HOME AT LAST!
We have been gone from home for 17 days. SEVENTEEN DAYS! Do you hear me?! That is a long dang time to be away! We had a fabulous trip! We were so blessed to be able to go to St. Louis and spend time with Steve's family, and then to Dallas to spend time with mine. Minus my sister Kristy who was not able to get a flight out of the Moscow airport :( We made so many fun memories that we will cherish forever. I finally finished my St. Louis posts, now I gotta get the Dallas ones done.
We pulled in last night around 10:30 PM exhausted. But alas, there is no rest for the weary. Steve being gone for 17 days from his business, he has a lot of catching up to do. And a lot of money collecting to do, 'cause I'm tellin' you right now, we are FLAT BROKE! And it's almost time for him to pay his guys again. I wouldn't mind a little cash comin' my way either, you know what I'm sayin'?
The kids begged me to let them stay home from school today and let them rest. Yeah. Right. I am sending them TO school so I can rest. Not really. Like I said before, no rest for the weary. I have 17 days of mail to open. Bills to pay (oh wait, there is no money for that, never mind). Toilets to clean (toilets sitting for 17 days, not so pretty). Suitcases to unpack. Clothes to wash. A nasty disgusting van to clean out. Groceries to buy. Food to make (please no fast food for the next 2 months. At least!) . Christmas decorations to take down. A house to clean. A wedding reception. In my house. In 5 days. Holy smokers, what was I thinking!?! I gotta figure out where we left off with everything. I know we have dentist appointments and ortho appointments and Ski Club starting this week. Homework to figure out. We literally stuck the kids in the car on Friday the 17th of Dec. when they got out of school and started driving and got home just in time for them to go right on back.
I have come to the realization that I love being able to go to Steve's hometown and my hometown to visit, but I could never ever live in either one of those places. I love where I live and I wouldn't change it for anything. For one thing, I could never drive in either one of those places. Especially Dallas. Steve did have fun driving in Dallas. He said it was like driving in a video game. A bunch of people in cars traveling at high speeds with no particual rhyme or reason to what they are doing. And the roads there. Really. I don't know how you people do it. I just looked at Steve and said, "Now does my driving make sense to you? This is where I learned to drive!" Thank you Salt Lake City for you nice big wide clean orderly streets, your turn lanes, and I will never complain about your drivers again! I don't know what I was complaining about in the first place. My eyes have been opened.
Out of the whole 17 days we were gone, 5 entire days were spent driving. Some more pleasant driving memories?
Addy kept wanting to get to our hotel when we were driving. Only she called it a Show-n-Tell. Not a hotel. Are we almost at the show-n-tell?
Realizing I am raising full fledged Utahans when we stop for dinner the first night and my kids are complaining because they don't have fry sauce. And they complained at every place we went thereafter. I remember when I first moved to Utah, how weird I thought Utahan's were about their fry sauce. And now, here I am, 19 years later, raising weirdos.
We were sitting at the dang longest red light when we were in Nebraska. I'm serious. We sat there for at least 10 minutes. I said, "Why is this light so long?" And Zac said, "Because we are in Nebraska, the place where people have nothing better to do. Oh wait, that's Kansas."
On the way out we were singing Christmas songs, trying to keep the troops entertained. We were singing the 12 Days of Christmas. This is how Addy sang it: Two turtle butts, and a partridge in a pear tree.
Why can't a four year old go into a stinky bathroom without announcing to everyone how it smells? I was like, "Addy! Shhhh! The people who made it smell this way are probably still in here!" We walked into one really stinky bathroom and she said, "OH GROSS! IT STINKS IN HERE! MOM! A BOY WENT INTO THE GIRLS BATHROOM! THAT'S NOT COOL!" Apparently boys are the only ones who can be stinky in a bathroom.
Why is it that when mom decides to sleep in the car, that is the time everyone decides they need to talk to her? Seriously! I fall asleep and every two seconds it's mom this, and mom that. I finally give up on sleep and then all of the sudden, no one needs me anymore.
Steve and I read The Book Thief on our drive. Or more like I read The Book Thief to Steve. It was fabulous. An absolutely gorgeously written book. If you haven't read it, you should. We finished it Saturday night and started The Hunger Games. Not so beautifully written, but a book you can't put down never the less. We are almost done with it. All day yesterday while I was reading it, the kids were listening too. They never wanted me to stop reading. Yes kids, why don't you listen to mom read a book about a bunch of kids being forced to fight each other to the death. Really, it is a juvenile book, made for kids. And even though they are being forced to fight to the death, it's not as bad as it sounds. I can't wait to finish it. And then read the other two in the series.
OK, enough babble. Like I said, I have work to do. Happy back to the grindstone day everyone!
And turn it into this:
