Ten-ish Things: Branson

We drove 24 hours round trip in a 15 passenger van with Honey's parents to Branson, MO.  We learned some lessons along the way...

1.  Driving from our West Texas town to Branson is like taking a tour of natural disasters.  We saw damage left from flood, tornado, drought, and wildfires.

2. I need a car charger for my phone.  Between using it as the map for our road trip and checking off car bingo items and license plates, there was no battery left for Facebook checking.

3. The license plate game is a great distraction from the TWELVE HOUR DRIVE for children as well as moms and grandmas.  We found 40 states while riding in the car and while stretching our legs in the parking lots of rest stops, eating places, gas stations, and motels.

4. When searching for The Bass Pro Shops flagship store in Springfield, MO.  Do not enter "Bass Pro Shops" in the phone/GPS device you are using.  You will end up at the main office and employee training center...which was really pretty, but did not house the restaurant we were anticipating.  Search for "Outdoor World" if you want the retail establishment.

5. A 15 passenger van is the perfect size to drive 7 people and their luggage for 24 hours...unless those people are grumpy and stressed because lunch is an hour late.  Then even a 15 passenger van isn't enough space.

6.  There are some toll roads in Oklahoma...and by some, I mean many.

7.  There's a ton of stuff to do in Branson.  It's not just shows.  We rode zip lines, took a Ride the Ducks tour, and visited the Titanic Museum.

8. The shows we did see were very family friendly...no inappropriate language, jokes, or clothes.  It was a breath of fresh air.

9.  Bubba insisted on posing for every picture we took while on this trip.  I thought Branson would kick us out of their family friendly town.  We really belong in a red neck joke...or performing in the Three Redneck Tenors act.

10.  I'm a sucker for the overpriced pictures they sell at the end of every single tour.  Probably because my rule was that Bubba had to pose in a respectable way for the pictures we paid for.

11.  I did get a couple of "normal" pictures though.

Insta Friday

It's Insta Friday and this is my first time to participate!  I'm linking up with Jeannett and her friends.

(Yes, it's more pictures of our vacation, but with MORE COMMENTARY!, and LINKS!)

(Feel free to navigate away now.)

This week we were on vacation.  Honey earned a reward trip with his job and we decided to take the kids with us this year.  We got to spend a few days in West Palm Beach. 

I thought the days of talking Bubba into sharing a plate with me were over, but I was wrong.  Now we're in the "he eats his plate and helps me with mine too" stage.

Once we made it to West Palm Beach, we were introduced to Tropical Storm Debby.  She didn't cause too much severe weather where we were, but it did rain 2 out of the 3 days we were there.  The one day it didn't rain we toured the area in the Diva Duck...

 

...the girls got into the ocean for the first time...

...and the kids fed the fish at the Old Key Lime House.  Did you know that catfish like to eat cat food?  I didn't either, but that's what we threw in the water and they LOVED it.

The day we planned to spend at the beach the red flag was out, so we spent about two hours at the pool and then it rained.  And rained.  And rained.  I wished that Tropical Storm Debby had gone through Texas because we NEED that rain!

The rain didn't stop the awards banquet.  Here's Honey and his manager.

The rain did stop the morning we left.  (of course it did) We were able to get out of Florida with only a few bumps and a limited amount of drugs.  I also used the map on the back of the airplane napkin to explain to the kids 2 or 40 times where we were going and what cities we had to stop in to get there.

We flew back to Dallas (where it was NOT raining) and got to tour Cowboys Stadium, affectionately known around these parts as Jerry World.  The place is enormous! The Statue of Liberty, including the base, could stand inside if the ginormous TV was not there.  Crazy, huh?

Then we started hydrating (Have you had the passion fruit tea?  It's yummy!) because it was 108° and we were headed to...

...the Rangers game.  When the game started at 7:00pm it was 104° and at 10:30pm when the game was over it was 94°.  Glad we hydrated.

It was Nolan Ryan's 45th wedding anniversary.  They put him and his wife on the Kiss Cam.  It was really cute!

And, BONUS!, the Rangers won!

Then we drove home.

And I was so glad that I made the fam put a little bit of extra effort in before we left to make the beds and straighten the house.

Because it was so much nicer to come home to a picked up house instead of a house that looked like the aftermath of Tropical Storm Debby.

The day after Vacay 2012...one makes me feel like we're still in Florida.  The other...not so much.

I assume because of the HUMIDITY in Florida, everywhere we went there were jars of ice water with sliced fruit.  It was refreshing and yummy!  The girls and I fell in love.  So I decided to try it here, at home, to help sustain that vacay buzz.

