Non chronological tale of the trip

There's a blogroll over there ----->
Thank GOD for the people on it, and that they are funny. The laughter has helped with the weariness.

I want to be coherent, and funny, but I'm still tired and fairly pissed off.

Five days, four states, three branches of family, one 9 week old, and one 3 year old almost step son. I got new books, and Jack slept 8 hours the first two nights... so it wasn't all evil. But seriously, it hurt. Joe's in the car all "what a great vacation! I actually feel relaxed! I like staying with your parents! Caleb was so well behaved!" My man is obviously deluded.

My parents are conservative Southern Baptists. They only watch ESPN and Fox News. They only have the one satellite receiver.
I do love my family, and dear God would I rather stay there than at Joe's parents. (He agrees, it's not just a case of me hating the in-laws, and I don't. I can handle them in fairly small doses.)

We decided to go ahead and get legally wed some time in the next month, 'cause if for no other reason we need to be able to share a room at my parents house so he can take his turns with the baby. Granted Jack slept "through" the first two nights, but my ass doesn't get up at 6 AM. Except that I did. I napped, it was necessary for the survival of everyone.

The part that really just killed my weekend though still has me so mad my hands start to shake.

It was my idea to go see his family on this trip, it wasn't something he was pushing. They hadn't really met Jack yet, and I thought they'd like a chance to spend a day with the baby. Boy was I mistaken. Now granted, Joe's mom had seven children, and Jack is the seventh grandchild. I suppose one could try to make the argument that babies could lose their appeal after all that. He's the seventh grandchild to my parents too though, and they were excited enough to visit while I was pregnant, and to come up for the birth- from two hours further away than Joe's family is. All that aside, Jack is a new baby. He's the first grandchild to have their last name, and one would think that people could muster the smallest amount of excitement about that.

They never even held him. We spent the whole day there Sunday and not once did either Joe's mother or father hold Jack. His sister Angie did, and her fiance. His sister Ann held him for a long time while he napped. But Jack's grandparents apparently couldn't be bothered.

Joe asked me after we left if we had to go visit again. I looked at him and just said no.