And Then We Came Home

 

Thanks for hanging in there with me over the past couple of weeks as I've told you about our tenth anniversary trip. It was a sweet getaway for us that punctuated not only the end of our first decade together, but also the end of a present-life-season, since I started my new job not long after we came home. It also marked the start of our second decade and the beginning of many new things! Being the lover of clean endings/beginnings that I am, this felt like perfection.

What has NOT felt like perfection has been the lack of sunshine in our own state since we left the Sunshine State (which apparently hoards it right now). We have seen the sun a grand total of ONCE since returning home on December 3rd. ONCE!!!!!

But look what a brilliant send-off it gave us the day we left:

Should have bottled it up and brought it back. Or just stayed there.

It was in the high sixties early in the morning when we left, and it just got progressively colder all the way home, until we arrived late to freezing temps. (Well. Not literally freezing. But they felt freezing.) 

Though we had allowed the trip down there to be spread over two days, our trip home was all in one long, long day of travel. We were crazy grateful that our car (which had been in the shop at the beginning, you might remember) gave us no problems, and we also didn't encounter any accidents, constructions, or slow-downs along the way. I think this is the only trip we've ever taken that didn't take us through ANY construction. It was so beautifully strange!

We were on the road by 8 Eastern, 7 Central, which I thought was pretty good! Made it to Alabama pretty quickly:

Ryan commented that of ALL THE PLACES they could have put that pole... ;)

We stopped in a little town for some breakfast to eat on the road (tried to do Taco Bell, but they didn't open until 9 a.m. and it wasn't 9 yet, so we did McDonald's) and kept going! Had a lot of conversations, played a lot of trivia...had fun!

We should have seen the weather as a warning for days to come...

On our trip down, while in Alabama, we drove by a Bucc-ee's. Have you been to one? We had not, but I've seen all the gushing about them on social media for the past few months/years. If you're not familiar, they're a chain of not-your-mama's gas stations. I think most of them are fairly huge, though I read on their website that they have some smaller ones. I think they're mostly in the south. They recently won an award for having the cleanest bathrooms in America, and I think we can all appreciate the sheer gift that is in general - and especially in the germy days in which we live. 

Social media-less Ryan had never heard of them, but I told him we should stop on the way home, so we planned to do just that. The one on our route was in Athens, Alabama, which is in the northern part of the state. It was new, and we were not prepared for the sensory overload and sheer VOLUME of everything at the place. 

It was huge. It had at least 50 gas pumps, if not more. And the store was like Walmart married a gas station. You could buy EVERYTHING there from food to clothes to Christmas gifts and more. We used the cleanest bathrooms in America, and they did not disappoint. And we got lunch there! It was SO GOOD! (Though I confess I didn't 100% love the coffee. That made me sad!)

I wasn't able to take a ton of pictures because PEOPLE EVERYWHERE, but here were a few I took!

We got our lunch there (it was mid-afternoon by the time we arrived) and ate in the car. There wasn't a place to eat inside, and even if there had been, I'm sure it would have been a zoo. I got a pulled pork sandwich and Ryan got a brisket sandwich. We shared an order of homemade fresh, warm potato chips. And we got a souvenir ornament, because it felt like the kind of place that should be marked as an experience.

My thoughts on Bucc-ee's are as follows: it is a destination worth the stop, for the bathrooms if nothing else. The food is pricey, but it's also fresh and very delicious, so that can be worth it. (Portions for us were also generous, so that helped.) If you are easily overwhelmed, maybe skip it, because it will be wall-to-wall people and very...much. But the level of cleanliness, friendliness, and efficiency reminded me of Chick-fil-A. We were able to get in and out quickly, despite the crowds. I saw nothing that looked gross or unclean. And there were helpful employees everywhere. I would go back. I'd like to, actually, sometime when I can shop around for a while. (We wanted to get back on the road.)

Tennessee came and went...

...and so did the Kentucky sign! We were so deep in conversation that we missed it! I took a sign of Bowling Green's welcome instead. :) 

It was dark by the time we came to Louisville and crossed the bridge into Indiana. This IS the sign, but the lights reflecting off of it kept it from really showing. :( 

We stopped in southern Indiana for dinner on the run (Taco Bell at last!) and then used an anniversary gift card to get some caffeine for the last stretch:

We actually arrived home in great time - about 10:15 that night. We were completely unpacked before we went to bed, and we had one whole day to recuperate before returning to reality.

It was a grand time of celebration, and I was so grateful for the opportunity to get away. Now. If anyone can find the sun and send it this way....

Sunday Sentiments

 

Good morning, friends! I'm thinking of you this morning and hoping you're doing well. There is just so much sickness running around out there, and now the weather has kicked it up a notch just for fun! So please, friends, keep yourself well and stay safe as you travel. 

I wanted to tell you today that I've officially completed my first week at my new job! I cannot tell you the number of nightmares I had (leading up to my first day) about oversleeping and missing my first day. Thankfully, both our alarms went off without a hitch, and I got up and made it to the office ahead of schedule!

I spent my week watching hours (and hours) of training videos, reading a book about grant writing, and making pages of notes of questions to explore as I learn my job in the days ahead.

The first week was exciting and intimidating all at once. It's always exciting to be in a new season and have the opportunity to be part of a work God is doing. It's exciting to think of fresh starts and new skills. But it's intimidating too! I want to do my best work and learn new skills, and those self-doubt voices can be awfully loud. Maybe you've felt that way about something too?

