What Do You Remember?

I called M yesterday to tell her that I had gotten our plane tickets for this summer. She asked me how old Katie was, I said she just turned 11. Then she said you do know we were only a year older that summer....

That summer. It was 1989. It seems like a long time ago. M and E, were 12, I was much older at 14 (Ha!). We spent our usual week at the lake house. It was there that an uncle asked us if we wanted a beer. The only rule was we had to finish it if we wanted it. I think we each had 3 and he cut us off after that.

That summer. It was also the summer we snuck out of g-ma's house and ran the streets of PoDunk. That was back in the day when pop still came in glass bottles. They worked great for spin the bottle.

It is really weird for me to think this way, that I can think back to when I was her age and remember some of the things I was doing. My best girl from college always says I can't wait to tell her the things we used to do. Um, stop the truck right there sister friend, I am so not ready for her to hear "some" of those things yet, and some day you will have kids and turn about is fair play.

I hope that K has some of these same moments, times she can think back to, and remember the things she did as a kid, when she was just a kid herself.

Trip Wrap-Up

I know, we have been home almost a week and I am just now getting around to this.


So, this is where we went. Now we didn't get there without a few hangs up....

We were scheduled to leave Phoenix Sunday morning at 6:30 a.m. which meant we got up at 3:00, to leave the house by 4:00. By the time we dropped off the truck and got in line it was about 5:15 a.m. The line at the ticket counter was about 200 people long. There are never long lines at our airport, especially so early in the morning. It should have been our first clue. We drug our suitcases to the end of the long-o-line only to have the guy in front of us say something about our flight being cancelled. Right after that we heard our friends name being paged to pick up a white paging phone. I told Hubs to hang tight I was going to find out what was going on. I worked my way to the front of the line to see our friends next up to the counter. I very nicely pushed my way in to find out what was up. Seems the bad weather in Texas the day before grounded a bunch of flights and there were no planes. I quick called the Hubs and told him to drap our crap to the front of the line NOW! because M was working with the agent to keep 6 of us together. (Hubs told the guy who had told him about the flight being cancelled we were line at the wrong airline and I was calling to let him know).

Our original flight had us going from PHX to DFW to Nassau. The agent was able to get us on a later flight Sunday morning, we would then stay the night in DFW then get to Nassau a day later than we had planned. We did a quick group huddle and after listening to others try and work out flights we went with it. We should have been a group of 24, we turned out to be a group of 6. The rest of our group didn't make it out until Tuesday.

Once we were through security we jumped on our cell phones trying to locate a hotel room once we got to Dallas. We were lucky enough to find ONE room. 6 adults one hotel room. We were off to a great start.

Let the fun times begin. We got to Dallas, claimed our bags and worked our way out to the curb to wait for the shuttle from the hotel. Now, I told them we had 6 adults. Ready for this? They picked us ALL up in one Explorer. The driver was not happy, nor was I. I explained several times I told them we had 6 people. The driver not so nicely told me we had more bags than 6 people should have. Now, who is he to tell us how many bags we could have. The airlines allow 2 per person so he should have assumed that we would have at least that. We had 13 bewteen the six of us. In we all piled, then the drive proceeded to pile different suitcases on our laps, between our legs, under our feet and anyplace else he could find to stick them. Good thing is was only about a 10 minute ride.

So when we get to the hotel guess what? Exactly. Our room wasn't ready. We were surrounded by an industrial area. We noticed a hotel bar at the end of a hall. The desk clerk told us it wasn't open yet, but they could take us to a neighboring hotel that had a restaurant and sports bar in it that were open. We checked our bags and piled back into the Explorer. After about 4 hours and $400.00 later we were ready to head back to our hotel.

Upon arrival at our home away from home for the evening, that really wasn't quite the same as being in the Bahama's, we were told that their bar was CLOSED on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. I think they are a bit backasswards in good ol' DFW. To make it better we were also in a dry county. I had no idea they even HAD dry counties anymore. Now what were we going to do? The boys went off to befriend the shuttle driver ,slip him a few greenbacks, and have him take them to the next county to pick up some boos. Guess what? Yeah, in Texas you can only buy beer on Sundays. We are much more mixed drink and shots types of people, but in a pinch I guess the beer would have to do. While they were out they picked up a delicious dinner of bean dip and pork rinds.

Gosh, we aren't even there yet and I am tired of typing about it. If you are so inclined, click on the flickr badge to see some of our pictures.

I'll be back later with more, which I promise is more fun than bean dip and beer.

Hitting The Slopes

We are going skiing this weekend. I am not sure if I am excited about it or not. I haven't even started a list yet and we are leaving tomorrow!

We are going with friends, who are more of the Hubs friends than they are my friends if you know what I mean. I like to know every detail of something before I do it. They are way go with the flow type of people. I am sure everything will be fine, I will just bring 2 bottles of tequilla rather than the one I planned on to help me loosen up if need be.

Ha- I so suck at balance in my tennis shoes, lets add skis and alcohol to the mix and see what happens. That would bite the big one to have to lay on the beach in a body cast in a`few weeks. Maybe one bottle will be enough after all.

Another thing about skiing? In case you aren't a rocket scientist like I am, it is going to be cold. With snow. Two of my least favorite things. Which means layers and layers of clothes. Which in turn means piles and piles of laundry. Laundry which I hate more than the cold and snow combined.

I am looking foward to watching Katie having fun, sitting by a warm fire and of course the tequilla.

Pictures

Goodies from the Cl0set Swap.

Because I have no time, nor the patience to screw with the HTML captions are as follows:

The hubs truck was full of bags, bags and more bags!

