Home again!

So after a lot of debate we took a spur of the moment trip to Kansas to see my family. We had planned on going but because several different things came up we decided we wouldn't go. Tues rolled around and we had to make a drive over to Alabama to drop the goat off. My wonderful husband said " well we are leaving the state. Let's just keep driving and go to Kansas ". Lol. In case your geography is rusty Alabama is no where near Kansas. But my Joe knew I would be sad if we really didn't make the trip. I kept trying to come up with responsible excuses not to go. Money , we aren't unpacked from our move , rude to show up peoples house last minute. But Joe kept urging me. So we ran home packed a dew bags made a few phone calls and loaded the goat.
First stop was to drop the goat at joe's aunt's house. We hadn't seen them in years and it was really nice to see them. We left and headed west. Well north west. Made it to ft smith until weather was too bad. Woke up the next day and made it into Wichita after lunch. Stayed with my aunt pat and uncle rob. Even though it was shirt notice they welcomed us with open arms. It was so nice to have the time to talk and just be with them. My aunt pat us Luke a grandmother to me. We had dinner with some cousins. Really not enough time. I jokingly said it was drive by visiting. Lol
The next day we headed to my uncle Gail and aunt sallie's. This is one of my favorite places on earth. The farm is gorgeous to me and always makes me feel Luke a little kid again. I love nothing more than to sit at their kitchen table with a pop and some sort of snack and talk for hours with my cousins and aunt and uncle. One of my younger cousins lives to ride horses and she asked me to go our for abeude with her. She is so sweet and so easy to be around. I wish we lived closer and we could go for more rides together. Bella played and played. Joe worked and worked. Lol. He helped my uncle and cousins put in a fence. Notice a theme? I think I have said cousin a bunch. Hut that's because I have a lot of them. Lol. My aunt cooked a big dinner for us. Homemade noodles and roast. Soo yummy! Sadly we had to leave.
My grams house is where we spent the rest of our trip. I love my gram soo much. She just amazes me. She is more up to date on fashion trends than i am could probably out run me, has taken a hot air balloon ride over the African savannah, and sky dived when she was 73. I love sitting on the floor going through old photo albums or just sitting at her kitchen counter talking as she cooks. We had a great new years eve dinner Joe and I had our favorite tacos. Just not the same in Georgia. My cousin Leslie came and met us. I so appreciated she took the time to come see us. Back at grams we rang in the new year with a champagne toast.
We ended our trip with a nice long visit with my cousins Dixie and Floyd. For being such a short trip to Kansas and for it being so last minute, I was so grateful for all the family we got a chance to see. There were still so many more I whacked had had time to see. But that just means we will have to plan another trip !

Kansas

I was born in Tulsa, we moved to Texas, then to Georgia. In Georgia we lived in Marietta, then another house in Marietta, then to Acworth. I then, on with Joe, I moved to Atlanta, then Fairburn, on to Cartersville, back to Marietta, to Woodstock, Cumming, then finally to where we are now Dahlonega. Some of you have moved a lot more than that. But, to me that is a lot! It's funny though, if someone asks me where I am from I say Kansas. lol I honestly have never lived there. But, that is where my family is from and most of them still are. My Dad moved us to Georgia for work but I don't think they ever really intended on staying or they were just in denial. We all still talk about "moving back" I'm not sure it will ever happen but, it's a nice dream. I call Kansas home for many reasons. During all those moves, all the different places, all the concrete towns with their walmarts that look just like the town before, all the changes here, I can go back to one house on Poplar Street in Wellington Kansas and open the cabinet over the coffee pot and my little juice glass with Dopey on it sits. I can walk out the back door and there's a tree that I climbed 4 feet off the ground up in and thought I was stuck and wailed wanting someone to get me down. I can go back inside and go to the living room where a box of paper dolls that I have played with all my life still sits. I can go out to the garage and get in an old truck that my grandfather once drove and I can drive to town and get carry out pizza that we thought for years didn't deliver only to find out it does but gram thought it was silly to pay the $2 delivery fee when we could just get it ourselves. Silly us! I can take a LEFT at that pizza place and drive past the co-op that my Grandfather and now my Uncle has sold grain at, turn around and keep going and the houses start vanishing to a old building that is a small radio station where my Dad used to work, down some rural roads that various members of my family have driven countless times to an old farm that in my mind hasn't ever changed. There's a garden out back we picked vegetables in, there's a silo out front my sister climbed but i was too chicken, there's a big metal shed where you can surely find some relatives of mine working on some machinery. Go back out to the rural route I drove in on and take a left down a ways is a house my cousin now lives in, before that my grandparents lived. Back into town past the prettiest flat land you will ever see, is a church my parents got married in, Bella was dedicated, some of the best Christmases I can remember happened and 3 of my grandparents funerals were held. you can also pass an auditorium where my Dad's band once played. All the changes in my life good and bad and in between I can always count on those things. Depended on them to be there. As I get older the people and places I have depended on so much are fading. There is nothing I can do to stop it. there are people not sitting in their chairs like they always were when I walked in the door, there is land that no longer has a family name on the deed and I know within time my dopey cup will be gone, too. But, I will always call Kansas home.