How to be Insensitive

Why break a whiny streak when I can just keep going on and on? Part of the point of this blog was for me to have a place to complain about crap without blowing up inside, or screaming at someone who may or may not deserve it.

I’ve been waiting for someone to give me shit about Bella taking off on me. I’ve been waiting for someone to question the way I take care of my pets and it came today. I’m not even altogether surprised as to the direction it came from either. The lecture started in bits the night Bella went missing. A coworker/friend starting texting around the time Bella took off. Immediately she said, “Why wasn’t she on a leash?” I repeated myself countless times, she wasn’t on a leash because she bolted out the door. But apparently, when you are so right about something you cannot hear the response of the person you are questioning.

So I will say it again in blog world, nice and clear so there are no further misunderstandings: I never let my dogs out without being tied to their run. Ever. However, there are times when their interest is piqued by something outside, and they make a run for it. Dogs are like Houdini when they want to be. They can get through a barely cracked door or push aside a human ten times their size just to break free. It happens. I do everything I can to prevent it, but occasionally the beasts bust free. It could be as a result of a child not closing the door properly, or two pups hip-checking their mama…

My coworker went on to say that I should have gone outside with food to bribe them into coming home. Seriously folks, I have had dogs my entire life… you think we didn’t try that? We shook the doggie snacks in the yard, we put a food dish outside.  Bella did not return home on her own.

She continued on to say that she had looked at my pictures on Facebook and thought that I had exaggerated the extent of Bella’s injuries. In any of my posts, I tried to be as honest as possible. A blood-soaked dog came home to me on Thursday morning. Bella is covered in bite wounds and cuts. The one above her eye was split down to the bone. Her belly is so bruised that it is almost black in spots. It hurts her to stand up and she walks like a ten-year-old dog. And she’s terrified. That poor girl is so scared she can barely bring herself to go outside to do her business. The sound of Indy growling sends her seeking cover under me. How severely injured did she need to look so my words were justified? Should I have put close-up pictures on Facebook of her swollen and stitched chest? Or how about the bite marks all over her body? It looks like she was attacked with a double-tined fork. I did not exaggerate her injuries and I’m sorry my photos don’t do them justice, or capture the fear that’s in her eyes almost all the time.

I accept blame in this. I shouldn’t have been so easy to hip-check aside and I should have gone driving around faster. Hindsight is 20/20. I cannot believe she had the audacity to stand in front of me and talk to me like that. Who does that? What kind of insensitive boob says shit like that to someone when the incident is still so fresh? 

On a more positive note, Bella’s recovery continues to go well. She’s eating and drinking, lying still when we put the compresses on her injuries. It took a bit of work to get her to take her pills twice a day. She wasn’t falling for sneaking them into chicken and rice and we can’t really force them into her mouth because she has stitches around her face. Peanut butter crackers do the trick. 

We continue spending lots of time snuggling with her and making her feel comfortable and safe. That's the most we can give her right now. 

xoxo

Ice Princess

A Doormat in the Making

This will be yet another whiney post. I am sorry, the last week has been extremely rough around these parts.

Last week I mentioned the issue with Sugar’s birthday. She wanted to bring her friends to see a movie, but BFFL asked to do something else. She later changed her mind. The same night, I get an email from BFFL’s mom stating that her ten-year-old daughters do not feel that they can stay awake for a 7:00 pm showing of “Soul Surfer” on a Saturday night. Without even giving it a second thought, I invited them to sleep over on the 13^th, when Sugar’s other friend is coming over. They are busy that night and unable to attend. After I thought about it, I thought that perhaps BFFL really just doesn’t want to see that movie. How sad that she’s not even willing to go see it with her best friend. I really shouldn’t be surprised because the last time this girl slept over, Sugar bought a special movie for her friends to watch and BFFL said, “I don’t want to watch that.” So they didn’t.

