Lots of whining

Sadie made it through her surgery ordeal and lived to tell, or whine nonstop. When I went to the vet's office to pick her up, my former coworker filled me in on why the brand new dog that no one even knew needed to be spayed was scheduled for surgery. There were two 9:30 appointments. Both of us had new pets and both of us had the last name Turner. Sugar Turner the cat was scheduled to be spayed. Sadie Turner the dog's paperwork was grabbed accidentally and filled out for both her shots (which I requested) and surgery. Happily, both Sugar and Sadie were spayed and everything worked out just fine. Sadie has been a TERRIBLE whiner the past few days, though. She doesn't seem to be in pain or anything, she just wants constant attention. Ugh.

I went back to the podiatrist yesterday morning. I was hoping to hear a definite final date for the boot. I was told to come back in a week... My previous appointment lasted less than two minutes and the doc didn't even touch my foot. Yesterday I was determined to get some answers. I took my tennis shoes and work boots for him to look at. He was surprised at the condition of my 4 month old work boots. He suggested I pitch and replace them, but thought they were at least a year and a half old. The boots are a good pair of Redwings, not some cheap things I picked up at Walmart! Anyway, he added padding to both my work boots and tennis shoes and the difference is amazing. I'm supposed to continue to wear the cast at work and change between my work boots and tennis shoes at home to get used to not wearing the cast. My foot, ankle and calf are so weak from wearing the cast for two months, you can visibly see the difference in my legs. It feels really weird to have a regular shoe on my right foot and if I walk much I have pain I assume is associated with the weakness. As far as the plantar fasciitis, the doc pressed all over on my foot and I had NO pain. Before the cast when he pressed certain areas it was like he was stabbing me with a knife. I still don't know when I'll be cast-free, but he said if everything is going well at my next appointment maybe I can start wearing the cast half of the day and regular shoes half of the day. We shall see. I sure am sick of wearing the always sopping wet, squishing, squeaking plastic tube strapped to my leg!

Finger Happies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's been a fun, but not terribly interesting week. Sadie is fitting in well. The kids are running in the door from school every day to play with her. I'm to the point I trust her to stay inside the house all day while we're at work/school. The worst thing she's done is gotten into the garbage. We changed our kitchen garbage can to a "dogproof" one and just need to remember to toss any food based garbage into that can. She had individual incidents with each cat. Sadie first snapped at Simon and then at Tiger. I've never seen either cat jump so high! Simon is so needy for human attention he got over it and has been spending most of his time in the house with the dog. Simon's cautious, but brave. Sadie is jealous, but so far obeying my wishes she doesn't hurt or kill him. Tiger is a different story... Mr. Large and in Charge had the wind knocked out of his sails and has spent the week nervous and slinking around. Tiger's scared of the dog. I don't think he's ever been scared of ANYTHING other than the vacuum before, so he's taking extra time.

Yesterday I took Sadie to the vet for shots. She's a sweetheart and I can't imagine her biting, but with all the extra kids around I wanted her up to date and legal on her rabies vaccine. I filled out the paperwork for a new animal, waited and waited with the nervous, whiny dog and was finally called back to a room. The tech came in with surgery and bloodwork consent forms. WHAAAAA? Wait a minute! Sadie's here for shots, not surgery! The tech was confused because all the paperwork implied Sadie was there to be spayed. Um... The vet came in confused as well but then snapped back into sense and was all "Of course we can put off the surgery and only do shots today." I snapped back into my own sense and replied that of course she needs to be spayed and we might as well get it over with. I certainly don't want any Sadie/Stupid Neighbor Dog puppies! (Of course neighbor man refuses to get his awesome specimen of a border collie neutered because he apparently wants to single-handedly ruin the entire breed with Stupid's crap genes.) Anyway, I had originally planned to put off the surgery for a couple of weeks just so Sadie could get used to living with us, etc. before we dumped her at the vet's for the night. Now I'm glad I went ahead and got it over with. I still don't have a clue how a minute-long phone conversation about my new dog needing SHOTS resulted in a SURGERY appointment?!

