Backsies Is What There Is Not: pedicure

I'm in the midst of finishing up laundry and trying to persuade everyone to pack their suitcases TONIGHT for our vacay to the beach, because we are leaving at 6 A.M. PEOPLE, and there will be no time for it in the morning.

No one has packed a thing.

I, on the other hand, have done about a thousand loads of laundry, bought groceries for the trip, taken the cats to Camp Grandma an hour away, cleaned the downstairs in case something happens to us and my mother in law has to come inside my house while we're gone (and hoping there is no reason for her to go upstairs to the Inner Sanctum, as it is a disaster). I am now taking a breather, lying on the living room couch, having a hot flash that seems to be endless, and missing my Ruby.

1. I guess I'll start my Ten Things of Thankful with that: I'm thankful my downstairs is clean enough for a mother in law.

2. One of Ruby's favorite games is to run up the stairs ahead of me, stop on the landing 3/4 of the way up, and try to grab me from around the newel post. I was trying to capture this fun game on my camera, and I got a picture that I just adore.

Oh, Ruby....

3. My son has decided he is not going to die from his tick bite, so I was able to throw away the tick in my freezer. Hamsters remain status quo.

4. Picked a few more blueberries this week. The season will be over by the time we get back from vacation, so this was my last chance to pick them for the freezer. Once again, I talked my son into going with me, making the deal that whoever picked the least amount would buy the other person breakfast. Guess who got a free breakfast? That's right, MEEEEE! When we finished picking (and he set the time we would finish), I clearly had the most, which was confirmed when our berries were weighed when we checked out. "I don't get it," my son said, shaking his head. "You eat berries constantly as you pick, you take selfies, you text, you answer emails, you check facebook, and I just stand there and pick blueberries. And yet, you pick more than me every time." That's right, College Boy, because I'm a mom and I can multi-task. That's my superpower.

5. I'm extremely thankful for my parents. We drive two old cars, which is not the way you should do it. You should have one newish car and one oldish car, so you always have a decent one. One has definitely been better than the other for some time, but it recently got bumped to second place by the one we think of as the bad car. Then the bad car, which had been upgraded to the good car, started acting up (as in dying while driving it, which is not a good thing at all) and got demoted again to bad car. So now, instead of one good car and one bad car, we have two bad cars. My parents stepped in and told us we could borrow one of their cars for the trip, so we now know we not only can make it to our destination, we can also return, which would have been an iffy proposition with either of our own cars.

6. Another thankful for my parents is they have opened Camp Grandma for the week so our cats have a place to stay while we're gone. The College Boy and I dropped them off there today. Fletcher and Ruby were hiding under the couch when we left, but Pete had flopped down in a chair and made himself at home.

Unhappy campers.

Pete, making himself at home.

7. I received a gift certificate for a pedicure recently. Some of you might recall that pedicures were on my list of things I've never done, because the whole idea of it kind of weirded me out, but I decided to take a deep breath and go for it. I took my daughter with me, and we bumbled through the whole thing together. I will say that I did not know there was such a learning curve to getting a pedicure, and that I am really, really, REALLY bad at understanding anyone who speaks with an accent of any kind, particularly Vietnamese, as it turns out. I can't say I loved the pedicure, especially the part where she trimmed my nails, which, to me, was the equivalent of the dental hygienist scraping my teeth with that evil hook-thing. Nor did I care much for the scalding hot towels she wrapped around my legs. But all the massage stuff was nice. And my piggy toes look beach worthy!

8. I took both of my kids to lunch ("Welcome to Moe's!"), and my son called driver and my daughter called shotgun, and I was left to sit in the backseat. I took full advantage of my position by backseat driving the entire way FROM THE ACTUAL BACKSEAT.

Pilot and co-pilot

Backseat driiiiiving.

9. This one is hot off the press, but I had to relay this thing of thankful. My husband has gotten himself hooked on a British reality show called "Come Dine With Us" or something like that, and he had a couple of questions for Lizzi. I sent them to her via Facebook, and I just got the most delightful message back from her, done as a voice message, with her drunk as a runaway bicycle and having what sounded like a fabulous time with friends. It makes me smile ear to ear to hear that message (and all the subsequent ones)!

10. As we get ready to embark on a family vacation, I want to express how thankful I am for my little family. After almost 21 years of marriage, my husband and I still enjoy being with each other and with our funny, smart kids. We've been through some pretty crappy stuff since the very end of December, but I can now say that it's finally OVER. And we deserve to have a fantastic beach vacation. And if we don't kill each other before the week is over, I'll be back next weekend to tell you all about it.