Parental visit 2.0

The parents and nephew arrived Friday evening. I made fancy burgers by combining a few recipes I found throughout the week. Garlic toast replaced normal buns, avocado and pineapple salsa were used and we topped w/ either provolone or pepper jack cheese. They are gone, so I think it was ok. SCORE! In my 36 years of life; I’ve probably made food for my parents about 10 times.

I am not a cook.

I do not like to cook.

You can’t go wrong w/ chocolate and strawberries right? well, Jenn found a way. The chocolate filling was made of melted baking chips.. which are hard.. so they are super hard to eat once they are cooled. Not really a SCORE!

Friday evening/night we stuffed ourselves and had some drinks and went to bed.

Saturday was boat day. Boat - 26 foot boat w/ a cabin, 2 tables, Bimini top, radio, refrigerator, swim deck, and fit for tubing. Zach has never been tubing, so this was a big plan!! We were ALL looking forward to this A LOT!

The entire family was on board and ready to go! Genesis was driving us towards the end of the no-wake zone while I organized the food and settled the bags in the cabin. We were probably pushing 15-20 mph anxiously looking ahead at the open river and waiting not so patiently to bust through the no wake zone, and finally feel the speed and wind of the fresh, not humid summer air. A few minutes into the ride… the ear piercing alarms went off. And the gauges clearly displayed our malfunction. The boat was overheating. BUMMER!

The marina was quick to tow us in and even provided us w/ a replacement boat to finish (start) our day. Somehow, they assumed a middle console fishing boat would do. We weren’t planning on fishing, no fridge, no bathroom, no way to tube, no shade, no radio. We improvised yes, I think they had a good time…except for getting in and out of the boat to swim. The veggies and dip were warm, and I think everyone got a little burned.

While it was nice for them to offer a replacement, I’m not pleased that our plans were ruined and we were not able to have an enjoyable time on the river.

 Status of forces: Dad, currently on his 2^nd hip replacement and depends on a cane to get around.

Mom: sporting 2 replacement knees.. (this is relatively recent)

Z: typical 4 year old who really really really wanted to try tubing

N: typical 2 year old who really really needed to expend energy by swimming and is the whitest white girl I’ve ever seen.

G: 14 yr old chick who is totally bored w/ a fishing boat

Me: totally bummed I wasn’t able to provide a day on the boat w/ my parents. Genesis and I are out almost every weekend.. it just seemed the plans were doomed.

Sunday: church day. We were all very excited to attend church this past Sunday and watch a video from G’s week away at Liberty University for camp. It was great! The kids spoke about how camp affected and touched them and shared a little of what they learned while they were away. I have very fond memories of church camp as a little girl and I hope Genesis will too.

Sunday eats: Dad cooked a roast and potatoes! They woke up early this morning and left. I already miss them! We had a wonderful time despite the bummer boat plans.

Have a great week!

A stormy visit -

I have looked forward to Anthony’s visit for a LONG time.

A little background: Anthony is my 20 year old nephew. He was a surprise to our family when he was born. Literally, a surprise, we had NO idea he was on his way, thanks sister! He was not my favorite little guy that’s for sure; he totally interrupted my Friday night plans in September back in 1991. When he came home from the hospital I was even less impressed.. He cried – A LOT. He needed fed, changed, and took A LOT of naps upstairs near MY bedroom and I was instructed, no ordered to be QUIET, sometimes I wasn’t even allowed upstairs. My father would YELL at me if the house phone rang. And this was before called ID and cell phones. I was a sophomore in high school and I decided I would spend every waking moment that I was not at school, either with my asshole boyfriend or at work, Where I was a hot ass waitress at Eat n Park and was able to meet and flirt talk to the Washington City police officers. This by the way was totally FINE w/ me. As long as I was making money, good grades, and meeting people who wore uniforms.. Police uniforms, not waitress uniforms, lull!

Back to the Anthony story, he quickly became MY buddy. My buddy forever!! When I went to college I was devastated to leave him. I only went to Pittsburgh, but I came home often and brought him to school w/ me too. After the 1^st year at college, I decided it wasn’t for me and joined the Air Force. This was BY FAR the hardest day of my life, to leave my buddy. I visited from Mississippi AS SOON AS I could get away from the base and catch a plane to PA to pick up my car. I hugged that little rascal tight that day. It was the longest I’ve been away from him.

So, he’s obviously a HUGE part of my life. Fast forward many years. Anthony is just like me. Hard headed and MUST learn for himself as opposed to listening or heading ANY advice from ANYONE.

He ended up marrying a 40 year old WHORE last year. Reference my post here http://ionlysmokewhenidrink.blogspot.com/2012/03/letter-to-my-foolish-dear-nephew-and-my.html

ITYS Anthony.  I will NEVER tell him that (that stands for “I told you so”) but I’ll sure as hell blog about it! He never reads this shit anyhow. They are over – He finally realized that paying her house payment, the bills, and whatever else, was really not worth putting up w/ her craziness. I have so much to say about this but the point of this post is the visit.

I was totally looking forward to his visit 2 weeks ago and planned to go boating w/ him and introducing him to my fellow boater friends and stuff. Well, the ass decided that he was going to wait a week. Last weekend he finally came down.

He and Frank arrived late Thursday night. We decided to take the boat out for just a few hours on Friday to swim and hang out because it was like 110 degrees. The big boat day and fireworks and night was planned for Saturday.

It stormed Friday night, we lost power for 6 days…. this was the visit from HELL, literally it was like HELL because no electricity, means no water for us because we have a well. And with temps in the 110 range each day… it was similar to being in hell. 

We stayed in a hotel for a few days, no boat, just a hotel pool, lots of eating out and lots of drinking. HELL. 

Dominion Power - I stalked them on Twitter until I found them in my area...

The boys went home Monday afternoon... 

The power came back on Tuesday night. 

We are planning a do-over. 

I'm so happy for Anthony. He learned his lesson the hard way and he totally reminds me of myself. I just hope and pray he ends up w/ someone deserving and supportive, and HIS AGE!