The Trip - Part 3

We drove up the familiar road to Illinois from Mississippi on Thursday. This time we stopped at a rest stop while we were still in Miss and there was a lamb. I guess the security guard had a pet lamb. We never did see the guard, but I don't know who else would bring a lamb on a leash attached to the ground to a rest stop. His food and water was nearby and he acted like he was used to being there and people gawking and trying to pet him. He even had a little bandana around his neck!

We got into town in time Thursday evening for the girls to play outside with neighbors for a while.  They really enjoyed playing in their playhouse and swing set again!  Friday we had house business to attend to and then we went to the expo to get our bibs and t-shirts! We took some pre-emptive "I did it!" photos and walked around. We ran into a few friends and picked up some of the little freebies people were handing out.  I think the girls started to get nervous at this point, but we were all excited!

I had to share one of my tulips that was blooming in the front yard.  They were so pretty!  I am sad that I didn't get to see the tulips in my very front bed bloom, they were up but not open yet.  But it was nice to see some of them in bloom.  And I was able to take some cuttings from the girls' rose bushes and my forsythia bush before we left.  Hopefully if I baby them adequately, I can plant them in the next yard one day.




We got to see many friends over the weekend.  Lyla was especially happy to see her friend Jake.   They are so cute, and they always just pick up where they left off.  We sure will miss our friends the Davidsons.  Jen, you are so dear to me!  I am so glad we got to spend a little time with ya'll.

Friday evening we lined up with the other 6000 people who were running the 5K.  Thankfully our wonderful friend Robin was running with us.  I originally had thought that Celee would be the one to want to take off and Gwyn and Lyla would get tired quick and walk a lot.  (We had only trained once)  But pretty soon into the race Gwyn and Lyla took off.  Celee stayed back with Robin and I sprinted to try to catch up with Gwyn and Lyla.  Apparently, Gwyn had seen a girl she knew running and was determined to beat her.  So together we would sprint and walk, sprint and walk.  All the while Robin and Celee ran steadily behind us.  Celee ran the whole 3.1 without stopping! Thank you Robin for hanging with her!   Lyla's little legs got tired in the last mile, but she was a trooper and kept going.  The whole atmosphere of so many people running and cheering and in general having a wonderful time kept the girls excited.  I'm proud of them all!  Afterward Celee even entertained the idea of doing a 10K with me some time.

I dropped Gwyn and Celee off at friends' houses to spend the night after the 5K.  Then Lyla and I went back to the house and crashed.  I had to get up super early the next morning to drop Lyla off with friends and get to the 10K, which started at 7:40.   Robin and I ran together this time.  We must have been running at a pretty good pace (for me) because even though we walked for a short space near the 6th mile, we crossed the finish line with an 11 min. mile time.  We hung around and I got a picture with my other awesome friend Sarah at the finish line.  We all went over afterwards to get our free beer for running.  I don't like beer, so Jon sacrificially drank mine for me.  ;)

After much rest and some attempts to pack everything that was left in the house into the van for the ride home, we got to hang out with friends again.  The girls had been asking me to go to Five Guys the entire trip and they finally got their wish!

So we truly did say goodbye to our Champaign house this time.  I left the keys and garage door openers behind, so I really can't go back again.  It was much easier this trip though.  I'm much more at peace with it now.  I think I had a mentality about it like we were loosing the house, as opposed to selling the house.  The closing date is finally pretty close, so we can move on to new things.  Or the same things just with a better attitude.  Either way, we enjoyed "camping" in our house one last time.  The girls played and had friends over.  I got to mow the yard one more time.  And none of us cried when we left.  It felt good.

I must say that while we were gone, Jason did get to have some fun.  He went on this crazy bike ride in Baltimore that happens the last Friday of each month.  This month the theme was the Prom.  So he and a friend went to Goodwill, popped some tags, and found some 80's prom threads.  I had to include this picture because Jason's got that mischievous look he gets at time.  He is a cutie.  I'd go to prom with him anytime, on a bike or not.

The Trip - Part 1

I did get the planter built and filled before we left on our trip. I was afraid all the little plants I've been babying in the kitchen were going to die if I didn't get them in a real planter before leaving. I had to borrow a saw from a friend to complete the project, but it did get done.  (I do have a saw, several in fact.  But they are burried in the "storage" room with no hope of coming to light until that is cleared out.  That is a project I hope to tackle when we get back.)  Hopefully in a few weeks we will have fresh kale, spinach, lettuce, and herbs to feast on!

