Reset: the stars aligned, and a fun, memory-making adventure

It's Sunday night and I just got home. It was a whirlwind. The 2 little girls and I drove to St. Louis Saturday. We left around 12:45 after they each had some time with their closest friend respectively. Curly drove down in the morning with a teammate, so she was sure to arrive in plenty of time to play. This meant I could have a bit more time at home. 

I slept fine Friday night, but only sleeping 2.5 hours Thursday night caught up with me on the drive down. I could NOT keep my eyes open. I had a Coke with me, but I avoided drinking it in order to skip having to stop to pee. 

Instead, I reached for these Talking Point cards that my SIL, Aunt Leprechaun, gave our family at Christmas. We hadn't used them yet. The girls had been reading in the backseat. 

Fun fact:  they do really well on long car rides. Note to self:  next time they tick you off, book a hotel somewhere, throw them in the backseat, and start driving. Kidding. Sort of. 

I asked them if they wanted to read through some of these questions. They were all about it. We laughed and joked around and shared things with each other. Biggest pet peeve. My answer:  sniffling. Rae had the sniffles and I told her to toss a box of Kleenex in the car and she forgot, so we all laughed at that one. My laugh might have been through gritted teeth. 

Other questions included things like what we'd do if we had 3 wishes. Both girls said one wish would be spent on making both of their feet the same size. Having club feet really sucks for them. Questions popped up about whether or not you'd prefer to spend a week in the past or in the future. What wild animal you'd keep if you could train one to live with you. You get the idea. 

One thing that I sort of anticipated, but never came up:  no talk of wanting to go back in time to make my parents/mom behave differently/make better choices. 

Overall, it was a really good trip. Short and sweet. The family therapist had suggested more connection. Trying to get the girls up to speed to how we do things leads to lots of correcting. 

Exhibit A:  Rae wore pants that she found in her gym locker a few weeks ago, because 'hers now.' Um, no. Those need to go to the lost and found. I swear the correcting is constant and we do connect with them by way of family games, or they'll sit in the study and watch video clips with me as I prep Reg's video, or we'll chat in the stands at a sporting event. But it is hard to always connect. Plus I've been out of town at b-ball a lot lately. 

We surprised Curly and hung this on the door of
her room. Rae made it on the drive down. Note
 the top right corner:  BY:  YOUR BIGGEST FAN.
Cute, right? 

Then this happened at check-in:  

Hotel (AC Marriott, fancier than I anticipated and the girls were amazed at the fancy touches in the bathroom, etc.):  Oh, looks like you booked 2 queen beds. 

Me:  Yep.

Hotel:  Oops. We oversold those. I can put you in a room with a pullout. 

Me:  No. That won't work. I didn't pack a sleeping bag and there's no way the two girls can share a pullout. 

Hotel:  OK, we'll just give you two king rooms then, and we'll pay for one of them.

Score! The rooms didn't adjoin, but they were right next to each other. I 'bout lost my mind trying to keep the room keys separate in their little envelopes. Two rooms was ideal, because I'd stressed about all 4 of us in one room. Curly hangs out with teammates till 1 am sometimes. Plus, one bathroom? I considered leaving the girls home because of the fact that the room wasn't an Embassy Suites type set up. Rae took the king & Kay took the pullout in one room. Curly and I shared the king in the other room. 

I have b-ball stories to go into another time, but Curly played great. We only had 6 girls, (thus the story for another time) so she was exhausted after the 4 games in 2 days. 

Before we drove to St. Louis (Chesterfield to be exact), I found out that the hotel didn't have a pool. What on earth? Or a microwave in the room, but one was in the lobby which was fine. Or a free breakfast, so I packed breakfast food.

Sunday before Curly's games, we had some free time. The zoo was the wrong direction and we had limited time after we went to church. Plus we had to check out by noon. Only staying one night threw me off. In Texas for b-ball we were there 3 nights. I'd instructed the girls to bring bathing suits in case we bumped into friends at another hotel and managed an invite to their pool.

There was no bumping, so we drove to an area with abundant hotel options. I told them to just act casual. Nothing to see here sort of thing. We were gonna borrow pool time from another hotel, or die trying.  

At the first hotel, we turned the corner and the pool was empty. Foiled. 

Rae thought we were done, and she was not sure about the whole idea and what have I done corrupting foster children? I told her, If at first you don't succeed . . . 

The next hotel was like a ghost town, which wasn't good because we needed foot traffic to open the pool door. It was like a conference center, so the pool was a mile away from everything, down a long hall. There were no people. A locked door. 

I told the girls to wait there. I walked down the hall and was gonna ask a guest for the loan of their key, but then I realized that this woman worked in the hotel as she was entering the Staff Only room. Eek. 

Me:  Never mind.

Staff:  No, what do you need? It's fine.

Me:  My husband when to the store and took our room key and my kids were hoping to go for a swim. 

Staff:  No problem.

Woot! Woot!

B-I-N-G-O!

There were no towels in the pool area and I wasn't about to go ask at the front desk. Magically a worker appeared to deliver towels to the empty towel shelves. There were even goggles in the lost and found that they borrowed. The girls swam for a half hour before we raced back to our hotel to gather our things, change clothes, and drive to Curly's game. It was an adventure. 

We arrived home safe and sound at 9 pm Sunday night. 30 minutes earlier than  Google Maps predicted. Hi, Google Maps, have we met?  Um, fortunately there were no speeding tickets for the queen of speeding tickets. All in all, the stars aligned this weekend.  

The girls' social worker is coming this afternoon to follow up on my tearful call last week. We've had a nice break from regular life and the nitty gritty of rules and expectations. I hope her conversation hits home with them a little. 

As in:  rules are necessary, fun happens, too. Balance. Remember to be respectful. 

Thanks for the words of encouragement after Friday's panic post. Truly so appreciated. I had a little pick me up each time I saw another comment. I feel blessed to have all of you in my internet world. 

This week:  I'm hosting a pasta party for both the girls' varsity soccer team and the varsity boys' volleyball team Thursday night. And two amazing college kids who are very willing to support our adoption goal, reinforce our rules, but also joke around and set a good example COME HOME ON FRIDAY. I'm counting the hours, can you tell? XO