Other than Sadie, the biggest thing in our house this week was Finger Happies. Kaylin and one of her friends from school created these pointy finger puppets and decided to sell them. They made up an advertisement jingle and "hired" a boy to print some fliers. She even came home and made more Finger Happies rather than playing outside with the neighbor kids. Ok, I'm all about encouraging Kaylin's creativity. I had my own "business" at school trading polished rocks, stickers and stamps. It's one of my favorite memories of grade school. However, Kaylin was soooo annoyingly exuberant about this project, I sort of wanted to gag her, burn all the Finger Happies, ban the jingle and especially ban the words Finger Happies from ever being spoken in the house again. Ever. The kid was manic with her excitement over these puppets. She spoke nonstop about them and the more excited she got, the louder she got. The louder she got, the more rapidly and unending she talked about the Finger Happies. My head was seconds from exploding. And then...

Mrs. W saved the day! She's the kids' Latchkey teacher. If Kaylin was annoying at home all by herself, I can't even IMAGINE how annoying she was surrounded by friends! First, the song was banned. Then, when it was obvious the excitement was NOT going to die anytime soon, the puppets themselves were banned. Kaylin's partner in crime was "written up" for talking back to Mrs. W about the puppet banishment. Kaylin held her tongue. However, she spent the entire night thinking of ways to "push Mrs. W's buttons" on the last day of school. Finger Happies mania has died down. If I never hear or write those words again, I'll be more than fine with that!

Sadie-dog

So far, Sadie's working out very well! It appears she will be great with the kids. She loves running around the backyard with them, loves being petted and given attention from them and especially loves when they share their food. Logan actually got up at 5am yesterday to play with Sadie. I think the moment it was light enough to see they were outside running around. He's disappointed that after TWO NIGHTS she still won't sleep in his room. Kaylin wants Sadie to sleep with her too, but her room's such a disaster Sadie won't even walk in. When I woke up this morning Sadie was sleeping in our bed. Um... Well, at least she doesn't move around, sleep on my legs or snore. Yet.

My biggest concern after the kids was the cats. Sadie has never lived with cats so we didn't know how she'd react. At this point she's basically ignoring them. Tess loved Brady and actually seems happy to have Sadie around. Sadie was lying in the grass with a bone and Tess crept out from the garage, snuck up and sniffed Sadie's tail and then batted it and ran back inside. I don't think Sadie even glanced at her. Simon has been fairly bold, walking right up to the dog repeatedly. Sadie just gives him an uninterested sniff and wanders off. Tiger has had the most surprising reaction. He has been desperately attempting to impress Sadie with his awesome fierceness and show that he is the dominant animal of the house. Poor Tiger has spent the past two days all puffed up and growling to no avail... Sadie has completely ignored him. Poor kitty is used to dominating the neighbor dog who cowers in his presence. To Sadie, Tiger is no more threatening than a bicycle or soccer ball. She has to maneuver around him, but he is little more than an object. Tiger is amazed at his own ineffectiveness. He's losing confidence. I can't wait to see Tiger's Plan B.

My final major concern was how Sadie would get along with other dogs. Stupid Neighbor Dog in particular. Most of my neighbors have at least one dog and most of them run free at least occasionally. Stupid Dog runs free most of the time. As a matter of fact, he was running in our yard the night Colleen brought Sadie. All five kids were running around and Colleen and I were trying to figure out how to get Sadie out of the car. I finally just opened the door and figured "come what may." Sadie and Stupid ran all over the place. She seemed to enjoy the play until Stupid would not remove his nose from her butt. Then she had to get fierce and show some teeth. Last night Stupid was sticking his head through a hole in the fence (cut around a large tree root.) He was barking and whining and Sadie was completely ignoring him. Finally, I guess she had enough of his crap because she went up to his head and growled and bared her teeth and then snapped at him. I'm pretty sure he scraped his mouth when he jerked back through the fence and that she didn't actually bite him, but he was bleeding a little. He deserved it. Stupid dog.

