Road Trip Date (From The Dating Divas)

Good Thursday morning!

Since I'm obviously not going to have any new pictures this week, I decided to do an Austin/Melia Montage... because I think they're pretty!

Ahhh. Young love!

A DECISION HAS BEEN MADE! A DECISION HAS BEEN MADE! A DECISION HAS BEEN MADE!

Okay. I've decided on the fate of A Simple Life. After four years of blogging and soon-to-be 1,000 posts, I'm going to...

A. Completely stop writing the blog as of August 31, 2012.

B. Write a twice-a-week post which will contain a little bit of everything I love (pictures, randomness, dates, recipes, traditions, parties, etc.)

C. Write a once a week post which will contain all of the above (see B).

And the correct answer is...

Can you come back tomorrow? I like to do "reveals" on Fridays!

CONTEST! CONTEST! CONTEST! - This is my 989th post for A Simple Life. The countdown continues!

The Contest will be simple. The rules are as follows:

Beginning today, leave your NAME followed by the word "CONTEST" in the Comment Section of A Simple Life, e-mail me (mfaulkner1306@charter.net) or go to my Facebook page.

You can enter the Contest ONCE A DAY (each and every day including Saturdays AND Sundays) until Thursday, August 30 at midnight. (Your name could be put into the drawing bowl a total of 15 times between now and Thursday, August 30!)

I will write my 1,000th post Friday morning, August 31.

I will draw from a HUGE BOWL of names, and a winner will be announced the morning of Friday, August 31.

The winner will receive a $15 Gift Certificate to one of the following restaurants:

1. Another Broken Egg
2. Original Pancake House
3. Olexa's
4. Lucia's Italian Restaurant in Helena

It will be Winner's Choice!

If you win and you live somewhere other than Alabama, you will win a $15 VISA Gift Card!

"May the odds be ever in your favor!"

(I'm going to be saying that for the next 10 POSTS!)

NEW THING! NEW THING! NEW THING! - Since the fate of A Simple Life is still undecided (until tomorrow), I'm going to post one of my favorite posts each day from the past four years until the decision is finalized.

My First Plane Trip EVER - First Posted April 3, 2009

My friend, Kelley, married in December of 1986. In July of 1987, she invited me (along with friends, Celeste and Alesia), to Sacramento, California for a week to stay with her and her husband. As you can imagine, we jumped at the chance. Plans were made, bags were packed and plane tickets were purchased. (It should be noted this was my first plane trip EVER.) As the day of the trip grew closer, my friends became more and more excited. I, on the other hand, became more and more anxiety-ridden. Millions and millions of people fly every year, I kept telling myself. It's more dangerous to drive to work than to fly somewhere. (Especially for me.)

The day of the trip finally arrived, and we went to the airport with Mike and my sister and parents, Alesia's parents and Celeste's sister and her parents. Even though I have a fair complexion, I think every one noticed the lack of pigment in my face. I had NONE.

Alesia's mom handed me a Dramamine for motion sickness. She also handed me three more doses. (One if I needed it on the trip TO California, and two for the trip BACK from California.) "Now, be careful. These will make you drowsy." Hmmm. Drowsy was good. Passed out was even better. I took two doses.

I then proceeded to kiss everybody I knew good-bye... and then I kissed a few more people I had never met. (Apparently, two doses of Dramamine make you drowsy AND affectionate.) I boarded the airplane with Alesia in front of me and Celeste behind me. They generously offered me the window seat, but I declined. I sat down, buckled my seat belt and waited for take off. It was different than what I had expected. On television, it doesn't really make you think you "feel" anything upon take off... but you do.

I did not care for take off.

We leveled off. A few minutes into the flight we hit some air pockets.

I did not care for air pockets.

I had been warned my ears would probably stop up, so I had been chewing gum non-stop since my Dramamine overdose. Chewing gum did not work for me. I felt like I was in a glass box, and I could barely hear people outside of the box talking... and I had to yell for them to hear me. The flight attendant came by and asked if we wanted a drink. Now, I have never had an alcoholic beverage my entire life, but on that day (had I not already been hopped up on Dramamine), I would have taken my first drink. I know. I know. I'm a Southern Baptist girl and that's very wrong... but I'm pretty sure I would have succumbed. But the fact is, I didn't. In answer to the flight attendant's question, I screamed, "Yes. I would like a Pepsi, please!"

My friends put their fingers to their lips. The universal sign for, "Just because you can't hear doesn't mean everyone else cannot hear."

I did not care for stopped up ears.

Our plane had a layover in Phoenix. We had about an hour to get off the plane and walk around before we had to board again. I was looking forward to the landing part, because I thought I might get some or all of my hearing back. And then we started the descent. I was told we had a smooth landing. I would have hated a rough landing.

I did not care for landing.

We got off the plane and made our way to the airport food court. Of all the food to choose from, I decided I wanted an airport hot dog. It hit the spot. On the way back to the plane, I decided I wanted another one to munch on. Big mistake. We sat down in our seats. I had succeeded in getting one ear unstopped, but as soon as we started taking off, it closed up again.

