dreary day...

You know what's almost as nice as a brilliantly sunny day? A dark rainy day. The kind of day that makes you want to hunker down inside and put on a pot of soup, maybe bake some chocolate chip cookies. The kind of day that if the sun peeks through, you want it to go away again, and leave you to the delicious gloom.

When the kids were little, I welcomed those dark rainy days because maybe there wouldn't be as much pressure to get outside. I mean, having...um...let's just say ten kids twelve and under...who want to go outside...and there are dishes and laundry and the floors are sticky and you are in the middle of sewing new curtains, and haven't the foggiest what's for dinner tonight...and kids want to go play out in the sunshine!

Anyway. It's one of those cozy days. The only thing I dislike is that the dogs get so muddy, and they go in and out so many times every day. They are Labs, they love water, and they see that creek in the back yard as their personal vacation spot. They are still sleeping in Charlotte Claire and Camille's room, so shh, I don't feel like letting them out then wiping them down, so I am tip-toeing around here, put on a pot of coffee, and am here sneaking in a post.

We got home safe and sound Friday night. We left as planned, at O-Dark-Thirty, really at 4:30 a.m. on Thursday. We drove through Florida, hit Georgia as the sun was up and shining...Georgia is a long state to drive through, but it's fascinating, with it's mossy trees and it was so warm when we stopped. Then South Carolina, North Carolina, then finally, Virginia. We had a hotel booked in Richmond. We stopped first to get some dinner to eat when we got to our room...Wendy's. Evelyn and Irene and I really like their salads. But I do NOT like blue cheese, or any kind of cheese, unless it's on a pizza or in the dreaded mac-and-cheese, but whatever. I asked for mine without. And lo and behold, we got to the hotel, and blah, it was permeated with blue cheese. So I did text the 1-800 number and complain...but I made sure to say that the employee was super nice, just made a mistake, but oh I was hungry. Anyway. It's good I ordered some extra stuff.

And the hotel: I booked this hotel instead of a few other ones that looked promising because of one particular feature: the hot tub. There is nothing like a soak in a hot tub after fourteen hours in the van. So you can imagine the look on my face when the seven of us suited up and walked into the pool room, and there was a swimming pool...and the hot tub had been cemented over, filled in, was no more in existence. The girls were disappointed too, but they had too much fun looking at my face. I couldn't stop saying, "Seriously?"

So the next morning, I had every intention of having a nice conversation with the manager about how it was pictured on the CURRENT online reservation site, with no mention it had been removed, which swayed me to this hotel, when I could easily, for the price I payed, have reserved somewhere else. But as luck would have it, the manager was out, the girl in the breakfast room said, getting more...half and half! Ha. If you know me at all, this is a coffee deal-breaker, no half- and half. I could do whole milk, but they had skim, or low-fat. They had flavored sugary creamers, but I can't drink those. It was almost funny.

We had to make a stop for coffee after we left.

And we survived. And I am well aware that I sound like a spoiled First World Probs girl, and I am sorry about that.

It was nice to get home. We had lots of fun travelling, sang the Phinneas and Ferb song too many times, and the girls have a song about the periodic table, and then there's the presidents song...and stopping for chicken nuggets and the spilling of barbecue sauce in the van and the dropping of the bag of M&M's...good times.

It's so nice to be with Paul again. He made us dinner, but we weren't really hungry, so we saved it and had it last night.

Yesterday afternoon, I went on an outing all by myself. Paul was working from home, Jonathan was at my brother's house helping install new flooring, the older girls all at a conference, and the two little girls just wanted to stay home. Char was playing dollhouse and Cam was practicing the clarinet. So off I went, to the library...I got a stack of interesting books for them, a few for me. Then to the thrift store, where surprise, I bought nothing. Then to Aldi, where I bought bacon and half and half and veggies and some Halo oranges, they are so yum. Then to the dollar store for a gift bag for my nieces's baby shower, which is today.

It wasn't half bad going out by myself. I am used to hearing a chorus of protests and opinions about every stop and every purchase, too. I bought two huge bags of marshmallows at the dollar store, for 25 cents each, we can make rice krispy treats with them. If my girls were there, they would be like, "Mom, we don't need those!"

The coffee has finished brewing, so I need to sneak out and pour a cup, all tippy-toe quiet...let sleeping dogs lie, and all that...