The Friday before Memorial Day was my "walk day" -- the first day my foot surgeon said I could start trying to walk in regular shoes. Not that different since I still had to wean myself off of the walking boot slowly, but either way, I was excited for sandals. Oh, and the fact that my black eyes (from my broken nose) were finally almost gone helped too. Yea, it was a good Friday.
So since all that was going on (with my foot and nose), I decided to not take a big trip somewhere. I'm almost always out of the state (or country) on any long holiday weekend, but this Memorial Day Weekend, we decided to take a trip to my hometown of Great Bend -- 4 hours away in the middle-of-nowhere-Kansas.
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| Road Trip! |
There was a pretty good storm brewing south of us, and we barely missed it. Just got some heavy rain about half way through the trip. But I did take some pretty sweet pictures of the clouds -- while I was driving 75mph down the Interstate.
As much as I dis Kansas so often, I still think it's beautiful out in the country...
We stopped at a convenience store along the way for some snacks and gas.
Hunter had left-over pizza, got his dogs out, and watched the Cars movie. Not a bad Friday night for this little guy! (Too bad the rest of us also had to listen to that movie for and hour and a half!)
And four hours after we left KC, after a couple of bathroom breaks, we made it to my home sweet home.
We really wanted to get a picture of Hunter on the big rock out front. He had other ideas.
This was as good as we could get. (And it might be my favorite picture from the weekend, hahaha!)
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| So. Mad. |
Back inside, Christa and Tony gave Gram her Mother's Day present - a necklace with a picture in it of her "babies" (the original ones: me and my brothers) when we were little. It's pretty special and she loves it!
Hunter then found more of her jewelry and helped himself to a few of her other necklaces...
After 4 hours in the car and then unloading everything, we were all pretty spent and called it a night.
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Saturday morning, I made a smoothie and sat out in the back yard on the swing and just enjoyed the quiet morning. That never happens back home - maybe because I don't have a swing or a quiet back yard - but whatever, I loved it.
With not much to do later that morning, Christa and I decided to make our annual trip to Wal-Mart. We always have a good time walking around and looking at stuff, and it kills some down time. Let's be honest, there aren't a whole lot of other places to go early on a Saturday morning anyways. So, Wal-Mart for the win again! It never disappoints. I mean, look at these shirts we found:
We picked up a few other things we needed at the house -- like a new blender to replace the one from 1972 my mom still uses -- and went back home to see what we could get our hands in to.
After all, the real reason we came back this weekend was to clean some stuff out and help me mom de-clutter in hopes of her selling the house soon and moving up to KC.
First up: the summer cottage. We always had high hopes for this potentially awesome room out back. It's a giant room, with a sink and some cabinets, and bathroom just outside, and giant windows on three of the four walls that open up to let the fresh air in. Vaulted ceilings with fans...I mean, the room could have been cool. Too bad it never did anything but store more and more junk over the years. So much now it was to the point you could hardly walk in there! It definitely needed our help.
Holiday decorations (like, 18 boxes of them, dog kennels, old furniture from when we were little, tailgating stuff, antiques, you name it, it was probably in there.
The room was so dusty we immediately decided we were going to need something to cover up our faces. Matching purple bandannas did the trick!
We started the long process of pulling almost everything out of the room and sorted it out by trash, donate, or keep. And if we were keeping it, we needed a good explanation as to why, since none of that had been touched in years!
We found Tony's college diploma and a few other things we ended up bringing back with us. We also came across some pretty sweet old cd's -- and tapes. Wu-Tang Forever!!
After spending the vast majority of the day doing that, we had a heaping truck load full of stuff to take to the dump. Problem was, the dump wasn't open until the following week - which obviously was not going to work for us.
Soooo we drove around town looking for big empty dumpsters. I mean, what else were we supposed to do!?
We started out at an apartment complex one and just dumped a few things I could quickly grab off the top...
Then we lucked out and found a completely empty one behind some old businesses that weren't open anymore. SCORE! We completely filled it up.
With a pretty significant amount of stuff left, we went to one more dumpster. One that we actually had permission to put "some" stuff in. I hope by "some" they meant filling it up was okay.
