Married Leos

I wish this could have been a road trip for a better reason, we had to make the trip to attend my Grandmothers funeral, she passed away last week at the ripe age of 90. My Grandparents moved to NC about 9 years ago to be closer to my Aunt who’s daughter is a nurse, she was going to help take care of my Grandfather who had Parkinson’s Disease. Shortly after moving down there my Grandfather passed away, that was the last time we took a trip. Which leads us to this trip to NC.

DAY 1 - Thursday

The plan was to leave at 6am, that didn’t happen, it was my fault, but since it was my plan to leave at 6am it was OK that we left late. I got up at 5:15, only 15 minutes later than I was planning on, hey I was tired, got to bed late on Wednesday. I took forever to get the MINIvan packed up ( it is called mini for a reason ). Minivans are not meant to be taken on trips with 6 people for 5 days. Even though we packed light ( very light ) there still was NO room in there for the kids. Two in car seats the other two big kids in back sprawled out with their feet sticking wherever they could find a crease to stretch them out.

The trip went very well considering the cramped space and all. It was made easier for the kids with the portable DVD players my parents bought for them. All in all they were very quiet and we only made 1 non planned potty break.

The only real excitement which no one but I was privileged enough experience was me hitting a flying bird, well he had already been hit and fluttering hopelessly before I …. well you know. At our first unplanned stop I got to see and remove the …. you know.

We got to Lexington KY about 4:30pm their time, got to our room which was nice but for the cost of it should have been nicer. We stayed at the Embassy Suites, therewas a living room area with a TV, a kitchen area with a sink micro and fridge and also a bedroom area with 2 queen beds and a TV. I looked at the room rates on the door and it was $400+/night for 4 people and we had 6. We didn’t pay that much for the rooms but that is insane, so what if there are complimentary cocktails from 4:30-6pm and free anything you want breakfast.

Later that night we had dinner with my parents in the hotel restaurant, a bit pricey for what was on the menu but at least there was a kids menu. They picked up the bill for dinner and the hotel. Thanks Mom and Dad.

DAY 2 - Friday

We got up at … well I don’t remember when we got up, I know it was later than I planned again, probably about 6:30. The Queen and I went down and got everyone some breakfast about 7ish and brought it back to the room so everyone could eat and get ready to go.

When I went down to take the luggage to the van, the reception area was filled with ladies all dressed up in their best Kentucky Derby clothes and big hats. Why are big hats required when attending the Kentucky Derby?

The ride to our destination in NC was once again much quieter than I had expected it to be, the kids were entertaining themselves with the movies we brought with us and they didn’t have to take many breaks. Since we had a big breakfast we skipped lunch and just ate snacks in the car, that saved us about an hour in travel time and an extra potty break. We arrived around 4:30pm about 7 hours after we left, we made very good time.

The Queens cousin got us a corporate rate at the hotel she uses for out of town clients, that was much appreciated. Under a $100 per night and only slightly less room than the Embassy Suites the night before.

Late that night we had dinner with the Queens cousin, we had a good time, thanks for paying for dinner.

DAY 3 - Saturday

We needed to get up a bit early to get to the funeral home today, the hotel had a free Continental breakfast, which basically equals a snack, so while the kids were getting ready the Boy and I went down and stacked up donuts, fruit, bagels and juice and took them back up to the room for the others.

We left about 8:30am and arrived at the funeral home around 9am, 30 minutes early. We waited around for my parents to get there but as usual they were running late, my cousins whom I had not seen since my Grandfather passed were there already there. My parents were taking too long so we decided to just go in without them.

The wake was only an hour since all of my Grandmothers family , what little she has left is in Illinois and she is now in NC. There was a short service after then we proceeded to the mausoleum for the conclusion of the service.

Afterwards we went to my Aunt’s house, she gave us mapquest directions, my brother said he would just put it into his cell phone, so I followed him. His leading skills have something to be desired, I thought when someone is following you, you are supposed to go a little slower so they can easily follow. Not him, he was doing 20 over the speed limit. He then proceeded to vary from the directions from my Aunt and took us down a dead end, nice GPS on that phone. Then he misses the exit, so we have to double back. Even with all these mishaps we still made it there right behind my Aunt.

