Labor Day Trip to NC

Vacation is over. I was in North Carolina Thur-Sunday visiting my sister and her children. I refer to them all affectionately as “my babies”.

Thursday was the drive up. Time becomes a blur for me on the road. We left Jackson around 8:30am; I have no clue what time we arrived. We=momma and me.

Friday, I helped my nephew move into his first apartment. I'm so glad for his change, but also worried because roommates don't always work out and living together sometimes ruins friendships. Plus, his eczema is ridiculous. I didn't know it could cause your skin to erupt into fire (well, crack into) and cause you level 8+ pain all over. How do we remedy that? We tried aloe in the store. No relief. We tried trauma oil, which relieves a multiple of pain. Nothing. No to the equate cream nurses use on the feet of diabetics. No, no, no. He looks like he is in pain. I was afraid to squeeze him when we hugged in fear of intensifying his pain. I was scared to touch him at all. He was unrested. I'm not sure how much of that was due to pain, what was caused by all he's taking care of right now, or how much worries and life's stressors are contributing to that. I will mail him goat milk soap and even spring for goat milk lotion, assuming it's alcohol-free, but doubt it will help. I encouraged him to try the allergy elimination diet, as eczema is one thing it's listed to relieve. I also encouraged him to call Dr. Murphree's office to inquire about the allergy tests stated to better reveal delayed food allergies than the typical allergy test. Sadly, even these other tests only have about a 85% accuracy rate. Of course, 85% isn't bad. He doesn't have a regular doctor but apparently, I'm not the first to suggest that he go to a sliding scale facility for treatment. I think there's so much that he's just still, like a deer in headlights almost. My poor one. Send positive thoughts his way for me? May he have the strength to work as needed and the courage and energy to investigate new solutions to his medical issues.

Saturday, we celebrated the twins' birthday, which is actually September 18^th. Their mom claims it was their idea to celebrate while we were in town. Before our arrival, they had selective amnesia but the early celebration carried on. Continuously, they changed their minds about what we were going to go. In the end, we went roller skating, went to the mall, and had dinner at Buca di Beppo. The restaurant was my selection. I kept thanking them for allowing us to eat there. Chris turned out not to be pleased about the selection. He only wanted pizza and wouldn't try the lasagna or chicken parmesan we ordered. Sometimes, he likes to act like a baby. I love him anyway.

At the mall, I ended up buying Clinique facial oil that I wasn't planning to buy and bought their whole acne system for D'Ella. (1) I hope that it clears her acne, (2) I hope that she acquires the money to keep it up if it does work. She has a follow-up appointment with the lady that helped us, Virginia, in three weeks. I also hope she's somehow able to make that. Virginia said she can exchange some items if she's washing twice a day but not seeing a difference. Mom bought everyone shoes mostly some version of a Converse. That pleased them all. Chris and Grace got awesome birthday gifts imo. Grace received a 5.0 megapixel camera/camcorder + SD card from me and mom. Her mom bought her a mp3/video player with a camera. Only $20 ya'll. Best Buy. Maybe I will buy one for myself with the justification of it being a backup camera. My kodak is the only functioning camera I have at the moment. And I took less shots with it than anticipated. Saturday night, we tried a new board game, Funglish, which turned out to be a hit. Allyson started up a second game on Sunday while thir guests were over.I describe Funglish as being like Taboo except instead of verbally giving clues, you have to place rectangle pieces with words in one of three categories (definitely, kind of, or not) to give the hints about whatever word you're describing.

Sunday, we went to church then had a cook out. I got to meet D'ella's best friend and boyfriend. I also met one of Shundra's friends her two children. I finally met Ms. Martha, the community grandma. This time, my team won at Funglish: 7 to 1. Saturday, we lost 6:7. Speaking of winning and losing, Grace is one bad table (air) hockey player. I bet Shundra, then D'Ella. I barely pulled the win with Grace: 7 to 6. Wow. What a fierce competitor.

Today, I return home. I am typing this while Momma drives and will post it at some point in Jackson. Sadly, I can see wireless internet options but cannot connect to them from the highway. Maybe it's because I move out of zone just as fast as I come into it?

Anyhow, the trip was great. I'm glad to have pulled so much out of savings to have gone :). Kid are honest so I learned many things during my 4 days there: (1) My new lipstick shade is not becoming, (2) I sometimes look like a boy, like most of the time, and (3) It's obvious that I'm wearing boy swim trunks when I wear swim trunks that I think simply look like athletic shorts. Another piece of exciting news is that I was able to walk up and down stairs without being in excruciating pain during the first 2 days of the trip. I'm not sure if the pain came because of the food or the activity but I'm leaning towards activity. I went up and down the stairs like 20 times helping Darius move. The next day, I did serious cardio by roller skating for 2 hours. Plus, all bedrooms and bathrooms are up stairs at my sister's place. It's not unusual for one to be in pain after all of that. My pain is just overly dramatic even when it comes through natural means. My mistake is not investing a lot of time in stretching at the end of each day. But oh my! The joy of being able to walk up stairs again. I thought it would take so much more than changing my diet.

Now to figure out whether or not I can afford to travel to CA or take a cruise next year....