So the big plan was to take sometime for myself...so once a week I go to Weight Watchers....every other week I get with my friend Juli to Scrapbook....and the plan was a couple of nights a week to blog....you can all see how well that has worked!
It's been almost a month....where to begin.....INSANE that's what I would be with out my calendar and I'm on the border of it now even with it!
I guess I'll just go back 2 weeks ago tonight - Mark and I drove to Galion to drop the boys off for a weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Sisson. We woke up early on Friday morning to send Amber off with the Licking Heights Band to Chicago, and then after a few more hours of sleep we packed up the van and headed southeast. Our planned destination - the beautiful nature of Hocking Hills. This trip started right before Christmas when Mark and I realized we couldn't afford for all 3 of us to go to Chicago. Every year there is a photo contest called "Shoot the hills" - what a cool concept -take 24 hours or so and take pictures of nature - perfect get away for two nature loving photographers. Well then our lap top dies...how to burn a CD of our pictures to enter? We could drive home, but with CDs do at 4PM on Saturday that won't do....solution go down anyway, enjoy some of the public events like a wildflower and waterfalls hike and a wildlife photo shoot with the naturalist, and a craft show, hike about 10 or 15 miles total, take about 800 pictures and have a great time with no kids! It was a wonderful weekend for Mark and I to be kids without the kids around. We hiked through Old Man's Cave, Cedar Falls, Ash Cave and Rock House. Saw some beautiful landscape, ate some great food at a bunch of "non-chain" restaurants and just enjoyed making decisions on our own. (One of my favorite photos is above - of course it's one of mine - LOL)
Come home Sunday - meet up with my folks and the boys - get Andy up for school Monday and work for us .....back to reality. Tastefully Simple party that night with Angel at Juli and Ken's house, pick up Amber at Airport, come home and get some shut eye. Seems like every time you get a break from it reality comes back at your twice as hard. Laundry from 3 different trips, upcoming Prom, Drivers Ed classes that we need to register for , 4H band, counselor appointments, hair appointments and grades. That' s what life has been since the return. Seems like every time I get one thing done another thing creeps up.
There have been moments of greatness scatter throughout. Saturday we headed to Mason to see the H.S. team play baseball, visit Jackie, and her parents. Couldn't find the baseball game - but made it to a Winery! Then on the way home went West on 270 instead of East and joined up with Chris and Angel for Chris' birthday part at Dave and Busters. Sunday we went for hike at Clear Creek State Park - it's amazing what a 2 year old can do - never thought Al would have made it through a mile hike but he did walking most of the way himself! Then tonight last minute plans with Ken and Juli - leave Weight Watchers, grab beer and pizza and watch some hockey at our house! Would have been a perfect night if Pittsburgh would have won, but alas NY managed to avoid the sweep.
So here I sit listening to the Redwings and the Avalanche and Al snoring on the couch trying to make up for lost time. We keep picking on Andy because he always says "I can't wait till...." We tell him he is wishing his life away, but he's too young to realize it. We also all work for the weekend, but then Monday comes and we're wishing for the weekend again. What we don't realize is that the week flies by and we don't appreciate the quiet moments we get. So even though I might not get to blog as much as I'd like I'm going to try harder to enjoy those quiet moments when I can and fill you all in whenever time allows.
