for my sanity?

it's been 12 days. i thought i would really enjoy "down time" considering the last 6+ years of my life have been constant craziness. not the case. i'm BOOOOORED. i feel like if i have a job, i will be less annoying when grady comes home & needs to study & i just really want to have a conversation with someone other than myself (yes i have resorted to talking to myself...hate on me haters). so what have i accomplished in 12 days?

• discovered that although i am *quite* weak i can assist grady in hauling an entire sectional, a 200 lb. desk (yes... literally 200 lbs.), a 150 lb. entertainment center, our awkward not easily moved mattress and the rest of our belongings up a flight of stairs. hoo-rah! (<--- that's a marine reference)
• spent more hours than i am willing to disclose cruising craigslist looking for furniture and a job. i have yet to purchase a piece of furniture from there or get a job. waste of time?
• watched all 3 seasons of "16 and pregnant" and am working on "teen mom". wow. just wow.
• vacuumed our apartment about 30 times. our new vacuum works, so that is great!
• called in 3 work orders to our apartment complex. it's nice to be on the other end of the phone calls for once. (*side note: although a large brick wall in your living room and dining room creates a very awesome look to your place, it also leads to incredible drafts and many hours of maintenance staff to be in your apartment numerous days in a row)
• entertained our first house guests. yay for having a second bedroom! we are so happy brandt and jeannetter and babies came to stay and get me out of a funk. i needed it.

everyone pray that i get a job. for my sanity and the sake of grady's grades. i need to be busy. srsly.

on the road again

we have made it to st. louis! i thought it would be entertaining to document the things i learned while traveling across a few states.

Arizona:

• the one state that we encountered snow during our trip. ironic, right? everyone thinks it's tumbleweeds, cactus and cowboys.
• the burger king right of I-40 and Butler Ave. has the most fresh fast food has browns ever. like they burned my mouth.
• we stopped in the small town of Joseph City. population 1400. this is where my grandma and grandpa grew up and fell in love. i took a picture in front of the home my grandma grew up in.

New Mexico:

• new mexico was a blur. and by a blur, i mean i slept through 85% of it.
• we stayed in a day's inn in Albuquerque that has a classy little IHOP next door. 20% discount from uhaul on the room which gave us a 20% discount on our dinner. that's a 40% savings.... i think? also, our hotel had plumbing issues and our sink was filled with some previous guest's hair. yum.

Texas:

• texas smells like dirty diapers. seriously. we thought it would go away, but it just kept getting worse.
• we were really tired from driving the day before, so we ended up sleeping through breakfast and ate at yet another burger king in texas. their hash browns were less than fresh.
• i finally found my favorite gum at a dumpy gas station in Shamrock. it's orbit's raspberry lemon dew. it's like an excellent glass of raspberry lemonade in gum form.

Oklahoma:

• i met a really nice man at a gas station in oklahoma. i don't remember why he was nice, but i remember thinking to myself after i got in the car, "that's a nice man".
• oklahoma city was less than appealing to grady and i. i don't know why, but we weren't really into it.
• we paid 2 tolls in oklahoma that added up to $20.00. i think we paid about $18.00 too much. we had to pull over to a gas station to get cash the exit before the toll because they don't take check, debit or credit cards. just cash. the gas station didn't give cash back on a purchase. awesome.
• we went to the mcdonalds across the parking lot to see if they would give cash back. they didn't either. so we spent $2.75 in fees to use the generic ATM in the mickey d's to get enough cash for the toll.
• never drive through smoke on the freeway. we saw about 50 of these signs off the freeway and decided to utilize google and find out why. in oklahoma they burn the brush on the side of the freeway and the smoke causes no visibility. weird.
  

Missouri:

• missouri has more adult bookstores/video stores than i've ever seen in my life. on the flip side, it has the most churches i've ever seen in my life. ironic.
• we got taken by about 40 HUGE billboards for a knife factory in a small town off I-44. it was pathetic. we laughed for about it for 10 minutes after getting back into the car.
• we drove past a boat factory and were blown away by all the boats parked outside. i'm talking like 10,000+ boats. it was crazy!
• grady pointed out a semi carrying piglets next to us. they were sticking their little snouts through the grates in the truck biting at the air. we were so moved by these little babies, i had to take a picture of it. (btw, taking a picture of a moving vehicle out the window of another moving vehicle makes for a SUPER blurry picture)
• speaking of piglets, missouri has a "ferrel hog" problem. as in, you need to report those "ferrel hogs" to the local authorities. i can only imagine.
• we had to go to the original Bass Pro Shop in branson, because... well i don't know why, but it was pretty cool!

i decided i need to travel via car more frequently because i learned so much about the places we went through. also, in case you were wondering, route 66 dissolved into what is now I-40, I-44 and I-55. this i discovered about 12 hours into being on what was route 66. i felt stupid.

we have been really busy the last 3 days getting our apt in order and replacing all of the things i crazily sold in a whirlwind of insanity. someone slap me next time i sell all of our stuff.