We’ve made it back to Alabama! We got home around 10 last night and we are just exhausted!

We were having a conversation in the car, however, that just had to be blogged! Someone said something about our ‘getting home’. And Patrick said, “Alabama is not home, what’s in Alabama is our house - Texas is ‘home’!”

So from then on out, the rest of the way to Alabama - whenever the topic came up, it became - ‘we are on our way house‘!

Once we arrived to our town, we stopped to pick up some dinner. The kids and I were waiting in the car while Mark went in to pick it up, and Puppy seemed a bit uneasy. So Patrick said to him, “Puppy, what’s the matter? Don’t you know we’re house? We’re house, Puppy - we’ve made it house!”

So - Alabama is ‘house’!
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So sad, ya’ll - Yolanda Denise King, daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. died late Tuesday night of undetermined causes. The family suspects it was heart failure. She was only 51 years old.

So terribly sad. I just saw the famous church where her father preached his message of peace, hope, and above all, equality. If you will remember, Sammie and I traveled to Montgomery just a few weeks ago.

As we were touring the different important parts of the city and its history and government, we were circling around a lot going from place to place. So we were lucky enough to circle the church twice, the second time getting ’stuck’ at a red light, so I could get some good pictures. I will try to post them later. Although, I need three pictures put together - like you would do a panoramic, except up and down. I’ll try to get them on here so that you can see them decently.

I am so saddened by this.

Here is a link to the ABC News article:
Daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. Dies
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Did you hear the latest drunk ‘driving’ fiasco in news lately? Hahaha!

Well, the woman was ‘driving’ a horse! Yep, a horse!

The woman was riding through town and was visibly not ‘herself’ - it was easy to tell she was on something other than just the horse!

When officers tried to stop her, she kicked the horse trying to get him to go faster - then when it was obvious that she was not getting away on the horse, she tried jumping off to run. At which point, she got her foot caught in the stirrup and fell to the ground.

And then the nice policeman took her in for a little sobering up! It turns out that she was not only drunk, but, also on drugs. And she had a pipe on her, among other things.

So she went to jail under multiple charges - DUI, evading arrest, possession of drug para paraph paraphe stuff! and most importantly - ENDANGERING AN ANIMAL!!! Bitch! (Thank God I never had access to a horse when I was drinkin’ and druggin’ - There but for the grace of God go I…)

Crazy, huh?

Yellow snow?! Ewwww! Ok, so it’s not exactly snow, but, that is the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of trying to describe what’s floating around in our air and blanketing our cars right now!
It’s pollen! Massive, massive amounts of pollen! It’s allergy central around here! It’s unbelievable!

I have never seen anything like this in my life! And since we are new to Alabama, I don’t know if this is typical, or some new weather issue. Things have been a little strange around the earth here lately!

And my brother back home in Texas said that the allergies are worse than ever this year, but, he said this long before the yellow snow arrived, so I don’t know if they are getting it, too - or not.

I am telling you, it is crazy!! Mark is washing the car every day! And even for his Type A, let’s-keep-everything-clean-all-the-time personality - that’s bad! He’s never washed a vehicle on a daily basis before!

I was driving around town the other day and I saw one car, that apparently hadn’t been driven in a couple of days, and it was completely COVERED in yellow!

My dog actually slipped on the porch, because the yellow powder was so thick!

This is weird, ya’ll! I want to know if ya’ll are experiencing any of the ‘yellow powder phenomenon’, and if you are, is it typical?

Sound off - please!!

I really like our new, little town in which we live. I have wanted to live in a small town pretty much my whole life and now I finally get to, and I love it!

We run into the city librarians at the grocery store, teachers at WalMart, and we even ran into teachers out on Halloween!! It is such a cool feeling!

I live across the street from a really sweet, older couple who live in the coolest freaking house! It was built in the 1840’s - I just love it! And they run a used bookstore on the town square, in which they also sell some amazing antiques, one of which being an old toy truck, that is about a foot long. That is so amazing - combining two of my very favorite things in the whole world - old stuff and trucks!! Awesome! He’s selling it for about $175 - I haven’t been to the shop in a while, I’m not sure if he still has it. I do have a birthday coming up….

There is a lot of really neat history in this town. There are old cemeteries, old houses, and historical markers explaining a lot of how this town came to be, and who some of the major players were.