Otherwise, she's doing great! She leaves the kids' toys alone, isn't destructive and I'm pretty sure she won't be a chewer. She's four years old and relatively calm. I wasn't sure what she'd do yet so I left her in the garage yesterday while I was at work. No messes of any kind. Her two biggest faults right now are whining and getting into the garbage. I'm hoping the whining subsides in a few days when she feels more comfortable here. As for the garbage, we'll need to work with her and probably get a more dog-proof trash can in the kitchen. No biggie. Well, right now she's whining to go out so I better end this!

Podiatrist Appointment

Monday morning I had a podiatrist recheck to see how the progress with my cast is going. I've been wearing it for almost seven weeks now and while the pain is significantly better, it still "exists." I'm no longer waking in the middle of the night from the pain or wishing I could leave work because of the pain, but I'm terrified that when I lose the cast the problem will flare again and be as bad as ever. The doctor basically just rolled his eyes at my fears and told me to wear the cast at work for (at least) two more weeks, but at home change to tennis shoes with my orthotics so I can start to strenghthen my foot/leg. It is weird how much the cast has weakened my foot and ankle. I'm not really sure if the "pain" I feel when the cast is off is from plantar fasciitis or just from my foot being so weak.

As I was putting the cast back on and preparing to leave the exam room, Doc popped back in and sternly warned "DO NOT start exercising on that foot!" Hahaha! The man has dealt with my personality before :) Mindreader... Truth is, I CAN'T WAIT to start exercising again. I've been such a couch potato for almost a year now, I'm looking forward to being able to walk (and maybe even run) for exercise again. It took everything I had to make it through work. Just the thought of walking from the parking lot into the Riverplex and up the stairs to an exercise bike was too much to deal with. I'm eager to start exercising again and lose my couch potato weight!

Tonight we're getting what I hope will be my new exercise partner! Sadie is a 4-yr-old chocolate Lab. Her owner is recently divorced and with his kids not around nearly as much and not enough time to devote to her, Sadie isn't very happy. I'm hoping that Sadie will happily adjust to a houseful of kids and activity and that she won't upset the cats (Simon) too much. (Tiger chases dogs. I'm not worried about him.) I think I wrote earlier that I wished a perfect dog would just fall into our laps. I don't yet know about "perfect" but this dog did just come along by chance. Oh, and we do have her on a trial basis. If she's not good with the kids and neighbor kids or destroys the entire house we get to send her back!

The Longest Haircut

Last night my mom showed up to babysit. It shouldn't have been unexpected, my parents babysit most Friday nights, but we had all convinced ourselves that Mom was in Chicago with my brother's kids and Dad was too busy with his last weekend of Tax Season. Gene and I hadn't given a thought to where we were going to eat or what we were going to do. While we were eating, I was complaining/making fun of myself about all the things I always plan to get done during vacation and never do. Most involve house or yardwork, but I also wanted to take Kaylin to a couple of movies and especially get a haircut. I hate the time commitment of a haircut. No matter how desperately I need one, I usually talk myself out of it. Now that I have Fridays and Saturdays off (instead of Sundays and Mondays) I could actually find myself a real (um) hair cutter person, but the guy I used to go to moved and I don't have the energy, interest or desire to find a replacement. That means walk-in places and long waits for mediocre cuts and bad dye jobs.

Gene teased that he was going to "force" me to get a haircut. He would be happy to shop at Dollar Tree while he waited. We pulled up to the shop and there was only one person waiting! Ok, this is a good idea! I walked in, signed in and was told "a few minutes." This was right at 7pm, apparently the time shifts end, because half the staff left. Eh, still, there were three cutters and only one person ahead of me. Wrong. As soon as the person ahead of me was called back, a dad and his two sons walked in. They were already signed in. Well, they shouldn't take too long, right? Pfffff. Ok, so now we have three ladies cutting hair. One is doing a complicated double dye job with foils and dark on bottom and bleached on top. One is doing a strangely complicated Mohawk for a perfectionist who wants the curves perfect. One is finishing up some guy and is about to start on the dad (of the unknown group ahead of me.) Ok, I'm here, I'm going to wait.