Yesterday was watermelon and strawberry.  Today is watermelon and lime.

Happy Friday!

If you want to follow me on Instagram...talkinghairdryer

You can find my InstaSpringBreak posts here.

Disney? Still? Yep.

I'm not going to make any promises, but this might be my last post about Disney.

Diabetes at Disney was just a'ight for me. It wasn't awful, it was easy to keep in the background most of the time, but it was still there.

I packed all of our supplies in a backpack to carry on the air plane. I knew as long as I had that bag in my posession, no one could steal my argentum nitricum induced calm. We were going to be gone for 7 nights and 8 days. Our pump trainer suggested that we pack 3 times what we thought we would need. Plus Novolog and Lantus pens in case the pump crashed...and needles to use with the pens...and alchohol pads, test strips, lancets, back up meter, glucagon...

All of this "planning for the worst" kinda' cramped my style. I usually like to throw in the bare minimum and then run by Walmart if we run out of toothpaste or deodorant.

The thing is, they don't sell infusion sets at Walmart.

I compromised with taking 3 times what we needed of the stuff we have to get by prescription only, and a bit more than we needed for the over the counter stuff. And enough Juicy Juice to get us through lows until we could go to the store in Orlando.

Yep, all that stuff, accept the gray purse, fit in the backpack. We also had to carry on the liquid Motrin & Tylenol because Brooke had a busted ear drum the day we were flying. I stuck in our pill box to help us remember who'd taken what pill when. And just for good measure I made sure we had our pump instruction manual (since we're still rookies) and batteries and an empty bottle for sharps and our old sliding scale in case we had to go back to injections.

You would think security in our small town would be easy-peasy. But it wasn't. The TSA agent said that I would have to get the pat down unless I wanted to open each and every juice box. Um...doesn't that defeat the purpose of having juice boxes? So I got the pat down. Brooke walked through the metal detector, and then had to touch her pump with both hands, and then they did some sort of swab test on her hands. It took us about 15 minutes to get through the line and we were the only ones there.

Coming home from Orlando, the happiest place in America, the Satuday after Thanksgiving, waiting in line, it took us less time to get through security. Who knew?

Our plan while we were at the parks was to leave an insulated lunch box with backup insulin, 1 set change, back up juice boxes, insulin pens, batteries, the extra meter, lancets, needles, test strips at the First Aid Station. They made sure the lunch box stayed at room temperature and since it had an ice pack in it, room temperature was perfect.

They were so friendly and helpful. We dropped our "just in case" stuff off every morning and a couple of nights remembered to go back and pick it up. The other nights, Uncle Bubba remembered. He can be a grown up when he wants to.

Even though we've been going to Disney for 30 years, we did learn where the first aid stations are at every park. Hmm...you learn something new every day.

We carried the backpack with snacks, juice, and the meter. We never had to go back and use the stuff in first aid, but we had it "just in case". I guess the only down side to not needing the "just in case" stuff is that you forget to pick it up at the end of the day.

Her sugar was high most of the trip. She was on antibiotics the whole time we were there, so we kind of expected that. The times she did go low it was because she needed to eat a meal and the snacks just wouldn't cut it anymore.

As for making pump adjustments...now that we're home and she is done with the antibiotics, we're still doing that. For the week we were in Florida, we knew she was going to run high, so we just cut ourselves some slack and went with it. We ended up bolusing every 2 hours or so during the day because of snacks, and then we usually let her go from about 11pm-7am without checking. It was a great routine for getting some sleep.

Like I said before, my family has been doing Disney for 30 years. We've waited in 2 hour lines for most rides before anyone had thought of fast passes, mist machines, ceiling fans, TVs, cell phones, facebook, or interactive games to help pass the time. We had some good quality family time passing the hours while we wound up, down, and all around to finally board Pirates of the Caribbean. We learned the value of a well planned trip to the air conditioned, theater seated Hall of Presidents or Country Bear Jamborie when we'd had just about enough of the heat and humidity.

When I went to Guest Services to ask about where to leave our "just in case" stuff, I also asked about a Guest Assistance Card. It was a little read index-type card that alerted the cast members that we might need medical attention while in the park. It also allowed us to wait in the disabled lines or Fast Pass lines at most of the rides. We usually didn't get immediate access to the rides in the disabled lines, but we never waited more than 20 minutes to board a ride.

Given our history with Disney, the adults were a little hesitant to use the card. My children, however, were all over it. For most rides, there was never more than a 30 minute wait even in the real line. We usually just waited in the normal line for those.

