Rock Me Like A Hurricane

Not sure about that title, because I think it's "Rock You Like a Hurricane," and for all I know it could be something totally different, like "Sock it to the Weather vane." I have zero luck with song lyrics, having always thought "Love in an Elevator" was "Lovin' it in Latifah"-- whatever that might mean. My kids are fortunate I'll have not a clue whether lyrics are trashy or not. Have heard a tad about what "Poker Face" means, but that's fodder for yet another post...

Anyway, our beach vacation ended abruptly because of the impending hurricane. We had 3 1/2 days before we were evacuated. Thought I'd share vacation tidbits:

Found several reasons to reconsider an end of August beach rental. While hurricane season is one, the grunge factor of a beach house that's been rented all summer long weighed in as well. Not that there's anything wrong with flicking crusty boogs off of the pillows, and wondering what had happened on and under and around the covers all summer long... but it gave me the heebie jeebies-- big time.

Got a great picture of the kids frolicking directly on the bare mattress of a rental bed. Nice. Haven't seen any signs of lice or bedbugs yet. It took me about 3.25 days to get desensitized to the ick factor and just start enjoying, at which time a knock at the door informed us to start packing and hit the road.

I realize beach vacations are not the time to diet, but it makes it hard not to think about it when one's beach clothes don't fit. I dug up my "Mother's Journal" in which I was trying to journal once a year(!) about my kids, hoping I'd catch up while on vacation. First bummer: the most recent entry was 2006. Second bummer: I found a chart inside that showed the last time I was at my current weight, I was 19 weeks pregnant. Yay! Pass the mojitos and chips.

I have some cute beach pics of the kids to share but they'll have to wait until the camera battery charges. At around 10 pm (hour 6 of our drive home) the kids started making crazy home movies in the back seat. This was preferable to the fighting of the first 2 hours, so I let them drain the battery.

In all, the trip was excellent, albeit much too short. Beautiful weather (not a cloud in the sky!), great friends, late night card games, and plentiful hush puppies made for a terrific time.

Each trip must have a catch-phrase or defining image, and I'll leave you with ours, which surprisingly, is NOT Hurricane Earl related.

During a rousing game of Apples to Apples, in which Molly got both the words "smudge" and "hairy," she started parading around the house singing, "My smudge is hairy, my smudge is hairy!" No clue what that means, but it was hi-larious and rather catchy. Seriously. By the next day, we were all singing it.

Maybe it was time to come home.