We drove up to Virginia Beach Saturday. We left at about four in the morning. We got there t about ten. J. drives fast. The boys were pretty good. They were a little silly sometimes, as you can see. We spent the day hanging out with my dad, and the Suttons, some family friends. They had lived down the street from my grandparents when all their kids were little. My dad and their oldest son were in boy scouts together. They consider me to be just another grandchild, and T. and D. are special because they're the first "great-grandchildren."
Sunday we drove up to Maryland to visit my aunt and uncle. They live just down the road from Assateague Island. We decided to drive down, and we kept telling T. he was going to see the ponies. We drove through the whole park and didn't see one pony. On the way out, T. was crying and very upset that he didn't get to see any ponies. Finally, through a clearing, I saw three. We pulled over on the side of the road, and took the boys to see them. T. was thrilled. D. had a hard time understanding that he wasn't allowed to touch them.
On the way back, all three of my little boys fell asleep in the back seat.
Monday, we took the boys to Fort Story beach. T. didn't really want to get in the water, so he and J. built sand castles. D., however, loved the water. He sat on a boogie board, and I pulled him out into the water. He loved it when the waves hit him in the face. He was very upset when we made him get out. After the beach, my dad let the boys play in the grass, and J. and I went up the old Cape Henry lighthouse. J. had never been up a lighthouse before. I remember it being alot taller, but then I used to be alot smaller.
Tuesday, we took the boys to the Norfolk Zoo and Nauticus. T. loved seeing all the animals. D. was mad because he had to ride in the stroller. T. could name most of the animals. Some of them were very close. T. has been calling ducks, "quacks." They have alot of ducks at the zoo (not as part of an exhibit, just everywhere). T. finally started calling them ducks. What do ducks say now? "Duck, duck." We're still working on it. T. loved the lions (which were actually tigers, all the real lions were hiding). In the barnyard animal area, T. and D. got to feed the goats. They had a blast. Then at Nauticus, they got to feed the koi they have outside. D. kept trying to feed the poor pigeon that was nearby. It had hurt it's leg, and couldn't walk properly. It was pretty good at flying away from D., though. J. had alot of fun on the Wisconsin. They had a room open with some hands on stuff for the kids. D. loved the touch tanks. He touched a starfish and a horseshoe crab. We were going to let T. touch the sharks, but he wasn't tall enough.
Wednesday, we went to Busch Gardens. T. and D. had a blast, and so did I. It's been a long time since I could ride that many roller coasters. We got in for free with the "Here's to Heroes" deal. My dad has a season pass, so we also got 10% off of all the food, and souvenirs. T. and D. each had ten dollars from their penny banks to spend. T. got a wolf (with a little extra money from grandpa), and D. got a teddy bear. T., D., and I rode the Katapult together. I was worried it might be too much for D., but they both laughed and "woohooed" the whole time. We saw a couple shows. J. wanted to see the Castle O' Sullivan show. It scared T. a little, but he was okay. We also took him to see the 4-D show, Pirates. T. thought it was the coolest thing, but D. wouldn't wear his glasses. Now J. doesn't ride rides. His parents took him on one that scared the hell out of him when he was little, and he is terrified of most of them. He wasn't sure he wanted to see Pirates. We convinced him it was fine, it didn't move, but in the end, he was ducking when he thought water would shoot out. In the end, he did enjoy it. We also saw the Pet Shenanigans show, which was just hilarious. T. and D. laughed the whole time. They had the cutest breed of cat, called munchkin cats. One of the best things about it was that every single animal (and there were quite a few) were rescued, from shelters, bad homes, ect.
Why are there only pictures for the first day? The disk with all the other pcitures were still in the car when it was towed. Thursday, we left again at four in the morning. We stopped at Concord Mills, to shop a little bit. I got some new shorts at the Old Navy outlet. J. wanted a new video game, so we stopped at EB Games on the way home. I had been sleeping, and J. woke me. He suggested I go get lunch while he got his game. So I did. Boy was that a mistake. I shouldn't have driven right after waking up. On the way back, I didn't see the car in front of me stop, and I hit it. No one was hurt, but our car wouldn't start and had to be towed away. All I can say is thank God, Goddess, Allah, Buddha, Vishnu, and any other powers that be for car seats! D. was very sweet when I got him out. I was half a step away from hysterics, and I was crying my eyes out. I picked up D., and he hugged me, patted my back, and said, "Iy's okay, Mommy. It's okay." The same thing I tell him when he cries. Now we have to find the money to fix the car. I was hysterical for a while, and very sensitive about it, but I'm getting better. J. was as sweet as he could be. He made me eat and drink when I didn't want to. Otherwise, I probably would've gone two or three days without eating. I'm better now. It's no longer playing on a continuous loop in my head.
Friday, I found out Saturday would be my last day at work. I understand why. The new owner said that maybe when business starts to pick back up in the fall, she may hire me back. She did say that I could still hang models in the shop for a year and get the framing free. So Saturday, I brought in The Time I Spend Stitching. The new owner wasn't there, but the old owner and the other girl who was working loved it! This was especially good news since the old owner hadn't really liked the choices I made when I picked them out. It was hard to find the right frame, but we found one. Only one. Saturday was hard, but J. was sweet and held me while I cried for a minute or two. For a couple days, it seemed that everything in my life was crashing around me. I have to tell you, I was extra careful when Iturned on the stove to make dinner. The last thing I needed was to burn the house down, too. I'm not sure why, but I feel better today. I watched Reba last night, and the theme song (I've always thought it was a pretty song) really spoke to me.
"My roots are planted in the past,
though my life is changing fast.
Who I am is who I wanna be."
I'm a survivor. I can live through this. I've lived through alot worse. Now I've got J. to help me.
I didn't get alot of stitching done while we were in Virginia. I did finish the wing before we left, and ripped out one of the lines on the wing that I had messed up on. Some small child (I won't mention that it was D.), stole my blending filament, and I couldn't find it to restitch it. My sister found it when she came over to feed the animals and set it on the entertainment center. So I redid that last night. I have been working on the over one section. It's coming along slowly, but surely. It's driving me mad. It looks like I've hardly done anything, when in reality, I've got over four hundred stitches done. Over one on 32 ct. isn't as bad as I expected it to be, but when I do Merlin And Aurthur, I will definately be using a 28 or 25 ct.
I was going to put up pictures of Dragonwings, but Blogger won't let me. Plus, D. just brought me what used to be a one third full bottle of baby oil, so now I have to find the rest of it. Yay. I love my kids. I hate that I have to remind myself of that, but I do love my kids. I'll try again with te pictures tomorrow!
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