Carmella's Hang Out

For those of you that would rather not read the entire thing, cause I know it is rather long, here is a short version of my trip.

Met Cassie on Tuesday October 10. Hung out at the house and visited.

Wednesday, went shopping for the wedding with Cassie, then went to church that night

Thursday, more shopping at WalMart for the wedding.

Friday, set up the church hall for the reception

Saturday, final wedding prep and the wedding.

Sunday ,Church, pizza, X-men 3 at Cassie’s in laws

Monday, flight delayed to Texas, very late getting in

Tuesday, met Tara and Mrs.H at the airport around 1am, found luggage was not there yet, saw Grant before he went to work. Slept till noon. Went to get my bag after 4. Went out to dinner with Grant and Tara. Walked around WalMart.

Wednesday, went to an outlet mall and Hobby Lobby with Mrs.H. Went out to dinner with everyone for Mexican food.

Thursday, hung out at the house, had lunch at Sonic with Tara and Mrs.H. Watched movies with Grant.

Friday, went to the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Dr Pepper Museums in Waco Texas.

Saturday, late morning early afternoon spent with Beth. I made dinner, and we watched a movie.

Sunday, Church, pizza hut lunch, coffee and a bookstore, dinner at Sonic

Monday October 23, flight home. Back in Michigan by 6pm

And now, for those that would like to hear in detail what I did while away, here is the longer version.

I had a wonderful time in both Alabama and Texas!! I tried to keep a journal of all my happenings, but as usual, did not keep it as up to date as I would have liked. That which I did not write up, however, I am sure I can fill in! J So here are some snippets from my hand written blog during my time away.

 
Well, I did it. I am on my way to Cassie’s wedding. The day finally came.

I was teary eyed as I said goodbye to everyone, but that does not mean that I am not excited!!

 
My seat is 16 A, which is a window seat. There is no one  else in my row, or at least on my side of the aisle. On the other side of the walk, there is only one empty seat. Two guys occupy the remaining two.

 
The flight was to leave at 8:30am. We were pulling away from the gate at 8:20am, and were speeding up for take off by 8:33am.

 
You might think, given the type of vacation we were just on, that I would be more use to changing altitudes.  OY, I’m so not!! Take off hurt my back a little and my head now hurts a bit.

 
We are now up so high that we are above all the clouds!! Blue sky is all there is above us. The ‘burning sun’ is out my window to the left. And International Airport by Carbon Leaf just started playing on my walkman!! J

 
My seat is two rows behind the row over the wings. From here I can see all but the part of the wing that connects to the plane.

 
Now on the second leg of my trip to Cassie. Smaller aircraft this time. Not that it seems it is going to be a bad thing. There is actually more space under the seat in from of me for my bag.

 
Once I got to the airport in North Carolina, I found that they had moved my gate from C9 to C4. However, I found that out in plenty of time.

 
It is 11 my time and will be 12 in Alabama when I arrive, but I was hungry. I went to find food just something small incase Cassie wants to have lunch once I land. There was a deli, and there I found some nice sandwiches. The least expensive sandwich was $6 something.  Shock So I got a huge piece of cheese pizza at Sbarro and a chocolate milk all for less than one small sandwich.

There was a lady at the gate desk in the North Carolina who was really being rude t5o the workers. I felt bad for them. Her flight time had been changed and when they told her the new time, she kept shoving her ticket at them saying “Tell me what THAT says. It does not have the time on it you are telling me. What does THAT say??” They tried to explain, and even pointed out to her on her ticket, where it says that take off times are subject to change, but she was not any less mad at them…though they had nothing to do with it.

 
Met Cassie and her husband, Jacob, at the airport around 12 AL time. From there we drove all over looking for a place to eat. We had a nice lunch at “Jack In The Box”

We got to the house sometime after 2:30. Jacob had to go to work, but Cassie and I spent the rest of the afternoon lazing around, talking, going out for walks, and a lot of “what do you want to do?” “I don’t know, what do you want to do?” “I don’t know”

 
Later that night, after we went to a corner store to buy some Coke, we watched some home videos I had packed, and then I fell asleep while we watching “Cirque De Soleil’s Dralion.”

