My Weekend and Friendships

This weekend I took a trip to see my brother and his family. The reason for the trip was to go to a sorority sister's wedding. My mom, sister, and niece invited themselves for the trip as well. Here is how the trip started - before we even got on the road I found out my sister's little dog was going to be tagging along as well. Immediately I knew the trip was going to be horrible. My niece is obsessed with this dog - don't get me wrong I am a complete animal lover I won't even hit frogs on the road! The dog hates my niece because she chokes it and makes her sit with her, etc. So I automatically knew that my niece would cry and whine about that dog not sitting in her lap on the trip.

We get on the road - what happens after not even pulling out of the driveway? My niece starts whining because the dog won't sit in her lap. This goes on the remainder of the trip as well as complaining about being hungry, the bunny hop song being shouted out, putting a pillow in the window blocking the view or traffic, me pulling the pillow down, her crying, and various other songs and complaints. She was not silent for a single moment on this trip. Each time one of told her to be quiet she just brushed it off and continued to talk and chat about whatever she wanted to chat about forgetting that there were others in the car. Finally - 5 hours later - we get to my brother's house. I am ready to hit something at this point. We get inside and learn that his daughter, my other niece, is now peeing on the furniture, carpet, etc. Great, now she is a wild animal (a direct quote from my sister-in-law). We actually got to experience this within the first hour when she pulled her panties down and peed on the stairwell. She was put in time-out.

Bedtime is now calling. I am sharing a bed with my sister, her dog, and the chatterbox niece is sleeping on the floor. Throughout the night chatterbox gets up, once because she was scared, and then a couple of other times because why?? That dog. She wanted the dog to be sleeping with her. My sister gets up and chatterbox is saying how much she loves the dog and how cute it is etc. At this point I am exhausted - emotionally and physically. (Emotionally because this was supposed to be Hudson's first road trip.) I sit up and just shout "stop it". That seems to work and at that point if she was crying I did not care. What seems like 2 minutes later the Pee niece comes in and get in the bed which makes Chatterbox niece follow suit. Normally I would not have cared and been happy they joined in for a snuggle fest, but considering I had NO sleep I was not a happy camper. They kept talking, chatter boxing and then the final straw - bouncing on the bed.

Various other events followed during the weekend, but I wouldn't want to make you jealous from all the fun.

This is one event that I wanted to blog about. During the course of the trip my family went to look at some houses in my brother's neighborhood and were talking about the prices. I happened to say, "John and I had looked into moving to this area because of how much cheaper the houses are (compared to the town we live in)". This seemed to spark something in my sister. I mentioned that a ton of our friends live in the area my brothers lives (although we do have friends in Savannah as well) and it was just a thought. The gist of the conversation led to how she gets mad that I tell my friends more than what I tell her or that I tell me friends things first. Then she mentioned the old cliche, "friends come and go, but family is always there."

This is my background. I am a very private person. I do not normally spill my life out to anyone - except John. I am allowed to tell whoever I want whatever I want - no matter if they are friends or family. I believe that a husband and wife should not have to tell everyone everything. We can have our secrets - its our perogative. I let people tell me what they want to tell me and if they don't want to tell me something that is fine. I know that some people are not like that and they will tell anyone and everyone all about themselves or expect others to do the same. That's fine - that's who they are. There is nothing wrong with that and there is nothing wrong with how I am either. I believe that my friendships are just as important as relationships with family. The friendships I have are ones that won't come and go. They are ones that are with people that I could not live without. They are filled with people that will hop in their car and drive between 3 - 17 hours to come to your child's funeral at a moments request. They are the people that if they can't get you on your cell phone to check to see if you are okay they call your house to talk with your parents to make sure everything is okay. They are a part of my family and will remain a part of my family for as long as I live.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/health/21well.html?em - an article about the importance of friends...