Estimated reading time: 7 minute(s)
If I really take the time today, I could write a lot of stuff. I have not taken time this week at all to post thoughts or happenings to this fun e-version of my head. I might just take the morning to do that. 🙂 It’s a beautiful day here! No humidity, no heat, just about perfect actually. I’m sitting in a mostly comfortable chair on my porch with my awesome wireless internet connection… what better way to spend a morning? 🙂
I’ll start off with the crazy week that was…
It really started last Friday, when we left for a weekend with my parents, and singing at their church. The trip was long and arduous as all of our trips have been with our cantankerous daughter, Kirsten. She is still on a two, two-hour nap schedule, but in the van all day long, she will only sleep 45 minutes, and then complain a good part of the rest of the 10-hour PLUS trip. Oh my. So… that was not so pleasant, but it was made even better by the 1 hour traffic jam delay about an hour from our destination. Crazy day.
We spent Saturday getting ready for the evening concert, and hanging out with my parents. We were fairly exhausted from the trip (oh yeah! and I was up till 3:30 in the morning the night before we left! ha! uh… that can make you tired…) So we caught up on some sleep as well. It was a nice day. The concert went well. Two guys from their church played with us. That was fun. We had a full band sound. Seemed well received, and it was an occasion for a bunch of my family to come as well, so that was great. There were 16 members of my extended family there! Cool!
They had a dinner for us afterwards, so we got to spend a little more time with them, but again, we were bushed, so we went home fairly soon after that was over. Life on the road with three kiddos can definitely drain you.
Sunday morning came early as we were singing a song or two in their two morning services. It was great. See the next blog for a funny story about Alex. 🙂 We sold a few things, which is always nice. That helps pay for the trip down. It’s always nice when we can sell enough to pay for our trip AND to have some to pay bills when we get home. 🙂 I think we did that this time.
Another bonus from Sunday morning was meeting a guy and his Mom from Venezuela! They are part of my parents’ church. Well, he is. His mom speaks no English, so that was really nice getting to have a conversation with her. I don’t get to practice my spanish very often. AND, the strangest part was that of all the Spanish speakers I have heard recently, she (and he) was the most easy to understand! I thought about it afterwards, and I guess it is easiest for me to understand the Venezuelan accent or something. Fun!
Sunday night we headed down to Cincinnati – about 1 hour away – and spent the evening at a fair with my sister and her family. That was great. They have 3 small kids (as do we) and so they had a blast riding kiddie rides and just being at a fair. Fun stuff. My parents came too, but I don’t think the fair scene is for them. 🙂 Not only were there rides and fun food and vendors and stuff, and even some live music… there were fireworks. These must have cost upwards of $300K. Seriously. They were amazing. Long show, big explosions, and plentiful. The finale was like none I have ever seen in person. They must have a lot of money there…
Well, it was another late night – arriving back to my parents’ house (and our own private hotel) around midnight. So, we slept in a bit in the morning and headed for home around 11am. We drove, Kirsten didn’t sleep, and mostly there was misery in our van. (Well, perhaps not mostly but… it seemed like it at times…) We got caught in a heavy downpour a little over an hour from our home, so I pulled off for a pit stop to let the storm pass. It did, but we decided to drop in for a visit with Jen’s parents who didn’t live too far from there. 🙂 Good thing too, as the storm only intensified. It’s no fun to drive 65-mph in sheets of rain, an inch of standing water and penny size hail. So we hung out at their place for a little over an hour and then headed home, arriving just after midnight. (That seems to be a common occurence for us…) After unpacking and unwinding, it was 1:30 before we were asleep!!!
Well, four days away from home gives you plenty to do the next day, so Tuesday was a full day for us, including lots of catching up in the office for me, and some clean up around the house for the rest of the family. BECAUSE, on Monday evening, we got a call from some friends who were on their way to a concert in Vermont and needed a place to crash on Tuesday night! So, we readied our house for guests and eagerly anticipated their arrival. They thought they would be to our house by 10:30 or so… but no sign of them by about midnight, so… I went downstairs to leave a note and there they were! So we hung out for about a half hour or more and finally got to bed around 1 am!
I got up early the next morning to fix a nice breakfast, in case they happened to be early risers. (Now, remember… early for me is 8am…) 🙂 But there was no sign of them till about 10! 🙂 So we had a nice late breakfast and spent some time hanging out with them till they left at about 1:15pm. The boys were enjoying having house guests! 🙂 It was nice to see them and get to spend a little time and share some stories of life on the road together.
Oh, that morning I was also making bread for dinner that evening with some other friends, (one of whom loves my home made bread, and another who is quite pregnant, and what pregnant lady doesn’t love fresh bread?) 🙂 So, by the time our friends left, and I had finished making my 4th loaf of bread… I finally got into the office to try and get a little done before our friends arrived for dinner at 6pm!
Well, when they arrived shortly before six to go for a swim in our neighbors’ pool (which they never did, actually…) the party had begun and we had a great time hanging out and chatting about life and eating home made Skyline Chili! (And the home made bread, of course!) 🙂 I love hanging out with friends, and even more love to cook for and share meals and our home with them. It was great. 🙂
Well, our very pregnant friend and her two girls were planning to spend the night as her husband was out of town and that was a good time to let our kids enjoy a “sleep over”. So, after our other friends headed home, we all went out to the pool and Uncle Greg took on the challenge of watching five children 6 years old and under in a pool. Thankfully, Aunt Jen decided to join me. 🙂 It wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be, but I wouldn’t reccommend it…
We all got to bed around midnight (after everything settled down) and Jen & I even watched a Star Trek Enterprise episode till around 12:30! 🙂 It was yet another full day.
(Are you tired yet just from reading?) 🙂
I again awoke around 8am to get breakfast ready in the morning. Our very pregnant friend is also a fan of breakfast food, so we did it up big. We had waffles, and sausage, and eggs, and my own special home fries. We had cool fruit toppings, orange juice and even the home made bread from the night before. 🙂 It was quite a feast. After our late morning breakfast, we again went swimming briefly, and I was in the office for a few more hours after our friends left at about 1:00 or 1:30.
That night we resumed a parenting class we began earlier in the summer, so we were preparing to leave around 5pm or so (it turned out to be the “or so”…) and that took us to about 10:00pm that night (the class time is about 2.5 hours). Another late night.
So, yesterday was the first day in a full week with no real schedule. It was very nice. But the whole day I was somewhat less than productive, due to a bit of exhaustion. 🙂 🙂 🙂
We did get to go for a relaxing walk last night. That was nice. And then Ian and I got out the telescope and took a gander at Juptier (awesome!) and a few stars. I love that stuff. 🙂 Jen finally got to bed just before 11, and after I cleaned up the house, did some laundry and dishes, and ate a bit of ice cream… (and read a few blogs and news sites) it was about 3:30am or so. I have to unwind somehow, don’t I? 🙂
So… you might be able to tell from all of that detail of the past 8 days that we have been more busy than usual. It doesn’t completely end as we have a concert tonight here in town and then we have a party for a 4-yr-old friend tomorrow. 🙂 But it feels like the busiest is over. I am looking forward to a normal week. I hope. Perhaps.
🙂
Even though my body is a bit depleted, it was definitely worth it. It was so great hosting people at our house. I love to be with friends. It was a great weekend with my family in Ohio. It is always nice to be with family. And we did a bunch of fun stuff.
But maybe tonight I’ll go to bed early…