We went on such a long trip that writing about the whole thing seems overwhelming, so I am breaking it into sections. It's actually been nearly a month since we first left!
We spent just over a week back home in Kirksville before heading west. It was so nice to be back and so relaxing! When we were home over spring break, we tried to see so many people in such a short period of time that we felt horribly rushed. Not this time: We did visit friends, but we spent most of the week playing and not stressing about anything.
On days with nice weather, we ate outside on the deck. [side note: Weather was crazy on this trip--we left high 80s in Knoxville and came to drizzly, cold 50 degree Kirksville, but we lucked out and it warmed up for at least part of the time.Weather was even crazier on the Utah half of the trip, but more on that later.]
We stayed with Thomas's parents again because my parents were going with us to Utah so we knew we'd have more time with them. Jamie's Grammy loves to buy him presents; by far his favorite this time was his new bus that he can walk with. We all got a little sick of listening to the song it plays, but we never got sick of watching Jamie delightedly walking behind it.
Besides visiting friends & family, we took Jamie to the library [another side note: I hate Knoxville's library set-up. There are things I like about it (mainly there are plenty of books available), but mostly it drives me crazy. Instead of having one big library, they have a whole bunch of smaller branches. Now, I don't know about all the branches, but the one near us is smaller than Kirksville's library and has a random smattering of books. I can easily order books from other libraries, but I hate that I can't really browse the shelves or find books there. Also, the children's section is super lame--the books are fine, but there's nothing else--no big toys or bean bags to read on or play mats or anything. Kirksville's is way better. That shouldn't be the case.] and swimming at the Aquatic Center. All the lifeguards and the water aerobics ladies were thrilled to see Jamie!
Our biggest accomplishment on this trip, without a doubt, was cleaning out Thomas's bedroom. I wish so badly I had taken before and after pictures because the change was so, so drastic. He has had the same bedroom since he was 2 and as far as I can tell never threw anything away . . . until now! The room is now clean and decluttered, with the stuff he decided to keep neatly packed and labeled in plastic tubs. I LOVE throwing things away and cleaning up cluttered spaces. It was awesome.
 |
| a portion of the stuff that got thrown out |
Our last day in Kirksville was also my first Mother's Day (although last year I was 8+ months pregnant, so I did get some flowers then too). Thomas surprised me with flowers in the morning. He and Jamie got me some nice presents and the three of us went out to dinner. It was one of the really nice days weather-wise. I had a wonderful day.
The next morning we left for Utah . . .and I will leave that for another day.
That's how the libraries were in Tucson when I lived there, several small and medium ones so that everyone lives close to a library. But not very exciting. I was able to go online and request a bunch of stuff, which finally started pouring in about when it was time for me to move away.
ReplyDelete