Continuing the Journey

A Weekend Away...and Then Came Monday...

Meggie's dance team headed to Gatlinburg for Nationals last weekend. This trip was originally going to include a five-day family vacation at a lodge. Since a very expensive trip to China is in our near future...and since all of Meggie's dances fell on Saturday evening and Sunday morning...we decided NOT to make it a family vacation. Instead, Meggie and I (and my friend Sarah) decided to drive to Gatlinburg on Saturday morning, then drive back Sunday afternoon. Sounds like a great plan, huh?!

First off, a bit of quirky info on me. When I was a kid, my Mom always made homemade cookies. Oreos? No way. Chips Ahoy? Never. Our cookie jar was ALWAYS filled with Mom's awesome made-from-scratch cookies. Whenever we go on family road trips (now that I'm the Mom), I like to bake made-from-scratch cookies to take along. I don't know why...it just feels like I'm taking a bit of home with me. (OK, that sounds weird when I write it out.) Anyway...

So, even though we had to leave the house around 7AM on Saturday, Meggie and I decided to bake some cookies Friday night after we got home from softball. (Daddy had an early game this week, at least.)

After getting halfway through the preparation stage and realizing we were short on ingredients...and then waiting for Daddy to run out and get them for us when he took the minivan out to fill the gas tank...we got a VERY late start. Were we giving up? Oh, no, we were NOT!

So, at...
...ten minutes after midnight, we were still...
...baking our double batch of gluten-free Oatmeal Scotchies. Yummmmm!! (Meggie and I are trying a gluten-free diet since we suspect we both have a gluten allergy. But that's a story for another post.) Meggie was pretty sleepy...
...and really didn't want to bake the whole double batch...
...but I just couldn't bake cookies for the trip and not leave some for the boys! Hey, wait a minute...go back two pictures. WHAT was the Megster wearing?!
Boy, you talk fashion to her and she's suddenly WIDE awake! That's a real interesting combo of zebra stripes...
...and polka dots, Teenager!
Of course, that outfit doesn't compare to what she wore in Gatlinburg for the amazing team dance called "Scary Stories"...
YIKES! The team did great, earning Platinum scores for all four dances and tying for First Place Overall with their jazz routine for all the Senior dances in the entire competition. Of course, there was drama...we're talking teenagers here, after all...but we had a great time. (And we spent very little money since Daddy let us use his Hilton Honors points to get a free room at a nice Hilton Garden Hotel in downtown Gatlinburg!)

Monday morning, I woke up knewing I had a ton of laundry to do. Unfortunately, I also woke up with a horrific migraine headache! Uggghhh...

After struggling through the morning, the laundry didn't get started until around dinner time. So, while Daddy was making chicken enchiladas and I started my first load of laundry, Carson had an important question: "Why am I getting wet?" Uh-oh. He was standing in the kitchen, directly under the laundry room (which is on our second floor)...and water was dripping from the can light overhead. AAAACCKKKK!!!

So, after scarfing down our enchiladas (which were delicious, by the way), we faced an evening of this...
...and this...
...a bit of this...
...and some of this.
The load of delicates that were in the washing machine had to be rinsed out in the shower (big thanks to Meggie for handling that!) and hung to dry...
...over a pile of beach towels, put down to catch the puddles all over the laundry room.
And the washing machine is still out of commission! The repairman couldn't come until tomorrow. If he can't fix it tomorrow, I'm gonna be scoping out a laundromat or bugging my friends to use their laundry rooms. We are running out of...let's just say "unmentionables."

As if Mondays weren't bad enough, add a migraine and a mess...well, I'm just counting down the days until next weekend.