A Breath of Fresh Air

Randy and I took our first vacation since our honeymoon! We rented a cabin in the Smoky Mountains, right outside of Gatlinburg. My brother-in-law and his girl friend (Dan & Carolyn), and our best friends (Pat & Stacey) went with us also. The more the merrier!

I was very proud of myself, I only cried for half an hour when I left Grady and Riley. My parents graciously stayed at our house while we were gone because I refused to take them to a kennel. I only left them 2 pages of instructions. Hey, it made me feel better! They haven't left my side since I've been home, which is perfectly okay with me!

I could write a book on all the memories we made, but I will just share my favorites for now. I hope you laugh as hard as we did...Lets begin with our terrible morning departure. It began at 5:00am in the pouring down rain and we were trying to load the vehicle with all our luggage. (and by "we" I mean the guys) Of course, I was blamed for having too much luggage, and things had to be taken out and left behind. We were trying to fit everything in a carrying case to fit on top of the vehicle. Pat literally had to sit on it while 2 others tried zipping it shut. Tempers were rising to say the least. We finally get everything set, we all pile in the car, buckle up, and are getting excited...and the car won't start! Dead battery. We all pile out, have to jump the car, wait, and pray it won't die again for the entire weekend! Eventually we hit the road an hour behind schedule. Of course the carrying case on top sounds like a jet is landing and the straps are continuously slapping against the roof. Not what you want to listen to for 5 hours.

So now that we are behind, we are trying to make up time because we had to pick Carolyn up at the airport by a certain time. For anyone who has traveled with my husband, you know he has the bladder the size of an eighty year old women. After stopping almost every flippin' hour for potty breaks, we finally make it to Knoxville where we're pickin up Carolyn. Pats GPS decides to stop working so Randy is like no problem, we'll use ours! Randy starts giving directions and we're in the middle of no where. We start crossing a bridge and Stacey declares that she thinks its starting to look like there's an airport near by...? We're surrounded by water, and she thinks its airport material?! Maybe if it was the Hudson river...anyways, we keep driving and pretty soon we're out in the country and its obvious somethings not right...come to find out, Randy has the wrong airport! (Carolyn has now been waiting for us for over an hour) Everyone is ticked off, so Pat gets his GPS working and we head back for the "right" one. The GPS ends up having us circle a different airport..twice..and its still the wrong airport! We finally get directions from a human instead of a computer, and eventually find the right one two hours later...not a relaxing vacation so far! Of course, the GPS continued to get us lost throughout the entire weekend and turned into a joke for poor Randy!

The rest of the trip was amazing. We hiked a couple trails, but some of us were pretty out of shape so the first half mile was a lot of fun, but the next 3 were torture. Danny and Carolyn did laps around us, literally. Our first trail they were so far ahead of us they came back after looking at the waterfall to make sure we were all okay. I didn't know I had to physically prepare for vacation! We made some great memories, some of which will have to stay in Gatlinburg, but we can't wait to go back!

Our New Purchase

For those of you that were wondering what Randy and I do on drizzly Saturday mornings... We buy things. And when I say "buy things" I don't mean groceries, dog food, or even clothes for that matter. We buy couches and televisions and vehicles and sweepers. So today we bought a new kitchen table...

Like most newlyweds, our house was full of something borrowed, something old, and something cheap. I love the stories we have about each one we replace though. We had a recliner that was seriously the color of cat poop, a vehicle with a leaky back window that we had to convince Sydney her seat wasn't wet, it just felt cold, and one of my favorites, our kitchen table. My parents graciously bought me this table when I moved into my apartment in Ft. Wayne. Keep in mind, I lived by myself, but my mother was convinced I had to have one..I guess to sit by myself and eat mac & cheese?

When Randy bought the house, the table moved in too. I'm pretty sure I could have built a table more stable than what this thing was. Let's begin with the chairs. Two of the chairs, everytime you sat in them, afterwards you would have to flip it on its back and straighten the metal legs back out because they would all fold in. The legs were pretty much at a permanent 60 degree angle. The table itself, I'm convinced was made by Satan. It was IMPOSSIBLE to balance. It didn't matter how many layers of cardboard I would stick under the base. It was still rock. The tabletop would shake like crazy. We literally had to take turns cutting our food, while the others tried to hold it steady. I couldn't fill our glasses too full because if Grady would bump the table, it would spill over the top.


Sydney had a slumber party once, and we ordered pizza. Her friends started to sit down at the table, and Sydney proceded to tell them "Oh, we don't sit at the table, it's not safe. We just eat in front of the TV"....Here's your sign!

So we finally bought a new sturdy table today! They had it on display at the store and you should have seen us checking it out! We pulled the chair down from the display and we wiggled and jumped and scooted and, you get the idea. We each took a side of the table and shook and pushed and pulled, and they didn't budge! SOLD! I even helped put it together. Randy would argue with the word "helped" He only had to redue both my chairs...We put it in place and I of course tested each chair. 1st chair-check, 2nd chair-check, 3rd-check, 4th-....wobbly!! I don't know wether to laugh or cry. So if we ever invite you over to dinner, I appologize if you grab the wrong seat.