Well here it is. Day 1 of the great vacation. I am blogging to you direct from not so sunny Buffalo. Before I get into today's details, I first want to apologize for not giving any of the before I go drivel and panic. It has been incredibly crazy here. Let me explain!

It all started on July 21st. My sister calls at 5:30 in the morning to tell me that my Mom is in the ER. That's it, we don't know what is wrong, or whether she is being admitted. I gave my sister my work number and asked her to call me when she had more details. She called around noon to say that it was my Mom's Gall Bladder and that they were admitting her. After work, I drove down to visit her and also to pick up my brother Chris. Chris was to stay with Kirstyn and I until either I left for my holiday, or Mom came home. Well here it is time for my holiday, and Mom is still in the hosital. She hopes to go home on Monday now. Three weeks after being admitted.

So my brother Jeff came on Wednesday to pick up Chris. I know I should have been packing, however, I promised Kirstyn I would take her to see Mamma Mia as a thank you for giving up her summer to watch Chris. We bothed loved the movie, however, I don't think Pierce Brosnan should take up singing.

So moving on, I spent Thursday doing all my last minute running around, and Friday was spent packing. Everything went well until I decided to weigh my luggage (all within the limit). When I was taking the last case off the scale, I stubbed my toe. Didn't think anything of it until I looked down and saw the blood. Turns out I pulled part of the nail off. I thought I had bandaids, but they wouldn't stay on. So ... off Kirstyn and I go (at midnight) to the 24 hour drugstore to get gauze and bandages. I finally roled into bed at 1:30.

It is now today, Saturday. What else can go wrong I ask myself. It was a crazy day. I dropped off Budde at Donna's and headed down to the hospital to visit Mom and to celebrate Kirstyn's and Chris' birthday. Mom was on limited solids, so Kirstyn made a paper cake. It was cute! We had the party in the lounge near Mom's room. After the party, we headed to Mom's house to print off our boarding passes for Southwest. When I asked "What else can go wrong?", I was kidding right, will not.. It started to rain, and rain, and rain. When we left Mom's and headed to Buffalo, the rain followed us. Here it is 11 pm, and it is still raining.

We made okay time to Buffalo, and found our hotel. After checking in, we made our way to the Walden's Galleria for some shopping, then had some dinner and now here I am typing this. We're getting ready for some sleep. Our flight to LA leaves tomorrow at 3:05 pm. I can't believe we are actually leaving. I booked this trip January 31, 2007 and here we are. So talk to you tomorrow!