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Shelly's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 8/27/00 -------------------- 8/26/00 8/25/00 8/24/00 8/23/00 -------------------- Shelly's Introduction

August 24, 2000

August 24, 2000

Wow! Richard Hatch won the million bucks. I don’t feel strongly about it one way or another, as I hadn’t watched the show before. I was a little surprised at the venom spewed by that one woman, Susan. Maybe she was right, but she just seemed like a sore loser to me.

Well, Jim left for Colorado this morning while the rest of us were still in bed. That left me in charge. I had to be the grown-up. The boys and I got dressed and headed down to the lobby for the complimentary breakfast buffet. They offered quite a selection. The boys had doughnuts, but I was trying to eat well. I just had a hard-boiled egg and some strawberry yogurt. I think I would’ve rather had the doughnut. I also made the boys each a cup of warm chocolate. That’s what they call it because they don’t like it to be hot, and I have to add either cold water or milk to cool it down.

Everything went fairly smoothly at the airport. I made arrangements with my mom to have a car seat waiting for us there. That way, I only had to drag around one big suitcase -- carrying clothes for the three of us -- leaving one hand free to hold on to Aaron. Each of us have a backpack. The boys have toys, snacks, paper and crayons and one change of clothes (just in case) in theirs, while mine serves as my purse, as well as holding any overflow, such as books, juice pouches, a camera, etc.

We played I Spy in line until it was our turn at the check in counter. Then we grabbed a quick lunch before we boarded our plane. I was the most concerned about Aaron’s ears during take-off and landing because he doesn’t chew gum, yet, and he doesn’t seem to get the hang of making himself yawn. That’s why I’ve got the juice pouches -- to give him something to swallow during take-off and landing.

My mom was waiting for us at the gate when we landed in Sacramento. She had bought a brand new booster seat for Aaron that we were told to take home with us at the end of the trip. What a generous gift! Mom didn’t know how to strap the booster onto the seat of her Yukon, so she had driven to the airport with it loose in the back. I struggled to get the seat into a safe position in the sweltering SUV, which had been sitting out in the 95+ degree heat for the past half an hour. That wasn’t much fun. But I finally wrestled the booster into place, and we drove to my grandma’s.

My mom and step-dad actually live in Morgan Hill, a town just south of San Jose. But my mom’s mom lives in Sacramento. I arranged to have us fly in there so the boys and I could visit with my grandma during our trip. We’ll be flying out from San Jose when we leave next Tuesday.

I was thrilled to find out my cousin, Brandi, whom I haven’t seen in years, now lives near my grandma. She has three boys of her own, and she came with them to visit us this evening. Our visit was clouded, however, by the recent death of her grandmother -- my great aunt, as I had mentioned in an earlier entry. She’s understandably torn up about it. Her boys are well-mannered, although a bit rambunctious. I could tell my grandma was getting nervous having five young boys running around and in and out of her mobile home. When Brandi left, I told her we’d get together one more time before I left Sacramento on Saturday. I wanted to visit with her, and I knew the boys would love to have other kids to play with. I’ll have to figure something out, since I don’t have a car, and I’m at my mom’s mercy in that respect.