Fall Break, Last Forever!

My class got out a good 45 minutes early and I have at least an hour to sit in the honors lounge until my next class starts so I figured I would go ahead and update my blog since I have one and all that. 

Can you believe we're already through midterms?

Well, can you believe that I am already through midterms? Because I sort of am.

Except for the one I have tomorrow morning. Who does that?

Midterms after fall-break? Bad idea dude. 

I wouldn't have studied for it anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter when I take it. 

Don't tell dad.

(So since I'm so great at updating and all that, I actually took the exam before posting this. One word for that exam: Easy. Aced it. You're welcome, Dad.)

We can tell dad about the random hockey game that I went to- that was fun. 

I went with a couple true hockey fans, so it made more sense this time. 

I went my freshman year too- remember that? I do. Good times. 

Anyway, this time we went down to watch the warm-ups and I was pretty sure I was going to die. Jennifer told me it would be fun though, so I was brave.

These guys were slinging pucks directly at my forehead which was 1. rude and 2. scary. 

I did a lot of ducking. But let's be real, I loved it.

Being that close to a professional anything is quite exciting in my opinion. 

Carter and I also got to meet Stormy. I told Stormy we wanted to have a funny picture so he promptly stuck his finger in his nose and motioned for Carter and I to do the same.

Nailed it. 

There were also some really chatty Charlies behind Carter and me. They had something to say about everything that was happening- from the new guy on the team to the opposing team's mascot. 

"What's a saber?" 

"It's a big sword."

"Oh, like a light saber?" 

"No dude, like a sword! Like with a sharp blade and everything!"

"Wouldn't it be cool if they had a buffalo holding two swords as their mascot?"

"Yeah, he could like skate out on the ice with his swords and wave them around."

"That would be sick!"

"They should make the buffalo a cartoon too. That would be so funny."

Go ahead and re-read that dialogue with a thick southern accent. 

Suddenly it's a whole lot funnier, isn't it?

Well Carter and I thought so too. We also wanted to see what they looked like without making it obvious that we were turning around to look at them.

So we took a "Selfie" which they gladly photo-bombed.

Mission accomplished.

What else have I been doing? 

You know, just hitting bullseyes and becoming an arching sensation. I had to make my own bow and arrow and with Carter's help, it actually shot straight and true!

Well, not so true... but it did go forward and therefore I passed.

I guess you could say I was pretty confident in my arching abilities, so when I was home for fall break I asked dad if I could check out his bow. 

65 pounds? No big deal dad, I got this.

Turns out 65 pound draw weight is actually quite difficult.

I couldn't do it.

Moving on...

Fall break sure was fun! 

Did a little negotiating, moved a midterm and skipped a class and made it home on Tuesday night! 

So fun. 

Wednesday morning I woke up before mom which was super weird. 

The neighbors have a hound dog who has a very peculiar bark. 

The dog sounds like a child who is in great distress. 

And he's loud! The dog... not the child (there is no child). 

So as Miss Neighbor is walking her hound dog right past my bedroom window, something happens which startles the moaning-child-like-dog and he breaks out in moaning-like-song. 

I was awakened on my first day of vacation at 7:45am. 

Ask me how pleased I was with this occurrence.

I WAS NOT PLEASED. 

So I figured I might as well wake mom and the dogs and start my Wednesday right!

Still super weird that we have dogs. As in plural. As in more than one. 

But I can't imagine home-life without Baby Iris.

Let's talk about how adorable she is because I miss her spunk and her sass. 

And yes, bottom left is Iris hoarding her toys.

Shasta is still the princess- naturally. She's just not as in-your-face as the little one. 

She does love having her picture taken though. Diva-licious. 

Anyway, we spent a lot of our time at home listening to Christmas music really loud, drinking coffee, eating baked oatmeal, and blowing our noses.

Mom and I both had really bad colds- weird. 

I also got to check out the Corner Coffee Shop, where little MC is now a full-functioning barista! I got my pumpkin spice and was happy. 

We also ran around Kitchen Kettle because MC wanted to take pictures of trees. 

Turns out the trees she liked were in the parking lot and were not nearly as pretty up-close. 

So we just walked around.

We almost got run over by Alabama while he was trying to back into a parking space right in front of where we were standing. 

He passed us later on in the afternoon and gave us a friendly toot- weird, but it was friendly.

