Vacation Mode=Doesn't Matter What Good Intentions I Had Mode

I got up once in the night and offered to help when my new niece was crying, but they said they were fine, so I tried to go back to sleep. I'm still not that great at getting back to sleep once awake, so it was a couple of hours (and several rounds of games on my DS) before I finally drifted off again.

When my alarm went off at 7:00--which I'd set it for so I could walk the dog and then cook breakfast, I shut it off instead of snooze.

A couple of hours later, I was woken by being informed that breakfast was ready. So much for helping out.

We had a nice lazy day, which was a good break for my back, and ended the evening with some nice photos at the beach. I took several self-portraits of my daughter and myself--we have so few pictures of the two of us.

Part of the reason we don't have pictures of the two of us is that I'm usually the one behind the camera, taking pictures of her and her father together.

The other part of the reason we don't have pictures of the two of us has to do with my weight issues. I HATE how I look in pictures--and seeing them is more discouraging than anything. Instead of going, "Wow, I really don't want to look like that, I need to work out/make changes," I seem to go into a negative spiral: depressed that this is my current reality, lethargy setting in through the depression, lack of willpower through the lethargy, depressed that I seem to have no willpower...it's frustrating.

I did get a couple of pictures of us that I don't utterly hate the way I look (although am not thrilled with it), and glad that I have them.

This has been a really great trip so far--I'm loving having the down time with my daughter and glad I can help out for my sister. I know Mom would have been more help than I could ever be, but I like to think she'd be pleased that my sister and I are getting along and helping each other, especially since we've had a few bumps along the way.

We had a bit of a later evening than planned but I did manage to do a little cleaning in the kitchen before being the last one in the house to settle down for the night.