Travel'n South

Thursday February 6th through Thursday February 12th

About the only exiting thing to happen during this time period was the delivery of our dining room table and a night in with our friends Scott, Sandy and their girls Haylee and Alexis.

On Tuesday Mike's parents were kind enough to come to our house to wait for the delivery truck with our table. We had a set window in the afternoon for delivery but with our vacation coming up the following week, we didn't have the spare time to wait around for it. We were very grateful his parents were available since Tuesday is the only day the furniture company delivers to Kzoo! Our table is even more beautiful finally set up in our dining room. It looks like a proper dining room. Unfortunately we don't have the china cabinet yet but it will be delivered this coming Tuesday. I will post pictures soon!

Our Saturday evening with Scott, Sandy& girls was very fun. We had pizza and played games late into the night. The kids are great and I donated every coin I could find in the house to Haylee for a fundraiser. I was amazed I had as much as I did. Apparently we don't use coins often any more =) I'm sure it wasn't more than $4 but that amount in pennies looks impressive!

The rest of the week was pretty same old, same old. We worked, went to the gym, watched TV and generally kept busy doing nothing.

Friday February 13th -

On the eve of our vacation to Florida I had a lot I wanted to accomplish and squeeze in before taking off. Mike and I dropped the car off for an oil change in the morning and I worked half a day to clear up some last minute things at work. I made a smart remark to Mike that Valentine's Day was Saturday and I hoped he bought me flowers. Mike said I could display my dining room table if I wanted to show off something. Ha! Well I went to work and funny enough, a coworker asked if I had received flowers yet from Mike. Apparently he has a bit of a reputation for doing such very nice, public displays of love. I told her not this year because of our slightly expensive purchase of a dining room set. She said she totally understood and I went back to my desk. Not two minutes later, I had a delivery of a dozen roses sent to my desk from my wonderful husband =) I made sure to swing by my coworkers desk to show off my new gift and we both gushed over the beauty of my bouquet.

In the afternoon we picked up the car and Mike dropped me off at home so I could start my projects. I managed to clean the house, finish laundry, clean up a bunch of stuff out the garage and take up some junk I want to sell this summer from the basement to our spare room. After all that I made a list and did some shopping for miscellaneous things we needed before we left.

Our new pet sitter arrived in the evening to go over what needs to be done. With Anya now on several medications now we hired one of the vet techs for our vets office to come over and do the job. I may have overwhelmed the poor women with my endless instructions and suggestions on what we do for our babies. Poor Anya has had a rough week - First we had another blood test done on her only to find out our latest dose of medication was too much and we'd gone from overactive to under active and the poor cat was sleeping her days away. We switched to a lower dose but it takes awhile to fix. Then our lovely water bowl gift to Louis reactivated her severe allergy to plastic and she developed large acne welts on her face. I thought one of the other cats punctured her cheek while we were at work before I realized it was my own d*mn fault for thinking the allergy wouldn't flare up so bad. Thankfully the problem has solved itself now that we took away the plastic bowl but the scabs from our folly are still on her poor little face.

Anyways, by the time the night was over, it was 2 a.m. and Mike and I were exhausted. We slept for about 5 hours before getting a later than expected start on Saturday morning.

Saturday, February 14th -

Happy Valentine's Day! Unlucky for us we had a 9 hour drive ahead of us and this horrible white stuff was all over the ground again. It slightly delayed us more only because we had to drive slow but by the time we reached Fort Wayne the snow as all but a dusting. We stopped off briefly in Muncie, Indiana where I went to college to have lunch at my favorite Thai restaurant. I told Mike I would have this place ship food to me by mail if I thought it would taste the same by the time I got it. I had quite hyped up the place by the time we were in town. To my utter disgust and horror, they were not open for lunch on Saturday. I wanted to cry. We had to settle for a Chinese buffet instead but I have the promise we can stop there again on our way back.

After one addition stop in Kentucky for gas and a quick break, we drove through the mountains in the dark and stopped for the night in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Mike was smart enough to book early on Hotwire.com and we ended up getting a room at a pretty sweet hotel. It was a former train station that they turned into a hotel. Super unique and very interesting. I regret we didn't get into until 10 so we didn't see much in the light. Our room wasn't special but for $50 we couldn't complain! We recommend booking through Hotwire =) Great deals!

After getting all our stuff in the room we made a quick dash to change from travel clothes into some nicer clothes for dinner. We lucked out and found this fabulous restaurant just across the street from the hotel. The food was the best I've had in a very long time and the atmosphere was soft and romantic.

After a long, tiring drive, it was a welcome relaxing hour. We went straight to the hotel afterward and crashed for the night once again making a later than expected start the next day.

Today, Sunday (well, Monday I guess now so I'm writing this at 12:30 a.m.!) February 15th -

The drive from Chattanooga was pretty uneventful. Except for one spot in Georgia where I almost got pulled over. I tell you, Georgia is the worst for speed limits. First, it's 70 for a long stretch then it switches quickly to 55 - than 65 - than back to 70. It was terrible. I stuck at 65 hoping that was about the middle. Well at one point I must have been going a little over trying to pass a slower car and I guess it was in the 55 stretch because a cop on the other side of the road whipped around as soon as he could and sped up to catch me. Obviously I slowed down to 55 once I saw him swing. I was so mad because we weren't in a hurry so I wasn't trying to speed but the signs were so inconsistent! I was planning my arguments and pleas in my head when the cop finally caught up to me. I waited for the lights to turn on and even headed toward an outer lane. Then... a miracle happened. He backed off, pulled over and took out his radar gun I assume to catch someone else. My only thought is he didn't have my clocked going over the speed limit and by the time he caught up I wasn't speeding anymore. Lady luck was totally on my side!

Around 8 p.m. we finally arrived at my sisters house. Their house is so beautiful. My sister and her family, including her in laws, had all just arrive themselves and were trying to settle in. They had ordered a pizza for dinner so we were just in time to join them for food. We didn't talk about much more than travel and the kids were already in bed by the time we arrived. We did have a bit of an adventure pushing together the two twin beds Mike and I are sleeping on for the king-bed feel. To set your mind at ease - right now I am blogging and Mike is sleeping in his travel clothes. Not really your typical romantic atmosphere =)

I will do my best to keep up on the blog now that we'll actually have something exciting each day to right about. We have many plans of what we want to do and I only hope we can find the hours in the day to do them! We are very excited to start our vacation now that the traveling is over and I am SUPER excited to meet my nephews tomorrow!!!