four months later

I could have let this go.  But they were nice pictures.  And once a couple of months ago, Cory the page told me he was really looking forward to this post.  So, imaginary readers, blame Cory the page.


Way back in May on the lovely whole family vacation, we went to the National Zoo.  It was sweltering, but we saw lots of animals, and Ring got her stuff naked mole rat.  And I got a panda magnet and a Christmas ornament.

 The last time I was at the National Zoo I think there was a baby panda.  I can remember that the panda was inside and there were lines to wait and see them.  We had to work a little harder this time to get to the right spot to see this guy in his habitat, and we didn't see him (or maybe her) too up-close, but I got some good shots anyway.

 I don't know which of the pandas this was though.

 The elephant house is being remodeled right now, but you can still see the elephants when they go out for their exercise.  They had just gotten to their pool to cool off when we got to see them.  This guy was very entertaining.

 He splashed and floated around and played with his toys.

 Then a friend came to play.

 

 He was a little more hesitant about plunging right in.

 But eventually the heat won him over.

 

 They have lowland gorillas which are much smaller (and less impressive) than the mountain gorillas that we have in Little Rock, but this guy did pose nicely.

 The daddy was sitting up on top.

 Mommy and baby were hanging out below.

 Then in a move that seemed choreographed, they switched places.  Look at that baby!

 There was also an incident involving the gorillas drinking urine that grossed out everyone and sent us on to the next set of animals.

 I love the big turtles.  Always.

 The orangutans at the National Zoo take the O-line from their house to another area where they spend time during the day.  None of them were in the house when we were there, so we were hoping to see them climbing across the line at some point.  I went in search of a bench in the shade while everyone else went through the reptile house, so my moma and I were the only ones who got to see this guy.

 Lions are so lazy.

 

 I really wanted him to hold his head up, but no luck.

 The tigers were super-lazy too.

 But the cheetah was ready to perform.

 

 Pacing . . .

  . . . prancing . . . 

 

  . . . and making a certain three-year-old cheetah-loving boy's day.

Some hot but cute girls.

There were lots more animals that we saw, but I didn't get pictures of everything.  I was probably busy talking animal business with one of the kiddos or doing continual head counts.  It was so crowded for most of the day, and I discovered that I'm more paranoid than I realized I would be about losing one of the Handful.

Speaking of the Handful: 

Man, I like those kids.

And I am officially finished blogging our DC trip.  Thanks for reliving the journey with me.

the vacation diary: days ten through seventeen

Yes, I'm really still doing this.  I need to finish something in my life, and here's where I've taken my stand.  Judge away.  I have taken the liberty of combining the last eight days of vacation because honestly I remember very little at this point.

Highlights:

Day 10:  Most of my nearest and dearest departed for their homes on Labor Day.  Ring got to travel back with Michelle's crew instead of her own and spent a night at Nana's without her parents--the first time she's done that.  Pinkie and Thumb (and Susan) looked sad and uncertain about it all as they drove away without her, but I think it worked out fine (or if it didn't, no one mentioned it to me).  We did a bit more family hanging out on Monday and shared our Christmas cabin research with some of the aunts and cousins, where it was met with excitement.  After the last car had rolled out heading towards Kentucky, I headed home to become a vacation slug once more.  I'm pretty sure the Gilmore Girls were heavily involved.

Day 11:  It's all a blur of tv and internet and living in a cave of laziness, which means it was a successful day. 

Day 12:  I resolved on facebook to do at least one useful thing on Wednesday, but it took a while to get there with my standard morning of sleep, tv, and internet.  Jess was home on Wednesday, but she went somewhere in the afternoon.  I forget where.  I was messing around on facebook and saw that Lisa had posted a photo of the first carpet tiles going down in our department, and I got really excited to see it in person.  I had some holds to pick up anyway, so I went to the library.  I got to see the progress being made on the renovation, and I ended up working for about an hour and a half.  I had also forgotten to fill in my vacation on my timesheet, so it was handy that I had the impulse to go in.  By the time I wrapped things up at work, I had to book it home to pick up Jess to head to church.  That felt like a normal Wednesday.  I continued work on the little baby hat while at church.  Jess had heard at work that Tropical Smoothie was having some sort of special that week in the evenings, so we went there and discovered that the special was in the afternoons, but I enjoyed our time there, nonetheless. 

Day 13:  The night before I made a plan with Jess to go to lunch and then to paint pottery.  Then I overslept because obeying alarms is for people who have to work.  We eventually made it to lunch--and missed any lunch crowd we might have encountered, if I'd gotten up on time--at Senor Tequila.  When we got to Firefly, Jess decided she would just watch me paint instead of painting herself.  I was working on a project that will eventually be a gift for a person who might read this, so I won't say more than that for now.  We didn't really have much of a deadline, but Jess was meeting some folks to go to a boxing class at 6:15, so we just needed to be home in time for her to change and drive back across the river.  Unfortunately, our late start combined with the fact that I'm the slowest pottery painter in the world meant that I really had to hustle at the end, and then various unfortunate traffic patterns around the greater Little Rock area almost made her late again, but she made it eventually.

Day 14:  I don't recall anything that happened early in the day on Friday, but the main event was my triumphant return to the movies.  I hadn't been to see a movie in the theater in forever.  I seriously can't remember the last time, but I'm decently certain it was in 2009.  Rob, Smon, Hailsey, and I went to see The Switch, and it turned out to be pretty good thing.  We had sort of stopped going to the movies for a while because it seemed like we were only seeing really bad ones, so it was kind of special for us all to see one that we didn't hate.  Jason Bateman redeemed himself with Robyn, who was still carrying a grudge from The Ex.  I'm glad they made up because I love Jason Bateman.  We laughed and had a good time and felt delighted that our good movie drought was over.  Everyone came over to my messy house afterward to talk about teaching school and lazy vacations and stuff.

Day 15:  Jess worked most of the day, so I did even less than normal.  At some point either on Thursday or Saturday I watched The Ugly Truth, which I had checked out from the library.  It was okay, I guess.  Nothing to write home about certainly.  I know there was a situation (because it's recorded on facebook) where I was having to choose between hunger and laziness.  I resolved it by venturing out into the world for some drive-through fast food.  I was also hankering something sweet and needed to to buy a birthday card.  I ended up going to Walgreens.  After some aimless wandering from cookies to candy to Halloween candy and back again, I decided that what I really wanted was s'mores, so I gathered up the materials for that.  Buying graham crackers at Walgreens is the least economical decision I made during the whole vacation.