One of the old houses is even a Bed and Breakfast - how cool is that? I live in a town with a B&B! I just love staying at B&B’s! The last one we stayed in was in Canon City, Texas and my brother, Mic, and I had a blast poking around all its nooks and crannies!

That is another good thing about living out here. You know the cricket songs in the trees in the summer time?

There is some type of ‘tree-singer’ all year round here! I know at my mother-in-law’s place - there are frogs in the trees. Tree frogs. And they sing and sing loudly all summer. I am pretty sure they are quiet for the winter, but, someone is a’singin and a’singin - and I’m not sure who it is.

I suppose it could be another type of cricket. I have noticed similar creatures, but different - here. Like the squirrels - they are a bit different here - smaller and they have varying colors - I mean, they don’t all look alike. In Dallas, the only difference between one squirrel and the next, though I love them dearly - is their size.

And of course, there are different birds. Oh - and different numbers of birds. Like in Dallas, I would only see one, maybe two robins at a time. Here - I will see 10-20 of them all hanging out together.

So - it could be a different ‘brand’ of cricket. Heehee

I don’t know what it is, but, with summer being my favorite season, I definitely love it!

Although it’s been rather chilly, we sure have had some lovely days lately.

Puppy has been such a trooper taking his medicine for his ears, and one of his treats for taking it is we go out in the front yard for a little while. It’s so cute, too - because he knows after I put the drops in that we are gonna go out. He gets all excited and runs back and forth between me and the front door. He knows I need to clean the dropper, so he is half patiently waiting, and half excitedly pacing — so cute!

So we just came in from sitting out there and it is so nice out. I took my fresh cup of coffee with me - yes, in the Hippie Spelunker cup - of course! And I sat out on the front steps while he sniffed all around the yard and then lied down in the shade.

And it is times like these that I realize that I am glad that we moved out here. It is so pretty and although we are in town, it is way more rural than Dallas, TX!!!!!

The gigantaloid, beautiful trees - the mountains in the distance (only a few miles away!) - the big, beautiful sky….

I wished all my life, especially as a young girl, to live in a small town - and I finally got my wish. Granted, it is 700 miles from some pretty damn important people - and so that makes it extremely bittersweet. But now Mark is with his important people - and that is good. And it is good for the kids to get to be with their dad’s side of the family. I also always wished for that as a child.

I had so much fun with my paternal cousins, and I wished that we could’ve spent at least part of our childhoods together.

But - I digress….I was talking about the beautiful day….

Funny, but, it almost seemed like spring out there. Yes, it’s still cold - but, the sunniness (like my new word?) and bright hopefulness out there sure seemed springish! (I’m just full of new words today!)

I hope you’re having a pretty day wherever you are, too!

Oh man! Mark’s truck is dead - it needs a new transmission. Minimum for a truck like that will be $2000.

And now something is wrong with my minivan - it’s leaking oil.

The funny thing is, if you’re the laughing type, that we were already in the middle of financial trouble before any vehicles got sick!

We are still adjusting to our new life here in Alabama, and trying to catch up. Moving is expensive, and for a contractor, it is basically like starting over when you move. Twenty-two years worth of clients are back in Dallas. None of them would agree to come with us - how rude!

We could badly use a loan right now! It would be great to see if there were any personal loans we could qualify for to help us out.

Mark took these beautiful pictures of sunset off our back balcony the other night - gorgeous!

Are you serious? Wow….

Did you ever do something you thought would never do?

I definitely thought I would never leave Dallas. I for sure had the pipe dream of going back to Colorado - but I pretty much thought that would never happen.

I am just such a ‘Lisa Walton’ - ok, I know, some of the Walton kids left Walton’s Mtn. - but if you remember - a lot of them didn’t - or didn’t go far, anyway.

I mean, I never even left for college - hit up the JC for a few classes, but, that’s it.

And now - here I am …. 700+ miles from ‘home’, 700+ miles from my parents and my big bro and his fam.

It really is so beautiful out here - and Mic has already visited me once, although it was an extremely short visit. But he will be back — because he frequently works in B’ham and Hotlanta. So that is cool - I am guaranteed 4-8 visits a year from Mic!! Yea!!!

Oh well, just wanted to express my shock at actually being here.

I’m out.