Sunday, January 18, 2009
Sunday was suppose to be my big trip to Louisiana but that got cancelled. Since my nephew Joe's birthday is the 20th I decided to spend some quality time with him. I love the Houston Zoo, I always have. So I asked Joe if he wanted to go with me to the zoo. We went to the zoo and spent the morning there having a great time. I forget how much fun that is when you take a kid with you. We participated in all the zoo activities, petted the animals they would let you touch and I made Joe pose on anything and everything; as you will be able to tell when you see the pictures.
After the zoo we headed down the street to Methodist Hospital to visit Jerry for awhile and take him some lunch. At this point I had pretty much decided that I was going to leave that evening and just head home. I was spent and ready for some quiet. After the hospital Joe and I headed back to my parents house only to discover we were locked out. My parents went on with their gambling trip so we had no way in. I called my sister who headed over with keys to get in and with her came her kids. At this point I am tired, frustrated and ready for sleep. But with 3 kids running around screaming and hollering it was not going to happen. So the next best thing was a cigarette. I called my daddy on his cell phone and demanded to know where he had them hidden. He was kind enough to tell me and I spent a wonderful few minutes out back smoking like a freight train until my nerves were calm.
At this point my sister called my mom to tell her that Joe was out of school the next day and wanted to stay at her house but my parents were not expected back in town until much later. So I agreed to stay with Joe so he did not have to go the daycare. But only on the condition that we celebrated his birthday and mine, he readily agreed and I allowed him to pick which restaurant we went to for dinner. We had a lovely dinner and then went to Dairy Queen and bought an ice cream cake. We waited until my parents got home at 11, ate a piece of cake and then went to bed.
The best part of the day was when Joseph told me "Aunt Cindy this is the best birthday I have ever had." I was so moved and touched and my whole trip made sense at this point. But, I was still ready to go home.
Next: Day 5, Monday, January 19, 2009, The Trip Home