The week at a glance

     This has been a very full week.  So, I thought I'd give you a glance of it all.

    Last Friday, we went to Pittsburgh for my brother's wife's baby shower.  I love my brother.  He has a million good qualities: hard-working, polite, considerate, thoughtful, serving, giving... I really don't have enough good things to say about him.  I try really hard to only focus on people's good qualities, especially his, but he has one glaring fault that is very difficult to overlook.  It's difficult because it rears it's ugly head every time I want to see him.

     He can't give directions to save his life.

     I thought that problem was going to be taken care of last week because I have a GPS on my phone, but he lives in the middle of nowhere on a street that is has just been developed.  It doesn't show up on Mapquest or anything else.  Therefore,  I had to rely on him.   

     To make a really long story short, I ended up on one of the scariest streets I have ever been on.  There were no lights anywhere on the "main" road that was supposed to take us to his house.  Streets were not marked very clearly and my idea of straight and his idea of straight mean two completely different things.

     We ended up on a very narrow, pitch black road called Fort Pitt Road.  I can write the name of the road but I can not verbally speak it because it gives me the willies.  The road went on for what seemed like an eternity with a very slim chance that one could turn around safely on the road.  I was out of my very flat part of the country and in a place where roads were built between deep ravines.  Turning around in an area where Jason (Friday The 13th) lives and possibly ended up with my van sliding down the side of a mountain did not sound like my idea of a good time.  The only thing we passed in the middle of dense woods was an enormous power grid.  

                                  This is the actual Ft. Pitt Road... in the daylight.

     When we finally made it to the end of that treacherous road, we were in a neighborhood.  The only wa to get back to find my brother, who was now driving around trying to find us, was to head back down Fort Pitt Road.

      That sounded like the worst idea in the world to me, but I didn't have choice.  I need to mention that upon leaving that road and entering the neighborhood, we past a big red pickup truck.  The truck was pulled off the and facing the wrong direction and there was a guy who was relieving himself... probably from all the beer he had consumed.

     So, we head back down Fort Pitt Rd. and midway through, I see 3 cars  ahead of me that are stopping.  Remember, there is absolutely NO WAY to pass anyone on this road.  Since they stopped, I stopped.... a good distance from them.  Then, that same big, red pickup started to turn to come back toward me, but first he blocked the road for what seemed like an eternity.  I didn't know what to do.  When he decided he wasn't going to block the road anymore, he started headed back toward me.  I decided, I was going to fly past the other two cars, even if I sideswiped all of them and just get the heck out of dodge.  I mean... I am in the car with my mom and 3 little girls.  As I start to pass the two other cars pulled to the side, one starts to turn in front of me.  I layed on the horn and kept moving.  A bit farther down the road, a dear came bounding out of the woods.  Meanwhile, I was cursing my brother's name and listening to him and my mom argue back and forth about where we were.   She kept saying, "We see NOTHING!!  There is nothing but woods to see!!"  Then we came to the power grid field and he told us to pull over there and wait for him.  

     Not a chance in Hades am I pulling over in Jason and the red pickup guys territory.  I yelled, "TELL HIM TO MEET ME AT THE END OF THIS ROAD."  

     So he did.  I hated him for the 3 minutes it took to get to his new house.  Then I decided to just be really interested in looking at his newly built house... so I didn't kill him.  By the end of the tour, I loved him again.  

     My body took much longer to recover.   I think the adrenaline quit pumping at about 2am.  Gracie and Emme were up at 6am.

     The shower Saturday was really nice.  It was at a restaurant's banquet room.  The food was wonderful.  The place was decorated so cute.  There were 8 cakes decorated in different boy themes, one on every table.  The baby got lots of really nice things including a baby tub that has a whirlpool.  What's up with that?

     Sunday we were home in time to watch the Survivor Finale.  Yea!  JT WON!  The first important victory of the week.

     Wednesday, my Shelby turned 11.  It was a beautiful day so we headed out for lunch at an outdoor mall.  Then we did a little shopping.  Later on Shelby and I got haircuts.  It was a very girly day.

     We ended Shelby's big day by eating strawberry cheescake pie and watching the defeat of Adam Lambert on American Idol.  Yea Kris Allen!  

     Last night I went with my mom and the two birthday girls to a dinner theatre. (Her birthday gift to them.)  We had a great meal and watched a High School Musical... musical.

     Tonight Shelby is having a very small party, 2 girls.  They are going to see a movie, have pizza and then we are going to COLDSTONE.  (We have $65 worth of ice cream cards from Shelby's burn incident.)

     Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!!  What are you all going to do?  We have a pool in our neighborhood that opens tomorrow.  Somehow I think that's where we are headed.

      One more birthday for this month.... Friday May 29.  And, let me tell you... I have NEVER wanted a birthday to be here so bad in my entire life.  Stay tuned!!