No Place Like Home

I never thought I'd ever be so glad for my tiny little house. I may complain all the time about it but I have never loved it so much until now.

We got home Sunday and it's taken me a couple of days to regroup. Everything looked like it had been abandoned when we pulled up the drive -- I couldn't see the house for the grass being so high. There must have been a storm because everything was scattered and knocked over. Imagine my surprise to find a cantelope that was left on the kitchen table that I had asked someone to take out before we left. The other thing is my garden -- being the new gardener I am I now see what I did wrong. Not sure what is what now -- can't tell what is a weed and what isn't. It took a life of its own and now I have a big mess.

To start off - this was the reason we took a horse.


(I blacked out the name of the company)

This wasn't exactly what I had planned. My husband ended up being the one to ride the horse while I babysat 5 kids in the wagon. I was accompanied by an older gentleman who drove, along with the wife of the owner and her dog.

It was fun for about the first 15 minutes -- then I was ready to get out. Yes, the wooden wheels are just as bumpy as you would think. For some reason I imagined a trailride as being something fun -- not miserable. Under different circumstances I am sure it would have been great -- just not for me.

The kids were loud and crazy -- jumping on and off the wagon through the backdoor. The owner's wife decided to lay down with her dog and take up the entire side of the wagon sticking me in a 4 ft space with 5 yelling kids. (Did I mention she was barefoot and had a fungus problem growing?) OMG - I really thought I was going to die. The music blared -- so loud that no one could hear anything. I also didn't realize how slow a mule walks. Especially when we have set out to ride a 5 hour trip. (I didn't know this until we were 2 hours into it).

Here was Jessica's reaction.



Here's my thoughtful husband. Too bad he got kicked by a horse during the 4th hour and got to leave early.....not us.....they didn't let us off.




Everyone was pretty much drunk half way through -- except me.
Don't think I didn't think about it at a time like this.



Looks pretty fun and relaxing, right? Yeah, whatever.
The interstate was on the other side of this hill.
When we were able to be seen from the road, cars actually stopped to take our picture. I'm sure all they saw was me with my mouth wide open yelling "H-E-L-P!"

Even though I am terrified of heights, I would have done anything to be here.



So, take it from me -- if you are ever invited on a trailride, remember what I say. Make certain there are no kids and if there are, make sure there are kids that mind. Mine were good -- it was my sister-in-laws that were terrors. I didn't take their pictures as I never wanted to see their faces again.

Look what Landon got to do. The fun lasted until my stepson hit the ground with his front tooth. Then Landon was scared and isn't crazy about the whole thing anymore.



My stepson did come home with us and is staying for 3 weeks. This was completely unplanned but we don't get to see him often enough. He hasn't let go of his dad -- he's like glue.



Believe it or not, he's as sweet as he is cute.

We did get to go the beach while we were there. It was alot of fun -- probably the most fun we had while we were there. The only problem with the ocean there is that the water is so dark and murky. Makes me worry about what is swimming around that I can't see -- so I didn't get in. Everyone else was having a ball splashing and playing until we saw a stingray flapping around in the shallow water -- we saw it clear as day. Of course then everyone thought they were seeing sharks.

I sat on the beach under my umbrella -- tried to stay out of the sun as much as I could since my skin just can't handle it. Unfortunately I forgot about my feet. They were so sunburned they were swollen -- everyone else was sunburned too. I had a routine with the sunscreen but I don't think they stayed out of the water long enough for it to work. The directions said to apply 30 minutes before -- kids just don't want to wait that long. My husbands hair is thinning and he forgot to wear a hat -- I forgot to tell him to. He was in pain.

We did finally get our new air conditioner, thank God. My husband installed everything yesterday (that's what he's done for a living his entire life) but forgot 1 important piece to keep it from flooding the attic -- he realized that this morning when Landon's ceiling about crashed down. Not sure how someone could forget such an important part especially when they've done it a zillion times.

My mother-in-law is not speaking to me anymore. She emailed me and told me I'm not qualified to play psychologist in regard to their huge family squabble between all of them and no one was speaking to each other. If it wasn't so dramatic and such a long story I would explain. My family was always so small that no one argued so this is new to me when families do. They just seem to go over the top on everything and read more into things than their are. All I did was listen to everyone and I did not give my opinion since it wasn't asked for because everyone that had to explain their side of the drama thought they were right anyway.

I don't think she liked it when I said that not 1 person took responsibility for their actions and before they point fingers they need to look at themselves first. That was my only 2 cents I gave but somehow managed to make it on her poop list now.

She is the step-mother to my husband and his sister -- she also has a daughter from a previous marriage and a son with their father. There has always been preference shown between the 4 as to who were the favorites -- so when my sister-in-law approached me and I agreed with her that sometimes it was obvious, my mother-in-law wanted to accuse me of starting problems. Luckilly I made it 10 years before I ended up on her bad side. I'm not sure that I care at the moment -- she won't stop talking long enough to listen so I really don't care how she feels. I just try to keep the peace for my husbands sake and keep my mouth shut and let his family continue to dig their own hole.

So, that is really what has been going on the last 2 1/2 weeks. I am just so glad for things to start getting back to normal. I think we are going to be going to the lake this afternoon for the kids to swim. I figure it will turn into a camping trip, too. I like to camp but I am so glad to be home I'm not up for that today. I may just leave my husband in charge so I can come home and have some time to myself with my computer. I've missed blogging so much and really need to catch up on what I've missed.