Lets take a trip to the North shall we?

I'll be leaving town later today and therefore won't be blogging until next week. But as promised, here's the beginning of multi posts about our vacation. 

We begin with patriotism brought on by the beauty of our country...

After our successful trip up north, I've been feeling very patriotic about America. It may sound cheesy and all, but the varied beauty of this country is fabulous. It's been a long time since my family's been on a major road trip, and although I was nervous about it, I was ready for one. We spent many hours gazing through car windows at the lovely countryside with sights that included mountains, streams, a gorge, quaint little towns and big cities. I'm a sucker for a freshly mowed field of hay rolls, horses and cows grazing peacefully in pastures, and Lord knows I love the Amish country with their stark white barns and clean looking houses. I also become enchanted by a lovely church on a hillside adjacent to a pretty cemetery. I saw all that and more. There really is something for everyone. Even yankees have pretentious grocery stores! Only they are bigger and better than ours. Ahh well, we have to give them something.  

There wasn't one ugly place along the way. And even though I'd love to see other parts of the world, I think I'll stick with the USA for now and try to see more of it first. It really is something to behold. We traveled through 11 states in all, Indiana just for two minutes purposely crossing a bridge just to enter and then get back on our route. But it counts!

So I was thinking....
Oh beautiful for spacious skies..... saw that.
For amber waves of grain...saw that
For green mountains majesties...saw that. (Not purple).
Above the fruited plain...ummmm maybe.

I just looked up the words to America the Beautiful and listened to Ray Charles sing it. His is the best ever. BUT. I didn't know there are eight verses to that song. It mentions patriots and pilgrims and alabaster cities and liberating strife. We need more of that. It's a great song describing our beautiful country. I'm glad to be born American. Not slamming anyone else's country, just proud to be an American. That's another song, but I'll hold off on that one for now. 

This post only covers some highlights from the trip up, and the states we traveled on our way to Pennsylvania. 

In Mississippi...

We saw the mighty muddy Mississippi.

Those are my kids. I know you know that. 

In Alabama...

We saw a quaint little town all dressed up for the Memorial Day honor.

In Georgia...

We saw the Northwest Georgia Mountains. 

In Tennessee...

We found the mountains in Chattanooga...

Breathtaking. 

Tried to sneak a pic in but Owen caught me. 

We stopped at a brand new Fairfield Inn in Bristol Tennessee on the first night. 

John did much maintenance on the car the week before we left for this trip. New tires, new brake lights that were out. We were certain we were leaving with the car in tip top shape. Well, on the morning we left, we were all in the car and after we prayed John tried to start the car and it made a half hearted attempt at starting and then did. He brushed it off as leaving the doors open for so long while packing the car. All day on the first day we drove and stopped and of course turned the car off. No problem. The next morning, when we were leaving this hotel, the car battery was dead as a hammer. Would. Not. Start. The hotel manager jumped our car off and we were on our way. Never had another problem with it that day. BUT. Once we arrived in Butler, we got a new battery and never had another worry with it. Thank you Lord.  

We spent much quality time together. 

It was a sweet suite. 

Speaks for itself.

Had to...because apparently he has equipment there. 

Half of this street is in Virginia and half is in Tennessee. Both are named Bristol. Not confusing at all. 

I told you.

You could jump back and forth all day. I didn't. But you could. 

The kids thought this sign was fab.

This was a weird castle/football stadium. 

I thought this was fab.

We left Tennessee then were in Virginia, then back in Tennessee, then back to Virginia. 

There are the lovely hay rolls I mentioned earlier. How picturesque is that? On the side of a mountain? I mean come on. Virginia was gorgeous. 

But we had to keep moving. 

Mountain tunnels....

Look just like under water tunnels inside. 

This was a disturbing sign. But I CANNOT believe I didn't take a picture  of the escape ramp! It went straight up and looked frightening. 

Same people the whole trip. 

Don't remember what we were laughing about here. 

But it  WAS NOT this. 

