Do you want to be inspired today? My cousin sent this to me and for some reason it touched me to my soul.

MY INSPIRATION

(this is about 3 1/2 minutes long)

Have a dream? Mine was to become a doula and a singer. I’ve got one of the two in reach.

HHHHHEEEELLLLLLLOO? Did you hear that? Weird. I mean the silence is almost deafening. It is kind of freaking me out a little.
HG and HB are gone for the week. I don’t know what to do with myself. I’ve already cleaned their rooms, closets….etc. Last night it occured to me that I could run out to get groceries at any old time I pleased. I could say…..go to a furniture shop without worrying about chasing HB around. I could run naked without having to worry about anyone seeing me. I could be like I was before I had kids.
I don’t know what to do with myself. Before they left I had all kind of plans. I think I’ve been programmed to not do anything without them and to take them into consideration that I can’t figure out what to do with myself.
Mercy I’m a sad sad case.

I learned this weekend that frankly staying up until 3 in the morning and getting up for meetings by 7 two days in a row makes me a bit wonky. I learned I knew NOTHING about poker. THANK HEAVENS we were not playing strip poker because mercy I would have lost it all plus some. (if that is in the least bit possible) I now understand that public transportation even though is quite cheap that there is a +50% chance that you will be stuck next to someone with breath that smells like they’ve been drinking for the good part of the year. OH and add B.O. to match their breath. HAVE MERCY.
I decided to do the tourist thing and get to know the city. HH was in meetings so I decided to jet around town on the local bus line. I caught the bus to go to the Mall Of America. I felt proud of the fact that I had indeed saved myself $40.00. I spent $1.50 on the ride there and $2.00 on the ride back.
The little fact that I forgot about riding downtown city busses is occasionally there are those that say….SLEEP on the bus….like all day. There are those that REEK up the bus. If only they would have put their arms down. There are those that talk to themselves and answer! Then there are the Chatty Kathy’s like myself that will talk to anyone who will listen. In this instance I was enjoying the silence. It was nice to not to have to think…until Roberta sat down….next to me.
She started off with saying hi and introducing herself between burps. After that she told me about her children, her lack of job, how she is losing weight by walking the Mall Of America. The kicker to that was that she was losing weight by walking around and then she would stop for two packs of peanut M&M’s for the ride home. Between bits of nuts falling out of her mouth she explained that she did indeed have a weight problem. REALLY? WOW I didn’t know. I mean I myself am a bigger lady and to have another lady bigger than me lay part of her leg on my leg when she sat down…needless to say I noticed that she was overweight. Then she went on to explain how she gained her weight by having the children that no longer live with her. They were adopted out. I sympathized and then she told me that she was born in a rich family but her parents spoiled her by giving her everything and did not spank her. Roberta then went on to explain how she came to be in St Paul. She came because then man she was living with in Kentucky decided to go to Minnesota for a visit. He proceeded to get arrested for indecent exposure while being a tad on the….let’s just say the inebriated side. She explained that she went to go bail him out of jail and decided to stay. WOW! She said she fell in love with him and decided to marry him. I guess she found that hot that he exposed himself…I don’t know.
She told me that she was looking for a job at The Limited. She loved that store if only it would come in her size. I agreed that would be GREAT if they took it upon themselves to not stop at size 16 but may be stop at say….20! While she was explaining that she filled out a job application there today she burped about 3 more times and giggled.
Personally I think Roberta although a very cheerful and funny lady was a bit two sheets to the wind. Those two sheets flew off when she passed gas so loud and smelly that I had to get off the bus a stop early. I could not hack it. MERCY! It was an adventure with dear dear Roberta.
With the exception of Roberta St. Paul was a very clean city. We did a riverboat cruise up the Mississippi. What a blast. We got to hang with the mucky mucks. That was definately fun.
The last night we had a comedian named C. Willi Myles. MERCY he was funny. If you click on the link you can learn more about him. What a great guy.
The trip was fun. Roberta stole the show on the bus and made me not know whether to giggle or feel sorry for her. I still don’t know if she was joking around or just plain drunk. I guess I will never know. The time alone with hub was hubalicious. I think we should have manditory time outs. Yah Yah that’s it…manditory time outs.

This week was my one week before we would jet set again. HH and I are running away to Minnesota. His work is having a conference and I was invited to go. I love the perks to his job. HB is at his nana’s and papa’s house for a week, HG is going to camp and I am running away! Anybody in Minnesota out there?

FLORIDA WAS FANTASTIC. All of us feel tired, refreshed, energized, and ready to get back to normal life. What a great trip.
It started out by meeting HH’s “sister” and husband. They are like family. Might as well be family. We met Auntie when we were in high school. She was a foreign exchange student from Finland. We met her in Florida along with her husband and two…soon to be three children!! Also HH’s brother and girlfriend met us for a few days to spend time with Auntie and everyone else. Then the surprise of HH’s mom coming was almost too much for Auntie to handle. She was so excited to see mom. It had been 3 years since she had seen her last. It was a great time of fun and relaxation.
If you were to ask HB his funnest moment it would be when he was dancing with Tiger in the parade. He was bouncing and dancing around the dining room and WHOOSH….his pants fell off. He fell to the floor laughing so hard. The waiters andthe rest of us were in stitches as well. Such a funny happy little guy. Oh and his greatest accomplishment was the fact that he learned how to swim on this trip. He now knows how to swim above and under water!!!
HG’s favorite times were the times she got to mother hen the 1 and 4 year old little girls. Oh she loved that. She will make an AWESOME babysitter one day. Even though they did not speak English…they all spoke the international language of Polly Pockets. By the end of the week they were saying things like “Kittos” (meaning thank you in Finnish) and little phrases to each other. The four year old learned how to say, “LET’S GO PLAY” and “NO NO HB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” She learned that pretty quick. The most awesome moment was to see her star struck when we had lunch with the princesses. We ate in Norway and had lunch with the princessed. Or shall I say…..we had lunch minus her. She would not eat. She just stared in adoration at Ariel, Jasmine, Cinderella and Snow White. She was normally a great eater. Just not that lunch. Those moments were worth their weight in gold!
Another awesome moment was watching the Space Shuttle launch. I should say….they had a great time watching the Shuttle launch. I was too busy with trying to pull myself out of a bush. I tripped over a little kid while running to let them know the Shuttle had launched and fell face first into a bush by the edge of a lake. The little kid didn’t even know what had happened. SHEESH I was so embarrassed.
HH and I had a wonderful time just relaxing and bonding. It’s moments like these that are wonderful. I would see him playing with the kids and fall for him like I did 18 years ago. He just sets my heart to twitter.
Anyway…we’re back only to leave here again! Hope you all are having a wonderful summer.

Is it time to come home already? I told H that I wanted to stay on vacation forever. He told me to make a few million and he would gladly comply. RATS!
The trip has been an absolute BLAST! I have loved every moment. I will update you when I get home on Sunday.
By the way….Mickey says “HI!”

Just wanted to let you know that I have not forgotten about you all. I have just been getting ready for DISNEY! We leave TODAY! It has snuck up on me and bit me on the butt!
I will update when I can while I am away.
So long…farewell…be back soon!