Most of the times we used the card we ended up in the Fast Pass line because we weren't using a wheel chair. The card only guaranteed 6 people a pass, so two of us chose to sit out while the other 6 went in. The card did save us a couple of times when Brooke needed attention and we were able to take care of her and not waste the time we'd already spent in line.

I guess the Guest Assistance Card left us with mixed emotions. I'm sad that my kids aren't patient enough to wait 30 minutes for a ride without complaining, very loudly, "why can't we just use the golden ticket?"

I've been that person in the regular line that has waited 90 minutes in the heat and humidity only to see an apparently healthy family walk right up flash the card and board in front of me with no wait at all.

But, it was helpful. We didn't have to worry about wait times vs. snack times vs. meal times vs. has she been too active, did we over correct her? vs. will she crash before we get done with this ride? It made Disney with Diabetes much easier.

It made me less judgemental of the people in the disabled line. And the next time we go back, I'm going to teach my kids that there are some things worth waiting patiently in line for.

I know you didn't ask, but here's my advice.

Here's my 2 cents worth if you are planning a trip to see Mickey any time soon.

1. We've done it many ways, but this is my favorite...stay on Disney property and purchase at least some part of the meal plan they offer. "Are you staying on property?" Is the first question you will hear when talking to a cast member. They are super nice to everyone, but "yes, we're staying on property" seem to be the magic words.

By staying on property, Disney will drive you to and from the airport and bus or monorail you to and from every park. There is no need to rent a car or hire a shuttle.

At Disney anyone age 10 and older is considered an adult. Fast food type meals in the park were around $50-60 per meal for our family of 5. Any other type of meal where you are served by a waiter ran about $25 a plate for adults. A character meal is about $35 per adult.

Disney allows you to bring in your own food and bottled drinks, but unless you are staying somewhere that offers a mini fridge or something, I think that would be hard.

All of that to say... when you are on the Disney website pricing different packages with/without the meal plan, it seems like sticker shock, but when you add it all up, you will probably spend that much money anyway.

2. Make reservations for any meal you want to eat other than fast food. We usually travel with 8 when we go with my family and reservations are the only way to get a party of that size in to a restaurant. But my parents have been when it was just the two of them and had a hard time getting in to eat without reservations.

They will take reservations 6 months in advance. The Disney website has descriptions of the dinning options at each park. We like Mexico and Japan in Epcot, but I bet Italy is really good, too, and Hollywood & Vine Buffet and The Sci-fi Drive In at Hollywood Studios.

3. The day you are at Magic Kingdom is a great day to do a character meal. There aren't many memorable sit down places to eat in Magic Kingdom accept the places that offer character dinning. This year we went to Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary Resort. My kids are almost past the character dinning stage. The princesses, Pooh, and Chip and Dale didn't really interest them, so we hopped on the monorail and went over to see Mickey.

3. Pay a little extra for the Park Hopper Tickets. You can go in, out, up, down, and all around and then leave and do it all again at one of the other parks on the same day. Your trips may go as you perfectly planned them, but ours never do. We love having the option to go in and out of any of the parks any time we choose.

4. It's gonna' rain. It doesn't matter what time of year you go or what the weather forecast says, it will rain at some point during your trip. Just go with it. Find a covered spot and take an ice cream break. Visit some of the shops. Pack a poncho and just keep going. We've done any and all of these and loved every minute of it.

5. Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios all have a light/fireworks show at the end of the day. They are SO worth hanging around and watching. This year, I bought a couple of apps for my phone: Disney World by Undercover Tourist and Magic Guide. Between the two apps we had park hours, maps, ride wait times, and parade and show times. The wait times were pretty accurate and we loved not having to fold and unfold the paper map every time we needed to use it.

6. Both times we took our kids, we bought them a Disney gift card for the amount of money they were allowed to spend on souvenirs. We bought each of them a shirt with our own money and then they had to buy everything else. It was wonderful to say, "Sure!" instead of, "No." every time they wanted something.

The girls needed to be coached not to spend all their money at the first stop, but pretty much as long as they had money on their card, they could buy it.

7. Y'all...Disneyland in California is cheaper. It just is.

It's smaller with only 2 parks, so you can stay 4 nights and have pu-lenty of time.

Really you need 5 or 6 nights in Florida.

We spent quite a bit more on food in Florida than we did in California. I know the California prices were 3 years ago, but still, there was a difference.

There were more options for food in California. The Disney property is much smaller and you can walk everywhere in just minutes. We didn't have to eat in the park every meal. Downtown Disney was close enough that we could get in to just about any restaurant there with just a reasonable wait.