One more.

The gorge I mentioned earlier, in West Virginia. So high up, not for me.

We parked and got out and I had no idea I was gonna have an impromptu stress test at this place. 

Emma struck a pose for me.

That's Caitlin making her way to the lookout point.

A nice girl took this picture for us. 

The view was gorgeous. 

One more shot. 

That's what we had just driven over to get to this place. Glad I didn't know that beforehand. 

We then got back in the car and drove down to the river to have a closer look and that's when we discovered Owen was afraid of heights. I had no idea before this. He was gripping the door handle and very concerned about the closeness of our car to the edge of the drop off that had no guard rail. 

They took off for a view of the rushing river. 

I went part of the way but decided the treacherous terrain was a hazard and chose to stay back. A twisted ankle at this stage of the trip would have been a disaster. 

John was looking for something weird I suspect. 

They paused for a few.

We had such a fun time here. 

I tried to make Emma a mini. Clearly I have not perfected this technique. 

I know I took lots of them by the water, but who knows if we ever go again. 

Splitzies.

The other half. 

John seemed to have excitedly spotted something. 

Blurry tiny people. My camera kept focusing on the rock. 

Got to have all tiny blurry people documented. 

But then it was time to go and Owen was leaving with gusto.

We hated to leave because it was gorgeous and I could have stayed the whole day. 

Selfie to document I was in fact, there. 

Throughout the trip Owen needed for me to charge his phone on my charger in the front of the car. Every time I had his phone, I put this picture as his phone background. He would change it and I would change it back. It was an activity to pass the time. 

Another shot of the gorge bridge. Not short for gorgeous. But I guess it's both. 

And another.

The lovely ride back up the mountain. 

Then it was destination time. But we still had quite a ways to go. 

Pennsylvania countryside. 

Absolutely beautiful. Snow covered has to be off the charts gorgeous.  

Is that a fruited plain? Could be.

Very close...

I tried to pick the least buggy sunset through the windshield photo. 

I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but who decided to build houses on a mountainside? This flat land girl don't get it. Although it's lovely. 

I either wanted a profile of John's nose, or the sunset in the background. 

Lots of mountain tunnels. 

On the other side of this tunnel. 

Is Pittsburgh. 

Look that's me taking pics! I never saw this til now. 

Pretty sun on the downtown buildings.

Lots of bridges in Pittsburgh. 

That's a different bridge. 

The Pirates were playing. 

Beautiful sunset just behind the stadium. 

Last sunset pic of the day.

OK, next to last.

Steeler stadium. Blech. I'm not a Steeler fan. At all. 

That's the 411 on the trip up to "our nations's attic" as Olivia coined it. 

There's so much more to report on the trip and I will, but first, a short trip down south to see the Turners and the Clines and a new house. And the main attraction of course...Lucas. 

After a 3,166 mile trip, they're all short trips right now. 

It's almost 3:00 in the A.M. and I have to be up and ready at the crack of 10:30. 

So I gots to go to the softest bed I know.

It's hot in Louisiana, so it must be summer. Or October or November or December....you see where this is going....

OK, I'm out!

The DIY project at my house

We've been home for more than a week from our major road trip.

Couldn't have done that on purpose if we'd tried. 

It was a fun and fabulous time I will describe in great detail in later posts.

But first...

I told John months ago when summer vacay began and after our trip, he should expect a major ceiling DIY project at our house. The reason is because I super duper hate my popcorn ceilings so much. They're dingy and little dust thingys are all over it and impossible to eliminate successfully. I've tried many times. It was my intent to begin the work on Tuesday after we got home and after we had unpacked. Sunday was rest and relax day. People who had to go back to work Monday were pleasantly surprised at how "untired" they were. Then Tuesday came and kicked us all in the butt. For some reason we all awoke and felt like limp noodles all day. Delayed car lag I guess.  