During the email exchange with BFFL’s mom she asked if Sugar had told me about what happened in school that day. She hadn’t mentioned anything, except what a wonderful day she had. I called her downstairs and asked what happened. She tried to tell me "nothing" but I kept asking anyway. As it turns out, the initial incident occurred on Tuesday when BFFL and Sugar decided to take a classmate’s hat and hide it. The classmate was very upset and scrambled around looking for his hat. BFFL and Sugar pretended not to know anything about it. That night, BFFL went home and confessed to her mother, who then emailed their teacher. On Wednesday, BFFL and Sugar stayed in for recess and had to write apology notes to the other kid. I cannot believe that my child did something like that to someone. To say that I was livid might just be an understatement. Sugar maintains that it was BFFL’s idea and she simply went along with it. In my mind, Sugar is equally guilty, if not more so, given that she was the one that actually took the hat and hid it.

There was another annoying incident that occurred last week. On Tuesday, Sugar had a few leftover cupcakes from her classroom celebration. Her teacher let her bring the cupcakes to her former teachers. BFFL had the same teachers and went along with Sugar to pass them out. She told me that they had presented the cupcakes to their old teachers from both of them, since BFFL’s birthday had occurred over vacation and she didn’t bring cupcakes to school. Part of me is happy that Sugar was generous enough to share the credit, but really, wasn’t it HER birthday and HER cupcakes that she was passing out?

Given what happened last week with Bella, I thought that perhaps BFFL would decide that she could stay up for such a late movie and would come along. I really thought things would change, especially since BFFL called her at 8:45 on Thursday night to find out about Bella and to inquire whether Sugar would be in school on Friday. Even funnier, Sugar was already in bed as it was a school night. How interesting that BFFL had the energy to be up so late!

The more I hear about this girl, the less I like her. The more I hear, the more I want to shake Sugar and tell her to stop letting BFFL walk all over her. My kid really needs to grow a backbone and stand up for herself. Otherwise, she’s going to grow up to be a doormat like her mother.

And that just pisses me off.

xoxo

Ice Princess 

Love Thy Neighbor

When Sugar was a baby, I looked around our small, one bathroom house and told EN that I thought we needed to move to a bigger house that was in a neighborhood. I wanted Sugar to grow up being able to play with friends in a nice area.

We found a realtor and started looking at houses to get a feel for what we wanted. We weren’t concerned about finding a buyer for our house because the market was fantastic. One night we took a drive out to an area that had just been listed. By the time we got there, it was dark and all we could see was the road where the 17 houses would be built. In the darkness, we could make out the shadow of a mountain across the lots. It felt right and we drove back the next day to make sure it was as great as we thought.

Six months later, we were the first family to move into the neighborhood. Within two years, all the houses were built and we had some great friendships on the block. We started doing annual block parties and I had a group of five other women that I would hang with regularly.

At the third annual block party, the shit hit the fan. One husband found his wife kissing someone else’s husband. Unbeknownst to us at the time another affair started. This affair was between one of the women in my little group and the husband of another in our group. Before long the affair was discovered and the neighborhood was in an uproar. Since then, there were two block parties which were poorly attended and have petered out altogether. There are no friendships. You don’t call your neighbor to borrow a cup of sugar. You don’t leave your kids playing at the neighbors while you quickly run to get a needed item at the store. That just isn’t done.

I mention those behaviors like it’s something new, a change that occurred when everyone decided they hated everyone else. While we may have all been friendly, it’s never been the type of place where one family helps another. I have tried to be helpful, thinking favors would be returned. I have watched kids while their mom ran to the store. I have taken load after load of laundry to put in my dryer when the neighbors’ broke. I have taken care of many cats while their owners were on vacation.

However, I have had issues at night when I’ve been home alone and my supposed ‘best friend’ next door couldn’t even be bothered to answer my phone call. We have had to pay another “friend’ to watch Spice for two hours. I have been stuck at the bottom of my driveway after a surprise snowstorm. I schlepped up my driveway in high heels, carrying Spice in an infant carrier and Sugar in my other arm. The neighbors were out snow blowing their own driveways and never offered assistance. I have trudged to the laundromat with my own wet laundry while I waited for my new clothes dryer to arrive. There were a few times when the husband from across the street would help me, but he’s since moved away.