Also, from our little spot in West Texas, it is much cheaper to fly West than it is East.

We went to California at the perfect time for our family. Bubba was in 3rd grade and the girls were barely 5. It was small enough that we could do what we wanted and do it at a pace the girls could handle without getting too tired.

Florida was great because the kids were older and could go faster, longer so we could do as much as possible in the time we had.

8. The only thing not magical about Disney is that they do not believe in Dr. Pepper...or Sonic. I think we would become millionaires if we opened a Sonic anywhere in Orlando. So, plan the route home from the airport to take you by Sonic for a good Diet Dr. Pepper.

And then there was the other time zone...

Let's see...when was I?

Central time, Pacific time, Kindergarten time (we all know the 5 year olds run on their own little clocks)...

After Kindergarten, I spent 4 days back in modified Central time getting my 5 ready for our not-so-traditional Thanksgiving week.

I say modified Central time because at this point in the month we'd been getting up multiple times in the middle of the night to monitor the new insulin pump every night for 4 weeks.

Yes, that's what I said...4 weeks.

We were 4 weeks in to the insulin pump thing and we still didn't have her night numbers anywhere close to good.

The only thing I can compare it to is the night time schedule of a newborn. Honey and I certainly had that glazed over, I'm getting no sleep, what day is it? look. Accept I think being up with a newborn is way more fun. (One newborn is more fun. Two? I think I'd rather deal with the pump.) At least you get to nap during the day when they do, right? With this you get all of the awake time and none of the precious snuggles or naps.

By the end of the week, Honey and Brooke were both on antibiotics. (If you're a diabetic you know that antibiotics are SUPER fun.)

ANYWAY, I was a little stressed out as we boarded the plane and headed to Florida to see Mickey and friends. The idea of going to see Mickey was thrilling. The actual process of getting there...not so much.

My friend Valerie suggested that I get some argentum nitricum at the health food store. The bottle says that it helps with "apprehension and stage fright with agitation". It might have been in my head, but I don't even care, because I took a few that morning before we left the house and a few at lunch, and I was pretty peaceful the whole entire day. Even when I was being very diligently hand searched and the TSA agent was all up in my personal space because I wanted to carry on the evil apple flavored Juicy Juice and the pointy ultra delicate lancets I felt nothing but calm. No agitation, or apprehension, or stage fright.

Once we got there we had a wonderfully magical time. It truly is the happiest place on Earth. My parents and Uncle Bubba went with us. Or more accurately, we went with them.

We pretty much can't do anything involving Mickey without my parents. My family has been going to visit Mickey for 30 years. I have many happy memories that involve Florida, and Minnie, and magic. This trip was really my parents' idea, and we cashed in on lots of my dad's travel points to help with expenses.

the kids with Gran and Grampy

(yes, this was the best picture, you should have seen him in the others)

This was our chariot for the week. It fit all of us plus our luggage and took us everywhere we wanted to go. Surprisingly, no one stopped and asked us to shuttle them anywhere.

After about 2 days of park hopping, the girls played tour guide constantly. We heard an ongoing dialogue of "You are boarding with the blue group." "Keep your hands and arms inside the tram." "Move all the way down to the end of the row." "Fill in all the empty space."

Uncle Bubba was our driver
Bubba got some love from Minnie

When we got to Magic Kingdom, I asked the girls if they remembered riding some of the same rides at Mickey's California home when we went almost 3 years ago. I was sad when they didn't. They remembered the tea cups, Dumbo, and Space Mountain, but that was about it.

We spent one day at Hollywood Studios, Epcot, and Animal Kingdom, and we spent 2 days at Magic Kingdom. Thanksgiving day we took a break from the parks and slept in, watched a basketball game at ESPN Wide World of Sports, and shopped at Downtown Disney. Then we drove over to Universal and ate at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville for dinner. I must say, Jimmy Buffet is a pretty fun Thanksgiving dinner guest.

my five

(no Bubba is not taller than me, see how he's concentrating on standing on his tip toes instead of smiling and holding his head normal?)

I hope your Thanksgiving was as happy as ours. We have so much to be thankful for...even if we hadn't gone to see Mickey. God has truly blessed us this year. He has taken care of us in so many ways, often before we even knew we needed His care. He has carried us through scary and stressful days and blessed us with laughter and love and calm at just the right moments.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Hairdryer Family!

Yes, I did turn down $100...

At the Chicago airport waiting for our flight home, we saw Dennis Rodman. He looked kind of normal though. Normal for Dennis...he wasn't wearing a dress. But, he was carrying a purse. Not a man-bag. It was a purse...a gray, feather-y, hobo bag.