Day 16:  Laziness was put on hold so that I could get to church way early, keep nursery, and teach four-year-olds again.  I fell in love with a beautiful little toddler named Christian, who really wanted his mother but settled for snuggling with me and occasionally crying gorgeous tears.  When I got to Bible class, I discovered that Christian's mother was the lead teacher who'd been out of town the first week.  While I was sitting in the floor with my four-year-olds, telling/reading the story of David and Goliath, I noticed that my back started hurting in a weird spot.  By the time class was over, it was getting difficult to ignore.  By the time we ate lunch at Cracker Barrel, I was in serious need of a bed.  I spent the afternoon alternating between the bed and couch in search of a comfortable position.  Shane had finally given me Gilmore Girls season 6, so I had some distraction from the pain.  I decided to forgo two car rides and an hour in a pew, and after trying every possible position in the floor, I found a relative amount of ease in the recliner.  Eventually I staggered to bed and slept uncomfortably.

Day 17:  Monday was meant to have been my first day back at work, but when I woke up, my back still hated me--though perhaps less than it hated me on Sunday.  I decided to give it one more day of resting to see if it would shape up.  Plus our department was closed for one final day on Monday to put things back in place after the great carpet upheaval.  I might have been able to handle sitting calmly at a desk in a comfortable chair, but I knew my back had no business pushing carts or lifting stacks of books, and I knew if I was mixed up in all that work stuff, I'd do something stupid.  So I stayed at home.  But since the laziness was sanctioned by my sore back, I felt even less guilt about my slug-like tendencies than I did when I was actually on vacation, which is why I finished season 6 of the Gilmore Girls in just over 24 hours and still got a full night's sleep.  At this point in the vacation, there was no more food left in the house--and cooking wasn't high on my list of priorities anyway, so I think I ordered pizza Monday night while Jess was at work.

And on Tuesday, I faced the music and went back to work--with a mostly pain-free back.  I still don't know what was up with that.  I'd like to be able to tell you that I went back to work rested and energized and eager to dive back into satisfying and important work.  But mostly I showed up and survived and started counting down the days to the next vacation.  I know you are too, imaginary readers.

Food consumed:  Aunt Donna made sloppy joes on Monday.  I hadn't tried one in years, as they have always been high on the list of things I don't eat, but I decided to give them another chance--since the reintroduction of sweet potatoes went so well last year, I've known that my taste buds had changed.  I actually enjoyed it, so the official list of foods I hate is down to just three, I think:  fish and cowboy beans and grits.  Actually there are probably more things on the list, but those are the three that I always remember.  At home during the week, I ate leftover spaghetti and leftover brownies and leftover pineapple cheese dip.  I'm pretty sure chips and salsa and pepperonis and crackers were consumed.  I might have eaten ice cream, and I think I made grilled cheese a time or two.  I can't remember what the name of the smoothie was that I had on Wednesday, but it definitely had orange and pineapple and strawberry and maybe banana.  I also had a sandwich there, but I don't remember what kind.  I had my usual fajita nachos with no beans at Senor Tequila and discovered that their fruit punch can't compare to Mexico Chiquito's.  Friday we ate at Great Wraps before the movie, where I reunited with the best curly fries in the world.  We also ate movie popcorn, which is a rare treat for me.  That night I went to Walgreens, I had a hamburger from Hardee's and microwaved s'mores, which were just what I wanted.  At Cracker Barrel on Day 16, they brought me green beans instead of cabbage, and the cabbage was important enough that I had to have it too, so I ended up with an extra vegetable to go along with my chicken tenderloins, so I ate a bunch and still got to take home chicken, green beans, cabbage, hash brown casserole, and biscuits, but I think I ate all the carrots the first go round.  Extra leftovers came in handy during the back drama.  For the second time, I had a spinach, bacon, alfredo pizza from Dominos, and it was a delight.  Please do not consider this an exhaustive list, but you get the idea.

Bright spots:
Day 10:  family time
Day 11:  Gilmore Girls
Day 12:  smoothie
Day 13:  pottery painting
Day 14:  Robyn, Smonica, Hailey (who hasn't earned her place in the middle, even in a list)
Day 15:  s'mores
Day 16:  sweet, pretty little babies who snuggle
Day 17:  Gilmore Girls

Thus ended the chronicle of the least interesting vacation ever taken.  You're welcome.

the vacation diary: day nine

I've just realized that things have started to go dim.  That's why should write in a diary daily and not try to catch up on it three weeks after the fact.  Sometimes failure is exhausting.  Let's see what info I can scrape together about this particular day.

Day 9 stats:

Wake-up time:  6:28 a.m. Method:  naturally, if there's anything natural about waking up before an alarm in the pre-dawn hours. General mood:  Considerably unenthusiastic about getting out of bed.

Agenda:  I sprang out of bed to start getting ready for church because I could not be late.  There was nursery to keep, and I wanted to make a good impression.  The ironing board at Shane's house is an over-the-door number, which normally folds down into the Spider-Man room.  The night before when she was putting Bird to bed in there, Michelle took it off the door so that ironing could be done after the little darling was asleep.  I discovered the hard way that it wouldn't fit on the back door, and the only doors that it might fit on were bedroom doors where folks were still slumbering, so I ironed in the floor.  I'm sure it was a hoot to watch, but fortunately no one was around to witness it.

I got to church in plenty of time to be charming for the nursery babies.  With Jess as my able assistant, we ran herd on what eventually became a group of six or seven babies.  I had to change two really dirty diapers, but they were otherwise very sweet.  When it was time to leave, I had a clinger, who cried every time I tried to put him down.  It was flattering, but also kinda sad.

I left the nursery to head for my first week of being a teacher in the 4-year-old classroom.  Apparently this year's crop of four-year-olds is one of the smallest they've had in recent years, but you won't catch me complaining abut that.  We split the kids up and rotate them through centers, and for September I do the Bible story center, so I got to talk to them about King Saul.  I didn't share any of the insights I gleaned my from most recent reading of I Samuel, but I think we learned something important anyway.  I like four-year-olds, and I think it's going to be a fun quarter with them.

After Bible class, I hightailed it out of there, so we could head to Beebe to get our feed on. 