This has been something that has bothered me for a long time, but it didn’t strike me how bad it was until Wednesday night. Bella had taken off and I spent hours hunting for her on my own. When I started looking it was still light out, so it’s possible that someone from the four houses directly surrounding ours saw me. If they didn’t see me, they should have heard me as I called her name for hours.

There is no “possible” and there is no “should have.” I KNOW without a doubt that several people saw me. I made eye contact with the woman across the street as she watched me out her bedroom window. Another neighbor drove past me as I stood in the street. A third carried his trash can home and never looked back when I called for Bella. I KNOW people heard me because someone yelled “shut up” at me as I called Bella’s name. And still, I look and wait and worry alone.

I don’t say this to seem cynical, whiny or like I’m expecting a handout. Even when I take my rose-colored glasses off, I think that neighbors should be neighborly and help each other out. If not an offer of help, a display of human warmth and compassion doesn’t seem like too much to ask. We have known every neighbor for at least three years. They are aware of our schedule and know I’m home alone. I don’t think it’s expecting too much to think someone might have had the decency to call to see if everything was ok. Or is that too much to ask?

My supposed ‘best friend’ was home on Wednesday night as I called for Bella. She lives right next door, there’s no way she didn’t hear me calling the dog. EN texted her husband first thing in the morning to alert him and she popped right over, putting on a great concerned friend act. EN told her where Bella had last been seen and she said, “Oh, I’ll take a drive up and look. All these years living here, I’ve wanted to see Mr. M’s house.” We are delighted to provide you with the opportunity to be nosy! You are welcome! It took her five minutes to get bored being concerned and she was gone. I didn’t hear from her again until 7:30 or so last night.

While I am infuriated by the assholes in the ‘hood, I have to also admit to being pleasantly surprised by Mr. M. I’ve heard rumors about him for years, mostly people saying what a bastard he is. I didn’t find this to be the case at all. He was gracious and ever so willing to help. When I went up on Wednesday night, he came out of the house in his bathrobe and slippers to show me where he had seen the dogs. He told me to stay and call them as long as I wanted. When he found Bella on Thursday morning, it was obvious by his honking and dancing around in his truck that he was thrilled to be the one to bring Boo home to her mama. I should have realized he was a good man. Who else pays people to feed the wild turkeys in their yard while they winter in Florida? In fact, when EN searched through the woods around Mr. M’s house, he found loads of feeders for the wild animals that live around him.

A friend suggested that I put a post on Facebook regarding Bella. I cannot believe the outpouring of love and support I received, some from friends, some from strangers. Many friends reposted my plea and kept their own friends up-to-date throughout the day. The animal shelter near me jumped all over it and kept their own fans up-to-date.

My friends are amazing too… Skinny Bitch drove around for hours looking and accosting innocent joggers. Michelle texted me throughout the day and suggested other places that I could post information about a missing dog. Many, many friends and family members offered support through the day. Friends and strangers were amazing, yet I live surrounded by pricks that wouldn’t piss on me if I was on fire.

I wish I could pick my neighbors the same way I chose my friends. Maybe it’s time to move.

xoxo

Ice Princess 

Survival of the Fattest

I’m going to break my rule and post twice today. Maybe. I have much to say about this week, but it really needs to be said in two separate posts. Given all that our beloved Bella Boo has gone through, I think her story is worthy of its own post and doesn’t need to be cluttered up by some external factors that likely had an impact on how quickly she was found.

As my rotten dogs are prone to do when it’s spring time and the air smells yummy, they knocked me out of their way as I was taking Lola out on Wednesday night around 7:30. Since they were overly brutal and rude I was pissed and yelled something like, “Go ahead! Take off! See if I come and look for you.” Poor Sugar was horrified and ran outside with dog treats to coax them back into the house. I put Lola in the house and yelled for them myself.

I got the girls tucked into bed and went downstairs, expecting to find Indy and Bella waiting at the back door with their tails between their legs. My heart dropped when I saw that they weren’t there. At this point, I have a tough choice to make. I am home alone with two girls and have two dogs running loose. What is a girl to do? In retrospect, I could have pulled the girls out of their beds and taken them with me, but I wasn’t thinking clearly.

