We were all rather loopy and snappish by the time we got to Omaha at 9 o’clock this evening. Annalie and I just spent three full days driving halfway across the country with my parents, and this was my view for much of the time. Well, Annalie wasn’t watching movies the WHOLE time. She actually shut the DVD player a lot and colored or played with toys or told stories to herself or just watched the scenery. What she didn’t do was nap. I napped more than she did. I whiled away the daylight hours in the not-nearly-as-spacious-as-our-minivan’s backseat, crocheting or reading or playing with Annalie. Once it got dark I drove, since my mom doesn’t like driving at night and my dad’s night vision isn’t what it used to be. We had one small collision with what we think was a blown tire—it was dark, I was driving, we saw nothing till we drove over it, bumper was dented, otherwise no harm done—but no other incidents.

It’s 12:43am and Annalie is lying in bed behind me quacking. Now she’s asking me if I like her quacking. When I shushed her and told her to close her eyes, she said conversationally, “Mama, I hate you.” I told her that was not a very kind thing to say, and she immediately said in the exact same tone of voice, “Mama, I like you a lot.”

I think I’d better go to bed so she’ll go to sleep.

P.S. It’s now 12:48. As I was typing that last paragraph Annalie said, “Mama, I think while I’m waiting for you to come to bed I’ll just close my eyes and have a little nap, okay?” Suuuure, you go ahead and take an 8-hour nap, kid. She’s asleep now.

Silly Brenda. She thought all I really wanted was for her to watch my cats while we were on vacation. Little did she know I purposely left dozens of unpacked boxes lying around the house to drive her crazy, so she would feel compelled to unpack. Bwahahahah!

*Honestly, I had no evil plan. Brenda is just nuts. She’s unpacking the rest of our house (with our permission) while we’re in Texas. It’s not my idea of fun, but she claims she is loving every minute.

And now she has our undying gratitude and and endless supply of crocheted projects and homemade birthday cakes for as long as she wants them. She also has an open invitation to come help us unpack anytime we move!

P.S. Thanks to Sarah for the inspiration.
P.P.S. Are you wondering what the heck “pwned” means?

Last time we came to Texas, I started our trip with a cold. I got over it, then got another cold worse than the first one.

So far on this trip I am well…and three of the people I’m visiting are sick.

Pray for me!