Married to the Military: January 2009

Yep... Thelma and Louise made it safely back to Abilene on Monday with baby and puppy in tow. We're going to do a joint blog to share our adventure of the trip home...

:::WARNING:::WARNING:::WARNING:::

Forewarned is forearmed...We just realized that this is an EPIC JOURNAL of our EPIC JOURNEY. We would advise a potty break, comfy seat, and beverage of your choice (and possibly a snack if you are so inclined) before begining. It was not our intention to make this post so long, but 1,222 miles in 3 days takes a lot of 'splainin'..... Hope you all enjoy our adventure as much as we did...........

:::SATURDAY:::

Katie Says:

We got up, got everyone showered and dressed while my dad packed the car for us in sub-freezing temperatures (thanks, Dad). He managed to get just about everything loaded. There were a few things that didn't make it, but my mom said she'd mail those items after she got back home. Around 9:45 we hit the road for day one of the grand adventure. Nash rode like a champ. Maddy did well until we were almost there. I think she got a little tired of the car seat (go figure, huh?)! Once we got to Grandmom and Grandpop's house, we relaxed for a bit until Uncle Jim and Aunt Sue got there. Aunt Sue had my name this year, so we did the birthday dinner thing. I've never gotten to participate in this as I've always lived too far away. Grandmom made a MARVELOUS meal and served a great cake and ice cream for dessert. After dinner, I put Maddy down to sleep, then not too long after that, I followed her lead. After all, we had quite a long day ahead of us on Sunday. I'm sorry that we kind of snuck through Atlanta, but having 2 more full days of driving ahead of us, we needed to keep things low key and get to bed early.

Peggie Says:

Saturday was a good day of travel. We left SC on a very cold day and arrived in Atlanta to rain and cold. We were a bit nervous about the weather, but knew it was only worse to the North, so our decision to take the Southern route home already seemed like a good one. As Katie said, Nash is a GREAT traveler. For the most part he just sleeps on the floor behind the front seat. Maddy is a bit more demanding. She needs to eat and be changed. Nash is just happy not to be left behind!! Once we got to mom and dad's house, Maddy was so very happy to be out of her car seat. Nash stayed on his leash inside the house, since he seems to be a bit more under control that way. At one point, while he was wandering around the house just checking things out, we heard a very loud noise in the bathroom. I was first on the scene and was laughing so hard I couldn't even talk. It seems Nash had never seen a bath tub with glass doors on it. Showers, yes, but not tubs. Nash likes to lay in the tub all the time, but since he didn't know that the glass doors were there, when he tried to climb into the tub he just bumped his head on the doors. By the time I got to him, he was just sitting there staring at the doors!! It was really funny, but I guess you just had to be there..... The rest of the evening was lovely, as Katie said, and dinner was delicious. Once Miss Maddy went to sleep for the night, everyone was able to relax for a little while before heading off for a good night's sleep.

:::SUNDAY:::

Katie Says:

We got a fairly early start on Sunday. We got up, got ready and Grandmom made some delicious cinnamon rolls so we were able to hit the road with full bellies. After I finished eating, I got all of our acoutraments packed up and loaded the car. When my dad loaded the car, he arranged everything in such a way that the bags we'd need were in specific holes. That way, when I took them out at each stop, they would just slide back in when we were ready to repack the car. That worked out very nicely!! So, I loaded the car in a drizzly rain. I wasn't too thrilled with this arrangement, but what are you going to do?? I, admittedly, was a little nervous when Grandpop reported that it was looking like we'd be in this drizzly stuff for most of the day. Thankfully (no offence, Grandpop), when we hit the Alabama state line, it was as though a switch was flipped. The rain stopped, the sun came out and the temperature rose!! Can I get a woo-hoo?? The rest of the drive was bright, sunny and beautiful. Well, the rest of the trip until the last 2 hours when my child decided to become vocal about her feelings towards her car seat. The last 2 hours were a little, ummm, chaotic. Poor Maddy was just, plain ready to get out of the seat. We drove through about half of Georgia, all of Alabama, all of Mississippi and most of Louisiana (we got off I-20 at exit 23). At one point in Mississippi, Maddy was getting fussy, so we decided to stop for a few minutes to take her out of her seat to stretch a little. When I got to the next exit, we realized that we were in Brandon!!!! We decided to stay off the interstate for a few miles (after our little leg stretching break) because we knew where we were and how to get back to I-20. While we were driving, we saw a sign for a Baptist church which said that the Reverend was Clifton Boggans. Now, this may not mean much to you, but Mr. Clifton was the janitor at our school. He always wanted to be a pastor. I guess he achieved his goal. That was pretty fun for us!! Once we got to Shreveport, we got off the interstate, and I did it again... I got lost WITH the GPS!! GO ME!! In my defense, one of my passengers was pretty unruly... thus causing a little stress. After hearing "off route... recalculating (in a British accent)" a few times, we FINALLY made it to the hotel. Once we got in the hotel, we ordered a pizza and began settling in for the night. Maddy went to sleep like a CHAMP!! We watched Desperate Housewives and called it a night!

