Boy do I have a lot to blog about. And also, a lot of laundry. Hmm… which shall I do first? Ha ha, like there was even any question.

So we’re back from our crazy whirlwind trip to Virginia. First I’ll give my overall thoughts/impressions and then later we’ll have some fun “House Hunters” style.

- I still hate flying. Oh yes, I do. Every time we hit a bump I was certain we were about to crash and I started imagining the rushed cell phone call I’d make to my son A~ (he stayed back in Washington with a friend’s family). And you know that’s just a call I never want to make. The flight back was especially bad. It’s not a good sign when the plane is wobbling from side to side (like a freaking boat!) and making horrible creaking noises and you haven’t even left the runway yet.

- The airline we used shall forever be renamed “We do what we can to keep families from being United” - it’s a long name but rather accurate. Husband’s company travel agent (who booked/paid for this little excursion) bought the cheapest available seats which meant we didn’t get our seat assignments until we got to the airport. And then? They weren’t together. Well, on the way there it was like 4 together and 1 alone (and I got the 1 alone, so I’m not complaining!) but on the way home? 4 middle seats in 4 different rows and 1 aisle seat 8 rows away from the others. And every airline person we talked to said someone else would fix it until we were standing on the plane and I was plaintively asking perfect strangers to swap seats with us so my children would not be sitting alone. Thank the good Lord there are still nice people on the planet and we were able to at least get two sets of two seats together and my seat was just across the aisle… but talk about unnecessary stress after an already very stressful few days!!

- Virginia is very very pretty. Especially in May. And the people are nice. And the traffic is really no big deal - ahem, at least on the weekends when no one is commuting. And Virginiians give a whole new definition to the word “McMansion”. Holy Cow do they grow ‘em big out there. Not all the houses, mind you. Most of them are quite normal sized and many are even smaller than what we find for the same price out here. But there are entire neighborhoods full of these ginormous houses that look like they could be weekend homes for queens or at least heads of state or something. Seriously, just huge huge huge - they could eat our house for breakfast. Not for nothing but I think i know why some people are a wee bit in debt - can you say more than any family could ever need or want? (or afford for that matter - those houses probably cost at least twice what we could pay, if I even wanted to own a 10,000 square foot estate). We saw one especially big and ornate house with a large “Bank Owned” sign posted out front - yeah, I bet that wasn’t too embarrassing for the former owners.

- Note to the very nice suite hotel where we stayed: It is just mean to have a glimmering pool right outside our window and then tell us it isn’t open for the season until next week. Hasn’t it been in the 80’s for most of May? What are you waiting for?? My kids were SO BUMMED that they didn’t get to go swimming.

- It turns out that R~ and Zeeb can not be bribed. Or at least, can not be bribed to go to sleep. I know because we tried. We let them picked out a little stuffed animal at the mall and then told them they could only have it if they went to sleep without messing around (they were sharing a king sized bed). Apparently, that is simply not possible. They just had to tunnel under the covers and giggle until all hours of the night. I don’t even know how late they would have stayed up because I had to move them every night. One night I moved them back after they were sound asleep and then they woke up at 6am (that would be 3 am our time) and started playing again. And that, my friends, is why those two can never share a room. Sleep would be a thing of the past, for all of us.

There’s more but my head is doing this wooey thing wherein I feel like I’m on a boat even thought I’m sitting at my kitchen table. And also, there’s the laundry. So stay tuned for the next installment: House Hunters goes to Virginia.

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