By the time we got back to TX, the durable Honda was starting to make an unreliable sound. We headed to San Angelo in West Texas to visit my Dad and other family. Luckily my Mom’s family owns Wilson Tire & Automotive and they were able to take a look at my car and give me the bad news that the bearing in the transmission was bad and I needed a new transmission. I ordered a part online thanks to my dad’s quick research and just had to wait it out. There could be worse places to be stuck, that I am sure of. We stayed with my Dad for a few days and enjoyed some good home cooking and family time.
One of the hitches was that we were supposed to be picking up the dogs, Sam and Roxy, that Sunday. Since my mom happened to be in town visiting my grandmother, we hitched a ride with her and all made our way back home with dogs in tow. The next two weeks we spent time at the house, organized, cleaned, filed paperwork, unpacked, and washed every dish in the house. Being gone for 10 months really adds up to your chore list fast. We were also finally able to make the last major purchase for the house, a shiny new 5 burner stove. This is where the Pintrest and cooking addiction really set in. My friend Alicia came in for the weekend and we were able to make a home cooked meal of sweet potato burritos with avocado salsa verde and a pumpkin crunch cake. Lucky for me, Alicia just so happened to be heading slightly in the direction of my car and was gracious enough to go out of her way to get me back to the reliable Honda, after a detour to Ikea of course.
Only a short week after I got my car back it was time to pack up again. Once again headed East, but along the northern route with 2 dogs. We spent the night in Jackson MS and made it to Tony’s mom’s (Rachel) house in Greenville SC the next day. After only one night Tony’s brother David and his family made a surprise trip to spend the weekend in SC and Virginia. Rachel made her famous chicken and dumplings and the kids had marshmallow banana boats by the campfire outside. The next day David’s family packed up for Virginia and Tony and I were close behind. We spent the next 2 nights visiting with Tony’s dad (Rudy) and his family in Virginia while the guys dressed up in camouflage and roamed into the woods seeking deer. It is always too short when family leave and we were glad that David, Vikki, Chris, Trevor, and Dustin were all able to visit while we were there too.
The next few weeks we went back and forth from SC to Virginia another time, seeing as much family as we could. Since Tony and I are on an extreme budget, we didn’t do as much site seeing as we normally would, but we did get to enjoy some fall colors in SC when we first arrived and even saw a few snow flurries. We had an early Thanksgiving in VA and spent Thanksgiving with Rachel’s family in SC. Tony is a magnet for babies and children and he had a good fix with rubber band babies (when you can give them back to their parents) for a while. Meanwhile young children still seemed terrified by me, so we all had a little entertainment. Southern hospitality is always at its finest here were the biscuits are hot, the honey is flowing, and the butter is never in short supply. Every house we went to we tried new recipes and Rachel’s thanksgiving dinner was composed of many a Pintrest dishes that turned out beautifully. I can’t even count the butter I have consumed on this trip, and it will not be easy to burn off. It is so nice to have gotten to spend this time with friends and family, but it will be nice to go home and sleep in our own bed again, even if that means hitting the gym and job hunting.