There were storms moving through Chicago about the time our flight was scheduled to leave so we sat on the plane for over an hour waiting for them to pass. About 5 minutes in to our wait, the stewardess came on the speakers and asked if anyone knew how to make those embroidery floss friendship bracelets. I looked up from my book long enough to remember making them in Jr. High and how long it'd been since I had actually spent any time in Jr. High.

No one really responded to the friendship bracelet cry for help. All of a sudden this lady about 3 rows in front of me held up a $100 bill, and the stewardess said, "You're willing to pay someone a hundred dollars to teach you to make a friendship bracelet?"

That's when Honey elbowed me in the ribs and started humming "Friends Are Friends Forever" to help me get in touch with my Jr. High self and remember how to braid those dang bracelets.

But I was too late, the memories too foggy. A college girl raised her hand and offered help. The new friends rearranged seats so that they were sitting together. They chatted and made bracelets for the rest of the flight, and although I never saw money change hands, I assume the college girl got her $100.

As soon as we got home, I sure did go to Barnes and Noble and buy Mary TuTu a book/kit to teach her how to make a bracelet. I'm going to be ready the next time someone offers money for a braiding lesson.

BRING IT!

Yes, we turned down a free trip to Hawaii...

This year Honey qualified for the reward trip that his company hosts. In years past we've been to Denver, Ft. Lauderdale, and Cancun. This summer the trip was Hawaii. The trip is always during the first part of June and usually around the middle of March the people in charge want you to commit to going or staying.

About the middle of March 2011, we were 3 weeks in to a new Type 1 diagnosis.

We had no idea what we were doing.

We were making daily calls to the nurse.

We couldn't fathom ever being able to teach someone else how to do it.

We felt like the earth would never find its axis again.

And in March, it was impossible to imagine leaving Brooke for a week and flying to Hawaii. It might as well have been Timbuktu, because Hawaii is FAR from West Texas. It would have taken much money and many hours to get home in an emergency, and I would not consider it. Honey wouldn't either. So we opted to stay home.

Honey knew we made the right decision, but he was still bummed that he'd worked to earn this great reward and ended up with zilch.

By the time September rolled around, we felt so much better about leaving the kids, so we decided to plan our own reward trip. We really didn't turn down a free trip to Hawaii. The company would have assigned a dollar amount to the trip and added it in to Honey's income for the year, so we would have had to pay taxes on the trip. We used the money we would have paid in taxes for Hawaii as our budget for our own trip.

School had just started so Honey's mom came to stay with the kids and keep the school schedule going. Bubba had become a pro at giving shots. Between Bubba and Grandma and our rockin' school nurse, we felt comfortable enough to get away for a few days. The kids were great, the diabetes behaved, and the weekend went off without a hitch.

We chose Chicago because I found some cheap plane tickets. Cheap. We've always thought it would be fun to visit Chicago. And since it's north of where we live, we thought it would be cooler.

It was fun.

It was not cool...or even cooler. In fact, 2 of the 4 days we were gone it was warmer in Chicago than it was in our town and the humidity was around 70%. West Texas girls are not used to humidity. We are used to the heat, but at least it's a dry heat.

I didn't take my camera, so the only pictures I took were with my poor phone camera...but I'm still going to make you look at them :)

In spite of the heat and humidity...

...we rode the huge ferris wheel at Navy Pier.

...we ate some delicious Chicago style pizza.



...we met up with S n L and took a boat tour of the city.

...we WENT TO SEE THE CUBS PLAY AT WRIGLEY FIELD!
Wrigley Field on game day is something Honey has wanted to experience since elementary school. This was the grin on my husband's face the whole entire hot, sweaty game.

...we went to the Sky Deck at the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower). They had this clear, plexiglass type box you could stand in and see what it felt like to be suspended 103 floors above Chicago.



There is so much to see just in downtown Chicago...we missed so much. Museums, shopping, parks, the beach...just about the time you figure out the public transportation system, it's time to go home. We want to take the kids back in a couple of years.

Where are some of your favorite places to visit?

Neither live, nor on location

We're home. Live, on location, and in the moment is way more fun. Home, unpacking, and laundry is...blah.

We got home last night and Honey and I were exhausted. I've been fighting allergies all weekend and sleep was not abundant. Mary Tutu pulled a tooth in the van on the way home and when she woke up this morning she thought the Tooth Fairy had forgotten her because her tooth was still there and she couldn't find her dollar. Turns out, Bubba had to go in and help her "find" it. I think the Tooth Fairy is getting old, not to mention tired and on drugs that do not allow her to operate large machinery. Thank goodness Bubba knows what's up.

Friday was a really fun day in OKC. We started at the Oklahoma City National Memorial. It was peaceful and beautiful. We pulled the kids over to the side and talked about what happened and why there was a memorial and that even though we were outside, we had to use inside voices. And no running, or playing chase. And there was water inside as part of the memorial, so stay out of it.

My favorite quote was on the wall surrounding the survivor tree. It is original to the landscape and survived the explosion. "The spirit of this city and this nation will not be defeated; our deeply rooted faith sustains us."

After the memorial, we headed to Bricktown. It's an area downtown that is similar to the river walk in San Antonio. We kept saying over and over how beautiful the weather was! and that we couldn't have asked for more perfect weather!

We rode the water taxi and the tour guide mentioned that the last time the Cubs won the World Series, Oklahoma wasn't a state. Which isn't right. According to the Google, Oklahoma became a state in 1907. The Cubs won consecutive titles in 1907 and 1908. The boat ride was still fun.

After the boats, we found a Mexican food place that let us sit outside for lunch. Because the weather! It was so beautiful!

They gave us our own salsa and queso bowls, for free, and I started wishing that I lived in Oklahoma. Because they charge for things like queso in Texas. Then the kids fed the ducks leftover flour tortillas. Actually, Bubba was the only one getting his tortilla in the water where the ducks were. Most of the time the girls missed and hit the people walking on the sidewalk below.

After Bricktown, the plan was the Zoo, but when we got there it was as crowded as Disney World on Christmas Day, so we went to plan B...The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. (Even with just a week's notice, I was able to come up with a Plan A and Plan B.) It was a fun museum, they had interactive things for the kids. And it was indoors. By that time, my allergies were screaming for something indoors.

Then we headed back to Bricktown for dinner and dessert. We picked up some cupcakes at Pinkitzel. It was the cutest bakery/candy shop/boutique. Bubba and Honey weren't as impressed as the girls and I, but the cupcakes won them over. Since it was close to dinner, we saved them for dessert.

Then, keeping with our "eat at at place we don't have at home" pact, we went to Toby Keith's I Love this Bar and Grill. We liked it, the atmosphere was Hard Rock Cafe-ish, but with country music. There was tons of Toby Keith memorabilia, but that wasn't the reason we went. Bubba heard (from the boat tour guide) that they had fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. He was dying to try one. He was disappointed when there wasn't one on the menu. He settled on a grilled chicken sandwich and declared it the best one he'd ever eaten.

And then we went back to the motel and let the kids swim. It was Honey's turn to sit at the pool while I enjoyed some peace and quiet and allergy medicine.

Saturday morning we took the long way home and went to Pops Soda Shop. It's on the old Rt. 66 and the opposite direction from home. Thanks to the turnpike, it only added 40 minutes to our drive. For a total of $4.60 we were able to avoid the Saturday, downtown OKC, State Fair weekend traffic. It was worth every penny.

Pops has something like 500 different kinds of sodas in bottles. We had fun looking at all the flavors and picking our favorites.

We got there in time for lunch. The food wasn't anything special, just your basic burger joint menu, but it did fit our food criteria for the weekend.

The windows were lined with bottles of soda and I was more than a little nervous to let the kids sit and eat lunch anywhere near them, but we made it out without any spills. When I wasn't worrying about the kids knocking over glass bottles, it was neat to look at all the colors.

If your place of business is on Rt66, you've got to have some sort of landmark. This giant soda bottle lets you know you've found Pops. I've heard it's really pretty at night.

It hasn't always been fun to take road trips with the kids. For so long they were too young to stand being in the car for very long. But they are the perfect age now. This trip is easily at the top of my list as one of my favorite trips ever. As long as we have a chance to stock up on Dramamine and allergy medicine, we're good to go. And I can't wait til it's time to go again. Where should we go next?

Coming to you live, on location...

Right now I'm watching the kids swim while Honey enjoys some peace and quiet in the form of March Madness. I told them that we would stay at the pool as long as my computer battery lasted. I'm gonna be honest and tell you that my battery really doesn't last that long, even when it's fully charged. So while I talk about how wonderful it is to surf the web wirelessly, what I really mean is while plugged in to the nearest outlet.

We decided to spend the weekend in Oklahoma City. We woke up waaay too early for spring break and hit the road this morning. Since we're only spending 2 nights away from home our goal was to make it to Oklahoma City in time to see a few sights this afternoon.