Here are the "after" pics of the Summer Cottage. They really don't do it justice. The room is too big to get all in one shot, and you just can't tell how much better - and more organized - it is now!
We took a well-deserved break after all of that...
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| (Tony was cleaning gutters and cutting tree limbs while we were working in the summer cottage.) |
Christa handed me her phone and asked me to take a picture of her and Tony. I took a selfie instead. She posted it on social media. Lesson learned.
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| At least she put a good filter on it so my skin looks nice, haha! |
At dinner, Hunter dropped his full cup of chocolate milk on the floor. It broke, of course, and the whole thing went all over the floor.
Don't mind us while we make a scene and pull the table out to mop it up!
Tony went out to a friends house in the country that evening, while Christa and I tackled project number two for the day: a couple of cabinets in the family room that were full of - you guessed it - another 9 boxes of holiday decorations. Someone has a problem!
Coolest thing I found all day. I mean, who doesn't want a unicorn bell that says Kansas on it!?
The only excitement for the night in our quiet neighborhood was an ambulance two houses down. The lady fell outside and hurt her hip, so I ran in to get Hunter to show him the ambulance. Of course he was scared of it until it left...and then he made the siren sound and waved!
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Sunday morning was a repeat of Saturday morning. Smoothie (with the new blender!) and out in the swing. This time, I got some company though!
Gram got doughnuts for everyone, and Hunter was pretty excited about it when she told him! He had a chocolate one with sprinkles on it, but he ate all of the frosting and sprinkles and not any of the doughnut! He likes sugar like his daddy!
Christa and I got back to work that morning. Sunday's goal was to get to my closet and the closet downstairs in my brother's old room.
Best find from my closet:
MC Hammer and DC Talk tapes!
Also in the closet: the perfect pictures for a little #TBT! Tony and I when we were little. I kind of think we look alike here...but we certainly don't anymore!
Best find from the closet downstairs:
My mom's awesome dresses from the 70's!
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| I brought the one I'm wearing back to KC with me! |
We bagged up an absurd amount of clothes to take to GoodWill, and the rest came back to KC with us to sell at a garage sale.
For dinner, we took a trip to Braums to get my favorite bacon cheeseburger and ice cream. I don't even remember the last time I ate a cheeseburger, let alone bacon! When you can't work out for 12 weeks, you have to watch what you eat. But man, that was the best tasting thing I've had in a long time!
Since Sunday was our last night in GB, we decided to take a drive out in the country and try and find the old spot where we used to lease land and spent some time when we were little.
Of course it was a gorgeous summer evening, complete with the usual storm clouds in the distance. So we went country cruising with the windows down!
After getting a little lost and giving up on google maps, we eventually made it to Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, and from there, found our old spot we were looking for! I remembered this windmill and soon as we drove up.
Perfect spot to end the day...
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We weren't planning on staying aruond long enough to get in to any more projects on Monday, so after my smoothie, I finally took a shower - first one of the weekend - and then Christa did my hair!
I refused to do much of anything after that - telling everyone I was ready for prom and couldn't mess up my pretty hair! (Aahh the joys of having a hair styliest for a sis-in-law!)
We loaded up the car with clothes and everything else we found to sell at the garage sale, and then added the picnic table to the mix, which required Tony to drive the truck back separately. After the long road trip home on Friday, I think he was more than okay with some quiet time on his own for the drive back!
It was another gorgeous day in Kansas, and we made good time with only a couple of quick bathroom breaks.
When we got back to town, I dropped Christa off to get her car...and Hunter's diaper was completely soaked. We hadn't changed it the whole way, and had given him lots to drink. I wish I had a picture of the process, but Christa gave him one of the quickest redneck diaper changes ever - one handed while he was standing up. I mean, the thing was barely even on his butt, hahaha! But she was in a hurry to get home and it would work for that long.
Tony came to my house when he got back to town - I drove way faster than he did - to drop off the big things I didn't have room for in my car, and I now have a cool picnic table in my backyard!
Don't mind the long grass and weeds. I'll fix it up and stain it to match my deck...and will have a little piece of my old home to use at my new home!
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