Saturday, August 22, 2009

Congratulations

I danced with Cinderella.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Rehearsal day

It's Friday morning, rehearsal day. We woke up to rain and thunderstorms. The girls have gone off with Sean's mom and two nieces for manicures and pedicures. I went down for the complimentary cooked to order breakfast. Tate is still asleep. I just read Tad's facebook status, and he is in his first college class.
You should see this hotel room. It is a two room suite, typical Embassy Suites room if you've ever stayed there. It is wall to wall wedding stuff. Gift baskets (some made, some in process), attendants presents, decoarations menus, "candy bar" items, wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses, tuxedos, oh, and of course beds and clothes for five people for over a week. There's not enough room for the maid to get in. Yesterday we just handed her about ten dirty towels and traded them for clean ones. It's been nice being togrther, the six of us, for this week.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Catching up

I had a feeling this blogging would be more than I could handle. Now I'm having to do it with my phone, which is pretty painful for me.
Tad got moved in on Sunday. On Monday the girls did wedding stuff and we guys went shopping. Tad needed a shelf/tv stand, a tv, and a router. We started at Ikea and got the shelf. Next we went to Best Buy, Target, and Walmart pricing tvs and routers; we got the router at Walmart. Then we snuck in Sams and found the tv on clearance. We convinced them to sell it to us even though we didn't have a membership. Technically they gave us a one day temporary membership. All of the shopping and going from store to store took almost an hour. When we walked out of Sams, Tate remarked, "This makes four stores we've been in and out of in record time today. (not Best Buy, the other four)
So we got that set up in Tad's room and walked the campus, then headed to Tina's cousin's house, where we set up camp for three days.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

On the Road

The trip today has been very smooth. Maggie said we should roll into the hotel around 10:30 without stops, so we are shooting for midnight.

We are using Tad’s collection of King of the Hill DVDs as entertainment on the road. He’s keeping them at school, so we have to get through 6 seasons.

Two stops before hitting the road, lunch and Office Depot. I have no idea what the Office Depot stop was for, but I think Tina’s sprint through the store looking for whatever it was proved to be unsuccessful.

Today it’s the other side of the rode that got the interstate closure. An overturned 18-wheeler blocking the way. Yikes!

A stop at Cracker Barrel 3 hours down the road made for a good bathroom break, then Tina has taken over the driving, while I blog this with Hank Hill in the background.

We just passed through Chunky, Mississippi, and felt a little sorrow for the winner of their beauty pageant, Miss Chunky.

Just checked Tad’s facebook status: Tad Daniels is starting to abhor driving. Ha

Tad just called and asked if they had camera’s that take a picture if you are speeding. He saw what he thought was one, and it flashed as Tina drove passed it, doing, well, just a little over the speed limit. I guess we’ll have to wait for that one in the mail.

We are between Jackson and Vicksburg, Mississippi. The plan is to stop in Vicksburg for dinner and Target, and to rotate drivers. I’ll drive Tad’s car, Tina will continue to drive the van and Tad will get a much needed break.

I just took a picture of a high school football practice, out my window. I’m not sure why.

Evidently, Vicksburg doesn’t have a Target.

Just hit a very hard shower. We got through it in about 5 minutes, not too bad. (especially since I wasn’t driving).

More later.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Right On Schedule

I was a little late leaving work, but got out of there a little after two. Hopefully we could still be on the road before 4:00, which would put us at our hotwire paid hotel in Birmingham around 10:00, not too bad. I decided to wait and eat my lunch on the road and let Tina start the trip driving. I reversed that decision around 3:30, when we were still well away from being packed. Uh-oh, we are a little behind schedule.
Uh-oh, we are a lot behind schedule. We finally pull out of the drive, with Tad following in his car, a little before six, and we had to make a stop by the bank and a stop to get a bag of ice (when did ice get to be 2.50 a bag?) Anyway, we are finally on the road. Thirty minutes later we are stuck in traffic just outside of Charlotte. I mean bumper-to-bumper, standstill traffic. So, I pull out my handy-dandy GPS and ask Maggie for a detour. 45 minutes later we are back in Fort Mill, heading out a different way. Check the rearview and Tad is still there.
Ugh. It's around 7:30 and Maggie tells us we should be at our hotel around two (that's a.m., for those keeping score at home). Of course Maggie doesn't realize we haven't had dinner yet.
After a long stop at McDonalds, where Tina had to teach them how to make a burger and fill a cup with ice and coke, the new ETA is 2:30, but we are finally on the interstate.
Do not travel I-85 through diwntown Atlanta at midnight on a Friday night! 5 lanes, 4 of which are closed. Nearly one hour stuck in traffic (no attempt at a detour this time). New ETA, 3:30. By this time who cares right, just get us to a bed.
Finally some good news, we arrive at 3:30, but we've crossed a time zone so it's only 2:30 here. Hey, at this point it's all about the small victories. Heading out in an our or so for the second leg, surely it will be better, right?

Friday, August 14, 2009

Welcome Back

Well, what do you know, I remembered the username and password to my blog account. So to catch you up on what’s going on, my future son-in-law graduates today (congratulations Sean, well done), my older son Tad begins his post high school education next week, and my oldest, Teisha, is getting married next Saturday. Since I have nothing going on to keep me busy, I decided to start blogging again. Actually, I mentioned to Tina an idea about blogging the next couple of weeks’ experiences, and she sort of committed me to it on her facebook page, so I’ll do the best I can. I expect this to be more like a twitter in some cases, but since my twitter account is over a year old and I can’t remember the user id and password, I’ll blog.
This afternoon we start heading to Texas, so when I get home from work I’m sure Tina will have everything packed and Tad will have it all loaded so we can head out as soon as I do some pool maintenance. Yes, I still have some pool maintenance to do, you don’t think I planned ahead or anything do you?
(By the way, in my own “Where’s Waldo” kind of way, I have hidden sarcasm throughout the blog that may or may not be obvious.)
I’m very excited about the week ahead, but emotions are really all over the place. Tad starting college, Teisha getting married, having a son-in-law, all sound like great things, but they also certainly signal a change in our family dynamics. Of course, our family has always been about changing dynamics, from adding kids to relocating to different states, and with God’s help we have always ended up ahead of where we started. I don’t expect this will be any different.
My goal for the next two weeks is to just enjoy the ride, and if you keep up through my blog, I hope you enjoy it as well. Now, I have about 10 hours work to get done in the next half-hour or so, then we are on our way.