We did make the long trip from Baltimore to Decatur Mississippi in one day.  It was 956 miles and took us 16 hours, but we did make it.  And it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  It certainly wasn't something I'd look forward to in and of itself, but it was ok.  We stopped a few times to walk and get a drink and a look for a few geocaches.  We were pretty zone-blazed when we got to my parents' house though.  To top it off, Gwyn and Celee were both sick that night so we didn't sleep very well at all.  I was basically a zombie the next day.  Thankfully we did a lot of restful things.  The weather was beautiful and warm and sunny, so I sat out in the sun for most of the morning half dozing.  We did get to go fishing later in the day.  I did not actually fish.  The girls and Mimi and Papaw fished.  I laid on a grassy bank, in the sun, and dozed some more.  I was generally being a bum.  And it was so nice.  The girls caught enough fish for us to have fish for supper too.

My parents have a huge patio in back of their house and the girls almost always have a blast with chalk back there.  I thought their artworks were quite nice.  I especially liked Lyla's "chicken." Maybe I'll get motivated to print the pictures when we get back. I think they'd make neat pictures to hang in a playroom or, in our case, where-ever I can find a spot in the apartment.

Speaking of chickens.  It's that time down here.  My good friend Holly's family had 50 chicks that the girls got to play with while we were visiting.  Then my Uncle Robert had a batch of chicks in his barn that we played with too.  Oooh I miss our chickens!  I can't wait until we can go get our own one day!  It is funny to me that Lyla really wants to hold the chicks, but she's super scared they are going to poop on her.  Celee is scared to hold them because she doesn't want to accidentally drop them and hurt them.  This is exemplary of their personalities to me.  :)  Bless their hearts they both tried, but I pretty much held them while they petted them.  Too little exposure I say. 

 

The Trip - Part 2

We made the drive down to Hattiesburg after a few days with my parents. The weather is wonderful here too. Just hot enough, but not sweaty. One of the first things the girls always go for if these big inflatable globe things that Monty keeps in her garage for them. They are hollow and you can get inside them and battle each other. But the girls always find new games to make out of them too. This time the globes were islands surrounded by lava and they had to keep jumping from one to the other.This is harder than it sounds as the globes don't hold air as well as they used to and they roll when weight isn't evenly distributed on them.

On Tuesday we decided to drive down to the coast and play at the beach. So we made the hour and a half drive to Gulfport. The Mississippi beaches are not super nice, the toilet bowl action of the water between the shore and the barrier islands always leaves the beaches less clean than one would want and the water less clear. None-the-less we enjoyed it. It was a nice day and the girls got to play pirates and sharks and hunt for treasure and build sand castles. They chased the seagulls and sand pipers. They found pieces of shells. I collected bottlecaps. And we did a little Earth Day observance (a day late) by picking up some trash off the beach. They were not ready to leave and Lyla had completely soaked her entire dress and gotten sand in her hair, so we headed over to the playground hoping there was a shower there. There is, but apparently it is only turned on in season, so she just had to air dry as best she could because we headed for the outlet mall. The girls all got a pair of Crocs there. Not the big chunky kind, the narrow girly kind. The salesman in the store was an interesting man, but he earned his commission trying to find a shoe that both suited and fit Celee. I'm not sure why he alternated speaking in almost baby voice to the girls at times and normal voice, but he appeared to enjoy his job.

We practiced for our upcoming 5k Mississippi style today. Meaning in the rain. I knew it was going to rain eventually, but I was hoping we'd be done by the time it really got going. So we started off in a light drizzle, which is actually quite nice. I admit that I have not encouraged the girls to practice very much for this race. It was more along the lines of every now and then realizing "We really need to go run before the 5k!" So I'm pretty sure it will truly be a 5k run/walk for us. I'm still glad that they are going to do it with me. Then I can let loose for the 10k the next day! (Not that letting loose will look like much. I run slow as all get out, but at least I know I can run the whole distance barring any crazy accident or injury). Anyway, they did make it the whole 3 miles in increasing rain. It did lightening once too and I was very glad we were almost back to the house when it did.

I got to go have lunch with my friend Emily at an Italian restaurant called Tabella. It's always nice to spend time with friends who have known you since those awkward preteen years. We just pick up like we see each other more than the twice a year that I make it back home. On the way back I took a detour to Triangle Seafood. I kept seeing all these shows and advertisements for crawfish so I knew they had to be in season. I was not disappointed! So I got three pounds and took them home to introduce them to my girls. Well, I have one crawfish lover at least. Lyla said they were too creepy. Gwyn just kind of ignored them and me. But Celee tried them. They were a little Cajun spicy, but so good!

For our last Mississippi day the girls got to play in the rain and puddles. They have been begging me to do this for quite a while, but there's really no where to do it at our apartment so today was their day. It was a little chilly after a while, but they had a blast running through the yard and sliding in the puddles. Tomorrow we're off again, this time to the MidWest where it is no where warm enough to play in any rain, so I'm glad they got to do it here.

