Vacation

So, apparently, it takes me traveling across the country to have time to blog.  Well, really, for me to make the time to blog.  It's not like I really have a ton of time to blog, but I always feel bad when I go to bed and realize I haven't blogged.  I don't really know why...I'm not getting paid for this, but I feel like I should blog.

So I've gone back to school.  Yes, it's a little crazy to re-start my education with a 10 month old, but I have a ton of support and I can do a lot of it online and in the evenings.  So while I feel it's a little crazy, it's something that I've wanted to do for a long time and I'm super excited.

I've neglected the blog for so long, I don't remember a lot of the stuff I've told myself to blog about (with the exception of going back to school), so on to my vacation!

Two days before we were scheduled to leave, our car died.  Completely died.  Had to push it home two blocks died.  Our neighborhood has a no overnight parking policy, but you can safelist a car if you're going to have an overnight guest, so that their car won't get towed.  I tried to safelist our car so we wouldn't have to try to park it in our 1-car garage without power steering (or, you know, an engine), and was responded to by a snotty, apathetic little twit with the security company who told me that the policy was that owners were not allowed to safelist their own car under any circumstances.  Really?  I wanted to leave my car there overnight, not for a week.  We needed to get it towed the next day so that we could leave, but she couldn't use any kind of common sense or compassion and let us do it ONE TIME.  Yeah, I'm annoyed.  But we got it fixed (it was the alternator), and we were able to get on our way.

We decided to drive up to Idaho (it's where my brother and his family live, and with my bro leaving the country soon we wanted to come up and visit a bit), and yes, with a 10 month old that is also crazy.  She was a champ though.  We stopped a few times during the trip, to visit with friends and family, and it was the best thing we could have done.  Instead of being in the car for 15+ hours, we stopped the first day after 6, the second after 9, the third after 2, and the fourth after about 10.  She got a little fussy after about 8 hours, but for the most part she was really good. 

My nieces have gotten so big!  They're 7 and 4 now, and holy cow have they grown up since I saw them last.  They are so excited to see Aurora, perhaps a little too...enthusiastic at times, but for the most part they've been really good with her.  Aurora's not too sure about my brother...he's got some facial hair, and she usually isn't too keen on that.  She's starting to warm up to him slowly, but she was really freaked out by him at first.

We went down to the Wolf People store today.  There's a 50 acre reserve for wolves up near where my sister in law's parents live, and they have a shop on the highway into town where they bring a couple of the wolves to show every day.  They are very big on educating people about wolves, and they are genuinely nice people.  The wolves were beautiful.  They're like big puppies.  Yes, they're pack animals, and hunters by nature, and therefore could inflict considerable damage upon a human, but they are quite beautiful animals. 

Scott said I had to blog about my pants.  I have a couple pairs of jeans that I've had for almost 4 years, and they're little more than tatters at this point.  They've both got holes in the knees, and are falling apart, and I've lost a big of weight since buying them (well, my weight's yo-yoed quite a bit), and they're just not fitting really well anymore.  So I decided that since prices and taxes are better up here, I'd buy a new pair of jeans if I could find a pair under $10.  So we were out shopping today, and while we were in a store that was advertising their clearance stuff, Scott made a joke about my clearance rack radar.  I love clearance racks.  I hate paying a ton of money for clothes that I could make myself, and I have a store near me at which I rarely pay more than $15 for an article of clothing.  So I've really gotten cheap about clothes.  Occasionally I'll splurge for something I really love, but more often than not I'll just browse the clearance racks at Target or something. 

JCPenny's clearance racks kind of suck.  They're all just kind of interspersed throughout the rest of the store, instead of in one spot.  So while looking for clearance stuff, I found a pair of jeans that were on sale, but not clearance.  They were $16.  I really liked them.  A lot.  I decided I'd try them on, just to see how much I liked them, since they were on sale and were really cute.  I then continued searching.  Found a cute polo, $5.  And then I saw what I thought were mislabeled jeans.  The sticker said $2.98.  I didn't believe it.  I asked an employee, and he confirmed that that was the price.  I tried them on, they're a tad too big, but not so big that they'll fall down when I wear them.  Still skeptical, I took my finds up to the register and decided that I wouldn't get them if they had been mistagged

So we've still got about a week until we leave, and I will be sad to go.  I'm having such a good time, and as much as Jeremy and I give each other crap, I love him.