This is why The South will NOT rise again.

Look very carefully at this photo–looks like a pretty sweet salad bar, right? I do love me a salad bar. Now look to the far side of this delightful buffet. Yes, that’s right.

LOOK AT THE MAN WITH NO SHIRT ON.

How does it seem ok to let your belly hairs graze my croutons inches away when they have plexiglass blocking your breath 2 feet away from the romaine? Not to mention it was 1000000 degrees so sweat was probably rolling off the dude into the Italian dressing. or deoderant dropping off his armpit hair into the cauliflour. I expressed my outrage to Paul and his sister. I probably even pointed my Yankee finger at the topless salad-eer. All I got was a shrug from Paul, laughter from Elizabeth and from each of them came:

“Yep, welcome to Myrtle Beach.”

Fido the Fit before his much needed---and deserved-- trip to the spa after keeping us safe through 14 hours of snow and ice on our trip back from Indiana at Christmas after only 12 hours of visiting (really 6 b/c we slept some too).

The house and pets took a beating too. Check out this picture of Bluesy amongst the chaos of leftover Christmas crap-o-la. No matter how ruthless we are at cleaning out before the holidays (and the kids were REALLY thorough this year), there is never enough room for all of our treasures. We are very good, after all!

Waiting for Santa was exhausting!

Paul takes a much deserved nap. So tired--this is even DURING a Carolina game with the kids playing all around him.

The pets have to handle so many schedule changes: Paul staying home from work, then the kids are there all day of some days, then all of us leaving for days at a time to travel, coming home late from parties (ok, late for us). Their whole world gets turned upside down. Barton and Katie even forgot they were not supposed to like each other!

Sign the Apocolypse is upon us.

I started feeling the old twinges of needing to make a list today though. This year we are not going to take on any major new projects. More like just finishing up that last 2% of the projects that never get done. We will keep you posted of course! Stay tuned.

The four of us (Mom, Dad and twelve-year-old twin boys) are bicycling from Alaska to Argentina. When we reach the southernmost tip of South America, Davy and Daryl will become the new Guinness World Record holders as the youngest people to cycle the Pan-American Highway!

Wow. It makes me think about long bike rides that Paul and I have gone on. Let’s just say that Paul now carries some cheese to go with my whine. Now add 2 kids, whoa. Then doing school on the road–they call it roadschooling, like homeschooling–get it!? HA! Again, I think about nights at the table with Anna and/or Tyler with their homework. Tears flow, voices are raised, frustration abounds. Then add on prep with no supplies except that which you find on the road or carry on your bike?!

Lastly, eating. Paul is a frickin’ saint. Anna won’t even eat turkey on her sandwich anymore. Mayo and an American slice of cheese on bread, with the crusts cut off of course. Tyler can change his mind 3-4 times about liking something within the span on the same dinner. Can you imagine traveling to other countries on a bike (talk about a Very Hungry Caterpillar!) then get off and there is no Harris Teeter to go get skim milk, hormone free chicken or ingredients to even make tortillas (not that they have a kitchen to make stuff in anyhow). Don’t even think about access to McDonald’s, Domino’s, etc.

Surfer Laird Hamilton says he lives his life well by doing something to scare himself every day. Whether you prefer scaring, inspiring, motivating yourself, I think it is a good message. This family is a good example of this.

Jake at the vet on Friday. Dr Thomas was very surprised at how well he was doing--that he was still alive at all really. We just want him to be able to enjoy the things he loves as long as he can.

I guess I should have kept my trap shut. Jake took a turn for the worse this weekend. We took the dogs to the Dog Splash (more on that in another post), which we knew would be hard for him physically b/c of the gigantic lymph nodes making it hard to breathe. But we strongly feel that quality of life is what we are shooting for here and Jake CLEARLY had a ball swimming.

Last night he was having a really hard time breathing and we considered taking him to the emergency vet to have him euthanized. Paul laid on the floor with him for awhile and Jake’s breathing finally calmed down and Jake was able to fall asleep. This morning he was just lying around and we had a plan set for Paul to take him. Paul told the kids about it and Tyler got Jake some ice (one of Jake’s favorite treats that he gets… legally at least!). After eating about 10 ice cubes, Tyler gave him cheese, which he snarfed in 1 swallow. [[time out: spell check knows the word "snarfed," but not the word "euthanized." What's up with THAT?!]]  Then Jake turned around and snatched Anna’s bagel out of her hand while she wasn’t paying attention. Paul and I just looked at each other stunned.

