back from the heartland

We got up early today to hit the road and get back home. It was really tough to leave Jamie's mom. I know that today and the rest of this week will be remarkably more difficult without us there to distract her, and I know she has so much to figure out and get done, and it's really hard to think of her struggling at all. But she's a tough cookie, and I'm sure she'll get through this all right. I just wish we could help her more.We left Kansas City a little later than expected, and we hit a ton of construction on the road, which made for a very slow travel day. Oh, and btw, this new Kia Jamie got? Wow is it comfortable. It is rare for me to sit in a car for seven hours straight and not have any back pain. If you're looking into a new SUV, I gotta say, I am just loving this Sorento (and sadly, no I'm not getting paid to say so).But we got home around 6 and enjoyed a big plate of delicious BBQ that we brought back with us before unpacking and going to pick up our collie, who we missed tremendously when we were gone. Sadly, I'm not sure he would say the same. He got to stay with his Aunt Nancy, and wow does she have an amazing back yard and other dogs and she feeds them much more interesting things (like raw heart! and liver! and other gross organs!). So we are pretty lame to return to, but nonetheless we still caught him kissing Memphis' face. BUSTED.Oh yeah. And I should tell you about the photo, eh? I shot this at a bathroom break in the middle of Iowa. I loved all of the pumpkins in the back of this truck in front of the Amish store. I did not like the anti-Obama sticker, so I cropped it out. Creative license, you know.