Home again, home again, jiggety-jig!

Jed and I just got back this morning from a WONDERFUL time in Washington with my family. JetBlue had an incredible deal on tickets that allowed us to fly two of us for the price that one ticket would normally cost. The only drawback was that we had to fly at night, but that was a small price to pay and one you can eventually get over.

We flew out with Lindsay from Boston last Thursday night. (She was visiting friends in Olympia.) Lindsay and I didn't get much sleep, but Jed managed to. We got out there at midnight--only a six-hour flight with no layovers! My mom was prepared to spoil us rotten and give me a blessed break from the responsibilities of life. On Friday we went to the outlet mall and did some shopping and gave Jed a chance to play in a play area that has huge pieces of plastic breakfast food--bacon slides, a huge bowl of frosted flakes and blueberries, etc. At a candy/toy store Jed picked out a huge stuffed snake that's taller than him and as big around as my upper arm. It was amusing to see him walk through the mall and talk to his snake and teach it things it didn't know.

In the afternoon I got to take a long, delicious nap, knowing no little ones would wake me and that dinner and dessert were all taken care of. That evening we all ate dinner in my parents' cozy family room, followed by home-made pie. What a new sensation it was to have no responsibilities regarding the meal and actually to be served dessert. I told you my mom was prepared to spoil me! She did it royally. I wish all my friends who are mothers could have such a chance to be pampered every now and then.

On Saturday Kristi and I went out for lunch and shopping. That was a sweet sister time. For an early birthday present she bought me the CD Celtic Woman, which I'd never heard before but fell in love with. Jed, meanwhile, got to go out for donuts with Grandpa and get a highly cherished Narnia storybook from the bookstore.

That evening Lori and Chris and their four kids--Zach (11), Jessica (9), Zoe (7), and William (3)--joined us for dinner, and what an uproarious time we had! Jed had a blast with his cousins. He's not used to being the little one, since most of the kids he hangs around with are younger than him, but they played right along with him--hide and seek and such. Lori, Chris, Kristi, and I played a rousing game of ping-pong. Later we sisters and my dad, with my mom observing, played a jolly game of Beyond Balderdash that had us laughing our heads off. One of the words we had to write definitions for was "zobo." When one of the definitions my dad read was "the cross between a zebra and a yak" we girls burst out laughing. But it was so ludicrous we voted for it--and sure enough, that's what a zobo is! Now you know.

They stayed till 10:30. It was hard to wrap it up, everyone was having such a good time. On Sunday we went to church and heard a heart-stirring sermon. After visiting different ones we went out for lunch at one of my old favorite Mexican restaurants, then to a used bookstore. Finally we ended up at Chris and Lori's for a short visit and to say good-bye. I was totally wiped out by the time we got home, so I took another delicious nap--what luxury! We had to leave at 10:30 last night. We all slept quite a bit on the way home. It's now 4:00 and I'm feeling rather zombie-ish, longing for bedtime. But it's good to be home and I cried when I saw my babies! Evan said the weekend with the kids went really well. I'm pretty proud of him for doing it.

Tucker is either punishing me this afternoon or making sure I get a taste of what I missed out on for three days. While I took a quick snooze on the couch he was merrily emptying out the diaper pail--very full and very stinky--pulling Jed's shirts off the hangers, and clearing an entire shelf of its books. Welcome home! Sometimes diving back into real life isn't much fun after such a lovely vacation, but I'd rather have the hard work and drudgery and frustrations WITH my babies than a life of ease without them.

The Superbowl

Having lived in Washington State at one time, Evan and I were of course rooting for the Seahawks on Sunday night. Lindsay joined us in Evan's office that night to watch the excitement. Even the kids watched for a while, mostly for the great commercials (minus the ones that we had to turn off). Some of you will be disgusted to know that I sat in a chair reading throughout the game, only putting my book down for the commercials. Being married to a football fan for seven years has still not managed to make me love the game. I just can't see the thrill in watching 300-pound gorillas run around on a field crashing into each other and giving each other horrible injuries. I watch for a few minutes and then start cringing and hollering "Ouch!" and making my boys swear they'll never make it to the NFL. Poor Evan. I wish for his sake I could get into it more. Thankfully Lindsay knows how the game works and can watch it intelligently with him so he's not totally alone.

The kiddos are doing much better, thank the Lord. Still some runny noses but their energy is back. Don't know if that's all a good thing or not. :-) I'm feeling pretty crumby today. Had to cancel having my good friend Sue and her kids over today. :-( Maybe I'll put the kids in front Ben-Hur or some other long movie and take a nap today. Just kidding. Well, sort of.

Little helpers

The kids are happily playing in the living room listening to some lively music. Looks like a good opportunity to snag a few moments to blog. After a blessed month and a half without any sickness, we recently got socked. Chloe was first with a runny nose, then Jed got sick yesterday--runny nose, throwing up (only once thankfully!), and general yuckiness. Then Tucker woke up in the wee hours this morning burning up with fever. And I feel like someone pumped lead into my veins. Could be that episode with Tucker in the night or else fighting it myself--or both. I AM thankful it all hit when it did and didn't interfere with Evan's and my weekend in Boston.

Yesterday we went to Congress 2006--a huge ecumenical gathering of evangelicals in New England. It was held at the Hynes Convention Center in downtown Boston. Evan was able to go all day Friday and then we both went on Saturday, leaving the kids with Lindsay and Amy Partin. It's hard for me to decide what was the best part about the day: a break from little ones' incessant needs, 12 sweet hours with Evan all to myself, the outstanding talks by some of Christianity's biggest names, or the resource room where you could get books at a fraction of their usual cost. Probably all of the above. It was a wonderful day, and I came away challenged and encouraged in my walk with the Lord.