And thus is life...

So our wonderful vacation was canceled because the husband got "sick." He definitely had a cough, but swore up and down that he was dying and could not board the plane that was scheduled to leave the next morning. I keep telling myself that he really was sick, but I also knew that he didn't really want to go and he was magically better the following afternoon. This trip had been planned months in advanced and all the money we got back from the hotel and car rental went to Delta* so we could give my dad's frequent flier miles back to him, so we're still out $350. It seems like we never do anything as a family because something always comes up and this trip was a guaranteed way to do something fun together. But I sucked it up and went with it anyway because I didn't want to fight, but I swore that I wouldn't spend my entire spring break packing and moving.

Well it's Thursday and all we've done is pack and move (and we're not even done.) We were going to go up to Santa Fe today with my parents, but my dad had a conference call this morning and work to do on the townhouse (which is the bane of my existence and I would love to vent about it but I would just piss off certain people because there is no way I can blog about it without giving names and I don't really want to deal with another family feud, especially since the laws of wergild don't apply anymore. Boy, that was a long sentence.) So instead the husband and I were going to go to Fat Squirrel tonight and drink non-Irish beer to celebrate Saint Patty's, but his allergies are acting up and he doesn't feel like going out anymore. Why are men such babies when it comes to illnesses? (but he does sound terrible right now)

Have I mentioned that my poor little monster had four teeth coming in and barely slept last night because of the pain and being in a new, noisy environment?

So to end my enchanting tale, my spring break has been the worse I have ever had and thus is life. I'm glad we're semi-settled and the Monster has been asleep for four continuous hours so far, but I'm exhausted, extremely bitter, and angry that I probably won't be able to take those glorious sleeping pills the rapist is begging me to take every now and then** until we buy and move into a new house. Tomorrow will be better... tomorrow has to be better....

*Dear Delta, you're a bunch of assholes.

** I appear to be suffering from mild insomnia and the happy pills apparently don't work as well when I'm dead tired. I also have a theory that the rapist is just trying to shove as many meds into me as she can, but I'd kill for a good night's rest so I'm not fighting her on this one.

Oops...

I'm behind in my challenge... does that mean I lose?

I plan on catching up, but things have been one great big ball of crazy at this casita. We're planning on having the vast majority of our stuff packed and out of this house by Friday and we have a TON of stuff. It's amazing how much we need to get rid of and all I can do is hope that The Ark is making a round through our neighborhood before the end of the month (and preferably not when we're on vacation). And that's the other problem- we have a vacation to pack for and I hope that I can keep my wits together long enough to prevent packing the things we need for WI in with the moving stuff. There's still a ton of laundry to do, packing in the majority of the rooms, transporting, essays to write, books to read (for school, I swear!) and a baby to love on. Oh yeah, and a picture challenge to squeeze in. I'll get caught up, I promise.

**Enter Panic Mode**

On a slightly positive note, I have the vast majority of our kitchen packed up. There is still a bit left, but I can bust that out in an hour once I get the appropriate boxes. I love that our kitchen has every cooking utensil/tool we will ever need (and will use more than once a year) but, man, it sure is a lot of things to pack and I'm trying to do it in an organized fashion so it's easier to unpack (I detest unpacking), so it takes a little longer.

Ok, time for bed. Maybe tomorrow I'll catch up on the challenge, but for now I'm going to go catch up on some z's.

7- A picture of my most treasured item

My most treasured item is my grandmother's ring, which was given to her by my grandfather. When she was diagnosed with cancer, she gave my sisters and I each a piece of jewelry that held significant meaning to her. She gave me the ring because we're both November babies and our birthstone is topaz (even though it isn't anymore), but we both didn't care for the yellow topaz. I'm so happy that she was able to see me where it at my wedding (it was my "something old" and "something blue").

6- Someone I'd love to trade places with

This includes past and present, yes? If so, then I would LOVE to trade places with the Lady Emma Hamilton.

Emma was a lowborn woman who used to perform semi-nude poses called "The Attitudes," (not as inappropriate as you may be thinking) which became extremely popular during the post-Enlightenment period when neo-classicism was all the rage. She became mistress, and later wife, to Sir William Hamilton (a prominent political leader) and later she became the mistress to Lord Horatio Nelson (the man who defeated Napoleon in an epic naval battle). She was kind of skanky (gave birth to two bastards-for lack of a better term- each to a different man,) but beautiful, loving, in one of the most famous romances in history, and she was surrounded by some of the most important people of her day (Marie Antoinette's sister was one of her best friends until their falling-out). I wrote a pretty large research paper on her a couple years ago and have been obsessed with her ever since. I would love to be able to go back in time and be Emma for one day during the peak of her life!

*sorry for the poorly written bio on her, I was trying to be brief

5- A picture of my favorite memory

First off, let me begin with apologizing- I'm going to cheat with this one. And more importantly, I'm sorry Tree, I love this picture!

My favorite memories are from the trips we used to go on for volleyball and basketball- specifically, the ones with my buddy Theresa (they sucked after she graduated). We were absolutely silly on them, but we always had a blast. I often want to relive some of those moments (mainly because I want to know what the "hot non-Belen boys" (aka drunk cowboys) actually looked like since we were the only ones who didn't see or hear them.

4- A picture of my favorite night

I now know why this is called "The 30-Day Challenge" and not "The Simplest Task You Will Ever Do in 30-Days." Picking one picture is hard, especially when you're a person who has multiple favorites, never just one. This time, however, I narrowed it down pretty quickly. There have been a lot of great nights, but one really comes to mind:

A night on our honeymoon in Puerto Vallarta.

I'm not exactly sure which night this was since the computer that had the dates for all our wedding/honeymoon pictures has been dead for over a year now. I can tell you that it was an amazing night. Our honeymoon was during monsoon season in Mexico and that night there was a warm rain. We had dinner at one of the restaurants in the resort, then walked down to beach (danced for a couple minutes- that's all I can get out of Nick), then spent the rest of the evening on our balcony drinking beer and talking. It was followed by romancing that wasn't quite romantic, but mind-blowing nonetheless. (TMI? Oh well!)