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HIGHS (and a few lows!!!) of an Easter Vacation!

Hello, We went on a family vacation to Georgia with our extended family. THANKS AUNT BARBARA FOR ARRANGING IT AND INVITING US!!!! :) It was a LOT of fun. We left for the trip on Thursday night before Easter and arrived Friday night at a beautiful lake near Savannah GA, it was owned (I think)by my husband's aunts boss. Or atleast her Co. It was really fun. There was a lake for swimming and canoeing. ATV's for riding the thousands of acres. Tree Houses for exploring and Cabins for sleeping... ( although it was SOoooo COLD at night...... BRRRRRR) We stayed Friday night, Saturday Night and Sunday night and we left on Monday evening after dinner. There were to be two parts of the trip.... 1st...at the lake, and 2nd at the FANCY FANCY downtown Savannah GA house. We only got to do the lake part... but we got to see the fancy house before we left on Monday.... it was so nice. I felt like Royalty in it. It had 3 bedrooms and one bathroom on each of the 3 floors and a completely furnished basement! It was really gorgeous! I was wishing we could have stayed. But we wanted to get on the road to make sure Emily was home for school on Wednesday. She only had 3 days off for the Spring break.... our nephews and 2nd cousins all had the whole week off, but NO, not NJ school district. SO it was a bum that we had to leave. Brian really could not afford to take off any more time anyway. BUt I got to tell you, when I saw the house in Savannah.... I was so JEALOUS that we could not enjoy the luxury after having roughed it(sorta) at the cabins. But that's not to say we didn't have a great time at the lake. We did!! We rode the ATV's-- that was Brian's favorite thing. I just liked looking at the lake and enjoying it. Emily had the best time. Even though we didn't really have HOT Weather, sometimes not even warm weather.... Emily was the first in the lake. She wanted to go in so much.... so after some debate we let her put her feet in.... well within ten minutes.... she was all but naked except for her panties. In the shallow area of the lake having a blast. It may have been MAYBE 75 degrees out. But she didn't care. She had soooo much fun. Thanks to my MOther in law for rolling up her pants and going in there with her!! Love ya, PAT!! Anyway, like I said, we left on Monday after eating dinner at the FANCY house. We were on our way home... We were making good time... We were putting some miles behind us.... When all of the sudden the car starts acting funny and revving real high and then the transmission just stops working. We were going 80 mph and the car just died. THe automatic transmission goes keput and Brian ( thank GOD ) puts it in another gear and we manage to go on but we are in 3rd gear and can't go above 60. We make it to Lumberton NC and we decide to spend the night--- by this time it's 11:00PM and we know there is something obviously serious wrong with the car but are thankful that we didn't get into an accident. So we stay at a Fairfield Inn and after checking the laptop find out that there is a HONDA dealership within 3 miles of the hotel. SO Brian takes the van there first thing on Tuesday morning and we find out that it's going to cost $3700.00 to fix. OH MY GOD!!!! That's ALOT of MONEY!!!!! OH MY GOD!!! But we calm down and remind ourselves how lucky we are that we didn't get in an accident. IT doesn't make the fact that we have to spend almost 4 thousand dollars any easier but it does put it in prospective. SO the dealership has to order the transmission and it will be ATLEAST Wednesday before it comes in and so much for getting Emily back to school for Wednesday....and well another night at the Fairfield INN. SO we booked another night at the good ol' Fairfield Inn and we realize the ONLY restaurant within walking distance.... is THE Cracker Barrel. Brian HATES the Cracker Barrel. But Oh Well.. what are you gonna do. So we had lunch there on tuesday and Brian wasn't happy..... SO on Tuesday night, we ordered pizza!! HA HA! I personally liked the Cracker Barrel!! Anyway.. when we called the HONDA place yesterday morning and we find out that "THANK GOD" they got the transmission in and that it should be done by 4:30... so anyway... it's fixed, We got back on the rode and arrived home last night at 12:45 AM. IT WAS A LONG, EXPENSIVE couple of days but we are now safe and sound and back home. AMEN!! Danielle calls us on our cell phone last night while we were on our way home and says, "IS this the Griswalds--- on their way back from WALLY WORLD." WHICH WAS FUNNY!! It sure felt like it.... but I keep trying to remind myself, that we DID have a nice family Vacation!! Well...except for the end!! :)

Brian's Back..... OH Yeah and he's a Microsoft EXPERT!

I know you didn't even know he was away. He was. I was paranoid to write it for fear--- that the boogyman would come get me while he was away! Okay, that's only partly a joke. Anyway, Brian was away for 2 weeks at a "bootcamp" style training class. He can now add MCPD/EAD after his name. IMPRESSIVE... Actually, It is. I'm really proud of him.. it was one of the toughest things professionally he's had to do. I think he said that only a couple thousand people in the WORLD have this certification. Cool, Huh! SO he's finally home... THank god. It's been a tough couple of weeks.... COLDS, SCHOOL PROJECTS, ALL THE NORMAL STUFF BUT NO HELP AT 6PM, ETC. I'm glad to have some help here- plus I just missed my HUSBAND of course. And EMily really missed Brian while he was away... as soon as he pulled into the driveway, she was shouting... DADDY'S HOME!! DADDY'S HOME!!!

A pic of Emily from Halloween when she was 4!

I love being a Mom...... It's such a gift. My daughter is the sweetest and most beautiful "PERSON". I LOVE her SOOOOO much.