Since we're living with Diabetes now, our travel style has changed a bit. We (when I say we I really mean Honey) made breakfast burritos to eat in the car instead of stopping at McDonald's for an Egg McMuffin on our way out of town. We hit the open road and watched the sun rise while we enjoyed our homemade breakfast. And then, breaking every travel rule I've ever been taught, we stopped about 30 miles out of town and took a restroom break and gave Brooke her first shot of the day.

But then after that we made some miles.

We didn't stop for 4 more hours, and it was time for lunch. I think that might be a record for us. The plan was to find a restaurant we don't have back home and eat there, but I'm not sure Mary Tutu got the memo. She started talking about Subway 45 minutes before lunch.

We made it to Elk City, OK and after taking the business route all the way through town we found this jewel.

And Mary Tutu made this face when she found out this was our lunch stop.

Because it wasn't Subway, and it didn't even have a gift shop. Because she brought $5 all the way from home and she's never gonna get to spend it. And it's not Subway.

After lunch we drove another hour and a half and landed at Harn Homestead. It's really cute. It's a bit of land just down the street from the capitol with turn of the century buildings like houses, barns, and even a one room school. This historical fiction fan loved it!

The kids got to clean the dried kernels off of corn cobs, separate the kernels, and grind them into cornmeal.



After leaving the homestead, we checked into our hotel, freshened up, and asked the desk clerk for dinner suggestions. He sent us to a local place called Interurban. It was right around the corner from our hotel and the menu had a little bit of everything.

You know what that is? My very own bowl of salsa and queso. Everyone at our table got one. For free. That's what I'm talking about, baby!

Bubba ordered the Cheeseburger Pizza and he said that the mustard sauce was "spot on". I really think he might be a food critic when he grows up.

Brooke loved her food so much she said, "I'm so telling Ms. Oliver about this." I'm pretty sure she thinks she and her teacher are BFFs.

I'm hoping the swimming will make the kids as tired as I feel. I think we'll dry off, shower up, and settle in with some basketball for the evening. How does your bracket look?

And...it's still Spring Break

We caved.

We planned a short road trip for this week.

I know...we said we weren't going anywhere. That idea was so last month.

Once the fog that was the month of February cleared, we decided that we wanted to go somewhere...just to get out of town, enjoy a change of scenery.

The conversation went something like this:

Me: I kinda' want to go somewhere for Spring Break.
Honey: Me, too.
Me: Where do you want to go?
Honey: I don't care.
(Wait 3 weeks and just think about it and refuse to make a decision.)

We threw around several places that were within a 1/2 day's drive from our town. We have friends here...we have a favorite resturant there...there's a cool museum there...

The last Friday of school before spring break was game day in 4th grade. They'd been testing or practice testing for the better part of 2 weeks and EVERYONE needed a break. So I spent a good part of an hour keeping one eye on the kids and one eye on the internet researching the places we kept talking about.

And that evening after dinner Honey and I threw caution to the wind and booked our motel room using rewards points from the comfort of the living room recliner. Because the internet? It's wireless now! And the telephones? They are wireless now, too.

In the end, we chose the place we'd never been. Right before bed that night we told the kids all the stuff there was to do in this new-to-us town. They gave us their input and we threw together a rough agenda for the few days we'll be gone.

Because I can get crazy and book a trip with less than a weeks notice, but that's about the limit to my spur-of-the-moment tendencies. I need a plan. I can't just wait to peruse the brochures in the motel lobby to decide what we're doing while we're there. No plan means we just sit around in the motel and watch the cable TV.

I want to know what sights there are to see, fun shopping opportunities along the way, and which resturants Adam from Man vs. Food recommends. I don't want to miss a thing.

It's a last minute trip, but it's going to be fun, and we'll be together.

(And now that I have a laptop!, maybe I'll share some links along the way. We'll see. Don't hold your breath.)

Weekend in Cancun (or How We All Survived Four Days Without Our Cell Phones)

Honey and I woke up at 4:45 on Friday morning to be at the airport by 6:15 to catch a 7:40 flight. In our little town, 6:15 is way too early to arrive for a 7:40 flight, but I was getting a little nervous about customs, and passports, and getting the Fiber one cereal I'd carefully measured and packed into Mexico. So Honey humored me, and we got to the check-in desk around 6:25.

That's when we found out our flight had been delayed until 9:35. And we wished we'd known this little bit of information at 4:45 that morning.

We decided to embrace our 3 hour wait with some Starbucks and some problem solving on behalf of the quickly disintegrating Big 12 conference. Once I was satisfied with the plan we'd come up with for all of the Big 12 teams, I called my parents one last time to check in on the kids.

