Its been a while since I wrote. I had to get ready for our Florida trip, which was from hell. Driving for 2 days, with 3 kids was ridiculous. Once we finally arrived at father in law's house, he didn't put any of his breakable stuff away. So of course, my 20 month old son promptly chips some thing he has on his coffee table within 10 minutes of arriving. Um, sir, you had 5 kids, don't you remember how they are? Apparently not.

The man got into some awful moods, and basically ignored the kids, except to tell them to get away from something, or bitch at them. What a relaxing vacation. He has a pool, but didn't bother to heat the darned thing so the kids could swim, so my girls are in the 68 degree pool, with blue lips and shivering. They couldn't wait to swim.

I asked to do some laundry, and apparently I don't know how. I got a lecture on how many towels to stick in the dryer. His only takes 5. And those 5 take nearly 3 hours to dry. Brand new Neptune dryer too. I thought they worked better. I've got a 13 year old Hotpoint which dries better than that! Unfortunately, said Hotpoint died the nite before we left, so I had to head to my parents to finish up clothes to take with us. Oh the joys of travel preparation.

Fortunately, after the run in with my ass-in-law, I talked with hubby and told him either we were leaving the next day, which was a day early, or the kids and I were flying home and he could drive the van back for 2 days, by himself. He waffled a bit, feeling guilty, but was finally persuaded that we didn't need this kind of vacation. We left the next morning, ass-in-law not sure what to do. But apparently relieved the invaders were gone.

I feel sorry for my children. Their paternal grandparents seem to be so wrapped up in their own little worlds, they forget about my children. Not sure what they do with the rest of their grandkids, but I know they don't pay much attention to mine. Its their loss. My parents are so attentive and giving to my kids. They make up for the lack of effort from the other side.

Aside from those areas, we had a decent vacation. We took the kids to Sea World and had so much fun walking around, watching some shows, seeing lots of cool aquatic beings and having the kids tell us where we were going next. 7 hours is quite a long time to be in 1 place, but it was worth it. I'd go back, just to see the joy in my children's eyes.

We also took in the beach, which was a blast for my 4 year old, who had never been to a beach. She nearly got swept away a few times from the tide, but fortunately, she was always rescued. My 20 month old didn't much appreciate the water, constant waves rushing in at low tide, or the noise, but the sand was fun for him to play in. He'd take shells and dig. Right up his alley. My 7 year old daughter had fun racing the waves to the shore. The kids and I went by ourselves one day near high tide, as hubby and said ass-in-law spent the day at Cape Canaveral. It was such joy to see my daughters holding hands and watching the waves come in. We all got wet, and loved it. They thought it was most funny that I got wet up to my hips. I didn't like the wet undies on the way home, but what the heck, my kids had fun, and so did I.

My insulin pump holder broke the 2nd day there, so keeping my pump in my pocket was a bit of a pain. At night, sticking my pump in my underwear isn't the optiome of comfort, but it worked. Still waiting for my new holder. Its becoming quite annoying.

My blood sugars were all over the place on vacation too. Its hard to balance food with insulin and lack of exercise while driving. I started my amylin again, so that brings down my blood sugars a bit more, so it was quite a tight rope walk for a few days. My endo won't be pleased with my next A1C, but you know, I do my best. Unless you live with this disease day in and day out, you have no idea how hard it is. A doc can lecture you until she is blue in the face, but damn it, this isn't an easy disease to live with. Fears of lows, fears of highs. God forbid I get sick, that's when its the worst. Dealing with children. I wish there was some magic button like on the Staples commercial I could push to make it all easier. But that button doesn't exist. At least in my life.

I'm trying to exercise more, and even walked up our hill to the bus stop this morning with my now 8 year old. I can't believe she turned 8 on April 1. Yep, an April Fools baby. She was 27 days early too, so no one believed us when we announced her arrival. She actually loves having her birthday on April 1. She gets to play jokes on us, and the ideas of jokes for an 8 year old are hilarious. She's playing with sarcasm now, which can be irritating, but with her parents being quite sarcastic, its not a surprise.

Back to real life. Gotta find a new dryer. I attempted to start laundry at my parents house yesterday, but was interrupted by a major storm, and 3 trees were uprooted in their back yard, taking out the power lines. Watching 3 huge 40 foot locust trees come out by the roots is amazing. I'm glad no one was hurt, but darn it, I need to finish my laundry. Guess I'll have to find a laundromat and sit there for a few hours.