Tales from the south

The children and i have made our annual road trip to florida, to visit the grandparents. This year's trip was a 'do or die' , as my grandmother was also visiting. I haven't seen my grandmother in many years, as her health didn't allow her to travel much, and i lacked the funds to go all the way to NY by car with two kids. The two kids are also her first Great-grandchildren, and they have never met each other. This trip was going to happen if we had to walk... and it almost came to that.

Our drive was 10 hours, which wasn;t horrible with the kids, who are well travelled. Of course, there are tales to come of it.

My kids refer to their grandparents as Nana and Pappy, solely because when my daughter was born my mother announced she would NOT be a 'mawmaw' or a 'mammy' ... she wanted to be "grandma."
for anyone who knows my parents, "grandma" is just too plain for my mother. She earned Nana, and though she wasn't thrilled with it at first, she has learned its a special title.

As history has shown, the children reflect the parents. I have been told repeatedly I am insane. ok, but those who have met my folks, truly have understanding of WHY i am this way. My parent's home was the original Asylum. In speaking I refer to my home as the asylum, because it goes nicely with our last name- BUT, my folks hold the honor of having the higher Asylum ranking over the Nuthouse.

I am explaining this, because there are several blog entries to come regarding our trip this year, and all of them have a touch of madness to them. I am sure you will get at least a few giggles from our raving hysterical insanity tales.

Please note- we were there for two weeks. there are ALOT of crazies to be posted. some are already typed out and ready to be copied and pasted here, ( ok, so i admit to a cheat now and then) and some will flow out as I go. These will be titled Tales from the south- along with a mini title. some of these tales occured before we even left, but are related to the trip itself, so, you'll get all that fun too.

This post in itself is an introduction to the "tales from the south. " a few details you may need before we begin our trip together through the Asylum.

The "cast" is simple- mostly of my immediate family, though there were some of my parent's or sister's pals that made appearances, and will be noted as we go.

the folks : my mom, and dad- fun ,crazy, life loving folk. they do thier thing and if you don't like it, you can leave. ( see where i get it yet? possibly not, but you'll have a better idea soon) my mother believes strongly in dance like no one's watching, and she does. My father is notorious for his stories. again, this is an obvious trait i inherited, and without his crazy narrations in my youth, you probably wouldn't be getting this blog today.

my sister : several years younger than i, lives with the folks, in a mutual arrangement that seems to work. my sister and i spent most of our childhood trying to kill each other, and as adults now, instead of physical attacks, we test each other's patience and sanity levels. ... severely. i'm not sure about her, but its actually fun for me :)

the dog: my sister's "baby". he;s a bichon mix, a tiny yappy dog that seems to think my sister need ferocious protection. ok, in my case, he's onto something. you can't get too close to sis when the dog is nearby, forget going into her bedroom... but when she was gone to work, this dog was my buddy. we also had a few events that made us think the dog was confused between myself and sis, as if he was seeing double, and couldn''t tell who was who.

"the Mother" is my grandmother. she is called such because she raised more than enough kids to be THE mother. she is no nonsense, yet quiet and observing of everything, even when it seems she is not even there. when she has something to say, be ready. She spent many week long babysitting stints with us, during which we tested HER patience and sanity to no end, and, Bless her, she somehow came through in one piece.

so, with all of these wonderful personalities , plus my own little clan of residents from the nuthouse, my folks' Asylum certainly stayed true to its name, and we, kept our end up by enhancing our own nuthouse qualities. after all, we were on VACATION. left alot of open ended behaviors to induce upon the unwary.

enjoy!! we sure did!!