Carleen and Mike » Vacation

Vacation as adults

Carleen Huxley — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 12:12:52 +0000

Remember vacation when you were in college? I mean, the days of undergrad when your responsibilities were really minimal. Maybe my experience was different from others but I used to get sick of vacation by the end of vacation. I couldn’t wait to get back to the grinding routine of work, school, study. Those days are sadly over for me. I’ve been on vacation since Friday. Today’s my last day. As a working adult I’ve never taken more than five days off and five days just isn’t enough to get sick of vacation. It’s still only 6am in the morning, I have a full free day ahead of me yet I still feel devastated about going back to work tomorrow.

Oh well. It has been a nice few days. I had all kinds of projects planned but decided to put them off for some other weekend when I’m feeling particularly energetic (sporadic bursts…hopefully I’ll have one soon because the craft room is looking pretty ugly). On Saturday Mike and I left Liam at home with his grandparents so we could go to Tulsa and have delicious lunch with some friends, Diama and Matt. Diama is someone I met while attending library school and with each visit we find we have more and more in common. I’m just sad that we have to live an hour away from each other, which makes setting dates to get together more complicated. We were going to spend the rest of the day in Tulsa but the mere thought of driving in Tulsa traffic on a Saturday for the next four hours brought on a terrible heavy headache so we just went home and fell into bed and took a three hour long afternoon nap. Haven’t had one of those in a long time.

Sunday I spent at my moms watching Upstairs Downstairs and doing crafts. This is pretty much a set Sunday thing for us now, were turning it into a tradition. I’m currently working on knitting a pair of socks and trying my darndest to finish off my sister-in-law’s granny square baby blanket. Last night we had a relatively quiet day at home which ended with me going to the movies with my dad. We went to see National Treasure: Book of Secrets which was decently entertaining and would probably make a really fun ride at Walt Disney World, especially if it includes all that water (shhhh…don’t tell anyone but the Aztec Temple of Gold is actually located in South Dakota).

As for today? No idea what I’m going to do. I have to make it last somehow. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Uff

Carleen Huxley — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 23:25:56 +0000

We’re back, I kind of feel like I need to do a rendition of Billy Joel’s “We didn’t start the fire” to explain everything we did and all the people we met in the short time that we were there but basically it was a great trip, Mike and I got a couples massage from his parents as our belated birthday gifts (that was the suprise), it was good to see family, good to see friends, bonfires, board games and bad tasting beer, Liam had a blast meeting his various cousins, aunts, uncles, great uncles and aunts, great grandma’s and such, the wedding reception was Aloha cool with tasty garlic mash potatoes and Mai Tai’s, we’re exhausted, here’s some pictures for now.

Autumn in New York

Carleen Huxley — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 14:27:07 +0000

So, we made it to New York. We’re here for Jamie and Krissy’s wedding reception. I can not believe how freakin’ beautiful this place is in October. I mean, the trees are on fire with autumn colors. I simply can’t stop talking about it, every time I look at the window I gasp.

I’ve been nervous about this trip for awhile. Liam did amazingly well for having had nothing to eat, no milk (wouldn’t take it) and no naps (just wasn’t going to happen). He had some trouble with his ears on the last flight into Albany but otherwise he was an angel and dazzled everyone on the plane with his charming smile. Everyone was really patient during his most trying moments, thank goodness.

Mike’s parents have a suprise event going on for us today. We’re just about to leave. Apparently they’re going to drop us off somewhere and take Liam for the day. I am most intrigued and will report back with details later.

Flour Power

Carleen Huxley — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 04:42:33 +0000

While Mike was gone attending his friends wedding in New York (if you have time, you should ask him about it…interesting trip) a few weekends ago, I had to get a little creative with Liam…he’s turning into a real rascal, which is totally not a big deal, only to be expected, however, he’s a handful and on one particular day I ran out of things to entertain him with so I decided to try something new. We sat on the kitchen floor together and played with flour and water. This kid had been making gremlin like noises all day at the top of his lungs. The minute the flour and water bowls were put in front of him he went dead silent. Sigh…finally.

I had to upload it in two takes because it was too long. To see the conclusion of this event at which point Liam pours both bowls on the floor and starts the ever popular bang banging game, go here. Sorry about the buzzing noise…our laptop is having some hard drive issues. Or mabe it’s the fan. Who knows.

That was it?

Carleen Huxley — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 12:29:27 +0000

Today is our last day of vacation. Mike goes back to work tonight. Unfortunately, I think we’re both going back to work about as tired and worn out as we were when we started this vacation. Mike is just now starting to come down with the cold that has plagued both Liam and I all week.

There was so much I planned to do this week. I was going to work on Liam’s scrapbook. Learn how to crochet granny squares and start a blanket. Organize my life online…which is becoming increasingly scattered, social networking profiles scattered everywhere, too many blogs, rss readers everywhere. Read big thick books. Blog a bunch of stuff on my mind. Email people I’m loosing touch with. Altered book crafts. Sew curtains. Reorganize closets. Clean skirting boards. Work in the garden. Walk the dogs. Play with the dogs. Of course, spend time with my family and relax. I have literally been waiting for this week since October, when I went back to work after maternity leave. As it is, pretty much nothing got done. I baked cookies. Chocolate Chip oatmeal cookies which turned out so hard that you have to microwave them or dip them in tea in order to bite into them.

Priority for this week became spending time with Mike and Liam and trying to relax as much as possible. I think we did get some of that in. I guess this is sort of a reality check for Mike and I who sort of assumed a vacation as parents was still a vacation whereas it’s more like a negotiated schedule of freetime.

Vacation? Yeah, right.

Carleen Huxley — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 22:23:18 +0000

Mike and I are on vacation leave starting tomorrow, although it looks like it’s turning out to be more like sick leave. Liam has caught a nasty cold virus (I think he caught it from my dad who’s still suffering from the effects…over a week later). He’s had it since Wednesday. His cough has been so bad that he hasn’t been able to eat, in many cases throwing up what he does eat because the mucus in his throat is so bad. Then yesterday he broke out in a mysterious rash but that seems to be gone now. To make things worse, it looks like I’m coming down with it too. I have that head cold dizzy feeling plus scratchy throat. I’m consuming large quantities of orange juice and chicken soup hoping to kick it before it officially starts but it looks like it’s too late. I’m about twenty-four hours into the symptoms and they’re just getting worse. So start feeling sorry for me. It looks like I’m going to be spending this vacation on the couch cradling a box of tissues in one arm and my sick child in the other.

In other news, the bathroom sink decided to explode in Mike’s face this morning. Is it any wonder he has problems with anger when our house continuosly falls apart on him?