It's all been arranged.

No, wait. It hasn't. It was all arranged in NOVEMBER.

We'd planned a two night getaway to the Oregon Coast in August, set to happen the third week in November.

We chose a weekend/following week that my site would have been closed, and planned to take two nights and three days to celebrate our 29th (!!!) anniversary.

My parents have a time share condo, and although it would cost us about $90.00 to stay there, it's a nice place and we were looking forward to it.

Lyssa was going to stay with my cousin Kathy, someone she adores and coincidentally a person who adores her in return. Matt can stay by himself.

Lyssa can, too, but is not comfortable staying home alone all night long while her brother is at work. I'm not all that happy with the idea either.

Of course, it didn't happen. The surgery got scheduled suddenly, and I took the opportunity to get it over with. You all know how much fun that's been. Our weekend alone together is just one more thing in my life that got screwed up because of the operation. ::sigh::

So this Wednesday is Eric's birthday. It suddenly popped into my head yesterday that we could possibly take off on Friday after my morning shift and head for the coast for a couple nights. It's too late to make reservations at the time share, but there must be about five thousand motels sprinkled up and down the coastline, right? I thought I might just make arrangements and surprise him. I'd have to tell him a little bit in advance so he could take the day off on Friday, but it would still be a nice surprise.

I called my assistant and left a message on her cell phone asking her if she could handle the room setup/work alone. (Fridays we're usually under 15 kids... that magical number that means the difference between one staff member or two.)

I don't recall if I've mentioned it, but Shelly uses a wheelchair. I've been careful to put all the important stuff (our computer, paperwork and child files) in the lower cabinets so she can access it, but there is furniture moving and table setting up involved. She's very capable, and can usually do stuff just fine, but I wanted to make sure.

She left me a voice mail saying she could definitely do it. And that she could really use the hours, too. So she's on board with the whole thing.

I emailed my cousin to ask if Lyssa could stay there.
And DAMMIT!!! She is not available!!

Lyssa is fine being at home during the day, in fact she prefers it. I'd have Matt pick her up on the way home from his job so she could spend the day at home, and then have him drop her back off wherever it is that she's sleeping in the evening.

It's just the nighttime thing... she won't want to sleep in the house all alone. I'm 49 years old and I don't like sleeping alone in the house.

So I may end up tossing this idea out the window... but it was a good idea all the same, right?

Phooey.

Update: WOOHOOO!!
Tami called me a few minutes ago and offered my daughter a place to sleep over the weekend.

The trip is on!

Now, to decide where we're going...