(Editor's Note: All entries from our family vacation are entered as I recorded them. Therefore, even though at this point it is past tense as everything has already transpired, they will read here as they were written by me at the time the incidents occurred.)
The curse part-- if you could even consider it that --of having children is that you get into the habit of early rising. I was the first up at 6am-ish. I almost felt like logging onto Dad's computer to blog an entry from a remote location. I decided against it when I knew I'd be out of my element if I wasn't at my own pc. Not to mention I wouldn't have my pics to add and you all know how much I need to have those.
There are several things I look forward to when I visit the folks and one is Mom's 
cooking. I hate that we can't stay long enough to get some dinner that even Cracker Barrell can't touch; however, the breakfast is just as good. Homemade pancakes and bacon. Doesn't get any better than that. It was Mom's cooking-- and my affinity for some Gates BBQ --that had me start eating pork again just when I thought I had stopped for good.
It's also with my fam that the infamous "tomorrow at 2 o'clock" concept started. Well actually, Dad started it but I perpetuated it into the art form that it is to this day. Whenever a question is asked as to what time I'm leaving and/or going somewhere, that's the generic answer that is given. Diah's gotten to the point now where she rarely even asks me because she knows what she's going to get for an answer.
Not to be outdone as far as cooking is concerned, Diah can throw 
down herself. She complemented scrambled eggs with the breakfast that were off tha chain. Now I wonder where she learned those skillz (..cough...Mom...cough...)? She also can get down with some hair. She hooked up not only hers but Mom's also.
Another blessing in disguise was that Brandin was sick while we were there. Normally, even if healthy and heavily medicated, he can be out of control when he gets around all his cousins. Being sick, he was uncharacteristically serene and very manageable. Okay, maybe again it's a little sadistic of me to wish illness on somebody. I'm just sayin'...
It took me a minute to catch her, but I finally got a pic of Teandra when she wasn't looking. I actually had a better posed pic of her that she wanted me to use instead, but where's the fun in that? I tried to get her to hook me up with an artist's rendering of me that I could put up as my main pic as something new. However, she doesn't draw as much as she used to with two shorties keeping her hands full as a single mom. I was able to cop some of her pieces of work that she's done lately. She draws so beautifully, don't you agree?
I'm still going to see if she can eventually do a special piece just for me so it can be the main pic. As talented as she is, it shouldn't take that long. It's just a matter of getting her motivated to do it. Maybe her seeing these pieces of work displayed here will serve as just that motivation.
That bomb breakfast allowed me to finally get a good rest before we finished the longest stretch of the drive. I wished it could have been longer with the fam, but the trek was going to be long enough without procrastination to add to it. Couldn't very well wait until tomorrow at 2 o'clock to leave.
