Off to NOLA!

We are off to New Orleans tomorrow with our friends, Heather & Lee. Very excited as we all need this getaway. Heather is also pregnant, 7 weeks ahead of me. We're very much looking forward to muffaletta and beignets! If you could spy on us, you'd see us in every restaurant at some point in the French Quarter. I haven't found a place yet which compares to such food greatness in the United States! Such a perk being preggers getting to eat it all without any guilt!



We're also looking forward to the culture and relaxation. It's a much needed break for us all. We'll be meeting our dear friends, Jen and Ryan, over the weekend as they are coming to spend it there with us. We're so very excited. We haven't seen Jen since this time last year.

NOLA, here we come!!

{ p.s. Grandma's Diary really truly seriously updated finally...over a week's worth. I'm slowing updating... I've missed Grandma's entries, hoping you have, too. }

Happy Birthday to me. (Not.)

I should be in the car right now driving Noah and myself to Ohio to see our dearest friends. But I am not. And that is because Noah is sick. Yep, he is sick. Puking his guts out sick. Started throwing up about 2 a.m. and still is now at 9:20. Can't keep down Children's Pepto, water or Pedialyte. Has nothing in his system so he keeps throwing up foamy goo. He has a slight fever, too. Maia is fine, thank God.

This sucks. Really really badly. Alexis has already left and is past Virginia. She can't turn back now. I have never felt so disappointed before. Makes me cry. I feel so bad for my baby boy, but I also feel bad for Alexis and Sami. I keep praying this this will be over in a couple hours so that we can still leave. I was so so so looking forward to this time for AJ & I, and also for Noah & Sami. They deserve this time, so do we, and it's not going to happen very often when they live in North Carolina and she has to travel through and around mountains to get anywhere west of her.

Time to go clean up more goo. Happy happy birthday to me.

Edited in purple pedialyte color in lieu of my baby boy to say: we are definitely not going. Kept throwing up all morning, took a bath, then threw up again. Fever of 100. He is now sleeping curled up on the floor. Alexis is so so so understanding (why would I think any differently??) and said to promise her to go out tonight for dinner or go get a pedicure for my birthday. She is even making me check in so she knows what I did. I have a feeling I won't do anything. I will feel badly for Neil to come directly home from work, then take care of two kids, one being sick, and then send me off for some fun. I actually think I would rather be here parked on the couch watching my basketball games (gooo Illini . . . go Saluki's!) . . . but of course only with a glass of wine in hand, or better yet, a margarita. That will make all things peachy-keen. Almost.

Have fun without me, AJ. Will miss you guys. Already do.

Off to Columbus, Ohio!

Rest of today I will be packing packing packing! I hate packing but I love this reason why! I am driving with Noah to Columbus, Ohio to see Alexis & Sami! She lives in North Carolina now, but her family is from the Columbus area, so we are meeting her and Sami there (her mom taking her older two, Chris and Em, for the weekend) Friday late afternoon! Plans are to stay in a hotel with a pool right next to awesome shopping . . . oh my goodness this is going to be so much fun! Hoping to shop till we drop (of course, two things we do so very well together) as long as Sam and Noah can stand us to (!), eat (oh wait, another thing we do really well together), gab (oh wait, still another!), and then of course all the fun things we have planned for Noah and Sami (Jack Hanna's zoo, CEC . . .).

It's also my birthday tomorrow (happy birthday to me!), and I'll be driving most of that day, but I can deal. We bought a portable DVD player for Noah and I have a few new games for him, too, and I have my ipod and my new Regina Spektor CD, so I am anticipating a good drive. Except (now this is crazy and what are the chances?!) that both the U of I and Southern Illinois (SIU) are playing in the NCAA basketball tourney which is in no other than Columbus, Ohio! So the traffic might be really really awful. Hoping not, but I'm going into it thinking the worst. On the flip-side, I don't really mind all that much because I like these people. They could be fellow alum! (I went to SIU and this is huge huge huge for them because 1 -I/they think they could go really really far and 2 - if SIU wins their game and U of I also wins their game, they would play each other! And really, that game would be in SIU's favor, and how freaking exciting would that be if they did win?!?!) So . . . I have to pack orange and blue and maroon and white in lieu of both my teams!

Well, "see" you all next week, . . . gooooo Illini!! . . . . and gooooo Saluki's!! . . . and . . . . happy 31st to me! (I also cannot forget my birthday hospital buddy, Jamie! We were born on the same day in the same hospital! My dear friend, Amberley - also 31, also shares the day and so does my friend, Randy - 30!! Happy Birthday, all of you!!! Love ya!) Well, off to patching a tire, getting my oil changed, cleaning out my car, & buying a few groceries. (You didn't know I had that motivation, did you?) See you, Brad, Chel & Ella on Monday! (They are coming home for the weekend, but Monday we get to spend the day with them. Have a safe trip to Illinois!)

Thought to end:
Life is what we make it.
Always has been, always will be.
-Grandma Moses