Another attempt

I thought that I should try again at summarizing our trip last week. But, this time I've decided to take a different approach:

Sunday 11/19 - after several attempts, hubby finally (and successfully) packs up the van and we're off to College Station! There, we meet up with Michael's uncle and mother, who meet in CS every year to Christmas shop. After a chilly picnic on the Texas A&M campus, we meander through the Aggie Bonfire Memorial and discuss our memories of that horrible day. While there, we realize that we are visiting only 1 day after the 7 year anniversary! After saying goodbye to Michael's uncle who had to head home to Dallas, we take the kids over to the polo fields where they are placed into a huge Oak tree for pictures (taken by Grandma with her camera). After running ourselves silly, we say our goodbyes, then head to our friend's house for more fun, dinner and bed.

Monday 11/20 - Our friends have school & work, so we say our goodbyes to them, then head out the door for breakfast. After a yummy hot breakfast at our favorite diner, Denny's, we hit the road for a 3 hour trip to Ft. Worth. Once we arrive at our hotel, we have the fun task of unloading and getting everyone & everything up to the room. After a quick clean-up, we head over to Michael's Grandmother's apartment for a long visit. Around 5PM, we meet up with Michael's aunt & uncle for a yummy Tex-Mex dinner :) Alex & Morgann decide to stay the night with Gma, so Ian, Michael & I head back to the hotel for bed.

Tuesday 11/21 - After a yummy breakfast at the hotel, we load up the van (for the 3rd time now) and head over to Gma's apartment to pick up our crew. From there, we go over to Uncle Joe & Aunt Kathy's for more visiting and fun. We first head to the nearby park for basketball, and lots of climbling, swinging & sliding. Shortly thereafter, we head back for lunch by the pool, then around the front of the house for a rousing game of baseball. When the kids (and the adults) are sufficiently tired-out, we say our goodbyes, then head over to Grand Prairie for a visit with my Grandmother. Upon our arrival to her new apartment, we get the grand tour, then unload the van (again). We decide on grabbing take-out burgers for dinner, so out the door Nana & I go. After dinner, we sit around & visit, then get the kids to bed. To unwind, we watch the movie "50 First Dates".

Wednesday 11/22 - The kids & Nana have breakfast while Michael & I work on getting all of the luggage repacked. Once we are all dressed, we head out the door to see about finding a valance for Nana's living room window. Once purchased, we head to a nearby park for more playing and visiting in the crisp autumn day, with sun & temps in the mid 70's! When tummy's start growling, we head over to a nearby restaurant for lunch, then back to Nana's apartment to hang her valance. We say our goodbye's then head out to the van for another re-load. On the way out, Morgann & Ian have a screaming match over who will 'push the buttons' on the elevator. When Ian wins, Morgann breaks down and begins this squeely, loud sob. All the way through the lobby, both kids are squeeling, screaming and running at break-neck speed to reach the next button - the automatic door opener. Ian wins again, and Morgann melts down one more time. At this stage, Michael's nerves are shot and I am mortified at it all. I drop my bags and head back to scoop up a child while Michael pushes the other one out the door. After loading both luggage and kids, we stop for a quick prayer with my grandmother before heading out for McKinney, which is North of Dallas. An hour & a half later, we arrive at Cori & Chuck doorstep, where we stay for 2 nights :)

Thursday 11/23 - Thanksgiving Day with all the fun & trimmings that entails. The kids (with Cori's assitance and my highly-honed stapling skills) all create their very own Indian costumes, complete with brown-paper-bag vest and construction-paper headbands. Once we've cleaned up our mess, we all head downstairs. The men take the kiddos to a nearby park while Cori & I tackle the task of cooking and organizing our meal. Skipping much detail...... After eating way too much, and enjoying a little wine with our meal, we clean up, then collapse on the floor of their living room to rest (that would be sleep - and that would only be me) or chat. Once the younger kiddos wake up from their naps, we head over to another park for, you guessed it, more playing! We stayed until it got dark, then headed home for baths, a dinner of leftovers (or sandwiches for the kids & Michael), then bed.

Friday 11/24 - My family is beginning to drag, but the kids are still up at the crack of dawn. I finally make it downstairs to see that Cori has already conquered breakfast with the kiddos, so I sat around in my jammies for a bit. When we finally manage to get everyone dressed, Michael & I spend the next 45 minutes attempting to pack our suitcases and locate every missing sock & stuffed animal. Then it's time to pack the van again! While we worked on getting our stuff loaded, Cori spent the better part of that time fixing a yummy picnic lunch - you guessed it, another stop at another park! The weather was awesome during our entire trip, can you tell (and by awesome, I mean highs in the 70's with no clouds, sunny blue skies and only a breeze every now & then)! Anyway, on our way to the park, we make a pit-stop at a local Christian bookstore, where I end up buying way too much stuff, including Christmas cards which I had just told Michael I wanted to send out this year :) We eventually make it to the park, eat our yummy lunches, then hit the playground for about 30 minutes. From there, we're off again, heading back to College Station for another 2 night-stay. The trip was nice & quiet - all 3 kids and myself got a nap while hubby made the drive with only the quiet of his thoughts, and his iPod to keep him awake!

