DUCHESS HOUSEHOLD

Nothing compares to a holiday weekend when it comes to making me want to live by the beach, or to be more specific, to own a house on the beach. I would even be happy with a lake house. There are lots of great lakes in the Hill Country of Texas. Plus, there’s just something about the summer kick-off season that makes me want to travel to the coasts of California, or to Florida. This brings me to the point of my blog today: My oldest son was invited by a friend to a Florida beach town for his first official week of summer. I can’t think of a better way to create great memories with your buddies during your high school years than a road trip to a beach town. They’ll be driving most of the day-- “chillin” is what he called it when he texted me a few hours ago. I hate to spend time away from him, but the opportunity was too great for him to miss. The house is really quiet without an older brother around---and it has only been 6 hours since he left. Overall, the family left behind is looking forward to the quiet time to kick our feet up—especially his younger brother who says being home alone is like “eating a giant piece of Chili’s Paradise Pie with lots of whipped cream on top.” To which I share the following story: Memory of the Week: Older brother, Scout (I call him ‘Scout’ because he loves scouting athletic talent, no matter what sport it is), wakes up and immediately places last nights piece of Paradise Pie in the microwave to heat up for breakfast. While the pie is in the microwave, he slips upstairs to finish a few things. Meanwhile, Pops and Kooza (nickname for my youngest son because he swears he’ll run away with Cirque du Soleil soon), stroll into the kitchen on their way out to pick up tacos, at what the boys call the local ‘taco shack,’ and are suddenly hit with a whiff of what’s cooking. They proceed to: get out a bowl plus a couple of spoons and the ice cream, slip the pie out of the microwave after the ready beep goes off, add the ice cream and slither out the side door into the hybrid for their taco journey. Down comes Scout, and yep, you guessed it, ‘WHAT?’ ‘MOM!’ ‘WHAT?’ ‘Punks!’ ‘That’s not right….’ Fifteen minutes later Pops and Kooza make it back with the tacos promptly mentioning to Scout, “You are the Master at heating up Paradise Pie to the perfect temperature.” And the chase is on….