Can it really be Wednesday already?  How on earth did that happen?  Oh yeah, we were in Hawaii on Monday and got back yesterday morning.  That’ll do it.

We spent about 8 days in Hawaii and it was wonderful.  For all my bitching and moaning and dreading the trip, Button did wonderfully.  Like seriously, she COULD NOT have been better.

She was happy and pleasant during the uber-long flight there, and really enjoyed a few hours of Diego on our New! Magnavox! Portable! DVD Player!  which is the BEST. INVESTMENT. EVER.  4 hours of battery life, people.  I even got to READ.  As in, a book for ME.  And THEN, on the flight back, she slept for 6 of the 7 hours.

God bless that child.

We were supposed to be there for only 4 days, but there was that big old fiasco with ATA and American Airlines spontaneously canceling all their flights, and even though our flight wasn’t canceled, it was really overbooked as a result of all the other canceled flights.

So we thought, “Let’s see… we could pack our bags, check out of the hotel, drive to the airport, wait forever to see if we still get to get on the plane,  possibly get kicked off anyway and put up in some Motel 6 to await the ‘next available flight’ … Or we could just call the airline and reschedule our departure and stay in Paradise for a few more days.”

Tough decision.

But I have to admit, our bank account (er… credit card) is feeling the pain right about now.

The trip was wonderful though.  We haven’t taken a relaxing vacation since our honeymoon, almost 7 years ago.  I have this thing about being “productive” on vacations.  For some reason, I feel that if we’re taking time off and spending a bunch of money, we need to accomplish something, like seeing the Great Wall of China or Vatican City or something.  Which is all fine and good, but I learned this last week to value a trip in which the point is to do nothing.

I hope to put some pictures up soon.

So yesterday we noticed a charge we didn’t recognize on a credit card we never use.  When we inquired about it with the credit card company, we were told that this particular business (which is basically someone’s name) “sells trophies, fireworks and tomb stones.”

Let me repeat that:  TROPHIES.  FIREWORKS.  And TOMBSTONES.

So I guess if you win something and want to celebrate, they’ve got you covered all the way through the part where you die from the fireworks explosion?  I would like to have seen that business plan.

Also, we saw the weirdest bug yesterday.  It was huge (as bugs go), measuring approximately 2.5” long with a thick body and a 4” multicolored wingspan.  And it totally looked like a hummingbird.  It was about the size of a hummingbird.  It flew like a hummingbird.  It was buzzing around the bushes sucking nectar out of the flowers like a humming bird.  But it had at least 4 legs and antennae, so I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a hummingbird.  Whatever it was, it was really cool to watch and we stood outside Olive Garden like a trio of idiots staring at it for a long time.

I know I complain about things (because that’s what blogs are for, right?), but in reality I am very aware that I AM SO BLESSED. So very blessed.

I have a terrific family. I have a brilliant, beautiful and vivacious daughter and another healthy baby on the way. My husband is my love and would never do me wrong. We have all our needs met and are financially stable. J and I are both able to work from home at jobs we enjoy. And we are all in good health.

I am incredibly fortunate in every way. But some are not. And it breaks my heart to see life so … imbalanced at times.

Please go read this. Seriously, go read it. Don’t just glean what it’s about from my post.

I have done a couple of templates for Lisa in the past and know her to be a kind, fun, spunky and strong individual. And now she will have to be stronger than ever.

Lisa needs to take her kids to Disney World. This is not a request that she has made - it is something we’re doing for her. I have done what I can to help but it’s not enough. If you can help too - even just a tiny amount - you could bring a much needed blessing to her family.

As a side note, there are raffle prizes available for donations - for details go here.

Thank you.

I am such a MOM.

It suddenly got really dark around here, the weather station is showing a huge storm of some sort coming directly toward us in the next half hour. It’s “red” which is apparently the most intense color on the radar. The sirens are going off over and over and over again all over the place.

AND I AM PISSED BECAUSE I’M AFRAID THEY’RE GOING TO WAKE BUTTON UP FROM HER NAP.

UPDATE: So… we never got that storm. While the weather channel was saying we were getting blasted by fierce rain and tornadoes… the sun was shining down on our house.  Figures.

There is something inherently WRONG about starting a new project for work on a Friday afternoon.

But my choices right now are that, or putz around and not get paid for today because I have nothing constructive to do.

As you can see by the fact that I’m even blogging about this, I’m currently leaning toward the latter.