, our alarms were set for like 4:15 or 4:30.  But Corbin is a good little alarm clock, and he woke us up at 4.  We got him fed and put him back down in our room to sleep while we got the rest of our stuff packed and then got Lynnaea up and fed.  She's such a little trooper.  She was super-excited.  My mom picked us up and dropped us off at the airporter.  It was still dark outside, and Corbin isn't known for doing really well in his car seat when it's dark outside.  But apparently he doesn't mind traveling, as long as he can be held.  Since it's not required that he be in a car seat on the airporter, I just held him.  He even fell asleep for the last half-hour of the ride.  Awesome kid.  Then we got to the airport, and Lynnaea was helping to roll one of our bags (the lightest one).  Such a cutie.  I wish I'd have gotten a picture.  But we were pretty heavy-laden with luggage and such.  We got checked in, got through security, and stopped at the play area in the airport to gather our wits about us, change diapers, use the restroom, and let Lynnaea burn off some energy.  Then we headed to our gate.

This was us right before boarding our first flight in Seattle.  It should speak to how we feared it would go.

But our kids are awesome.  Corbin got fussy once on each flight for maybe 5 minutes.  Then he fell asleep both times.  He enjoyed eating carrots and apples mid-flight from those squeezy pouch things (which are awesome).  Again, I wish I'd have taken pictures.  He was the happiest kid when eating those things.  Julie and Shayla picked us up at the airport.  We got Chick-Fil-A on the way to Julie's house.  Then we visited for a bit and then hit the hay.  The next day was Veterans' Day, so Julie was off work, and she fed the baby.  Look at that cheeser!

It was a relaxing day, and all I had to do was pick up the rental car and go to Costco and get formula.  Lynnaea spent the day chasing Julie's cats and playing with Callen and Shayla.  To say Lynnaea was in heaven is probably an understatement.  And that means we were too...  

Due to a mistake on my part, we didn't end up going to Tuscaloosa on Thursday as originally planned.  Instead we went on Friday.

 So that meant we just drove in and ate lunch with these two fabulous ladies, and then drove right back out, since we had a big shin-dig planned at April's house that evening!

 I love Annie and Virginia.  Love that they always make time to see me when I visit.  They are wonderful.  We ate at The Blue Plate so I could introduce Jeremy to the "Meat and 3" type places in the South.  Yum.  Corbin enjoyed mashed potatoes.

 Then we went to April's and started our plans for our 80s Cartoon party.  It is so cool when you have friends that didn't even know each other, and then, because they move within 10 minutes of each other and you come to visit frequently, they meet and they end up liking each other and now we all hang out!  And do awesome stuff like this.  So...  I was Rainbow Brite.  Corbin was a Ninja Turtle.  Lynnaea was supposed to be my Twink, but she refused to wear the costume and only would don the head-band later.  Julie was Jem and Shayla was Jem's sister Kimber.  April was an 80s gal, while Greg was a Nintendo Controller ;).  Bennett and Callen were Mario and Luigi.  It was so much fun!  We had themed food, of course.  But you'll have to check out my foodie blog for that, if you're interested.

 Here we are again.  All about the 80s.

 Aw, best friends.

 Here is little Twink.  That stinker.  She'd have made a super-cute Twink.  I guess when you're 2, you just don't understand the importance of the 80s and theme parties...

We spent that night at April's house.  Always such a nice time.  We got to hang out with two babies!  Then we headed to Dothan.  We stopped on the way and met up with a friend from Panama.  She was one of my Young Women leaders back in 1997/1998.  And now I look like the older one!  Heavy sigh.  But it was so awesome to see her again. 

 Spit-up on my shirt and everything ;).

