Riding a Train Across America

So yesterday I officially completed number 61 off the list!

61) Ride a train across America

This trip to Vegas has been in the works since last December. Though how we were going to get to Vegas was the million dollar question. We decided now to fly to Vegas, though it would have been the smartest and most logical way to travel. Since Matt and I have never flew EVER, we were kind of nervous about the idea. And plus Matt LOVES trains, he is a major train enthusiast. I was very apprehensive riding a train across America. It wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be. At least it seemed to go very fast, though I felt SO SICK and dizzy from the trip. We left from home on Thursday around 10:00 am. We drove to Galesburg, IL, had to kill about an hour of our time, and then we were off to depart around 6:00 pm, which would be 7:00 Ohio time. Here is the Am-Track we went on:



We then went on Coach for the first 4 hours, we pasted through a little part of Iowa, and then we had a 45 minute stop to Kanasas City Missouri, where we took all our crap and moved to a sleeper car. (It was cheaper to do it that way) I pretty much freaked out when we went to our sleeper car. It was not what I was expecting. It was so small. It looked like a small narrow closet. Literally there was a bed on the bottom and a bed on top and a foot of space from the bed to the door. I felt so claustrophobic, I couldn't breath. It took a while for me to get use to it. So we went to sleep probably around 11:00. (12:00 Ohio time) I'm surprised but I fell asleep right away, and pretty much slept the entire night. While we were sleeping we went through Kansas. I hope on the way back I'll get to see it. When we woke up it was 6o'clock. We gained another hour while we were sleeping, so technically it was 8:00 Ohio time. I hated trying to use the bathroom, get ready for the day, and eat meals. It is so hard to walk around on a train. Though it is neat to look out the window and get a scenic view. During the day we pasted a little bit of Colorado, and then pretty much the entire day we past through New Mexico.

Here are some pics of Colorado and New Mexico:













We gained another hour around 7:00 at night, so it was pitch black by 6:00 when we got into Arizona. Finally around 9:00pm which would have been 12:00 am Ohio time, we reached Flagstaff AZ. It was really chilly. I needed a jacket. We got a taxi to the hotel, and can I just say the three hour time change is throwing me off. I woke up 6:45 this morning. Not the normal time I wake up. hehehe.

So it wasn't terrible the trip. I just felt like I was getting terrible motion sickness. Matt and I are going get some stuff to help with motion sickness on the way back. Hopefully the trip on the way back won't be terrible. My favorite part when we ate lunch, and got to sit by this awesome older couple in their late sixties from England. They were so cool! They have traveled all around the world, and so adventurous for their age. They shared amazing stories of their travels.

And can I just say I felt so weird sleeping in a bed tonight that wasn't moving. I felt like I was still moving from the train ride, when we went to bed.

Well we are off to go to the Grand Canyon today, and then I think tomorrow we are going to Vegas, which will be another thing to cross off the list :)

Happy Labor Day and of course that doesn't stop me from laboring

So today on my day off, I only thought it would be fitting to do something productive today. So today I did number 87 off the list.

87) Clean, condense, and organize all my stuff in the basement

I have a bunch of crap in the basement, that is all mine. Matt still needs to put his stuff from his Mom and Dad's house into our basement. A lot of it is stuff left over from our wedding, and just unorganized junk thrown into containers. So after sitting in our basement for about a year, I thought I would finally condense some of the stuff in our basement and organize stuff. So all afternoon I worked on organizing stuff. I'm excited because I found some things I forgot I had. Such as a pocket knife. It was in one of my old purses. And I found a fun cd-rom game called Pandora's Box. It is a fun game with solving puzzles. I got it for Christmas one year when I was in high school. I still haven't beat the game, so I installed in on my laptop and now I am playing it again. I also found this interesting necklace, that I didn't even know I owned or where it came from:



It is kind of like a magic 8 ball, you ask a question and press the question mark and it randomly selects and answer, such as "maybe" or "not clear". So all day today I've been asking silly question like "Am I going to have a baby next year?" and pressing my necklace. Not that the necklace really is going to tell the future, I like having a little fun with stuff like this.

So here is what our basement looked like before the big cleanup. (Now note, I only organized and touched the big piles of boxes. Because those are the only things in the basement, that belongs to me. The only stuff is house stuff, Matt had in there for working on the house. I figured it would be a good idea not to mess with that stuff, because I know he gets mad when I move his stuff.)





I ended up having two big garbage cans filled with trash. My cleaning philosophy,is if I haven't missed the item in a year, then I'm never going to miss it, so might as well throw it away or donate it. It isn't worth collecting useless items that I will never use. What I'm really excited about is I organized my scrap-booking stuff and my beads for jewelry making. So I'll have to work on some of my projects soon, now that they are no longer just thrown in a random container. I ended up having about two boxes worth of stuff that I am going to donate to Goodwill. A lot of the stuff is glass centerpieces from our wedding. I don't really need them anymore, so might as well donate them. I have used a few of them for decor in my house, but I really don't need twenty of them for decor in my house.

Goodwill probably likes me, I'm always getting rid of stuff to donate to them:



After three and a half hours later, and after condensing my items and getting rid of about 3-4 boxes of stuff, here is the end result:





EDIT: I forgot to mention I also have an Ebay pile too. Matt is really good with selling stuff on Ebay, so I have a pile of stuff like old cds, my camera, etc, that I hope we can get a little money from.

So that crosses off 87 off the list. It feels so good to cross something off the list! I haven't done that in a while now. I feel so accomplished today. I think maybe tomorrow I'm going to start the no-cussing for three months. I've been have a terrible potty mouth. We'll see. I hope everyone had a good Labor Day weekend!

Mmm Pie

Today I made an apple pie! From an apple tree at my in-law's house. So this take one of the five pie that I have to make off my list.

69) Make a apple, cherry, pumpkin, pecan, and strawberry pie

The reason these pies are on my list, is because I have never made these kind before. I have made a rhubarb pie, a grape pie, and a pear pie.


This is the recipe that I used http://http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Apple-Pie-by-Grandma-Ople/Detail.aspx

It turned out really yummy! And it was pretty easy to make!

Here are some pics of the apple pie I made:

Can I just say I love the Pamper Chef corer,slicer, and peeler it makes it 100 times easier to slice up the apples!



This is how the pie turned out!


And here is the pie ready to eat, with a little ready whip on top. And it was delicious!




Now only 4 more pies to make.