Home Sweet Home

Do you know how good it feels to be home? Of course, minus the 115 degree heat that we're having in Texas. (Really...right now I'd like to have a word or two with the original ancestor of the Lewis and Hoover families who decided to stop and settle in Texas. What were they thinking?!)

So, this past month has been fantastic...and super busy. The three of us spent 6 days in Michigan visiting my mom's side of the family at the lake. Phenomenal time! We drove there overnight...which is the ONLY way to go when you have a kid who will actually sleep in his car seat. Catching up with family you only get to see once or twice a year is PRICELESS.

After Michigan, we drove back, both worked about a week, took Grant to Ben's parents house (both the grandparents had G-man for a couple of days), and took a lover's trip to San Francisco for five days and four nights. Amazing. I'll probably post about that trip again to give more details (a couple of you have asked about things to do while there because you're planning a trip soon). But there's just so much catching up to do!!! It took a little while to unwind once we got there. After walking around, getting our bearings the first day for a couple of hours, we finally got to our hotel and decided to take a nap since we had gotten up at 3 a.m. the morning to head to DFW airport. As we're walking into the hotel room, my first thought was, "Oh my gosh...I need to pump!" Hallelujah, I was wrong. No more pumping! Then, we laid down for a nap and when I'm about 5 seconds from falling asleep, I hear a car honking outside our hotel window, jump up, and think, "Oh no...Scout got out of the backyard." So obviously, it took about a day from me to unwind from "Mom Mode" but once I got there...I definitely got there. Everyone asked when we got back..."Did you miss Grant? I bet you couldn't wait to see him!" Of course I missed him, and love him, and was excited to give him a hug and a kiss...but when people asked, I just sort of smirked and said yes because man...was it nice to just be ME for a bit. The trip was reminiscent of our dating days when we ate whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. Dressed up to go out. Went to a 10:30pm movie (and that's PST, too). Livin' on the edge.

So after 5 days of zero responsibility, we picked up Grant from my parents' house, picked up Scout (our lab) from Ben's parents' house, and headed back to the scorching heat of Wichita Falls. (Forgot to mention that the high in SF/Monterey hit a balmy 62 degrees one day.)

I had a couple of days off before working 4 out of 5 nights (then I'm off for 9 days). It was spent detoxing Grant...who had decided that he should always be carried around and hitting people in the face was okay. It was also spent taking Scout to the vet twice...who has terrible allergies that flared up from eating other dogs' food and being outside at the farm. She broke out with massive dried skin patches which became infected from being wet in the pond all week at the farm. Now that she has her neck shaved, got a steroid shot the vet says he only give to 8-12 dogs annually, on Benadryl twice a day for the rest of her life, on 2 antibiotics, and a hypoallergenic diet...she's started to act like her normal, energetic self. (And p.s. we also discovered that Grant is allergic to wheat.)

So...was it good to get away for half of the month of July? Oh my gosh...yes. We refreshed, rejuvenated, and renewed (and cooled down). But was it good to get back home after some R&R? Oh my gosh...yes.

Now that the kiddos are starting to heal and hit less, I feel like life is becoming a little more "normal." Sometimes, I think trips make you remember what you love about home, too. Man...it's good to be back.