As my family will verify, I am not a very pleasant person if you wake me up in the middle of the night. I tend to be closer to a large, rabid grizzly than a soft cuddly teddy bear, personality wise. Last night my oldest daughter had a friend overnight, add our Fresh Air Fund kiddo and there we 6 young girls in our house last night. I put the youngest to bed a little after 9 and headed to sleep in the amazing luxury that is a/c myself. The rest of the girls were all playing in the basement and I left them with instructions to stay quiet because the littlest one was already asleep and make sure they turned off all the lights when they went to bed.
Somewhere after midnight they awoke the bear. I am not really sure how it happened, but I do remember my oldest daughter being the brave one in the bunch and coming to tell me that the littlest one was awake. I stumbled out of bed, fumbling for pants and muttering a slew of what I am now sure were probably some very colorful phrases and emerged into the livingroom a couple of minutes later.
What I found in the livingroom was enough to raise my hackles and unleash the rabid bear's wrath. EVERY light was on, the TV was on and pretty loud for post-midnight viewing, there were things everywhere (I swear I cleaned the livingroom before I went to bed!), there were 4 girls chattering and playing like it was 2 in the afternoon, a 5 year old following me around doing her best Stewie Griffin impression (you know the one..."Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom....Mumma...Mom, Mom, Momma..." etc etc etc) and one small 2 year old holding her blanket and crying. I am not really sure what I said at that point. I would like to thing that it was something nice and calm along the lines of "girls, lets remember that it is after midnight and Justin and I have to work early tomorrow. Lets keep it quiet and turn off some of these light so Alyvia can get back to sleep, ok?" But I have a feeling that it came out more like a series of growls and gutteral grunts accompanied by some severe stomping around. Whatever it was, I do clearly remember the girls suddenly moving very rapidly to get everything turned off and head upstairs. I got the little one back into bed and dragged myself to my bed (grumbling the entire way). I fell back asleep, cranky and whiney.
This morning I woke up early to take Justin to work so that we would be able to go on our fieldtrip. I found a little 5 year old curled up in bed next to me, sound asleep. I went upstairs to let my oldest know that I was leaving and there, snuggled up in the cutest, most heartwarming, rabid grizzly melting, warm little knot of bodies, I found my oldest daughter with my youngest. I guess they are keepers after all.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Its been a while!
I didnt realize how long it had been since my last rambling. It seems like there is always so much going on around here, that I dont really have time to sit down and write it all out.
A few weeks ago, my husband decided that I had worn myself out enough and it was time for a break. He planned a great trip for just the 2 of us to the greatest place on Earth- Hershey PA. For those of you who don't know me, let's just say I take the love of chocolate to a whole new level. For example, right now I can tell you that there are 263 days until the next Chocolate Lover's Fling at the Holiday Inn By The Bay in Portland. I could also, if I lost my mind and decided to give away all my secrets, tell you of atleast 3 places in my house where I have hidden chocolate so that I have easy access to a fix at a moments notice. So a trip to Hershey for me is better than Disney, its bigger than the superbowl or even (gasp!) game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. Its almost a religious pilgrimage.
Back to the story, Justin took the wonderful step to plan the whole trip- from where we would stay to care for the kids and everything in between. As the weeks ticked by and we got closer to the trip, my stress levels were through the roof. I had not been away from my kids for that long since...well since I had my oldest daughter 12 years ago! I also started to think about all the fantastic things we would do while we were away. There would be dinners at nice restaurants, nights staying out late doing whatever we felt like, so many tours and activities to do just for us without watching out for little ones or counting heads to make sure everyone was there and SLEEP!! Real, true sleep with no little ones standing at the top of the stairs yelling for Mommy in the middle of the night or sneaking into my bed and using my entire body as their own personal pillow. It was going to be an epic weekend of pure, adulthood awesomeness the likes of which I myself had never seen before!