Gene strolled in about 7:30, walked right past me in the waiting room and looked around the chairs, confused about where I disappeared to. I told him I was going to be a while since I still had three people ahead of me. Another dad and son that arrived after me heard this news and walked out. I knew Dye Job was out of the running. She was going to be working on one person until the store closed. The dad didn't take long and the same lady did his son. The other lady FINALLY finished Mr. Perfect Mohawk and following a five minute break called back the other son. Well, the dad was being a perfectionist about his sons' hair. He didn't care if it was long, but both boys were wearing it hanging in their eyes and he was having none of that! They finally got everything straightened out and I was called back at 7:45pm. (Yeah, I can accept that 10-15 minutes is "a few minutes," but 45? That's more than a few!)

I had noticed that the woman cutting my hair had taken a long time on the dad's relatively simple man cut, but I thought maybe I was just being impatient. I sat down, told her what I wanted done and she took me back to the sink to be washed. FIFTEEN minutes later... I have never in my life had such a shampoo! This woman massaged my entire scalp! Little circular massaging motions. Then she rinsed for a really long time and just when I thought I was finally going to sit up- Conditioner!!! The exact same massaging process repeated. I was almost laughing out loud by the time I finally got to get up and go back to the chair.

She then started on the back of my hair, slowly working through it with razor combs. She moved on to the sides and top, jerk, jerk, jerking the not quite sharp enough comb through my thick, thick hair. The cut went on and on. We walked out of the hair place at 8:32. A 45 minute wait, a 45 minute cut. Most of the time, the entire process of shampoo and cut takes 15-20 minutes total. THEN, I paid with a debit card and wrote in a tip. She somehow subtracted the tip from the base price and had to get someone to help her. After many efforts, I don't think I ended up tipping her anything. I guess I'll see when the transaction goes through. At least my cut is so short I should be able to go at least two months without another!

Home

We're ba-ack! Wednesday morning we all dinked around, sleeping in and then poking around getting all our bags packed and into the car. Tuesday night I rearranged the suitcases so we'd have everything we needed to only take the smaller one into the hotel on Wednesday night. The hotel breakfast was almost over by the time we got down there and everything was so gross-looking, we left and went to the Golden Corral breakfast buffet instead. We discussed our plans for the day and decided to do another round of go karts, followed by a trip to the Rainforest Discovery Zoo located right on the strip in Sevierville. Oh, and as a joke we stopped at the Jerky Outlet. Kaylin had been laughing at the Jerky outlet since the first day of our trip. I totally went there just to tease her, but ended up buying a stick each of ostrich, kangaroo, bison, alligator and elk jerky.

Anyway, the go karts were a blast, the jerky store was fun and the zoo turned out to be much better than I could have imagined. We had originally planned to go to the Knoxville Zoo, but after looking at their online map, I remembered how hilly the place is and I didn't really want to walk it in my cast. We left the zoo (our last stop in the area) a few minutes before 1pm and started discussing where we'd stop for the night and what we'd do (if anything) on Thursday. Kaylin almost had a fit and said we should drive straight through. She wanted to see the cats, was (gasp) sick of swimming and couldn't see any reason to drive two days in a row. Logan strongly agreed. I was really surprised, but sort of relieved because I didn't really want another night at a hotel or a trip to yet another touristy destination either.

