Just What I Needed!

While we were on the road the last 2 months, I really missed our daily routine and the comfort of home. Now that we've been home for a few weeks and are back in the routine, I began to feel just a tiny bit restless--ready for some good fun. This was a weekend of good fun.

Friday night the staff ladies of our church hosted a lock-in for the church ladies. Good food. Good friends. Well-planned activities. Laughter in great abundance. Sweet conversations. Hardly any sleep...and totally worth it! I have not laughed that much in a very long time. When I first arrived, I was hit by a wave of sadness and lonliness for my Arkansas best bud Carol who moved to Tennessee last month. But that lonliness soon passed, and I had the most fantastic evening. Thanks, staff ladies! We need to do that more often!

I crawled into my bed at home at 7:45 on Saturday morning and enjoyed some dozing and cuddling with my sweet hubby for an hour before getting up to face the day. The kids slept until 8:30, then joined us in our bed for a while. I soak up those Saturday morning cuddles with them. I remember cuddling in bed with my parents, and it is a memory that makes me feel all warm inside. I hope in years to come that Snapper and Pepper have those same warm memories. Once we were up and at 'em, it was project time. The weather was a balmy 74 degrees with a light breeze. I opened the garage door, cranked up my new 90's playlist on my iPod, and spent just about the whole day priming my kitchen cabinet doors. Matt stationed himself on the front porch with his tile saw, and cut all the tile for the living room entryway, fireplace hearth, and downstairs bathroom. Snapper and Pepper played together beautifully all day. Their activities included: Jumping on the trampoline, building cities in our two sandboxes, digging in the dirt, playing Star Wars (stick light sabers), doing gymnastics on our new tumbling mat, decorating our driveway with sidewalk chalk, riding bikes and scooters in the cul-de-sac (yes, Snapper actually rode her bike ALL BY HERSELF), and eating pickles on the front porch. I only had to break up one argument all day. I think that's a record!

When it got dark, we closed up shop. Matt completed the entryway and hearth tile! He ran out of tile before he could finish the bathroom. I finished priming all 19 cabinet doors. All that's left for me is the final coat of paint, putting on the new hardware, and hanging the doors back up. We brought the kids in, and saw for the first time how absolutely FILTHY they were. I don't think I have ever seen Snapper that dirty! And wouldn't you know it, Matt had them in the tub before I could get pictures of them! We put in some bubble bath and ran the jets to create a mountain of bubbles. They were so cute with only their faces poking out of the middle of the mound! And wouldn't you know it, the battery on my camera was dead! Stink! You'll just have to use your imagination to picture them. Seriously though, it was adorable.

Matt made dinner (steaks with savory mushroom sauce and garlic couscous) while I scrubbed the kids. I finally got the sharpie art off Pepper's arms and face. Hee hee! When the bubbles finally dissolved, I was horrified at the BLACK water and the layer of silt at the bottom of the tub. Oh gross! So I put Snapper in the shower, drained and rinsed the tub, and washed Jackson again.

After bundling the clean, sweet-smelling kids into their jammies, we all enjoyed a tasty dinner together. We played tennis on the Wii for a while before tucking two tired kids into bed. Then Matt and I played on the Wii for another 2 hours before we finally crashed. It was an almost perfect day. The only thing that would have made it perfect was if the ice cream man would have come down our street. We heard him in our neighborhood all afternoon, saw him on the next street over, and had our money all ready. What better way to celebrate the first warm day of the year than to buy ice cream from the ice cream man (is this magical for anyone else?)! But alas, he decided not to come down our street. Snapper was so sad. She sat on the front steps and watched for him through her binoculars for a half an hour. Sad!

So I had to blog about our weekend because it is a weekend I want preserved forever in my memory...just a good ol' special, fun day. I'm home from church this morning. Something I ate yesterday does not like my guts today. And Pepper has a lovely seal cough...he always gets croup when there's a major shift in the weather pattern. We're looking forward to a relaxing afternoon--garlic artichoke parmesan dip and a good NASCAR race. Ah yes, my restlessness is gone. This weekend is just what I needed!