My sisters love Cancun. They love it so much, in fact, that they recently planned for and paid for their fourth (yep, you read that right, fourth) trip to the same resort in Cancun in the last 8-9 years.

Unfortunately . . . . .

They're scheduled to leave on November 5 for their resort. Wonder if it's still there?

In other news, Betsy and Chris (of the tornado tale) are expecting their third baby! Congratulations to them and their two girls. It turns out that Betsy was about 2 weeks pregnant when they lost their house. Rebuilding is underway, and with any luck, they'll be in their rebuilt house about a month before the baby comes.

Destruction and construction all around.

Happiness all around!

This month is the time to celebrate my parents' 45th wedding anniversary, my dad's 67th birthday, our 9th anniversary, and my sister's 44th birthday. Hallmark is earming record profits this month, by the way.

Last weekend, I took the girls to a fast food place for lunch while Greg was off at his vroom-vroom class. We were eating (or Allie and I were eating while Julia busied herself sucking ketchup over and over again off one french fry) when a bride-to-be came in, complete with veil and attendant.

Someone asked her when the wedding was (it was about 12:30) and she said 2:00. I told her that Saturday was my parent's 45th and she exclaimed, "that's a good omen." Indeed.

Ah, wedded bliss. Right now my loving husband is downstairs on the couch, watching a trashy show about celebrity couples while moaning that his stomach is upset, and I'm on a different floor of the house surfing the web and blogging. We do love each other, honestly. But, at least some of the time, I believe this is how we got to 9 years.

Happy Anniversary, Honey!

The other night, Greg and I were in the kitchen talking about work when Allie came over and said, "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I need to tell you about something that happened at school today." Where does she get this stuff? She's 5!

Fortunately, she still acts like a little girl most of the time. Recently, I called her "buttercup." She smiled, then asked me what a buttercup was, then gave me a huge hug (with a face-splitting smile) when I told her.

She's sweet. Even though she looks grown up these days. Something about her wearing jeans and Converse tennies and hoodies--- And she's getting so tall. Allie's going to be 6 in about 3 months and I can't believe it. What happened to my baby?

I was reading an article in a human resources magazine the other day about how something like 40 percent of Americans lose some vacation every year because they don't take it. And something like 68 percent said that they check either voice or e-mail messages while they're on vacation. And something like 85 percent did not take 5 days of vacation in a row last year.

It's official, we're vacation deprived. Especially, as the experts like to point out, compared to Europe. Would I like the entire month of August off? You betcha. Would I actually do it? Of course not. The world would fall apart, wouldn't it?

We're all so absolutely necessary. At least we tell ourselves so--how immodest.

And how many of the past 10 years have I taken off 5 days of vacation in a row? This year was the first year in 10, since Greg and I went on our honeymoon. Sigh.

Date Night!

Last night, Greg and I got to go on a romantic, no kids-- date. My parents were here at the end of this week, taking care of our two girls because our daycare was closed and they stuck around so we could go out for dinner and a movie last night. Thanks for everything, Mom and Dad!

We ate at Crave, which is one of those oh-so-modern, trendy food type of restaurants and everything was very good. The best part of the meal, however, was the dessert. Strawberry shortcake, in a tall skinny glass, layed and yummy.

After dinner, we walked around the Monona Terrace rooftop garden and looked at the views. It was a beautiful night, not too cold.

Then we drove to the theater and saw, "The 40 Year Old Virgin," which was excellent. Bawdy, sweet, cringe-inducing, very funny.

We did call to say goodnight to the girls. Sweet dreams, glad you aren't here!