TRAVELIN

We are traveling in a caravan. Sons 1&2 insisted they wanted a road trip, an adventure of sorts so we are at this moment following son 1 who has son 3 in his car while son 2 drives mine. Might I just say that I AM NOT a good passenger, especially when the driver is an overconfident 17 year old that feels that his whole year of driving experience is monumental and has no fear of anything. Please say a little prayer for me that 1) we arrive safely..2) that we arrive safely before I have to smack the snot into submission and 3) the bottle of wine that my friend gave me for my birthday doesn’t break before we reach our destination. I am not even a wine drinker but what the hell, after the first glass I won't care J. We did have an interesting experience last night. When we were going through Winston-Salem, we missed our exit for the next highway we were to take so we hit the next exit to turn around and backtrack ever so slightly to the previous exit….wellllll, we landed in a very, shall we say, TERRIFYING area? I have seen my share of bad areas in cities before but never before have I actually had a RAT meander across the street in front of me. Yes, a real rat, long tail and all. After an initial ewwwwww, I managed to laugh. We have walkie talkies between the two cars so I was trying to calm down son1 (who was actually the one that took the wrong turn). He is a very bright type A guy with a bit of neurotic paranoid when he is presented with the unfamiliar—he needs order and structure to not get rattled). Anyway, we finally got turned around in an incredibly seedy area with some incredibly unsavory characters looking at us like a bunch of lost people from Ohio (oh, yeah, we were) and got back on the road. About 30 miles later we decided to stop for the night and found a place that looked clean and decent. I related the adventure to the desk girl and she looked and me and in her wonderful slow southern drawl said “Oh honey, I am so sorry. That is NOT an area you want to get lost!” She then went on to tell me that one of the reasons the unsavory guys were milling around is that a lot of people get messed up with the way the exits are there and when some poor unsuspecting saps like us roll through the gentlemen step out in front of your car to get you to stop so you won't hit them then they pull out some darling little weapons and ROB you. She literally said “Usually the only way to avoid gittin robbed is to hit them with yall’s car”…she honestly said that with a serious face! One more adventure for the family memory book. We will be at our final destination later today and I will let you know if we manage to have any more little bits of excitement along the way…..

ON THE ROAD--soon

Tomorrow morning the boys and I are headed out to our summer vacation in South Carolina. I am so freaking stressed out right now getting ready to go that I am sure by morning I will have a killer headache. Big D is in another part of the country at a conference so he is flying in to meet us and on Saturday we check into our condo. Saturday is also my 50th birthday. I can't decide if I am excited or disgusted. I plan on donning my tiara that I ordered on Ebay and sailing down the resorts lazy river for most of the day. When I get back I will put up a couple quick photos. On the car damage front.....FINALLY today I got a call from the castle lady...she had contacted her insurance man who in turn contacted me. After getting the details, they told me to go ahead and get an estimate when we get back and go from there. It doesn't sound like they will be giving me a hard time but they did ask if I had a deductable...hmmmm....I don't think that matters as I HAVE NO INTENTION OF PAYING ANYTHING for the damage that was caused by their tree....we will see how the saga unfolds. Now, I am off to finish packing and getting ready to blow out of town....I can't wait to hit the sand!!!!!!! (BTW if any of you are going to be in the North Myrtle Beach area, let me know and I will buy you a fruity drink with an umbrella).

fun times

If you are ever invited to a wedding here~ please go. It is a beautiful setting for an outdoor wedding. But, I want to warn you, don't park under this tree-

or, when you are ready to leave, your car may look like this~

A very large limb came down upon my poor car while we were celebrating with the new bride and groom. (I was going to post a photo I took of the limb lying in front of my car but my license plate was too obvious for web posting-sorry). The photo really doesn't show the damage. there are several HUGE dents in the hood and also on the roof. It missed my sunroof by a couple inches. I am just hoping that the owner of the property is decent enough to pay the repair. This tree should have been taken down long ago by looking at the condition it is in now. Because of the wedding, I had my camera with me and loaded it up with photos to show the owner on Monday.

This place is amazing. It is in the middle of nowhere typically about an hour from our home. If you have a minute, look it up if you are wanting a beautiful spot for a night or two (anniversary, birthday, romantic get-away) http://www.landollscastle.com/. I bet it is beautiful in the autumn. Although,,,,,if the owner turns out to be an unfriendly butt head, I will let you know and will start an online castle haters club.

Last night on the way home I wished I had a computer in my brain so I could blog what I was thinking. Big D took a wrong turn and we ended up about 2 hours from home before he would admit he didn't know where he went wrong. We have been married 26 years and I can honestly count on one hand the number of times he has ADMITTED he was wrong about anything. Now, I am not saying he is never wrong, he is fairly frequently, he just WILL NOT admit it. When we were first married his mom told me that even as a young child he did not take criticism well...yeah, no shit. The hilarious part of last night is that the further we went in the wrong direction the more pissed he got and I sat there not saying a word. Finally he turned to me and said "quit being so mean". I busted out laughing...I had not said one negative word or one word at all for that matter. I have no room to talk. I can't tell you east and west unless the sun is rising or setting...but I ADMIT IT and have no shame. I am fabulous at many things, marco poloing isn't one of them.

Hope you had a good weekend.

catching up

Hi folks! I know I haven’t been here in quite a while but I assure you I have been reading and commenting (some) on all of your blogs. I have been so very very busy here in my little world. Since I last posted several of my lovely blog ladies have given birth, found out they were finally pregnant or are now on the 2 week wait. Their lives and postings are much more interesting than mine so that is why what little free time I have had, I have been reading instead of writing. Let’s see~probably the biggest event was son #1 graduating. He fought us tooth and nail about having a party (he is quiet and has a few friends but isn’t very outgoing so the friends he has are good friends, just not plentiful) but we finally convinced him he had to celebrate his accomplishments…once the party was over and he was opening envelopes he was rather tickled that we talked him into the whole thing! He is more than ready to head off to college,,,me..I am not so sure. I swear it was just a couple weeks ago we brought him home. I used to get so pissed when people would tell me that they grow up so fast..I got sick of hearing that but sadly all those people were right. I don’t know if I ever posted this or not but the social worker that counseled son #1’s Bmom is a very good friend of ours. Believe it or not she had nothing to do with us being picked as the parents. She presented the 5 familys in their domestic program to the young couple and it was just amazing that they picked us. She said her hands were sweating the entire time they were looking at our profile and the 4 other couple’s folders. To this day I don’t think that the Bmom even knows that the social worker is a friend of ours. Honestly we would not even have known about the ONE TIME domestic placement that this agency was doing (they place children from Korea as a rule) had I been suffering silently. My feeling was that the more people that knew that we wanted to adopt the better. In my mind, you have no idea who may have a cousin, neighbor, et cetera that is placing a baby so why not use networking to get the word out. My one piece of advice I give all couples wanting to adopt domestically is to talk talk talk about it to anyone. Even the cashier at your favorite store might have a pregnant sister..who knows!? I really shouldn’t have waited so long to post….too many things have happened and I have forgotten most of them. See what happens when you get old!? I am going to be suffering at the end of the month with a very big birthday. Actually we are going to be out of town because I refused to sit here at home or at work doing the same crap I do every other day of the year. So, I planned our vacation for that week. We will arrive in South Carolina the day before my birthday and on that special day, I will be lazing my way through the lazy river at the resort with a good book, most probably a drink and a beautiful tiara on my head. Yes, you read that right. I ordered a tiara for myself if for no other reason than to completely humilate my children. I can’t wait. So, if you see a slightly overweight woman wearing a tiara floating past you, that would be me. Stop me and say hi! Let’s see..what’s new with the boys? Well I already told you about #1. #2 quit his summer job and started his own business. He is detailing really amazing hot cars. I don’t even like cars but these are pretty amazing. Personally I can't believe how much people are paying him for this but lets just say he is making more in 2 days than he did in a whole week at work, he gets to work his own schedule, take breaks without permission and in general this has made him much nicer to live with. This child is the one that has a zillion friends, can’t go more than 15 minutes without talking to someone on his phone and if he has to miss an event he can slam a door better than anyone. He did find out today that his little donut in the parking lot stunt (see a previous post) is going to continue to haunt him. He was notified that his insurance has gone up—he was horrified. Yep kid, ya do stupid shit and the smell lingers. So, guess that it is a good thing he is making all that money, huh? I mentioned earlier that son #1 is leaving for college—little funny story here. First, let me preface this by saying that we are not racist, homophobic, or any other ist or obic so this is not intended to offend, we just think it is funny. Son was assigned a room-mate that we spoke to on the phone and he seemed nice. Sons good friend spoke to his assigned room-mate and he seemed nice too. But, (isn't there always a but?) he is very very active in gay rights programs, and causes and told friend that their room would probably be a meeting place quite often. Friend was understanding at first then started thinking about a revolving door with little privacy and he decided that it would be best for his studying if he got a room-mate that was a little less involved, like son#1. So, the two of them decided to room together. Great. Both quiet, studious, good match. When son requested the change in rooms he couldn’t believe how simple it went. Then 3 days later he found out that he and friend didn’t switch room-mates, they switched rooms. So, now son #1 is with the activist and friend is with son’s original room mate. Now they need to ask activist room-mate to move so son and friend can room together. Boy will that be an awkward conversation! I love seeing them go through lifes little lessons but it is very hard for me to stand back and not take charge. Well, that leaves son #3 and bigd. Son is enjoying his summer a little too much. What is it with these parents that schedule all these parties for 12 year olds? He is invited to something almost every night. Of course I am such a mean Mom because I restrict his partying. Maybe I am out in left field but I don’t think 12 year olds need to be constantly entertained and driven all over the place. Aside from the fact that I am evil and say “no” a lot, he is having a great summer. That leaves bigd. He is actually a post all by himself. There have been several times since I posted last that I have thought about how great single life sounds –ha! Getting ready for the party was hell. He is a perfectionist and drives all of us crazy. At one point the boys and I were calculating how much mulch it would take to cover him in one of the beds. We didn’t like him much for about a week but he is being sort of human again so he is working his way back into our hearts. Well, enough of this boring drivel for tonight. I plan on posting more frequent and shorter posts, hopefully clever or witty, and maybe with some really cool photos. I am also going to try to learn how to add all of your blogs to a list on the side of my blog and try to snaz it up a bit. Any help is welcome!

more soon

I have been crazed lately, reading blogs but no time for posting. I do have a bunch to say and I will soon but when I was reading T.K.O. earlier today she had a photo there that gave me a flashback and I HAD to post this one of son#1 that I swear was taken at the same place her photo was taken...(although many years apart) so, T.K.O this one is for you.

I will be back...maybe tomorrow.