THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY

We're back from our vacation South where we visited family in both Kentucky and Tennessee. It was a very emotional, tiring, wonderful trip for me. It was mostly GOOD. There were a few BAD things. As for UGLY, I'll write about the strange things for this category. I really need to write about these experiences. :)

THE GOOD

• The kids got to play with other children. They loved seeing their cousins in Kentucky. They also got to play with my friends' kids who are close in age. It was a treat to see my daughter playing dolls and watching TV with my best friend's little girl.
• We loved seeing the kids' joy when they played with the puppies for the first time at my youngest brother's house.
• It was such fun to see MG interact with the baby of my family...her 6 month old cousin. She taught him how to stick out his tongue. I will post pictures of this soon. :)
• The Fall leaves were just beautiful driving through Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley.
• I got to have a very special conversation with my best friend's mother who was like a mother to me when I was a kid going through hard times.
• I also had a very deep and helpful conversation with my sister-in-law in KY. She is a very spiritual person.
• The kids were so very good while we drove. We did not have to stay in a hotel because the kids slept at the perfect times. :)
• My Mom was very happy and had a wonderful time. She was not so devastated when we left and was in such good spirits when I talked to her on the phone when we got back to Maryland.

THE BAD

• We stayed with my sister-in-law and brother in TN. They had invited us to stay there which I appreciate, but I had no idea that she was so particular and unused to young children. It was so bad the first night because she almost had a hernia when MG spilled a little juice on her kitchen floor. Then my brother fussed at us about EVERYTHING that the kids were doing. It was almost unbearable and I spent most of that night crying. We were so exhausted, the kids were a little wild from having pent up energy and my brother and sister-in-law did not know how to handle it. I didn't think that we would get to stay there. During that first night, I made up my mind that we would stay, but try to do lots during the day to keep out of their hair. There was some rudeness on my brother and sister-in-law's part, but I think that they were so overwhelmed and had absolutely no realistic clue to how children behave. I was pushed to the point of speaking my mind once, but I did OK with that. Whew, I also bit my tongue once to not say something rude. It turned out fine, but we were very glad to be leaving there. I'm sure that my sister-in-law fumigated the place after we got out of there. I can't wait to see what happens in a few years when her little baby is a rowdy toddler....hee hee hee.
• We had to drive through a storm in the dark when we were almost home. That was a bit scary.

THE UGLY

Well, I can only think of the strange bizarre thing for this category. When we were driving down to KY, we stopped at a restaurant for breakfast at McDonald's. I took MB into the bathroom to change his diaper. There was no changing table thing, so I assumed that it was in the occupied handicapped restroom. I waited and waited and waited, but the person would not come out. Eventually, an elderly employee walked in and began talking to this person in the stall. I asked about the changing table & she said that yes, it was in the occupied stall. Finally a woman who looked to be about 60 came out. She was an employee as well. She stood in front of the mirror and looked at herself and began talking to me. She acted strange and talked in a whispery voice and said this: "I am so sweaty that I couldn't get my panties up." Her face was very red. Then she kind of put her hand to her throat and said that it felt like a rope was constricting it. I didn't know what to say and hurried into the stall with MB. Low and behold, there was no changing table in there after all !!! We ended up changing him in the car. Meanwhile, I saw the strange lady come out of the bathroom and go right back to work.