Instead, I got in my car and took a quick ride up our neighbor’s ½ mile long driveway, as that was the direction the dogs were heading in. I saw no sign of them, so I returned home. The girls were waiting to hear whether I found them and were disappointed when I came home alone.

Around 8:30, Indy came running home without Bella. What a chivalrous little man, leaving his fat girlfriend to find her own way home. He seemed off and followed me around as I kept going down the driveway, calling for Bella. I called for her out the back door and at the bottom of the driveway for four hours. There was no sign of her.

At 9:45 EN called and asked me to please call Mr. M, the neighbor, and let him know he’d be up there when he got home from work. Mr. M is somewhat reclusive and it’s rumored that he doesn’t like trespassers and is armed. I called him, told him who I was and he said, “Oh, are you calling about those two little white dogs?” He told me to come up right away so he could show me where he saw them. I drove up quickly, but still found no trace of Bella.

EN arrived home around 11:30 and immediately went looking for our girl. He walked and drove around until 2:30 am. It’s pretty hard to search for a dog when it’s pitch black outside. As we were going to bed, Sugar woke up and was devastated that we still hadn’t found Bella.

We started looking for her again before 7:30 am and the woods around our house seemed eerily quiet. I wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad sign. I worked on “Lost Dog” signs, EN drove and walked some more, Sugar rode down the street countless times on her bicycle, Spice called and called for Bella. Skinny Bitch drove around and looked, Michelle helped post notices on various local websites. My heart felt heavier and heavier as the morning wore on.

Spice and I were home alone when someone came flying up our driveway, honking like mad. I ran outside and it was Mr. M from next door, waving, smiling and pointing down to the passenger floor. I flung the door open and there sat my sweet Bella Boo. I completely fucking lost it. Mr. M said, “Hey, she’s ok!!” Spice is screaming in the background and I can’t get Bella out of the car. She growled, whined and tried to snap. Mr. M looked surprised and said again, “But she’s ok, she scratched on my door and jumped in all by herself.” Given her condition, I believe that she used her last bit of energy to find her way to safety.

Bella Boo was covered in blood. She had a gash on her head and there was blood all around it. When we finally got her out of the truck I could see that she was covered in puncture wounds. She was filthy, her beautiful white fur was matted and crusty… and just blood everywhere. She was sad and terrified and bolted into the house. The other dogs sniffed her and ran in fright. She sat in her bed and shook with fear. She had the most pathetic look on her face.

EN came home and took her to the closest vet immediately. At this point I’m fuzzy on what happened when, but Bella Boo is badly injured and will require surgery so they can put drains in the worst of her wounds (belly and chest) and suture the rest of her injuries. They did lots of tests to clear her for surgery, but were unable to do it yesterday because one lung had a lot of fluid in it. EN brought her to an emergency vet in the evening yesterday so she could be cared for around the clock.

For now, we wait to hear whether she’s cleared for surgery today. We had no news through the night, which is good news. We are hopeful that today she will have surgery and can come home tonight.

Through it all, I feel completely at fault and should have handled their escape differently. I never let them out without leashes so I was pissed when they pushed me and bolted. I should have immediately put the girls in the car and gone after them. I feel incredibly guilty that my inaction had such a horrific impact on my sweet Bella.

It is thought that Bella Boo came across a lone coyote. Given her friendly, sweet nature, I think she probably tried to be friends with it. The worst of her injuries were on her belly and chest so I wonder if she rolled over in the standard doggie submissive pose. Her sparkly eyes radiate fear and sadness and I pray for her mental recovery as well. That poor sweet dog loves everyone and is always so happy. It’s her household job to be the happy, goofy one. Possibly her extra girth helped her survive. Had she been thinner, it might have been easier for the coyote to get to her internal organs. I don’t know this to be true, I’m just guessing.

I’m sure she’ll have nightmares about this for a long time, I know I will. 

xoxo

Ice Princess

The Big Four Oh!

In the scramble of reentering real life after being on vacation and Sugar’s birthday, I never even mentioned that I had a birthday myself on Sunday. And it was a Big Birthday, but I’m not concerned because they say 40 is the new 30. As far as I’m concerned, I just knocked ten years off. I wonder if the change to 40 comes with free Botox or liposuction?