Jorden making sure we were trying to sneak anything in on her.

And then there is Magoo, who is just always right there, unless you want her to be.

All Swaped Out

The Closet swap was a good time had by all. No new purses to take home and love this year but there were lots of other goodies. We filled the back seat of the hubs truck with our finds and noticed lots of other people taking gobs of junk as well.

3 new, as in the tags still on them, pairs of jeans, 2 pairs of shoes, and a sweater for me. The girl scored some new to her duds, as well as a pair of gloves that she needed for skiing this weekend!

It really is a fun thing and easy to do. Invite all your friends and just go for it. If you are worried about having a bunch of stuff left over just call ahead and arrange for a local charity to come a few days later and pick up the left overs. If you want to know what works for us when we do it and have any questions I will be happy to answer them!!

I will add pictures later. Darn work for getting in the way of blogging.

Sisters, Gotta Love Um

The girl's best friend is the oldest of 3 girls. M1 is 10, M2 is 7, and M3 is 5. Another friend of both of our families just got engaged and wanted M3 to be her flower girl.


Friend: M3, would you like to be the flower girl at my wedding? You will walk down the aisle with S, and carry a basket with flowers in it.

M3: I don't know....

Friend: You will get a pretty new dress to wear to the wedding

M3: Ok, I want to do it. I am sure M1 and M2 already have something in their closets they can wear.

She is too cute. Nothing like looking out for your sisters. Atta girl M3.

Home Again

We had a great time in the Lone Star State! I think surrounded by the friends we were with we could have had fun in a cardboard box though.

Here is a recap...

• The lines at the airport we CRAZY! It was a good thing we left when the hubs wanted to and not when I thought we should. We barely made our flight (and we short cut in line, shhh) and we were there 2 hours before.
• Little Mister was waiting for us at the airport and yelled "Auntie Mar" at the top of his lungs when he saw me!
• Little Mister's daddy learned the difference bewteen a "cargo" and a "passenger" van.
• With all of us piled into the van all weekend we felt just like this family. We called each other So and So Duggar all weekend.
• The big boys were like kids on Christmas morning when they found out they could buy fireworks. (They are illegal here). Wanna guess how long it takes to light and shoot off $350.00 worth of fireworks?
• Before the kids exchanged gifts Little Mister and Katie were playing on the floor and LM started to spill the beans. I quickly clapped my hand over his mouth so he wouldn't tell. When I pulled my hand away he said "I was just going to tell you that I loved you".
• Baby Brother wasn't feeling well and was having a hard time sleeping through the night. Once when I got up with him and brought him back to the pull out sofa where hubs and I were sleeping. I kinda dozed off and when I looked over Baby Brother was rubbing hubs head over and over. It melted my heart.
• It didn't snow while were there, but boy was it cold! We are such wimps.
• Lesson learned: We should have taken the bump at the airport coming home and had free tickets to go back again. Next time, next time!

All in all, it was a great time had by all. We sure do miss our friends and can't wait to see them again.

Pictures are coming!

What We Did

We did the dishes.

We did the laundry.

We fought over toys.

We showed Flat Stanley a fabulous time.

And best of all, the gang was all together again!

Is There An Echo In Here?

Why is it when you have someplace you really really really want to go the clock moves soooo slowly. I can hear my mother now "Mar, a watched pot never boils". Uugh!!


The girl was being a real pickle head this morning. This is what she does when I go away. I think it is her own little silent revenge. I know you are wondering where she got this nice little stubborn streak. I can hear my mother now "Mar, the apple doesn't fall from the tree". Uugh!!


The dogs saw the suitcase this morning (Yeah, so what I am now taking a suitcase rather than a carry on) and gave me the cold shoulder. They glared at me like they were angry with me. I can hear my mother now "Mar, dogs get mad, people get angry". Uugh!!

An hour to go. I think I can make it. I am off for a last check of my favorite blogs and email. They don't have high speed internet in the armpit of the world I am visiting. Boss man's friend asked where I was going and when he told her she said "Who would want to go there?". I do dammit and I want to go NOW!!!

Its Not The Destination Its Who Is There Waiting When You Get Off The Plane

Tomorrow night I am hopping a plane to go and visit Little Mister. It will be a short trip, but a trip to see him and his fine family none the less. They moved the first part of October and boy does it seem like it has been a lifetime ago. I tried several times to post about them moving and I just couldn't find the right words. Lets just say there were lots of tears from Little Mister's Momma and I the day that they moved. He was quite proud of himself that he was not crying and pronounced himself a "Big Boy". When I bought my tickets about a month ago I called to tell momma I was coming. Little Mister was nice enough to talk to me on the phone that day. I said "I am going to come to your new house and see you". He said "Your not going to be a cry baby again are you?". 3 is such a cute age.

Baby brother is growing by leaps and bounds from what I hear from his momma and in the pictures she sends. He is crawling and pulling himself up on furniture. Stop I say. Just stop. I am going to be brokenhearted if he plays shy and doesn't remember me.

We have a fun filled function at school this evening so I packed my bag last night. I started with the few things I have gotten for the boys. Here a pile, there a pile. The suitcase was full before I ever even got anything of mine in it. Maybe just a carry-on isn't going to work so well for me. I told the hubs, you know its love when I made sure all their stuff was in the suitcase before I ever even considered where the shoes would go. The weekend is going to fly by. To bad tomorrow is going to drag on like you wouldn't believe. I will be back Sunday night with more pictures than my 512MB memory card can hold and enough hugs and kisses from Little Mister and baby brother to get me to New Year's when we will see them again.