Road Trip :-)

I seriously should be getting some work done right now......but I am so not in the mood for working.

Some people would say...."you just got back from vacation".  But as you all know, our vacation never contains any REST in it.

So let's take that trip down memory lane and start revisiting our ROAD TRIP!

The plan was to leave on Friday night when Paul got off.  He was going to try and get off a little earlier so that we could head out.

I had the car all ready to go loaded down with suitcases, pillows, ice chest full of cold beverages, snacks, and all the electronic devices you need for the perfect road trip.

He got home around 9pm and we were off.

The goal was to try and get as far as we could so that we wouldn't have to have so far to drive the next day.

We hit lots of fog in Louisiana.....but we kept plugging along.  It was very weird to drive by the casinos in Lake Charles and not stop.  That doesn't happen very often.

We finally decided to call it a night at 2am and spent the night in Lafayette, Louisiana.  We were looking for a hotel on our phones before we got there.....so there wasn't much chance for research or choices at that time of the evening.

Here's the way it looks on the internet:

In real life, it looked a little run down.  But at 2am on a foggy night -- who cares?

So day one of the Road Trip has been put in the books.   Tomorrow is when the real adventure begins!

This will be just your appetizer

Wow!  We had a fantastic time in Memphis, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

We took so many pictures that it's going to take a long time to go through everything.

But......here's just a little pictorial tidbit of some of the fun that we had!

Hope these pictures reflect how much fun we had.  I'll be giving you all the details in the next coming days.  It will be fun to relive the adventure by writing about it!

Stay tuned..............................................

A much better day and a recipe keeper

Well thankfully by the end of the day I felt better about things than I did at the beginning of my day.

My youngest son called me while I was preparing dinner and was updating me about his life.  This boy has been bitten by the love bug really bad.  It was fun to hear him gush on and on about what he's been doing and how great his new love interest is.  She must be special -- he's declared that he's in no hurry to move back to Houston.  Funny how those things work out. 

Paul came home early and had an opportunity to sit down and finalize some plans for our upcoming adventure.  Looks like we'll be driving since United didn't cooperate with us and have discount tickets to either Memphis or Little Rock.  No big deal........our road trips are always so much fun.

Our plan is to try and get him out of work early on Friday night so we can hit the road.  We'd like to get 3-4 hours under our belt the first night so we can get into Memphis early enough on Saturday to get in some sightseeing.  We plotted our trip on a map and we have two routes we can take.  One is to go north to Texarkana and then head east going through Little Rock.  Our other option is to head east on I-10 through Louisiana to Baton Rouge and then head north.  This route would take us all the way (North to South) through Mississippi into Memphis.  Both routes are about the same length of time (9 hours).  I think we've decided to go one way going and one way coming back.  We'll get to see more stuff that way.  Never been to Mississippi before.......so that will be fun!

So now that the decision to drive is taken care of......it added a few more things to my "to do" list for the week.  Since payroll is this week - that's my top priority.  We are taking the mustang so now I can add oil change, adjusting headlights, car detail, haircut, and shopping for snacks and drinks to take in the car.  And because we are driving.....I'm sure there will be lots more stuff that we'll want to haul with us since we'll be in our own little personal space: laptop, pillows, etc.

I'm excited!  Plans are to meet Greg in downtown Memphis on Monday and cruise Beale Street and enjoy a lunch together.  We haven't seen each other in 33 years.....holy crap!

Okay......don't want to completely bore you with all our trip details.  Now it's a different subject.....the AMAZING dinner I made last night!

I wanted broccoli cheese and rice and I wanted chicken.  But I wanted it all cooked together.  Did my Google search and found a great recipe.  The husband walks in and didn't act like he was too excited about my choice.......but after he ate it he declared it was one of the best things I've tried.  It was so delicious and we'll definitely be making it again.

 

Very easy to put together:  shredded chicken, uncooked rice, broccoli,

 cream of mushroom soup, velveeta cheese.

I am so glad that there are leftovers for me to eat today.

Well now the time has come to get my butt in gear.  I have a lot to get accomplished this week!

Confession

I have always tried to be the BEST:

Mother
Wife
Employer
Friend
Daughter
Sister
Sister-in-Law
Daughter-in-Law
Adopted Mother
Person
and the list goes on and on

I've always prided myself as a super achiever.  One who could handle many things at a time and do the things that everyone has requested of me.

But for the past couple of years.......I've really started to fail.

I just have too many plates I'm juggling and slowly they are all crashing down around my head. 

Nothing in my life is organized or finished.

My house is a wreck.

My work to do list is a 1000 items long and things are way behind.

We have a large list of things that need to be repaired, fixed, or upgraded at our house and our business.

I can't do it anymore. 

I'm exhausted.

I'm unhappy with myself because there are so many things out of control in my life.

I need to find myself again.  Somewhere in the midst of all this hustle and bustle......I lost myself.

Don't worry.........I'm in here somewhere.  I just needed this tiny pity party to get the fire burning inside myself again.

Lucky for me......

.....that I was only crabby 1/2 a day yesterday and that today is a new beginning.

.....that I have a wonderful husband who works so hard so that I can work from my house

.....that I have 2 great "kids" who I have a great relationship with

.....that we have a successful business that allows us to work together

.....that I have a weird sister who cracks me up with her crazy texts

.....that I had a mom and dad who raised me to live right and decent

.....that I have MORE than enough things to do today so that I don't even have a chance to get bored

.....that I am me

Time to get started on this busy day!

Red is the color of the day

I think today is not a good day for anyone to mess around with me.

For some reason, it's one of those days where even the stupidest little things just irritate the crap out of you.

So I apologize in advance to anyone who has to deal with me and I'm rude to you.  It's not my fault.  It's because of my hormones.

So leave me alone.

P.S.  On a good note, that cut up tree that didn't even belong to us that got thrown into our yard by the electric company.  Well I only had to make 2 phone calls and have 2 different guys come out here and it finally got resolved.  The tree company showed up this morning at 7:45 (without us having any idea they were coming and we were both sitting around in our sleeping attire).  But they did take all that tree mess out of our yard.  Hallelujah!

It only took 3 1/2 years....but we're going to make it

Hmmmmm.......what am I talking about?

Going to Memphis of course!  Back in January, 2010 I made  THIS POST about what we would do if we went to Memphis.  So I looked back on it to see if much has changed.

I really didn't have a lot of destinations on it back then......but we have created a bigger list since.

Now since we are actually going to be headed in that direction next weekend......we are starting to make our plans. 

As of this date, we still don't know if we are driving or flying....that decision will be made next Monday when they post last minute fares.  If we drive......we'll have an exciting 9 hour road trip to get there.  I know that will be fun!

The hotels have been picked out.  We're staying two nights downtown near all the action and one night a little farther out (we got that night free).   The hotel downtown is a rennovated warehouse right on the trolley line and very close to where we will be attending the concert.  It's also close to Beale Street so that we don't have to drink and drive.....just drink and ride :-)

But before all the final preparations for the trip can get done......I have work that needs done.  It's always so freaking stressful to take a trip.  Along with all the vacation planning....you have to look at all the stuff that needs to be covered while we are gone.

Please let me win the lottery on Saturday.......then the only plans I will be making is how I'm going to be spending that money.

Look out Memphis......here we come!