After lunch, the kiddos put on their suits to spend another afternoon flying down the slide.  Cousin, scholar, theologian and #1 blog fan and I stayed inside for a while watching Grams hold precious little Josie.  I started a conversation with him that I had brought up with my moma, Michelle, and Shane in the car on the way to the Beeb.  I asked why it seemed as though our family placed such an emphasis on valuing humor.  Being funny is like a badge of honor to most of us, and that doesn't necessarily seem to be a trait that I see everyone else valuing in the way that we do.  Mac's initial response, "because we're not pretty enough to value beauty," seemed to prove my point for me.  We spent a big chunk of the afternoon discussing who the funniest people in the family were--with the input of the various family members passing through the living room.  We also reminisced about our patriarch of funny, Gramps.  My moma did her spot-on impression of him in a story.  I love it when she does that.  I forgot at the time but have since remembered one of my favorite stories about him from before I knew him.  When he used to drop my moma and MacMac off at school, he would sing "These Boots Were Made for Walking" out the window as they climbed the long flight up steps to the front door.  Bless him, he wasn't much of a singer, and they were mortified by it, which was the point.  It was a fun afternoon of stories.

We also watched Pointer's drama camp performance video.  Baby girl went to a day camp for two weeks, and they put on a production of Seuss on Stage at the end of the camp.  Originally, she was Jungle Citizen #3 and had just a few lines, but when Gertrude McSomething-I-Forgot got braces and couldn't do the performance, our girl got called up as her understudy.  It was a big part, and she was precious.  She also did drawing for her talent in the camp talent show, which led to the director using several of her illustrations in the program for the show.  If they hadn't spelled her name wrong in the program (twice), I would have assumed she ran the place.  I t was a really fun show, and I couldn't believe how great it looked after only nine days of rehearsals.

As the afternoon wound down, I eventually made my way outside to see the water-sliders.  MacMac had been told about a leak in it that the guy had sewn up before he delivered it, and he warned her it might start to leak again.  It was definitely worse for wear by late Sunday afternoon.  It had lost some height and therefore some speed from Saturday, but they were still loving it.  We were just about to make them stop for the day when MacMac said that it was a shame that she'd paid all the money for it and had it all weekend and still hadn't slid down it.  We all encouraged her to go for it.  When she started making excuses about having to go put on her suit for one quick slide, Aunt Donna said she should just go in her clothes--and she did. 

It was even funnier in real life.  As soon as Aunt Donna said it, MacMac hopped up like she was going to do it right that second.  Everyone cheered and then screamed for her to stop while we called everyone who was inside to come out.  By the time we would let her go up--with cameras rolling, she had lost a bit of her bounce, and so had the slide of course.  But it was still a great moment.

We stuck around the Beeb and ate and played until past bedtime and made the trek back to NLR one final time.  Pinkie fell asleep in the car, and I carried him in again.  That boy is getting so long--and heavy, but it was the only good snuggling I got out of him, so I'm not complaining.  Once the rest of the Handful were tucked away for the night, we sat around talking about funniest family members and Christmas plans.  We have a new tradition in the making right now that includes all thirty-one of us going somewhere and staying together for a few days after Christmas to celebrate.  We're still working out the details, but my little family got pretty excited about the details.  I can't wait.

Food consumed:  I didn't have time for breakfast, but I did have a bit of breakfast casserole when I got home from church.  For lunch we had chicken and dumplings and the third pan of Cajun dressing that we didn't eat the night before plus the accompanying vegetables and delightfulness.  We were still working on leftover birthday desserts and such too.  I'm pretty sure I stuck with the chocolate sheet cake, though I did have a piece of strawberry at some point.  Sunday night we ordered pizza and kept working on those desserts--and the Woo Pig Chewy ice cream.  At Shane's house there were brownies and rice krispy treats and more pineapple cheese dip, and I can't guarantee I didn't eat some of those as well. 

Bright spot:  That moment of cheery high spirits when MacMac hopped up to slide down the water slide in her clothes--the actual event was not as unifying and fun as the instant when we all realized she was really going to do it.  It was just so hilarious.

Bedtime:  I'm really not certain, but I think it was in the neighborhood of one.

the vacation diary: day eight

This paragraph used to say something different about the number of days I was behind and how things had started to go wrong, but even those few sentences are out of date now.  But since one loyal reader actually cares about what happened on the eighth day, I'm going to forge ahead.  This is for you, most loyal of fans.

Day 8 stats:

Wake-up time:  7:09 a.m. Method:  naturally--if you can say that there's anything natural about voluntarily waking before a 7:30 alarm.  General mood:  Looking forward to making breakfast and celebrating birthdays and stuff.

Agenda:  I worked on breakfast solo for a while, but the little boys and Joshua were up before too long.  I offered them delightful choices of homecooking, but Pinkie wanted a PopTart because he has no taste.  Thumb did eat one of the things I offered, but it wasn't even the really good one.  After that other folks began to trickle in from various beds, and the grown-ups at least appreciated my efforts.  Actually I think Pointer and Bird ended up eating my cooking too, but Ring had PopTarts too.  Losers.

The kiddos were excited to get out into Uncle Shane's back yard, so we sent them out of our hair for a while.  Jess came over for breakfast, and we sent her out to play with the other kids.  Eventually we had to haul the smelly things back inside so that the birthday folks could open their presents.  We were jointly celebrating Susan, Shane, and my moma, and they ended up with some good stuff, I think.  Pointer and Bird painted some pottery for my moma, which was a big hit.  As a self-proclaimed pottery painting expert, I can tell you those girls are good.

Once the presents were opened, the first shift left for the Beeb and the giant inflatable water slide.  Michelle and I still weren't ready, so we stayed behind to come later.  Jess stayed to entertain us since she had to work that afternoon and couldn't go play.  The Popster also brought me a cord to connect my mp3 player to my computer (faithful readers will recall that I couldn't find mine back on day 1), so I spent some time while my hair was air-drying removing the Christmas music and adding some new music.  During that process I got a phone call from the lady who's coordinating nursery workers at church this month.  I didn't mention this back on day five, but I agreed to do the toddler nursery during first service for three of the four weeks this month.  I originally hadn't committed to Labor Day Sunday because I didn't know what exactly we'd be doing, but I told her that if she could find someone to cover the first week, I could do the others.  When she called on Saturday, she was actually just trying to verify which service I'd said I'd cover, but she did mention that she was having a really hard time finding a sub for me, so I said I could do it, and then she asked if I could find someone to help me, and I knew I could boss Jess into doing it, so I got to mark a couple of things off her list.  Eventually, both Michelle and I were ready, so we headed to the Beeb, leaving Jess to fend for herself until she went to work.  Poor weekend-working Jess.

