Woah Nelly! Where Did The Days Go?

So, here I sit on a rainy Saturday morning, children fed, beds made, laundry done and coffee in hand. Kevin is MIA this weekend, he is at the Annual Men's Retreat having a wonderful time of refreshment and relaxation. I'm glad, he deserves it, this week was less than easy for him. I was a little emotional and you probably won't believe this, but I can be very difficult to live with on occasion.

Thursday I was busier than a one armed paper hanger! Getting up and out by 8:10 has been a challenge for us. I am up at 6:00 everyday and the boys are usually up by 7:00, so that's not the problem, it's getting in gear. We are used to lollygagging about in the morning, not doing much of anything until about 9:00. I have been determined, and when I say determined, I'm talking about the D-Day invasion type of determination, to have our mornings be peaceful and calm. The last thing I want is for the boys to go off to school with their final memory of home to be one of discord and strife. So far, we are doing well.

I watched Tom for Laurie for a little while and then came home to clean the house and put out the fall decorations. I know many of you probably gave a hearty guffaw at my "clean the house" statement, but I really did have to clean. I had not vacuumed, straightened up or folded laundry since Monday, we were 10 Mexicans shy of the back alley apartment look.

Before I knew it, it was time to go and get the boys. We came home, they helped me start dinner and when Kevin arrived home, I went for a four mile run and cleared my head. We had a lovely dinner together and watched "Survivor."

Yesterday, the boys didn't go to school. Way back in September, I organized a homeschool field trip to the New Jersey Aquarium. The boys really had their hearts set on going and I couldn't bear the thought of them missing the trip. I wrote notes to their teachers and asked that they be excused for the day.

We left bright and early with excitement and anticipation! We arrived at 10:05 and had to wait a few minutes for the rest of the families to arrive. We had a wonderful time, just wonderful. We saw the sharks and the hippos. We saw stingrays, tuna, starfish and lionfish. We saw the seals and their lovely little show. We touched a shark and a stingray. We saw underwater divers and learned all about how they breathe with their SCUBA apparatus. We saw seahorses and jellyfish. At each little exhibit, the boys were telling me all about the animals and the other aquarium goers were quite impressed with their knowledge. So was I.

They were so well behaved and I was so proud to be seen with them that I spent $42 in the giftshop. I usually have a "no gift-shop" rule, but yesterday was the exception.

We headed home about 2:00 and spent a quiet evening eating dinner, taking baths with the items procured from the giftshop and reading Walter the Farting Dog and The Stinky CheeseMan. Hey, it's not the classics, but they love reading about farts and stinky cheese.

Just a little North Carolina update. Kevin spoke with the woman from Progress this past Thursday. She said they are on a hiring freeze for the next 2 weeks because they have had so much chaos with all of the hurricanes and the lineman being sent out of state. She told him that she hasn't forgotten about him and will call him a few days before they post another lineman position to give him an early heads up. It's something, at least!

Well, the natives are getting restless and I have to run to the loo!

Happy Saturday!