Today was one of those REALLY great days. It could've been better only if Maddie and Jeff had been off school with us!
The last two weeks were a little tiring (physically and emotionally), and then Friday was a 12 hour day INCLUDING sending out my last Roooaaarrr!!! So I have been READY for the feeling of summer! This weekend we spent a lot of time working around the house and tackling some big jobs... and we did, which felt GREAT! And that helped TODAY feel even better!! Matthew and I are out of school, and poor Maddie and Jeff don't finish until Thursday and Friday.
Matthew and I started out at the DMV (or DDS as it is here, which I just can't get used to). My license expired on my birthday (OOPS), and we had planned on renewing it EARLY during spring break - in April, but Matthew had the flu and we were housebound for the entire week. Then I completely forgot about until the DAY OF my birthday. Today was the day to make it happen. Jeff and I gathered all of the necessary paperwork (birth certificate, marriage license, social security card, and two utilities!!), I grabbed a Starbucks for the long wait ahead of me, and we headed to Duluth. Matthew was eager and excited of course... for one, he loves going to new places like that, and two, he was not happy that I've been driving with an expired license. :-) We settled in near the back of the room with our number and clipboard, and after about 15 minutes, my number was called. Shocked, I jumped up and headed to the front, but by as I was approaching "my" counter, they announced that THAT counter was serving another number. The attendant saw me standing there, behind the NEW customer, and I explained that they'd just called my number to that same counter but then called this one. She informed that I was too slow and that I needed to have a seat. WHAT?! I couldn't have gotten there any faster!!! I asked if she would call me up if I needed to have them put my number back into the 'lottery', and she said she'd be with me. Well, the current client finished, walked away and as I was standing to walk up, a DIFFERENT number was called to that counter! I said, "I thought you said I'd be next?" To which she replied, "No. I said I'd help you; I didn't say you'd be next." I don't know if she saw the smoke starting to come out of my ears or not, but she said, "Have a seat and I'll try to get you next." TRY?! Well, try she did... she called me up next (so I waited as long for me RE-call as I did for my FIRST call) and relatively nicely helped me out. I decided to push down the nasty attitude I was feeling and be extra nice, figuring she must have a pretty frustrating job that she doesn't particularly enjoy... maybe I could help her to at least enjoy these few minutes of it. NOT.EASY. In the end, though, I walked out with my NEW temporary license, satisfaction that I didn't make her day worse, and a license picture that I like! AND, it was so quick, I still had coffee to drink on the car ride home!
We drove home to quickly reset and then headed to Kennesaw Mountain... another item on our list for spring break. :-) We had an amazing hike together... it was a beautiful day, and it was a new hike for us. Last time we hiked Stone Mountain, someone told us how much they like the Kennesaw Mountain hike. Kennesaw Mountain is a famous Civil War battleground, and it was so cool (and very humbling) to walk through those woods and think about what was going on in that very place in mid-1800's! 1864 to be exact. You could easily imagine soldiers hiding behind the huge boulders, darting from tree to tree, lugging the canons around. We hiked to the top of Kennesaw Mountian, then up Little Kennesaw Mountain and Pigeon Hill. It took us 2 hours and was 5.5 miles. The hiking was great, and Matthew and I had some of the coolest conversations... here are just a couple examples...
Matthew: "It's hard to believe that back then there was all that fighting here, and now it's this peaceful, beautiful work of God's creation."
Matthew: "Just think, the soldiers were running through these woods with their rifles."
Me: "Yes, that would be really scary wouldn't it?!"
Matthew: "Yes. It's pretty cool that we're out here the day after Memorial Day."
The hike was incredible, the views were beautiful, but the conversations were priceless.