Because the strength was zapped in me as well, the DIY was pushed back to Wednesday. DIY day began with some problems regarding the attachment I'd borrowed from Melanie and the lack of proper thing-a-ma-jigs to allow it to be attached to my bathroom sink. After consults with Melanie, a trip to the hardware store where she and three men discussed what was needed, (using the terms female and male parts in reference to plumbing attachments otherwise it would have been so inappropriate) as well as a trip by me and John to Home Depot, I finally began the process in our hall. Easy peasy no furniture or do dads lying around on other stuff to become covered in wet popcorn residue. But it was kinda pretty messy. 

The contraption that allows for an inside hose. FYI. It's almost never a good idea for an inside hose. 

The process is as follows...spray the popcorn with water, wait a short period of time, scrap it all off hoping as much of it as possible will fall onto plastic sheeting draped everywhere. Well, OMG I've never in all my born days seen the mess we made as we worked to get all the little pieces of stuff off the ceilings. Once on the sheeting it cakes up on your feet if you don't wear shoes and cakes up on your shoes if you are wearing shoes. It's a lose lose situation for the feet. Owen was my helper, God love him, my boy doesn't have the heart of a DIY'er. Truth be told neither do I. But! I desperately wanted smooth ceilings! Well he helped me up until about 5:00 when he became distracted by a pool party with friends and then he was out. Of course once John got home from work and got involved it was much more refined and thought out. Laziness looks like scraping the stuff off into my face rather than getting down for the hundredth time and moving my step stool two feet. Moving step stools and up and down and aye yi yi. Thankfully by Wednesday night we'd gotten almost all of our den freed from the grasp of the awful dirty and dingy popcorn. 

My house photographs rather nicely. 

The area around the light and into my tiny kitchen is all that was left to do. 

Thursday was rest day, (my arms....and the rest of me...was exhausted) as well as John had to make an overnight out of town trip. Together we'd made the decision to wait until Saturday to finish. But then on Friday I got a wild hair and with Owen's help, (he was unable to secure other plans or successfully disappear from the planet), finished the dining area, kitchen and bathroom. Yay us.  

By Friday evening I was dragging bad, but the clean up was complete and we were ready to attack sanding and prep day on Saturday. OMG. I cannot describe in enough detail the nightmares of sanding in a preexisting house. 

Even after wiping and mopping and wiping and re-mopping....days later I still have dust films on all surfaces. By Saturday night once again we were exhausted but satisfied with our progress. 

Had to research a good ceiling paint. After all the hard work I WAS NOT skimping on paint! 

Sunday was a rest day, as well as we had something else super serious and unfun to tend to. 

Monday morning I began the painting of the world...also known as my den, kitchen and bathroom ceilings. It felt like a LOT of real estate whilst painting. It took 3 ish hours to paint it all and then I had to decide if it needed two coats. I wanted to cry when I realized it did. So back to Home Depot I went for two more gallons of paint and when John got home he helped me as well. By 8:30 I wanted to only look down and hang my arms until they dragged the floor. Everything hurt. And everything wanted to hang. We finally finished around 10:00 Monday night. Tuesday I treated myself to sitting a lot. It was grand. We still have a few issues to deal with about the hall ceiling, but we're very close to phase 1 of my summer reno project being complete. We have so much more we need to do to our house. Three bedrooms and a utility room still have popcorn, but I'm avoiding looking up when I'm in those places. The only way those are gonna be de-popcorned is to completely empty those rooms, so those are on the back burner for now. 

Some other things we need to do: bust out and replace a shower, replace a door that's rusting out at the bottom and leaking when it rains, furniture replacement, painting other rooms. Tight budgets don't work well with redoing a house! But we are on our way to some improvements and I'm happy about that. 

The final product. It may look shadowy, but it's not.

Bathroom.

As soon as I find a money tree to plant and harvest, I'm gonna run right through all my renovation projects. With a hired hand that is.  

Until then it will be slow and steady as she goes. 

This post took forever to do! In the midst of the project that is.

I'm off to bed to snuggle with my pillow. 

It's gonna be fab.