Thankfully, we made it home

The Qs are completely BEAT. Our trip to Indiana was way too short. Cramming visits to that many folks in that short of a time span is impossible and a guaranteed way to tick off the folks we couldn't squeeze in. Sorry. Only so much time to fit you all in!

Thursday morning we set out at a pretty decent hour and made it to my Dad's house around 5:00--about an hour late for the turkey. We gulped down the "leftovers" quickly and hung out with my Dad, Ruth, my brother Robert, and his wife Rae. Of course, upon first entering the front door, I heard a pretty loud "meow!" coming from the bushes. Ruth and I went out and investigated, and finally tracked down the teeny, tiny little kitten who was making all the noise. The dear little thing had a hurt leg and gunky eyes (he almost looked like he had been burned somehow), and was obviously starving. Yes, indeed, my father has a NEW KITTY in his now THREE-CAT household.

I'd been thinking of maybe ignoring my allergies and getting John a new cat, so I probably would have taken this one back home with us if my poor son didn't have a major allergy attack while staying at my Dad's house. I took my pills too late, so I was sniveling right along with him--and...it was not pretty. My poor boy just could not breathe, and then he started coughing which kept him up all night. (And I lost my voice while singing Beatle's Rock Band and had to switch to guitar/bass!) Rough night without a lot of sleep, and I actually had to get my inhaler out (thank goodness I packed it!).

Friday morning we all headed to the Big Town (tee-hee) to visit with my Grandmother and get some lunch. On the way to Grandma's house, the ever-sniveling Keith barfed his breakfast up all over the car mat and his shoes (I gave him a bag when he first started saying he didn't feel well, but he "missed"). Keith felt fine while at Grandma's house, but he managed to puke up the sprite he drank there just as we were walking into Pizza Hut. Good one, kid. Thankfully, that was the last of the puking for the day. No fever....I'm pretty sure it was from all that post-nasal drip from his allergy attack. (Ewwwwww......)

Our only Black Friday shopping took place after lunch when we went to the local Wally World to buy Keith a new jacket since he had gotten a little bit of puke on his sweater.... I kept looking, but I didn't see anyone I recognized! All my old high school friends must have gone out of town for their shopping! LOL

After that, we headed to Fort Wayne and caught up with Jeff and Paula and little Josh and Dave and JJ and their three boys. It was a crazy amount of kids all running back and forth through the house playing "puppies." And little Josh running in the back, trying to keep up. Mary was a bit too old for such nonsense and spent most of the evening watching Wall-E. Keith was still having allergy issues and didn't run around quite as much as all the other kids.

Keith was so miserable and over the top about this allergy attack, that I ended up laying down in bed with him that night. Dave set up the vaporizer for us. After some salt adjustment (um....are the lights SUPPOSED to flicker like that?), we both were breathing a little better. I was too exhausted to try to sit up talking with Dave and JJ--and then John came up a while later to tell me that they had both fallen asleep, anyway. We iz old!

Saturday morning we caught up with John's sisters and then went out to lunch with Aunt Lynnie and Aunt Michele. We left right from lunch to get home. After a dinner break at our favorite Erie restaurant (Steak n Shake! yeah!), we got home around 10:00. And for once, all three kids actually slept a bit for the trip!

Sunday the kids didn't get out of bed until 9:30 (Keith, normally the early riser, was up all night coughing again). We all just lay around the house doing absolutely NOTHING until finally I decided to maybe do a "smidge"of housework and laundry after lunch.... And John eventually started getting all the Christmas decorations out.

Izzy was whining after her bath last night that she did NOT want to go back to school this morning. Kid, I hear ya!