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I am back from my trip! I did manage to get quite a bit done. I put down salt to kill fleas, and when I got home, I bathed the dogs with lemon juice as this is also a flea killer. I didn't mop, and in hindsight that's probably wise because I had three wet Labs shaking water everywhere.

Will and I drove down together. I had about 4 hours of sleep, but I managed to arrive at his house on time. We talked a lot, he bought me coffee, and all in all it was nice. After that nothing went as planned. His children were already in Ft. Rucker with their grandparents. We thought we would pick them up Sunday afternoon, go swimming, then the four of us would drive home. Instead, both Will's sister and his parents were being run ragged by two hyper little boys so Will's sister handed them off to us at the first opportunity. Our host was expecting two adults, not two adults and two kids. I worried about the boys tearing up Jesse's house, but we managed to survive the weekend without breaking anything (that I know of). Jesse seemed delighted to cook for all of us, and it must not have been too bad of a trip because he invited us back. Will also managed to get the tractor completely repaired and I'm sure that helped with Jesse's good mood.

I took a lot of pictures, but I probably won't be posting until tomorrow or the next day because I'd like to sort them out and Google seems to be acting stupid. Twice I have typed in a URL and ended up on an unrelated page. I'm just not trusting Blogger to properly load anything. The computer has already froze once.

If I had to pick an underlying theme of this trip, I'd say it was home. Will and I saw a lot of run-down buildings, but we saw twice as many houses lovingly restored and well maintained. I was charmed by the towering oaks in front yards and porches that wrapped at least halfway around the house. Gardening was also a big theme. History seemed to be outlined in bold colors. I mean literally; I saw Victorian Era houses painted green or bright blue or even a peachy orange. About 85% of the doors had big tulle wreaths.

All these old houses made me think of my house and how I live. I am more determined than ever to fix my place up. I thought of several house magick post ideas. I am eager to make things better, to make life easier, and I can't wait to get started.