tap, tap, tap.....is this thing on?
Boy, oh boy have I not been here in ages, eh? Who is that chicka who laid claim to a less hectic, no pre-school or music class laden, lazy days kind of summer and then proceeded to fill in even the sparest 5 minutes here and there left after big chunks of her weeks were gone with "vacations" to the land of family and the greatest of friends, with more meetings, baby sitting gigs and play dates than you can shake a stick at? Uh...that'd be me.
I thought the least I could do is pop in here and let folks who care know that I am still alive - also I needed a break from the mundane of sorting the mail, paying the bills, and rotating the laundry in preparation for the second long weekend of travel of three in a row. I thought maybe I'd shoot for a clean house the two days I'm home this week, but I might have been aiming too high.
I returned home yesterday a heap of high-strung, jittery, white-knuckled aggravation around 5:30 PM after driving about 7 hours from Rochester, NY following a long weekend of family reunions and birthday parties (all of which were lovely, if slightly taxing due to the absence of my husband while still accompanied by the two little folks we made). I can't blame any one thing for my state last night. It was the summation of a number of little things on top of several days of solo parenting I think. The drive started out well enough; a nice breakfast with my sister-in-law, a gas stop, carwash and drive thru Dunkie's for iced joe [side note: Dunkie's is back in a big way in upstate NY, woot!] then onto the thruway we went. Then the weather started to spit at us regularly, Hannah chattered her head off the entire way, rest stops suck when the equation goes ADAM + Hannah + Mom - Daddy = Arrrgghh...., and we hit Boston just in time for prime time rush hour traffic. The good news is that Paul pulled into the driveway about 2 minutes after I did and took the kids away from me so that I could pretend I didn't have any for a while.
Thursday morning bright and early, we leave for the wickedly hot land of Tennessee to witness and participate in the wedding weekend of some excellent friends. We are very excited about this trip as not only is it packed with tons of fun things to do but several of our friends from far away places will also be there, yay! So excited that I've mostly forgotten to be a bit nervous about the flights with the kids, which I am hoping will go well. Adam has actually flown fairly recently - we went to Chicago last fall he and I and we survived fairly well. Hannah hasn't flown for a few years; long enough so that she doesn't actually remember flying. We will be flying home insanely late Monday night next week and then doing a similar dance Tuesday and Wednesday next week so that we can go to the Cape for Paul's family reunion. And Then...blessed lazy days - a whole week and half's worth before Kindergarten stuff starts to kick up.
In other news, here's a few pictures of stuff that's been happening this summer:
Hannah all smiles at my mom's side family reunion this past weekend.
My step-brother Danny on a trampoline. He just got back from Iraq.
Hannah in the mud pit she dug in our front yard. We got a pool a few weeks ago partly to preserve the lawn...
Adam and Daddy the beach on the Cape over 4th of July week (in case you can't tell, Adam's actually loving this!).
Shooting water cannons on a pirate ship in the Cape Cod bay...ARRRrrrrrRRrrrr.....!
Hope your summer is progressing fabulously!
I thought the least I could do is pop in here and let folks who care know that I am still alive - also I needed a break from the mundane of sorting the mail, paying the bills, and rotating the laundry in preparation for the second long weekend of travel of three in a row. I thought maybe I'd shoot for a clean house the two days I'm home this week, but I might have been aiming too high.
I returned home yesterday a heap of high-strung, jittery, white-knuckled aggravation around 5:30 PM after driving about 7 hours from Rochester, NY following a long weekend of family reunions and birthday parties (all of which were lovely, if slightly taxing due to the absence of my husband while still accompanied by the two little folks we made). I can't blame any one thing for my state last night. It was the summation of a number of little things on top of several days of solo parenting I think. The drive started out well enough; a nice breakfast with my sister-in-law, a gas stop, carwash and drive thru Dunkie's for iced joe [side note: Dunkie's is back in a big way in upstate NY, woot!] then onto the thruway we went. Then the weather started to spit at us regularly, Hannah chattered her head off the entire way, rest stops suck when the equation goes ADAM + Hannah + Mom - Daddy = Arrrgghh...., and we hit Boston just in time for prime time rush hour traffic. The good news is that Paul pulled into the driveway about 2 minutes after I did and took the kids away from me so that I could pretend I didn't have any for a while.
Thursday morning bright and early, we leave for the wickedly hot land of Tennessee to witness and participate in the wedding weekend of some excellent friends. We are very excited about this trip as not only is it packed with tons of fun things to do but several of our friends from far away places will also be there, yay! So excited that I've mostly forgotten to be a bit nervous about the flights with the kids, which I am hoping will go well. Adam has actually flown fairly recently - we went to Chicago last fall he and I and we survived fairly well. Hannah hasn't flown for a few years; long enough so that she doesn't actually remember flying. We will be flying home insanely late Monday night next week and then doing a similar dance Tuesday and Wednesday next week so that we can go to the Cape for Paul's family reunion. And Then...blessed lazy days - a whole week and half's worth before Kindergarten stuff starts to kick up.
In other news, here's a few pictures of stuff that's been happening this summer:
Hannah all smiles at my mom's side family reunion this past weekend.
My step-brother Danny on a trampoline. He just got back from Iraq.
Hannah in the mud pit she dug in our front yard. We got a pool a few weeks ago partly to preserve the lawn...
Adam and Daddy the beach on the Cape over 4th of July week (in case you can't tell, Adam's actually loving this!).
Shooting water cannons on a pirate ship in the Cape Cod bay...ARRRrrrrrRRrrrr.....!
Hope your summer is progressing fabulously!