July 31st

Ok, so where has the time gone? I cannot believe that it is already the last day of July. And of 2008. I was thinking about it yesterday - weren't we just recently worried about the fact that computers were no longer going to work and banks were going to lose all their money with the change over to the year 2000? And now we are only 1-1/2 years away from 2010! Amazing how time flies!

Things have been very lazy at home lately - at least for me. My poor husband has been working very, very hard lately. He comes home from work, and pretty much starts work again. The past two days, he's been working until nearly 11pm every night. He is stressed, and I can completely understand. Hopefully things will slow down soon for him.

In the meantime, I have been doing absolutely nothing. Aside from fighting headaches that don't seem to go away, I get home from work, and if I'm feeling up to it, I will cook dinner. Then, I sit on my butt and watch TV - even though there is nothing on. I live a very boring life at times, but sometimes you need to just veg out.

August is a busy month for us, and I hope that I can try to keep up with the blog. I have gotten lazy with this too - plus I don't have anything exciting to share. With August being busy, I hope to actually have some exciting stuff to share. Hope everyone has had a great first half of the summer, and have big plans for the rest of it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARRIE!!!

I had to just do this quick post to wish my sister-in-law a very happy birthday! She and my twin brother have been married for 10 years. Last year, right around this time, Lance and Carrie moved out of Michigan to North Carolina. They love it there and have started their life down there, both having jobs and many new friends that are keeping them busy. I miss both Lance and Carrie regularly, but am really happy to see them enjoying it down there.

I won't say how old Carrie is, but I believe she is 29 this year! Hope your birthday is great Carrie and I hope to talk to you soon!

Life...

I know it has been a while since I posted, and I do apologize. I've been very lazy, and haven't felt like writing, so forgive me...

I've been thinking over the past few days about a lot of stuff. Isn't it amazing how you look back on your life (so far) and realize that the one you expected to have is sooooo much different than the one you actually have? Don't you wish you could go back in the past and take a different path at a crossroads to see how it would have turned out? Do you ever wish that you could go back and do something different, either to a person, in a decision, or with your attitude?

How about starting fresh with the life that you have actually been given? Even though it may not be exactly what you had hoped or wished for, do you ever think you might be able to make the one you have more like the one you wanted? What would you do to change your life today? Would you want to enter the Peace Corps? What about changing a career path? Would you sell your house, move to another town, and start all anew?

Sometimes I get into these modes where I just wonder...what if? Ben hates when I do this. As he has always said, "You can't play by what if's. You just have to accept what is happening as the way it is." Regardless, I often think about how different things might be if....

I have felt a calling over the past few weeks. There is something that I have been put on this great Earth for, and I can't quite figure out what it is. Even though I don't have much spare time, I do feel the incredible need to volunteer somehow. I have said it in another post - about the love that I have to share. I can hope and pray to someday have my own child to share this love with, but in the meantime, it is bursting inside and I need to share. I've considered becoming a foster parent, or maybe start actually pursuing adoption. I've even considered just posting an advertisement for tutoring services, just to help.

Do you volunteer your time? If so, what is it that you do? If not, do you wish you could, somewhere? Any suggestions?

Final leg of the trip....

Sorry for the late post, but really not too terribly much else to share. After the fireworks on the 4th, we never were able to make it back into Washington D.C. simply because Ben's foot was bothering him too much. Besides, we were technically there in the city for a business conference, so we knew we had to participate in that!

We left Washington on Sunday shortly after church. After getting lost a little bit on the freeways down there, we finally got headed in the right direction. We were on our way to Somerset, Pennsylvania for the night, which was only about 3.5 hours away. We made it in only about 6.5 hours. The traffic was awful, and who knows why, it just was backed up. Literally, people were out of their cars walking down the road talking to others. It finally cleared, and we made it to the hotel for a relaxing night watching movies on HBO and eating pizza in bed. Fairly unexciting, but just what the doctor ordered!

Did I mention that Ben just happen to break a toe on his right foot? Meaning, of course, that he is really unable to drive. The entire drive from Washington to home was me driving. He tried, for about an hour, but ended up hurting too much to keep going. It is going to be interesting when he goes back to work next week!

Anyway, on Monday, we made a quick little stop in a little town in Pennsylvania for a tour of a coal mine. Kind of scary, and very, very dark, but the history and just realizing the amount of work involved, was incredible. Not too much walking involved, so we were able to get it in regardless of Ben's foot. Here are a few pictures from that experience:

This was the little car that we rode in to get into the mine.
As we sat, my head hit the ceiling.

This was the mine itself, and I am standing upright.