When we got to MacMac's, the water-sliding was in full force.  Even the fun grown-ups joined in the fun (though I never got a picture of Robyn when she was actually sliding and Dixie had already called it quits by the time I got the camera out):

Thumb was so little and slid so fast that the landing was pretty scary for him.  Once Alicia started catching him, he had a lot more fun.

Elijah was just about finished sliding by the time I got here, but I got him once.

I have one of Alicia with a funnier face, but it was less flattering overall, so I took the high road.

Shane went for comedy over style every time--I also like Ring's face up at the top of the slide.

Ethan never stopped.  He loved it.

Mac was a pretty big show-off too.

Pinkie started going backwards every time.

You can't tell from the still pictures, but it was so steep that the kiddos really flew down.  None of them could really control their limbs (or faces) once they started down.  Pinkie would pretty much go airborne at the end.

I thought head-first seemed terrifying, but Bird managed just fine.

Pointer's legs were flying in every picture I took of her.

By the time I got there, the little guys were taking lots of breaks.  At this point, Rob-Bob was feeding them Cheetos, and I finally got the little beggars to look at me for a picture.  Thumb was shaking with cold and had blue lips.  The little guy doesn't have enough meat on him to actually regulate his body temperature adequately but not for lack of trying.  He's quite the little Cheeto mooch.

Big Jake was just getting over double ear infections, so he steered clear of the watery fun.

Michelle brought a little craft project to entertain the double Handful.  They decorated capes that Michelle had left over from VBS this summer.  I was pretty consumed with helping the little guys work on theirs during the beginning of the project, so I only have pictures of the slow-pokes.

This boy is so pretty, which is a good thing because he's a total mess.

You should try to get eight kids to stand still and look over their shoulders all at the same time.  I gave Josie a pass on following directions because she's too tiny and cute.

Here's the tiny, precious one's cape up close. 

Her Rob-Bob is a fan.  The feeling will be mutual if Josie knows what's good for her.

 This little darling used to be that tiny and precious.  Now she's just seven-year-old-sized and precious.  Some days that's okay too.

 

Aren't my Grams and my moma delightful?  I really like them.

It's tough to get her to smile sometimes.  I'm proud of this picture.

And though she hates it, this one is perfect too.

Eventually, it was time for the official birthday shindig.  We ate.  The birthday folk (my moma, MacMac, Shane, Rob, and Susan) opened presents and cards and such.  There were birthday cakes and singing and candles.  It was a full day of delightfulness.  But eventually we had to head back to North Little Rock for Handful bedtime, leaving the big boys to play poker for a while.  Pinkie and Thumb both fell asleep in the car, and I got to carry the heavy one in. 

The grown folk stayed up for a while and talked about nothing in particular.  We didn't stay up too late since I had babies to meet in the nursery.

Food consumed:  I made breakfast casserole and maple nut ring for breakfast.  The maple nut ring is a blast from the past that was a favorite of Joshua's.  I didn't like it as a kid because I am not terribly fond of maple syrup, but it wasn't so bad this time around.  The breakfast casserole was an eggy, cheesy, sausagey masterpiece.  When we got to MacMac's, everyone else had already eaten lunch, but there were sandwiches and chips and dip and salad and cookies and good things.  For dinner, Aunt Donna outdid herself.  We had Cajun dressing, which is one of my all-time favorites.  And she made rolls.  I could die.  Robyn and I were in charge of the birthday desserts for our momas.  She made apple pies, and if you'll recall, I made chocolate sheet cake and strawberry cake.  Rob-Bob was also in charge of buying the ice cream which means that in addition to the angel food vanilla that goes perfectly with pies and cakes, she also got Yarnell's Woo Pig Chewy, which was a big hit.  I'm going to let her be in charge of ice cream again.

Bright spot:  Is it wrong if I pick the Cajun dressing?  Because seriously, it's the best.

Bedtime:  I don't exactly remember, but I'm nearly positive it was before midnight, which is pretty impressive for us.

the vacation diary: day seven

Day 7 stats:

Wake-up time:  9:00/9:19 a.m. Method:  slightly ineffective alarm and jolting awake nineteen minutes later terrified that I had slept much longer.  General mood:  Relieved that I had only wasted nineteen minutes of my jam-packed ultra-productive day.

Agenda:  I had various plans for the day that included taking loads of groceries to Shane's to make some cake magic happen, but I ended up getting started at home because I also needed to do a load of laundry before I packed for my weekend.  I started the clothes, got my recipes in order, cranked up some music, and approached love and cooking with reckless abandon. At one point I went into the living room where I knew Jess was awake and found her watching Lost season 1 on her laptop wearing headphones.  That's when I realized just how cranked my music was, so I forced her to unplug.  She then tried to convince me that her laptop sound was so bad, she needed the headphones.  So I gestured to the fairly large tv sitting nearby and suggested that she could use it.  I scrounged for my mp3 player (which still has some Christmas music on it--but other stuff too), and went back to work.

Every year my moma requests a strawberry cake for her birthday, but since Aunt Donna made one the last time she was down here three weeks ago, she chose something different this year:  a chocolate sheet cake.  I was happy to oblige her since there's much less pressure associated with it, but the more I considered it, the more I realized that family expectation demanded a strawberry cake as well, so I decided to make both--additionally I hadn't made a birthday cake for Shane, and I usually do at some point, so I could consider the strawberry cake his.  It has to be completely cooled before you ice it, so  I started with strawberry.  Once it was baking, I chopped all the pecans I was going to need for the day, which was considerable.  I also made a pineapple cream cheese dip for us to snack on at some point in the weekend.  I would have done some snacking on it right then, but it really doesn't taste good until it's hung out in the fridge all mixed up for a while.

Next up was the chocolate sheet cake.  My moma has made these for years, but I've only ever made a couple in my life.  Recently I compared my moma's recipe with Pioneer Woman's, which she claims is the best chocolate sheet cake ever.  They're almost identical, but P-Dub uses a bit more cocoa and a bit more butter--anyone familiar with her cooking style will not be shocked by this.  I decided to use PW's recipe since more cocoa can only mean good things.

By this point, I had dirtied quite a few dishes in addition to the dishes I'd been avoiding from all week, so I set in to scrubbing.  When we moved into this dishwasher-less house, I was going to have the personality change where I didn't let dishes pile up in the sink, but since I'm keeping it real this week, I'll go ahead and tell you that I'm terrible at it, and Jess is only marginally better.  But there was a brief, shiny moment on Friday when all the dishes not currently in use were clean.  It was a nice, if short-lived, feeling.

I still had one more cake to make, but since it was a dump cake and the world's easiest recipe to construct and since it's better--I think--when it's warm, I decided to wait and do it at an aunt's house closer to supper time.  I also had to gather up a ton of groceries to go to Shane's house for the breakfast I was planning for Saturday morning.  By this point, I was running behind schedule, so I hopped in the shower, threw together an outfit that wouldn't disappoint my mother, packed all my belongings for the weekend, realized I hadn't made the strawberry cake icing and that I'd rather do it at my house at this point, whipped it up, missed a call from my moma giving their ETA, iced the cake and got it travel-ready, and started packing and gathering and loading all my cooking stuff, birthday gifts, clothing, toiletries, and entertainment devices for the weekend.

I headed to Shane's to drop stuff off and pick him up so we could head to the Beeb to reunite with the clan.  On the way, I realized that it was now nearly 3 p.m., and I hadn't eaten breakfast or lunch, so even though we were going to be having supper in a few short hours, I needed food now.  Since I'd been thinking fondly of the punch at Mexico Chiquito for a couple of days, I stopped there for the Friday drive-through special.  I got to Shane's and unloaded what I could and shoved him in the car to hold my chips and salsa, one of the worst-ever driving foods.

We got to the Beeb just after the Kentucky caravan consisting of my moma, the Popster, lovely siblings and one of the lovely siblings-in-law, and the Handful of fun.  We originally met up with them at Aunt Donna's, where they had gone to see Grams since everyone else was still at work/school, but the party moved to MacMac's for grilled hot dogs, dump cake, and a loud, good time.

MacMac rented this giant, blow-up water slide for the weekend, but it didn't get delivered until nearly dark, so the kiddos played on the various bikes and scooters and vehicles in the driveway, and I was on duty ensuring that no one drove the little electric jeep thing into one of the parked vehicles.  I was quite impressed with Pinkie's backing up ability, demonstrating an innate understanding of which way to cut the wheels to go in the desired direction that I can remember finding baffling when I first started to drive.  I also took a ride or two on Pointer's Razor scooter, which was faster and more disturbing than I was strictly prepared for.  When the slide arrived and they started blowing it up, loads of folks came out to the patio to watch, but my dedicated drivers and I kept our posts in the driveway.  Shortly after the slide was positioned and fully functional, we had to head back to North Little Rock for bedtime.

I got to upgrade passengers on the way back to Shane's, trading Shane for Michelle, which handily split up the house-keys into different vehicles, double-handy since I had to stop for gas, and Shane could be there to let them in and do the big reveal on his newly-painted bathroom.  We got the Handful settled into their pallets, and I started prepping for breakfast, browning the sausage and putting together most of the breakfast casseroles.  The adult crew stayed in the more uncomfortable dining room chairs rather than the living room so that I could be part of the conversation, and I assume, so they could complain about the smell of cooking sausage.  I also wrapped presents at some point in there.  The cooking was finished and the presents wrapped long before we tired of each other, and in our first-night-reunion giddiness, we lacked the willpower to go to bed at a sensible hour.  But eventually we did that too.

Food consumed:  I licked a few spoons in the cake-making process, but as previously reported, I didn't eat enough of anything to count until the chicken chimi, chips and salsa, and the famous Mexico Chiquito punch on the way to Shane's.  We had grilled hot dogs (mine covered in mustard and grilled onions), chips and cheese dip, and other such delights.  I really can't remember more specifically than that because I was playing waitress to seven or eight kiddos during most of the meal.  I skipped the dump cake in favor of the dishpan cookies that my moma brought, which were much more portable for the Handful chasing.  After we got back to Shane's, I had some of the pineapple cheese dip and a brownie. 

Bright spot:  Too hard to choose a single, specific moment, but being in the bosom of my family covers it.

Bedtime:  I remember seeing 1:44 on the clock, and I think we were really on our way to bed by then, so let's call it that.

the vacation diary: day six

Exciting news ahead:  I have more interesting things to say than to recount the various tv reruns I watched, maybe.  Of course, the best bits of the day are still a secret.  Never mind, it'll be just as boring as usual.  Buckle up.

Day 6 stats:

Wake-up time:  I definitely roused sometime in the 9 or 10 range, but the official wake-up was at 11:41 a.m.  Method:  naturally  General mood:  still sleepy and slightly frustrated with myself because I meant to wake up and get going earlier, but the 3 a.m. bedtime interfered with the plans

Agenda:  Last night I tentatively planned with Jess that we would leave 10ish to go on a little shopping adventure.  When the Gilmore Girl-watching/blogging lasted so far into the night, I knew that probably wasn't going to happen.  I forgot to set an alarm in any case, so when I finally rolled out of bed, Jess was up and breakfasted and waiting around for me to emerge.  I revised our start time to 1ish, got ready in a hurry, and made my list.  While I was covering the grocery portion of the list, I had some lunch.

We headed to various stores in various locations that I cannot share because we were birthday shopping for some folk who read the blog, but I can report that I did find things that made me happy without a significant amount of difficulty.  I can also report that I talked to Katelyn three times during the course of the shopping adventure.  Apparently she's gone to the Alicia school of answering other people's phones, but I did get a little preview of how Nana's crochet camp is going.  Jess was a great shopping sidekick and helped make a final, difficult decision.  By this point, it was after 3, and Jess hadn't had lunch, so she stopped in for some Subway, and I had cookies.  We then hit Sonic for happy hour, and Jess sat in the car eating her sandwich while I shopped for cake ingredients.  I'm making a lot of cakes later.  Also I got to use all my new Envirosax which I got recently at a very respectable price.  I'm pretty sure I was the envy of all my Krogering pals.

When we got home, our outing had worn us out, so we retreated to our areas to recharge.  I watched a couple episodes of the Gilmores while I day five blogged, and Jess did something.  I went back to be social, and turned on various bits of DVRed shows for a while.  We both fell asleep during the Biography of Sarah Silverman.  I might try to finish it another day.

