All sorts of screwed up

This summer, while Nick was deployed, Nick's parents let us know they'd be going up to WI to surprise Nick's grandparents for Thanksgiving.  Family was coming in from all over the country and Nick's parents told the grandparents they couldn't show, just to surprise them.  After Nick returned, he and his cousin started talking about how cool it would be if he could come up there.  He asked me if it was okay if he went up and surprised both the grandparents and his parents.  I was okay with this, I was planning on taking the kids to LA to spend time with Andrea.

Well, about a month ago, Andrea lets me know her and her husband are getting a divorce.  No big deal though, they were splitting the time with the house and the kids and I'd still be able to bring the kids.  It would be her week for the house and he wouldn't have a say in what went on while she was there.

Last week, I get an IM from Andrea, telling me the week is off, her husband is being a jerk and has decided that he's not leaving this week and he doesn't want her to have company.  I asked her if she'd come here and she said she'd have to see what was going on.

Saturday, Nick left for his grandparents.  He met his cousin, aunt and uncle at the airport in Chicago and drove to WI from there.  He surprised his grandmother and grandfather, nearly making his grandmother cry.  He managed to trick his grandmother into not calling his parents, to keep him from blowing his cover that he was up there already.  Back here, we've been working under the excuse that Nick has to work for an inspection that's coming up at and has to stay really late.  So my in-laws don't call at all.

Today, I get an IM from Andrea telling me that she's got a job up in TN, where she's moving to, and that she can't come this week.  Which totally blows.  I'm working on plans for the kids and I for thanksgiving because none of our family will be in town.  

And now, Nick's aunt gets a call from his mother.  Nick's other grandmother is in the hospital with chest pains.  Nick's parents blow their surprise to the rest of the family.  Then Nick gets on the phone and blows his part of the surprise to his parents.  

So, all the money that's been spent to get family together that hasn't seen each other in 6 years might go to waste and Nick's grandmother is in the hospital.  Everyone is stressed out and worried and people might not get to spend the holiday together.

I think this is my shitty luck.  Me being in the family has somehow screwed up their luck.  I'm hoping that his grandmother is doing well enough by Wednesday so that the in-laws can go up to WI and they can all get together like they planned.

two weeks worth...

I think it's been about two weeks since I've been able to update.  I've only been able to spend a few moments at a time online, so writing out all that has happened since my last one has been hard to even think about doing.  Because this is going to be pretty long, I'll leave out the photos.  I'll try and make a photo entry sometime this week and add all the photos, but for now, photo free.

Nick came home on the 16th.  It was really weird compared to his last homecoming, which was 5000 people on a ship with thier families meeting them on the pier.  Here, it was 20 people with their families meeting them at a hanger. Very anti-climatic.  No bands, no screaming throngs of people, no media, nothing.  But it was nice in the fact that it only took one hour to get there, collect Nick and get his bags loaded in the car.  I think for his last homecoming, we were on the pier for hours.  I took Zuri with me to pick him up, but left Aaron at school.  I wanted Nick's coming home to be a surprise to him.  Zuri was a little hesitant and tried to hide from him, she's seen him on webcam and heard his voice, but the connection that 'this is daddy' wasn't being made.  We went and picked Aaron up from school and all he could do was giggle and say 'That's my daddy,' over and over again.  He was super excited to see Nick and wouldn't leave him alone the rest of the night.

Wednesday through Friday was spent at home, hanging out and working on unpacking.  Also, we had to pack for the weekend that Nick and I planned to spend alone without kids.

Friday, we went up to San Antonio after Aaron got out of school.  Nick's parents took us out to dinner for Mexican food and Nick shared stories from the past 6 months.  After dinner, Nick and I went downtown to stay the weekend without the kids.

Saturday Morning, we went to San Marcus to the outlets for shopping.  We bought some things for the kids, some things for me and Nick some sunglasses.  I really love the outlets because I was getting normally expensive things for very cheap.  Nick even bought me a bracelet that was 70% off retail as a gift, it's flowers and pink and I have a thing for pink and flowers.  That night, we went out for sushi at a sushi bar downtown called Sushi Zushi.  They'd won 'best of the best' 6 years in a row, so we were expecting it to be awesome, but it wasn't even good.  We went home pretty disappointed in our food, our service and the atmosphere.  the only thing that the restaurant had going for it was they wore cool shirts with funky sayings on them.

