Have Kindle, Will Travel!

I got a sweet surprise yesterday!  On Saturday morning I looked out the window and noticed that Emilee was on her knees pulling weeds from our landscape areas.  I opened the door and she looked up at me and grinned.  With us getting ready to leave our house for nine weeks, the weeding had to be done but it was not a chore I was looking forward to... especially in 90 degree heat!  I said, "Emilee, you just don't know how much that is helping me."  She said, "You just don't know how much I'm getting paid."  Seems she had struck a deal with Daddy!  I asked her how much she was getting paid, thinking all along that I might strike up a similar deal with him, but she said she wasn't allowed to tell.  Scott entered the conversation about that time and told me to leave her alone.  That just made me more curious!

Later that afternoon after picking Ashlee up from a friend's house, I was downstairs working on book repairs when Scott yelled down and said "bye."  Said he was just going out for a bit.  I assumed (was hoping) he might be going out to grab some dinner for us since I was busy "slaving away" on the books!  After about an hour of too quiet upstairs, I went looking for the girls.  They were nowhere to be found, so I texted Ash to ask where they went.  She said, "Out."  Thanks for the info, Ash!  :-)  When they got back a few minutes later, Scott asked me to come upstairs.  The girls were sitting at the counter with cheshire cat grins on their faces.  Ashlee handed me a red leather case, and then Emilee handed me a box WITH A KINDLE IN IT!  It seems that Emilee proposed a plan to Daddy that morning that she would pull all of the weeds if he would buy Mommy a Kindle.  Yes, I cried!  Ashlee missed out on the weed pulling, so she said she was going to help spread mulch this week to "earn" the case for me.  Yes, I cried more!  So not only did I NOT have to pull weeds, but I got a present too!  Needless to say, didn't get much book repairing done after that - I spent the evening playing with my new toy!  

I have now downloaded about 20 free books onto my Kindle (yes, including the Bible and a devotional!), so I am ready for this road trip!  Thank you to my sweet girls!  And early Happy Anniversary to my sweet man!

Isn't it pretty?!?!

 

The Countdown Begins!

Now that school is over and summer has officially begun, "The Countdown" to our departure date begins - 13 MORE DAYS!  The mad dash of getting everything organized and packed and ready to head off on our adventure is in full swing.  We started a couple of days ago with the most important thing... haircuts.  We might forget to stop our mail and turn off our water, but at least we will be sporting new hairdos!  With all the hiking, swimming and outdoor activities we plan to do, we need some low maintenance hairdos.  The Murphy women had some pretty serious hair falling at the salon.  We all ended up with shoulder-length hair.  Emilee's hair was the longest, so she had the most to lose shedding about 7".  You can take a look at the end results below!  Aren't they stunning?  :-)  Speaking of low maintenance hairdos, Scott thinks he should just shave his off.  Hopefully you had the same reaction I did... uuuuhhh, NO!  Short, yes!  Shaved, no!

What Time Is It? It's SUMMER TIME!

Summer has officially begun, and I am loving it!  I am so ready to have my "little buddies" with me again.  Today ends a milestone of a school year for all of us.  Ashlee completed her last year of middle school.  I can't believe my little "punkin' head" is old enough to start high school in the fall.  And even worse... she will take a driver's ed course next week.  Boo-hoo!  Emilee ended her first year of middle school.  I must say, me and my little "chocolate-covered marshmaller" are both glad that's over with.  It's hard for me to believe she is almost a teenager!  I'm ready to slow down time now! 

Speaking of having my little buddies with me again, I have one more "buddy" to add to that... however, he's not so little!  As you know, Scott resigned from GMAC Insurance on March 30th of this year.  His motivation... two little girls who are growing up way too fast.  He wants to enjoy them now while we have them instead of waiting for official retirement when they're off on their own.  Therefore, in 14 days we will begin a once in a lifetime experience.  On June 10th we will be pulling out of our driveway to start our summer road trip across the country.  On our 9-week journey, we will cover 11,000 miles on our way through 24 states and 1 Canadian province while touring many national parks, monuments, and tourist traps!

Thus, the reason for this blog.  We thought this would be one way to keep family and friends updated on our adventures.  We also thought that blogging would be a fun way for the girls to pass the time between destinations while journaling their experience along the way.  Scott might need a distraction or two as well!

One thing we'd like to note - our blog will not be visible to everybody.  That being said, if you are able to view our blog we just ask that you don't share it with people we don't know.  We've taken precautions to protect our house in the form of alarm monitoring, constant surveillance from neighbors, and house-sitters so hopefully we won't come home to a flooded basement.  We also don't want strangers reading about us!

You can also send notes back to us through posts... we'd love to hear from you while we're gone!  Feel free to offer advice on sites we should see, places we should visit, or great places to eat!  Happy Trails!