Peggie Says:

As Katie said, we had a great second day, for the most part. Once again, Nash proved to be the model passenger. The biggest problem with Nash (and I do mean BIG) is that he takes up so much space on the floor in the back seat. I rode in front with Katie until Miss Maddy summoned me to the back with a need. Then I would climb between the front seats to get into the back to try and assist her majesty with whatever her current need was. The problem was that there was nowhere for me to step in the back, so I would stretch until my foot was in the seat in the back, then put my other foot into the seat, squat down so my bottom was also in the seat, then work my feet under the dog so they were on the floor. I'm so glad I have two good knees, unlike my driving companion!!!

The weather was great for the entire trip and the farther West we got, the higher the temperature rose. Once we got to the hotel in Shreveport, Katie took Nash outside to "do his business" and I took Maddy into the room. Of course the first order of business was getting her out of the "car seat of torture", as it's become known.... I unbuckled all 87 harness points, lifted her out, and laid her on the bed. She began stretching, first arms, then legs, then arched her back, then smiled REAL big and giggled out loud. I believe she was REALLY happy to be out of the "car seat of torture"!!!

Another "fun" thing in Shreveport was taking Nash out for his nature calls. We stayed at a "pet friendly" motel, which was very nice, but the problem was that there was VERY LITTLE grass for the pets to use. When we arrived and Katie tried to get Nash relieved, he just sniffed and walked around and sniffed some more. Now, I must say, as long as I've known Nash, he's been extremely particular about where he "GOES" (if you know what I mean) and this coupled with the lack of interesting places to "GO", wasn't a great combination. So, Katie was not successful at getting Nash to "GO". He kept asking to go out but wouldn't "perform" once we got him outside. So, once the pizza was ordered, Katie was going to nurse Maddy and I decided to take Nash in search of the "perfect spot". We went right outside our door to the tiny little plot of grass. He just sniffed and walked and sniffed some more. So, we went out to the back of the motel. There was a huge parking lot and a tiny patch of grass with a fire hydrant (I figured THAT would be the key!!). Of course, I didn't realize that Nash had never seen (or used) a fire hydrant before, so that spot wasn't good enough either. We continued on our tour around the motel and found a strip of grass that ran behind some dumpsters and between the motel and a restaurant next door. We checked this strip of grass up and down and up and down and he sniffed and walked and sniffed some more. At this juncture, I watched the pizza man arrive at our door and I knew my dinner had arrived. So, Nash and I headed back to our room without him "performing" for me. However, when we got to that first little plot of grass outside our room, he decided that maybe that was the right spot after all. I guess the moral of the story is like Dorothy said in the Wizard of Oz.... What you really want is usually just outside your own door (or something like that).....

:::MONDAY:::

Katie Says:

Monday began with a couple of refreshed adults, a baby that slept very well, and a nervous nelly dog. Nash was TERRIFIED the entire trip that he would be left behind somewhere. The human alarm clock (Maddy) sounded around 7 AM, so our day began then. We took showers and got all of our things packed up. The motel had continental breakfast so we decided to partake. We left Nash in the room. (While the hotel was pet friendly, we weren't sure that he was invited to breakfast.) When we left Nash, we could hear him barking. When we were heading back to the room, we could, again, hear him barking. I have a sneaking suspicion that he barked the entire time we were eating our bagels. Oops. As I said, we were at exit 23, so we only had 23 miles to the state line. However, Texas is a BIG state. We still had a 5 1/2 hour drive ahead of us. Everyone did well on our drive. Maddy, again, was pretty ready to be out of the seat by the time we got home, but since it was one of our short days, the ride was a little smoother. :) We only stopped twice on the way home. Once to fill up with gas and once to potty and get some snacks. I'd like to take moment to mention that this whole peanut butter recall thing really crimps my style when choosing "lunch" at a gas station convenience store!! When we got home, I discovered that my new neighbors have moved in sometime in the last month. Whodathunkit?!?! They were finishing up the inside of this new house when we left. Now, the house is finished and the new family is living there. Since we just had snacks for lunch, we got hungry for dinner pretty early. We decided on Lean Cuisine pizzas. They were a good appetizer. Once we wolfed those down, we were ready for something else. What did we decide on?? Dairy Queen blizzards, of course!! My mom babysat while I made a quick run to Dairy Queen. Nummers!! After dinner, Maddy was ready for bed... WAY TOO EARLY since her poor little body was still on Eastern time. We did our best to keep her awake (and happy) until a more reasonable bedtime. We were pretty successful. When we deemed it time, she got her bath, and went right to sleep!! WHEW... We're so glad that this trip went better than the drive TO South Carolina!! Nash is thankful to be home, at his own house. Maddy seems to be thrilled to be home, too. I know I had a GREAT time in South Carolina, but once we started driving, I was just ready to be home!! THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME!! :) I am THRILLED to have had my mom's help on this drive. I could have done it alone, but it would have taken me a week (and I'd probably have no hair at this point!!)!! Thanks, Mom!! :)

Peggie Says:

We were all a bit giddy at the thought that we were so very close to the end of our drive. Maddy was very good, but it seemed that every time I got situated in the front seat, she would summon me back to the rear. I think I climbed between the seats at least 25 times this day. At one point I decided to just stay in the back, but conversation was difficult between Katie and me, as we tried to whisper while she was looking ahead to drive and we had a lot of "huh's" and "what's", so I decided to go ahead and crawl back to the front. After all, Maddy had been asleep for about 15 minutes, so she should stay asleep for a while, right??? NOT SO MUCH!!! As soon as I got all situated, she woke up and needed something. Oh well, that's the entire reason I was along for the ride, right???

When we pulled up into the driveway, the new neighbors came out to the driveway to announce their presence and ask about the trip. I think Katie just wanted to unload the car and put her feet up, but these friendly folks just wanted to stand in the driveway and chat. I was inside with Maddy and Nash was happily sniffing his own back yard while poor Katie was schlepping everything into the house and trying to be polite to the neighbors. After about the 50th load of "stuff", Katie was finally able to sit down for a few minutes and wait for the neighbors to go inside their house so she could go back out and put her car into the garage.

Needless to say everyone is settling back into a nice routine around here and I'll be heading back home on Monday, so they can really get their lives back together. Of course, Nash still spends most of his day looking for the PERFECT spot to do his business, just sniffing and walking and sniffing some more.........the circle of life continues.

Talk to you all very soon.....

Keep on blogging!!

Today was a GREAT day!!! My mom and I took Maddy for her first REAL mall experience. Abilene has a mall, but the stores are pretty crummy, so we took her to Charlotte to the South Park mall where she got to see all kinds of GREAT stores. Here are a few pictures of us posing in front of some of the stores to commemorate the event:

Here we are in front of Neiman Marcus:

And in front of Louis Vuitton:

In front of Hermes:

We were not invited into Tiffany & Co. A man walked in while we were taking this picture, and they closed the doors. I guess he must have been someone special!! :)

And the Kate Spade store...

This was Maddy's favorite store... GYMBOREE. I think she liked this one best because she got a new outfit! :)

Maddy modeled this ADORABLE hat at The Children's Place. I didn't buy it for her... even though she was TOO CUTE!!! :)

Then, we had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. We shared a Chicken Parmesan sandwich and a piece of White Chocolate Macadamia nut cheesecake. NUMMERS!!! :)

Then, Maddy fell asleep in Grandmom's arms at lunch.

When we got home, I noticed a package by the front door, and my sweet husband had sent flowers for my birthday. He's always such a nice guy!! Thanks honey! We missed you today, but know that you'll be home as soon as you can be!!

Now that Maddy is in bed, the adults are having hot fudge brownies a la mode. That's one of my FAVORITES!! We had burritos for dinner (another favorite). I have had such a great birthday!! Maddy was so well behaved all day, and she went to sleep very easily. My mom and I had a great time shopping. Overall, this birthday was GREAT!! Way better than last year when I had to work late (thanks, Roberto) and didn't feel well all day (thanks, Maddy)!!

Here's a picture of me with my hot fudge brownie a la mode: