How-To: Come Home Happy

I just returned from Gulf Shores. [read: I just returned from the beach and tons of shopping.] I think it's probably needless to say this, but we had us a really good time. There were about 75 of us altogether. Seventy-five persons of the female persuasion.

Dude.

That is aLOT of estrogen.

And let me just go ahead and get the absolute HIGH. LIGHT. of the trip out of the way before we move on to the other particulars.

I came in second in a limbo contest.

Second. [That's right after first.]

To a really cool teenage girl.

There is a good ten year span between us, and roughly [cough] 5 lb. bodyweight difference. Give or take about 55 lbs. You can barely tell though.

The only difference is that she scuttled under that bar swift and speedy-like... think: crab. While I moved by tiny haf-inch hops and shimmies and was eventually destroyed and brought low by the extra Meow Mix on my bottom, and frontal development I have accumulated over the past few children.

The important thing is I made it. Mostly.

Too bad we weren't playing a good ole-fashioned game of hand grenades instead of tryin' to drop it like it's hot, because then almost would'a counted and we'd have both won.

My abs are still sore today. Wanna know what we were playin' for? The Grand Prize (the only prize) was a $5 gift card to Wal-Mart.

I can spend $5 at Wal-Mart.

And so.

I limboed. (Limbo'd?)

Mmmhmm. I wish you could'a seen it.

I wish I could'a seen it.

And then other than that, I put my feet in the sand and salt water, shopped and ate some delicious food and we drove for 17 (or maybe 6) hours both ways and talked and laughed and talked and talked and laughed and talked.

Oh, and I knitted, too. Which made me seem about 44 years older.

[And that fact alone makes that limbo contest all the more grand.]

Knitting on the road... I just call that effective travel.

(While others called it Meir Meir and Granny. And "old".)

Our itinerary looked something like this:
--Check-in
--Hit the beach
--Meet for supper in pj's and play games, eat chocolate, and laugh until security comes a-knockin' and tells some people to put a sock in it
--Sleep
--Wake up, check-out and shop from 9 to 5
--Return home somewhere between 9 and 11pm

My favorite part of that schedule is that it neither mentioned nor involved things like:
--refill sippy cup
--wipe snotty nose
--rid your olfactory's of the offensive odor coming from your child's hiney area
--wake up at 4am to get cup of milk for crying baby
--get up from supper to break up fight in back of house and try to convince your children (again) that they are best friends, while they stare blankly at you, completely not buying it
--growl, glare and huff around in general

Getting away was clearly all things wonderful. And I came home feeling relaxed and calm and halcyon (calm, peaceful).

October really is my birthday month. And this year, it has been particularly good to me.

On a completely unrelated, random note, my son asked today why Jasmine (Aladdin) shows her belly button and it took a lot of restraint for me not to say "because she's a floozy".

Clearly my children are in good hands.

**trip pictures coming soon**