Monday, May 31, 2010

Long weekends

The sun is setting on another holiday weekend that has somehow breezed right by us. When June 8th gets here, I will have spent a sum total of 8 days at my desk over the period of the previous 6 weeks. So, I really can't complain too much.
My first week missing in action was vacation. I then spent two days at my desk before jumping on a plane for Slovakia. After 11 days in airplanes, airports, and two differen Slovakia towns, I arrived back home not sure what day it was or even what time it was. I spent a recovery day last Monday (which ended up being a day of having a sick little boy with me) and my other recovery day last Friday, so this past week was a 3 day week followed by a four day weekend.
This next weekend, my brother is getting married. I am celebrating that fact by taking off on Friday to just...well, I don't exactly know...maybe look for another dress or maybe just take a big long deep breath and stare at the reality of my little brother growing up. Then I will charge forward into the weekend of fun and celebration and change. The following Monday, I/we (logistics aren't solid yet) will come back home....and I will continue to just be...and that will get me to the next day, June 8th. I suppose that is when the realities and normalcy of work will set in again...

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Breathing

Its been a bit since my last post as I have been struggling just to keep up and catch up. The month of May ends tomorrow, and just as I expected, it just seemed to be over before it began. I arrived home from Slovaka with jetlag and found a little boy who pretty much wanted to be attached to me and who was also waking up in the middle of the night screaming and yelling and fit throwing. As if to ensure his time with me, I was home less than 24 hours before he got sick. So, we shoved a visit to the doctor into the mix. Sick little boy throwing fits in the night=unrested parents. Thankfully, a week has passed to find him well and mostly into his routine again. He has traded fits in the night for just flooding his diaper in the bed.
Our house looks like a bomb went off and we had a toyplosion. Cleaning hasn't exactly been at the top of my priority list this past week. Hopefully, I can get some of my piles cleaned up tomorrow and maybe even some toys put away too.
I went shopping for the impossible to find dress on Friday. I wanted to find a dress that took 50lbs off of me while also making me tone and hot. Yeah, didn't find that dress. However, I did find a skirt...which was better than finding nothing I liked. Oh, I did see a dress that I liked, but with a $250+ price tag...I didn't even bother trying it on. At one point, I did find a dress that I liked, but could have used it in one size bigger than what was available. I tried on the "squeeze you skinny" undergarments and the effort to get those things on left me sweating. I would say that is when I bailed on the idea of "looking skinnier" and just started searching for "presentable"! I guess I forgot to mention that this is the dress/skirt/whatever I will be wearing to my brother's wedding and thus be photographed in at some point...lovely. The outfit I ended up with is not as dressy or classy as I would have liked...but it works for an outdoor in the summer wedding.
I took some time to just enjoy Kale feeling well and give him undivided attention yesterday afternoon. As a result, I hauled up his plastic blue pool to the deck and filled it up so it could warm up while we took a nap. He was a tad intimidated by it a first, but after a few splashes he decided it was ok after all. I also let him try out the feeling of not wearing a diaper under his swim shorts. I can't tell you how many times he told me he had to "go" and then dropped his shorts and did absolutely nothing but stand there twiddling and giggling. Boys.
We had planned to go to the club pool today, but we awoke from our nap to find out it was "sundering" so we decided not to go. Kale is apparently scared of thunder. We aren't focusing on it or mentioning it to him because we are hoping that it will pass. Yet, in his own way, he lets us know he is intimidated by the rumble noise outside.
Let's see, how do I say this politely. Not sure...so here goes. I have mentioned it before, but we aren't modest around Kale. He has taken numerous showers with each of us and sees me getting dressed daily. Kale is getting inquisitive about private body parts. This comes with potty training, which we are in the middle of right now. It also comes with just being a curious kid. He is very aware of his peanut and has become very aware that I don't have a peanut. He also likes to try poking his daddy in the peanut. This makes Ep squirm a bit and just gives me the giggles. Just to be fair, I should also mention that after I got out of the shower yesterday, the peanut police put a hand on each one of my thighs and gave everything a gander "down there" and then said "ohhh mommy" in a tone that suggested I had lost my peanut. I am not sure if thats what he meant, but is sure sounded like it. I distracted him and we moved on. I am pretty sure that trying to keep him from inspecting would only encourage him to try to inspect more often. He is, after all, our child. So, be warned. The peanut police is on full patrol.
One last little tidbit before I stop...my brother, who is about to get married next weekend, managed to get bitten by a dog...on his butt. In uniform. The media got wind of it and for some reason focused on this incident. Yes, my brother got bitten on the butt by a dog and it has made the news both locally and state wide. One shot later and maybe a little bit of humiliation to go with it...and he should be fine to still make the trip down the aisle next weekend. Only my brother. And I love him dearly.
Whew...done.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Slovakia #2

Since my last post, I have changed cities. We are now in Kosice. Thankfully, the city center is located far enough away that I do not hear any bells from my room. Wow. I can't believe that I survived a year living right next to the bell tower my freshman year of college. Whew.
Our hotel here is nice...my room is smaller and my bathroom is bigger...and the shower head is attached to a pole that I can secure highly, so I don't have to worry about flooding my bathroom now. We are not on the main city center street, but we are close enough that I feel comfortable to go out walking by myself.
I always forget how independent I am...its one thing to be independent in Arkansas, but its a whole different thing to be independent in a foreign country on a different continent. Maybe for some people, this goes unnoticed. However, when you have all the safety/security thoughts that have been pounded into my head (Dad, I was listening), then you are always on gaurd and alert. My passport does not leave my side...its easily said that I gaurd it much better than I guard my debit card at home...and Ep can attest that I lose that thing about once every two weeks. Ok, maybe once a week. I should clarify...usually it is only "lost" in the bottom of my purse or left in the pants I wore yesterday. Anyway, back to Slovakia.
We have been eating well. Normally, I am ravished for "home" food while I am gone. I did visit Pizza Hut. Overall though, I am not just overly craving any foods from home because they have done a good job feeding us home type foods here. Until Monday, I got to order whatever food looked good from the menu, but when we go out as a larger group, our meals are ordered for us ahead of time. Last night, we had bread topped by steak topped by a mushroom sauce and topped by stringy lightly fried onions. It was yummy. I am sick of lettuce and cole slaw though. Cabbage is king here. There have been two instances of someone ordering fish when we got to order our own food. I always forgets that Europe serves its fish with the skin, etc still attached...and that inlcludes the fish head with eyes still there....EWWWWWW!!!! Today, we are having fish for lunch, but I have been told that it will be fish without heads...I have lots of snacks, just in case.
The rest of today will be meetings....and tomorrow we visit the field. That always proves humbling and eye opening. On Saturday, I fly home. In fact, while most of you are eating dinner or going to bed on Friday night, I will be going to the airport. My flight leaves here at 5am and we have to leave the hotel at 3:30am...so that means that it will be 8:30pm back home....and I don't get home until 4:30pm the next day (home time).
Last night, the group went ot the Opera. I doubt anyone was surprised that I did not go. I just let my ears rest....as I have been taking notes during our meetings and just need some silence sometimes.
We went on a group tour of the city center (lots of churches and fountains) yesterday. It was interesting and not the type of thing I would normally do....so I have been culturized...
Ok, my break is over......until next time....

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Toilet Paper

Have you ever tried to ask for more toilet paper without using words? I have.

Well, I tried to use words...but the front desk clerk doesn't speak English.

I only know three words/phrases in Slovak: yes, good, thank you

None of those would get me toilet paper.

So, I walked around the counter, stood about 2 feet from her, squatted, and pretended to wipe between my legs.

Goodbye dignity, but I got toilet paper!!!

Slovakia #1

Hi everyone....I realize that most of you are sleeping as I type this. I am seven hours ahead of Arkansas time (CST), so I have already showered and ate breakfast this morning. I have this morning all to myself, so I thought I would catch you up on my adventures.

First, let me give kudos to all the folks who spend the day unpacking and doing laundry, only to turn around and pack a suitcase again the next day. That is one crazy life! I could probably not do it repeatedly like some of you!

My bags were packed and I was ready to go on my departure morning. I told Kale I was going to work and spending several nights there. I didn't dare tell him I would be getting on an airplane, because he wouldn't understand why he couldn't join me. I said my goodbyes and Ep drove me to the airport. The more I fly out of Little Rock, the more common it becomes to get delayed flying out of Little Rock. We were loaded in the plane and out on the tarmac when the captain informed us that Atlanta had a ground delay (too much ground traffic) and we needed to wait 20 mintues. As we approached ATL, he flew us in S-curves to put more distance between us and some other air traffic. Fun times!
In the airport, we made last minute phone calls and ate a late lunch. We then went to our assigned gate. 15 minutes before we were scheduled to take off, we wondered where everyone was. I went to check the departure board...and they had changed our gate! Thank you so much for informing us Delta! 45 minutes ago, that same board said gate 27E...and now it said 5E...without any notification being posted at 27E...lovely. We fast walked....quickly. We made it. I got to my seat and after quite an ordeal with a drunk lady who had her entire right leg in a straight splint, she got to keep my seat and her seat while I went to sit in the bulkhead row with extra legroom. SCORE!!!!! The flight attendant kept thanking me for being willing to move. He even gave me a little first class toiletry kit. Seriously, I would have begged to sit there....so I was quite happy to oblige them. (thank you God!)
We arrived in Zurich and quickly made it to our next gate because they still needed to ticket us there. We waited. They boarded the entire plane and then started worrying about passengers that had reservations but no boarding pass. Colossal FAIL Czech Air!!!! We finally got on our next plane to Prague, where we quickly deplaned and hurried to catch our flight to Kosice. We got there. Tired, but there we were. We ate lunch and then rode two hours to Kezmorak, which is where we are now.
The hotel here is nice, but they don't clean your room or give you new towels everyday. Actually, this is fine with me. I would rather them not be in my room when I am overseas. So far, our meals have been fine and its always good when the place has at least one menu in English. I ate piroghey yesterday. Its the same as gnochi, which is a dumpling filled with potato. My piroghey was served with bacon pieces on top and sour cream to eat with it. I am cheating at the moment...I am drinking the occassional sprite or coke because I get tired of water and asking for sweat tea here is pretty much just plain stupid. My breakfast this morning included cereal....dry cereal like the kind to which you add milk...but they warm the milk...so I had cereal with heated milk....different. I also had bread, yogurt, and apple juice.
My internet connection has allowed me to talk to Ep daily and my mom as well. I can also chat with them over Skype. I tried to talk to Kale, but he was a little intimidated by the headphones he has to wear to hear me. I could hear him though. Hello homesickness! I miss all of them, but I ache for him. It kills me that he doesn't understand. They keep telling him that I am at work and the morning after I left, he asked if they could come see me at work. God bless him. He loves and misses his momma. I bet he is mad at me by the time I finally come home.
We worked all day yesterday....but I finished everything I needed to do in the office here. So, today is a free day. Later, I will join the my co-workers for lunch and then we will go to Poprad for some shopping and probably dinner. Tomorrow, we return to Kosice. I hope next week is as easy and fast moving as this time so far has been. However, with so many others joining us, I doubt it will move as fast. The good news is that I am the note-taker during the meeting, so I can keep my computer open all the time...so I am hoping that we have internet connection in the meeting room.
Before I go, let me tell you about Kezmorak. I have been here before, so I was prepared for its small size and quaint atmosphere. There are about 17000 people here. Everyone seems to know everyone. The shops close by 5pm daily. Some streets are brick. Most people just walk to their destination. There is a town center building that resembles a church. I think it is a former church because it has bells...they ring at least 3 times an hour. I know this because I am less than 100 yards from them. When I have my window open and am on Skype talking to Ep, he can hear them ringing. I like bells, just not at 2am! Most people here eat out for lunch during the week, but eat dinner at home every night. When we eate dinner, we are usually joined by only a couple of other patrons. Thursday night, we were the only patrons in the entire place. The food has been good so far. My room is comfortable and I have managed not to spray my entire bathroom with the hand held shower (yet). If Ep were here with me, he would have to either squat or just get the bathroom wet when washing his head. My bed is comfortable enough that I slept 11 hours last night. Yes, really. That is the longest I have slept in....well....I don't know how long. I took an ambien to start, but that only lasts me 8 hours....the rest was on my own! I only got up because I had told the hotel staff I would arrive for breakfast at 8:30am. We have to tell them each morning what time we will come down for food the next morning. Apparently we were the only guests last night because our food was served to us on our table instea of on the buffet this morning.

Ok...I think its time to go do a little exploring on my own. A walk will do me good. I don't need to hang out in my room all morning! Later everyone!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Ready or Not

Pardon the vacation posting interuption. Let me just take this moment to announce to the world that I will be getting on multiple airplanes tomorrow for a work trip to Slovakia. I am not ready. I am only partially packed. I don't even know where my rolling carry on bag is at right now.

The work I needed to complete before leaving...won't get finished. But hey, I do have a new Dell laptop with Windows 7 to work with...so that is something.

Then there is the European ash cloud. Who knows what havoc it will bring to this trip.

You may or may not get to read about the rest of our vacation before I return home from this trip. It just depends on the quality of internet I have while traveling.

But this I know...if you put a 2 year old boy in a HUGE bathtub and fill it with bubbles, he is one happy boy. That is until you accidentally hit the jacuzzi jet button and scare the living daylights out of him...causing him to jump straight up into the air and try to hurdle your head while you desperately try to figure out what button you hit and how to turn it off. And don't expect him to get back into that tub...ever. For once, I was't the guilty party. Ep was. I walked in to find our child screaming/crying while Mema and Ep were laughing so hard that they were nearly crying...and Ep looked like he had tried to climb into the tub with his clothes on.

And on that note...I will see you when I see you....

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Key West has a hospital...and Kale has bugs in his ears (not really)

We know that Key West has a hospital. We can tell you exactly where it is and that there is a great doctor there if you have a sick kid. We know this from experience. Yes, we made an ER visit. After much searching for a local doctor who would take our insurance, we finally just called the insurance company. They gave us the name of ONE doctor in the area who would take our insurance. They said if he was unavailable, the ER would be our best bet for a $100 copay. I called the doctor...his voice mailbox was full and we had no idea when he would check the messages or be open. We packed up and headed for the ER.

I swear we walked into the ER with my child. 15 minutes later, as we went into the triage area for them to check his vitals, Kale became a very, very different child. It was like the door slammed and his alter ego appeared. And they hadn't even done anything to him. He thrashed, screamed, and tried like crazy to open the door. Yet, when they put on the O2 monitor and checked his temp in a place where nobody wants a thermometer...he was docile. As we headed back to our curtained room, the wild child reappeared. I had to chase him down at least three times. He hit me multiple times. When I say he hit me, I mean the kind of hit where he flings his arm back as far as it will go and thing lets it rip...and slammed me in the head. Seriously, I couldn't believe how he was acting. The doctor immediately clued in to what got Kale's attention. We looked for bugs in Kale's ears, nose, and mouth.

The good doctor told us what we figured was wrong...bronchitus. We went from no runny nose and no congestion to a fever, no nasal congestion, and bronchitus nearly overnight. Fun times! Kale got antibiotics, steroids, and a decongestant/antihistamine. Since then, the aggressive behavior has only intensified. The fever is gone, as are the antibiotics and steroids...but the cough still lingers. The crazy aggressive boy still lingers as well. I am hoping our sweet boy returns after the steroids leave his body...but I am fearful that the terrible twos are upon us.

Side note (just try not to laugh): We took Kale home and Mema laid down with him for a nap. He was fighting sleep. She said his eyes were closed and his breathing was regular, as though he were asleep. He suddenly sat straight up in the bed, looked at her with a serious face, and said "Mema! I have bugs in my ears!" and God love my mom...she couldn't help but laugh. She had no idea what he was talking about...and we nearly lost it trying to explain it to her while imagining him telling her that he had bugs in his ears. That kid does NOT miss a thing!

Saving, Iguana, Alcohol, and the missing swim trunks

I tried to prepare us well for the grocery/supply shopping I knew we would be doing for the beach house. I packed a small packet of coupons. We bought diapers, wipes, and groceries galore. At Walgreens, I spent $45 and $10 of that was tax. At Albertson's, we spent $253 and saved $72 before getting to that total. Hey, I had to earn my keep!

We were warned that if we saw an Iguana, we should keep our distance. They will slap their tales at you and can run pretty fast. We were thinking of a 6-8 inch type Iguana. Nope. They meant the 12-18 inch kind...and yes, they are fast. We had one in particular that seemed to live at the beach house with us. We are pretty sure he stole Ep's swim trunks. More on that in a bit...

Amy, Mom, and I were sitting at the kitchen table and I made a comment about going to get some alcohol. My mom pipes up that "there is some under my bathroom sink!" and that is when Amy and I nearly fell out of our chairs. I asked if she really wanted me to drink the stuff under her sink. Then mom nearly fell out of her chair. Then we revisited Amy's "no passing gas in the kitchen" rule...

Ep hung his swim trunks out to dry on our bedroom balcony. No big deal. I had hung my swimsuit out there already and it did just find drying out. Apparently, his shorts weren't content with where he hung them. They flat out disapeared. We searched all over for them. We decided the Iguana stole them or that the wind blew them into the ocean. Good thing he packed a second pair! Yet, on the morning we were leaving, Chris found the missing trunks on the balcony. I guess the Iguana didn't like them that well after all....

Harvey Who?

There are some constant's about my dad. In recent years, those constants have included a cowboy hat and cowboy boots. I can count on my fingers/toes the number of times in my life that I remember seeing my dad in a t-shirt, shorts, and tennis shoes. Add one time to that number. My brother and I had to work hard to keep our chins from hitting the floor, but we were really happy to see my dad break away from his "normal" and enjoy the beach house life. He did get sunburned a bit on his legs. On our last full day at the house, he also got into the pool! For a guy who isn't a fan of the pool...this was a big deal and we are happy he joined us out there!

Things I already left out...

Here is the stuff that I already forgot to include in the previos posts...



When we arrived in Key West, we were bagless. Our suitcases didn't arrive until later that night. Except for one that is...and it was having such a good time in Tampa that it decided to wait until the next morning to show up. Of course, that was the suitcase that belonged to Amy...the one who packed all of Chris' tolietries and her maternity clothing/swimsuit.



Kale popped a fever at 1:30am during the night before we left. As if that night hadn't already been dramatic enough. Motrin helped...and we kept him medicated for a few days...more on that later.



I am pretty sure that Alamo car rental lost our business forever. Throughout the day, Ep constantly kept in contact with them regarding our arrival time in Key West. When he told them we would arrive around 6:15pm, they swore they would stay past their 6pm closing time. They didn't. Nor would they honor our rental reservation/price the next morning. Customer Service FAIL Alamo. One of their competitors gained our business and the next day when we extended our one day rental, they even gave us complimentary upgrades!

Pics of getting there...

Waiting in Little Rock...
In his seat and not sure what is about to happen....The crew in the turbo prop...thats Ep's arm on the left...Very tired and feverish boy...
The whirl of the turboprop put him to sleep...

Getting There....

The storms didn't stop until after 3am. I know this, because I was awake until then. We all got out of bed at 4am and had left the driveway by 5am. We headed to the airport knowing that our plane wasn't there. We hoped they had worked out a solution. We arrived at the airport, unloaded, checked in, and were told that our flight was scheduled to leave around 10am or so. It was currently 5:30am. We couldn't leave, for fear that they would change our flights again and put us on an earlier flight (it left at 9:30am). We wasted time, ate breakfast, watched planes (Kale), took naps (Chris and Amy), ran all over the airport (Kale), and were quite ready to leave when our plane finally arrived.

That is where the sprint began. Its all a blur. Kale had a fever. The one highlight was when Kale announced to several rows that "Mema, we go UP!!!!" at the top of his lungs. Pretty much everyone cracked up. Yet, Kale was cranky, despite a nap. Lovely. I sat between a nice man and rude man on the way to Tampa. Chris gave up his seat next to Amy so that a mom and child could sit together. We got a personal escort in Tampa and they pretty much held the plane for us. Pretty sure that I am forgetting a bunch here...

The flight from Tampa to Key West was on a 19 seater turboprop. Its the kind where there is no door to the cockpit, so you can see all the instruments. There is also no bathroom on board. Kale spent part of the flight sleeping in his seat across the aisle from me...he fell asleep looking down the row into the cockpit. He spend the rest of the flight in my lap and slept through the landing. Its disorienting to take off from a rainy aftermath of tornados and land on an island surrounded by blue and green water. We were happily (yet exhausted) disoriented. We went to our rent house...and oh my oh my oh my.

The rent house was a three story, five bedroom, 3 1/2 bath oasisi. We had our own pool, multiple decks, floating dock, huge straw covered tiki hut, hammock, bikes, fishing gear, kayaks, and just about everything we could want. However, the house didn't come furnished with food, so we headed out for dinner. Everyone said they didn't care, so I chose the first place that seemed reasonable at 9pm on a Saturday night. Let me just tell you, if you ever go to Key West...do NOT visit the IHOP. It was AWFUL! It took forever to get our food. Did I mention that we had a very tired/cranky/sick toddler and also a hungry pregnant woman with us?

After dinner, one car took Kale to the house. Chris, Amy, and I went to get breakfast items from the grocery store. By the time we got back to the house, we were all ready for bed. I crashed...and did I ever sleep. I was so tired that it wasn't until the next day around 10am when I discovered that one of my favorite paintings was hanging in our room. Wow. Yeah, I was that tired.

But hey, we got there!

Before we even left....

Wow. Our vacation started out dramatic before we even went anywhere. Our plan was to hop on a plane at 6:30am and be in Key West by 4pm. We still managed to get there around 6:30pm, which was pretty much a miracle.

Rewind to the Friday night before our departure. Mother Nature was in quite a mood. Apparently, it was time to make a mess...tornado style. We were enjoying dinner out with Chris and Amy when my phone buzzed with an email. For whatever reason, I checked it. Good thing I did. Tornado warning for our county. Since the entire restaraunt seemed oblivious to the fact that it was even storming, I asked Ep to go outside and check things out. In the meantime, I asked for the check in case we needed to make a hasty escape. He eventually came back to the table and said we needed to leave right then. While I paid, the rest of the crew got loaded in the truck. I had to drive and Ep warned me there might be some really heavy rain, but that it was best we go home than stay where we were. That was all he would tell me. Nervous anyone? I was. Nothing like driving into a storm and not knowing what I am running into/from. By the time I took the exit by our house, we had the radio on with the weather information. I was getting texts asking if we were taking cover and if we were ok. The weathermen were saying "if you live/are on xxxx street, you need to be taking cover. We were on those streets. We got about a mile from our house and the rain really slacked. I hoped that the main storm had gone south of us and we were just on the fringe of it. Then the rain stopped and I started praying out loud. I told God that we were almost there and please oh please let us get there safely. He heard my prayer. We will never know how close we actually came to being in the tornado. It left a swath of destruction about 3 miles from our house and also on the same exact offramp where we exited the interstate. When we got home, we went straight under the house...except for Ep, who chose to go stand on the front porch. He said our neighbors trees (tall, tall pines) were touching housetops and when the wind shifted and swirled, he came under the house as well. I was too scared at that point to even gripe at him for being outside in that weather! The place where we ate dinner was in the direct path of the storm and sat on a hilltop...which is why Ep decided we should leave. To our knowledge, they didn't have any damage but had a very, very, very close call.

Then there was the arrival of my parents. They had gone to a surprise birthday party for my uncle. I had to call them and tell them to stop or they would drive staight into the path of a confirmed tornado. When they were able to start driving again, traffice was pretty much halted everywhere because of debri on roadways. They weren't able to exit because that same exact exit we had used was now blocked off due to damage. They took the next exit and I was giving them directions over the phone when the tornado sirens went off again and a possible tornado was once again headed our way. That is when they came across the point where they had to turn around because of downed power lines. Eventually, they made it to our house.

Thats when we found out that the airport was sending planes to other airports because of debri on the runway...and the plane that was supposed to take us to Houston got re-routed to another airport...where it stayed all night....I worked for an hour with Contintal airlines trying to figure out our best option. The best thing they could come up with was to get us to Tampa, where we would spend the night...and fly to Key West on Sunday. I declined and told her we would just take our chances....

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Note to self...

Note to self: don't forget to blog about that hilarious time that we found out that Kale can levitate after Ep accidentally turned on the tub jets. There were bubbles and a boy going everywhere...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

The List

Here is a list....I will have to fill in the gap with the stories later....and yes, each of them represents its own story

  • Tornados and no rain and Ep is under the house
  • The Fever
  • Delayed Flight and RUN!
  • MEMA, WE GO UP!!!
  • No Bags and then All Bags But One
  • Alamo x2
  • Really, this is our house? Look Ep, look how big it is!
  • IHOP aka never again
  • I'm going to die before I get this vacation started!
  • Harvey shows up in a t-shirt and shorts! No cowboy boots or hat! Whoaaaa.
  • The great rental car swap
  • Marcia saves $130 at Walgreens and $72 at Albertsons
  • Starry Night
  • Iguana
  • I need to get some alcohol. There is alcohol under the sink. No, the drinking kind.
  • Don't pass gas in the kitchen
  • Where are Ep's swim trunks? The iguana is using them for cover or a fish is wearing them.
  • Only option: ER
  • I WANT TO SEE THE HECICACA (helicopter)
  • WHO is this child? No really, who is he? I don't know him!
  • I make the lobsters look pale
  • Kale gets in the pool...kayak style
  • That snake is headed for the garage!
  • Quote from Chris: My kid will be so well behaved that everyone will think he is Amish!
  • The return of Ep's swim trunks
  • Look, there is the airport to our direct left...(insert 90 degree bank turn) and what are those beeping noises...oh look, we just landed!
  • This flight is going to Albuquerque and its 22 degrees!
  • ...and the other 12 things I have already forgotten...