After we woke up, there was channel-flipping which landed us on Tosh.0, which I've already mentioned holds a sick fascination for us.  I had some dinner while that was going on.  I can remember if Jess ever ate, but she's a big girl, so I can't feel responsible for that.  After our guilty pleasure, there was nothing much on, and I  didn't relish more channel-flipping, so we decided to watch some movies.  I let Jess pick, so we started with Something's Gotta Give which she'd never seen.  She was hilarious to watch.  Next up was Unbreakable, which I was all set to enjoy because Shane likes it, and I trust his tastes, but it did not sit well with me.  Also I sorta had the end bit figured out before it happened.  So, apologies to Shane, but I was unimpressed.  We used a couple of Different World episodes to cleanse the palette.  Then I realized that I would need to blog day six tonight or I wouldn't have time for it until late Friday or Saturday, so I let another couple episodes of GG see me through the writing.

Food consumed:  It was nearly lunchtime by the time I woke, so skipping breakfast just made sense today.  I ate the last piece of leftover pizza and breadstick while I made my grocery shopping list.  I ate Subway cookies during Jess's lunch stop and enjoyed a happy hour cranberry limeade while I shopped.  I brought back an old favorite for dinner tonight:  pepperonis, cheese and crackers--and chips and salsa.  It was kinda perfect.  We broke our nightly sundae routine, but Jess had already checked in at Sonic once today, so we didn't even bring up the ice cream this time.

Bright spot:  Katelyn on the phone, hands down

Bedtime:  I'm going to be done typing in a few moments obviously, but there are about twelve minutes left in episode 8, so I'll probably stick it out.  I'm going to predict 2:27 a.m.

Festivities kick in tomorrow with the arrival of my moma and the Popster, the Handful, and far-flung siblings.  There will be cake and cuteness and stuff.  So I'll have better fodder for this blog thing, but less time to actually do the blogging, but I'll catch up eventually.

the vacation diary: day five

Are you guys sick of these posts yet?  Because I kinda am.  But a promise is a promise, and sometimes when I make irrational blog promises to myself, I keep them.  So after two days of utter laziness and accomplishing nothing of worth, I thought that Wednesday had possibilities.  I could do stuff, accomplish stuff, and not feel as though my brilliant vacation was slipping away with nothing to show for it . . . if I felt like it, anyway.  Apparently a sense of accomplishment is completely relative, but I think Wednesday goes down as a success.

Day 5 stats:

Wake-up time:  9:02  Method:  It's very bright in the living room, and careful readers will recall that I fell asleep on the couch last night so the brightness factored in, and though I had plans to fall back asleep once I crawled into bed, I didn't.  General mood:  I don't exactly remember, but I'm guessing it was all right.

Agenda:  If you've been paying attention, imaginary readers, (and I wouldn't blame you if you weren't) you may have noticed that my days are starting to take on a sameness.  So there was a morning of internet, spider solitaire, perhaps a bit of tv.  Midmorning Jess and I called my moma to sing her a birthday song.  It was a hit.  I didn't talk to my moma long because we're trying to save up our best stories for this weekend when we're together.

Jess got inspired and started cleaning up her room, but I just couldn't find my motivation, so after I ran to the bank, I watched some DVRed gems from the Bio channel.  Apparently Tuesday was some sort of Facts of Life themed day on Bio.  Besides the Kim Fields and The Truth Behind Sitcom Scandals that we watched Tuesday, we also got Cast Confessions about FoL and the Biography for Nancy McKeon.  I've seen Blair, Tootie, Natalie, and Mrs. Garrett with a variety of different hairstyles telling the same anecdotes about the show three or four times, but I'm a bit of an expert now, so that's all right.  I also watched some NCIS eps and some other junk too.

I found the extra needle from the size 4 double-points since the fourth one I had been using went missing weekend before last, so I could start working on the decreases on the baby hat I'm doing right now.  I'll post pictures when I get it finished because it is definitely my best yet.  I took my knitting to church because I always knit during class.  We're doing a book study right now of Simply Christian by N.T. Wright.  I didn't read the first week, so I had every plan to read both chapters yesterday before church, but obviously NCIS reruns and 80s sitcom trivia were more important.  It was a pretty decent class even without having read, but I'm determined to get caught up before chapter 3.  And Bill did bring me a dozen or so movies in a bag with a half-naked man on it.  It got a lot of comments at church.

Shane had one more birthday perk to use up, so we went to Genghis Grill so he could use his free birthday bowl coupon.  Delicious.  On the way home, Jess and I celebrated my vacation with 99 cent sundaes again.  We're getting quite good at that.  When we got home, we watched the DVRed Biography of Bill Murray, which was a huge disappointment.  We also took out the trash because we're not completely irresponsible, but we didn't have the heart to watch anything else after the dismal failure of the Bill Murray bio.  Besides, I had come home with season 5 of Gilmore Girls, and I was ready to reconnect with my Stars Hollow friends, which I foolishly thought I could do while blogging about my moma and delightful aunt.  Multi-tasking was not my friend, but eventually I got it all done so I could go to sleep.

Food consumed:  I skipped breakfast again because it's highly overrated.  I had leftover spaghetti for lunch and a Dr. Pepper float.  The bowl I created at Genghis Grill was a spicy pork/onions/cabbage/celery/rice masterpiece.  And hot fudge is our flavor of sundae choice at Sonic.

Bright spot:  Writing about my sweet moma.

Bedtime:  3:11 a.m. approximately.  Much too stinking late.

the vacation diary: day four

I left out a key part of day three, but since I kept it going throughout day four, I'll just add it in where appropriate here.  For those that want to skip this, day four is just as deliciously boring as day three.  My feelings will not be hurt if you stop reading now.

Day 4 stats:

Wake-up time:  9:07/9:30ish  Method:  My phone rang at 9:07, and I sort of roused and then decided that I didn't care and fell back asleep for another twenty minutes or so.  General mood:  grumpy

Agenda:  I said hello to my internet world and then went to check on Jess.  She was off all day too, so I was a bit nervous that her lazy day off routine would upset my own.  As it turned out, our laziness complemented each other nicely.  I retreated back to my room to work on yesterday's stunning vacation post.  When I checked on Jess at one point in the late morning, she was taking a nap.  I admired her greatly.  I was bored by recounting my own day, so I took frequent breaks to cruise the internet and play spider solitaire.  I've occasionally played spider solitaire in the past, but the last weekend I spent with my family in Lexington, I learned that everyone else was better at it than I, which made me sulkily give it up for a while, but fairly soon my competitive nature kicked in, and I determined that I had to get better.  When I was without home internet for ten whole agonizing days, I had to do something with the computer sitting in my lap, so I devoted scads of time to it.  After 111 straight losses on the four suit difficulty, I finally won the first one a few weeks ago, and I've had a few more successes since then.  My current percentage is 4%, which admittedly doesn't sound good, but trust me that it's a vast improvement.

