Vacation!

Wow... I'm tired. Been a crazy couple days. The original plan had been to come here to Florida on a plane. We bought tickets through Skybus, then they went bankrupt and screwed us out of our $150. so the new plan was that we'd rent a car, as our poor old Grand Am is getting up there in age and it's reliability is dubious at best. Get to the airport to pick up our rental car on Tuesday at 6am, and they won't take my Paypal debit. We asked if they could take my mom's credit card number over the phone, but nope, had to have the card to swipe it supposedly. That makes me wonder how they handle cards that have been demagnetized- If it doesn't swipe, does that mean they don't take it, or does it mean that they, like we did at Toys R Us, just hand key the number? Because if that's the case.. I'm pissed off.

In the end, we drove back home, packed the car, and drove to the local repair shop. $60 covered an oil change, fluids filling, and tire rotation. They didn't see anything glaringly horrible and gave us the ok to drive it to Florida. I think they wondered about my intelligence, however, because it took me a full 5 minutes to figure out how to pop the hood, despite Jasons yelling at me that it was there, right there, no under there, to your left, to your right, down there! I don't pop the damned hood that often, come on. I never claimed to be a mechanic.

The car did fine on the drive here, not a sinlg problem. Needed 3 gas fillups, a total of $100 for the 11 hour drive. I drove all but 3 hours in Georgia, during which time I ate, got very carsick, fell asleep, and tried to console the crying kids in the back seat.

I love driving through North Florida, such gorgeous Thoroughbred racing farms, each with their own practice track and gleaming barns, manicured pastures, and immaculate fencing. They'd wet themselves if they saw my old broken down gelding and 4 ft high electric wire fencing.

We arrived around 8pm, just in time to watch the season finale of Hell's Kitchen. I was disgusted to see Petrozza did not win. Depressing end to an awesome season. We tried to go to bed around 11pm, but we're stuck in one room, with one bed and 2 kids. We fell asleep till 3am, at which time Sierra woke and started to scream. I took her out into the living room and we eventually fell asleep despite her using us as trampolines. We ended up figuring out how to make the hallway into a makeshift playpen, and she is sleeping peacefully in there now. Jaymes is flopped out on the couch. The downside of the arrangement is that we have no bathroom as long as Sierra is in the hallway, nor do we have our clothes or anything else. I'm not 100% on where I'm sleeping either, as Jason is asleep on the couch. Hello floor.

Anyway. Today we went and looked around our old town. Pretty much the same. I thought I'd be all "awww I miss Port Charlotte." Instead, I find myself loving Kernersville all the more. It's awesome to see the people I've missed, but beyond that all I can think about is how glad I am not to live in this godforsaken state anymore.

We went to Walmart first, for diapers. We were stupid and left NC with 6 diapers total, for 2 kids. Jaymes had several diaper explosions on the trip, so we went through the diapers and his spare clothes rather quickly.

Next we went to Target, to look for sandals for Sierra. Then to the mall, which is teeny tiny in comparison to the gigantic Hanes Mall, yet somewhat comforting nonetheless. Also went to Toys R Us to visit, but only Ann and Laurie gave a hoot that I was there, most of the people I like best weren't in until later.

We went home after that and ate some lunch, then put Sierra down for a nap. Jaymes and I excitedly went out to the pool, and he went crazy splashing on the steps. He's finally tall enough to stand in the shallow end! He also sat on my back and tried to drown me while I swam him back and forth like a pony.

Jaymes got bored after awhile, and after having swallowed a good 15 gallons of chlorinated pool water. He went inside with everyone else, and I got in the middle of the innertube thing, and dangled so everything below my nose was underwater. It was very relaxing. I floated with the pool filter's current for about 2 hours, when I was harassed into coming in. I could have floated all day.

Here is Jaymes playing on the steps:






Jaymes clinging to me:



And the terrifying Jaymesmommyinnertube Monster, look at those tentacles!!!



Jaymes and I in the tube...



After the pool, we went out to Walmart with Jason's mom. She's a little nutty about rain, apparently it is as good as committing suicide to drive in any kind of rain. Then we ate dinner, and Sierra and I took off to visit at TRU again. April, one of my two favorite people in the world, was working, so we talked awhile. Got to see Lydia, Pam and Frank (Frank is the coolest guy ever, I love him!) which was really nice. I miss TRU, best job I ever had and the most lovable group of people you could ever hope to work with. We spent an hour or so over there, then headed to my friend Julie's house. Her son has gotten so big! We just sat on the couch and talked and drank green tea, made our plans for the week too. Tomorrow after I go out with April, Julie and Brandon and Jaymes and I are going to go to Denny's (or someplace) for dinner, then Saturday we're going to the water park. Should be really fun.

So yeah... I'm really tired. feeling a little whiny, because my mother in law and her boyfriend smoke like chimneys in the house and the heavy smoke scent in the air burns my throat and makes my eyes water. I hate that smell soooo much. That and they leave the A/C off at night and it's friggin HOT. I like ours on 65 at night. Waah.

Jaymes has been really doing well. He's keeping it together despite the chaos and confusion, and he's behaving very well. He got his hair cut today and that went well too. He looks SO handsome.

Only really bad thing is that Jason's mom felt the need to lecture me for a long time about how I wasn't doing enough to get services for Jaymes. Because, clearly, if iwere, he;d have everything he needs. GRRR.

Enough, I'm so tired the words are blurring together. More tomorrow. Oh, heres some video of jaymes trying to drown me.