Family Vacations Part FOUR

Did I mention that we all ate well enough to pack on a few pounds last week? Yep...we definitely did NOT go hungry!!!

But HEY!!! My Grandma was incredibly generous, and paid to rent the house for the week. It was an 80th birthday present to herself (she turned 80 last February). So that grocery money and those extra pounds were WORTH IT!!!

NOW...

Let me get to the "go wrong" part of my 4 part family vacation "series".

On Wednesday evening after dinner (the sacrificing of the steaks), my brother wanted to play a game. Games are always fun, especially when JET plays. He's a goof-ball and makes us all laugh at his antics.

Apparently, he got up on the wrong side of the twin bed that morning.

After being frustrated because it took some work to get everyone settled down for the game, he started explaining the way to play. I took exception to one of the rules of the game, due to the fact that my teammates were kids (Summerlyn & Tyler). JET got upset and said something hateful to me as he threw the directions for the game, in my face. Of course that didn't set well with me, so I got up from the table and went downstairs.

Over the course of the night, my feelings suffered. I believed my brother owed me an apology for being hateful and saying something to me that he should not have said. Not to mention that 2 of my girls asked me why JET called me a name.

But nobody acknowledged that he'd done anything wrong, and that hurt my feelings even more. He's the younger of the two of us, and we all know that the "babies of the family" generally get a lighter reaction (if any) to situations of this kind.

The next morning was our "Girlie Day" and I was still upset about the previous night. My Grandma and I made it into the car before my Mom and Debbie, and we got to talking. She asked me about what had happened the night before with JET. As I was telling her about the previous night's happenings, Mom & Debbie came down and got into the car. We pulled out to leave, and my Mom stepped into the conversation saying, "Whatever...get over it", which TOTALLY "flew all over me". The result was for my Mom and I to say some really ugly things to each other. We got into a heated discussion that is most acurately described in my book as a "DogFight". That's probably putting it mildly. And of course, it all happened in front of my Grandma and my Aunt.

There are really only 2 things that my Mom said to me that I found offensive. The first being her opening comment "Whatever...get over it". Based on what I was taught by my parents, it is my belief that your sibling does NOT talk to you the way JET talked to me. JET & I both have been called down on that in years past, when a disagreement turned to the ridiculous point. The second thing was a comment she made in the heat of it all, "You're just mad because you didn't win"...the argument w/JET or w/her, I am still not quite sure of and at this point, it doesn't matter. The reason that comment bothered me, is that it wasn't a point of winning or losing. I have 5 kids and deal with that nearly everyday. What I was looking for was a validation of my hurt feelings. And there had been none. I wanted someone to acknowledge that my feelings were important and that JET shouldn't have said that...someone needed to call him out.

At some point, someone spoke to him, because he did come to me and apologize on Friday morning before we all left the beach. That's all I needed. I love my brother. I'll always love my brother. But I needed for my feelings to be acknowledged after he had stomped on them.

He acknowledged that and life goes on with no hard feelings.

Our family (Dean, myself, & all the kids) did truly have a wonderful beach trip together! I would do it all again (with a tweak here and there), and I wouldn't change one minute of the horse-laughing! I still look forward to spending time with my Grandma, Debbie & Jim, JET, and Mom & Dad. Again...I love spending time with family. We've even talked about hitting the outerbanks next year...

And I forgot to mention that we ate one night at Calabash. That was probably more to honor my late Papaw, since he always loved eating that kind of seafood. My 80 year old Ma requested that we go to Calabash and we did, and had a good dinner and a good time!

End of story, right?

Nope.

Read my next entry for a life lesson...