tales from I-20

Here we go! This is my attempt at posting about our 2 week trip without taking 2 weeks to write it!

Friday, 12/15
driving time this day: approx. 3 hours
*field trip walking across the street to the high school to hear "holiday music" with Gracie's class; notice Gracie doesn't seem to feel well
*last minute packing
*back to the school for Gracie's Christmas party; (Mrs. Stauffer would probably not be happy if she knew I'd put up this picture of her with the Christmas bow around her head!) continue to notice Gracie doesn't feel well and feels warm also
*leave for Mom & Dad's in Atlanta despite the fact that Gracie is now obviously sick
*have good dinner & Christmas present time with Grammer & Pappy; Gracie feels better, now Katie is warm
*get to bed rather early since we have an early departure time planned

Saturday, 12/16
driving time this day: approx. 16 hours
*get up & leave at 4:45 am ET; both girls feeling warm and not feeling too well-still in pj's
*stop a couple of hours later and change the girls and take potty break
*stop in MS (or was it LA) somewhere for lunch; both girls don't eat and lay in lethargy on the booth at Wendy's
*make the sad decision to call our friends (in Van Alystyne, TX) whom we haven't seen in years and cancel staying with them that night due to the girls' fever & sickness-this was so sad for us because we had been looking SO forward to seeing them, neither of them have ever met Katie and he hasn't ever even met Gracie, but there was no way we wanted to stay with them with the girls both being so sick at this point
*FINALLY get to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and FINALLY find a hotel after my husband decides it'd be fun to try a few different interstates in the area!
*eat dinner, bathe, relax a little and get the girls in bed where they fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow!
*look foward to seeing my cousin the next day whom I haven't seen in over 3 years!

Sunday, 12/17
driving time this day: approx. 3 hours
*take it easy that morning trying to recuperate from the drive the day before; girls are feeling better but run fever a little during the day
*find out that plans to meet my cousin have fallen through; I am very disappointed
*hit the road for Abilene
*call information to get Jetty Betty's phone number to see if we could meet; she called back after we were already in Abilene
*get to Abilene hungry for some good Mexican food and go to Rosa's~YUM! We didn't actually have this in Abilene when we were there, we had it when we lived in Lubbock and we LOVED it! Needless to say, we stuffed ourselves!
*took the girls to the ad building at ACU where Chris & I got engaged
*went to the home of a sweet friend of Chris' family who is kind of like a grandmother to him and stayed the night with her; went to church that night, all day Katie had been asking to go to church; we'd had "family church" in the hotel room that morning but she wanted to go to church.
*drove around looking at Christmas lights; walked around ACU some more showing it to the girls and trying to explain it all to Gracie; there's just really no way to explain ACU and the whole experience to someone who hasn't attended there as a student; people don't typically choose ACU for the buildings or location but for the people-during a holiday there aren't too many of them around, so I'm not sure she "got" what we were trying to explain to her; of course, that could also have something to do with the fact that she's only 6 years old! LOL
*went back to the house and visited a little before going to bed

Monday, 12/18
total driving time for this day: approx. 7 hours
*girls appear to be better; I can't remember which day it was that the fever blisters appeared but before all was said & done, Gracie had 2 huge ones and Katie had 1 that scabbed horribly below her lip; Gracie also ends up with a horribly scabbed up, blistered nose
*get to NM before Gramme is out of school so we stop by; being the small school that it is, the principal himself invites us to interrupt & disrupt as much as we want to in her class; Gracie of course stays with Gramme to finish out the day, as a matter of fact she attended the next 2 days of school as a student in Gramme's class! She loved "being a 2nd grader" for 2 days!
*begin to relax now that we're there, although I'm concerned about the fever blisters and Gracie's nose.......

Tuesday, 12/19
total driving time for this day: NONE! I didn't get in the car the whole day!
*hung out at the house; Chris & his parents were supposed to go to Albuquerque for an appointment, but snow conditions prompted them to stay home

Wednesday, 12/20
*Gracie went to school with Gramme (2 hour delay due to snow!)
*Gramps, Chris, Katie & I went to Ruidoso shopping
*fun to see snow but I'd rather watch it through the window than actually be out in it!
*hung out

Thursday, 12/21
*Gracie went to school with Gramme
*Chris, Katie & I went shopping in their little town (it seriously took about an hour...it's a really small town....no stoplight, about 1300 people!)
*visited the school then went back after Katie's nap for the Christmas party

Friday, 12/22
*visited the Smokey Bear Park and museum; took lots of pictures for Gracie to share with her class (he'd visited their class earlier this year!)
*left the girls with Gramps & Gramme while Chris & I went back to Ruidoso to do a little more shopping
*Mike, Erin & Sara Jane arrive! I was glad the girls got to spend time with their cute-as-a-button cousin, Sara Jane-and with their aunt & uncle, too!
*Gramme makes her good New Mexico flat enchiladas with a fried egg on top~YUM!
*the fever blisters & nose are looking really bad by this time; I felt bad with Sara Jane being there but I wasn't sure what to do.....they hadn't had the blisters when we left home, just the fever and for all I knew at that time, it was a 12 hour virus! I didn't know it would keep lasting! ugh!

Saturday, 12/23
*all of us went back to Ruidoso for more shopping; I picked up something for Chris that he'd pointed out the day before
*ate out for lunch; sent the guys home with the kids; Gramme, Erin & I did a little more shopping by ourselves
*left the kids with Gramps & Gramme while Mike, Erin, Chris & I went out for good Mexican food (in Ruidoso again) and to see "Night at the Museum."

