Back to Reality

Is my vacation already over??? Yes, tomorrow marks the return the working world. Folly Beach was fabulous as always, and the time seemed to pass twice as fast as normal, but it always does when you're on vacation. We had a wonderful, relaxing time doing nothing more than we wanted to do which mostly consisted of sitting on the beach listening to the waves and people-watching, picking up shells, reading, playing card games, eating (of course!), and that's about it. This year our group included me, Mom, Aunt Linda, Fran, Allison, Melissa, Sandra, Melanie, Margaret, and "Miss" Kathy. Melissa managed to make it through her short stay without going into labor. Even the boys, Dave and Elliott, got to come down and spend some "QT" with their ladies. On Wednesday, the first (and most likely only) belly cast ever was made at Uncle Johnny's beach house of Melissa's very pregnant belly. Since the house was remodeled Uncle Johnny has great big bathroom with a walk-shower that bigger than my master suite. It was perfect area for belly casting. As usual one of our favorite parts of the house is the outside shower. There's nothing like taking a refreshing shower to wash off the salt water, sand and sun tan lotion while still listening to the waves and smelling the beach air. And as for the shells, the reason I was so excited is that we've never found what I would call "good" shells at Folly--that is until this year! They have built up the beach with sand dredged from somewhere in the ocean or the river and along with the new sand are tons of great shells. Mostly I found the state shell, the lettered olive, and what we call "screw shells." I even found my very first whole sand dollar. I have been contemplating craft projects using my finds.

Every year the "old ladies" try to sucker us in to playing card games with them. This year they had fresh blood with Dave being there. He wooed the "old ladies" with his eagerness and willingness to join their games which included Mexican Train Dominoes and Canasta. He's quite the sport, I have to say. Both of the little girls (Margaret is 2 years and two months, Allison is 23 months) thoroughly enjoyed themselves and played so sweetly together. Margaret's last trip to Uncle Johnny's was at a only six weeks old so this trip was definitely more fun and memorable for her. Uncle Johnny joined us on Thursday night and we enjoyed a lovely dinner of shrimp creole and banana pudding for dessert. This was the only real meal we cooked all week. Now I'm not saying we didn't do our share of eating, but the rest of the time we feasted mainly on salads, spreads, and veggies. This year even I joined in the card games. On Thursday after Dave went home the ladies needed a fourth hand to join in a game I'd never played called Hand and Foot which is a form of Canasta. And I really enjoyed playing. Mom and I teamed up against Aunt Linda and Miss Kathy. Each team won one game.

Friday came all to fast as usual and we packed up early and headed back home. Of course its always great to be back home because I miss my furry babies, Dave and my house. A few more days away from work would have been glorious, though. So now I'm sitting here on Sunday night in shock that my vacation is over and I have to go to work tomorrow. Ahhhhhhhh, until next year....