Mrs. CPA

My Summer Vacation

By Mr. Cheeks, Esq.

First we went to a condo in Orange Beach. It was very nice, bigger than my house. Momma’s boss let us use it over Mother’s day weekend because he felt so bad about keeping my Momma at the office so much the last few months. He’s why I didn’t have a first birthday party because Momma was too busy at work. It had a nice view off the balcony to the swimming pool, the bay, and some shirtless guy who started grilling fish at 8 in the morning. Fish for breakfast? I like biscuits way better. Even though I really wanted to play with all the fun bottles in the liquor cabinet and the icemaker, Daddy would not let me. He did drink a lot of shiny cans, and I couldn’t have any of those either.

We went to the beach one day.It was very sandy.  And there were lots of birds.I go to sit in a little lawn chair, just like the one I had at home.  The water was VERY cold and I didn’t like it touching my feet.But I did like it when Daddy and I buried my feet in the sand.  Momma also took this picture. My Nan sent it to Channel 7 and they showed it early one morning on the news. Maybe my Momma will win a new camera since I’m so cute.  We went to the swimming pool where they made me ride around in this dumb frog. I’m too cool for a dumb ol’ frog baby toy.

Next, my Momma went on a little trip and left me at home with Daddy.  She took her fancy clothes and shoes, and said she would be back Saturday.  We had lots of fun hanging out together while she was gone.The only girl left was Eleanor and I like pulling her hair.  We drank lots of milk and had too many bananas. After Momma came back, she said we were going to be moving closer to where Poppy, Geng-Geng, Poppa, Nan, Aunt Scooty, and Grandma & Grandpa were living.  That means I get to play with my cousins a lot more, and see everybody all the time instead of after riding in the car for 6 hours. I don’t like riding in the car for 6 hours.  There was this one time, I rode in the car for a long time, and then had to stay at the hospital.  It was scary there. But they gave me pancakes.

Momma had to tell her boss that she was leaving.  It made her tummy hurt.  But the boss was nice and everyone was shocked that she was leaving.  I think Mr. Ken actually shed a tear because he was going to have to do a lot of work now that she was gone.Momma kept talking about a “bonus” but I don’t know what that is.  I think it’s extra Cheerios because she was pretty excited about it.

After a few weeks we took another trip to the beach. On the way, we stopped by to visit Miss Melanie and Mr. Scott, and their new baby, Bailey. When we got to the hotel, I liked the elevators a lot.They were very shiny.  While my Daddy was in the bathroom, I tried to get back to the elevator, but when the door shut behind me out of our room, and I heard Momma started yelling for me, I got scared and started crying.  Momma let me back in the room. She’s a good Momma like that, she did say something about a “heart attack.”  Bailey was very tiny, and she didn’t do much.I tried to poke her to make her wake up, but it didn’t work.I also squealed a lot, and played in the dog’s water. I was happy to be out of the car.

The next morning, I had a delicious breakfast at the hotel that Daddy said cost and “arm and a leg”, but he still had both arms and both legs!  Daddy is so funny.  Later that day, after Daddy and Momma spoke loudly at each other some because of directions, we finally stopped at a  beautiful house.There were lots of kids in the house and a big playroom full of fun stuff at the top of some stairs.  And I love stairs.

Momma and Daddy talked to all of the grownups and I got to sit in my seat and have yummy food, play in the yard, drink lots of milk, squeal, and play dominos with Audrey.

She had to wear my pajamas because her Momma forgot hers at home.  Sharing my clothes with girls is funny.I hate those pajamas anyway, and I wiggle and squirm if Momma tries to put them on me.

We went to the park, where I climbed the stairs a lot and made my Momma tired.We went to a children’s museum where they had lots of fun things to do.Then we had to take a nap. Then we went to an aquarium when we saw lots of scary sharks and lots of funny fish. Daddy made me take this stupid picture with him.

Audrey’s Daddy thought how my Momma talked was so funny that he didn’t know what my Daddy’s name was. He thought she was saying TM instead of his name. Those crazy Yankees. His name is Daddy! But Momma laughed and thought it was funny. People always laugh at her funny talking and they think she’s sort of dumb. But she’s not. She had me, didn’t she?

We went to the beach the next day. I like this beach way better than the other beach. The sand was very soft and fluffy, but I had to step over the seaweed a lot. The water was not cold and my Momma took me out in it for a while. I also liked running down the beach very fast. My Daddy tried to film me doing it, but he also got my Momma’s butt in the video, and let me tell you, you do not want to see that. I built sandcastles with Ashley, Audrey, Tigger, and Eeyore, and the Daddies built us a fun place to play where the waves couldn’t get to us too much. I ate a lot of sand. It was pretty tasty. Then we came home and took a really long nap.

I tried to hug the AT&T Man

We're here!  Mr. Cheeks and I have successfully made the move to Arkansas.  Unfortunately we're not in our rental house just yet, we're still waiting on our free refrigerator from my in laws.  The house is ready otherwise, after some cleaning and some painting (who wants mauve walls AND CEILINGS??).

The new job is going great.  It's very different to work for such a large company when I'm used to being in an office of 70 people.  I have to have a security badge and everything.  I've set off the alarm to the outside door every day this week at lunch. 

My mother in law has been watching Mr. Cheeks for me while I work and today I think I've found him a daycare.  He's ready to play with kids again.  Plus it's $300 cheaper than what we paid in Birmingham.  It's like another raise!

The best part is that I've spent tons of time with my sister, my Dad, TP's Dad & Stepmom, a little bit of time with my other in laws, and I'm still close to my Aunt, Nan, and we are going to spend the weekend with her tomorrow for her birthday and I don't have to drive 6 hours to get there! 