Sunday, 12/24
*church where Mike & Chris shared leading singing
*good lunch and naps for the little girls while Gracie got to help Erin & I bake a cake
*did a little gift opening that evening

Monday, 12/25
Merry Christmas!We actually had to wake the girls up!
*oh, wait! Chris was up with chills & fever during the night and now feels horrible! GREAT!
*enjoyed opening gifts despite being worried about Chris
*Nana, Papaw (Chris' wonderful grandparents), Jerry & Cheryl (his so sweet aunt & uncle) and his cousin Jeremy come for the day for Christmas dinner. We visited throughout the day, Chris spent much of it asleep on the couch because he felt awful! When I told him to wake up because the Cowboys were on and he barely stirred, I knew things were bad! He did get up for it but was halfheartedly watching. Of course, from what I understand it was a horrible game anyway. (I played Phase 10....I don't like football!)
*went out to find some Sprite & Gatorade for Chris that evening....small town, remember????? NOTHING is open...not even the 1 gas station! Good thing Gramme is a teacher; we got some Sprite out of the teacher's lounge.

Tuesday, 12/26
*Mike, Erin & Sara Jane leave early.
*Gracie's poor nose is still horribly blistered and the poor thing could literally hardly breathe! She seemed to feel okay except for not being able to breathe. Chris was feeling better but still not great. Gramme found out the little clinic in town was open and would see us so I took the 2 of them in.
*Chris' diagnosis: strep! She said it wasn't all the way there yet but just about (they did that rapid test thing). At first, she thought maybe Gracie had hand, foot & mouth because she'd had a blister on her finger and Katie had one on her knee but then she said she thinks Gracie & Katie had strep when we first left then gave it Chris and that the blisters on Gracie's nose were impetigo! She asked how I felt and I was okay but had a headache and my throat was a little swollen so she went ahead and wrote prescriptions for all 4 of us!
*had to go to Ruidoso (about 30 minutes) again because there is no pharmacy in their little town, so we all went to get the meds and ate Mexican food again; by the time we got back home I was feeling pretty bad so I crashed in bed!
*woke up and started packing the car; relaxed in bed that night watching mindless t.v. in one room while everyone else watched football in the other room
*emailed Jetty Betty about possibly meeting for breakfast Thursday morning

Wednesday, 12/27
total driving time this day: approx. 9 hours
*got up, felt okay, went ahead & left and drove to Ft. Worth
*talked to our friends again and told them we'd better not stay with them yet again because of the recent strep developments; we'd been on the antibiotic 24 hours by then, but they have 2 young children and 1 on the way so we felt we'd better play it safe
*talked with Jetty Betty and made plans to eat breakfast with her! I figured since she didn't have young children and we'd only be eating across the table from her that it'd be safe
*got to Ft. Worth, relaxed, ate, slept What fun the girls had staying in hotels!

Thursday, 12/28
total driving time this day: approx 8 hours
*met Betty for breakfast along with Critter! So great to meet them and we had a wonderful time! I loved it!
*left Ft. Worth, drove to Jackson, MS eating a late lunch at Cracker Barrel somewhere in LA
*got a hotel, relaxed, slept

Friday, 12/29
total driving time this day: approx. 7 hours
*left MS and kept heading East; girls' blisters are already looking much better...partly due to the meds and partly due to leaving the dryness of NM I think
*finally get to Atlanta~Yippee!
*decide to make one more stop and stay with Grammer & Pappy; after all, Grammer will cook for us!
*relaxed

Saturday, 12/30
total driving time for this day: approx. 3 hours
*left Atl. around 10:30
*get home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*took a nap worthy of a Sunday afternoon!
*a very sweet friend brought us dinner that evening since she knew we wouldn't have anything in the house and were kind of tired of eating out

Sunday, another sweet friend had us over for lunch after church. It made me feel good to have such considerate friends! Slept after church; went back that night; got take out and came home to have a relaxing New Year's Eve watching a movie and not doing much of anything! Monday, we took down most of the Christmas stuff and Gracie & I went to see "Charlotte's Web." I loved it! Today, I've continued trying to put everything away. Things are looking better but there's still stuff to do....as always!

It was a good trip; I wish we hadn't been sick and I felt so bad for the girls because I know the blisters couldn't have felt good! (I know they didn't look good, poor things!) I loved finding out that Nana reads my blog and enjoys it! It's amazing that way out on the sheep ranch in the little rock house, she can sit and read about what is going on with our girls waaaaay over in South Carolina! I loved watching her & Papaw talking with the girls. Nana & Papaw may be Chris' grandparents but I think I probably love them just as much! I love watching how sweet & gentle Papaw is with Nana...reminds of my Shanks man. Chris is always thinking of me & the girls before himself and you can tell Papaw is the same way with Nana. I've always thought Chris & Papaw had similar personalities! Gramps & Gramme were great hosts and treated us well as always. The girls had such a good time playing with them and I'm glad they got to create those memories!

Now, it's time to get back to "normal."

p.s. Where are all the pictures of Gramps & Gramme?!?! I'm not sure! Next time I need to remember to take more!!!!!! This isn't my favorite picture by far, but it shows almost everyone from Christmas day, so I'll post it. (I couldn't get the red out of our eyes.)