Tidbits from the road

Tami here.

I'm online at our hotel in Blackwell, OK doing a bit of research to plan out our trip tomorrow, and thought I would quickly share a few tidbits ... mostly Nessa humor.

Nessa about 10 minutes ago: "I'm going to work at a coffee place when I get bigger."
Me: "Nessa, do you like coffee?"
Nessa: " Well no, but when I'm older I will. And I want to work at a coffee place because it will be fun."
All of us: "Oh, OK."

This morning Nessa informed me that her name is "Fernando." She has continued to use this name, although luckily for us no longer corrected us by this afternoon when we slipped and called her "Nessa." I just asked her if she is still Fernando, and she said, "I'm going to be Fernando every day." When I asked her why she wants to be Fernando, she said "Because I want my friends to say Fernando." Shawn promptly said "because if I was only Fernando every other day, it would be too hard for my friends to remember." :-) After we laughed Nessa explained that when we were in Mexico and she was with Grandma and Max, she watched Lost in the Woods. Well, now we know where it came from. :-)

As many of you may have noticed, especially those of you on facebook or twitter*, Shawn and i have been taking advantage of our smart phones to post status updates, text message, and use GPS (some kudos to NavTel GPS for helping us find places along our route, and taking us to some awesome gluten free restaurants). So this has not gone unnoticed by Nessa (or Megan who is text messaging a lot herself these days, but does think we can become a bit addicted to facebook ... I think it's a vacation thing because it's an easy way to stay connected while away). So just now Shawn was reading a text message and after asking him about it, Nessa proclaimed, "When I'm older I want to get a text message from Aunt Jo." :-)

Other things Nessa did:

• Removed all the threads from a sombrero hat pin one at a time --
  "because I'm hungry" (she didn't actually eat them.
• She sang "rock star larry boy" very loudly for awhile, and we let her because she was happy and not screaming like yesterday! (In fact I think this is the first day she fell asleep in the car without screaming! It was a good day indeed!)
• She watched Monsters Inc about 3.5 times as the road had already lulled us into a parental stupor that influenced us to just say "sure" when she asked to watch it again and again ... besides we already have a floor full of "pretty pictures" colored by Nessa -- if you're family, there is probably more than one that Nessa designed just for you -- I hope you all don't mind if they "get lost in the mail" as I'm sure your fridge can live without a piece of paper with one sticker on it and about 4 squiggly lines and one very nicely written "N."

Seriously, we had a pretty good day driving today, and even though she isn't speaking to me at the moment (only Daddy), Nessa or er, Fernando, has been really sweet. Thank you God. :-)

Megan, has been great as well. She has been having her own movie marathon -- Princess Diaries and Cinderella Story. Megan was not feeling well when we left TX, and I was afraid we were going to have to find a clinic to do a strep test or something, but thankfully she is MUCH better now, and just sounds a bit stuffed up!!! Thank you God. :-)

Shawn has been doing an AWESOME job driving. It allows me to cater to the girls' needs as well as do just a bit of reading, looking out the window, talking to Shawn, and yes, text messaging or otherwise playing on my phone, so I really appreciate it. Thank you Shawn and Thank you God. :-)

So far no adventures or misadventures on the way home, and that is a great thing. :-)

Today we woke up to chilly weather and realized we really did have to go back to jeans and sweatshirts and put away the shorts. But the Sun did come out to play during our lunch and play time -- Shawn found us a great little park in West, TX (as Shawn pointed out it is in Central Texas). We had a great time enjoying our last picnic until summer arrives in WI, and playing on the great playground.

Unfortunately our hotel tonight doesn't have a pool. Or, rather it has a pool, but it's broken. So our plan it to get to sleep a bit earlier than we have been, get up earlish, and hit the road so we can stop along the way at some type of play spot such as a playground, zoo or library. We'll let you know what we find. :-)

Before I forget I also want to do a quick shout out to the Little Aussie Bakery and Cafe (http://www.thelittleaussiebakery.com/) in San Antonio. It's 100% Gluten Free!!!! And it made a GREAT early supper spot for us on Saturday as we started heading back North. They also had some awesome sandwich buns and cookies that we purchased to take with us on our way. The buns have been great for our barbecue pork sandwiches (or rather everyone else's sandwiches as I've been sticking to salad and fruit to keep going and healthy). And who doesn't love cookies for snack time. :-) While we were at the Little Aussie Cafe we all enjoyed yummy food too -- Nessa had GF pizza (sans cheese too but still yummy), Shawn and Megan had great sandwiches and side salad, and I had an awesome spring green salad with the BEST citrus dressing. I HIGHLY recommend the place. And the owner was great to talk to as well. :-)

OK, time to get myself ready for the challenge of getting Nessa to sleep in a hotel room.

~Tami