We made a few quick stops for food, gas and restrooms, but otherwise drove straight through and arrived home at 10:30pm. The cats were happy to see us. It's good to be out of the horrible trafficy tourist trap and sitting in my comfy chair with my computer. It's nice to still be off work for another three days. Logan just dumped his large basket of a jillion Hot Wheels cars and is setting up a huge traffic jam to help me remember what we just left. Yeah. Thanks buddy! I imagine the neighbor kids will be over in the next 30 minutes for the remainder of my time off. I need to go clean tons of stuff out of the van and start on laundry. But mostly I'm going to sit on my butt and relax. I have another doctor appointment on Monday and will hopefully find out how much longer I'll have to wear the cast. Yippee skippy.

Susy the cripple

Yesterday we went to a ski resort with an alpine slide. You took a ski lift up the mountain and rode a sled down a track. I was wearing my cast and man, did they ever give me embarrassingly special treatment! Logan and I rode the lift together. Even though I had no trouble whatsoever getting on OR off the lift, they still stopped it completely at both bottom and top. Then, even though there was nothing wrong with my arms and my 7-yr-old was obviously struggling with his large sled, the attendant insisted on carrying my sled to the track for me. Then, before Logan and I could make our sled run (two separate tracks,) they cleared the entire (very long) slide, allowed us to go all by ourselves, and didn't allow anyone else to go until we were safely completely off our sleds and the track at the bottom. And again, I had no problem getting off the sled or carrying it to the sled lift, but they rushed over to help me while Logan once again struggled. I probably held up the sled line for at least 8 minutes even though I couldn't have taken more than a few seconds longer to get off my sled than I would have if I was wearing tennis shoes and no cast! They normally allow MANY people on each track at once. Kaylin was right behind me and was going slow enough that she had three people piled up behind her :)

I felt like a complete jerk, but the ski resort was really fun. They also had an indoor ice rink, a small zoo, kiddie rides and several arcades and stores. The kids both skated for quite a while. It was Logan's first time on ice skates and Kaylin's second. Both loved it. There was a really fun shooting gallery Gene and I played while the kids played two endless games of air hockey. (They were both too bad to score any goals, so playing to 7 points took FOREVER. A good value for 75 cents a game!) We didn't do this, but they even had their snow tubing course open. How they kept it open in 90F heat is beyond me! The slopes that closed a week ago were mostly melted already.

Before the ski resort, we spent the morning at the national park. Finally! We drove to the North Carolina state line (just to say we'd been there) hiked a little at the top of a mountain range and then hiked again at an area beside a stream. It was beautiful and fun. I was surprised at how much the kids enjoyed it! I was also surprised at how little wildlife I saw. I mean, I wasn't expecting the place to be crawling with bears and elk, but I didn't even see a squirrel! I figured I'd see lots of birds, but nope. I saw one pileated woodpecker, but otherwise saw almost no birds, no reptiles or amphibians, and the only mammals were a couple of groundhogs outside of the park borders. Bummer.

We had every intention of going back to the park today and going a different direction, but the road construction idiots chose yesterday to resurface the road between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. The Spring Break crowds are HUGE this week! When we left the ski resort we swung back into the nat'l park and took the Gatlinburg bypass, thinking we were geniuses to bypass the horrible, crowded downtown strip. Because of the construction (we knew nothing about) we were stuck on the bypass for miles. It took us over 90 minutes to drive ~7 miles between the traffic backup and our hotel on the strip in Pigeon Forge. Sadly, we will not be heading back to the national park this morning. I think we'll head out of town and stop at the Knoxville Zoo instead. Bummer, but I will NOT get into that traffic again!

The kids both swam yet again last night and both of them look like they have hives or have been bawling their eyes out. Logan's eyes were so irritated from the chorine they were streaming tears all night and he could barely open them or see. Poor kid! I'm sure when it comes time to find a hotel tonight they'll be begging for one with a pool :) I think it's funny that when I was their age I was the same way about swimming, but as an adult I can't stand getting wet. Maybe it's less about the actual swimming and more about how much time I spend wet at work? I think that's probably it because I do enjoy water parks or even pools once I'm actually in them.