You'd feel bad too if you nearly ran over the three Martin girls. 

We also waved enthusiastically to the pickle-guy. Well... I waved enthusiastically to the pickle-guy. MC was embarrassed because she was convinced she probably knows him. 

Mom wasn't looking at him because she was looking at someone's gardens or something probably. 

But for real- does anyone know who the pickle-guy in Intercourse is? Because I think a lot of people would like to figure that out.

Any information regarding the pickle-guy would be appreciated. 

I also met up with Carli Sue-lee-loo while I was home =) 

We chatted like 12 year old girls while we drank our seasonal coffees. 

She's one of my absolute favorites and I was so glad that we could make a coffee date happen so last minute! 

She calls this her Asian face. I call it her adorable Carli face. 

MC and I did a lot of giggling and all that too. 

Tuesday night when she got home from work, she came immediately to my side and started telling me story after story of school, youth group, and work happenings. 

One of my favorite things she said was this...

"Caity, Mrs Scheuer says I need to apply to colleges before Halloween. She told me that in her office and I was all, 'Yeah, okay-sounds good' but really I was freaking out because I don't know when the heck Halloween is! Do you?" 

So I giggled and told her it was October 31st and her eyes got real big and she said, "Oh shoot, it's in October?! I DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME, CAITY!" 

Classic though- since when do the Martins celebrate Halloween? She really had no idea. 

That might not have been all that funny, but believe me when I say that it was hilarious. She's really the funniest person ever. 

She also asked me this, "Caity, what's that movie with the grinch? Oh! It's called The Grinch!" 

I just love her. 

Then just like that we headed off to Cardinal Hill for a weekend of bargain hunting and fall-foliage viewing.

It ended up raining literally all day on Friday, so our bargain hunting was moved to Saturday. 

It was so fun though- the whole Martin family, minus Kyle and Maria, was up. 

As for bargains- I didn't find anything particularly interesting. 

Except two DVD's which I completely forget now. 

Dan was even there- he was all giggly and fun. MC and I forced him into a dan-man sandwich and took pictures, much to his obvious delight. 

We missed you Kylie! You clearly would've balanced out each of our photos. 

We also went out for a drive on Friday because MC wanted to find some colorful leaves. So mom, Grandma, Aunt Melanie, MC and I packed into old grey and drove through the mountains of PA and took lots of fun pictures. 

Just farmland, mountains, and pretty leaves.

Oh and some cows because mom was positive, "This isn't a driveway, it's a road and it connects back to another road!"

It wasn't a road. It was a farm lane. 

Right now I'm listening to Brett Eldredge and I'm kind of dying inside. He's just such a fantastic country singer and I love him. 

Don't tell Tim Tebow. He doesn't need anything else to worry about right now. 

Seriously, don't say anything to him. He would be devastated. 

Anyway, Fall break couldn't last forever so Saturday afternoon we packed up and headed out.
Grandma loaded me up with some "Driving snacks".

"No grandma, those are peanut chews and I don't need more than 3" was my response.
10 peanut chews in my pocket later, we headed home.
And soon after arriving home, I drove even further south to Raleigh.

Fall break can't last forever.
So before I left, we all gave hugs and said sad goodbyes.
"Goodbye, dad. See you in a few weeks!"

"Yeah just hold on a second. I want to see this last drive."
Don't worry, I didn't take it personally.
And to be fair, it was a big play and I'm pretty sure the Eagles got a first down.
Speaking of Eagles, I'm really praying that their game will be broadcasted down here today.
Eagles v Cowboys- that has to happen today.

Today Mom, Kyle, Liz and I had a long conversation on facebook about how we want to visit The Netherlands real soon. So all afternoon I've been daydreaming about Europe and how awesome it is. 

Like seriously, I know we discussed a theory in Com theory but I couldn't tell you a single thing about it. And I just came from that class. 

I might actually have problems focusing.

And Liz guess what? In my next class my professor actually spent a good 20 minutes discussing the Netherlands! I'm not sure what he was saying, but I know it was about your people.
The class is about Mozart and Vienna, so the whole Netherlands thing really confused me. But I didn't ask questions!
I probably should have...

Freaking daydreaming- why must you be such a great escape?? 

Oh guess what? I got a little bit of a haircut. 

Remember that hair-obsession I used to have?
Yeah, me too.

Here's to hoping that it's not December before I post again!