318 Better Late Than Never - Now With Words :)

Ever since Katie has been in school, I feel the need to take advantage of her school vacations to make the trek back to Atlanta. The poor girl has missed several weeks worth of school with her multiple cases of strep, and there is no way I am pulling her out to miss more. So, of course I wanted to head home for Thanksgiving!
At first, Chip denied my request. He couldn't get off work. Something about wanting to spend the holiday with his family blah blah blah. But, after thinking about it for a few days and knowing that I needed to see my Mommy (or realizing he will have all the time he wants to sleep, play on the computer, and watch tv) he gave us his blessing.
So, bright and early Wednesday morning I loaded up the Family Roadster and we headed off for a serene drive through the country. The screaming started before we left the county. And that is when I started reminiscing about college. Ahhh, how I loved to drive home back then. Six hours of music, singing along at the top of my lungs. But back to reality! Now I have two kids, screaming and whining. There is some Disney movie on ENDLESSLY. And the only way I get to listen to music is if they pass out. So yeah, that didn't happen. The moment Connor fell asleep Katie decided she had to pee. Katie finally nodded off and Connor decided it was the perfect time to screech at the top of his lungs. In other words it was an awesome drive!


Oh, and did I mention that I arrived in Atlanta JUST at rush hour?!


Did I also mention that I realized right as we passed into Alabama that I forgot to pack jeans ... or any pants other than pajama pants?! (Mom nabbed me a pair of jeans while she was out, so that crisis was averted)


First night, pretty uneventful except for the requisite trip to Wally World. Katie had been promised some make-up and by golly she was determined to get it! Plus, we needed to pick up a few things for the Thanksgiving dinner, but that was secondary. Although, the trip to Cracker Barrel beforehand made it all worth it! YUMMY! I have one 4 miles from my house, but we rarely go, how dumb is that?!

As a special Thanksgiving treat, my Mom let me sleep in!! I was most definitely THANKFUL!! Especially since the night before I had about 3 hours of sleep. We had pushed back our normal Thanksgiving eat time of 2 to a more reasonable 5, so we weren't freaking out first thing in the morning .... don't worry, the rush came anyway. Connor was very helpful though washing dishes (read: splashing water all over the kitchen)And as the real rush began I was reminded exactly why I love my Gemini oven! It is hard to cook with only one oven!! Not impossible, but you have to play with temperatures and cook times. Cross your fingers and hope for the best. Don't worry ... I got the pies made! One brother and his family were out of town, but my biggest brother was there! Aunt Ronka turns into a big kid with my babies, and they LOVE it! Katie snuggled up in the chair with Uncle Vince to watch tv ... it was a definite AWWW! moment. Austin is reaching the age where his little cousins are starting to annoy him. Especially Katie who likes to always be right on top of people. Ronka got a few great shots that SHE NEEDS TO EMAIL ME!! Of course, my family just roll their eyes when I pull out a camera, so out of love for them I try to restrain myself from playing paparazzi at family functions.

I tried so hard to keep from doing the Black Friday shopping thing ... but it is hopeless. Mom likes to get out when we are there (and spoil the kids rotten). I really really tried! I even startedus off at the junk stores! We hit a thrift shop and an antique store ... but you know we ended up at Target. Luckily it was late in the day and it was pretty dead. I just do NOT like to be surrounded by crowds of people! I always think about the woman that was trampled to death in Atlanta the year the Cabbage Patch Kids were the IT toy. Yeah, I was one of the kids wanting the doll (and Mom did get me one, she is upstairs right now, still love her, THANKS MOMMY!) but the idea of people so insane over a toy freaks me OUT!

And on that note ... our next stop was to the American Girl store!! Katie had decided that she finally wanted one, and of course Grammy wanted to take her to see them. Although I don't think Grammy was fully prepared to buy her the doll yet. Of course, when you are in the store and the dolls are right there .... And this face is looking at you when you say she has to wait for Christmas .... And the word "yes" can make her face look like this.... Then what can a Grammy do?? She can give in and say those magic words "this is your Christmas present, you understand?" And suddenly the sun broke through the clouds and birds started to sing. I am fairly sure there were bunnies hoping around as well. And to top it all off, we headed up to the carousel. At first it was just Katie.But being the awesome big sister that she is, she wanted to take Connor on his first carousel ride. She thought they would sit in the chair at first, but Connor was not impressed. Connor wanted to RIDE!!

And ride.... And my favorite part of any mall trip .. the GYRO!! Oh tzatzeki sauce, you are my friend!

Saturday, the last full day of Atlanta fun. We headed over to visit with my Aunt Janice. She is the one person we keep in touch with from my father (read: DNA donor) and Katie ADORES her! We headed out for a little lunch and conversation. Connor managed to immediately drop his full drink on the floor. He screamed every time we tried to take the salt shaker away ... oh the joy of dining out with a two year old! And after eating Mexican for lunch we met my friend Julie and her little guy Kyle for some Mexican for dinner. I am pretty sure that Katie has a boyfriend .... which is extra funny because Kyle is the son of my high school boyfriend. And the age difference is almost the same. Tell me they aren't ADORABLE together!!??Notice that Kyle is holding Katie's makeup. He is in training to be a great hubby one day! When we walked out to the car,they had to hug goodbye .... AND HUG AND HUG AND HUG!! Katie found a keychain, with two little keys on it. One of them being the kind you get on the dealership mailers - you know, the YOU MIGHT HAVE WON A NEW CAR ones. She gave it to Kyle and we joked that it was the key to her heart. Before we said our final goodbyes Kyle walked up to Katie, pointed the key at her heart and turned it. I ABOUT DIED!!! How sweet is that?? He locked her heart up to keep it safe! I can't even stand the cuteness a week later!

So, another wonderful visit home! Family, friends, coming back with more crap than we went with. Totally successful. I even made good time on the way home, in spite of the rain that fell from Birmingham all the way to Horn Lake. The kids slept a little. I rocked out to a few tunes. All is right in the world again.

...other than the fact it took me a week to write this. Hope your Thanksgiving was a fabulous as mine! (and if you aren't in the USA ... hope it was the best Thursday ever!)