I guess we'll start our journey home today and arrive home sometime tomorrow (Thursday.) Overall, it's been a good time, but I can't say I'd come back to this area over Spring Break again. Too many people for my tastes!

Vacation continued

We moved on from our two nights at the Wilderness Resort to an almost dive hotel on the Pigeon Forge strip. I paid for two nights here and it cost just over $100 including fees and taxes! The place has an indoor and an outdoor pool as well as free breakfast. We were just looking for "indoor pool" when we made our decision, so the cheap price was a major bonus. The fact the outdoor pool was open (It was almost 90F yesterday) was an even bigger bonus.

The whole area is jam-packed with tourists. Driving the main drags takes forever. Everywhere is busy, busy, busy. Between the crowds and my cast, I'm not having the Best Vacation Ever. I knew it would be busy, I just didn't realize each traffic light would take 5 full minutes, making it take 20 minutes to drive a few blocks. Ugh. At least you can watch people being slingshotted into the air on a huge bungee cord or check out the amazing mini-golf courses while you're waiting.

Fortunately, I think the kids are loving every second. They spent several hours yesterday morning swimming at the Wilderness water park. I suited up long enough to go on one slide with Logan. It was the crazy slide that had a two person minimum as well as a minimum weight limit. Even if Kaylin would have agreed to go, they would have been way too light to make it on. I then spent some time in the wave pool, but it was really hard on my foot. Stupid foot. I decided that even though my foot is making me feel like a whiny, party pooping baby, NOTHING is worth messing up the progress I've made wearing that cast five weeks at work! There will be other water parks and though Logan probably would have liked to go on the big slide a few more times, he still had a blast doing all the other stuff.

After swimming we went to lunch (at Gene's favorite Fuddrucker's) and then used up our final Ripley's attraction at their Old McDonald's Farm mini golf course. It was fun. Logan got three holes in one, but it was miserably hot. There was a Walmart right across the way so we FINALLY stopped and got the Lego set Logan earned by getting two 100s on consecutive spelling tests :) It's a roller coasterish Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom mine car set he's been eyeing for months and months. I'm hoping to avoid opening it until we get home but I doubt that'll happen. Anyway, after Walmart we found our hotel and moved in. Gene watched the first few innings of the White Sox opener and then I took Kaylin to MagiQuest while Gene watched Logan swim at both hotel pools. I had been worried about MQ because the one in Wisconsin Dells was on 5 separate floors and nearly destroyed my foot back in August. This one was all on one floor! Lots of walking back and forth and running from place to place, but no stairs! Kaylin was crazy about it and I may take her back today or tomorrow if there's time.

We've all been sleeping in ridiculously late. Ok, well I've been getting up at 3 or 4 for a few hours and then going back to sleep for a couple of hours. It's totally against my usual commando vacation routine of everyone getting up at the crack of dawn to beat the crowds. I'm going to try to get everyone up a little earlier this morning and (finally) drive up into the national park. Gene found a good scenic driving route and is excited because it dips into North Carolina where he's never been and I think I've only been on this exact route through the Smokies. The only other touristy thing I really want to do is the alpine slide at Ober Gatlinburg. Kaylin wants to go back to MagiQuest and Logan wants to ride more go karts. Otherwise, I'm sure the kids will do plenty of swimming and Gene and I will relax by the pool. We'll probably start heading home on Wednesday sometime and may possibly stop at Cincinnati Zoo on Thursday. Or else we'll do something else :)

It hasn't been my usual uber-busy, planned to the last detail, energy-sapping trip. The cast really depletes my energy- both physically and mentally, which is driving me nuts! However, we're away from home, away from work, away from the neighbor kids, away from the stresses of everyday life. The kids are having a great time and I'm getting some forced relaxation. This will not go down as one of MY best family vacations ever, but it's alright. It certainly isn't bad!