There are several people at my office who I went to college with, and today when I went to check out the daycare, a girl I went to high school with was there picking up her kids.  And there's snow cone stands in all the Kroger parking lots that I pass.  I've had about 3 so far. 

There's something to be said for coming home.  I like it, Mr. Cheeks likes it, and as soon as TP's here, we'll be in high cotton.  (See?  Arkansas.)

More updates coming soon.  Probably Sunday or Monday, but I'm back from the intenet-less world! 

What's been happening with you? 

Myrtle Beach Bound

Tomorrow we leave for Myrtle Beach via Greenville, SC.  I would say that we are ready, our car in tip top shape, me in tip top shape, packed and ready to go.  But only one of those things would be true. 

Last Wednesday we took my truck in to have the 4 wheel drive fixed (you never know what we might get in to at Myrtle...)  It's under warranty and they (Mr. Transmission, the bastards)should have fixed it, instead the warranty company took a day to even approve the work, and then the part wouldn't even arrive until Friday at 5.  They close at five.  Brilliance.   So TP went and got it for the weekend.   

AND Mr. Cheeks was sick.  He had a 102.9 degree temperature form Wednesday night until Saturday morning.  We had to buy him some new shoes because his other one's were too small, he wouldn't go to sleep or stay asleep and he was cutting his molars.  A two car family trying to survive with one car, my last week at work, a trip to the zoo that never happened because of the Fevah, a trip to the doctor for her to tell me it was nothing but a virus and go on home, and I was ready to pull my hair out.   

I had a big thing to get done today at a client's office so that I could be finished with work.  I stuck around for longer so that I could do this first of the month thing and show someone else how to do it since I am officially jobless for the next 4 days.  It didn't go so well.  I was frazzled (oh, did I mention I stayed up 'til 3:30 reading?  No?  That'll make your day go by fast.) the stuff wasn't working right, one of the things I thought had to be done today actually needs to be done Thursday and I just had to leave it all.  I don't work there anymore. 

TP called me to tell me that the dumbasses at Mr. Transmission had ORDERED THE WRONG PART and my truck would not be repaired, so he had to go and get it AGAIN. After we get back form the beach, I'm heading straight to Arkansas, there's no time to get it fixed.  And TP thought the air conditioning had gone out in the truck and I was about to have a conniption fit, but it works. 

Let's see... What else?  Oh, I said some things I shouldn't have said at lunch and then when I got back up to the client's office I thought I had been sitting beside someone from that very office saying mildly derogatory things about them.  But it turned out not to be that person, so I'm in the clear on that one.  (Damn blue shirts making me thing you're the same person.)

So in conclusion, do you think I need a vacation?  I think I do and I think I need a new tattoo too.  We'll see.  I have to fall in love with something and rather than an airbrushed T-shirt, why not some permanent body art to celebrate my new job?  I think it will go over rather nicely.

And we had ice cream while he was sick. 

 

Summertime

My mother was a teacher so every summer she was at home for the three months while we were out of school.  I can remember waiting in bed until I heard the phone ring and her settle in for a long visit with a friend.  I would crawl out bed, and go lay my head in her lap and she would play with my hair until the phone call was over.  The swimming pool was right across the street from our house and we would ride our bikes there every day, calling my Dad to ask if we could have cheese sticks from the pool window at the country club.  Swimming until the pool closed, sometimes going back for family night with both of our parents. 

Since we lived on a farm (the cotton kind, not the cow kind) there was only one other family who lived close to us with children.  Madeline, Catherine and Daniel.  All three of them were a little younger than my siblings and I, but we ran wild.  There were locust shell hunts, playing on the swing set, swimming, and playing at each other's house.  Sometimes disassembling their beds to make mattress forts on the floor and getting out all of their clothes to play dress-up.  They had one of the first Nintendos, purchased from some Japanese businessmen in front of FAO Swartz in New York, and we played Duck Hunt and Tennis for hours.   We ran around outside without shoes, watching out for the stickers that pierced our rough feet.  We jumped on the trampoline and soaked it with water and then Joy dish soap and slid through the bubbles.  We rode their tandem bike and the giant tricycle with the basket on the back.  We put pennies on the railroad tracks, and slept over at each other's houses.  We played in the sprinkler and tried not to get stung by bees because I was allergic.  We watched the bayou slowly shrink to a trickle because it was being used to irrigate the cops that supported our families.  We counted turtles and inexplicably, shopping carts, as they emerged from the muck.  We played baseball, went to bible school, and had weenie roasts in the gravel of our driveway.  Madeline even tried to walk through the ashes once and burned the bottoms of both her feet.   We watched the crop dusters and the men who drove the big machinery pass by our house on their way to long, hot days of work.   We ate ice cream and ruined their mother's iron making projects with waxed paper and crayon shavings. 

We rode our bikes to the hay barn that someone eventually burned down, and to the dump.  We went to the movies, and Ding Dong Days, where Mr. Skippy always sang, "I'm a Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas."  We went to the community theater and watched South Pacific, and when I got older I was in Oklahoma, Harvey, and You're a Good Man Charlie Brown.   

Their parents got a divorce at some point and they moved away, only visiting once or twice a year.  We've lost touch over the years, but they live in South Carolina somewhere.  We had our fights and disagreements as only next door neighbors can - but those kids were my first best friends, and we played our hearts out those long summer days.  I hope they're all happy and healthy and have or will find someone to raise a family with and live in a house with next door neighbors for their children to play with until long after the fireflies have dimmed and gone home.    

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