Saturday 11/25 - Our morning begins slowly, but we're finally out the door by 11ish for lunch and another park! We first find a huge Christmas tree where we attempt to take family pictures for our Christmas cards. We end up spending about an hour & a half at the park where the younger kiddos played on the playground, while the boys all played a hard game of touch-football. All-in-all, a very productive fun day :)

Sunday 11/26 - We're up early and heading for home by 10AM! By this point, we're exhausted and ready for our own beds. The kids sit quietly playing in the backseat, while Michael & I attempt to de-compress. Once home, we unpack the van for the final time, then it's up to me to unload the bags, get laundry done, hit the local Target then grocery store to stock up the house, cook dinner, clean up from dinner, and hit the sack!!!

So, there you have it! A long-short version of our 8 days away. We had a wonderful visit and captured special moments on film. That said, we've made our visits and will not be leaving town again anytime soon!!!! If you want to see us, get a map and make the trip :)

Braindead

I've been working on a blog post for no less than 3 days now, and it's about a third of the way finished. I think I'm just going to leave it in 'edit' mode and move on. I was trying to fill you all in on how wonderful, stressful, and exhausting our trip was, then whine about how utterly busy and exhausted I am, but I just haven't been able to sit uninterrupted to finish it.

So, I give up!

Suffice it to say that the trip was long (8 full days) and exhausting, with no less than 841 miles traveled - inside the state and in a city that is only 4 hours away from here! Only in Texas.... But, I think my favorite part was the visit we had with Chuck & Cori (Mommy Stories). We spent Thanksgiving day with them and, I'm proud to report, we managed an entire Thanksgiving meal with not one adult around to help. Well, OK, we're adults now, but sometimes it's hard to remember that we're no longer the teenagers we once were. But, I'm still impressed that between the 2 of us, we managed to produce turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, squash, dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and cake! What a feast it was...I probably gained a few pounds!

For now, I'm busily working on Christmas shopping, Christmas cards, and trying to muster the strength to pull out our 11 year old tree for set-up and decorating. I told Michael that I really wanted to buy a REAL tree this year, but I changed my mind when we went shopping on Tuesday and discovered they were around $65+. I think I'll stick with my fake tree and suck it up when I start getting my yearly rash from putting the lights on the scratchy branches.

Once the decorating has been completed, it's on to my least favorite part of the season...gift wrapping! I was the designated gift wrapper at my house growing up. My mother always made me wrap everyone's gifts - except mine, of course - because I was so anal about how perfect the finished product looked. Each bow had to be a perfect match to the paper, color coordination was a must, and every corner had to be sharp and precise. Some things never change! I'm still just as anal about it, but now I loathe the whole process. Of course, it doesn't help that some of our gift wrap is as old as my marriage (11 years and counting)! I'm just tired of looking at it! Every year, I buy a new roll or 2, then do my best to use up the old stuff, but I just can't bring myself to do it. Even our family comments on how old the paper is and how they remember seeing it, again & again, each and every year! So, I think I've decided that while Michael isn't looking, I'm going to toss it out and just buy all new paper. The local party store sent out a flier announcing "50 Yard Rolls of Christmas Gift Wrap for only 69 cents" so I just can't pass up the opportunity to look at something new. Maybe new paper will make wrapping all of the gifts less of a chore and more enjoyable...though I highly doubt it!

Happy Turkey Day!

Well, we're getting ready to leave town, so my ability to blog is pretty much non-existent. We'll be leaving on Sunday, returning the following Sunday, with lots of car-time in the middle. Though we're only venturing a few hundred miles from home, we'll be all over Dallas & Ft. Worth. I'm sort of dreading being in the car with the kids, but am hoping for a small miracle - you know, no arguing, no complaining, and no accidents :)

Anyway, I just wanted to wish you all a wonderful holiday week! Have fun, enjoy the company of family (or maybe strangers) and remember to be thankful while over-indulging :)

A Trouble-maker at Work!

Last week, this is how my son appeared when he was called upstairs for his bath (notice the big smile?). After some research, I discovered my makeup bag on the floor of my bathroom, totally empty, makeup scattered all over the place. But, more specifically, my mascara was open and laying on the floor - thank God none of it got on the carpet!



This is a picture of my bathroom carpet. No less than 2 nights later, Ian decided to 'color' my carpet with my black, waterproof mascara. I called my neighbor in a panic asking her for carpet cleaning advice. She suggested eye-makeup remover. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but after 30 minutes of squirting and scrubbing, this is what I'm left with!



This is the scene of today's crime! He used the dishwasher as a step-stool - pretty smart kid when he wants to be! He gets his brains from my side of the family :)



This is the evidence! This is a jar of peanut butter that had just been opened last week. It was more than two-thirds full as of this afternoon's lunch, but is now two-thirds empty. He apparently has the skill-set to remove a lid from a jar. Who knew?



This is the culprit, and he smells like 1 big peanut!

So, if anyone is wondering why I haven't posted in a while, you can find me at the local insane assylum!!! Send your Get Well cards to "Ian's Mommy" or "That Poor, Poor Woman!" Either way, I'm sure they'll find me since I'll be the one in the white coat that buttons up the back!

Just for Fun :)

Here is a picture of: Spider Man, my Beautiful Ballerina Girl....and Grumpy the Clown! I'm not sure I'll ever get a picture of him smiling...