So we decided to hold off and watch him for now. I have plans to travel to Cincinnati to see Sydney and the rest of my family for a few days. Worried about leaving Paul to handle all that by himself: he will have the kids T, W, Th (read: homework those nights, plus getting on the bus on W, Th, F). If he needs to put Jake down in the middle of all that, wow. But knowing Jake, he will probably be “helping”  Paul make lunches every morning for many more weeks to come.

Susan and her mom shelling at Lover's Key Beach (Elli's shadow)

Paul and I returned from Christmas with my family in Ft Myers, FL (they have a condo down there). Elli and Michael (and of course Zoe the Zygote) were there too. We arrived on the 25th in the evening and just got back tonight (Sunday) about an hour ago. Here was the basic schedule:

Wake @ 7:30am; exercise til about 10-ish; big breakfast; pool time (80 degrees and no clouds); dinner (we rotated which couple cooked); games; bed about 9pm. That’s right folks–I almost got my 12 hours/night of sleep!

Other activities that were interspersed were shopping (Paul bought Life is Good pj pants and a ball for Maggie), reading (yep–Paul too!!), shelling (girls only–the picture shown) and napping (ok, mostly me there). It was very relaxing.

We are both off tomorrow, and we have the kids so we are planning some activites: pool, movie and getting the kids their library cards!! I promise we will blog about their birthdays and celebrating Christmas–there is so much to tell and so many pix, its hard to narrow it down to a blog.

Wednesday night Bryan, Wesley and I decided to take a train into New York city to have dinner and look around. We were staying in Newark NJ which is right on the border so we figured we would have about a 20 minute train ride. Turns out we were wrong, we had a 1 hour train ride into Penn Station so by they time we got there we were starving. When we first got there we thought we were in for a long night because it took us a little bit just to figure out how to get out of the station. Luckily once we got out the rest of the night was easy.

We found a little hole in the wall pizza place for dinner. We almost got thrown out before we even got to eat because none of us could understand the guy behind the counter. He kept asking Bryan if we were eating there or taking it with us, but Bryan couldn’t understand him and the guy was getting mad. Finally we figured out what he was asking and he calmed down and, reluctantly, allowed us to stay. The pizza there was really good, although it may just have been that I was so hungry at that point that anything would have been good. After dinner we walked up Broadway, through Time Square and over to Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree. We lucked out on our way back because the train was running late and we were just able to make it. If we would have missed that train we would have had to wait a hour for the next train and wouldn’t have made it back until midnight. We had a lot of fun walking around but I think you would have to be crazy to want to live there, there was WAY too many people.

We were done at 1:30 on Thursday and headed back to the airport. Our drive over turned out to be foreshadowing to how the rest of the day was going to go. I am pretty sure our driver kept falling asleep because we were all over the road the whole way back. He almost smashed one car into the barriers but luckily they were able to avoid us.

Our flight was suppose to be at 5 so we had a while after we got in there. At about 3 I noticed that they had changed the status of our flight to canceled at the gate, although no one ever said anything. We went up to the counter and they were able to get us on another flight but it was suppose to be leaving at 2:40 and it was all the way in another terminal (remember it was 3 at the time) so we asked if we were going to make the flight. The girl said “you have a few minutes, hurry and you will make it”. So we hop on a bus to the other terminal, hurry down to the gate to see closed doors. We asked the guy at the gate and he looked at us like we were crazy and said that the plane hadn’t even left Boston yet and that the flight time was change to 5:50. Good, we made it. So we were sitting there and they changed the departure time to 6:50 (again not telling anyone, we just saw it). Then at about 5 or so the board showed that our gate had changed, but no one said anything (are you starting to get the trend?). Once we got over to the new gate we were settled until we left. At 7:30 we finally got on the plane and I thought everything was going to be good. That was until the guy sitting next to me got on. He was so big that even with the seat belt all the way out he had to suck in and push as hard as he could to get his seat belt buckled. Being so big meant that he took up all of his seat, part of mine and part the other guy sitting next to him. Now I barley fit in those seats myself so this meant that I was hanging out in the isle the whole way back and was beat up by everyone that waked buy and by the drink cart the whole way back. Our flight was to Charlotte so once we made it back I still had a 2 hour drive left and didn’t make it home until midnight so I was exhausted.

