I must tell you, I was muttering "Calgon take me away!" as the day for my vacation from my family arrived.

It was about two hours before my departure time to Austin, TX with two of my dearest mom friends, and I was NOT relaxed! No, I was shopping like a mad woman as 5-year old Dylan is "snack leader" this week at school, meaning I was responsible for snacks and drinks for 13 kids. I didn't want to come home refreshed only to go out Sunday night shopping for apple juice, pretzels and granola, so I bought out Target before I left. It looked like a convenience store blew up in my pantry, and given my current messy state of affairs, I couldn't fit all the junk in the pantry. So I conducted a reorg effort most corporations would be envious of.  

After that monumental task, Dylan drops orange juice everywhere in the kitchen -- fully knowing my husband doesn't want to walk across a floor that is as sticky as bubble gum, I chose to mop. Did I mention I needed to also do 3 loads of laundry before I got out the door? Did I mention I was still packing 5 minutes before my departure?

I finally get in the car and know I have a 4-hour drive ahead. But without kids in tow my friends and I had 5 years of unfinished conversations in which to make a dent. And what did we talk about? Style? Great hopes and dreams? Current events? Amazing books? Nope, we largely talked about, well, our kids. Not entirely, but on our weekend away, we did spend a lot of time gabbing about our little guys and girls. The best part of this is that it was uninterrupted conversation as blissful as a bubble bath.

And when we didn't discuss kids, we talked a lot about food. What restaurants we would pick. We ate well, though an unexpected treat was Hey Cupcake! -- a cupcake stand in a parking lot complete with a live guitar player (Austin is known for its live music, hence Austin City Limits...) You can check it out at http://heycupcake.com/index.htm 

We also spent time in the spa and emerged with lovely fingers and toes. We ate breakfast where a pianist played, people waited on us, poured us coffee and no one was told they had to be out the door in NO MORE THAN 5 minutes or risk being late for school. In fact, the waiter brought our bill which sat unnoticed for a good half hour.

We did sample the nightlife in Austin, which is a must given its reputation for live music. We enjoyed it; however, the only club scene I've been part of lately is the "Kids Klub" (after school program) so I kept waiting for my stagecoach (or my friend's hybrid SUV) to turn into a pumpkin at midnight.  Remarkably it didn't and we stayed out until 1:00 a.m., my latest night in oh, about a decade!

Such simple pleasures...

We came home saying we could have used another day, but when I walked in the door I was greeted with an enthusiastic call of "BIG HUG!" from Dylan, who showered me with kisses and hugs. My husband Tim and Dylan and I then gathered for a family "shake" (big hug with some groovy shaking) and at that point it was good to be home.