I don't know what rumors you've heard, but even in this age of advanced technology, American cell phones don't work in Mexico . . . unless you add the international package to your plan. And even after purchasing the package, you can't text or Facebook. The international plan I purchased only allows you to talk . . . for $.59 a minute.

These facts convinced me that my cell phone usage would be severely limited while in Cancun. Honey didn't even bring his cell phone. He hates it and is counting the days until he can upgrade, so we only added the international stuff to my number.

I'm not what you would call an excited traveler. Most forms of transportation give me motion sickness. Both of our flights were smooth and uneventful, and our peaceful spirits as we arrived in Mexico were only slightly dampened as we realized that the bag with ALL of our clothes in it didn't make it to Cancun.

Actually, Honey's peaceful spirit was only slightly dampened. My peaceful spirit was completely washed away and replaced with anxiety-ridden, I-knew-this-was-too-good-to-be-true kind of feelings. I was so wound up that Honey wanted me to wait on the bench while he spoke in broken Spanish to the airline representative that spoke back to him in broken English.

We arrived at the hotel, checked in, endured many jokes about not needing clothes in Cancun anyway, and called the kids.

I think it was about 5:00 when we got our missing bag. I'm guessing here because the clock in our room wasn't set right. It was about 2 hours and 20 minutes off, and to be honest, making that conversion is a little too much math for me while on vacation.

Honey knows quite a bit of Spanish, but not enough to figure out how to reset the clock. So we spent the whole weekend saying things like, "I think it's somewhere in the 5:00 hour." And somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind I found 11th and 12th grade and remembered the phrase, "Que hora es?" from my Spanish class days.

It was kind of fun to watch everyone wander around lost without a cell phone clipped to their hip. I can't remember how many times I heard someone say, "I have no idea where my wife is. I can't call her. She said she would meet me as soon as she finished getting ready."

It was kind of important to know the time though. We were on an all-inclusive plan at the resort, and breakfast was a buffet from 7 am to noon. Then at noon lunch started along with drinks. Drinks, of course, included alcohol, but also sodas and WATER . . . bottled water. It was pretty easy to see when the clock struck noon because everyone started swimming up to the bar and carrying away a pina colada or a bottle of water, or both.

The first full day we were there, Honey and I took a bus to Playa Tortuga (turtle) and went para sailing. We had to get on a little, bitty motor boat that took us to the somewhat bigger ski-type boat where the para sailing rig was. If the water had been clearer that day we would have been able to watch sea turtles (hence the name of the marina) from the air, but we were told the water was a little rough to see them that day. It was still an amazing experience.









Lucky for me, we were pretty close to the dock when they reeled us in and we didn't have to get back on the tiny boat to make it to shore. We decided to walk home instead of taking the bus because my head and stomach needed a chance to catch up with each other from all the non-land movement they had experienced over the last hour.

It was HOT. And HUMID. And when we finally made it back to our room some time during the 11:00 hour, I discovered a use for my cell phone that didn't cost money . . . a temperature converter. And let me just say that 21.8 degrees Celsius is the perfect place for the thermostat when it is HOT and HUMID.

We did venture out again to do some shopping, but for the most part we stayed in or near the water. Because it was much cooler in or near the water than anywhere else.

At one point during the weekend, Honey was able to use his limited Spanish to learn from ESPN Deportes that Universidad de Tejas and Texas Tech had, in fact, announced their departure from the Big 12. And we caught the very end of Karate Kid 3 with the Spanish dubbed over the English, and somehow Ralph Macchio was able to win the life and death fight at the end. Again. Wearing Guess jeans and a silk bath robe.

Starbucks is Starbucks . . . even in Spanish. And they have air conditioning.

We had lots of fun hanging out with friends that live in Chicago. Aren't they cute? They're getting married next month. Honey and S get to see each other a few times a year for work, but L and I have only met a couple of times at the yearly sales meetings.

L is a much more adventurous eater than I. This is a sea food salad she had as an appetizer one evening. I like shrimp, but that purple stuff is octopus. I can't handle that. I would need several more pina coladas before I could handle octopus.

By Monday morning we were ready to go home. I wish I could say that the trip home was as smooth as the trip over, but I can't. It was full of turbulence, and wind sheers, and flying around storms, and racing through customs in 4o minutes to barely make our connecting flight. And by the time we made it home an hour late, my nerves were shot. But . . . both of our bags made it, and we got to hug and kiss on the kids.

It feels so good to be home. The temperatures are hot, but they are recorded in Fahrenheit. The drinking water is abundant, the clocks are only 5 minutes fast, and the Big 12 is still hanging on after all. But I sure do miss the views.