Random Things

Sheesh! All I have really found time to do since getting back from South Carolina is work! One of the accounts I work on had me very busy - I actually put in like 18 hours over the weekend just to finish up some documentation that needed to be complete by end of business today. Whew! Glad to be finished!

Several of the other accounts that I work on faced major challenges due to system failures. That was not pretty. I had to put out a lot of fires last week.

I finally found time this morning to run to the commissary for groceries! I hadn't gotten groceries since we got back! Well, I had gotten milk and a few other staples, but hadn't had a chance to do a complete shopping trip. So that was a good feeling to get that done today. Ok, so I had to go during work hours, but I more than made up for the time over the weekend so I didn't feel bad!

I haven't had a chance to write anything about our trip to South Carolina. So here goes!

We left about 30 minutes earlier than I had planned on Wednesday which was great! The weather was great, the kids did great!!!!!!! I am so glad we have the DVD player in the van...

It was a very pretty drive through northeastern Florida and into Georgia. There were so many trees and all the leaves were falling. It was beautiful! It actually looked like it was raining leaves for a while because it was so windy. Orange, yellow, green, brown and RED. Katie and I liked the red leaves the best. It was so pretty!

And then we got about 25 miles into Georgia and STOPPED. I literally parked my van for 30 minutes. Lots of traffic! 6 lanes of traffic stopped. A guy in a Ford Escape next to me got out and walked his dog. Haha!

It took us an hour to go the next 3 miles. And then another 30 minutes to go the next 9 miles and then it was as if nothing had happened. Weird. There was no accident, no construction. Just lots and lots of traffic.

We ended up getting to Sumter about an hour and a half later than expected thanks to our little "stop" in Georgia.

I had talked to Brian and told him we needed to pick up some vitamins for Katie because we had run out the night before so he suggested we just meet at the Walmart. Ok. Sure. What trip would be complete without a trip to Walmart?! Hehe. So we pull up and I see Brian standing outside waiting for us. And Katie sees him and starts screaming "Daddyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and starts unbuckling. So I parked and let her out. And then I let Kasey out and he ran right over to Brian screaming "Daddy!!". It was so cute!

And then Kasey didn't want to have anything to do with me for the rest of the trip. Haha!

A coworker of Brian's had invited us to his house for Thanksgiving. It was so nice! We really had a good time! We got along with this couple immediately. It was almost as if we had known them for years. Crazy! And of course the first thing Katie wanted to do after she met the girls was play "dress up". She refers to their little girls (ages 4 & 5) as her new friends. All weekend it was "my new friends this and my new friends that...". Cute.

We "braved the stupidity", as Brian likes to say, on Black Friday and went shopping. We got a few good deals and were done shopping by lunch time. We went to the Old Navy (of course) and picked up a few things. They had some good deals on jeans and I decided to get some and so did Brian. This was the largest Old Navy I have ever been to! There were 2 floors and Katie and I got to ride the escalator :) She loves the escalator.

We ended up running over to Target to pick up a few things and to waste some time since we didn't really want to head back to the motel and hang out. Twiddling your thumbs gets old after a while ;)

We had to park very far away from the doors and I noticed there was a Lane Bryant right near where we parked. Funny thing is, it was located right between a Cici's Pizza restaurant and a Marble Slab Creamery ice cream parlor. Who was the marketing genius there? Hahahaha! I laughed so hard when I saw that. It was perfect! I didn't end up stopping in because we were tired after Target and it was time to head back to the motel for a nap for the kiddos.

Friday night was quiet. We ordered pizza and watched Shrek the Third and Ratatouille with the kids. After they went to bed we watched Knocked Up. While it was funny, there was a ton of cursing in the movie. There were some funny parts in there though and if you haven't seen it this might not make a whole lot of sense, but Katie's eye hurt last night and was itchy and I jokingly asked if she had pink eye. Then I remembered from the movie HOW they say you get pink eye and had to laugh.

We didn't do much on Saturday. Brian gave us a tour of the base and surrounding area. We went to the BX to waste more time and just hung out at the motel and napped. We are very exciting people. I actually managed to relax for a few minutes. That was nice :)

After nap time, I packed up most of our stuff and hauled it out to the van.

Then we had some pizza left overs for a very early dinner. We made plans to go out with the family we had Thanksgiving with. We went over to Columbia to the zoo to look at the Christmas lights. It was cute.

So the "snow" at the zoo was actually made from a machine that blew soapy bubbly type stuff. At one point I turned around to look for Katie and there she was...standing there all excited about the "snow", sticking her tongue out...

Umm...yuck.

I did have to laugh though. She really thought it was snow. Bless her heart!

We ended up pulling out of Shaw AFB at about 10:30ET Sunday morning. We got back home at just after 10:00CT. It took us 4 hours to drive the 110-120 mile stretch through Georgia. Eeek!

Again, the kids did great!! Movies are my friend!

It ended up raining during our last few hours, but that was alright. The kids slept through all of that and it wasn't raining when we got home. But geez did it pour the next day. Holy cow! The streets were like tiny rivers for a while there. I thought for sure we were going to have flooding. But the rain let up and no flooding. Woo!

Wow. This was a long one!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!