Sunday, we went to Six Flags Fiesta Texas.  I'm terrified of heights, so roller coasters get my blood going.  I actually did really well on the coasters, better than usual (no threatening to vomit or calling for my mommy) but the drop ride (Slingshot) caused me to threaten Nick with bodily harm if we ever did it again.  Not cool.  They had different themed areas through out the park and one was 'The Boardwalk' where they had the older rides like the ferris wheel.  We rode one ride called 'Frisbee' and both of us nearly threw up.  Not good considering we were in a giant circle, spinning around; the vomit would have landed on us, or the poor kids sitting across from us.

After we got back from the park, we went to Mi Tierra, the best Mexican food I've ever had and I've had a LOT of Mexican food.  It's world famous and according to our waiter, Bette Midler, Lyle Lovett, Carlos Santana and George Lopez have all eaten there.  They also have awesome margaritas.  I had a large strawberry, a 'swirl' and a prickly pear, all of which were insanely good.  I think it's hard to decide which was the best part, the atmosphere, the waitstaff, the roaming mariachi bands, the food or the drinks.  It was all great and we plan on going back.

Monday, we went and picked the kids up and came back home.  We spent the rest of the week chilling at home, doing some shopping and just enjoying being a family again.

I also made a new friend this past week.  Aaron's schoolmate's mom and I got to talking outside of the school on Thursday.  I was wearing my gym clothes and said something about going to work out and next thing I knew, we were at the gym together, laughing at each other.  She got a little dizzy and we spent about an hour or so in the bathroom talking about ourselves and our families.  We made plans and got together again on Friday at the gym.  We did my first class together, Body Pump and even though I tipped over and broke a nail, it was still a lot of fun.  We left the class extremely sore but working out plans for the next week on what we'd do together.

Friday night it was back to San Antonio.  We went out to Mexican for dinner again with Nick's parents.  I told you, we eat a lot of Mexican food down here.

Saturday, we went to Sea World.  Nick, his parents, the kids and I.  Aaron was disappointed because he wasn't big enough to ride any rides, but he did have fun at the kids net area and loved sliding down the slides after climbing to the top.  We made sure to see the 'Shamu' show, which didn't go over very well with Zuri because we sat in the splash zone and that water is FREEZING.  I believe she now has an unnatural aversion to killer whale tails.

Sunday we had a BBQ at the in-laws where Nick grilled some of the most perfect ribs ever consumed.  They were just awesome.  Nick's aunts, uncle, cousin, grandparents and some family friends all came out.  Nick's birthday recently passed so his High School best friend brought him a present; a painting of Yankee's Stadium.  It's pretty big so we're still trying to find a place to hang it.

Today, I met up at the gym again with my friend.  We did the body flow class, a combination of Tai Chi, Yoga and Pilates.  Since the body pump on Friday, we have both been so sore walking was an issue, so the body flow really stretched us out and loosened up our muscles.

And to end it all on a high note:

I haven't been to the gym in nearly a month.  With Nick back, we've been eating a lot of junk food and I was really worried about weighing myself because I figured I'd gained all the weight I've lost and then some.  Nope.  I maintained my weight loss. Didn't gain anything in a month.  That has me really encouraged and happy.  Now that I have a gym buddy, I feel like I can lose even more.

Saturday, Planes, Trains, Tigers and bears... What?

Saturday, we kept the kids really busy.  First was a trip to downtown San Antonio to visit the Children's Museum.  Right now, they have a big exhibit on trains and Aaron was super excited to go.  He got to 'drive' a train, fly in a plane, see fish and be in a bubble.

Zuri just had fun chasing after him and running up and down the stairs, but she did enjoy being in the conductor's seat of the train.

After the museum, we went to the Rainforest Cafe.  It's a 3 story restaurant with waterfalls, fake flowers and anima-tronic animals.  The one in San Antonio is the only one with the Panda Bears, so it was cool to hear them and see them during dinner.  Also, every 15-20 minutes, there was a 'thunder storm' where the lights would flicker and thunder would sound.  The food was also awesomely good but more than we could eat.  We treated the kids and got each of them a rainbow Icee.  Zuri's was almost as big as she was.