This weekend we went to Clovers. Since we were both single mothers, we decided we might as well commiserate together while playing games and eating ice cream sauce (it WAS on ice cream--we aren't that depraved. Although the sauce is good enough to eat straight from the dish.). Olivia and Tori went down with me and Marilyn was already staying at Clovers, so it was a great, female filled weekend. Gilbert, Elliott, and Lincoln do their part to add maleness, but.... doesn't quite cut it. Justin and Evan are supposed to be homeward bound today, so happiness is rampants.
We got there in time for supper Friday night and a game of put-the-overexcited-kids-to-bed, followed by a greatly interrupted game of progressive rummy. It was swell. On Saturday we headed to the Farmers Market, then Carousel Mall (free Carousel rides that day!), and were home in time for quesidillas for lunch. If you have ever shopped with me before, I hope you will realized the enormity of that statement. I don't browse while shopping, I take up residence in the store and become intimately acquainted with all local merchandise before moving on to the next store. But this time, it was fairly zippity, zippity.
Here are some words of wisdom for anyone following in my chopping up credit card footprints--return everything you bought on the card that needs returning BEFORE chopping it up. I got a good stock of store credit. Which is fun, but at the same time, I thought this was going to be decreasing my credit card bill. Oh well. Live and learn. Fortunately, j.jills allows returns to credit cards without the card being physically present. So that return went smoothly. Grand total spent in Carousel mall (well excluding the gift card debacle--I spent $100 of that, in conjunction with Olivia, Tori, and Clover) was $7.89 for a pair of Gymboree jammies for Orianna, which were actually needed. Whee! Since cutting up my credit cards, I have spent exactly $50. Which includes a grocery shopping trip. But does not include gas. Gas is a law unto itself.
On Sunday, Clover and Marilyn treated us to Texas Roadhouse--yum! We caused a ruckus in the restaurant, making people move (I do NOT want to sit near children) and taking up two booths. Clover thinks the people saw how excited Gilbert got over getting his milk (Gilbert is very good at enthusiasm) and decided they did not want to see how excited we all got when the steak came. In any case, we enjoyed ourselves and our server thought the other people unbearably rude.
Our 3 hour trip home morphed into a 6 hour trip home due to vehicle malfunctions. When we went to Montreal in September, our car overheated on the way home, so when I saw the van (Mom and Dad's) overheating, I knew just what to do--pull over, turn the heat on high, pour water in the resevoir, and drive a little slower. Except this time, it didn't work. After an hour and a half, we had made it 20 miles. A nice EMS guy stopped and sorted us all out. He confirmed our suspicions that the radiator was completely dry, followed us for a mile or two and said that he saw the stuff leaking steadily out and hitting the muffler. This produced a lot of steam, which was then lit up in orange from passing car lights, making me think the van was on fire. Yeah, got our hearts pumping. We realized we were not going to be able to limp home and began making other plans. The nice EMS guy (on the way home from a 2 day conference--super kind of him to bother!) went to his house, filled up some water jugs so we could at least reach an exit to get off 81. He has kids, so he was worried about the kids and all of us sitting on the highway. A trooper stopped to follow us off the highway and then we cautiously headed back to Clovers. Clover drove us halfway home in her van, where we met Dad with his toolboxes. After switching our stuff for the second time, we headed back home in Mom's car while Clover and Dad went back to Clovers and the sad and lonesome van. The diagnosis was a hole in the line leading to the rear heater, so a simple plug-up and Dad was home a little after lunch time Monday.
And if that all doesn't make your head spin, you are a better person than I.
Anyway, we survived.
Here, in pictorial format is our weekend. Well the interesting bits anyway.
Carrots are always an extremely interesting part of life
It was cold
Who put that long straight NON-carousel riding skirt on their daughter?!?!?
Even Tori got to ride
Riding the escalator
Then home to cuddle in front of the fireplace with the lights off so they can read archie with a flashlight. Can a day get better than this? Carousels, escalators, flashlights, archie, and cuddling?
Texas Roadhouse
Rilla is so grown up looking!
Woebegone Lily
A convoy we passed
These are from sitting next to the road wasting time
Dirty faced Orianna who doesn't really look like Orianna
So there we are. I just totally made a post out of Livie's pictures.
3 comments:
Where did you get all of those cute kids?!
Also - don't you just hate gas? I find that you can stick to the strictest budget, do well, and still somehow spend double on gas. Arg. O well, I'm sure $2 a gallon gas is just around the corner...
I am proud of you! And these kids - so stinkin' cute!!
Sorry about your delay! ):
I think I got one picture on my camera all weekend. So I will shortly be putting Olivia's pictures up on my blog. And if you loved your daughter as much as you love Cheyenne, you would have made her a cool tiered skirt to wear over leggings for easier carousel hopping. Cheyenne wears that skirt embarrassingly often. I shall have to trawl back through your skirt tutorial and try it out.
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