"Come See Paw Paw & the Tomball Bunch!!!"

Happy Happy Joy Joy. Super-duper-ificus weekend, peeps. Just perfect. Like a perfect meal, great back rub, gentle arm tickle, bubbly-ed - up- inside- from-a- tad- bit- too- much- champagne- feeling all rolled into one. Aside from the fact that it's freakin' 90 degrees in November, coupled with the reality that I lost 2 hrs of my life wasting away in what can only be described as a smoker's/kicker's/under-age drinker's paradise, we had a kick-ass weekend.

Obviously, things started out with a good floor-mopping. :) Say what you will about my housecleaning handicap, I refuse to even allow the idea that, should I by chance be maimed, murdered, or otherwise unwillingly excused from my time here on Earth, anyone enter my house in a state of disarray. Oh no, not without me there to make self-depricating jokes in my own defense. Uhuh, no way. That would be beyond mortifying. It's the old "wear clean underwear when traveling" mind set. So yes, floors were mopped bright and early, vacuuming commenced shortly thereafter, dishwasher did its dishwashing magic, etc, etc, etc. Extremely supreme way to start out a traveling weekend, I must say.

Trip into Houston was blessedly uneventful, and we were as always lovingly met by Nana and Ginger with open arms (and pets) when we arrived. Ryan adores their new dog about as much as he adored Jax -- those Australian Sheep dogs make great babysitters!!

The reunion was great, though a tad unnerving...10 years already? All my girls were hot hot hot, Shawn was impressive in a stud-muffin sort of way, and I was just nauseating enough with my pics & stories (b/f we left, Ryan lamented: "Mommy, I wish I could go to your party and show your friends how cute I am." True story) of the kids. Shawn was, as always, amused at the location: middle-of-nowhere-in-a-field. According to him, all that was missing was a bonfire and a bottle of Boone's. Those city boys get so jealous of us country folk, don't they?? We really did have fun, until the party winded down and we ended up at the aforementioned jailbait haunting grounds, otherwise known as Red River, or "What the hell are we doing here?". Shawn was lucky enough to skip out on that last part -- he got to go back to Nana's, while I continued my two-step down memoryville at Chaika's for our rockin' SP. Farting dogs, belching buxom petite beauties, a pumping mommy, one tivoed episode of Oprah w/Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan, a Di Giorno's pizza, and Pillsbury cookies all in the comfort of the most cozy home of one who can only be called an interior designer on crack. Seriously, Chaika needs to go into a new line of work -- it looked like Pottery Barn, Pier One, and Southern Living threw a party and never left. You couldn't have offered me a better reason to come to town!! We had such a good time, and I was soo sad to leave (as always).

The trip home was a tad more eventful than the one there -- Ryan threw a fit in a gas station, resulting in Mommy carrying her out kicking and scratching (natch), Jax had a shouting fit (again, natch), and Mommy spent the majority of the ride wedged in the backseat feeding Jax and reading to Ry. You can't get this type of fun in a dvd- playing suv, my friends!!

The final course of the perfect weekend was Girl's Nite at Lalo's for Amy, involving wine, stewed chicken, pumpkin cheesecake, West Wing, DH, & Grey's Anatomy w/ Jen & Lalo. Uncle Jeff and Shawn had the pleasure of "watching" the kids at our place while actually watching the game -- let me put it this way -- when I got home, "Adult Swim" on the cartoon network was playing in my room, viewed by a rapt audience of Ry's stuffed animals, Shawn and Jeff were downstairs glued to the tv, and Ryan had put herself in her bed, lights blazing, passed out.

Couldn't have asked for more.

P.S. We voted for Santos, duh!!