I expected to wake up on the morning of my 40^th birthday and feel older or meaner or something, but I find that I feel exactly the same as I did before I reached The Big 4-0. I think I like 40 and I think this will be my decade. Not sure what I will accomplish as I haven’t set many specific goals, but I enter this decade with a new degree, I’m at a comfortable place in my relationship with EN and my girls are currently in stages that are “lower maintenance.” I look forward to maybe taking some time to relax more.

Obviously, my “40 by 40” weight loss plan was a big old bust. I haven’t even been to the gym in weeks. However, I have a new plan that I’m going to start. One of these days. I need to get through fun birthday stuff first. I spoke with my doctor about my lack of weight loss and tremendous increase in exercise. That doctor, the man that I love dearly, laughed and said, “Do you know how long you have to walk on a treadmill to work off let’s say-a doughnut?” So the man suggests that I work on PORTION CONTROL. He assures me that a batch of brownies is not a single serving (I think he’s wrong, but whatever) and that people need to relearn proper serving sizes to get control of their weight. The good doctor suggests using frozen low-cal meals to get a handle on portions. Years ago I used Jenny Craig and lost a significant amount of weight pretty quickly, so he could be right.

The problem is, I’m the world’s pickiest eater. I don’t like much, especially frozen food. But I’m desperate and miserable enough to try this. I started researching and have looked at Lean Cuisine and Weight Watcher frozen meal websites. I am pleasantly surprised to learn that they have tons of meals that sound like stuff I would eat. But sounding good doesn’t necessarily mean they will taste good. However, I am willing to give this plan a shot. I should mention that the last two times I lost significant amounts of weight, I ended up pregnant within months. Given that my tubes are tied and I take the pill for endometriosis, I should be safe. But maybe EN should get a vasectomy just to be triple sure. I’ll have to give that further thought.

But, back to the real point of this post, my birthday. The day was very nice, and I’m impressed that EN plans ahead now. He’s actually a better birthday planner than me. I’m the gal that stops for a cake and card at the supermarket on her way home from work. He shopped for presents, wrapping paper and cards. He even went to the fancy bakery that made our wedding cake and ordered a birthday cake for me. But for all his planning and goodness, he did put “Happy 40^th Birthday” on the cake. He has to get his digs in where he can.

 

We went out to dinner to one of my favorite places. The girls still hadn’t caught up on all the sleep they lacked on vacation, so they were a bit challenging to get there. Spice insisted on wearing a sundress with her Uggs, which looked hysterical.

We ordered a sampler plate for an appetizer and Sugar dug right in to the calamari. I won’t eat this and EN loves it. I believe Sugar thought she was eating onion rings. I expected her to gag when she felt the consistency of the first one. That didn’t happen and she just kept shoveling them in. EN finally ruined it when he asked her if she knew what she was eating. As soon as he told her what it was, she didn’t eat another bite.

 

I am happy to say that turning 40 wasn’t the painful experience I thought it would be. Loads of people wished me a good day via Facebook, which I love, and I was barraged with phone calls. I actually ended up having to spread them out over a few days, so I could spend good time with everyone that called.  A big thank you to all the peeps that made me feel so good. 

xoxo

Ice Princess

Sugar is TEN!

Today I have been a mother for a decade. I’ve spent 25% of my life being a mother. But this post really isn’t about me, it needs to be about my birthday girl!

I told Sugar yesterday that she should enjoy her last day as a “single digit” because as of today and for the next 89 years, she will be a double digit. Instead of thrilling her like I thought it would, it seemed to make her a little sad. She said, “Nine was a great year.”

Like all mothers, on my girls’ birthdays I think back to the day they were born. My body is not good at being pregnant, so they decided to induce me weeks before my due date. They checked me and my ridiculously high blood pressure into the hospital on May 2 and planned to induce me bright and early the next morning.

