14 days and counting!!

We leave in 14 days!! I can't believe it! Time was dragging SO bad through January and early February and now... we have 2 weeks left! I'm getting things all ready. I've emptied out our 72 hour kits. I do this every April anyway, so a month early is no biggie. We have a lot of usable things from them that we'll take with us to eat on the road. I just got back from Walmart where I picked up all our replacement food for them. Now I have the task of putting them back together. THEN I get to organize and plan out our road trip! I've also gotten a small emergency kit for the car made up, complete with foil blankets, water and bandages. I am so eager to get going. I'm still working on the office and Mariska's room but I should be done organizing the house before our trip.

I also went and got 2 new tires for the drive. We needed them pretty badly, but the other 2 on the car are just fine. It's been a pretty busy day with the tires, Walmart and just as I got home from all of that, Brent called to say that he has an hour and a half for lunch, for jury duty today. So I made up the girls a quick lunch and we met at a cute little restaurant my old boss opened called "The Dish". They had really great burgers and onion rings and I tried my first Sweet Potato Fries and LOVED them! So now I'm home and so full I can barely stand up straight and decided to procrastinate the house work with some random blogging. So here are some pictures to make it not such a complete waste of time...

14 days people!!

18 DAYS!

We only have 18 days left until we hit the road!! We are SO excited. I am seriously itching to start getting things ready, but I'm not letting myself yet because then I'll have nothing to do in 2 weeks.
Today Brent isn't at work, because he was called to Jury Duty. He's been at the courthouse all day and still hasn't been seen. They said jury selection could go until 6 today, and if they don't get through it all by then, he'll have to go back tomorrow. Not so much fun. But he also welcomes the break from teaching for a day.
I am trying to get the house more organized and functional. I want to get our closet with our food storage and emergency essentials more organized and I want the office turned into a more usable room, that's less office and more toy room, so we can get some of these toys out of the living room! It's proven very difficult. Brynley is my shadow and I can't get much done while she's napping because I don't want to wake her up! So it's slow going.
My hair is seriously short. Great Clips was having a big $6.99 haircut sale and I thought, "That's about $10 less then what I'd normally spend, I should do it". So I went in and thought all went okay, but it's hard to tell with my massively curly hair. So, I didn't see how horrible it was until Sunday morning when I straightened it for church. ICK! I HATED it. Brent said it looked "okay" (I know what that means)... but to me it looked like a shaggy half-mullet. So after church I went straight there and had them even out the layers more and round them out. In order to do that she had to take about another inch off the length... now I pretty much have to straighten it, or else I'll look like Justin Timberlake. At least I have about 3 weeks of growth before we get to Utah.
That's it for us for now. Brynley is walking all the time now but still not saying anything. Mariska is still obsessed with princesses and getting married. Other than that we're all just waiting and waiting for March 12th...

Unbelievable!

This is a record snowfall for DFW! It's the most snow they've had in one day ever and the most snow total since 1982! Mariska is having so much fun!! We let Brynley touch is some, and she did not appreciate it, so she's staying inside. Brent had the day off today due to the snow and he spent a lot of time outside with Mariska, after which we all enjoyed some hot chocolate. Unbelievable!!

"BOOO!"

I am what you might call a "Valentine's Day Scrooge". I hate it. I don't hate love, cuddling, gifts, or chocolate... but I hate Valentine's Day. To me, it's completely pointless and a huge waste of money. Why does anyone need a designated day to express feelings? And hello, isn't that what ANNIVERSARIES are for?! Not to mention Christmas, and birthdays. Although I will readily admit I stink at birthdays.

Just for the fun of things, I'm okay with a small box of chocolate or a flower, although nothing over about $5, simply to acknowledge that it is a day that everyone else seems to be into. Although, anything over $5 makes you a sucker.

This Valentine's Day we are celebrating by making a box of chocolate chip cookie brownie bars. And I'll probably make a fun dinner for Mariska that might involve red food coloring. Other than something that simple, what's the point? It's just another day on the calendar. Nothing special to it, again, that's what your anniversary is for!