Where to Even Begin

Today was my first day of nothingness. No school, no birthdays, no company, no holidays, no trip, NOTHING. I had even done most of my catching up on laundry and cleaning yesterday (yes on the sabbath, Josh had to pack again for this week.) I didn't quite know what to do. I let Preston and Aubrey destroy what little order the house was in and I caught up on a few things concerning my New Years resolutions and other things on the computer. I don't think I have spent as much time on the computer in months as I did today. It was wonderful. I did a little sewing and a bunch of eating (I made really yummy cookies yesterday.) It was a good day!

This is Josh's last week in Rapid City. It is a bittersweet thing to come to the end. There were times when I was perfectly fine with him being away every Monday through Thursday in exchange for me not having to work and spending all weekend together. Then there were the times (usually at bedtime) when I was willing to PAY for him to be home. I have to head back to work a week from tomorrow and although I have some new resolutions to help give me extra motivation I am not overly excited. With the holidays and all the business that comes with them I didn't really apply for too many jobs. I still go back and forth about me working full time during the day. I figure I have five more months of not seeing my older kids much until summer break. It is hard. In fact, when Kendra rolled over this morning and told me that she didn't want to go to school today I almost told her ok and climbed into bed with her to cuddle for a little while.

Christmas was wonderful, as always. It was strange to have the Christmas Eve festivities at our house since we have the big house now. I LOVED having both Josh's family and my family there and even more I loved not having to load up the kids or presents and being gone all night. Josh's dad and step mom got to see a new side of my family as about 12 of us all played Mafia. The accusations were made and the cousins got loud, as always. There were helicopters flying and wrapping paper everywhere. Kids were playing and everyone was eating. What is Christmas Eve without a whole bunch of Chaos? We were even blessed to have company stay with us as my sister decided at the last minute to come with her hubby and kids. I loved being able to stay up late Christmas Eve with them while the finishing touches were put on the front room.

On the Monday after Christmas we packed up and headed to Rapid City to stay the week with Josh. The hotel that he has been staying at has a huge indoor water park attached to it so we decided to make a vacation out of it. We had a lot of fun and swam A TON. The highlight of the trip might just be when we went out for dinner after a long day of swimming and Preston threw up all over the seat, then Aubrey spilled water all over and then to finish off the dinner Preston threw up again. This time Josh was prepared with the huge empty water glass and kept it contained. Preston was just utterly exhausted, poor guy, it was even his birthday! We made it up to Mount Rushmore, but then missed Reptile Gardens because they closed a day early for the season because of a snow storm. That same snow storm kept us there an extra day but when we did make the trek home the roads were fine. It was a nice and much needed trip but it made the week go by WAY too fast.

I am hoping to get our laptop fixed next week. I will be glad to download my pictures and get caught up on a few other things. Until then...more babbling :)