We stayed there for a few hours, before we left we went through my Grandmothers things to see if there was anything we wanted, I put dibbs on the TV and the entertainment center ( just kidding ). The Queen took the pics of our family and I snatched the recipe book.

When we were leaving the girls ( my cousins and the Queen ) were talking about getting together atleast once a year. I have only seen these cousins probably 5 times that I can remember. Usually about once every 8-10 years it seems like and we don’t really keep in contact via email or anything else either.

After we left there I went back to the hotel to change clothes and we went to a Mexican restaurant with the Queens cousin, the food there was good and a nice change over the food we had the last couple days.

DAY 4 - Sunday

Since there was no real need to get up early I let everyone sleep in ( till 8:45 ), we got on the road about 9:40. What ensued was the longest 15 hours ever.

An hour and a half into the ride Twin 2 says ” Daddy I gotta go to the bathroom “, Ahhhhhh!!!! Not already. Everyone gets out and goes to he bathroom. But they cannot use the bathroom unless they buy something, so the queen comes back to the car with a bag full of junk.

Hour and a half later, again ” I gotta go to the bathroom “.

This is going to be a long trip.

Another stop a few hours later.

Next stop was for lunch / gas, I figured I would make it one stop and of course someone had to go to the bathroom about 15 minutes before I had planned on stopping. Usualy not a big deal but when you are driving through the mountains there are not many decent places to stop to eat. This was no exception, we pulled into someplace called O’Malleys, a Irish place in the mountains of TN, go figure. The service was good, the drinks tasted funny and the food was just ok. 40 minutes later we were back on the road, I looked down the street and there was an Applebee’s, damn we could have went there.

So far the drive has been less than pleasant, the kids are doing much more complaining than they did on the way down and we are only about 6 hours into the ride back home. Did I mention I was planning on driving all the way back in one day?

Since we were on a straight stretch of road I let the Queen drive for a bit.

Well we were driving for a couple hours when someone needed to go to the bathroom again. Since the Big One had asked the night before if we could stop and get ice cream on the way home I saw there was a Dairy Queen at the next exit so we stopped and there and got desert.

The rest of the way home had more exits and traffic to worry about so I took over the driving again when we left.

The Boy kept taking his seat belt off and the Twins kept snitching on him, I told him that they were more uncomfortable in their car seats than he was. He says ” I had to sit in those seats before and it was not that bad “. There was a comment about someone acting like a baby which brought on the Quote of the Trip from Twin 2.

Without further adeau the Quote of the Trip : ” I am a baby aaaannnnddd I .. LIKE IT! ”

It was a welcome laugh during a fairly aggravating trip.

We made our last gas / potty stop about 10:30pm, it was finally dark and I was hoping that the kids would just fall asleep. They fought it for about 30 minutes then finally fell asleep.

FINALLY, quiet time, everyone was asleep, it was only me and the open road, I cracked open a 5 hour energy drink and set forth on the home stretch. 2.5 hours later we pulled into the driveway.

I am still awake, everyone else is tired and going to bed, I suppose I will too.

I am sure the Queen will have some other comments on our trip. If the big one took any pics I will get some posted later.

Ok so as the King previously wrote, his cousin was over helping dig the holes for the deck. The four younger kids were watching TV when the King and his cousin were done, the Big One and I were in my bedroom watching our soap.

The King runs up the stairs and says, What broke?” I said “I don’t know. I didn’t hear anything.” The Kings says he heard a glass brake, the sound of a window.  So he looks to see if any of the kids broke the windows in their rooms, I checked the main floor while the King and his cousin go to the basement. The King sees that someone had broke our escape window in our basement with a huge pink rock.

Both guys run outside to see if they see any kids running away, I too go out to see if I see anything, of course we don’t see not one person around. So we all go inside, I tell the King that I am going to call the cops so that they can finger print the rock, he laughs at me. I said “look, I want the punk or punks that broke our window to pay to get a new one!” I then decide to go back outside again, perhaps the kids that broke the window would sneek back to see what the damage was. So I peeked around our fence, maybe they were still hiding. Nope no one.

So I figured I would go to our neighbors behind us to see if maybe they saw kids running from our area. As I was just about to go towards the house directly behind us, I noticed a kid looking out his kitchen window at me, his house is diagnally from ours, to me he had a guilty look on his face.  So I said oh what the heck I will start with his house. So I go and knock on the door and the kid answers (still with a scared look), I asked him if his mom was home, he responded “no”, so I then ask if his father is home he replies hold on, a guy comes to the door and asks if he could help me, all the while this kid is standing there looking like he is ready to pee his pants. So I told him that someone had broken my window about 15 minutes ago and I was wondering if he had seen anyone running from my house. He quickly looks at the boy and says “didn’t you just come in 15 minutes ago?” The boy says, “no, I came in 30 minutes ago” The man says “oh I don’t think so, do you know anything about this lady’s window”? The kid replies “no”. I mention to the man that his boy was at my house playing with my boy and another friend earlier in the day, and I then asked the boy if he knew where my boy was, he said no but that all three boys went for a walk and that my son had wanted a pink rock from the house next door to this boy that looked like he had something to hide, and then he said that my boy was the one who broke the window. My first reaction? Yes it could very well be my son, I could see him do it. So as I was going to find my boy, the man told the boy that his story didn’t make any sense and that he would have his wife come to my house as soon as she came home and talked to their boy.

So I go looking for my boy and find him at the other kids house that was hanging out with him earlier. I told that kids mother that my son was in deep shit and told her why, she responded “oh no no no, your son and my son have been in my back yard for at least 30-40 minutes, her husband said the same thing, he was out in their back yard building his deck and said the boys could not have possibly broken the window. So I tell my boy to come with me and ask the mother if she could come too so that we can tell this man that our boys had an alibi.

So we approach the house and the man opens the door as we get closer, he states that his wife just got home and is talking to their son, I mention to him the where abouts of my son and his friend, then man says his wife will come out as soon as she is done talking to their son. Ok, fine no problem is my response. I walk to the front of my house and tell my husband that I think I have the found the person who broke our window.

As we are talking the scared boy and his mother come to our house, she introduces herself and states that her son admitted braking the window but that it was an accident. She continues her story stating that her son was coming to our house and tripped over our hose and that he fell toward our window where the rock was laying on top of the silver metal thing that is right infront of the escape window, (I cannot think of the name of that metal thing). I looked at her and thought to myself “are you fucking kidding me? You believe that story?” OMG!!! Of course I hate when parents always have in their conversations “oh my son/daughter would never do that, I HATE IT! Here I was going to beat the crap out of MY son because this ladys son said that my son did it, now he changed his story!! First of all the hose were nowhere near the escape window, so he didn’t trip on the hose, second there is no way that a rock that size would be able to balance itself on that metal thingy, IMPOSSIBLE!!!!!!!! So of course she says “well if its replacing it that you want us to do we will do it. NO SHIT DUMB ASS AND WHILE YOU ARE WRITING A CHECK TO PAY FOR MY WINDOW THAT YOUR SON DIDN’T BREAK ON PURPOSE I HAVE SWAMP LAND TO SELL YOUR ASS!!! My son proceeds to tell the kid that he knows he did it on purpose because the boy was mad at my son because he had wanted to play with a certain water gun that the third boy was playing with, so they had exchanged some words and the kid left, looking like he was on his way home. So this kid gets pissed at my son and he takes it out on my window, nice huh.

I called several places for estimates, and I cannot believe that no one likes business. Only one person called me back and gave me an estimate of $454.00, well I dont care what the price is this lady will be paying for it. The kid had his nerve to come back, this time with some other kids and he started pointed at my son, this lady has no idea how nasty I will get when it comes to protecting my young, her son needs to stay on his side of the block and stop crossing over to our yard. What the heck is wrong with parents believing that kind of story? I would have never believed that story from my son , not in a million years.

I was so determined to find out who did it and I am so glad that I didn’t stop looking. It felt like a needle in a hay stack in the beginning but at the end it was easier then I thought.

