August in a post

by jcastles | Feb 20, 2015 | Family

Well let’s see.  August.  If you’ve followed me from the beginning this will make sense.  If not I’ll catch you up supa fast.  We moved to Washington from Texas.  It’s hot in the summer here and most houses have NO AC!  Ok, that’s it.  Your caught up.

So with no AC in the house and me hating our neighborhood and school I wanted out of there!  I found a house on CL.  Contacted the realtor and she said it was rented but I have these two.  I liked both but one was my favorite for many reasons. Oh, btw we rent…we have our reasons and one day we’ll maybe buy a house but definitely not in Washington.  So back to the house.  One ad said it had AC!  So of course we wanted to see that one first.  It was perfect….for me.  Big 2 story, 5 bedroom, located in a culdesac, park literally across the culdesac, and yes this is the one with AC….so we thought but I’ll get back to that soon.  The other house was super nice too but not as super….to me.  The hubs didn’t like the location of the 1st house.  We’d heard bad things about the new city I was looking at but there aren’t many cities with new houses and all the other houses here are old, ugly and suck. He liked how big the 2nd house was.  I really did too.  It had enough room for us to bring my MIL up here to live with us.  You could fit a dresser in the entry way as a side table.  But….it was on a busy street.  Kitchen was small and mediocre compared to the 1st house.  And I wanted nice nice.  The first house had granite kitchen counters and so much more that was nice.  So in the end we went with the house I wanted.  I really had to put my foot down.  And I’m so glad I did.  As we talked to the realtor I’d mentioned the ad said it had AC.  So since it didn’t she added it for us and raised our rent a small amount.  I can do that!!  So we had AC, a park, a culdesac, a nice yard, a nice house like i’m use to back home in Texas…I was happy.

We had a month to get situated before school started.  So the boys made friends and that was great.  They played outside every day and that was awesome too!  We’ve met a few of our neighbors but we rarely see them.  We live in a  one street neighborhood.  Most people work and during the fall/winter/spring seasons it’s rainy here (in Washington…WHAT!?).  So most people stay inside.  We all wave at each other though.  I can’t wait until this summer though.  A whole Washington Summer (they’re awesome here btw…well if you have AC it is!!)!!

School soon starts and I have a 5th grader and a Kindergartner!! Where did the time go?!

Here are some pics of the house.  This is the house before we moved in.  I love the backyard.  And I want the prior owners patio table, lol!

The Trip Home

by jcastles | Feb 19, 2015 | Family

So back in July 2014 we drove from Washington to Texas and back in 10 days!!  I wrote a post on the trip there and said to be continued.  So yah, I’m a little late.  Not like I’ve been busy or anything.

To see our trip to Texas click here.

So we left Texas and now that it’s months past I don’t remember everything.  Darnit!  But I will do my best to remember.  I do have lots of neat pics though.

So according to my pics we made it to Oklahoma!

A cool pic.  Where we were I have no friggin clue, lol!

HOLY CRAP look at the rain up ahead!!

So the one thing we wanted to see on the way home was The Grand Canyon.  And we got there too late to see it so we decided to hit Vegas (I’d never even seen it before) and go back the next day!  So here are our boring Vegas pics!

Then of course before we hit the road we got In and Out Burger.

So here’s a pic of my awesome travel trash can.  I use this trick all the time!  I try to bring a few with us but anytime we stopped at a gas station and bought stuff I requested a bag no matter if it was 1 or 2 items.  I have my reasons for everything.  I just loop the loop over the corner of the glove box and close it.  It’s a great trash can when your the solo driver.  It stays open for you too.

So we didn’t make it to The Grand Canyon in daylight again…..ugh.  Yup, that’s all we got to see folks.  We will be making this trip again.

The Grand Canyon Selfie!

After that adventure my feet were so swollen from eating sunflower seeds (my stay awake snack) so we decided to stay the night to give my feet some needed rest.  Yah, that’s crazy swollen!

And of course I had to do laundry.  I hadn’t used pay machines in well forever!

We made it to Oregon!  I know that because the sign tells me so.  LOL!!!

And we’re in Washington!  I had to zoom into this pic!

HOLY CRAP the house was hot!!!  Window units were not enough for that!

The hubs picked the pup up from the pet sitter and got him groomed.  He was happy to see one of us!

Then we got back to real life.  Laundry.

But we did get to bring back a small bag of heaven!  Love this bread!

Well that’s it folks.  Literally all I can remember.  It was fun.  If we can’t get back to Texas soon I want another road trip like this.  We love to road trip!