Catching you UP

I know I've been blogging about everything except what really happened over the Thanksgiving holiday. Let me fill you in. First of all, this was the BEST visit I've had with my parents in a very long time. Actually, I can't remember a better visit with them, so that tells you just how long it's been when I can't remember.

Wednesday, I had off work. I drove H to work (okay, in reality, he drove, but I was in the car). After H got out of the car and I got in the driver's seat, I took the dog to H's family and played a bit with K2 (I've already written about that). After dropping Dickens off, I went to my allergist and got my allergy shots. There are LOTS of trees on my parent's property and it kills me every time we're there, this was definitely a preemptive strike. From there, I took my car to get the oil changed. I was about 100 miles past 30K and I was waiting until this day to get it done but didn't realize waiting a few more days would put me past my mileage. Oh well, 100 miles is not that bad. It took them FOREVER to change my oil. It was terrible. It has never taken that long to get my oil changed and I always go to the same place. From there, I went home, put dishes in the dishwasher, ran it, and packed for my folks. H got off work at 2, so I was pushing it by that time since it takes about 30 minutes to get to his work. I hadn't even had lunch by the time I had to leave to pick him up. I stopped at Dairy Queen and got an iron grilled turkey sandwich with no mayo and no bacon. The only thing I had to count points for was the sourdough bread (4 points - no big deal). We got to my folks around 6. The rest of the night was spent talking and catching up since we haven't seen each other since Mom's birthday in August.

Thursday was Thanksgiving (duh). Grandpa came over. Grandma was already there. These are my maternal grandparents. They are married (yes, to each other). They just can't live together. I find this hilarious, but it works for them. Kind of. They do get extremely frustrated and impatient with each other - probably the reason for them living in separate places. At one point, my aunt bought a one-bedroom home for my grandma. Grandpa lived in a trailer.....in Grandma's back yard. I kid you not! Thanksgiving was great and emotionally uneventful (which is perfect!). Grandma wanted to go to Wal-Mart and thought it would be open, so I drove her there to find that it was closed. Everything in their small town was closed. It was kind of creepy. Every part of the Thanksgiving meal was CORE, Baby! It was fantastic. I had no worries about what I ate. I could eat it all until I was satisfied. I had 2 pieces of crustless pumpkin pie...ALL CORE! WooHoo! I did have a bite of the pumpkin pie my grandma made and it didn't live up to the hype. Actually, for the last few years, she has been forgetting how she makes things so she's been messing them up for a long time. The two pies she has NEVER messed up are her Banana Cream and Coconut Cream pies (both with meringue - NEVER whipped cream). The woman is 82 so she's still doing really well. If she can't remember how something's supposed to be made, well, we can live with that. Even she didn't like the pie, so it wasn't just me.

Friday, we all piled in the car, went to Evansville, and saw the movie Fred Clause. If you see only 1 Christmas movie this year, you have to see this one. It was funny, interesting, has a really good story line, and it wasn't a "stupid" funny movie. I will see it over and over. After the movie, we went to The Texas Roadhouse for dinner. MMMM, steak (filet mignon, to be exact). From there, we went to Wal-Mart (it was open this time). When we got up Thursday morning, I realized that I made a huge mistake when packing. My mistake was that I didn't try on the clothes I brought to wear. I brought shirts that I haven't worn in years. I should have tried them on. They were WAY too big on me so at Wal-Mart, I was going to buy 3 shirts. After doing my other shopping, I went to the clothes section and picked out a few tops to try on. I found one that fit and looked good. H was rushing me through at that point, so I just picked out two shirts (same style, same size, different colors) and, without trying them on, I bought them.

Saturday, I tried on the two tops I didn't try on at Wal-Mart and found that they were too big. WooHoo! I had to take them back. What a sad, sad thing to have to do. NOT!!! Sadly, I couldn't find any shirts that I really liked or looked good on me besides the one I bought and tried on the night before. So...I bought two more in diferent colors. :-) I'm easy. Since H and I were leaving on Sunday, we decided to give Dad his birthday presents Saturday night. We also sat in the living room and watched a few movies (Zathura, Ratatouille, and Meet the Robinsons). After watching the movies, Dad wanted to play pinnocle. Mom didn't really want to play, but Dad played one of Mom's cards on her. She is BIG in regards to doing and getting what she wants during her "birthday weekend." Dad said that it's his birthday weekend and he wanted to play pinnocle. Mom started to say no, but Dad said...if it were your birthday weekend, you'd be upset if we didn't do what you want. WooHoo! Bout damn time!

I forgot to tell you something. The entire weekend, whenever Mom had a chance or an opening, she tried to guilt me about spending Christmas with H's family. EVERY SINGLE CHANCE. I heard something about it at least once a day. Saturday was her biggest effort. She said that Christmas is no longer her favorite time of year and she even started crying. I hate when my mom cries, but I wasn't going to let that sway my decision to be with K, K2, and H's family for Christmas. My reaction to all of that? I told her, "Since you get me for Thanksgiving every year, you and dad should fly out to California to see G for Christmas and watch your grandkids open their gifts." One day I mentioned that K and K2 are the closest H and I will come to having kids of our own and we want to be there with them on Christmas morning. Sadly, none of this ever makes a difference with mom. It's her way all the way. Period.

On our drive home on Sunday, H complained that I was reading instead of talking non-stop like I normally do on our trip home from my parent's house. I was stunned. Not only did he want me to talk NON-STOP, but I realized that I really had nothing to complain, bitch, moan, or groan about. For the first time in FOREVER I was actually not phased by anything that happened with my folks this trip. Yes, I was disappointed that Mom tried to guilt me into coming up for Christmas, but in all honesty I expected that from her so I wasn't hurt by any of it. I had a pretty good visit. I got bored a lot at their house. All they do is sit in front of the TV and talk only during commercials. This is how I grew up. By the way, Mom thinks family is the most important thing to her. She doesn't realize that doing nothing but sit in front of the TV and not talking until commercials is NOT putting your family first. I can't tell you how many times I have seen H's family stop whatever they were doing or watching on TV because someone wanted to talk or needed a little attention. Such an amazing difference.

All is good. I'm feeling GREAT! By the way, H and I are fan-fucking-tastic. No worries. We really did just need to find a different way to communicate (how amazing is that?!). Life is GREAT!

Until later...