Mother/Daughter Day

Most of the middle schoolers are in Europe this week so school has pretty much been a snooze for Madison. Apparently, they can't teach when the majority of the class is missing. So I took Madison out of school today and we had a mother/daughter day.

First, we had to put our breakfast on hold to drive to Tom's work. He had locked his keys in his vehicle and we came to the rescue. He gave us a nice tour of his building as we had not really been able to do that since he took a new position almost a year ago.

Next, we had a nice breakfast at this little restaurant up the street from our house. Madison is not keen on trying new things, she feels more comfortable in the old, but I told her that today was about trying something different. She asked that we not try seafood.

After a tasty breakfast, we checked out an apartment building that we are going to check into tomorrow for our friend, Kelly. (Okay, we really did this before we went to open Tom's car, but we want him to think we hurried.) I chatted with a nice, old man who lived across the street from the duplex. He assured me the neighborhood was a good one and that the apartment would be to my liking.

From there, we headed to Walgreen's where I purchased a beach chair and an umbrella. Then it was off to the grocery where we stocked up on essentials: sandwiches, strawberries, grapes, Cheetos, cheddar cheese chips, and Fuse drinks. We headed home and gathered our beach belongings, quarters for the meter, and packed all the essentials in a large rolling cooler.

We got the beach at around 12:30 PM. People who'd been there since daybreak were leaving so we were able to score a parking spot, under a tree no less. We fed the meter and hauled our equipment and bodies down to the beach. This was a bit of a chore as the rolling cooler doesn't roll in the sand and we had more stuff than two people needed.

Finding a spot, we laid out our belongings. We did the crossword puzzle and ate some Cheetos. At 1:30 PM our friend Kelly joined us and we continued eating the essentials. Madison did some riding of the waves, which is usually not possible in the Gulf, but since it was a tad windy there were a few small waves. I joined her at one point because I had to pee. The water was not bad and was warmer than our pool.

Unfortunately, as the day grew longer the wind picked up and returning from swimming meant that my skinny girl had to bundle up to keep from shivering. She whined and chattered her teeth so much that Kelly went to the van and retrieved a blanket for Madison, as well as one for herself.

Being made of stronger stuff, I wrapped myself only in a towel. Comfy and cozy we slept for about a half an hour, awoke, gathered up our belongings and headed off to pick up Darcy from school.

A delightful day. Who knew playing hookey could be so pleasant?