Going Home

okay. so it was pointed out to me that i should not blog while drinking wine, watching thor, or on my ipad. lol. so just in case anyone is worried,i  was not wasted or even drunk. but autocorrect does some interesting things. and proofreading really is a must. speaking of, i am typing this on my phone somewhere between asheboro and greensboro. so, it will also be pretty rough. the beach was awesome. im pretty sure driving home from vacation is one of the levels of hell though. its like no matter how well you plan everyone is tired and crabby. and you are borderline desperate to get home. and the five hour trip somehow takes an eternity. thank god for car dvd players. so we are going to get home in time to unload the car then get the girls ready for bed. and praying they will go to bed at a decent time. i will write extensively on what all transpired at the beach in the coming week. hope everyone has a good saturday.

Wednesday

Weel, here we are at the halfway point...

Our vacation is halfway over. It has been wonderful! I have loved getting to spend so much time with my family though I admit I'm beginning to miss my house and my things.

Contrary to any segment of Josh's, I have definitely broken my toe. My little toe on my rit foot. I think it got put back into place on Monday night when josh convinced me to let him pull it. Which was excruciating. It is still swollen. Still misshapen. And still hurts like a mo-fo. Currently ther is a trio of Dors band-aids holding my little toe to the next me. That seems to be making it feel a little better. But it aches in a way that I cannot explain and is oh so very painful.

The beach has been wonderful. A little drama. But that is to be expected. Vscationing with the diaper set is really not a joke! They hare difficult. Bottles and baby food and nap times and potty breaks. It is really challenging. The whining. The crying. The fussing. It is truly exhausting. But simultaneously it has been so fabulous. Seeing Evie and Hunter take in th ocean for the first time. Fighting to keep Elly from eating sand. Playing in the pool and chasing each other around the house laughing. It has been awesome.

Tomorrow we are doing the beach again and pictures and maybe more shopping followed by supper at Olive Garden. Friday is the aquarium and maybe more shopping. Lol. Then Saturday we will be packing back up and getting ready to head home that night.

It's been great. The next fewe days are going to be awesome!

Randomly Sunday

So exhausted from all the packing but so excited and nervous that I haven't been able to sleep yet. Well, except for the doze off on the couch curled up watching TV with Evie. But that doesn't really count.

Packing was...intense. The amount of bags we are taking is insane. And we really aren't taking many toys for the girls. Just clothes. And all the day to day stuff. Like spoons. And bowls. A crap, I forgot to pack bowls.

Dang it. Okay, that remedied.

It's been a wild day.

Evie killed me on the way home from dropping Mushu off at my mom's. (Yeah, it's really handy when your mom owns a boarding and grooming kennel lol) We're driving the highway when suddenly Evie yells, "Oh no!" from the back seat.

What baby?

Mushu! Ma's house!

Yes. He's at Ma's. Remember? He has to stay there while we're at the beach.

Oh no!

Yes. He can't go with us.

Oh no! Mushu! Mushu!

That girl kills me. Lol. So, she has asked about him a couple more times since we returned home. But fortunately she was tired. Both girls apparently were.

So, some random thoughts for the day...

Tennis shoes in the dryer can hit the door hard enough to open it.

I may possibly have the ugliest knees I've EVER seen...might help if I could quit banging into things with them.

What does a broken toe look like? Mine certainly feels broken. And it's swollen...and purplish. And I cannot move it. *sigh* I am ridiculously accident prone.

Well, I absolutely have to go to bed! Goodnight sweet world!

What dreams may come...

Seriously Sensitive to the Ick Factor

Today, we here at the Dowd household participated in that fun-filled and kinda disgusting tradition of carving pumpkins.

I was very excited...I imagined Evie digging in to the pumpkin and getting icky. In fact, I made her strip down, fearing the potential stain factor of pumpkin guts. Lemme just say that was a waste of time.

Yeah...last year, 14 month old Evie was really creeped out by the icky, sticky, stringy gunk. After sticking her hand quite briefly into her pumpkin she refused any further contact. But a year has come and gone since then. Evie has acquired all sorts of new skills and experienced a lot of things. The kid can totally get into making a mess! I really envisioned her loving gutting a pumpkin.

Apparently she just has too much of a personal attachment to the veggie.

Fortunately though, my lil punkin' headed youngin', my lil Elly-Belle got totally into the pumpkin gutting experience. She ripped goop from the insides. She chewed on the pumpkin lid. She sampled a pumpkin seed. She stretched strings of pumpkin viscera between her chubby little fingers and cackled manically. She got orange goop in her hair, on the cabinets, the trash can, Evie's hair and even MY hair.

It was a lot of fun.

Evie threw a couple of fits though. Of course. She didn't want to touch the guts. She didn't want to touch the seeds. She was mad that Sissy threw guts on her. Lots of drama, as usual.

Evie was pretty tickled by the end result.

Her face was just in complete awe when she got to see the jack-o-lanterns all lit up on the front porch after it got dark. She just loved it! On and on about her pumpkin and her sister's pumpkin.

Sissy cried when we picked all the seeds up. Cried again when I took the giant spoon we used to help scrape out the innards away from her. Chased the pan full of seeds. Then couldn't care less about the silly pumpkins once I gave her a sippy cup and a toy.

I'm still kinda bummed that Evie didn't particularly care for gutting the pumpkins. But hey, there's always next year.

When Brilliance Backfires

Okay, so maybe my obsessive need to make lists doesn't necessarily qualify as brilliance. But apparently neither does my decision to try and be more laid back and less OCD.

I resisted the temptation all week to make any lists regarding our vacation next week. No "To Dos." No "Don't Forgets." And I did really well. I didn't have any sort of psychological or emotional break down. I wasn't freaking out. I didn't even really feel unprepared. I mean, how hard can it be to pack for 6 days away with two very young children?

Ohmygoodnessgracious.

Last night I started really thinking about it.

And now I'm just going to make a few lists.

But I tried! I really did! A pretty good effort if you ask me.

But last night I started sort of ticking off in my head..."Gotta remember Sissy's sleep sheep, and some spare sheets for the pack n plays, and to take several movies for Evie to watch, and to load up the iPad for Evie, and to set the thermostat back, and to take Mushu's bed with him to the B&B he's staying at while we're gone..."

And as I thought of all these things I kind of started freaking out.

I thought that not making a list would make me less OCD. Turns out it just makes me disorganized. So I'm giving into my inner neat freak, opening up Wunderlist (a phenomenal to-do list app) and typing away!

Also we are planning on doing pumpkins today (hopefully) for the girls. If so I will totally take some pictures for posterity and post those tomorrow. I haven't decided how much I will be posting while we are at the beach. But I know there will be so much to record! I can't wait to see what Evie thinks of the ocean. And Sissy is going to LOVE the sand.

Happy Saturday!