We got to Dothan, did some shopping.  Then pretty much settled in.  We went to church on Sunday, but I had assumed all was the same as usual.  Well, you know what they say about assuming...  The times have changed.  You either go at 8:30 or at 10:30.  And we showed up at 9.  Yay us.  So we ended up attending 1st Ward meetings, and I was only able to catch a few people from 2nd Ward.  But still good to see who I was able to see.  And then I still got to hang with Stacy and Becky for a bit on Tuesday, and did Firehouse Subs with Karen on Monday.  All wonderful times!

We met up with Anne at the mall one day in Dothan and Lynnaea rode the carousel.  Twice, much to Jeremy's chagrin.  Anne totally gave Lynnaea the money to ride a second time.  Sweet Anne.  And sweet Lynnaea :). 

I didn't do pictures of it, but I also hung out with Donna a bit at Troy Dothan and helped make a Christmas Book Tree.  And talked mosaics.  Donna can still make me laugh a lot. 

Okay, I think I'm going to split this post in 2.  I wasn't originally planning to, but I have decided I will.  I get too wordy, and then the time flies.  But it's good.  I want to record stuff.  So, I'll post more later (who knows when :/...) about the rest of my awesome Alabama Trip!

Alabama Trip 2014: Final Installment

So, as I mentioned previously, we actually returned to Birmingham on the 29th of November, which was the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  It also happened to be the day of the Iron Bowl.  Which is why my original plans changed.

See, originally, I was planning to head to Tuscaloosa on the 29th and stay a night there.  But then Annie told me that was the day Auburn and Alabama were playing -- and it was happening in Tuscaloosa.  I quickly modified my plans.  Ain't no way I wanted to be in that mess of traffic!  So we just went to Birmingham and did our day jaunt over to Tuscaloosa later.

So we got back to Julie's early in the evening.  We ate dinner, ran a couple errands.  I started making cinnamon rolls while the big game came on.  Now, here's the thing:  I'm not a super football fan.  It's just never been important to me.  Like ever.  But Julie is a huge fan -- especially of UA.  And so she was watching the game.  Ergo, we all watched the game.  And I learned something:  it's not so bad.  I'll never be an avid fan.  I'll never live and breathe college football.  But it was a pleasant evening watching the game from the comfort of Julie's living room and watching her (and my husband ;)) get super-anxious at various points.  I missed some of it, as I was working on cinnamon rolls.  But I was in there for the end when Alabama walked away the champions.  I learned stuff about the game I didn't know at all.  And I realized I shouldn't have had such a negative attitude about it in the past.  You live, you learn.

After the game, Jeremy went to bed with the munchkin (we weren't super strict with her bed times while on vacation.  After all, it was vacation!) and Julie and I stayed up and had a fun girlie visit.  It's harder to come by those with kids -- so I've learned.  I had brought her birthday present with me on the plane so that it wouldn't take up precious room in the Christmas package I'd be sending later.  So here she is opening her birthday present.

I made her a froggy quillow!  I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.  And it's thanks to Jeremy that it happened.  He helped me design it.  That's definitely a nice perk of his engineering mind:  he can envision things where I really can't until tangibly hold it.  Anyway, so basically it's a fleece blanket that can fold up and tuck into the frog and become a pillow.  when it's unfolded, the frog part is inverted and becomes a place you can put your feet to keep them warm.  Depending on how ambitious I feel this year (which isn't looking good so far...), I may try to make different animals for each of the nieces and nephews.  But that's a big maybe.

Anyway, I stayed up with Julie until Jon got home from work around midnight.  Then I headed to bed.  Sunday morning, Jeremy, Lynnaea, and I went to the Alabaster Ward for church.  I ended up hanging out in nursery the whole time, because I didn't know how Lynnaea would do if I left her.  Which was just as well, since the usual nursery assistant wasn't there.  We took a nice afternoon nap.  And then we went to church with Jon and Julie in the afternoon.  Then we all went back to Julie's and ate pizza. 

Monday was our Tuscaloosa day, and then Monday evening, Julie cooked dinner for us and then we watched Elf (because the Christmas movies were starting to play on the tv!).  We also snapped a couple pictures, because we needed to :).  This was the better of the two.  Hard to believe we've known each other 16 years!

