packin up for a visit

We made a Michigan Run this past weekend ... I decided to go early in the week, before my cold got the better of me, which was after I had picked up an additional passenger. So now I really had to go. We left Friday after dinner and didn't pull into Lansing until midnight Eastern. As an added bonus, both kids were awake, but it wasn't too bad, surprisingly.

The kids have their own suitcases, which is mainly to give them something to do. I told Q to get his suitcase out Thursday night, so we could pack Friday after we got home from school. Well, about ten minutes after I told him this, I heard The Daughter in the Bedroom of The Son (a no-no after bedtime at our house), and they were packing. It turns out that she helped him pack his suitcase. For our weekend trip, he packed:

1 pair of pajamas, in a matched set
1 pair of sweatpants
1 sweatshirt
1 pair of socks
1 pair of work gloves
1 bug net
1 bug tweezer
1 lid to a container that stores blocks, that he was not bringing with - just the lid
1 plastic alligator
1 plastic submarine type of toy
1 airplane
8 pine cones

Ready to go!

Needless to say, my bag was very full ... I had clothes for two - he and I.

But, overall, the trip was uneventful. A quick time line:

7 pm - leave Illinois
Midnight - arrive in Lansing, Michigan
7 am - wake up with the children
10 am - leave Lansing, Michigan to drive to Grand Rapids
10:15 am - watch the truck behind me swerve quickly onto the right shoulder of the road in order to avoid hitting me. His front wheels were almost even with my back wheels. I shudder to think of what could have happened had he not swerved and had I not scooted up further.
11 am - arrive in Grand Rapids

Spend the day with Poppy, which includes going to the park, playing on the balcony, building Lego creations, eating dinner with Poppy, Auntie and Baby Will. As a side note, Baby Will is almost 14 months old, and he is about an inch and a half shorter than my almost 3 year old daughter. I think his new name is Gigantor. But, as an extra special bonus, he came to me with arms outstretched and let me hold him and love on him. *Big sigh*

9:15 pm - leave Poppy's to go to the hotel
9:20 pm - arrive at the Hotel
9:30 pm - get into the pool
10:05 pm - exit the pool
10:15 pm - Oldest child is asleep on the pull out couch, approximately five minutes after laying down
10:20 pm - Youngest child is asleep on the pull out couch, approximately ten minutes after laying down

Midnight - I put down my book and go to bed

4 am - Wake up with the crying Daughter and get her back to sleep
6:45 am - Look at the clock for the last time
7:20 am - Wake up with the Son
8:30 am - Wake up the Daughter
9:30 am - Eat Continental Breakfast, which The Children enjoy immensely
10:00 am - Say Good Bye to Poppy
10:02 am - Go back outside to give Poppy one more kiss and hug
10:10 am - Leave Grand Rapids
11:15 am - Arrive back in Lansing
12:00 noon - Head back to Chicago
2:00 pm - Stop for gas only to discover that the front bumper of my car is hanging by a wire and little else. Have Father In Law duct tape it back together for me and pray like a fiend that nothing is going to fly off of my car until I get home.
4:00 pm - Arrive in Kaneville, Illinois
6:30 pm - Finally start back to my own house, which I left almost 48 hours earlier ... both it and I were still standing

I am very glad to be back home ... I still have a pile of laundry to do, a stack of bills to pay, a pile of email to answer, and tomorrow I get to grocery shop. But, with "vacations" like the one I just took, being home is easy.

Shapes

As I look at my kids I see two kids, with two very different bodies.

Q, right now, is my bean pole of a child, very tall, very skinny, no butt. Built a bit like me, like my Dad and my Father in Law.

The Bee, right now, is my fireplug of a child. Not so tall, with legs like tree trunks and more than enough butt to go around. I'm hoping that for purely health reasons (I've been dealt a genetic crap shoot of a hand, and am hoping that the good health on my Dad's side will cancel out what I've gotten from my Mom), that she is not built like my aunts on my Mom's side.

I have watched their baby bodies, all rolly and fat, with tiny little hands grow ... they don't have as many fat rolls and dimples, their hands are now kid hands, their little wrinkley, turned in feet are kid feet, with dirt under the nails. They now have skinned knees, bruised shins, dirty faces ... all signs of a fun and busy, adventure filled day.

Then theres my shape. My body has grown two babies. My body has nursed two babies, for a total of twenty five months. With all this mothering, you get "badges". I proudly wear my badges, although they may not be in the places I might have originally wore them, before my kids. My hips are a slight bit bit wider, my feet are a bit bigger and my breasts are not only smaller, they are now aiming down. I'm not too keen on that last part. I have one very tiny stretch mark from my belly button ring staying in too long with Q and I have one crooked c-section scar from Q as well. My hips carry my kids, even today. My arms are surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, in good shape. My heart is fuller than I ever thought possible. I remember asking everyone I knew when I was pregnant with The Bee, how my heart was supposed to love another person as much as I loved Q - I couldn't imagine it. I figured it would burst. Well, sure enough, the heart has an amazing ability to expand and hold it all.

So as I sit here and watch my daughter with her mane of hair stand in the dirt and rub it into her hair, and my son drive his construction equipment around the very same dirt, I am thankful for my not so new shape (it was redefined for the last time almost two years ago when I quit nursing), and all that it has brought me.

And, a link to some other moms willing to share their new shapes as well: The Shape of a Mother.

One reason why I love spring

This is my laundry hanging out to dry in the backyard earlier this week. These are the whitest that they've been since fall came and chased me and my clothes line inside. They are also the best smelling clothes - there is definitely something about clothes hung out to dry that makes me happy.

Good for Gary

So I've been keeping tabs on "my soldier" on his my space page. I don't know if this could be considered stalking, but I check every few days just to see if he's logged on. I know he logged on before going to A-stan, and hadn't been on in months.

Good news - he logged on there yesterday! Woo Hoo! At least I know he's still alive ... he didn't seem to post any comments to his friends pages (getting too nosy here?) ... but he was able to log on. That's good. Very good.

I will not be a moron

I was checking on the blog of a friends husband, and he linked to this, so of course I had to follow it after reading his intro:

She said what?!

I just about fell out of my chair reading this ...

I'm freaking speechless.

I will be back with more on this, I am literally that speechless. My fingers can't keep up with my brain, and it's having trouble keeping up with itself.

Walking away now for some primal scream therapy.