Spring Trip, Part 1

We took our yearly spring trip to Little Rock, Arkansas to visit my parents last week. As usual, we had a fantastic time. So much happened last week that I am going to have to put everything down in installments. I love you guys too much to make you read everything in one sitting. You can thank me later.

There is so much that we're trying to absorb from our trip. Our flight in was a good one. We had what a fellow passenger called a "Navy-pilot's landing" because an air force pilot would have landed a lot smoother. I still get tickled over that! As usual, we did a lot of shopping. This time though, the shopping wasn't at Lowe's but at every clothing and shoe shop in the general vicinity. I needed shoes and Violet needed a dress and shoes for Easter. My parents bought Violet an early birthday present while we were there, a bright pair of Twinkle Toes by Sketchers. That kid has been walking on lighted air ever since she received them! Too bad they don't make them in adult sizes.

Violet ate quite well while at my parents house, willingly trying new foods. The one food she had an issue with, pizza! That is when she decided to be her usual picky self. We bought an amazing supreme pizza from Sam's for dinner one night. After carefully picking everything off Violet's slice, she bit into her pizza and declared she didn't like it. Grrr. I told her that I'd make her a peanut butter sandwich (yes, no jelly!) once I was done eating my dinner and she happily accepted that. Being the frugal (and somewhat lazy) mom that I am, I halved her slice of pizza and cleaned every topping off it. And then, I lied to my child. I told her I fixed her another slice and asked her to try it. She looked at me warily (I think she's starting to catch on to me) and takes a bite. This time though, she declared her pizza was wonderful and proceeded to eat every last bite!!! My Mom looked at me in astonishment, not believing what she was witnessing with her own two eyes. Yes folks, that's life for you with a picky eater.


Tuesday night we spent the night holed up in my parent's hallway. Tornadoes were barreling their way through Arkansas and the surrounding states. Violet took it all in stride, never realizing the danger we were in. After watching the news carefully, I yanked cushions off one of my parent's couches and lined the hallway with them. Next, I pulled out blankets, pillows, and kiddo's portable dvd player and games. The headphones she wore were a godsend as they blocked out the sound of the alarms going off. We were fortunate, no tornadoes hit our area. We did get golf ball sized hail though. Even though I don't like living in the coastal areas of Texas, I'm thankful for where we live. At least here we know well in advance when a storm is coming and we have time to evacuate.