Whew!

It's Sunday night, and sitting here, sipping a glass of wine and catching up on a bit of blogging is pretty much the first bit of 'down time' (aside from sleeping) I've had all weekend. The weekend was supposed to be very different than how it turned out. We were scheduled to head down to Maryland on Friday for my niece's first birthday party. We were totally looking forward to it, and worst of all, had yet again made the mistake of psyching Sadie up for a trip.

Wednesday evening, Eden seemed to be coming down with a cold. I was worried that it wouldn't be a good idea to expose my niece and the entire party to my snot-nosed kiddo, so I checked with my sister-in-law to get a read on it. Turns out, the guest of honor (Kayeigh) was sick, too. :( She had a fever, diagnosed as a viral infection by the doctor. So, Alyssa and I each reassured eachother that we were fine with getting the kids together, and we still planned to go, as of Thursday afternoon. So, Thursday evening, we have dinner with my mom, and in the course of that meal, the two of them (Evan and my mom) pretty quickly convinced me that it wasn't a good idea to go. The following terms made their way into the conversation "always sick", "usually turns into an ear infection", "Maryland has a new set of germs for her to be exposed to" and "Remember last Thanksgiving?!?!?". Anyway, we made the decision not to go.

As I understand it, Kayleigh rallied and recovered enough to be the belle of the ball on Saturday. So, I did have some regrets about not going. But, and maybe this was said simply to make me feel better (it worked, BTW), my MIL told me this evening that she thinks K still isn't herself and that it was probably better for all involved (meaning K, S, and E) that we didn't go.

So, anyway we found ourselves in an unusual situation -- with an entire weekend stretched out in front of us without a single obligation or plan. Pretty rare for us, and admittedlly, a little daunting (I have this thing where I really hate to just be hanging around the house endlessly on the weekend...the kids just end up fighting and driving me crazy). All in all, I think we did pretty good as far as figuring out some last minute things to do (a trip to PetSmart to buy and set up a fish tank for the girls*, a beautiful four mile hike at Hartshorne Woods, lunch out at the Windmill, an impromptu pitcher of Sangria and resulting intoxication during dinner Saturday night**, a whole bunch of yardwork - pruning, fall cleanup of beds, and raking leaves, and a "midnight" walk*** around our neighborhood so the kids could finally use the neon lightsticks someone gave them to use for ToTing--with DST being extended a week and OT enforcing an early curfew, we were long done before dark).

Now, finally, the kids are in bed, the husband is watching something incredibly boring on TV, and I'm just enjoying the quiet, and getting mentally prepared for the workweek. Work has been...interesting...recently, and I'm gearing myself up for a stressful week. I don't like to blog about work, for fear of being dooced (BTW, I'm so addicted to her blog - check it out!), so ask me in person about what's going on, and I'll gladly talk your ear off about office politics, personality disorders, and potential promotions. But for now, I'll leave you wondering, and bid you goodnight.

*I totally dodged a bullet on this one. Sadie was nagging for a dog, and Evan has been itching for one. I have been the solitary holdout on this one, for years now. I do love dogs, and I know if we had one, I'd love it, but I have to say, I've been loving my dog-free house for quite some time now, too. Anyway, this weekend, they both started in again, and so, privately, to Evan (for once, I had the sense not to open my yap in front of Sadie), I relented and said we should go take a look at the SPCA. He got all excited, and began looking at the profiles of dogs on their site. After about 20 minutes, though, he came into the den and announced we were going to PetSmart to get...FISH! Sadie, of course, was all excited, and as soon as I got him alone, I asked what about the dog? And, he said that he started thinking about having to constantly take a dog out, and clean up 'accidents' and vacuum endlessly, and treat for fleas, and clean up steaming piles in the backyard, and suddenly, a fish seemed like a better idea. To which I replied, "Are you sure? Because I'm agreeing right now to getting a dog...". So, how cool is that? I totally look like the cool wife, and WE'RE NOT GETTING A DOG ANYTIME SOON.

**Just felt the need to clarify that no, we did not serve a family style pitcher of Sangria. The girls drank water with dinner, and Evan at least stayed sober enough to get them to bed. I, on the other hand...

***Ok, so it wasn't really midnight...in fact, it was about 6:30 pm, but man! This end of DST is really throwing things off. It felt like the middle of the night, and since the girls can't tell time yet, how cool to hang that over their heads all day "if you're really good, if you clean up the den, if you eat all of your brocolli...we'll let you stay up extra late tonight and take a midnight walk around the neighborhood with your glow sticks. Worked like a charm ;)