Trip Synopsis

We're home!!! I love traveling, and I love being able to go spend time with family...but I am soooo glad to be home. Family members reading this, I love ya, but you understand. ;) Leaving my heart in Kentucky sure made Georgia and Florida just a tad (ok, a lot more than just a tad) less pleasant than they would be otherwise!

A brief overview of our trip is as follows:

We drove to GA December 14
We drove to FL December 15
While in FL, we spent Friday and Saturday with my grandmother
We ate our annual Christmas dinner with all of our extended family on Dad's side Sunday, December 18
We walked the beach Monday, as well as did other stuff
Tuesday...I'm drawing a blank. I'll remember later. Supper was Carrabbas with a lot of the family.
Wednesday, December 21, we drove back to GA
Thursday, December 22, Dave and I drove all over creation. We went to Fayetteville and played with my former fiddle teacher for a couple hours, then drove to Nicole's and spent the rest of the afternoon/evening. Mom and Dad drove to Unadilla to get a truck bed, but that fell through...after they drove the 2 hours down there.
Thursday night when I got back to my granddad's (10-ish,) Mom, Tara, and I drove to Alabama to my grandmother's.
2AM Friday morning, we ate at Waffle House. We got in bed about 3AM and were up again at 7-8AM. Went shopping until mid-afternoon, then drove back to my granddad's.
Saturday, we did Christmas with my granny around lunchtime, then with my granddad for supper.
Sunday, we slept in until an ungodly hour and did absolutely nothing all day long. Quite nice, really. We originally planned on going to a church we used to go to a long time ago, but...didn't.
Monday, the guys went to town to pick up the necessary things to keep our luggage secure and dry in the back of the truck, for the drive home. Mom and I went with my granddad to see my great-grandmother. That went much, much better than anyone thought it would and I'll talk more about that later. For the rest of Monday we did the same thing we did Sunday. :)
Tuesday, we came home. Tuesday night, I met a special man at the Mexican restaurant for supper and he drove me home and we sat around and visited for a while. I was happy, and I'm pretty sure he was too. ;)
Today, Wednesday, we're just hanging around unpacking and not really in the swing of things again yet.

Okay, there's the brief overview. You'll notice I have more detail on our GA part of the trip...just because I remember more of what we did right off. I'll go into more detail about everything once I get all the pictures uploaded and edited. I'll have more on FL then as well.

While we were in Florida, my grandpa gave me several JoAnn coupons that he'd been saving for me. He knows I really love to go shop there while I'm around the big city! I only had about an hour on the day when we could go to JoAnn's, but I did pretty well...just threw a LOT into the cart and kept shopping. I spent $180, almost all for my sewing business. The only thing I bought that was just for me was 4 yards of light denim fabric. Jacob told my what style of skirts he likes so I'm going to sew a couple of those. :) Life is good. (I may just have random happy "life is good"s thrown in whenever I feel like it...bear with me!) Anyway, everything else I bought is for my sewing business. I was able to use coupons on everything that wasn't on sale, which means I saved about $100. Wow.

I was talking with my step-grandmother when we got back to GA, and she was telling me how great her self-healing rotary mat is. Well, right now, I lay fabric out on my bed to cut it, which means my pieces usually aren't very square and I have to spend a while squaring my corners. It's just not very easy and convenient. She also had JoAnn coupons, so while Dave and I were in Fayetteville, we swung by JoAnn's and I bought a 24" by 36" cutting mat, a rotary cutter, and a ruler. I spent about $50 there, and saved around $40. I was able to use 50% and 40% coupons on everything I bought.

With the exception of around $50 ($20 for 4 pair of earrings, $5 for a necklace with an interchangeable pendent, $4 worth of postcards and a "Jacob's Parking Only" sign, and that denim fabric) everything I spent in GA and FL was business investment. I bought a lot of really nice fabric that I really look forward to working with...it's as much fun for me just to work with that as it is to buy other stuff just for me!

My business plan for the next month or so is to sew a bunch of stuff, maybe send some to a store in NC, as well as restock the store here, and I want to work more with my leather. I'm financially able now to finish up the leatherwork that I've been in the middle of for a while, so I'd like to get that done and out of the way. I'm also going to get an Adler technician out here to look at my leather sewing machine and tell me what's up with it.

Back to our trip stuff and all...FL was 70* and sunny and we had good times with family, GA was full of fun family and good times...but Kentucky's my home, and I'm happy to be back close to Jacob. Like I said, we spent yesterday evening together, and we're going over to his house New Year's Eve. I was trying to think of a time in between now and Saturday for him to come over, but that may be pushing my luck! We've come to the conclusion that we would not do very well in a long distance relationship! I guess it's all in what you get used to, and we're very used to seeing each other pretty often. We missed each other terribly and it's really good to be home.