Restless

Trip 2012 -- Washington 1

Our first night in the country was spent at my aunt Edi's place. We woke up in the morning and discovered they had the cutest kittens ever.

They also had a goat!

In Seattle, we used the ferry to get to my Aunt Suzi's house. It was my first time on a ferry.

Jesse was enjoying himself immensely.

The view of Seattle was amazing.

When we got to Aunt Suzi's, she had made some wonderful patriotic snacks.

Blaire and Graeme...

Paige's expression seems to say, "It wasn't me!" Lol.

Now, we're off to Grandma and Grandpa Holter's house. Oh such fun! But we will miss Suzi, Duncan, Graeme, Blaire and Paige!

Odds and Ends

I love those who yearn for the impossible. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Today, I weeded part of the garden. It feels so good to finally be able to get my fingers in the dirt and to clean the unwanted weeds away from the peppers, tomatoes, garlic, corn and onions. And I didn't even get to the potatoes or lettuce yet. I had been wanting to get into the garden for a few weeks now but the rain kept coming down. A day would begin with the sun but by noon, the clouds were rolling in. Finally, after a few days of heat, the ground was dry enough for me to get out there.

Last weekend was The Boogie Fest in Carlyle. At one point, there were over 50 motorcycles on Main Street... all painted in different colors and designs. Such fun! Also, all of the Pharmasave Chicks were supposed to dress up as bikers, so Lydia and I obliged them. It was a lot of fun and rather nice not to have to worry about looking nice for a couple days. Lol.

The one who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The one who walks alone, is likely to find himself in the places no one has ever been before. -- Albert Einstein

Saturday evening, I called to ask about a couple things and Zeke answered the phone. I can't believe how old he is: this February, he turned 13. It seems like just yesterday he was in diapers, spitting up milk.We talked for about an hour about a lot of stuff. He has a keen mind that never stops. I hope he will never be satisfied with what he thinks. He is very skilled in several areas... music has always been a gift to him.

I was always fascinated by people who are considered completely normal, because I find them the weirdest of all. -- Johnny Depp

Jesse and I are getting ready to leave on our belated honeymoon. Actually, this might be considered our 3rd honeymoon. (The first two were spent in Regina.) We're excited about the trip as a whole, of course... but there are a couple things I am really pumped about: seeing my relatives and having them meet Jesse for the first time. Especially my uncles and aunts and cousins. I'm also excited about San Franscisco: I want to eat the famous sourdough and clam chowder. While we were living in Melville, Dad was against eating yeast for a few months. So, we made sour dough bread. In the books, they would say stuff like, "This is similar to the famous San Francisco Sour Dough, etc., etc." Allow me to assure you that our sour dough was nothing like San Francisco sour dough. In fact, I'm not even sure our attempts deserve the title of sour dough. More like "sour rocks" or "break-your-teeth-sour-dough". Lol. Those months of no yeast diet were veryyyy long. However, even with that experience under my belt, I am still very happy to finally have a chance to eat real San Francisco Sour Dough. :-)

Pictures will be posted periodically as I take them and get internet access. It's going to be a really intense trip, with many sights to see. When I discovered that Jesse's family were overseas travelers, I was overjoyed because I have always wanted to travel. This trip is going to be a beginning; a simply marvelous beginning! And California is always a good place to begin anything!

Enemies are so stimulating. -- Katherine Hepburn

Why yes, they are, Miz Katherine. Did you have anyone in particular in mind? ;-) 

For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone. -- Audrey Hepburn 

Lydia has been sick the past couple of days. When I first began work at Pharmasave, I got really sick a couple weeks into it. Lydia is probably having a similar experience. We`re around sick people 5 days a week and one's immune system must build up to resisting everything you're in contact with. So we're taking good care of her and making her rest and drink lots of fluids. She's pretty pleasant for being sick so I can't complain! I do wish she would feel better soon. She is simply feeling awful.

Well, cheers. I'll try to write more later. Apologies for the very boring blog post. But I do love sharing my little odds and ends... I hope you'll derive some joy from them. :-)

P.S. I do adore Audrey Hepburn.

Dakota Is The Key

Yesterday, we went to the United States to renew my passport. My passport has been expired for 6 years (and an odd number of days), plus I have been married and had a name change in my absence. To top it all off, I haven't been to the states since grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary in July of '09.

So when the very big, African American border guard took one look at my passport and asked us to come inside, I wasn't surprised. When they had us empty our pockets, looked through Jesse's wallet and my purse and searched the car, I still wasn't surprised.

What did surprise me was when they started apologizing. They didn't ever come out and say, "I'm sorry." It was more like, "You'll soon be on your way... we just have our protocols, etc., etc." "Well, it's just that with your passport being so outdated, we simply have to verify who you are." They started making little jokes and we all laughed together. It was awesome. :-)

The last thing they had me do was fill out a card declaring if we had any tobacco (no), fruits or vegetables (no), bringing anything down to sell (no), firearms or weapons (no), money over x number of dollars (no) and our destination, which I wrote down as "Minot, SD."

Now, there were two border guards and my husband both peering over my head as I wrote that. No one said anything. No one even noticed. It wasn't until we were back in our car and on our merry way that I said, "South Dakota, eh?" and my husband looked at me strangely and said, "We're not going to see Mount Rushmore today." Haha!


Ah! Minot, South Dakota, you exist, even if just in my mind.