hot time. summer in the city.

put on your imagination eyes. the camera needs to be charged so no pictures have been taken this week.

we stayed at our annual vacation resort this week for two days. red hot bel aire!!! tim's parents were out of town and graciously told us we could hang out at their house, eat their food, swim in the pool, watch cable, and bask in a fully ACed house. we had talked about it for several days, but other things kept coming up. then, tuesday night after dinner, tim decided to pack up and go. he packed for himself and the boys and left me to come after i went to knitting.

inspired by his light packing (stuffing their clothes and max's necessary multiple special blankets into their respective pillowcases) i to (too? whatever) packed light. i felt the nudging to pack food for us but was being lazy, and, slightly annoyed that tim makes things look so easy and i always seem to over complicate things, i didn't.

once we got there and i realized there wasn't much food (i know, really, how rude of them not to fully stock their fridge before going on a week long vacay!)i refused to go grocery shopping because i didn't want to have to pack home whatever didn't get completely consumed, and well, i just didn't want to go shopping.

(this could be a post itself: mary's weirdness about grocery shopping. i'll spare you this time, but just know, i have issues. lots of them.)

my avoidance of shopping and therefore lack of food definitely effected the quality of our vacation. if nothing sounds good to me, i just don't eat. or if there's only enough cereal for the boys to eat, i just don't eat. but the catch is, when i don't eat, i get "grouchy". it takes me a really long time to get uncomfortably hungry, but in the mean time, i will have been "grouchy" for a looonnnngggg time. if tim ever makes this connection, i think he'll just start pinning me down and stuffing food in my mouth when the stink-eyes start shooting his way. (on a funny cereal note-proof that my boys are seriously deprived in the cold cereal department: ben got really, really excited about fiber one cereal, the blandest cereal ever!)

the fact that tim had to work both days we were there and that i had work stuff that needed to be done could have also been a factor. or that i was deliriously tired, but instead of going to bed early one night, i got sucked in to "i didn't know i was pregnant" on tlc. lack of sleep also makes me "grouchy".

or the fact that there was a pool-cool, refreshing, and tempting, calling out to us, but i wouldn't let the boys swim. max is way too daring around the pool and i didn't think that i could handle both boys by myself. i finally gave in one evening, and with the help of all of our guardian angels, managed to stay alive and have a good time.

or the fact that my boys aren't good sleepers, which is amplified by being away from home. ben fell out of the (quite high) queen bed twice both nights. it didn't seem to bother him much at the time but he seemed pretty grouchy during the day from the interrupted sleep. max actually spent one of his naps sitting up in the pack-n-play. he fell asleep while nursing but woke as soon as i layed him down and threw a fit. after he quieted down, i went in to check on him and yep, he was sleeping sitting up in one of the corners. i think it was the biggest "doh! i don't have the camera" moment of my parenting thus far. i watched my adorable sleeping budda for a while before ben started yelling for something and i dove out of the room to silence him.

after really only staying for one whole day and one morning, i threw in the towel on the vacation that was anything but. we headed home at max's naptime and of course, he only slept in the car and didn't transfer in to the house. damn you, illusive transfer-of all days!!

by thursday evening i was very, very "grouchy".

i learned a few things from this "vacaton".

1. don't think that staying up way too late will make me any less grouchy just because we are in a different environment.

2. my already very poor time management skillz don't stand a chance against cable television. i really can't resist the beast.

3. a vacation, when both parents are working, is not really a vacation. thinking any differently is just a set up for failure.

4. although a pain in the tushy to plan, food is very, very important. me need to eat.

5. i love, love, LOVE my king sized bed. although not very aesthetic, (monica, i think you mentioned this.) the amount of space is soooooo essential for us.

don't get me wrong-we had some fun times in the exotic land of bel aire. but it was good to come home.