Indigo Girl

On My Own

A was supposed to get home from Palm Springs at 11:30 Wednesday night, but due to thunderstorms and the current situation of the airline industry (unhelpful), he didn't get home until late Thursday afternoon. We did fine on our own - although I never sleep as well when he's gone - until Tuesday at 5 pm when I got home from picking up everyone from school. We walked in the door, congratulating ourselves on just missing the rain, and were taking off our coats when the light flickered and went out. Then they came back on! Then they went out again and stayed out. 

I had to work the next three days and had a million things to do to prep for those days, so I was quite put out by this situation. And I was hungry because I was supposed to be making dinner and being hungry AND frustrated together never helps anything. I tried to spin the situation as a "fun adventure!" instead of blowing a blood vessel, but it was hard. We piled back in the car and went for pizza. When we came home at 6:30, the electric company said the power would be back on at 7:30. I put everyone through the showers (in the dark - who knows what got washed) and we sat down to read bedtime stories by lantern light. I was honestly TWITCHING at this time, thinking of all the stuff I wasn't getting done and wouldn't be able to get done if the power didn't come back on.

At 7, the electric company had pushed their time estimate back to 9:30, so I packed up everything that the girls would need for bedtime and school plus everything I would need for work, and we went to crash at my in-laws'. I kept telling myself that this was slightly more convenient since the original plan called for me to bring the girls over there at the buttcrack of dawn so that my FIL could feed them and take them to school. I slept poorly on my air mattress and finally gave up at 4:45. I got up and ready for work and came home to let the dog outside, make dinner for that night, run the dishwasher, and do a bunch of other stuff now that the power was back on. I kept saying, "A will be home tonight!"

When I went to bed that night, he was still in Phoenix. When I got up in the morning, he was in Chicago, but I still had to wake the girls up super early and bring them to my in-laws' house before I went to work. Seriously, I would never have been able to leave my weekend night shift job without my FIL retiring. He's a godsend. A wasn't able to catch a plane until 9 that night, so he waited hours to rent a car and drove home. He got home almost 24 hours after he was supposed to have arrived in the first place. Poor guy. (Except for the Palm Springs part.)

On Friday morning, we watched E get her math medallion at school. Saturday, she and I went out on a date. She chose to see Escape From Planet Earth (better than I thought it would be, but I expected it to be terrible) and get ice cream afterward. I spent most of the time listening to her describe Minecraft to me. 

Palm Springs, The Bastard

The good parts of A being in Palm Springs this week:

I get the whole bed to myself. Well, me and the cats.

I get to drive his cute little CRV. 

I got to eat all the leftover salmon and risotto from Saturday night. 

The bad part:

He is in freaking Palm Springs where it is sunny and 70 degrees and I am here where it is 50 and rainy. I am so bitterly jealous. At least it's not snowing.

I told the girls that they could each pick a meal we would eat when he was gone and no, it can't be pizza each night. E chose hot dogs (sigh) so I had leftover salmon and risotto for lunch and am having hot dogs for dinner. L chose spaghetti and C chose macaroni and cheese, so we will be carb loading the rest of the week. Annoyingly, L and E don't like mararoni and cheese - not the homemade kind, not the chemical filled Kraft kind, and not the organic Annie's kind. I wonder if they are pod people.

Karen and I are planning a May trip to Chicago with our families. How do we find the cheapest hotel rate? Do you use Priceline? Do you call the hotel directly? Please advise.

Bad Harry Potter Jokes

I think L was sleepwalking last night and it was the most hilarious thing. A sleepwalked (?)(sleptwalked?) when he was little. Well, kinda. His mom says it was more like sleeprunning and I'm a little suspicious that he was a typical kid and was awake and full of energy, but pretended to be asleep.

Anyway, she stumbled downstairs looking sad and lost. 

Me: What's wrong, honey?

Her: [blank stare]

Me: L? What's wrong?

Her: [sits down and makes herself comfortable] It's my. . . 

Me: [waits]

Her: It's my . . . It's my . . . [gets distracted by the dog and starts petting her]

Me: L! Are you okay? WHAT'S WRONG?

Her: [gets up and wanders away]

A finds her bumping around the breakfast nook.

Him: L? What's wrong?

Her: [spins slowly in a circle looking confused]

Him: Do you need to go to the bathroom? It's right over there.

Her: [Stumbles to the bathroom. She's in there for a long time]

Me: L? Are you okay in there?

Her: [sing song] Mmmmmmmm-mmmmmmm

Us: [giggling uncontrollably into our hands]

 She doesn't remember anything, but I had fun reenacting it for her today.

E and L went to a birthday party yesterday and came out looking and acting like teenagers. I'm not ready for this with all the rocking out to One Direction and Taylor Swift. I had already pointed out the slightly older girls at the roller skating rink to A - the ones with their outfits accessorized, skating together in little groups and giggling at the boys. The party included a beauty parlor with manicures and hair stuff and make-up. Then they put together a dance with the wii game Just Dance and ate a bunch of food. Families were invited back to sled in their backyard at the end, so we spent an hour sledding.

During the party, we went jeans shopping for A. Usually jeans shopping sucks, but he's down two sizes, so it was encouraging rather than discouraging. Then we took C to Coldstone Creamery as a special You-Don't-Get-To-Attend-A-Birthday-Party-But-You-DO-Get-To-Go-Shopping-With-Mom-And-Dad treat. They have salted caramel yogurt and it was divine. 

A has made up a dozen Harry Potter jokes and they all go something like this: 

Q: Which wizard does Voldemort complains about?

A: Grumbledore

Q: Who is the only wizard that Voldemort can't understand?

A: Mumbledore

Q: Who is the wizard that Voldemort trips over?

A: Stumbledore

Q: Who is the most socially awkward wizard?

A: Dumbledork.

Hello Again

Well. It looks like my new job + a holiday = limited online presence. I am in bed by 10 pm every night and I only have two days at home by myself during the week (versus my previous five) and I'm trying to get in at least one double class at the Y plus all the errands/grocery shopping I used to spread over the week. I've missed Twitter for sure. I'm going to try (again) to write shorter posts more often and see if that helps.

My job is going really well. I feel more comfortable and people seem to like me. It's not perfect, of course, but it's busy and interesting and pretty cutting edge in terms of technology. The manager has shown several times how reasonable she is (I almost cried happy relieved tears after my first staff meeting) and my coworkers work well together; there's a lot of teamwork and accountability. Thumbs up thus far.

My in-laws seem to be okay with having the girls around after school three days a week. My MIL gets home from work mysteriously early on those days, my FIL reports. They bought a wii for their house (apparently the huge TV with cable, multiple computers, and two iPads were not enough) and new bikes for E and L. My FIL enjoys biking and they live right by a nice paved trail, so those will be great in the spring.

Today was A's Swedish name day, so we made Kladdkaka (Swedish Sticky Chocolate Cake) sprinkled with powdered sugar, cool whip, and raspberries.  I made one of his favorite meals (Spaghetti with Parmesan and Bacon) and he'll get a bag of Swedish fish as soon as I can find where I hid it.

I had my 36th birthday this week. A had taken the girls to the mall where they used their allowances to buy me pecan turtles and fudge. Who knows their mother? E and L made a scavenger hunt for me and we ate waffles, bacon, fruit salad, and cake. It was lovely.

Thermostat

We've had a programmable thermostat for years and I have it set to be 68 during the day and 60 from 10pm-6am. When I started working day shift, I reset it so that it's 60 degrees every weekday except from 5-8 am and 6-10 pm. Then I couldn't figure out why it was so cold when I was home during the day on Tuesday. I guess I'll have to get in the habit of overriding it when I'm home during the week. Or maybe I'll huddle on the couch with a cat and a blanket.

It only took me one day of putting on freezing cold clothes in the morning to learn to lay them next to the register. The heat kicks on at 5 am; that gives it 45 minutes to heat up my clothes before I put them on. 

E and L accumulate accelerated reader points at school and once a trimester they can redeem the points for prizes at the librarian's "AR Store." They've gotten little junky prizes in the past, but this year they're already in the 100 point club, so they had a lot of points to spend. E looked at some of the bigger prizes, but didn't see anything she liked, so she saved most of her points and only got a few things (like gaudy, grandma-like pearl earrings). In keeping with the grandma theme, L brought home a bottle of horrible perfume. GAG. I don't care for most perfume anyway and this is cheap crap. 

After she sprayed C in the eye while trying to spray her cheek (?), I gave her the spray-your-wrist-rub-together-then-rub-your-neck instructions. Still. You guys. I was snuggling with her while A was reading Harry Potter (OMG, I HATE DELORES UMBRIDGE. SHE IS SO REALISTICALLY EVIL) and I had to take a break. She had just showered and re-perfumed herself. I can't stand it. I think I might stick some mild body spray in her stocking. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

If anyone wonders why I married A, I want to tell you that he made up a song to the tune of Bruno Mars' Just The Way You Are. It's sung by Boris Badenov to Natasha. Then he sang it in a spot-on impression of Boris.

When I try to kill Moose,

 I know you will try to kill Squirrel, too. 

Natasha, you're fiendish,

just the way you are.

His brain works differently than mine. The same part of it that infuriates me to the point of my head exploding comes up with stuff like that and then I laugh until I cry.

Today I went to the school assembly and winced my way through 500 elementary school kids singing The Star Spangled Banner a cappella in order to watch E and L get their honor roll certificates. I came home, had a great five mile run, and went back to help with the kindergarten party. It took much longer than I thought (2.5 hours!) and I was, once again, left with the thought that kindergarten teachers are insane or on some great drugs. 

There is a Topanga in one of the other kindergarten classes! Like from Boy Meets World! Also, Nevaeh (a name I roll my eyes at, sorry) isn't even spelled "correctly." It's spelled Nevaeha. I can't even. I need to stop noticing these things.

We left school and went to Costco. I don't mind taking the girls after school because there are great samples. We were near the refrigerated area when a man eyed my daughters and said to me, "You need to even things out with a few sons!" He was old and his tone was more joking then insulting, so I said, jovially, "Oh my goodness, no thank you! We are QUITE HAPPY the way we are!" but really I wanted to say, "DO NOT EVER SAY THINGS LIKE THAT IN FRONT OF MY CHILDREN. GEEZ, ARE YOU AN IDIOT?"

Now it's Friday and I'm not at work. I didn't have to cram a nap in before my 12 hour shift. We ate dinner (omelets, fruit salad, home fries made from leftover baked potatoes), L and I put away laundry while A read Harry Potter, and now I'm tooling around the internet and drinking a gin and tonic. I wonder when this is going to stop feeling weird. After nine years of working every weekend, I think I'll be appreciative for a long time yet.

August, September, October Twitter

Day #2 of making 3 school lunches: I don't care what A says. I need every single piece of tupperware we own.

As we picked up our celebratory 1st day of school pizza, I said it might not be ready. E: "It better be ready or they'll face MY WRATH!"

Listening to a public radio program on how to pay for your kids' college. Hyperventilating.

E told me today that her wizard teeth are coming in.

What I had to say at dinner tonight: "No, when you hold in a fart, it does not come out your vulva."

E, eyeing the fish tank: "There are a lot less snails than there used to be." Me: *whistles innocently and averts my eyes*

Explained French kissing to L tonight. I swear, that girl and her questions.

Learning about lymphangioleimyomatosis. This may be my new favorite medical term.

Discussing my elementary school crushes with L. "You're not even turning red!" she exclaims in surprise.

3/4 of a cup is a stupid serving size for cereal.

I don't get paid enough to deal with a masturbating patient. And who finds critical care stimulating in THAT way?

I answered a coworker's questions about snails & she exclaimed, "You're so smart!" I don't *think* she was kidding.

Why do children absent-mindedly put their gross hands all over my stuff? Things like THE FURNITURE or THE WALLS. It makes me stabby.

Here is the important part of hotel booking: when looking at the free breakfast pictures, is the waffle maker CLEARLY present?

I like to say the word boozy. Booooozy. I wish I could name a pet that. Boooooooooooozy.

Went upstairs and found E and L trying on my bras. I couldn't help it - I broke down & laughed till I cried.

Me: "CHANGE YOUR UNDERWEAR EVERY SINGLE DAY!" Kids: [stare at me, slack-jawed, like this is the first they've heard about it]

The squirrels were suicidal on my drive home from work this morning.

Listening to my MIL claim that A was reading Steinbeck at age 6. #ohyeahsure

How do I teach E to enunciate and project her voice? I mean, besides yelling, "I CAN'T HEAR YOU. STOP MUMBLING."

I shouldn't be laughing at my confused patient yelling, "I can't see! I can't see!" but I giggled as I told him, "SIR. OPEN YOUR EYES."

C is singing songs she learned at school. L leans over to me & whispers, sotto voce, "Kindergarten is FAMOUS for its songs."

C just stumbled downstairs crying frantically & incoherent. A was trying to figure it out & then she peed all over him.

This is what Twitter is for. If you all weren't here, only WE would know that on her 5th birthday, C peed on her father.

Oh nothing. Just poking around the backyard, looking for the freshest canine stool sample to bag and carry to the vet.

Every time I think I'm finally Fbook friends with everyone in my past, I get friended by ANOTHER high school summer camp boyfriend.

This morning E - traditionally uncaring re: clothes/hair - wanted a dress, braids, and lip gloss. IT BEGINS.

How am I supposed to NOT sing along to Like A Prayer? Impossible! Sorry, fellow grocery store shoppers!

E set up a race between her & C, then ran slower-than-normal, & praised her, "You're really fast!" Nice big sister.

We were trying to figure out what kind of big gross bug that was & it was two grasshoppers mating. ENTHUSIASTICALLY.

E is reading my Anastasia Krupnik book, but she called it "Anastasia Humperdink."

Ped office called with an appointment reminder for "Loreal." I think that person was at the end of their day & not even trying.

L, in conversation: "I'm apathetic about it."

C is wearing knee socks and E has Pippi Longstocking braids. #CuteOverload 

 E moved the cat so that she puked on the wood floor and not the carpet. Big kids rock.

L and I are in a standoff. I am pretending to be unaware of her misery & she is alternatively glaring at me & sobbing.

I WON THE STAND OFF! She lasted an hour, though, and I can only expect she'll improve with age.

I am the only adult in our house who knows whose clothes are whose and which closet or dresser drawer they go in.

I think I saw a girl with her dimple pierced. Is that a thing now? Are people doing that?

E & L have a birthday party on Sat. They asked their friend what she wants. L: "She said an iPod or an iPad or something like that."

I AM CLEANING OUT MY CLOSET THIS IS THE WORST THING EVER

L: "I wish pens could erase." Me: "There are erasable pens." Her: [gaping mouth astonishment] I love when I blow her mind like that.

 I hugged L after she got her award today and realized she needs to start wearing deodorant.

Watching Surf's Up. Character gets stung by a fire urchin. Wound is peed on. Girls: "EW!" Me: "We would only pee on someone in an emergency."

Shoot. The tactful part of my Honest Yet Tactful pants fell off during my exit interview. I only had Honest pants on.

No, YOU filled a bowl with extra no bake cookie batter and ate it warm with a spoon.

Older man at the dentist wearing a sleeveless shirt with armholes down to his waist. Whyyyyyyy?

L tapped me with her wand and said, "Tap tap tap! Onomatopoeia!"

At the grocery store, L asked me what Dr. Pepper tastes like & all I could come up with was "Grossness."

I ran four miles and then stood in the shower eating a bowl of ice cream.

I should be outside raking leaves, but instead I am inside eating Doritos.

I saw my coworker outside of work, but it ended up being her identical twin. I thought that only happened in books and movies.

I forgot to buy a vegetable to go with dinner tonight, but I remembered to buy tonic water for G&Ts. Still a win, I think.

I really like the endearment "poppet." I'd like to start calling someone that.

E: "We haven't had bacon in so long and I'm a tiger so I need bacon!" SOLD.

C is outside raking leaves while wearing her nightgown and pink ankle boots.

Watching baseball in a bar is hilarious. The cheering! The clapping! The groaning! Everyone cares about sports!

Halfway through the evening I realized why I was finding the bar so pleasant: the smoking ban. Love the smoking ban. 

C, thoughtfully: "How did the FIRST zombie get to be a zombie? Like, he didn't get BITTEN by a zombie."

The children are marching around the house kazooing Swedish Christmas carols.

C has, to the delight of her sisters, figured out how to burp at will.

Mosaic Used To Be Such a Pretty Word

I took C to the doctor yesterday to have her plantar warts frozen off. She has four of them on her big toe. Our pediatrician looked at them and said, "Oh, we call this a mosaic wart cluster." BARF. I hate dermatology stuff. He's an adorable chemistry nerd, though, and we learned a ton about liquid nitrogen. E and L were with me (they are all off from school this week - fall break) and were fascinated. It hurt C, but I had two suckers with me and she held still and chomped diligently through the procedure. He said he'd never seen a child as brave as she was. She beamed with pride. Aw. We'll wait a few weeks, but she might need to go back. Plantar warts are stubborn.

We went to a Halloween party on Saturday with games, popcorn, donuts, a maze, and inflatables (costume picture here), but I managed to bribe the girls into avoiding actual trick-or-treating tonight. (C didn't care at all and E gave in as soon as the idea of discomfort was introduced. L was the lone hold-out.) I let them choose whatever candy they wanted to fill their buckets in return for not making us venture out into the cold, wind, and rain. I threw in a movie and cauldron punch, too. (Cauldron punch came with L's cauldron for her costume and tasted like sugared sugar water). It took a little doing, but L was convinced when we were heading to C's doctor appointment. She was complaining about the cold, wind, and rain and I said, "You know this is the weather predicted for Halloween, right?" She and E were quite pleased to dress up, eat all the candy they wanted, and hand out candy to the little kids.  

A ran in our neighborhood Halloween 5K on Saturday and rocked a time of 24:41! That's about three minutes off his time from last year! He has worked really hard and is psyched to start running longer distances. The girls and I volunteered for packet hand-out duty on Friday night and held arrow signs again on Saturday morning. It's so much fun to watch the costumed runners run by.

At the race, I was talking to my Swedish friend's four-year-old and she mentioned that her name day was coming up. My MIL said, "Oh yeah, that's a Swedish tradition but I don't know much about it." Turns out that each day has a name or two in the Swedish calendar and you celebrate on the day of your name (or a name close to yours). You can even have TWO name days and celebrate your middle name, too. My name and E's were on there and there were similar names for the rest of our family. My friend says they do something smaller than a birthday - a little celebration and gift. I think this is a HUGE Swedish family fail for A's family. What an awesome tradition! We are incorporating it IMMEDIATELY.

Last week I woke up in the middle of the night and worried for over an hour about my new job and what we're going to do if a kid gets sick and what we're going to do for Thanksgiving/Christmas vacation and what we're going to do when my in-laws are gone for spring break and I still have to work three days. Obviously, middle-of-the-night fretting did not solve anything (DAMMIT), but when I told A, he had a lightbulb moment. He checked to see how much vacation/sick time he has for the rest of the year and guess what? It's a couple of WEEKS worth. Suddenly, my stress is WAY less. I have vacation time, too, but I would like to establish a reputation as a hard worker before I start taking vacations, you know? It's hard to lose a reputation as a slacker.

L wants to learn to type fast. The Mavis Beacon for Kids gets really bad reviews. Any other home typing program suggestions?

This prison lingo list makes me wish I had read it years ago. I would have memorized it and made it the only slang we ever used around our kids. As it is, A and I are saying things to each other like, "She's on the bumper. Don't let her in the car" and "Don't sell me wolf tickets" and "I got jigs" and "Oh, she had such monkey mouth." I want to print this out and carry it around with me so I can work these phrases into my conversations as often as possible.

The Children

The children lately have been . . . wonderful. Seriously. There has been the usual squabbling,* but overall they have been sweet and helpful and fun.

*We were walking downtown last weekend to a big outdoor art festival and E and L were laughing and running together. A turned to me and said, "It's hard to believe that just this morning they came to blows because 'SHE LOOKED ME IN THE EYE AND THREW A PUPPET!'"

L has been asking regularly, "Is there anything I can do to help you, Mom?" It's gotten so it's actually kind of annoying how much she wants to help. I KNOW. But after she finishes her homework, she distributes vitamins, sets the table, pours drinks, feeds the animals, sorts and folds laundry, etc. For a while, E got sad because her sister was doing all this "fun" stuff, so now SHE is always asking if I need any help. 

The other night, A told L, "If you take a quick shower, you'll be able to help Mama put away laundry." Then he came into their room and told me, "I don't think we'll ever see her take a faster shower."

We were walking in from the car yesterday and E set herself and C up for a race to the front door. They lined up at the end of our driveway and then she ran slowly, keeping pace with her little sister, encouraging her, "You're FAST!" C's grin was huge. SWEETNESS OMG I HAVE A CAVITY.

At our appointment this week, our vet expressed disappointment that all my kids were in school because she and her staff find them so pleasant and well-behaved. Then she started telling me about kids she finds choking their pet kitten or banging on the metal exam table, so maybe her standards are low, but I will take the compliment!

We did the Ivory soap experiment (link on that twitpic). I hope it rains soon and washes the soap off our front steps. Next time I'll make them play with it in the grass. It was super cool to watch the soap expand in the microwave. Even playing with the flaking soap outside necessitated showers, though, because they pretended it was snow and put it in their hair. 

We made snail food out of vegetable baby food, fish flakes, gelatin, and a crushed up calcium supplement. I dropped two cubes in our Snails Only tank. It was well-received.

We finished Watership Down. I forgot to tell you that three-quarters of the way through the book, C, who is in the room, but only half listens, suddenly asked, "Are all these people RABBITS?" I was snuggling with L during a few of the most exciting chapters at the end and she is the BEST person to snuggle during exciting news. She reacts dramatically - clutching me in fear or excitement, gasping in open-mouthed astonishment . . . it's great. She feels EVERYTHING. A says I am the same way during movies.

A said that C snuggled into him the other night as he was reading, sighed sweetly, and stated, "Comfy is best." So maybe SHE is the best to snuggle with. It's a tough call.

Jody asked me how I got my kids into Watership Down. Honestly, I didn't. I thought it was too far above their comprehension level. It was a little bit - we had to define a lot of words - but A pushed for it. Then he did such a great job with the voices. I like it much better than when I read it as a teenager. Bigwig had an East Coast accent, the hutch rabbits were French, the Efrafran rabbits were Russian, etc. General Woundwort sounded like Boris Badenov from Rocky and Bullwinkle.

We are moving on to the first of the Penderwick books tonight. I'm so excited!

E and L are reading these Dear America books at school and love them. They've been telling me about Pearl Harbor and the Titanic and the Gold Rush. We spent some time on our library website and ordered six more for them to read at home.

While I Was At Work

A sent the following email to me at work tonight. I shouldn't laugh, but I am, because what else can you do? Years from now, when L is seriously discussing possible career choices, we need to cross off anything to do with healthcare.

"So E had diarrhea after her shower. 

And then she was complaining about a painful stomach during C's story.

Which made L FREAK THE HELL OUT BECAUSE OH NO NOW I, L, AM GOING TO GET SICK TOO.

So I sent E and C to my room and explained to L that I would read to them there, and if she could get a grip on herself, she could listen too.

So she came and sat in the rocking chair, looking very annoyingly terrified that E would give her The Sick.

So then a page before the end of the chapter, E puked all in the bed and up her nose.

And L LOST HER GODDAMN MIND, wailing and running downstairs and screaming, "I WANT TO GO TO ANOTHER HOUSE!"

Which freaked C out, because something was obviously horribly scary.

While E puked on our bedroom carpet on her way to the bathroom.

And I stripped the sheets.

And now I'm comforting terrified C instead of the kid who is actually sick, and screaming downstairs, "WE AREN'T GOING TO ANOTHER HOUSE SO STOP ACTING LIKE A BABY!"

And then I go downstairs to get Nature's Miracle, and give L a piece of my mind. I was less gentle than I usually am.

And I went upstairs and distracted C by showing her how I would clean up.

And then I cleaned up the puke and told jokes to C and made her laugh.

And then I washed up E, who had puked the rest of her puke into the toilet and now had puke on her.

And then I took her downstairs, and L eyed her like she was a RABID LION.  E had to go into the kitchen before L would go up the stairs.

And I sent L upstairs, where she is now, terror-sobbing herself to sleep.

C is fine. She's humming and reading a book.

E is fine, sort of.  She's downstairs with me and a puke bowl.  So far, she's OK.

I've about had it with L.

I'm about to wash the sheets.

We're not going to karate tomorrow.

So how's your night going?"

Vacation

We drove to my brother's house last week and spent a few days with him before joining my sister at a big amusement park. We played with their toys and dogs, my SIL cooked for us, and we took advantage of her job at a fancy health club. We got pedicures at the salon and played in the two huge pools with accompanying high dive, twisty slide, and various play structures. I kept taking pictures of things and texting them to my friend from the Y. It is so much more luxurious than I'm used to! Also, everyone is quite tan, busty, bejeweled, and wearing full make-up. I would not fit in (except for busty!), but it was fun to visit.

E is quite comfortable in the deep water, but still uses goggles a lot and wanted so desperately to try the diving board, but was stymied by the No Goggles rule. We talked through it and she braved it out - eyes closed, nose plugged like I always did - and jumped off the regular diving board a few times, but quickly graduated to the high dive. She rocked it!

At the park, E and L were both tall enough to ride all the roller coasters this visit and both attempted a not-too-scary one. E emerged excited to try one that went upside down and L was visibly trembling. Poor kid. She retreated back to the less scary rides - The Scrambler, The Matterhorn, swings, etc - while E rode a few more coasters with me. Maybe I'll have a future roller coaster partner! I love them and A is okay with them, but doesn't enjoy them like I do.

It was one of the many brutally hot days we've had. I was dripping sweat while standing in the shade. We ate a late lunch and decided to give up and head for the water park. During the transition, we lost my brother and were supposed to meet at the wave pool, but couldn't find it. So we were walking around, sweating profusely in the heat, trying not to snap at each other and those SLOW WALKING CHILDREN . . . it was miserable. A said later, "I wanted to kill everyone. I hated you all." What is it about oppressive heat that makes your coping mechanisms plummet?

Everyone felt much better after an hour in the wave pool. E and I rode some water slides, but L and C were content to remain submerged for the rest of the day. 

We all (our family plus my siblings and their families) stayed at the same hotel, sort of a resort (that word makes it sound nicer than it was) with a golf course and private beach. We took the next day off from the park and swam in the pools, saw Ice Age 4 (surprisingly good. I've only seen the first one and was unimpressed), and played on the beach.

The highlight of the beach was being driven there in a golf cart. 

L was thrilled to spend time in a real wave pool, but oh my gosh, her hair afterward. 

We had a suite, so the girls had a little room off ours with a trundle bed plus we brought our aerobed. Three kids, three beds, three nights - I could not have asked for an easier compromise. They also had their own TV, so I left out the little boxes of cereal I had brought, turned the TV to cartoons, and told them to eat cereal and watch TV until we got up. 

The next day was supposed to be a second day at the park, but we woke up to pouring rain and a forecast saying it was going to continue. We debated for a bit - we had 2 day tickets, so we had all paid for a second day - but decided to wait. My brother and sister live close enough they can easily use their tickets before the season is over and I have a random Friday off in September, so we'll eat the cost of gas and drive down again. It'll be a more pleasant visit anyway instead of in the blistering heat and crowds.

We were all disappointed - we had planned out which rides we wanted to hit and everyone wanted cotton candy - but I am extremely proud of how my kids handled it. We spent the day swimming and playing with cousins, then saw Brave. It wasn't our plans, but we had a good time. I've tucked our tickets away in a safe place and we'll have our delayed gratification reward soon.

On our trip home, we made a planned stop at Don Pablos, a chain we used to love when we lived in Indy and don't have around here. I ATE SO MUCH. They have the best salsa and chicken enchiladas. I wanted to get a picture of me and A in front of the restaurant as we left, but a lady was having an allergic reaction and the paramedics were there, so my picture looked like this:

It seemed tacky to pose during a medical emergency, but I wanted a record of our visit.

On the way home, I glanced back and asked E, "What are you doing?" Turns out she was dotting her leg with water, you know, like you do.