right on schedule

Mary and Kate were both moaning about being sick this am and Chuck came home from dropping them at school and threw up- I'm actually a little suprised they aren't all getting sick the day before we leave! Chuck went to a Hornets game last night in n.o. with some clients and ate raw oysters so of course he got a bad one...

we are due to drive to Houston Friday afternoon and then spend the night and catch a 10 am flight to Roatan- We could have gone from n.o. or even baton rouge, but switching flights means relying on other flights to be on time etc etc. We decided that we'd rather drive 5 hours and catch a direct flight to the island than be at the mercy of an airline and mother nature. Plus we'll hopefully get to visit with Kim, Paul, Em and Ben while in Houston.

the weather is so gross here right now, i cannot WAIT to get into the sunshine and sand!!

the great face mask debacle of '08

Mary turned 9 in December and we had our first ever giant slumber party here to celebrate in January. It wasn't the Grigsby's in Tara giant, but it was a lot of kids. The good news is that they were mostly 9 year old girls who, while dramatic, are terribly sweet and fun. Mary is fortunate to have the sweetest group of little friends and it reminds me a lot of how we were as kids at St. James minus the mean teachers who smoked. There isn't really a Courtney in this group who is organizing the Pink Ladies and not letting me in. This is, of course, all as far as I know. I do like being blissfully ignorant but you can tell how they all are around each other that they are kind. Some are a little louder and bossier but thats just life.

We bought some tubes of face mask that were apparently mislabled as "soothing cucumber" but were, in reality, tubes of green hydrochloric acid. First it was the sweet little fair skinned ones who came running back into the bathroom, their faces red and eyes bulging under the heat of the skin searing green acid. I wiped it off as fast as I could, but then the darker skinned ones started coming back in too- it was all happening in skin-color coded order. Everyone seemed to recover except for the quietest, nicest girl at the party who had skin like I did when I was that age. White with little freckles and her eyes were getting swollen and red. I felt so horrible for her and we had to nurse her skin back to health all night long. She eventually went home- poor thing. She came over for an innocent slumber party only to have acid poured all over her face. Not a proud mom moment.

When we picked up the sleeping bags the next morning there was a soft layer of popcorn and sliced cucumbers covering the rug- I don't know where I thought the cucumbers had gone after this.....

I guess I assumed they ate them.

Overall it was really fun- It brought back lots of memories so I really go into it. Chuck was on the patio most of the night clutching his bberry all white knuckled. He totally can't walk the line...

babies havin babies

In the middle of watching Rock of Love I looked at Chuck and said, "I'm going to be FORTY-FIVE years old when the twins graduate from high school!" "What the hell am I going to do with myself?".

Up to that point I'd always been excited about being so young and hadn't given it much thought really- the plan was that we would hone our sailing skills and make tons of money and then when we are almost the age some of our good friends are now, we'd rent the house out and sail off into the sunset- maybe start in the Bahamas and then work our way down for a few years? That is still the plan, but I realized that Chuck will only be 47 or 48 at that point- who the hell retires when they are 47? We'll have 4 kids in college (hopefully) and will be riding the wave of debt associated with private school tuition.

I read an article in the local paper yesterday that talked about "young" people having babies and how isolated they were from their peers- the featured couple was 30 and 32 years old. Wa? I was a very new 24 when I had Mary. Since when is 30 considered an early age to start having children? Given, we are in the South and a little behind the times- but is 30 really so young now? I must be in my own little world because it still catches me off guard when I'm introduced as having "four little girls" and the person looks shocked. meh.

Anyway- We plan on dragging the kids along with us on our travels for the next 15 years and I want to document lots of it for them to have later. I pretty much remember nothing from vacations other than sporadic little snips- finding a stolen wallet in Victoria, burying the hose with Chris Kiesel in Pensacola, rainy new york etc etc...

The good news is they'll have this to refresh their memories- the bad news? It's mom's version...