Outdoor Therapy

There is something therapeutic about being outdoors. The smell of grass, the sound and feel of a light breeze, the sun on my face, this all speaks to my heart in a way that words can't. Not just any outdoors though. I hear no vehicles, no sirens. There is no music in the distance. There are no strangers walking about. If someone I don't know did happen to come up, a quick inquiry would discern who were his or her people and who are mine thus rendering us known to each other and strangers no more. There is not a lot of new blood in Newton County Mississippi. If someone is new blood they probably only come from a county or two away and aren't that exotic of a newcomer anyway. I on the other hand, while bearing the ticket of Newton County folk, have thrown a wrench in the works by driving a vehicle with dubious Maryland tags. The argument that I do indeed live south of the Mason-Dixon Line, in growing zone 7, and technically in the "South" holds no water here. But I digress. Lying here on a slope of St.Augustine with red dirt underneath next to a breem pond, I feel like I belong. I can breath here. There is room to be alone with the world, to think, the clear my head. The birds are tweeting and chittering. The crickets sing off and on. I hear a fish jump every so often. Some of those fish are libel to end up on our supper plates tonight. Today this comes not due to any effort on my part, but the efforts if my daughters and their grandparents. Those are memories that will anchor a little of Newton County in their hearts as well. But today I am the observer. I get some much needed time to think, and not think, and breathe, and just be. My dad commented earlier, "Well Honey, you were brought up in the country." It's part of who I am. I long for it and have dreams about it and feel most like myself when I'm in it. And today I'm getting revived by it.

Archers in the Making

We had been waiting to see when the cherry blossoms were going to be in full bloom in DC for a while.  When I checked the forecast on Monday, it said that the peak bloom period would be within the next 72 hours so we had to go quick!  Even though we had other things planned everyday, I thought we could squeeze in a trip to DC on Tuesday.  We ended up getting a later start than I had hoped, then going in the wrong way and getting caught in school traffic in DC itself.  In all it took us 2 hours to get there and get parked.  I did find street parking though, so I didn't have to pay!  (A small victory for me)  It was an absolutely beautiful day though and we enjoyed walking to the Jefferson Memorial and then around the Tidal Pool.  The girls weren't too impressed with the Memorial. I think this is because they know a good bit about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and so were more excited about those monuments.  I realize now that I don't think I've talked much at all about Jefferson to them.  This will have to be remedied in the future.  In the meantime, the trees were just amazing.  There were tons of people out so no picture is without others in it, but it was just too good to miss!  Lyla especially wanted me to take her picture toward the end, complete with all the ice cream she had all over her face.  :) We walked and enjoyed the late afternoon, had a picnic under the blossoms and then headed home.  All in all we were in the car about twice as long as we were out, but I'm glad we got to go anyway.  Besides the obvious treat of seeing the Cherry trees in bloom, every trip into DC just teaches me more about getting around there right?

 Friday we attended a field trip to the Maryland Historical Society with the Lamb of God School.  A friend of mine's son attends there and they had room for tag-a-longs on their field trip so we got to go too!  We really don't know a lot about Maryland history, other than general colonial history, so it was really interesting to learn about how the Maryland colony began and grew.  We learned a lot about indentured servants and slaves.  The girls got to role-play gentlemen on the boat coming to the New World and decide what they would and wouldn't (or couldn't) bring with them from England.  It was a great program and it held all of there attention.  I would definitely go there again.

Gwyn's group got to lead the rest of the group in earning their Geocaching Badge on Friday.  We had scouted out the caches at Oregon Ridge the day before to make sure that everything was where it should be.  She and her two friends taught the troop all about what geocaching is, GPS coordinates, types of caches, trade items, etc.  Then the girls all got to make some trade items before going out to find two caches that were placed nearby.  I must say that I think many of the girls really enjoyed it and I think they are intrigued by the fact that there are things hidden all over the place that they never knew about before.  We may have some geocachers in the making!

Saturday Celee's troop got to go to an animal shelter in Phoenix.  They were in animal heaven because there were three puppies there that they all got to play with for a long time.  The cats at this shelter have two big rooms to roam in, but they don't really act like they want to be petted.  Most of them run, hiss, or bite, but that could be because 10 or so routy girls were in there trying to pet them.  So the cats weren't a hit, but there were also two pigs and a sheep that live at the shelter, and a number of dogs so the girls were happy anyway.

Saturday Gwyn got to go to a Girl Scout Archery program.  In GS here, Brownies aren't allowed to do archery so Celee wasn't able to go.  A library in the city just happened to be having an archery fundamental program on Saturday though, so I took Celee to that.  They didn't actually get to shoot arrows because it was inside, but they got to string a bow and learned how to pull the arrow back correctly.  I even got to try! I got some great info. about lessons that all three girls can attend (for minimal price!) in May.  They are all three so excited!  Bless her heart, Lyla got left out on the archery this weekend, but she tried very hard this week to shoot a homemade bow and arrow at a friend's house.  The amount of effort she is putting forth is proportionate to the length of her tongue sticking out.