I'm back...with pictures...

Aaron, Joseph, Evelyn, Suzanne, Kathryn, and me...our hour at the beach.

cool me in the sun...

Evelyn 13, Suzanne 11, and Kathryn 14

Samuel 17, on the beach reading his new WWII book from Gramma.

Suze and Kathryn

Joseph 21 and Aaron 20...two of my very best friends. These guys shared the driving with their Mama, and although I didn't sleep much when Joe was driving, I was thankful for their good attitudes. Driving 24 hours straight, just stopping at McDonalds' for coffees and restrooms, and a North Carolina Walmart, a Georgia Walmart (love their accents!) (for important things like Dramamine for Suze, who got extremely carsick on the way down, and decongestant and tissues for Joseph, his allergies were bad)..

I thought it was funny that our hotel was right in the Lowe's parking lot...the view from the pool...Lowe's.

Aaron, Suzanne, Evelyn, Gramma, then Sam and I across the table. Gramma took us out to dinner and the kids got to order, "anything they want!", courtesy of Gramma. It took them a long time to decide.

And some Christmas pictures...

Benjamin and Ashley...oh, it is so good to see him! And them, of course.

Ben with Kathryn

Mirielle and Aaron in their new "Let's Be Friends" t-shirts from Suri. Yes, Suri-The-Dog gave out gifts. Because yours truly found 19 of them at the Salvation Army for fifty cents each. They were brand-new, but I washed them before I wrapped them anyway.

Emily in her new t-shirt.

Me, Sam, and Kathryn...and yes, this was a hard picture to post for me. I see my tummy, still there, and I forgot to suck it in for the picture. Truth is, I have a long way to go. I haven't given up, but I have cheated alot the last week or so. But I am back on track now, this will be my new, "before" picture.

Sam and Abigail...Sam got a new hat for Christmas.

Suri is a lucky dog. Or rather Charlotte Claire is a lucky girl, she has a nice pillow.

Anyway, we are home again, back to winter. As we drove into New York state, the snow started swirling down. There is so much snow here! Suri loves to romp in it, bury her head down as she digs for stuff...then she looks up, all covered with snow, and it's so cute!

So...what a trip, what a Christmas!

I will spare the boring details, but we spent 48-ish hours together in that minivan...Joseph and Aaron, Sam and Eve and Kap and I....We were only in Florida for two whole days, and the first day there we were like zombies from driving all night. The second day we spent at Gramma's place. She made us a nice dinner, we relaxed and talked. Third day: time to drive home. We visited Grampa in the hospital first, it was our third visit with him, and I think he remembered that we had been there the day before. His short-term memory is failing, but ask him about when he was in the Navy at the end of WWII, and he will tell you all about what Japan was like, and the names of all the ships. Oh, it was so nice to spend some time with him.

Instead of driving straight home, we took a detour to the Gulf shore of Florida, and spend an hour on the beach. Then...north. We stopped once at Wendy's so I could get a healthy salad...but blah. The place was a dump. The chicken on it tasted yuck, there was mold on Sam's burger bun....blah. I drove for the first six hours. Then for four or so when we were almost home. I had an ice cream cone from McD's for dinner (170 calories), then another one at the next McD's. We got Subway subs at 1:00 am, Happy New Year's to us. Breakfast was a fruit and yogurt parfait for me. With coffee. It's nice that most McDonalds have one dollar coffee, because we drank alot of it.

It's good to be home. The kids went to school today, except for Evelyn, who wants to go to the library. We need to go to the store, as we are out of bananas and pears and whole milk for the coffee, and brown sugar for the oatmeal and..oatmeal.

So Happy New Year, and here is my resolution list:

take life one day at a time, and live each day as if it were my last, being good and forgiving and kind, and keeping junk out of my mouth. And exercising!