Sometimes, you hit the jackpot

After last week's list of failures (which, for the record, did not include the fact that we missed the first 15 minutes of the 20 minute fireworks display for the 4th of July), it was about time that our fortunes reversed. And oh my... reverse they did!

We went to Horseshoe Bay this past weekend, a lakeside town just over an hour from our home. One of my cousins got married there, and while M and I weren't actually going to the wedding (we were invited, but it was kind of vague if our kids were), my parents graciously paid for a hotel room for the four of us, just down the hall from their room. It had a "partial view," which turned out to mean a view of the metal roof from the awning below the room.

The Marriott hotel

We were obviously really excited about the chance to get out of the house for the weekend and take advantage of the pool(s!), kids activities, and the sandy lakeside beach. Plus, I've been wanting to go to Mass there for the longest time, after a friend let me know about the amazing Catholic parish there.

The Chapel sits at the top of Thanksgiving Mountain-- and it's easy to give thanks with that view!

The Chapel is run by the Paulist Fathers

Well, on Saturday M and the kids and I were, not surprisingly, running a bit behind the schedule we'd set out for ourselves. He dropped me off at the hotel so I could get us checked-in. I went in and waited... and waited... and waited. Poor M had no idea what was going on, because my phone ran out of juice on the way to the lake. After 20 minutes or so of being the "next" person in line, I finally got to the desk, only to discover... there were no rooms available. In the entire hotel. Despite the fact that my parents had already reserved a room for us and then confirmed it earlier that day. My heart sank all the way down to my toes.

Thankfully, the woman at the front desk was determined to find a solution for us. The hotel leases some condos that are privately owned, and the woman started looking for... wait for it... a TWO-bedroom condo. Nice.

But no. No two-bedroom condos available. Sigh.

I figured that we could just spend the night in my parents' room, but it only had one bed, plus the pack-n-play we brought for H. Sleeping in a chair didn't sound incredibly comfy, but if push came to shove... 

Well, push didn't come to shove. The woman at the desk found THIS PLACE for us. You've got to look at the photos in the link-- it was unbelievable. It's a 3-bedroom condo with a balcony that looks out over the lake and the boat slips. It's 1455 square feet-- that's just slightly more than 200 square feet smaller than our entire HOUSE! It had a full-size washer and dryer, dishwasher, refrigerator and freezer, and everything else you could think of that's like home, only without goldfish snack crumbs hiding in the corner. We even had our own reserved parking spot in the garage under our building. And best of all, even though it usually goes for $800/night, the hotel honored the other room rate. Amazing.    

It was like heaven-- I could have lived in that feather bed forever, quite happily. Rolling over to see the water and boats was amazing. It was like being on a second honeymoon, just with a couple of kids.

And yes, we walked along the beach and built sandcastles and mud pies, went swimming in the pool, and checked out the boats and dreamed of someday having our own. The breakfast buffet put it over the top. M and I realized that, all in all, we spent a whopping $15 on our "vacation"-- and that was for the Mass collection and housekeeping tip. Between the wedding reception food and my parents' generosity at breakfast (though they only charged them for 3 buffets instead of 4, and the kids ate for free!), we didn't have to pay for ANY of our food... though we did stop at McDonald's on the way home for burgers from the dollar menu. :-)

We found out later that the reason our room was unavailable was because a guest in one of the upper floors made the brilliant decision to hang his clothes from the sprinkler head on the wall in his room. It broke, and for half an hour the hotel couldn't get the water shut off. It ran down behind the wall and damaged around 20 rooms. I'd feel badly for the hotel, but I'm still on a high from our swanky digs!

Finally, the big news... my parents took the kids back to Fort Worth for a week! They're taking turns with my in-laws this week keeping our kids. I'd like to say that C and H miss us terribly, but given the fact that my dad took C to see Winnie the Pooh Monday and my brother-in-law is taking her to Cars 2 today, and the fact the H has been "mowing" the entire house and lawn non-stop with the Little Tikes mower they bought him, I'm not sure they've even realized we're missing.

 

Lisa's big, official announcement... Updated with answer

 It's time to make a big announcement to the world!

Ok, so not so much of an announcement as a multiple-choice exam with answer to follow later.

In January, I am going to:

A. Move to Rome with my family for the next 3 years.

B. Give birth to baby #3.

C. Run a half-marathon with my best friend (and Godmother of H, who is pictured above).

We made up our own 5K back in 2005 in honor of the conclave to elect a new Pope. I'm not saying we had anything to do with the successful election of Pope Benedict XVI in just 2 days and 4 ballots... but I wouldn't rule it out. :-)

So... guess away. I'll tell you by tomorrow.

UPDATE: The answer is... C! My best friend (D) and I are doing a half-marathon in January. I wanted to make an official announcement in order to motivate me to keep getting out 3 times a week to train. Thus, any plans for "B" have been put on hold until after the race because I'm so excited to have this as a goal in my life now for health, weight, and personal-sanity reasons, and "A" is always a future possibility, just not on that time frame. D and I are both doing the C25K program (that I said I was going to start back in October, but just actually committed to in May...) and I'm in LOVE with the iPhone app for it. It tells you when to run and when to walk! I play the Beach Boys Pandora station for motivation and the C25K app interrupts it to alert me when to get moving or slow down. In addition, I use the free Runkeeper app to track my distance, speed, and route. You can even talk on the phone and still hear the C25K app telling you what to do, without the other person on the phone hearing it. 

Don't ask me how that works. I totally don't get it. I guess it's because the person on the line doesn't hear anything that from my earpiece, just through the mouthpiece. Hmm. Modern wonders, these newfangled gadgets!