 
 
Because I am sure you all do not want to know every single step I made, and because it would make for far too long of a story, I shall skip to the wedding.

 
We stayed up late the night before the wedding. Cassie and I had done a ton of shopping throughout the week in prep for the big day. We must have gone to WalMart five times during the days before, but we still had two more stops at that store to make before the day was out. The first time was to pick up the cake, but it was at a WalMart in a town farther away. The plan was to get the cake, meet some people at another WM, pick up the chairs from the church, get changed, get to the wedding site and set up, then have the ceremony all between 3:00 and 6:00 pm. OH BOY. We got the cake, and were running behind when we got to the next store to meet the group. It took us a bit longer than we planned to find everyone and get to the church, because one of the cars following us got lost.

The cake box top flew off and into the cake, but the good part was that Cass was able to laugh about it. The damage was not as bad as it could have been, and I don’t know that many people even noticed once the cake was set up.

We were really late when we got to the grounds where the wedding was being held. It was getting very dark, and we were the ones with the chairs. We had also changed trucks when we went to change, and had left the CD Cass had made of all the music she had planned for the wedding ceremony.

However, because we were late, and it had gotten dark, the lights that we had planned on turned out to be even cooler!! We set up some candles along the sides of the steps that we were to walk down, and then each of us bridesmaids were carrying a goblet that had pretty red potpourri, red tinsel and battery operated Christmas lights in it. We walked out from our hiding spot in a little grove of trees across from where the groom stood, and walked up to the waiting crowd to the beautiful sounds of E Museki. {I had remembered to grab my CD case before we left, so I had that CD with me. In the candle lit darkness I doubt much other music would have been as breathtaking as the song she chose.} Cassie looked like a beautiful princess walking down the steps lit by flickering flames, in her pretty white gown and a green cape, standing next to her Dad as a Gaelic tune floated all around.

The next day we all went to Church together, and then to her in-laws after wards.  There we checked on our online lives, watched X-Men 3 while eating pizza, and Cassie took a nap in the easy chair!!! Lol. We took a ton of stupid pictures later that night when we got home, including some with Cassie and I flipping our hair all over……and MAN did we get ourselves sick from that. Oh but it was fun!! We also watched movies till late into the night, since neither of us wanted to admit that we really needed to go to bed and end what was to be our last day! L

 
Monday morning we were to be at the airport for what I thought would be a 10 o’clock flight. However, due to weather in Houston, my trip had been changed to 4 that night, meaning that Cassie and her husband had to leave me there so they could get home in time for him to go to work. There was allot of worry that my flight was going to be canceled totally and I would not make it to Texas at all that day. But praise the Lord, I was able to board a flight and then managed to get to Austin around 1 the next morning. My Texas friends were sweet and waited for me for hours at my final destination!

I was so tired when I got there, but there was still much to do. We had to find my bag. Though that proved impossible since it was still back in Houston!! They got it in later that day, and we went to pick it up that night after Grant got off work.

 
Have you ever had dinner/breakfast at 3or4 in the morning? We did. I had not eaten more than a few cookies, a snack bag of chips, and a yogurt bar along with one 20 ounce bottle of water all day. I was ready to drop from hunger. So we went to a 24 hour restaurant and ate. Tara and I were so giggly! We nearly had a food fight, but regained control of our hyperness just before she got a nose full of whip cream!! J
Getting home at 5:30 in the morning meant only a half an hour wait before Grant had to get up for work, so we held our eyes open for a bit longer so I could say hi. He called me strange people!! Its true! He walked into the living room, waved a bit and said “Oh look. Strange people in the living room.”

 
After he left the three of us {Mrs. H, Tara, and I} got some sleep. We slept in till noon actually.