Tuesday was the day we left Julie's.  I woke up early to see Julie off to work.  It was sad.  We weren't leaving until the next day, but we were staying one more night with April and Greg.  Julie texted me later to say she didn't want to go home if I wasn't going to be there :(.  So sad.  We didn't leave until the afternoon, so we relaxed and visited with Jon.  It was nice to sit and chat with Jon for a long while.  And of course, get some pictures with him too.

It's funny...  In recent days I've been going through and organizing old photos.  My oh my how we all have changed!  It's weird that we're in our mid-30s.  With kids!  Yikes!  When did that happen!?!

Anyway, so we said our good-byes.  Headed to April's and then she followed me to turn in the rental car.  Then we mostly just hung out and visited at her house -- and played some old Mario Bros on some system Greg got for his birthday -- until we were meeting up with Greg at Cracker Barrel.  That was good food!  And Jeremy impressed many people with his eating abilities, let's just say that.  I think it took 4 servers to bring all our food out.  It was crazy!  The food just kept on coming!  Back at April's, she and I visited into the night while the men played Super Mario 3 (the best one, I might add...) and had a hilarious time doing so.  We were cracking up watching them.  Then we all turned in for the night.  Oh yeah, I also made cinnamon rolls again, only this time, I was concerned with whether or not they'd rise, since we used self-rising flour. 

Holy cow.  I just had a massive paragraph that I accidentally deleted.  Ack!  Well, forget it.  Basically, April took us to the airport.  Our flight was delayed a bit.  But we made all our connections.  And the last flight of the trip (from San Diego to Seattle) was bomb, because there were only 53 passengers on board, and a ton of empty rows.  Which meant Lynnaea got her own seat.  And that was the best ever. 

There we are on the airplane -- Lynnaea with the tablet.

We landed in Seattle a little after 9.  I was exhausted.  We got our luggage and took the airporter.  We got home about midnight, and by the time we got everything done that we needed to do (change the baby, give her some milk, brush her teeth, etc), it was 1 in the morning.  We were exhausted.  And so we slept.  And Jeremy took the next day off work too, just so he wouldn't have to go in at 6 in the morning.

So that was the end of the trip.  It was a wonderful two weeks.  Wonderful.  Sometimes I wish vacation was all the time.  But then, it wouldn't be vacation. 

So coming up will be Christmas stuff. 

Alabama Trip: Installment 1

So yeah... It's only been a month since I last posted.  And 2 weeks since we got back from Alabama.  What can I say?  It's a busy time of year.  But I figured I should probably at least start posting some stuff from our way-awesome trip to Alabama this year. 

After all, I've decided tomorrow is going to be a lazy pajama day.  Lynnaea and I will not be leaving the house.  And after the busy days we've been having, I'm quite looking forward to it.  So I'll sit here and pop my holiday mint m&m's for some late-night oomph and get this thing started! 

Welcome to our Alabama Adventure 2014 Installment 1! 

We began our morning at 3:30 on November 19th.  Jeremy and I did.  We did everything we could to finalize getting ready before waking up the munchkin.  And at 4, we couldn't put off waking her anymore.  She was surprisingly easy-going about being awoken from her sleep -- though she did want to do a lot more snuggling than usual.  My mom (bless her) picked us up around 4:25 and dropped us off at the ferry.  We hauled a suitcase, a rollaway bag, a backpack, and a carseat (whith child still in it) onto the ferry.  We spent the hour ferry ride deconstructing the car seat and keeping Lynnaea entertained.  She wasn't into sleeping like all other commuters were at that hideous time of the morning (4:50).  We docked in Seattle, and hoofed it several blocks to the light rail station.  Jeremy wore Lynnaea on his back and carried most of the items.  I had the backpack and rollaway bag. 

I was exhausted by the time we boarded the light rail.  Then we got to the airport (45 minutes later), got checked in.  Checked our bag and car seat (I love Southwest!  They let you take checked bags for free!!!).  Went through security.  Blech.  It took about 20 minutes.  Not horrible, but still annoying.  Lynnaea fell asleep in the baby carrier during the security line wait.  She woke up around the time we got to our gate.

She likes to pick her nose.  Nice, huh?  But yeah, this is pretty much right after she woke up. 

She did not sleep on the first flight.  Which was only 2 hours.  Which, sure, is nice.  But that meant the 2nd flight would be a long haul.  Our first layover was in Las Vegas.  Now there's an interesting airport for you.  Gambling machines everywhere.  And children aren't allowed near them.  Which is nice, since they are totally lit up with lights and look oh-so-appealing to a toddler.  Anyway, turns out one of my cousins is in Las Vegas these days, and she drove 30 minutes to see us during our brief layover!  It was pretty awesome of her, and it was nice to see her.  It had been almost a decade since I had.  We had a nice visit for the short amount of time we had. 

We left Last Vegas and flew about 4 hours to Birmingham.  Julie picked us up (after we got all our luggage), and we got Chick-Fil-A for dinner.  It's, like, the greatest welcome back to the South.  We were exhausted, so after visiting for a bit, we all turned in for the night.  The next couple days were spent in the Birmingham area with Julie and her family.  Lynnaea was in heaven, because there were other little kids there.  Which made it even more vacation-y for us!  At home, we are her entertainment.  She likes it way better when there are new people.  I can't say as I blame her.  We're kinda boring ;).  Anyway, she enjoyed hanging out in the backyard at Julie and Jon's house. 

We even found a huge knot in one of the trees in the yard and we could sit her on it.  She even cooperated long enough -- and sat still so she didn't fall ;) -- to snap a picture of it!

We spent Friday night at my friend April's house.  After an awesome [Scrubs] party.  Which, did I mention, was awesome.  Here's a group shot.  But if you're curious about other pictures and the details of the awesome party, just check out this link.

It was good times. 

On Saturday, we drove our rental to Dothan.  After April cooked us a delicious breakfast.  And so this is where I'll leave you with installment 1.  Because I need some sleep!

Before We Fly

I figured I'd update with a few pictures before we fly tomorrow :).  Just so you can see our cutie this week ;).  Haha...  Jeremy says he expects me to take 1/10 as many pictures of our next baby as I do of Lynnaea.  I have taken him up on that challenge.  :).

Her first time in a high chair!  At a restaurant.  I met up with a couple former co-workers for lunch and she was a total ham most of the time.  Everyone oohed and ahhed over her and she grinned away.  You wouldn't guess it from that picture though.  Haha...

 We had a Halloween party this year again.  It was okay.  I made way too much food, as usual.  And there's my munchkin in her Baby's First Halloween outfit.  She was content to watch the chaos from a distance.

And because I always take a picture of food for my dad...  Because he loves it :).

Lynnaea with her cousin Desiree.

I was so excited about my "touch" boxes!  They had monster eyeballs, Frankenstein ears, tarantula legs, and guts inside ;)...

Emily wanted to hold Lynnaea too.

Loved the way the sun was hitting this tree this evening.  It was so pretty.  Picture doesn't do it justice.  This is what Lynnaea and Jeremy will look like tomorrow evening when we are at the airport :)!!

 

This baby loves her baths!  Tonight we put her in the little blue tub and filled it pretty full of water.  She started touching the water.  She like that a lot.  Then her daddy started squirting her with her bath toy and she thought that was hilarious!  She laughed every time he did it.  I can't wait until she can sit up on her own in the tub, because I think she's going to have a blast!!!



 

 

And last, but not least!!  My friend April sent me these for my birthday!  Throwback 80s cereal!  It was so totally awesome!!  I've never had the mummy one and the brute one, but I sure am excited I get to enjoy the experience in the near future!!! 

 

And that's it for now :).  Look for Bama pictures to come!



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. :)