Back from vacation!!

My favorite thing about vacation?  Spending time with my family.  It’s hard sometimes to have my family so spread out.  I think about how nice it would be to be able to be close to them all and be able to have my nieces and nephews close.  It’d be nice to be able to have Mom and Dad time whenever I wanted it or to have a sibling day out (or game night in) with my brother and sister.  It makes me sad, but I try not to dwell on it.  We all do find time, some how, to see each other every once in a while.

I have ALWAYS loved vacation.  I love to go and see new things and explore.  The past few years though, I have found myself not excited for vacation like I used to be though.  Guess you really want someone with you that is really excited about everything you do and is having fun – otherwise it can be a bit of a downer.  There are SO MANY places I’d still love to go and see and explore!  I’m hoping once I lose my weight I’m going to feel like doing a lot more.  I also hope Tommie is going to be up for it also.  I REALLY at some point want to take my first over-seas trip!

We stopped and spent a few night with my sister on the way to my parents house.  She is about half way.  It was nice to stop and see the family and spend time with the kids. 🙂  They grow up so fast!!  Tommie was able to rest, like he loves to do on vacation :), and I was able to help Billie with her Brownie Bridging ceremony. (not sure how much help I was, but a little…lol)

I got to see Susie bridge from Daisy’s to Brownies.  I also got to go out and eat lunch with Billie and the girls.  It was so funny, I met them at the Deli and when I walked in Jonna’s face lit up like she was surprised to see me (which I’m sure she knew I was coming.)….she said “Aunt Amy!!”  She said “I wish you lived here.”  I said “Yeah, me too.”  “I wish you lived upstairs at our house!”  Billie was like “Upstairs??  Where’d we put her?”  “Well, I wished you lived next door!”  Ha ha.  Cutie.

The girls are also always shy around Tommie, since he doesn’t always show his face much when they are around – and I can imagine how tall he looks to them!  Jonna is the one who usually brave enough to get close.  I told them he was afraid of THEM though and they were like “He’s afraid of us?!?!?”  Then they kept telling him, “I’m getting closer!” until they were up right in his face, with him acting afraid.  It was cute and funny. 🙂

Next we arrived at my parents house.  It was our first time visiting since they moved to Baltimore.  I hadn’t planned anything for this vacation.  My motivation really wasn’t there.  All I knew was that I wanted to see my parents.  Nothing else mattered all that much.  I was hoping that my parents would just show us what they thought we’d want to see, which they did.  My Dad was even able to get one day off of work while we were there.  One thing we noticed was how HUMID it was in Baltimore, compared to Kansas City!  (and I thought Kansas City was humid!!)  You walk outside, and even if it’s not all that hot, we were just drenched in sweat – and I don’t really sweat a lot.  Mom and Dad, I guess, were used to it, because they didn’t seem to notice all that much.  To us, the air was thick with it.

I DID enjoy seeing what we saw though.  Baltimore is a very old city….and you can tell.  Saw row-houses for the first time (outside of TV).  I asked Mom what the difference between a row-house and a townhouse is.  One thing I found interesting, she said in row houses, each person is responsible for their own repairs (including roofs), so you’ll see a row of row-houses with different types of roofs across!  She said a lot of them had the kitchens in the basement also – since it’s cooler down there.  Another things I learned while there was that the author – Edgar Allen Poe lived and died there.  I didn’t make it to his house or grave, but maybe next time.  I don’t know why when I think of him, I thought he was from Europe!  That is where the Baltimore Raven’s get their name from!  (His book – The Raven)  So – that was interesting. 🙂

We saw a lot of other interesting things also, but I’m sure you don’t want me to go through it all. 🙂  I also have a short list of things I’d like to do next time we’re that way and when I have a bit more energy!

We are refinancing our house and who knew it’d be such a pain!!  Just lots of back and forth’s with the mortgage company – so much paper work I’ve had to get together.  We are towards the end of it, but the communication with the company has been a challenge.  Have to try several times to get a response.  They say they are busy.  Currently we’re waiting for them to get verification of current employment for us, before we can sign the closing papers.  I was like “What?  Our paycheck stubs weren’t enough??”  “No, we need to have your HR depts fill out paperwork verifying that you’re currently employed.”  Ugh – really??  So the latest hang up is that they’ve sent the paperwork to Tommie’s work and was supposed to get it right back and didn’t have left several message with no answer and my job requires them to go to a website and pay $50 for verification.  Sigh.  SO – hopefully we can get this all behind us soon, because I’m sorta tired of going back and forth with everyone.

Well – I’m on my lunch break and it’s time to get back to work, so I’ll go ahead and post this.  Leave me a comment if you like. 😀