Let it be known that I do realize that I suck at blogging in a timely manner...

On to the point of this blog post: I'm back from our vacation to Georgia!  John had training, so we went with him, we being Henry, our "almost daughter" (Miss B from here on out), and me.  While John was in training all day, the three of us spent time lounging in the hotel, visiting the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coke, and going to the mall.  Hey, Miss B is almost 14, so you knew the mall would be in there, right!?  :o)

Being the parent of a teenager is hard.  It has great moments, and it has crappy moments.  My mom is probably reading that last sentence and laughing to herself right now.  Any mom of a teenager is probably laughing, too.  But it is hard; I sound more and more like my parents every stinkin' day!  Not that that's a terrible thing, but I never imagined myself having to say things like, "We don't have the budget for that" or "You don't need a new shirt; I just bought you new shirts!" or "My job is not to give you whatever you want, it's to give you what you need, and sometimes that means saying no." or "We have these rules because we love you."

I sound old.

So we had an interesting time on our trip.  We had some good moments, too.  Like, going to the Georgia Aquarium.  Turns out, June 8 is World Ocean Day (you learn something new everyday don't you?) so they had tons of fun kid's things to do.  Henry and Miss B got to dig in sand for shark's teeth (Henry would take my shark's teeth and give them to the other little kids at the sand...what a giver!); make a dolphin ledge out of wood, courtesy of The Home Depot (they even got orange aprons to wear with their names on them!); touch an otter pelt (the softest fur you will ever touch in your life!); make an otter puppet; check out an alligator skull; and tons more!  The exhibits at the aquarium were great, too.  They had beluga whales and whale sharks and tons of fish and otters and penguins!  We petted sting rays, and we even got to see sea nettle! 

We also went to the World of Coke.  The best part of it was the tasting room.  You can try all the different Coke products from all over the world.  Lots of the drinks were fruity, and some of them were really good!  Miss B loved the Lemon Crush that's offered in Europe, I think.  But we all hated a drink called Beverly, from Italy.  I don't know how that drink has ever made it in popularity because it is the most bitter drink I have ever tasted.  Some little kid was saying, "It tastes like beer!" and I wanted to ask him, "How do you know?" but I didn't really want to hear his answer, so I kept my mouth shut.  Henry was soaking wet when we left there because he had his own cup of drink, and I foolishly gave him some red soft drink, and when I looked down at him, his entire hand and forearm were stained red from where he would stick his hand in the cup and suck the liquid off his hand.  All I could think was, "And this is what we put in our bodies!?"  On the way out, they give you a bottle of Coke--a glass bottle.  It's in the fridge cooling off now; it will be so yummy!

We also went to the local mall, which is two stories and huge.  Most of the stores in there offer items I can't afford.  But it's fun to look!  We also went to the local park where they have two huge play areas.  It was so hot down there, though, that we were all soaking wet from sweat in 30 minutes!  We stopped by Wildman's Shop.  He has tons of stuff for sale, like books, and if you go back in his "museum" (it costs a quarter) you can see and buy Civil War memorabilia.  He had hats and clothes and pictures and canteens and just about anything you could imagine.  It totally freaked Miss B out, but Wildman is one of the nicest people you will meet.  He has lots of stories and is a pretty interesting character.

It's good to be home, though. 

Henry sleeps better here, and so do I!  I'll have to post pictures soon, and show you the picture of my bruised lip, along with that story.  Let's just say that Henry has a hard head!