Create myself down south

Picture: Davis Road. My home in the stickiest days, buried deep in the months of June and July. And the glory of the picture is that the Cav is captured, in all her 229,000 mile glory. Oh man, I LOVE the south!

It was beautiful day in W. Michigan yesterday! Dan and I took a bike ride – our second of the season. After our ride we stopped at Houseman's for some delicious cold treats - Orange Slush and Red Raspberry sugar free/fat free frozen yogurt respectably. (Guess who got which?)

I talked to my sister yesterday for about half an hour. Let me tell you - talking on the phone from overseas is a nice perk, but the delay is a pain in the butt! It’s like when people on the World News are split-screen interviewing from Pakistan and New York and they keep interrupting and cutting each other off. It was such a treat to talk to her, both of us being in the states. I thought for so long about how happy I'd be to see the Brewers at the airport, but I never realized how happy it would make me afterward, just realizing that they're home. Seriously. Kristen is home – all is well with the world.

Along those lines: MY SISTER IS STAYING IN MY PARENTS' OLD HOUSE! I've been hoping, hoping, hoping for this! That means I'll get to re-visit my house when I go home in July! When my parents moved I thought I'd never go back - that every time I went to Waxhaw I would be a visitor there, that there would never be a home for me to go back to. Thank you God, for this extra special blessing :)

Since J&K will be occupying the 'ol homestead, they decided to go do a walk-through and see how things were looking. There was a man and his (five?) kids living there, renting the house from my dad with a contract to buy it when his house sold. Well, a few months ago things fell through and the guy had to move out because his house never sold. So our house was empty. I asked Kristen how the house was and this was her reply, "Oh my gosh. It's trashed." Since this is a public-esque forum, I won't go into details about the contractual agreements and state of the house, but it was obviously not well-cared for. What REALLY gets me is that the Realtor didn't even tell my dad about it! My brother-in-law said, "No wonder nobody wants to buy this house. It looks awful." I'm in shock. I can't believe 1) the renter's lack of consideration and responsibility and 2) the Realtor! Anyway, not that anybody else has a personal interest in my childhood home, but I was distraught. Thankfully it's in good, loving hands now and can be restored to it's full worth.

Dan and I took a trip to the Wal-Mart by our apartment this weekend. I hadn't been there since they un-ghetto'd the place. I was shocked and amazed. They added an almost full-size grocery section and the coffee there is more than $1 less than at Meijer. I'm so tempted to go back to my roots of being a faithful Wal-Mart shopper. Dan won't like it...but boy am I close. Just being in a Wal-Mart reminded me of Dayton and Lancaster, all mixed into one. It was like Sam Walton was showering me with homesickness.

This week is DRAGGING by. Since being home from Seattle, rising at 4:40 to gym-it-up has been no less than the struggle of my life. As far as reading, journaling, exercising…any kind of self-improvement, I’m in a self-proclaimed lull. It stinks.