We dropped the kids off with Justins parents and I didnt even start crying until we got in the car (that's a big deal for me, so give me a little credit!). I don't think I slept much at all that night. I tossed and turned and worried about my babies most of the night, but on the plus side I was ready to go for the 6am depart time I had scheduled for us to make sure that we got to Hershey in time to do everything that I had scheduled for us (yes, I did have our schedule broken down hourly.) We made it right on time and began to do all of our chocolate related activities. I found myself relaxing more and more as the day went on. It was amazing how relaxing it was! As I started to let go and relax a bit more, I noticed that I stopped worrying about my kids as much- their grandparents really would call if they needed anything. I stopped worrying about other peoples kids around me- they all were with their own parents. I even stopped worrying about Justin- he really can take care of himself. As all of this happened, I started to come to the realization that the world really would go on just fine even if i did relax and refuse to take responsibility for everyone else for a little bit. I EVEN learned that I end up being a much happier, relaxed, well-balanced, person to be around if i let other people take the reins once in while.
Overall it was a wonderful, relaxing, chocolate-filled weekend that I am so thankful we got to have. I learned a lot- from the delicate differences in tastes in cacao beans from various regions to the fact that I am much better equiped to be a good wife, mother, friend, and person in general if I allow myself a little down time now and then. And as added bonus- I caught up on A LOT of sleep!
A few weeks ago, my husband decided that I had worn myself out enough and it was time for a break. He planned a great trip for just the 2 of us to the greatest place on Earth- Hershey PA. For those of you who don't know me, let's just say I take the love of chocolate to a whole new level. For example, right now I can tell you that there are 263 days until the next Chocolate Lover's Fling at the Holiday Inn By The Bay in Portland. I could also, if I lost my mind and decided to give away all my secrets, tell you of atleast 3 places in my house where I have hidden chocolate so that I have easy access to a fix at a moments notice. So a trip to Hershey for me is better than Disney, its bigger than the superbowl or even (gasp!) game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. Its almost a religious pilgrimage.
Back to the story, Justin took the wonderful step to plan the whole trip- from where we would stay to care for the kids and everything in between. As the weeks ticked by and we got closer to the trip, my stress levels were through the roof. I had not been away from my kids for that long since...well since I had my oldest daughter 12 years ago! I also started to think about all the fantastic things we would do while we were away. There would be dinners at nice restaurants, nights staying out late doing whatever we felt like, so many tours and activities to do just for us without watching out for little ones or counting heads to make sure everyone was there and SLEEP!! Real, true sleep with no little ones standing at the top of the stairs yelling for Mommy in the middle of the night or sneaking into my bed and using my entire body as their own personal pillow. It was going to be an epic weekend of pure, adulthood awesomeness the likes of which I myself had never seen before!
We dropped the kids off with Justins parents and I didnt even start crying until we got in the car (that's a big deal for me, so give me a little credit!). I don't think I slept much at all that night. I tossed and turned and worried about my babies most of the night, but on the plus side I was ready to go for the 6am depart time I had scheduled for us to make sure that we got to Hershey in time to do everything that I had scheduled for us (yes, I did have our schedule broken down hourly.) We made it right on time and began to do all of our chocolate related activities. I found myself relaxing more and more as the day went on. It was amazing how relaxing it was! As I started to let go and relax a bit more, I noticed that I stopped worrying about my kids as much- their grandparents really would call if they needed anything. I stopped worrying about other peoples kids around me- they all were with their own parents. I even stopped worrying about Justin- he really can take care of himself. As all of this happened, I started to come to the realization that the world really would go on just fine even if i did relax and refuse to take responsibility for everyone else for a little bit. I EVEN learned that I end up being a much happier, relaxed, well-balanced, person to be around if i let other people take the reins once in while.
Overall it was a wonderful, relaxing, chocolate-filled weekend that I am so thankful we got to have. I learned a lot- from the delicate differences in tastes in cacao beans from various regions to the fact that I am much better equiped to be a good wife, mother, friend, and person in general if I allow myself a little down time now and then. And as added bonus- I caught up on A LOT of sleep!
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