Home Again

We had a family-ish thing planned for Sunday, the day that E and I were planning to leave from Texas to drive back to Louisiana. My family, how I love them so (see previous post), has a quirk: we can never plan anything anything anything and if we do, things always always always get flip-flopped around and changed and noone can ever stick to fucking plan.

:: ahem ::

This more than slightly annoying family trait turned brunch at my mom's into lasagna and salad later in the day into a picnic at my grandpa's assisted living center and back to brunch at my mom's again. Bah! I'm pretty big on consistency, communication and sticking to plan. Or, at least changing things ahead of time rather than at the last minute. I was going to leave Texas by 11 a.m., then 1 in the afternoon, and then by 4 at the veeeeeeery latest. It's a miracle that we even got together at all. After all was said and done, I totally did not feel like dealing with the 8 hour drive I had ahead of me. Apparently Ethan didn't get the memo on daylight savings time. I guess he didn't realize that it would have been perfectly acceptable to sleep an extra hour like the rest of us, he did not know that mommy had been drinking wine and wine and more wine with her sisters the night before. Or, maybe he totally knew that waking up extra early would get me where it hurts and thought it would be fun to watch me squirm. Either way, he woke up at 5:30 a.m. I forgot to bump my clock back an hour so I thought it was 6:30. As I groggily fed Ethan and got online I realized that oh shit, it's only 5:30 in the fuckety-fucking morning. Suddenly I felt even more tired.

ANYWAY! Much to my husband's dismay I decided to stay an extra night and left Texas at 9 a.m. Monday morning. Miracle the Second: Ethan was just as good on the car ride home as he had been on the way there. Truly amazing! I was honestly expecting the worst, the very worst, because noone likes the ride home and noone likes to be in the bloody car for nearly 8 hours. Being in the car for 8 hours on the way home is no fun, is what I'm saying. Just further proof that Ethan is brilliant and amazing. Keeping your cool during long road trips is only something that genius babies do, right? Yeah, thought so.

So, we are home now. Here are some tasty tidbits about our trip:

• I ate at Cantina Laredo twice during my week in Texas.
• My mom bought my favorite cheapo boxed merlot, and we finished the entire 5-liter box in less than a week. Perhaps I share too much?
• Ethan discovered peanut butter. At the time he had a cold, and snot + peanut butter is the absolute hardest and most disgusting thing to clean from a fussy baby's face. Period.
• I made this squash soup. Deeeeeeelicious. Also, great with wine. (But what isn't?)
• I went on exactly eighteen trillion walks with Ethan.
• While I was in Texas and my husband was sleeping soundly in our bed in Louisiana, our little wooden house was struck by a tornado. For real. It tore a 12 foot hole in our roof and broke our kitchen window. Everything is ok, it could have been soooo much worse, but note to husband: ALWAYS preface "our house was hit by a tornado" with "don't worry" or "everything is okay, but...". Calling me and saying "Hi, at 4 a.m. this morning our house was hit by a tornado" and then pausing for some twisted added effect is not cool.
• On Tuesday when I went to start my car to go visit my grandpa it would not start. I was certain that the problem was the starter, my husband had just put in a new starter, surely he did it wrong. Everyone told me to jump start my car, just to see if the battery was the problem, but nooooo. It was the starter! Not the battery! Because I am so obviously a mechanic! Roadside assistance came to my mom's house and jumped my car. It started. I not only feel like an ass, I have thoroughly proved that I actually am an ass. It's true.

Anyway, it was an awesome trip and I had a really great time with everyone. I have some amazing pictures that I took on the way home. A few of me DRIVING (um, yeah), some of E in his carseat, and lots of pictures of trees. Trees. More trees. Look to the left, trees! Look to the right: more trees. The entire way home. So, I'll save those little gems for another time, because I have already spoiled you all with lots of mindless droning, on and on and on... and ooooon. Will it ever end?