We were the only ones in the mine, so the tour guide took our pic.
Notice that Ben can't even stand up straight!

A brief movie showing the ride back to the "light".

Nation's Fireworks

We weren't able to do much yesterday because of Ben's foot, but we did make the decision to at least make it downtown for the fireworks. After all, how many times will we have the opportunity to be in the Nation's Capitol for the nation's birthday???

The fireworks were wonderful! As we left, we followed the crowd to the subway station. It took us an hour to get back to our hotel room, but I would take the politeness of the people here over the insane drivers we have at home after a large event like that! Everyone was very well behaved and orderly, which just amazed me.

Anyway, here is a couple of videos of the fireworks as well as a picture or two of some other sites we saw last night. Hope everyone had a good 4th!

National Archive building and proof that we were there
(yes, that is me waving)

The U.S. Capitol lit up about 10 minutes before the fireworks
Absolutely beautiful!!

Part of the Grand Finale - Incredible!

An exciting sight....

We got to see a building last night that we hadn't planned to in all of our planning. The local hospital...

Our fourth started out with a bang. As we were getting ready for bed last night, we were putting things away, and organized. I had just finished with the computer, so I took it over to the desk and Ben got up to get me the charger to plug it in. As he walked back to the desk, he just barely stubbed his toe on the leg of the bed - and it hurt! After a brief visit from the hotel's EMT and directions, I drove him to the hospital for X-rays.

Come to find out that he broke his toe, his pinky toe. Yep, first day in a city that we have to do a lot of walking, Ben decides he wants to break his first bone ever, in his life! Anyway, we were at the hospital until close to 2:30am, where they bandaged up his toe and gave him a "walking shoe" that will allow him to walk without flexing his toes. It won't be the most comfortable thing for him, but we are going to still try and get a few sights in today. Hopefully he will be able to handle it all.

Hope you all have a great 4th of July!

We've arrived!!!

Yesterday morning, we arrived in D.C., and actually without too much problem, traffic, etc. I was surprised, to say the least, that as we drove in we could see nothing from downtown. I expected to be able to see at least the Washington Monument, but there was nothing. However, as we crossed over the Potomac, there was this beautiful building on the other side of the water. It didn't take us all that long to realize that the building was actually our hotel!

We got there without a problem, actually got checked into a room with a gorgeous view of the Potomac through the hotel's indoor atrium that is nothing but windows:

After getting unpacked and a quick bite to eat for lunch, we got ourselves ready to go downtown and see the sights. We spent a good 4-5 hours downtown, walking around, and got to see some incredible things.

The Washington Monument- as we stepped off the subway!

The U.S. Capitol Building

The World War II Memorial

Lincoln Memorial across the Reflecting Pool

And upclose and personal...He was HUGE!

Vietnam Wall...talk about a serene place

Jefferson Memorial

The White House close to sunset

One quick thing that I realized as we reached downtown was that I am extremely proud of this city, and all that it stands for. I got a little emotional just realizing the importance that this city holds in the history of America. Someday, if you haven't already, you have to visit and experience it yourself!

On our way....

Well, Ben and I left home yesterday morning. Our plan was to leave around 9:00am, but we actually didn’t get on the road until closer to 9:30. After a few quick errands around town, we officially hit the road at 10:20am. We were glad to not be too far behind schedule, and we had a couple of stops we wanted to make on our way to the first hotel stop of the trip.

Aside from hitting a brief stint of traffic near Ann Arbor, we had beautiful weather and great traffic the entire day. We also got to see a lot of incredible sights on the road. While in Ohio, we did a quick side trip to Geauga Lake. It was kind of a sentimental trip, since our first trip together, ever, was to Geauga Lake. We just simply drove by, but it was interesting to see how much things have changed in 12 years.


Once we got out of Ohio, we reached Pennsylvania. Together, we have never been to Pennsylvania, and we had plans to visit Gravity Hill in Bedford, PA. This was pretty interesting as well, as we just put the car in neutral, and seriously the car seemed to roll uphill. The drive was absolutely beautiful through the mountains of Pennsylvania. There were some houses tucked up on some of the hills that were just amazing.


We also got to experience the mountains. We are using my husband’s laptop as our GPS, and on it is the altitude at which we were at that time. I would watch the altitude go from 400ft to over 2000ft in a span of 10-20 minutes. Then, I would watch it drop back down to 700ft or so, then back up. It was interesting – and our ears were popping like crazy. Some of the views however were great!


Today, we are on the road again. We left the hotel in Hancock, Maryland at 9:30am and were only about 100 miles out of Washington. More to come on the 2^nd day of the trip!