Mama and Drama

We took mom out to an early mom's day dinner on Saturday night at Chili's. I love Chili's casual dining atmosphere.

When we came home, mom remembered that I said I wanted her rice pudding....so she made me some. Oh Yea, Arroz Con Dulce (literally) in the House!

Sunday morning , Mother's Day! Mom received two doggie collars and a doggie bed from us. My sister Brenda bought her a chihuahua for Mom's Day! :0 She does not get her for another 8 weeks, but I decided to get mom prepared.

Then it was afternoon grilling.

Mom could not get over how DRY our grass was. Welcome to Florida. Our grass right now is crunchy. (no water sprinklers and we're sort-of-kind-of lazy about watering it.)

Mom waters the grass while the boys grill.

Moving on to the Drama portion if the post:

Sunday evening, after the cookout, we have to drive mom half-way back to West Palm. My sister Brenda's meeting us half-way. As we are driving, we notice that there are electronic signs that say "I-95 Closed from exit 156 - 170-something due to brush fires." We're supposed to meet Brenda and Freddy AT exit 156.

They call us to tell us they've been rerouted off an early exit in the 140's. Freddie decides we can meet on US 1. We head south, they head north, on US 1.

Here's what US 1 looked like going south:

We meet up with Brenda and Freddy, load mom's stuff up in Freddy's truck, and they are off south. We're then heading back north on US 1. And stop. And get re-routed down some side street because the rest of US 1 North is now closed.

We're rerouted to some side street, Valka...something, where we proceed to go 1.5 miles....in an hour and a half.

Look at this house below. A beautiful, large blue house. We were at a stand-still right next to this house...and the flames behind it. It was insane!

Totally frustrated and hungry, we make a U-Turn and head back to where we met Brenda and Freddy. We get right back there.....2 hours after we left. We go even further south, to cross over to A1A. We took A1A back north and eventually made it home. The total 2 hour trip? 4.5 hours.

Check out the Orlando Sentinel's pictures and stories. The fires are still going. It's so scary. I feel for the people whose homes are threatened by these fires.