Back!

Wow. It has been so long since I sat down to write a post that I practically have forgotten how! The vacation was great, but it is always great to get home - even if 'home' looks like a college apartment! For a little change of format, I will be writing about my trip in the form of Top 10 Lists!

Top 10 Reasons Colorado Rocked:
10. Yeah, yeah. All the pretty mountains.
9. And the cooler weather (even if I did get more sun burned there than I do here).
8. Getting to see Blackie. I have missed her while she has been at Camp Grandma. To torment T, I got her a hot pink bandanna to wear. She looks adorable! T rolled his eyes and then dug up a red one for Scout so he wouldn't get jealous.
7. Not having to cook for two whole weeks. My MiL is an old school/Donna Reed type wife. Not only did she do all of the cooking, she let me do very little of the clean up. It was like being in the best bed and breakfast EVER.
6. Feeling safe crawling over mountains in the Rubicon. T did a great job restoring the Bronco, but it never felt very secure going over the mountains. Give me functional seat belts and an air bag any day!
5. Seeing so many of our good friends. We had a fun Favorite People Picnic, even if several key people couldn't make it. For the first time in five years we didn't get rained on!
4. Getting to sleep in (almost) every day.
3. There was a bumper crop of marmots this year. On our first trip to our friend's house to feed them, we had almost 20 marmots eating from our hands and sitting in our laps. Even the kids. I got to go feed them three times. If the rest of the family would have let me, I would have gone to feed them every day.
2. I got to take a 2-night trip with just the hubs! We went to Pagosa Springs and soaked in the healing waters of the mineral springs. I don't know if the water did any healing, but 48 uninterrupted hours with the spouse was like a miracle.
1. WE SOLD OUR HOUSE! For a good price, even!


Top 10 Reasons I Am Glad to Be Home:
10. No more altitude headaches!
9. There is actually oxygen in the air in Texas.
8. I love my in-laws, but I don't want to spend two weeks with my own family.
7. I am no longer a Sasquatch! The shower we use in CO is tiny and frequently occupied by creepy crawlies. Needless to say, I didn't do much shaving there. After we got home, I actually had to shave my legs twice to get them to be smooth again. Shudder.
6. Two weeks of loosey-goosey schedules/grandparent discipline produced children who were getting less pleasant to be around by the second.
5. No more mice using my bite guard case as a bathroom.
4. No fear that the local rodent population might eat my dog. T left a bag of dog food downstairs. After a week it was ALL gone. We dubbed the marauding mousie Hellmouse.
3. No more hot dogs! We ate hot dogs at every picnic. We went on picnics every day. It would be okay with me if I didn't eat another hot dog until we go back next summer.
2. My bathroom is on the same floor with my bedroom. In CO, T and I stay in a garage apartment. To save money, they built the bathroom down in the garage instead of up with the living quarters. Picture this: You wake up in the middle of the night and have to go. To get to the bathroom, you must wake up enough to walk down a steep flight of stairs without breaking your neck and walk across the bare concrete garage floor to get to the bathroom. Arg! Then make your way back up the stairs to bed. Due to the lack of air in the air, you are sucking wind like an asthmatic on a treadmill by the time you make it back to bed. Your heart is beating so hard when you lay down that you are afraid you will wake your husband and/or stroke out. So conducive to going back to sleep!
1. Indoor plumbing! I hate peeing outside and yet every year my vacation is full of it. Ick.