Sweet Home Alabama

I’ve spent the day back and forth between my computer and packing for the kids and me to leave for Alabama.  We were supposed to leave today but mommy had a little too much fun Saturday night and decided to sleep in today.  Don’t judge me!

Last night I met up with some friends from the Children’s Cancer Center at a party to celebrate Warren Sapp’s retirement and the ticket sales were benefiting the CCC.  If that’s not a reason to go out and have cocktails, what is?   The party itself wasn’t that exciting, the most interesting part of that being when we mistook Warrick Dunn for Warren Sapp…because obviously we are HUGE football fans, right??  Still, we managed to have a lot of fun because we cancer parents don’t get out a lot but when we do WATCH OUT!  The party was held at the Hard Rock Casino and I’m proud to say I played the slots and won! Yessir, I put in $20 and came back with $20.30 cents.  Pretty proud of THAT.

But after the night had ended and I was on my way home, I realized I was tired…not like tired tired but EXHAUSTED to the point of I-want-to-just-lay-my-head-on-the-dashboard-and-drool-til-sunlight tired.  I am old! I am not meant to be up that late anymore. I have to suffer through enough late nights with Peyton’s neediness and I should really be in bed, sleeping at 2:30 AM if I have a choice in the matter. This thought was quickly reinforced by the fact that when the neighbor’s college age son started his thumping, basing, hard beating music that darn near shakes the windows of my house, I opened the door and yelled, “Turn that crap down!”

Then had to sit down for a minute because the rush of grown up adrenaline had made me a little dizzy.

Tomorrow we head for the great north….Alabama.  We’re taking computer equipment, the Wii and stuff to keep us busy in case the Wal-mart closes down while we’re there.  Considering that we went for a cookout and there was gunplay involved, I’m eager to see what the 4^th of July is going to bring about.  I’m thinking about investing in Kevlar jackets for the kids.  “No, honey, wear the ugly jacket. It’s ok, all the K4 kids in Alabama wear them!”

We are headed to Calloway Gardens for the actual 4^th weekend, courtesy of Peter’s wonderful mother, Sharon.  Thank you for that, I would bet money there’s going to be a Starbucks somewhere around there.  It looks like a gorgeous time with pools, gardens, and a butterfly house.

Speaking of…cleaning is bad. VERY bad.  Trish is the lady who comes and makes sure our house isn’t condemned because mommy’s a bad housekeeper.  The woman is a cleaning dynamo, she gets more done in 2 hours than I could finish in a day.  About the time my M-I-L starts to worry about the kids safety, she sends Trish over to dig us out.

Trish came over this past week and worked her mighty mojo and in the process, put the butterfly container on a shelf.  But she didn’t put it back where it was supposed to be…which was the table….because if we don’t see them, we might forget to feed them.  Are you feeling where this is going?

She came on Wednesday and Rachael remembered yesterday that we were butterfly caretakers.  Oh yes. Two of the them were laying on the bottom and the other three were flying around weakly.  We killed the butterflies.

I can almost see the t-shirt now “Every time Anissa cleans, a butterfly dies.”

So, today we released the final 3 butterflies into nature, where hopefully they’ll be safer in the wild than in our house.  Each child held one of the remaining butterflies in their hands and we said a prayer for our sweet friends.  Then Delaney Sierra, Mathew and Hannah Kaylie were all let go.  We were supposed to have 5 butterflies, so they got middle names too.

I have to tell you that Peyton was not getting into the spirit of the moment because she was all, “I want to name mine Polly!”

“No, Peyton, that one is Delaney Sierra. Remember? For our friends?”

“They have butterflies in Heaven, I’m calling mine Polly.”

Well, alrighty then.

f.r.o.G.

–Anissa