Tennessee

We're at the Wilderness Resort of the Smokies. Gene and the kids are at the water park swimming. I'm on the deck of our hotel room looking at the mountains and resting my foot. I'm a little disappointed in this resort. There are two separate areas. One huge compound that includes the indoor water park and the main arcade and restaurants and another huge compound up on a hill about a half mile away that has a smallish outdoor water park, a small arcade, a small restaurant and a small gift shop. We, of course, are at the far building. The feeling of excitement and fun that usually accompanies these huge resorts doesn't exist here. We have to take a tram from our building to the main pool. It is so much walking that I can't do it without my cast. I tried to wear my cast into the water park area, but the floor was so wet I ended up leaving after about two minutes and haven't been back. It's been in the 80s here and fortunately, the outdoor park has been open part of the day. The kids are having a blast, I'm a little bummed over not being able to do as much as I normally would.

This place (Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge) is the kids' dream come true. Yesterday we rode roller coaster go karts that curved up many levels and then then down some relatively steep hills. It was a long track and they let us go around six times. We also had a flashlight Easter egg hunt in our room. I brought over 100 candy and prize filled eggs and hid them around the hotel room. We had all the lights out and the kids only got to use flashlights. Fun times.

Today we went to the Ripley's Aquarium. My expectations were low. I mean, I was sort of expecting a two headed turtle or the world's largest goldfish. Wow! That place was awesome! It had a huge, winding underwater tube with views of all kinds of sharks and many sawfish. It had exhibits of gigantic crabs, an octopus, colorful jellyfish and touch pools with rays and horseshoe crabs. The Ripley's Aquarium was the best I've seen! We had expanded tickets that allowed us two other Ripley's attractions. We went to the Odditorium. The kids weren't impressed. They both had their hands over their ears the entire time and I thought Kaylin was going to cry over the 4-legged duck. We walked up and down the Gatlinburg strip, stopping in a few shops. We went to Cooter's Place and looked around the Dukes of Hazzard "museum." We were all too tired to experience a third Ripley's attraction, so will probably play one of their mini-golf courses tomorrow.

Tomorrow I promised Kaylin we'd go to the MagiQuest in Pigeon Forge. She went to the one in Wisconsin Dells last summer and loved it. I really just want to go drive around the national park and hike a little. Oh well, I'm sure it will happen for at least 30 minutes of the trip. Maybe an hour if the traffic is bad :)

I totally forgot about the drive along I-75 that goes along the top of the mountain range. It was horribly windy and actually made me dizzy shaking around and looking down. What a cool drive! We got a room service baked ziti and salad delivery tonight. I should clean up the leftovers and dishes before Gene and the kids get back.

Too excited to sleep

Ugh. It's 3:30am and I can't sleep. I have approximately 1000 things to do before we leave on our trip, but I want to sleep so much that I'm not doing any of them. I'm sure that sitting here writing this will put me right back to sleep :) I guess I'm so excited to get out of town I can't turn off my brain. The boot has me feeling so confined and claustrophobic, I want to run away and escape. But I will never escape the boot. Never! Bwahahaha. Yeah, just lettin' my crazy shine.

The piglets I had been expecting to pop out at any second for over a week were finally born Thursday morning. I had been arriving at work early every morning and practically running over to check the mama hog. Every day I was disappointed. Every day I thought "Tomorrow for sure!" Until Wednesday. Wednesday I was so bummed they hadn't arrived, I knew they wouldn't come until I was out of town. Thursday morning I didn't make the kids wake up early and leave early for school. I did hurry over to check mama hog, but more because I wanted to get some other stuff done. I had no hopes of piglets, but there they were! A cute little line of three adorable brown watermelons. Hurray! Totally made my day! I took around 35 photos, but through the glass and zoomed at maximum none were too great. The piggies move fast and every movement is a blur. But man, they are CUTE! They were worth the wait and made my day.

I need to finish packing and find my camera battery charger and print some maps and put away laundry and do about a jillion other things. Hmmm. I did NOT help myself in my quest to fall back asleep. I stressed myself out enough thinking about the "to do" list I might as well get on it!