We got up early on the 3^rd and EN went home to shower and let the dogs out. I planned on getting in the shower myself but my blood pressure refused to go down, so the nurses kept me lying on my side in bed. My mother called to see how I was doing and said she’d be up to sit in the waiting room while I labored. The baby monitor started doing funny things and I was feeling worse by the minute. The nurses kept asking me how far away EN had gone and where the hell he might be. I wanted to share his favorite line with them, “Fucking off takes time, sorry I’m late.” But I couldn’t bring myself to say it.

As it turns out, EN put the car into gear rather than reverse leaving the hospital lot and hit another car. He started to write a note when the driver of the other car showed up and took off quickly. The damage was so minimal that it wasn’t noticeable anyway.

EN finally showed up and the baby monitor went crazy so they decided a c-section would be the best thing to do. I will be forever grateful for that decision as it turned out that Sugar had flipped herself back around and was breech with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck twice. The biggest surprise of all was that she was a girl. We chose not to find out the sex of the baby, but I swore I was having a boy. If you know me, you know that I’m always right about everything, so being wrong was a stunner.

I remember telling her “Hi Baby” and then commenting that she was so tiny. She weighed in at a whopping 4 lbs, 14 oz. Unlike some tiny babies that have gigantic ears or a big nose, everything about Sugar was tiny. She was so very precious. The doctors were concerned about her so they brought her to the NICU where she spent her first 24 hours. I could see that EN was so torn-was he supposed to stay in the OR while they sewed me up, or should he follow the baby. I told him to just go and be with her.

The nurses wheeled me back to my room just before my mother showed up. I said, “Oh did you see her?” She looked confused and said, “Who?” I told her that they had done an emergency c-section and my baby girl was in the NICU. She dropped everything she was carrying and left. Obviously, I no longer rate.

As I felt so miserable being pregnant, I can honestly say I felt fabulous within hours of having her. It helped that she was so little and sweet, we just couldn’t stop looking at her! The nurses kept nagging me for a name and I was unable to come up with one. I needed to really look at her first. We finally named her and when they woke me up and said she was hungry, I said, “Who’s that?” Lots of drugs, that’s my story.

Sugar started off sweet and was a very good baby. From the very first day, we could pack her up and take her anywhere and she would adapt. She always loved being around people and charming them with her smile, then her laugh, now her silly jokes.

To Sugar, life is an adventure filled with sunshine and rainbows. It is always her expectation that she will have a FABULOUS day, surrounded by people that love her and will be nice to her. It absolutely devastates her when that turns out to not be the case. It goes against everything she is, to the core of her being, when someone speaks harshly to her or doesn’t like her. She expects that the entire world will love her, if only because she loves the entire world… unconditionally. She has the sweetest heart of anyone I’ve ever met. That is not to say that she always behaves like a perfect angel and is kind to her sister, but her true nature is to face each day with a smile.

Now that she’s ten and about to enter middle school I’m seeing signs that perhaps she is too kind and easygoing. I have been seeing more and more instances of her being taken advantage of, and it seems the only person she can bring herself to be mean to is her sister. Just yesterday she invited three friends to see the movie “Soul Surfer” with her to celebrate her birthday. Her best friend said, “Yeah, I don’t want to see that. Pick something else.” True to her character, Sugar came home and asked if we should do something else instead.

I know she would do anything to make her friend happy but I felt like I needed to put my foot down. I reminded her that it was HER birthday and she could do whatever she wanted. Her best friend’s mother may have had a similar talk with her own daughter, because BFFL called first thing this morning to wish her a happy birthday, then mentioned that they should each wear their shared “Best Friend” necklace. When I picked her up from school she said that her friend changed her mind and was now willing to go see the movie. I find myself in the strange position of wanting to teach her to be tougher, but also wanting to maintain that sweetness that is her.

While we sometimes have mother daughter issues, I am always proud of how hard she works on doing well at school and what a good friend she is. She has a great sense of humor and has greets every day with an excited grin. I am blessed to be her mother. I adore her even when she’s conning her sister out of her favorite toys, because I too am an oldest child and would have absolutely done the same thing.

Happy birthday to my sweet baby girl. 

xoxo

Ice Princess

Back to Reality

We have returned to reality. We flew home yesterday without issue and shivered as we walked outside. It’s funny how quickly we acclimated to the warm sunshine of Myrtle Beach. In all, I have very few complaints about the week away. It was a little bit of heaven. The only thing missing was EN being with us.

