1-24-07 POW

The long awaited day finally arrived: Sidney's Disney trip! I swear, she didn't sleep the three nights leading up to it and I'm guessing that she'll make up for it when she gets back. Tuesday was the big day and it REALLY started early. If you'll remember, the kids had to be there by 5:30am for a 5:45am departure. It sounded good on paper, huh? We got there at 5:15 because I couldn't stand to watch Sidney pace around the house with last minute packing and asking me every 2 minutes if she looked OK. Did you see her on the national news in the Style segment? I think not. The sweat pants and t-shirt were JUUUUUUST fine. Anyway, the 7 charter buses were lined up in the school's bus parking lot and it was all very organized. Sidney and her BFF (Neha) arrived at the same time so the squealing started early. It was cute to see them so excited. Brianna showed up later, too late for this picture. It was all I could do to take THIS one. "Mommy!!! You're embarrassing me!!!". She got my token scowl. "Deal with it. I'm capturing a moment in time that will never again be, OK?" She knew not to fight it. I was going to win. I usually do. Back to the "departure time". Neha's mom and I were talking next to the buses and sure enough -- a white car came tearing into the bus parking lot at exactly 5:45am and blocked in the first bus. We were impressed by her thinking: the buses can't go unless I move my car and I'm not moving my car until my son gets on his bus. She wasn't the only late one, but she was the only one with the nerve to use her care as a blockade. We stayed on the curb until the last bus left the lot. It was 5:50. Not too bad.

Alyssa was at Hayley's house for a sleepover Monday night and didn't come home until about 7:30 on Tuesday night (no school that day), so today was our first REAL day alone. Brent flew out this morning and Sid was gone, so Lys and I made our dinner plans. I asked her what she wanted since it was OUR special dinner and you'll never believe what she asked for: salmon, and she wanted to prepare it. I tried to hide my shock, mostly because I didn't want her to think she made a bad decision, but also because my junk food queen just asked for something incredibly GOOD for her! I did, however, ask her WHY she wanted salmon tonight and she said, "because Sidney doesn't like it so since she's gone we can eat it". Works for me. Off to the store I went.

I love Salmon, but feel I am not alone when I say that I don't want to stink up the whole house by cooking it in the oven. Gotta love the grill! I fired it up and went back inside to supervise the preparation. She got out all the ingredients (I kept it simple, my favorite way), all the while insisting that she was going to do it all by herself. Let's just say.....that lasted about 30 seconds. With a big confident smile she opened the outer bag that the meat counter had sealed the fish in and when she saw that she'd have to reach into yet another plastic bag to actually TOUCH the slimy filets AND rinse them off, she stopped in her tracks. The smile was gone. "Uhhh, Mommy?" I knew what she was going to ask. "You said you wanted to do all of this yourself." She poked the salmon with one cautious finger, quickly withdrawing it as if it had just snapped at her. "I will if you'll just get them out. I want to do it all, I just don't want to touch them". She moved on to "lemon slicing" instead. The lemon slices were pretty thick, but I didn't say anything. She seasoned the salmon, added the lemon and sealed it all in foil. I drew the line at her trying to grill it. She understood. She made the rice instead and portioned out the salad. Grapes were our edible centerpiece and country music played on the radio - a nice change from the horrible stuff she usually listens to. Yes, I'm an old person now. The salmon was fabulous, but took an extra few minutes to cook. Seems as if the extra thick lemon slices were preventing the heat from getting to the fish. It was almost raw under them! She did a great job and was very proud of herself.

Sidney called while I was typing this. She's having a great time, they've done a TON of things today, and as much as she'd deny it ---she sounds exhausted. Ha! I'm glad she's having fun. I pick her up Saturday morning at 9 so look for those pictures next week. Until then, take care and have a good day!