A Day Away

July 14-15, 2009

On Tuesday afternoon I left for my "day away." I was going to my mom's house to help her get some things done around the house and garden, which is really the only thing I could think to give her for her birthday and Mother's Day this year. This really means for me a chance to take a break from the girls and do something I enjoy doing; working and helping people.

Tuesday night we watched Bailey's Coach Pitch softball team play for their chance at the championship tournament. They won their game! It was a quiet and cool evening in small town America. Later I helped mom switch out a bed in one of the spare bedrooms, right before a big storm blew in.

Wednesday the weather was cloudy and perfect for working in Colgin's garden. We had lots of weeds to pull, yard art to fix up and replace, and bushes and tress to trim back. It's amazing to see how much all the trees and shrubbery have grown over the past 8 years. To see pictures from the days we were just putting the garden together, you wouldn't even recognize the beautiful garden it has become today. I'm sure Colgin had his hand in that.

When I arrived home Chad had great "daddy" stories to share. It seems that his respect for me and what I do all day has increased immensely just with one night/day at home with both girls. He definitely had a rough go of it.

Storms blew in about midnight and both girls are now TERRIFIED of storms. So for 2 hours he was up calming them back to sleep. Then he noticed the cat had gotten sick in the hallway, I guess she doesn't like storms either. Then while cleaning that up he found a frog in the upstairs girls' bathroom! How that got there I have no idea. Then about 4am storms rolled in again and Campbell was up for another hour. Needless to say, no one got much sleep that night. As Wednesday morning woke up his store manager, Jason, called to tell him that the storms messed up the credit card machines and the computers at work. Plus Chad had to go in and pay taxes and get wine and information ready for a wine tasting that evening. He also had to take Cooper to tennis lessons and Campbell to swim lessons all at the same time. Thank goodness for friends. He had big ideas of going to Topeka to shop at Sam's Club, but quickly voided those and opted for an afternoon nap at home. If that wasn't enough he had errands to run and his car tire was low on air. When I arrived home that evening they were all happy to see me. Yeah!

The babysitter arrived and we were off to a wine tasting and then the Harry Potter movie. A busy day away was all worth it.