Are we there yet?

We are back! And I never want to ride in another car again. Sitting in one for 11 million hours driving from wal-mart to wal-mart is enough. Our vacation originally was going to be a camping road trip of the South. But since we (and by we I mean Ben) didn't plan on it being cold in the mountains or it raining almost every day of our trip our vacation morphed into how-many-wal-marts-can-we-visit-in-one-week. Even with all our money going to feed the Man, it was a good trip.

First though I have to tell you a little bit about our trip to D.C. Being true to our overacheiving selves we crammed in as much stuff as we could. Even to the point of hauling our luggage around Arlington Cemetary the last day we were there. (Wouldn't recommend that.) But the highlight of the trip occured while Ben was sitting in the hotel room doing homework. The day before we had gotten into a "discussion" about how close to the road you should stand waiting for the crosswalk signal. Ben stands about as far away as you can because "these drivers are crazy". I like to stand right on the edge of the road and dare someone to hit me. Or at least I did, because the next day Ben saw a lady at a light drive over a curb and A GUY'S BICYCLE as he was waiting for the crosswalk. She drove over his bike. Like he had to pull it out of her wheel well. So I guess that means Ben gets a point and I'll stand next to him away from the street.

The one thing that I realized while camping is that I don't like to live far away from civilization. And by that I mean restaurants and stores. Driving 30 min into the nearest town that has a Wal-mart and an Applebees is not my cup of tea. Also I realized that camping in the remains of a tropical storm are also not that much fun. In 24 hours the side of the mountain that we were on got 2 inches of rain. The other side of the mountain got 8 inches. Which meant no river tubing or water slides for Andi. Sad.

We did get to do some really neat things though, hiking in the smokies, mirror maze in Gatlinburg, hiking through a gorge in Georgia, visiting Ben's family in Georgia, seeing Rock City and visiting the Chattanooga aquarium.

I have about a million other stories but right now it's lunch time with no food in the house and my father-in-law is coming over tomorrow and he'd probably like to see the house and not so much all these piles of laundry.

I have no idea what happened

So here's an update on my gardening skills. It started off looking like this:


Which grew into this:

Which turned into this while I was in DC:

All I can say is that it's a good thing that I am not responsible for growing food for us to eat. Because I am pretty sure we would starve. I really don't know what happened. The plants just started dying. There had been an oil spill near the steps some years ago... but grass seems to grow just fine there, so I have no clue.

Our trip to DC was awesome. I passed the training that I was out there for and we crammed in tons of sightseeing. I also learned that while Continental Airlines are helpful and friendly, they cannot be trusted. They will tell you that you are on one flight when, whoops, look, you're on a different flight flying to a completely different city! They like to keep you on your toes. It still puzzles me that we paid $250 for Ben's ticket and they always rebooked him on the better flights. My company paid $1250 for my ticket and I got rebooked on the worst flights. But we ended up flying together and surprisingly all of the flight changes worked out in Ben and I's favor. More to come on that trip!

God is Good

This week Ben and I have received two great blessings from God:

1. Ben's school gave him a scholarship that makes next years financial situation a whole lot easier.

2. An unexpected gift of being able to go out to eat after a long, hard day.

Right now it feels like God is saying, "I know", which is humbling in deed. Who am I that God is mindful of me? We serve a good and loving God.

Here's where I bow out gracefully

Things have been pretty crazy around here lately. Staying busy, lots of changes (no I am not pregnant!) and a lot of travel coming up. Which means that posting will be light. Hopefully I'll have some funny stories from our trip to DC and our road-trip vacation next month. In the mean time enjoy some reading at these sites:

The Simple Family. A blog focused on living a simpler life with less stuff.

All or Nothing. Humorous by a small boutique owner.

Nothing But Bonfires. A lighthearted blog that always makes me laugh.

Catch you at the end of summer...

It was one of those days...

Today I was walking into work and a bird pooped on me. Right on my skirt. And I touched it with my hands trying to figure out what it was.

Feel free to laugh. I did.

Random things I have seen go past my kitchen window

Or why this town is so awesome....

• A man riding bareback on a horse
• A golf cart
• A backhoe shoveling snow
  
• A tricycle/rickshaw made out of the back of an old VW beetle and half a motorcycle
  
• A 3 year old running through the street by herself
• The neighbors dog run over to poop in our yard
• A man on a riding lawnmower....that he had driven across town
• An ice cream truck that played no music... instead the driver pulled a string inside that rang a bell on the outside.

I'd like to point out that I don't live on a busy street. And we've only lived here for 6 months. This town is so weird it's awesome.

A random fact about me

I have to wear socks to bed no matter how warm it is. Without the socks it feels like my toes are wild and unrestrained, they might just run off in the middle of the night. The socks keep them where they belong.

In the same way I can't stand for Ben's toes to touch me. It doesn't matter if they are in a sock or not - there is something weird about the feeling of toes touching me.



What is a random fact about you?