i'm back from my hiatus.
i hesitate to call it a vacation since Webster defines "vacation" as a period of time devoted to pleasure, rest, or relaxation. and visiting my mother involves none of these three things.

i should have known early on that it was going to be a disaster, when, only an hour into our little excursion, i was so agitated that i was ready to turn around and go home. We spent an hour at ticketing because somehow Midwest screwed up and didn't charge us for the tickets. so, basically, the kids were fed up, i was fed up, and Isabella was hungry and we hadn't even made it through customs, security, gone on the little bus to take us to another terminal, or gotten on the plane yet.

we made it to milwaukee in one piece. and i survived the dreaded "whip the boob out in a public place and breastfeed" little adventure. the trick was to wear my jacket while i fed her so people walking by didn't even know i had a baby on my lap. i was still mighty uncomfortable.

my mother is menopausal, so her house is kept at a balmy, oh, i'd say negative temperature. we all froze. she kept trying to convince us that the heat was on, and went on at 65, but there was NO way any heat was on it that house.

on saturday night Emily came down with the fever. the 103.5 fever. and she had been complaining that her stomach hurt. we, the obvious medical experts that we are, diagnosed her with a UTI. we managed to get her through the night, and then on sunday morning, while the husband was golfing all day until 2:15, i took emily and isabella to the walk-in. she didn't want to pee into the "hat" as they called it, so we were there for 3 hours. and, drumroll please, she has a UTI. and she doesn't take medicine....so, i've been covered in vomit twice now. yay.

I didn't reallly buy much for myself. my mother and i did manage to make it to DSW for about 20 minutes and i managed to buy myself 3 pairs of shoes. the lack of time, and the fact that the husband made me feel super guilty about spending money, meant i came home with those three pairs of shoes and nothing else. oh, and 4 bottles of shower gel from bath and body works.

the kids did well, though. my mom had bought them TONS of new clothing. probably to make up for the fact that we came in for a few days and she worked both on friday and on monday...