I still did not care for take off.

Nor, did I care any longer for airport hot dogs.

I took my third dose of Dramamine.

The third dose of Dramamine gave me cotton mouth. It is not an unusual side effect of too much Dramamine, but...

I did not care for cotton mouth.

When we finally landed at the San Francisco International Airport, I was ecstatic. Well, as ecstatic as someone on too much Dramamine could be. I was on land. And I was going to be on land for seven days before it was time to board another plane back to Sweet Home Alabama. And my plan was to try to talk my two girlfriends into renting a car and going on a long (but exciting) road trip!

They told me they did not care for road trips. It was going to be a long seven days.

RANDOMNESS - Things are changing again, and if you've known me two minutes, you know I am not particularly pleased with this... this... new set of circumstances called "My Life."

Children continuing to grow up, up and away.

Birthdays which, although fun, leave behind a bigger number than before.

Realizing my 50 year-old body has totally rejected the notion of ever wearing Spanx again... even for a special occasion.

While parts of me are "wearing out," new and interesting parts are appearing. I don't know what they are, and I'm afraid to ask because I'm pretty sure they will need to be surgically removed... soon.

For a chick who LOVES the mundane, the routine, the every day nothingness that drive some people crazy, the constant change is very disconcerting.

But just as I am about to throw up my hands in despair, The Other Chick in the house walks in and says, "Let's go shopping."

Shopping? That's so... normal. So... simple.

So shopping we will go. And we'll eat pretzels at Auntie Anne's and eat a chocolate from Godiva.

Life will be mundane and routine and nothing spectacular for a day... and I will LOVE IT!

Blog Linkage - I have some interesting blogs for you to visit today. Don't just sit there. Get busy.

1. Go to "Nesting Place" under My Blog List and read today's post entitled "Angela's House, Your Eyes will be Gluttons." I've never seen a house decorated like Angela's. And I like it. It's colorful and whimsical and comfortable. I couldn't do it myself, but I found the tour very enjoyable.

2. Go to "the anderson crew" under My Blog list and read today's post entitled "embrace the camera." I love her explanation as to why it is so important for us (the moms) to get in the picture, too!

3. Go to www.tarawhitney.com and click on the word "blog." Read her post entitled "Home Base." She's a professional photography who will come to your house and photograph the everyday moments of your family's life (which I think is brilliant). But before you get too excited, she lives in California.

Enjoy!

Road Trip Date (From The Dating Divas)

After reading today's "old" post about airplane travel, you might have guessed... I'm a "road trip" kind of gal.

And I'm definitely a Dating Divas type of gal... so I borrowed from their archives today! Love them and their ideas.

Do any of you have a ROAD TRIP coming up in the near future? I have the perfect date idea for you! My husband and I recently traveled a ton. Each summer, we travel to a new location for an Internship for him. This past summer, we relocated to gorgeous Northern California for three blissful months... from HOT Vegas. Lots of time on the road! With SO much quality time together, I thought this would be the perfect time to throw together an “on the fly” date!

My FIRST “turn to" when I am searching for something is GOOGLE! I can pretty much find just about anything I need on there! {Pinterest is a CLOSE second. WINK!} I was on a mission to find some FUN ideas that Jamie and I could do while sitting in a car.

I immediately purchased an e-book and printed off games I wanted to play with my cute hubby. We were looking at being in the car for TWELVE hours straight, so I wanted to make sure we had plenty to choose from.

MAD LIBS would be the perfect road trip game, as well. I didn’t have time to run to the store to buy any, but I found plenty of downloadable ones online... by Googling it.

I made treat toppers to fit the tops of gallon-sized baggies AND sandwich-sized baggies. I filled ONE gallon bag with Jamie’s FAVORITE treat... homemade cheesy popcorn. Another gallon baggie included all of the fun games and printables we would be doing, and the last baggie included other yummy assorted treats... including chocolate {which is MY favorite}.

I then created a fun little countdown, grabbed a long ribbon and some clothespins and mapped out our trip. I wrote down stopping points on the cards (which we would take off the ribbon as we hit/passed through each location).

This countdown was rather fun!

Overall, our trip was enjoyable. We had a lot of fun talking, laughing, playing games, eating yummy treats and holding hands.

I would definitely recommend this “Road Trip” date for ANYONE traveling in a car for a long period of time.

The Enchanting Belinda - There are a lot of blanks in this date, so I want you to go to "The Dating Divas" under My Blog List. Type "Road Trip Date" in the Search box and you will see a small list of dates. Scroll down until you find the September 5, 2011 and enjoy.

The pictures and details on this post will make your Road Trip Date complete!

Have an exciting Thursday. I'll be back tomorrow with Weekend Happenings, the 1,000th Post Contest rules, an oldie, pictures, Randomness... and the fate of A Simple Life.

I ask you, "Does it get any better than this?"

Take care, and I'll talk to you in the morning.

Sincerely,

The Enchanting Belinda