 
It was later that night that we went to get my luggage and then went out to dinner just ‘us kids’. There was really no need for us to ‘get to know’ each other or anything, and that part was nice, we just needed time to adjust to the fact that we were all really sitting next to/ in front of each other!! Grant took us to a place called Al Capone’s and we all ordered the same thing. Chicken Parmesana.

 
We were going to go out to a movie after, or maybe even go shopping, but chose instead to just head to the store at which they work so I could see it {creepy!} and then on home. Grant had to be back up at 6 the next morning for work, and I still needed to catch up on SOME sleep.

 
It was fun walking around the WalMart with them. By the time we left, some of their co-workers were staring at us, I guess Grant was laughing a bit too hard!!

 
Wednesday both Tara and Grant had to work, so it was a nice day for Mrs. H and I to check out the new outlet mall in a near by town. Or maybe it is not so nearby,…I don’t know. Lol.

 
We had a nice chat all day, and got some really great sales!! I was able to buy a birthday gift for Kade!! {A box we decorated and all wrote messages on, along with some crystal candlestick holders inside for her hope chest.}

 
That night, we went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant after we picked Tara up from work.

 
Thursday was our hang out at home, be a bit lazy, and do some laundry. Ok…so I didn’t do any laundry….my adoptive mom did the laundry for me….but still! You get the picture!! We also went around 1 to pick Tara up and go out to Sonic for lunch. YUM!! I love Sonic…I want to petition to have one put in Michigan!! Grant bought  two movies that day. Over the Hedge and The Lake House. He and I watched the first one before dinner, and the other one with Mrs. H after dinner.

 
Friday was Grant’s day off, so we went to Waco and see two different museums: The Texas Ranger Hall of Fame, and the Dr Pepper museum. They were both really interesting!! I thought they were great! I know Grant took a ton of photos at the first one, but I didn’t get all that many. A few of him wandering off “forgetting” we were even there….that was rather funny. {And I really didn’t mind at all. It reminded me of my older brother.} I got some nice photos of his mother as we waited for him to be finished with his photography of the outside. They took me to a Texas BBQ restaurant. That is the first time I have ever been to a place like that. They sell you meat by the half pound or pound, and you decide how many you want. You can also get sides that are in little Styrofoam containers. Then they give you bread for if you want to make a sandwich. In fact, they give you bread even if you don’t want to. We all ordered pre-made sandwiches and they still gave us bread! lol

 
Saturday I spent the day with another online friend. I have known her about the same amount of time as Grant and Tara. We got to see some of her sisters Karate test, and I got to eat more Mexican food!! J Food was a big deal on my trip….can you tell? I even have a list of the days and what food I ate on each!! Lol I made dinner that night, and then we watched a movie.

 
Sunday was the last full day I got to spend with them. We went to church in the morning, and even got to tour the new building that was to open the weekend after I left. Tara and I got some of the cutest pics in the ‘Brides Room”, a very pretty room with rose wall paper and mirrors. We went out to lunch at Pizza Hut, and there met up with others from the church. Much fun again. {and food…go figure}

 
Grant, Tara and I decided to spend the afternoon in a place called Bryan College Station…..I think. We spent hours in a bookstore, after having a nice chat over Starbucks coffee. Well, they had coffee {with an extra shot of espresso. Eeekkkk} I was a “good girl” and had a caramel apple cider.   We went out to dinner at…..SONIC. YAY!! We were all so goofy, taking a ton of pictures and shivering in the cold, since we sat outside while everyone else sat in their cars!! Lol. I was not shivering, not until Grant started to shake and develop goose bumps…then both Tara and I were cold. It was contagious!! We called Sarah on the way home, and left a stupid message on her voicemail.

Much like with Alabama, we didn’t want to go to bed since that was admitting the day was all over and I was going away the next morning.

 
Flights went well the next day and I got back to MI around 6 the next night.