Into the land of the living

On Friday we made the three hour drive to Des Moines, Iowa. Scottie needed to get his military id card, and Gracie and I needed to go somewhere other than Wal-Mart. It was a really good trip. I think it was something we all needed. Although Grace wasn't too thrilled with the length of the trip. Hey- that's what happens when you move to the middle of no where; it takes forever to get anywhere exciting. Ok, normally I wouldn't say the Iowa is exciting but after living in Kirksville any city with a population over 20,000 is exciting. So after Scottie got his id card, which took all of five minutes, we went to my favorite place in the world. That's right --- TARGET!! I don't know why I love it so much. Maybe because it has so much stuff you don't really need, but somehow it draws you in and you think you need all of it. We didn't go too crazy since we are leaving for Florida next weekend and we need to save all the money we can; just so we can spend it down there. :) By the way, that first picture shows that I need some Florida sun asap! Gracie went nuts shopping for clothes in Target. She is starting to take a real interest in her appearance, to the point where she is refusing to wear some outfits because she doesn't like the way she looks in them. I almost cried the first time she did it because it made me realize she isn't a baby/toddler anymore. Gone are the days when you could grab anything out of the closet and slap it on her without any input. :( So she got to pick out her Easter dress and she vetoed several shirts I picked out. It didn't matter because I was in Target and I wasn't in Kirksville. After that we went to the mall just to walk around. Gracie rode the carousel in the food court. She picked to creepiest cat to ride on. I found it a little disturbing for the cat to have a fish dangling out of it's mouth and it's giant yellow eyes. (It made me think of Micheal Jackson in Thriller when he turned into the werewolf, ok now I'm just dating myself) It didn't matter to her, she loved riding on the cat. In fact she cried all the way out of the mall because we wouldn't let her ride it again. It was getting late and we had a long drive ahead of us, so we didn't get to eat anywhere fancy. But it wasn't a big deal because we got to eat at Arby's, which is something we haven't done in probably a year. I have to say my experience in Kirksville has taught me to appreciate a lot of things I took for granted in Indianapolis. It also makes things like shopping and going out to eat seem like a real treat. So there are some positives to living in no where's ville. (I'm sure every English teacher I ever had would be screaming at that last sentence. I don't care, I like making up words like no where's ville!)