Our destination last week:  downtown Appleton, Wisconsin.

Kim had a 2-day seminar for work and I came along to relax and play...and keep my man company.

As I listened to the rain pouring in the early morning darkness, I really wanted to stay in bed.

I mean, REALLY wanted to!

Normally I'm an early riser and get up way before daylight, ready to go.  But this morning, still tired from our Wisconsin trip, I just wanted to pull the covers up under my chin and go back to sleep.

But I got up anyway.

As Kim and I drove through the rainy darkness past houses with no lights on yet, I asked Kim why we couldn't be like NORMAL people...sleeping in on dreary rainy Saturdays with no real plans except to relax and enjoy doing nothing.  Oh how I longed to be normal this morning...

"Why can't we?"

Kim's response as he drove down the wet road, heading toward breakfast with his dad and then a marathon cider-making session, "Because we are Grays."

We are Grays.  (I should throw in a disclaimer here...HE is a Gray and I am only a Gray through marriage, albeit after 33 years I've spent considerable more time as a Gray than as a House, my maiden name.)

We are Grays.

Those who know my man know he is a worker and can work circles around two or three "normal" men.  The nut sure doesn't fall far from the tree, because his dad Kenny is even worse than Kim.  Crazy, ridiculously-working men, always trying to do more in a day than is humanly possible and sucking everyone around them (that would be me!) into their projects with them.

We are Grays.

As I sit here at 1:00 pm, my first break since I reluctantly crawled out of bed this morning, we've already driven 30 minutes to eat breakfast with Kenny, pressed/strained/bottled 24 gallons of cider, driven 30 minutes home, cleaned up the considerable cider mess, and gone to the grocery store to get supplies for Kim who is at this very moment cooking 12 batches of apple butter to can for the church's Fall Festival next weekend.

We are Grays.

I dearly love my man and I'm so glad I married him, and nearly all the time I believe that being a Gray is a blessing.

But there are those fleeting times...like this morning...when it seems a whole lot more like a curse.

We're home!!! 

Arrival time 12:30 am...WAY PAST this girl's bedtime!

And let me just say that our drive home through horrible Chicago traffic did not add one iota to the fun we had the past few days.

Anique 23 weeks

Kara 13 weeks

My two newest Gray grandbabies are growing!!!

Anique is due January 28 and Kara is due March 28.  Exciting Gramaw times ahead in 2014!!!

Speaking of exciting times...Kim and I are taking off this afternoon for a short trip to Wisconsin.  He's got a business seminar and I'm going along for the ride!  I mean...why not??? Don't know exactly how I'll spend my time while he's in his meetings, but lazing around a nice hotel as well as taking some photography-oriented drives come to mind.  I can think of worse ways to spend a couple of days...

So...the blog will be on vacation too for a couple of days.  See y'all right back here on Friday!