It was somewhat difficult traveling with family. My sister parents much differently than I do and it was sometimes hard to keep rules in place with my girls when her kids had more freedom. Her kids really don’t have a set bedtime and then sleep until all hours. If my girls stay up late, they still get up early and then suffer from extreme cases of crankypants by midday. My girls know their mama well enough though, and really behaved well.  It was hard to fight when we were all feeling so relaxed. We spent oodles of time on the beach, shopping and just hanging out. It was fabulous spending time together without the pressures of everyday life weighing us down. We had no appointments or commitments and just flew by the seat of our pants.

My outrageous sunburn is finally fading to peeling skin. Most of it is hidden under clothes but for my nose. It’s still raging red with flakes of skin shooting off all over the place. Another day of me being amazed at how smoking hot I am.

I was also lucky enough to get sick while I was away. This is becoming tradition. I was sick on our cruise in 2000. I got sick when we went to Mexico in 2005. On Wednesday I woke up with a sore throat. I thought it was as a result of having too many Bud Light Limes the night before. You know, that citrus can do a real number on you… By Thursday I was miserable and had a sore throat, stuffed nose and fever by the end of the day. Thankfully my sister was very kind to me and told me to go lay down while she took charge of the girls. She told me to go to an urgent care facility for some antibiotics, but I chose instead to hit CVS and stock up on drugs. During the flight home, I realized I should have listened to her.

I have hearing problems anyway and still at my ripe old age suffer from ear infections regularly. I know better than to fly in that condition, but I ignored the problem. So I was stuck flying home in misery. My ears were nearly complelety blocked in the air and I couldn’t hear a word my girls said to me. They’ve popped a little since then, but I’m still having issues. It could also be that I got used to to the sound of the ocean out my bedroom window and the yelling of my sister’s family.  I always thought we were a loud family. We have nothing on my sister’s!

We have some great memories of this vacation. My sister and I realized together, like deprived children, that we had always wanted to have some of those tacky Old Time Photos taken and never had. The kids got decked out and had pictures taken. It’s really hard to say who enjoyed it more. The four youngest kids got henna tattoos. After all, what’s a trip to the beach without a tattoo? We consumed gallons of ice cream. We collected hundreds of seashells and leapt away from dozens of washed-up jellyfish. Spice performed some wacky shovel burying ceremony on the beach and screamed at anyone who dared to kick one over. We couldn’t figure out what that was about and were too scared to ask. The girls were introduced to buffet-style restaurants. Spice was delighted to find loads of “that orange stuff” (cantaloupe) and “that white gravy that I love so much” (Southern-style sausage gravy). I also introduced them to hush puppies, quite possibly the yummiest bits of badness in the world. Sugar and her cousins boogie boarded nearly every day, while Spice simply walked around with hers attached to her wrist. We walked the beach daily and just hung out together without a care in the world.

By Friday, the girls were dying to come home. They missed their dogs and their dad. Spice cried a couple of times because she missed her daddy so much. She cried Friday night and again at the airport on Saturday. More than anything, I think she was simply exhausted. Why waste your vacation time sleeping?

After we collected our luggage and walked out to meet EN, Spice was an absolute wreck. She took one look at EN and broke down in tears. She stood on the airport curb sobbing like her little heart had broken. Then Sugar started. I think their hearts just overflowed with happy when they saw their favorite guy.

Even though EN couldn’t go, I’m glad I seized the opportunity to spend a week away with my girls. I feel closer to them and I am quite proud of them. They behaved well. They were polite and happy. They enjoy meeting new people and caught the attention of everyone from the women working at the Harley store, to the flight attendants and pilots. They are always thrilled to experience something new. I knew the vacation was a huge success when Sugar said, “I guess we don’t have to go to Disney to have a blast. When can we go back to Myrtle Beach?”

So tomorrow, we go back to school and work and obligations. I hope the carefree feeling of the sand between our toes and the sea breeze in our hair sticks with us for just a little bit. 

xoxo

Ice Princess