On the Road Again...

Just like Willie Nelson's song, Charli and I are on the road again! Ok... so Friday is really when we were on the road but today we are safe and rested after being on the road for a full ten hours. That is actually good timing for us having to go two hours the opposite direction to take "Pam-aw" to Weatherford before we could even head toward Arkansas which is completely two different directions. After a week in Texas packing and Charli not seeing her daddy and my not seeing my husband we drove back to Arkansas to spend the week with Brannon and to do some more work on the house. Charli was beyond excited to have arrived back in Arkansas. I just can't decide whether she was more excited to see her daddy or just super happy to be out of the car. She and I both are getting this whole traveling thing down though. I've figured out that as long as I have plenty of munchies for her to eat while we are driving she is as content as can be. It's a bit messy at the end when we finally get to our destination but that's what vacuums were invented for and as long as she has an enjoyable trip that's really all that matters to me. The plan for now is to get as much cleaning/prepping done on the old/new house as possible this week before Brannon heads back to Texas with us next weekend to finish packing everything up and doing the same thing there. We hope to get all of our junk moved to the garage so that all we have to do is go back the next following weekend and load up the truck and do some final cleaning touch ups on the place and be done with it. That will then be the end of that chapter of our lives and we'll be able to focus completely on finishing things up here and getting our home ready for us to live in. Until then we will be staying next door to the old/new house with Nonnie and Papa Maestri which is like staying in a luxury suite compared to both of our two past homes. I just hope we don't get too accustomed to living with them that they have a hard time kicking us out when the house is done. Ok, back on to the topic of the house and the move... we must stay on track here!!! So Charli and I arrived roughly about 9:45pm and Brannon was soo happy to see us girls. It was already dark out so we didn't get to go see any progress that has been done on the house but Brannon said that they installed the new garage door earlier that day. When I make it next door I'll get plenty of pics for all to see.

Saturday we all slept in for the first time since I don't know when. When we finally got up and Brannon and Charli took McKinley and Nonnie and Papa Maestri to the airport since they were flying to see The Olsen family for the week who had just relocated to NC a few months ago. I had to stay behind not only because there wasn't any room left in the car for me to go but also because I needed to stay back and work on some of my bookkeeping work that has begun to pile up with everything going on with the move. After Brannon and Charli saw them all off, Brannon took Charli over to The Pack household to spend some time hanging out there with her Papa Joe and Nonnie GiGi. When they finished up, Brannon actually took Charli to the mall for some daddy daughter time shopping for shoes at the mall. There he found Charli some of the cutest little brown Osh Kosh boots and he had gotten Charli her very first pair of pink Converse Chuck Taylor's. And all for a very decent price. I do have to say he made some great choices. When they came home it was too cute watching Charli waddle in her little boots. She would slip and slide all over the place since they hadn't been broken in yet. She would sit down eventually and take them off and then try with all her might to put them back on. That little girl and her shoes!!! I can predict already that that's going to become a problem for mommy and daddy!!! The rest of the day Brannon and Charli just took it easy while I finished up some of that pesky bookkeeping work.

Sunday Brannon got up with Charli and let me sleep in until around 10am. While I was sleeping they made my favorite egg sandwiches for breakfast with eggs of course and mayo, tomatoes, avocado and ham or bacon. For the majority of the rest of the day they took it easy while I proceeded to clean up around Nonnie and Papa's house hoping that we can manage to live here for the week and keep it clean so that when Nonnie Linda and Papa Les come home they don't come home to their house all torn to hell.  I also managed to spend some time re-organizing the kitchen pantry, hopefully Nonnie doesn't mind and she likes what I did. I just had to do something to rummage through what was in there so that I could make a mental inventory of  everything that there was to eat so that I could figure out what of it we were going to eat that week. Later that day we finally all got cleaned up and ready to go take Charli "Trick or Treating" for the very first time ever. We had went over to our friends Jason and Kelly's house to meet up with them and their little boy Landon. By the time we got there Kelly had come down with something and wasn't feeling well so Jason, Landon, Brannon, Charli and I headed out to Bentonville to meet up with a friend of theirs Johnny at his parents house to start our "trick or treating" event. Charli and Landon were too adorable all dressed up in their costumes. Charli was the cutest little ladybug, and Landon was the yellow "Transformer". Those too had a great time. Charli was so good at holding on to her little bag. It was too funny the first few times because the first house we had gone to was Johnny's parents so we knocked on the door, said "trick or treat" and then went inside. But when we went to the next few houses Charli kept trying to go inside the homes all because we had gone into Johnny's parents house first off. She was just a little confused at first but after a while she got a grasp of what was going on. When we finished up we all went back to Johnny's parents and had brownies and ice cream, yum, yum. It really turned out to be a great night. It was the perfect temperature, it wasn't even the slightest bit windy and the streets really weren't very busy at all. I'm still not sure though as to whether or not we will continue the Halloween tradition like everybody else does. I'm just not sure if the idea of what the holiday has become is what I want to teach my child. I believe in the existence of souls and spirits and the concept of the observation of All Saints Day and All Souls Day but do I really want my child going door to door to strangers homes asking for cavities? It was a good time but I bet it does begin to get more overwhelming as the years go by having to keep up to societies ideas and expectations of certain holidays throughout the year. Hopefully I can come up with a good creative way to celebrate the living and the dead in a healthier manner like going camping and telling stories or browsing through photos of loved ones, something like that. Any who... I've gone off course again so that might as well be it for the day.  Until next time everyone have a wonderful "All Saints/Souls Day" and remember to give remembrance for those you love who are here and those who are lost.