When Jess woke up from her nap, we flipped channels a bit, and I discovered that we get the Biography channel.  During any other week of my life, I doubt that this would have made quite the impact that it did yesterday, but it was a pretty special discovery.  We tuned in for a Biography of the tv show Home Improvement.  I didn't even know they did biographies of tv shows.  Next up was a bio of Kim Fields, who has definitely aged gracefully.  We looked ahead and DVRed several upcoming episodes.  We flipped off Bio for a while to avoid several episodes of a William Shatner show because even on vacation, I have my limits.  When Jess and I first moved in together, she once made a joke that I wasn't allowed to watch BET, and it's been ongoing for more than a year.  But after we switched off the biographies, we spent some time watching The Game and Everybody Hates Chris reruns on BET, and no one was harmed.  Somewhere in the middle of all this watching, we ate some lunch.  Jess also took an afternoon nap somewhere in there.  That girl can sleep.

My laptop died at some point, and instead of bringing the cord to the living room, I retreated to my room to concentrate more seriously on spider solitaire.  We ordered pizza and in the process debated pizza toppings for longer than strictly necessary.  It probably took us longer to make up our minds than it did for the pizza to arrive.  For the record, Pizza Hut doesn't offer Skittles as a toppings choice.

We watched Gleeruns while we ate and then we took Jess's new crack-free windshield for a spin to Sonic, where after 8 p.m., they have 99 cent sundaes.  Once we got home, we started watching our DVRed shows from the Biography channel.  We saw The Truth Behind Sitcom Scandals, and I now know more about Welcome Back, Kotter, The Facts of Life, and Roseanne than I ever thought I needed to.  We also saw Biography:  Full House, which was an absolute delight.  Candace Cameron has definitely aged well.  Here's the thing I've really learned from watching the Biography channel:  if you are currently remotely successful, you don't agree to be interviewed for the Biography special on a past show.  Just sayin'.  We ended our night with watching Covert Affairs, which I've been watching this summer.  I fell asleep towards the end of the episode and spent the night on the couch.  Jess probably woke me up at some point, but once I've fallen asleep on the couch, I'm impossible to wake up.

Food consumed:  I don't think that I had breakfast--which is not so unusual.  During our marathon block of tv-watching, Jess brought me chips and salsa as a lunch appetizer, and I eventually had some leftover spaghetti.  You'll recall that we had pizza for dinner.  The three toppings we settled on were Italian sausage, ham, and bacon.  There were also breadsticks.  Then there were the hot fudge sundaes, with whipped cream and nuts.  There wasn't supposed to be a cherry, but there was.  I also drank some tea and finished up the last of the good ice.

Bright spot:  Discovering that Kim Fields went to Pepperdine.  Just thought that was nice.

Bedtime:  I'm not sure about the time exactly since there's no clock in our living room.  Jess thinks it was midnight something.  I did wake up once or twice in the night but never enough to consider moving to the bed. 

Here's a spoiler from day five to tide  you over:  I finally found a knitting needle I needed.

the vacation diary: day three

I'm not going to lie.  I've been lazier than I was on Monday.  Lazy is my one truly fine-tuned skill, and if I'd turned on the lazy full-force, I would have spent so much unconscious that I couldn't have fully wallowed in the vacation-y goodness of a lazy Monday.  But as you'll read in too much detail in a moment, laziness was the theme of the day.

Day 3 stats:

Wake-up time:  9:15ish  Method:  naturally  General mood:  surprised to find myself awake and mostly alert

Agenda:  The morning hours were wasted on the internet (writing the day 2 diary post, so it wasn't all a waste, right?) and watching bits of sitcom reruns on BET with Jess.  Apparently, I'm allowed to watch BET these days.  I also finished Gilmore Girls season 4, which ends with one of the best and one of the worst moments ever.  I can remember watching this one live and being in agony to have to wait months to see how it all played out.  I won't have to wait as long this time, but Shane does have season 5 right now.  He's promised me that he'll be done by Wednesday, so perhaps I can handle it.  It's actually been long enough since I've seen the series that I can't remember exactly what comes next, so that'll be a nice surprise later.

By the time I had finished GG, Jess had gone to work, so I had to entertain myself.  I watched 300 and saw a whole other side of Gerard Butler--literally and figuratively.  There was more internet-ing, but absolutely nothing productive occurred.  I remembered to check my work email to see what had gone on in my absence.  That's when I learned that the carpet that was supposed to be here still hasn't come in.  So instead of being closed this week while the carpet is replaced, they decided to reopen until next week when the carpet really might be in.  I am experiencing survivor's guilt over not being at work this week because it's crazy there, but I keep telling myself that I've earned the time off.  I put a few movies and books on hold, so when they come in, I may stop by for a little while to see how things are going first hand.

For dinner, I made a fairly giant batch of spaghetti and watched three or four episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadephia, which I'd never seen before.  It was funny enough.  I think The Daily Show & Colbert Report were reruns, but they were recent, and I hadn't seen them before, so I stayed tuned in for those.  By the time Jess got home Tosh.0 was on.  We have a secret fascination with Daniel Tosh.  I was going to go watch a movie in my room while Jess caught up on some stuff she had DVRed, but we ended up watching the DVRed Emmys instead.  There were some interesting and funny moments, and I was heartbroken by the tribute to all the folks who died this year. 

I did fall asleep with my computer in my lap last night (it was exhausting writing the first sentence of this post since that's all I managed before I fell asleep).

Food consumed:  I had chocolate covered pretzels for breakfast.  I never got around to lunch because I didn't realize when it was lunch-time, but I had plenty of spaghetti.  So I didn't live up to my no-eating promise, but we all knew I wasn't going to.

Bright spot:  It'll prove just how sad my life is, but it was probably when Luke kissed Lorelai.  It's a great moment.