Well as any usual Saturday, we get up early (thanks to my niece who just loves getting up before 8am). The boy has had soccer games for the last 3 weekends so we needed to get him up as well. So I go and take a shower, get dressed and start taking orders (from the 5 kids that are now up) for breakfast. Today the Kings cousin (his only male cousin, I find that pretty funny that he only has 4 cousins, me I have millions!lol) was coming over to help the King drill the holes in the gound for the posts to build our deck. So I was going to start to clean and get the kids dressed once they ate plus run to the bank for some cash for the week and to take the big one to get her paycheck. I noticed that the King still had his pajama pants on and the boy had about 15 minutes before he had to leave for his game.  Normally the King would take the boy to the game, because this year I had no intention of going to any of the games because of the moron he had as a coach. This guy is a big dick and talks to the kids like he is their drill sargeant. Well if you know me personally you know that no one talks or yells at my kids the way he does and gets away with it so I figured I would just stay away to prevent any scenes. Well the King “ASSUMED”  that I was taking the boy (I have no idea where this came from, I never mentioned that I would take him). He was all calm and dumb looking and I was going off, he knew what I had to do because I told him. He tries to convince me that last night while I was in bed, already dozing off that he mentioned to me that he would stay home and clean. Yeah right I never heard him. I asked if I responded to him and he said “well no but you grunted or made some kind of noise”. SSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOO I guess that noise I made meant that I was taking the boy. URGH! I had to pat myself on the back after the game because even though my sons name was mentioned about 50 times I bit my tongue, but said out loud to my son that his coach is a jerk. (By the way the boys team won 3-1) Good job son, you played real good.

Then the KING goes to rent the machine to make the holes, he tells me that he needs 2 checks one for the deposit (which would be given back once he returned the machine) and of course the second to pay for the usage of the thing. he comes back from returning it and hands me $80.00, I asked what is this for and he says that is the deposit, I then asked if they cashed both checks and he said no I put it all on one check.  Why I ask would you do that when you asked for two checks? Now I have to run to the bank on Monday and put that money back into the account. URGH!  His cousin says it would have been easier to use two checks (which meant he agreed with me, HA!)

Then I go grocery shopping the big one comes with me and once we are back home she says “ok mom you bring in the bags and I will put everything away”. Ok no problem, that is until I see the KING just sitting there watching TV, once I bring the last of the bags in I say to him “Oh that’s ok, I don’t need any help, but thanks for asking”! URGH!

Hopefully he will have a better day tomorrow. GOD help him if he don’t.

I am still depressed and angry about what has happened with my brother. I am still praying for a miracle, hoping that the bitch will slip and confess to someone.

My mom had called me on Tuesday to tell me that she had gotten a letter from my brother, and of course he sent one to the bitch (ya know the one who “hurt” her own child and then blamed my brother).  We were told that it would be at least 4 to 6 weeks before we heard from him,  so my mom was glad that he wrote but I could still hear the pain in her voice. Well we know that he needs money to buy paper, envelopes and stamps, but he mentioned that a guy had given him a few stamps and paper to write home, well I knew that I wouldn’t get a letter because my brother wouldn’t have asked for more than a few things, he knew that to ask for more than 2 would seem like he was greedy.

Well I was wrong. I went out to get the mail on Friday, there were a bunch of envelopes in the mailbox but one caught my eye, it was buried under other envelopes, it was one that I could see the top left hand corner and I saw his first name, my eldest was standing at the front door and heard me screaming “I got a letter, I got a letter, I got a letter!”  She said “Mom you sound as if you won the lottery” and my reply was “I DID!” I didn’t think I could cry anymore (I’ve been doing it for two weeks now) but I did as I read his letter. He said “hey sis, how are you? I am fine, don’t worry about me I am ok. Do my kids miss me? tell them that their daddy loves them and that I will be home soon.”  He also said that all of us (meaning to be nice to the bitch) need to stay together to help him get through this. GOD how I miss him! I wrote back right away in hopes of him receiving it before they ship him to his new home for the next 6 1/2 years.  I can’t wait to hear his voice again, I am so glad that he wrote me, me is big sister that loves him so much, me the one that will continue to feel pain in my heart until he comes home. I guess he loves me just as much as I love him. 

Here is a song requested by the Queen, The Osmonds - He Ain’t Heavy He’s My Brother

This song has been one of my favorites for a long time. I dedicate this song to my brother, as today he walks into the courtroom ( for something he didn’t do ) at 9am for the last time as a free man. I just hope and pray that my parents will still be around when he comes home, I pray that I am still around when he comes home, I pray that he will still be alive when he comes home. I promis you that as long as I am raising your kids they will never forget who you are I will talk about you to them everyday. I miss you already and can’t wait to hold you in my arms again.

I love you little brother with all my heart

R