Tuesday, February 7, 2012

The end of vacation

Hi, all!  My darling husband has been off of work this whole week (remember, Tuesdays are our Saturdays).  He came home from being with his brother for a week last Monday. He’d just gotten home and we were decompressing when I remembered the kids had music class and we had young marrieds meeting like, right now!  So we rushed off and enjoyed our time with friends—and a free dinner!

Tuesday I got to sleep in while Brian took Madi to dance and then I got to teach a blast of a class on Storytelling.  Max was The Man because he videotaped and narrated two movies that the girlies made.  I do love to teach.  This little Frontier Group is my only current outlet for sharing with a brood of kids and I really soak it up.

Wednesday was my best friend’s birthday!  Last year Brian turned 40 and we had a wonderful time making a big deal of it with family and friends.  This time we kept things a little lower key.  We hung around the house most of the day.  That evening was our regularly scheduled day to cook for the youth, so we did that (they sang to Brian) and then had game night with a pair of our most cherished friends.

Thursday we ran to Reno for some money-hemorrhaging fun.  We let the kids spend Christmas gift cards, went to a thrift store to beef up Brian’s and the kids’ wardrobes and had a special linner (like brunch) at Red Lobster.  Then we went to Winco. 

Oh. My. Goodness!  Brian has always called Winco hell on earth, so we haven’t gone in over a decade.  But the prices are so-so-so good and we are on a breathlessly tight budget until overtime checks start coming in.  I went to Winco with a girlfriend a few months ago and was floored by the prices.  But even better was that there wasn’t that oppressive atmosphere that makes even the best bargains not worth it.  People were friendly and smiling.  The place wasn’t packed.  It was a very pleasant experience.  So I thought the place had changed in the last decade and was excited to show Brian.

Well.  It seems there is a real difference between the 11th of the month at 10 am and the 2nd of the month at 5 pm.  Enter hell.  Screaming children, packed aisles, everyone wishing they were someplace else and expressing it in any number of ways.  And the real killer was that the receipt didn’t show the savings I’d experienced before.  I guess the store really makes its money off of everyone else’s payday. Honestly, my son was the most self-controlled and gracious person I saw in the whole store!  He was so sweet.  Anyhow, we survived and got out with only about 3/4 of the list finished. 

FRIDAY!  This was a great day.  I started with my normal Bible reading and then hit the ground running.  I don’t think I had a real sit down until about 9pm, when my darling husband gave me a wonderfully therapeutic foot rub.  What was I doing all day?  Well, the normal stuff: laundry, dishes and floor duties never end.  But we also made a bunch of finger foods and decorated for our first ever dance!  That’s right!  We cleared the family room of just about everything, strung streamers and hung balloons.  Some terrific friends joined us to make a truly unique evening of dancing and games so much fun.  We played Mafia for the first time in years, along with some other party games and had a dance competition.  I was so grateful that even the guys came all dressed up and showed us their moves.  Men who are willing to be uncool for their families are really the coolest men in the world, Amen?

Saturday I was sick.  It was really very nice!  I lay on the blow up mattress making friends with Nyquil.  I only did laundry and dishes, and ate leftovers from the dance.  I mean, if you have to be sick, that is the way to do it.

Sunday poor Brian took his turn feeling under the weather, which wasn’t the best, since it was Super Bowl Sunday and we had plans to hang out with friends.  We got him home right after the game, poured Nyquil down his gullet and locked him in the library.  The kids and I shoved the love seat into the family room and watched a few episodes of Voyager.  Oh, the other big event of Sunday was that those stinking dogs tore down the chicken wire and removed a slat from the neighbors fence and ran away!  How did they do that?  They are total poop-heads.

—TMI warning: so, I have met only three neighbors since moving to our new home.  All men, and all while I was breathless and bra-less.  Nice, huh?

Monday we took it pretty easy to be sure Brian’s healing stuck.  I got lots done on the computer, including badges ordered for our Frontier Girls, classes planned for more badge-earning fun and our taxes done.  Virtual high-five for me!!  Stupid dogs got out again, so Brian bought slats and a staple gun and declared he was going to laminate the entire fence.  Hopefully it will stay in place now.  If we ever get a dog again, it will be a dumb, smell-less (what is the equivalent word to blind?), timid, tiny thing that doesn’t leave my side.

We still have a couple of days left before Brian returns to work, but these are more-or-less normal days off.  Dance and Bible study are coming up around the corner.  School starts Friday! 

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