Bedtime:  It was around 1:30 when I fell asleep with the laptop.  I woke up again at 3 and realized that I had fallen asleep that way. 

I'm starting to regret this vacation diary idea since now I have posted proof of just how worthless I am and plan to be for next week or more.  It will get more interesting this weekend when there are cute kiddos and lots of food and birthday celebrations.  So stay tuned for that.

the vacation diary: day two

Day 2 definitely did not disappoint.  I hope it's soon clear from this ongoing diary that the most ambitious plan I have for my time off is to finish knitting a baby hat.  I'm not going anywhere or doing anything, and that's just how I want it.  So this vacation diary thing is probably going to be dead boring.  I don't want to give anyone any false hope.  Lowered expectations, served up daily.  You're welcome.

Day 2 stats:

Wake-up time:  6:30 a.m./7:00 a.m./7:14ish a.m.  Method:  two alarms and force of will  General mood:  much less enthusiastic and regretting those four episodes of GG that made the diary writing take so long last night

Agenda:  I didn't make us late for church for once.  It was kind of a big deal.  I made pretty standard nametags for the whole crew (an update of a slew of new nametags may be hitting the internet soon).  It was my last Sunday morning class before I start helping teach 4 year olds, and the discussion got fairly lively right at the end.  Shane got to pick our lunch restaurant in honor of his birthday, and he chose Larry's which got no complaints from me.  We saw the McClanahans, one of my favorite families ever, and I'm starting to feel like I should include a McClanahan-sighting line in my vacation diary since we also saw them at the ball game Friday night, but since I plan on becoming much more hermit-ish, it probably won't pay off for me.

On the way home from Larry's, Jess and I started talking about baby names, mostly because I was thinking about the sibling groups I know whose names all start with the same letter.  I thought it would kill a few minutes on the drive home, and it was definitely amusing.  What I didn't realize at the time was that we would spend most of the afternoon coming up with our favorite and least favorite names.  I think you can learn quite a bit about a person by discovering what names they would give a tiny, defenseless baby.  I may report my psychological analysis of Jess later.

We might not have continued the name conversation for quite so long, but when we arrived home, there was a strong smell of gas in the house.  I called the gas company who sent someone out and advised us to not stay in the house in the meantime.  So we were sitting out on the porch doing nothing for a while and then sat in the house doing nothing while our new friend Willie from CenterPoint made sure we weren't going to die.  I'm happy to report we didn't die, and that the leak on Dee's (our friend who lives in the other half of our duplex) water heater is now fixed.

Jess went into work late, which threw my Sunday nap routine off, so sadly that nap I promised myself Saturday night at 1:30 never materialized.  I had to go and pick Shane up for church because his driver's license expired on Saturday, and he was too lazy get it renewed before his birthday.  On the way to get him, I called Michelle, who I haven't talked to in forever, and caught up a little on them.  I talked to Bird about farm camp and how she's going to sell tickets to Pointer's drama camp performance reenactments.  She has quite the entrepreneurial spirit.  It was kind of big deal that she talked to me on the phone because Bird hates the phone as much as I do. 

My Sunday night nametags were a little more interesting than the a.m. ones, but those pictures will have to wait until Shane emails them to me.  Something in the sermon made me think of the movie 300, which I've never actually seen but always meant to.  This led me to start making a list of movies and/or books I might like to experience while I was on vacation, but I promise I was still listening.  After church and all throughout dinner, I had Josh and Bill giving me movie suggestions of recent movies I might have missed.

Shane had to pick a restaurant again because I was still celebrating his birthday.  We went to 5 Guys mostly because of its proximity to Cold Stone Creamery since Shane had a birthday coupon for a free ice cream treat (I've said this before, but you should totally sign up for the birthday club on their website).

When I dropped Shane off, I went in to borrow 300 and a few other movies he owns that I haven't seen.  Bill called me and started reading off titles of his to see if I wanted to borrow them, so I think he's going to be bring me a couple of suitcases full of movies on Wednesday, so if I actually end up watching any of them, you, imaginary readers, might get some thoughts about them here.

I talked to my moma on the phone when I got home because I had a few birthday weekend plans to inquire about.  The whole clan will gather here in central Arkansas this weekend for a long weekend of birthday celebrating.  It's going to be legendary.

I intended to end day 2 the same way that I had ended day 1, with Gilmore Girls and blogging, and I did make a start on the day 2 post, but I was so sleepy I was nervous that I might fall asleep and let my laptop fall off the bed, so I postponed the day 2 posting until this morning.

Food consumed:  Being on time to church does not include the possibility of breakfast, but Jess and I were so hungry during class that we decided to try the pre-packaged donut stick things that someone brought last week to our breakfast potluck that didn't get eaten.  It wasn't too bad actually.  At Larry's I had slices of almost all my favorites:  spinach and chicken alfredo, loaded baked potato, cheeseburger, and taco.  I never saw any of the honey mustard chicken out, but since I also had a salad and two slices of the best chocolate chip pizza in the world, I don't really think I needed anything else.  At 5 Guys, I've learned about their giant portions and went with the Little Cheeseburger and split a regular order of fries with Shane.  Shane's Coldstone coupon was for an ice cream with only one mix-in, and since I know Shane prefers the multi-ingredient signature creations, I bought his Coffee Lovers Only, and he ordered my chocolate cake batter ice cream with Oreos with the coupon.  Their cake batter ice cream is my absolute favorite, but for some reason I'd never had the chocolate, so I was fairly excited about it.  It didn't start out very batter-y, but the end, I was definitely in love.  Shane and I agreed on the way home that we're not eating at all today, but I'm pretty sure I won't stick to that--and I know he won't.

Bright spot:  Very difficult to choose today as things like food and funny nieces and good Bible discussions all make me quite happy, but I'm going to go with the hours Jess and I wasted talking and laughing over the baby names.  

Bedtime:  I know, based on the number of Gilmore Girl episodes I saw last night that it was after 10 when I fell asleep, possibly even after 11, but Jess wasn't home yet, and I didn't look at the clock, so I'm not quite sure.  It was definitely earlier than it might have been if that nap had gone as planned.

Here's a sneak peek at what I hope to be able to report to you later about day 3:  finding a missing knitting needle, maybe a trip to the library to pick up some books, grocery shopping (or I'll actually keep my no eating promise because there's nothing here worth eating), and if we're all lucky, another blog.  Stay tuned.