Other than our trip back it was a great trip. I took a couple of pictures while we were in New York if anyone wants to see: http://picasaweb.google.com/sanders1745/NewYorkCity# .

Our first night in San Antonio we ate at Casa Rio. While Susan was in one of her sessions that day I had gone for a walk and I heard that this restaurant was on it’s 4th generation of owners so we figured they must be doing something right and decided to give it a try. We had guacamole for a appetizer then I had the Casa Rio Deluxe Dinner (Cheese Enchilada, Tamale, Crispy Beef Taco, Chili Con Carne, Guacamole Salad,  Chili Con Queso, Mexican Rice, and Refried Beans) and Susan had the taco plate. For dessert Susan wanted to try flan because she had never had it before. It is unusual for her to want to try something new but I love flan so I went with. She wanted to share one since she wasn’t sure if she would like it or not so it turned out good for me that she liked it but it wasn’t her favorite (that meant I got more of it ). It turned out that we made a good choice to eat here because the food and service was great. This ended up being Susan’s favorite place we ate (it was a close second for me). The enchiladas were the best I have ever had and the tacos, with home made taco shells, were excellent also.

The second night we ate at two restaurants. We started at the Cafe Ole’. We weren’t planning on eating dinner here but they had a appetizer special of chili con queso, Texas style nachos, quesadillas and guacamole for happy hour so we decided to give it a try. After the appetizers we were glad we weren’t eating dinner there. The food wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t the best either. After Cafe Ole’ we moved on to Rita’s on the River. Here we had guacamole for a appetizer, yes we had another appetizer, then I had fajitas for dinner and Susan had tortilla soup. The food here was pretty good but not our favorite place. The fajita meat was marinated very well and had a good flavor, the home made tortillas where also very good but the rest was just OK.

Friday we met and had lunch at Rio Rio Cantina. Here we had guacamole for a appetizer (again ), then I had pollo en mole and Susan had 2 cheese enchiladas and a taco. This turned out to be my favorite restaurant of the week. The mole here was one of the best that I have ever had. Susan said it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t her favorite. They made things here a little different than she is use to which is probably why I liked it so much and it wasn’t her favorite. Friday night we were so stuffed from all the eating that we ended up eating ice cream at Häagen-Dazs and pretzels at Auntie Anne’s Pretzels for dinner.

For lunch on Saturday before we left we broke from the Tex-Mex trend and ate at Schilo’s Delicatessen (a German deli). Susan read about this place before we went and saw they had home made root beer so we planned on going to try it before we left. I hadn’t had any soft drink since I was 16 but I love root beer (especially home made root beer) so I decided to give it a try. It was really good and I am glad I had it but I’m not going to go back to drinking soft drinks, they are way too sweet. For food I almost got the cow tongue but I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat for a while if I didn’t like it since we were going to the airport after we left so I went with a Ruben sandwich instead. If I can find it again I would still like to try cow tongue sometime! Susan had the creamy chicken soup and a piece of cheese cake. The food here was good and worth the evil stares we got when we wanted to order lunch at 10:58. Lunch started at 11 so apparently 2 minutes is a long time in Texas.

For the sake of not making us sound any more like pigs, since we ate the whole time,  I left out our breakfeasts, airport meals and a couple others. We had a good time on the trip but ate WAY too much. This was Susan’s first time speaking at a national conference so she was a little nervous. She ended up with a full room for her talk and things went very well so I was happy for her.

You can see some pictures from the trip here.

54 hours of weekend; 1500 miles/24 hours of driving; 15 stops along the way; only 14 hours of visiting;

Saying goodbye to your childhood home….PRICELESS!

My parents bought their home in Crown Point, IN 40 years ago and they close on its sale today, Nov 17, 2008. Paul drove me home this weekend (that’s right–he drove every mile of the trip) to see it one last time. We went on a 5 mile run past my old high school, my junior high, my elementary school, the new high school in town, the park where we played pick up and I worked for my summer job, my track coach’s house, my jr high bball coach’s house, the fairgrounds and more!

It was kind of sad, but I truly believe home is where your loved ones are.