My new boss was so kind and encouraging throughout the week. (She and I both have miniature Bernedoodles, so we talk puppies right along with shop talk!) And I told Ryan it was so exciting when I made connections between things I learned in my reading and then saw in training modules. 

I know there will be so much more to learn, and I'm sure some days will be absolutely overwhelming. But I am thankful and excited for this new season!

I know some of you were praying for me this week as I started work, so thank you for that! My words are brief today, but my heart is full. Thanks for your encouragement and support, and remember: be safe and stay well!!!

The Saturday Six

 

I started my job this week, we had two dinner get-togethers, and Christmas is in a week. I had no room for cute themes on the Six this week, so enjoy this buffet of randomness!

One.

Ryan sent me this video, and it cracked me right up. (It's super short.) This reminds me of shenanigans that Kaegan pulled when he was alive. (If you're new here, Kaegan was my first cat - at least of my adult years. He died in 2010 at the age of 10.)

Two.

On my first day of work, I had a meeting in my new boss's office. I was a proper thirty seconds into that meeting, when I absolutely interrupted her, pointed to this on her desk and said, "WHAT IS THAT AMAZING THING????" I had never seen one before, but I'm getting one for my desk. You can be sure of that. I mean...can one ever really have too many dry erase boards? 

Three.

While I was prepping for my first day of work, I had to gather up some documents to take in for their records. When I opened my wallet to put them inside, I decided to take five minutes to clean it out. I had insurance cards from when we lived in Kokomo, receipts from who-knows-when, and even a pair of earrings in there (????). It looks so much nicer now, and it took hardly any time at all! I found this list of chores you can do when you only have five minutes. While I am a profound advocate for taking five minutes to rest, there are certainly things that can be done without a lot of mental effort! (I also cleaned up my LinkedIn profile since I have a new job!)

Four.

This is the wedding favor Ryan and I should have thought of for our guests. How perfect is this!?!?! Sharing the gift of coffee mugs??

Five.

I made these cookies this week (part of them for the Love INC board meeting and part of them for a gift for our neighbors) and I have two words for you: MAKE THEM. They are not even a wee bit healthy, but they are every single kind of good. Note: I did make them smaller than the recipe calls for so I could have more of them for the purposes I needed. But they were still SO GOOD. 

Six.

And finally, today, if you have need of a few last-minute Christmas gifts, here are some quick gift basket ideas that you can put together for neighbors/friends/coworkers/teachers, etc! 

At Last...Our Tenth Anniversary!

You've put up with a LOT of vacation recap over the last few days! We finally made it to the day of our actual anniversary!

The Lord blessed us with an absolutely beautiful day, and we were so grateful. We walked to a little cafe for breakfast, and it was delicious. And it was so cute! It was called 2 Birds Coffee and Cafe.

After we ate, we took an elevator ride to the top floor of the building where we stayed. We were on the 7th floor, but we went all the way up to the 24th floor to check out the view. Whew! That was high!

We went down to the beach to do our annual recreated pictures (that will be another post for another day) and had fun with a few extra pictures while we were there!

We had a little extra time, so we watched our wedding video:

Our original plan for our "big" anniversary celebration was a dinner cruise, but even though our anniversary fell on a Friday, they weren't sailing that day. I was so sad! But Ryan found a fantastic plan B that ended up being so much fun. We went on a tiki boat sunset cruise!

The boat was literally a little tiki hut that floated. It held six people (plus the captain) and while we were permitted to bring our own food and/or drinks on board, they didn't provide anything for us other than ice. We decided just to take water with us and went for dinner later. We went out into the bay and were supposed to see the sunset, but alas, a low cloud ended up killing the last part of the sunset. Never fear, though, because right about the time that was happening, we found several pods of dolphins and got to see them up close!! It was such a sweet end to our anniversary, and we took LOTS of pictures. (I will give you a small sampling of the nearly 400 we took. (The dolphins didn't leap high, so don't over-expect.)

We got to see Brittany Spears' house while we were in the bay. The captain said it was the only celebrity house in that area.

This is where the sunset ended and the dolphins began:

All photo credit for the sunset and dolphin pictures is Ryan's. I was taking video on my phone.

Here's a video clip! 

It was dark by the time we got back to shore, but we had the best time. It was so unique, so fun, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

We had planned to go to a place called McGuire's Irish Pub for dinner. I actually heard about it at the dentist a few months ago - ha! But when we left the marina, we had to make a left to get there, and there was traffic as far as the eye could see headed that way. No breaks. So we scrapped that plan and turned right instead. We ended up at a Smash Burger! Fun fact: this is the second time in a decade we have landed at a Smash Burger on our anniversary after Plan A didn't work out. It was yummy!

We ate outside. It was the last hurrah before coming home. (To the cold. But I digress.)

After we got back to the Airbnb, we exchanged cards, ate our cupcakes and had our sparkling grape juice, and read our anniversary letters from last year and wrote new ones to be opened next year!

It was the most wonderful day, and I am so thankful for Ryan's willingness to celebrate so fully each year. He makes every occasion a true joy, and I love him so. (Not just because of that, but also because of that!)

The only bad thing was we had to end the day by packing to come home! We left super early the next morning, so we packed everything we could the night before. Womp womp!!!