Faux Spa

Moms need breaks. Bottom line.

These breaks can come in the form of a much needed hot shower, going to the bathroom without an audience, or even just a meal that hasn't been cut up in to teeny tiny pieces and half bitten by your child. (That last one is usually cold, by the way).

I had the pleasure of having a micro-getaway yesterday. It wasn't a mini-getaway, because that would presume that I left the town in which I live. No, this micro-getaway was across town.

At my parents'.

They were out of town for the night, and needed someone to stay there with my 89 year old grandmother. Before you say, "Ahhhh, how sweet," let's review Grandma's stats: She loves soup, baseball, and carries a loaded weapon when traveling. She once shot a man when he tried to attack my grandfather. But I digress. Those stories can be saved for another day. And trust me, I have plenty of Grandma stories. She's surprisingly spry.

My parents have always made their guests feel welcome. Growing up we lived in a trailer park in the middle of nowhere. We had friends and family gatherings often in the small strip of a yard. When I was 19, we moved out of the sticks and into a small city in a two-story home with the help of my grandmother. Because of this, my parents take great pride in making sure everyone is comfortable.

They throw large parties in their Hawaiian and Mexican themed back yard.  They open the garage door to their 50's themed diner/laundromat and allow complete strangers to walk up and visit. (This, by the way, is my dad's favorite pastime. I call it his spider web. He knows they want to enter, so he moves the cars to the street so passersby can get a full view of the checkerboard floor and the cardboard cutout of Elvis.) 

They give personal tours of the "I Love Me" room upstairs, more commonly known as the "Murder Room" which is dedicated to my dad's 30+ years in law enforcement and homicide investigations. Some guests spend the night in my old room which was once adorned with light blue walls and swimming dolphins. Now, it is "The Cockpit". It has model planes, drawings of planes, pictures of planes, and even a curtain separating the room from closet to suggest you need a boarding pass to enter.

But the best guest room in the house is also my son's favorite room. He will never know the room to be blood red and pitch black from my creative sister's paint practices (it took a million coats of paint to turn the walls to a lovely peach color). "The Beach Room." It's calm, breezy, and comfortable. The pillows are much more forming to my head than my own. The Temperpedic overlay allows my tired back to sink in perfectly while the faux down comforter puts just the right amount of pressure on top of me. Even better than all of those things? I have about a foot and a half between my husband and me. Yes, our own space! A California King sized bed makes this girl feel like a queen!

So I shouldn't have been surprised when it came time to take a shower. I have been married for 7 years and have never once taken a shower in their remodeled guest bathroom. Although I didn't have my usual shower items, it was not a problem. My mom has so lovingly put together a guest basket in the bathroom with all the toiletries one would need when visiting Casa de Mom. It even has deodorant! Find that at the Hilton!

More impressive was the shower itself. When I turned it on, not one, but two shower heads began spouting out warm water! I was able to stand in the middle of the shower and have my left and right sides warm at the same time! One shower head was removable, so I was able to rinse my body and my hair simultaneously! Talk about a treat!

Yes, moms need breaks. This is evident in the fact that I just spent 30 minutes writing about the most amazing shower I had......at my mom's house.

Sooo......bottom line, you don't always need to book a spa treatment or a hotel stay in order to feel rejuvenated. Sometimes your getaway is somewhere you've always loved.