Do you get dumber with each child???

I have no idea how we spent as many days in Michigan, went as many places as we did and nothing seems to have been left behind. My brain seems to have taken a vacation since we've arrived home.

We got back Wednesday later in the afternoon and I went out for about an hour while my dad stayed with the kids....(bless him because the kids were on speed the minute we walked through the door). I can't believe that I actually remembered the pizza that I went out for the way my mind has been forgetting things the past 48 hours.

The kids went to bed fairly early Wed. night. They crashed pretty hard after all of their fun up north. They got a good nights rest and we were off to the festival yesterday morning. (More photos of that later.) We found a good parking spot, got Maggie in the wrap, and the other 2 in the stroller and we were off. We had enough cash for lunch and a little something for each of them, or so I thought. We shopped the vendors, tasted samples of italian ice, played in the beach volleyball court created in the middle of the street, had hot dogs and chips for lunch, and then Max found a Spiderman hat. After all of that we had one dollar left. Molly found a tinkerbell bag that she liked so we were off to find the ATM. After getting caught up in a very long conversation about wood carving and finding more free samples we were finally standing in front of the ATM machine. I grabbed the $60 bucks, turned the stroller right around and told the kids we could now get ice cream. I left not only my receipt, but my card as well. IDIOT! I didn't realize it until about 4 hours later when we were home resting up for the parade.

After calming down and calling the bank and cancelling we headed back downtown. The parade was a big hit with the kids. I feel weird going to that kind of stuff though without Aaron. He would have had a good time watching the kids run for candy and watching them stick their necks out to see what was coming next in the parade. So since we spent all day at the festival we had lots to do today.

We were supposed to be home from WalMart by 10 am. We left for WalMart at 10:30. We had to get the rest of Max's school supplies. The kids were CRAZY!!! I'm not sure what to do with Molly & her attitude. It's going to be an interesting few years I think. Finally we got everything....only after burying Maggie in rolls of toilet & paper towel and plastic spoons & forks. We paid and then headed to the stamp machine. I put in $8.50 and it shot 10 cents back to me...no stamp booklet...or so I thought. After dealing with my kids antics for 45 minutes in the store, I had one nerve left and it was wasted on the guy telling me that they would have to call the post office to get me a refund. Are you kidding me???

I'm the IDIOT though b/c if I would have just put my hand in there and felt around I would have felt the stamp booklet. I think I called my sister for the 2nd time after that.

So we are back home...I have bags and bags of stuff in front of me and I go to get the school supply list to separate everything.

No list.

No yellow pads of paper with everything I need to accomplish by 5 o'clock written on it.

All of which I left in WalMart at the end of the checkout line.

Back to WalMart we go.

We get our lists back.

Back home. Drive momma nuts. Eat lunch. Drive momma nuts some more.

My big accomplishment for the day though....all the kids were bathed, teeth brushed, side dish made for picnic, myself bathed and hair straightened, ALL ahead of schedule.

Now more on the reasons why I seem to have left my brain somewhere and can't find it.

Max:

Had his school picnic tonight and met his teachers. He is so excited. I got a few pics of him in front of his school. I'm sure I'll be crying to much on Wed. morning to get one.

Molly:

Attitude, attitude, attitude. any ideas? shoot them my way!

Maggie:

smiling, cooing, growing so fast

Thank you Lord. Please be with all of us over the weekend as we travel to be together.

Amen

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There is no place like home....

It is SO GOOD to be back home in Kentucky. I loved our visit with our families, but when I saw that first mountain my peaceful feeling within returned. Once again, saying good-bye to my family brought tears. I hate leaving them and when I allow myself to think about how my kids won't see their cousins for another several weeks it tugs at my heart. Max & Molly had a blast with their cousins. It was a very BUSY 4 days visiting all of them, but they had no idea how busy it was and didn't care about anything except playing with each other. I think what drove me over the edge was the traffic. I can now go weeks without being on the freeway and being back on it in Detroit was awful. Everytime we picked up and went somewhere new we spent double the amount of time in the car. It started adding up and driving us all a little nuts. Friday night I was on the phone with my sister, sitting in traffic, in tears. When I finally calmed down my husband called and the tears started all over again.

Besides seeing all of the cousins, we also spent a little time at the doctors office. Thursday we were supposed to leave right after lunch to head to my brother-in-law's house. Well I had been craving the deli for lunch. We (my sisters and the boys) all went. Max went up ahead with his aunts and cousins. I was walking in and my nephew told me that Max was hurt because he went swinging on the ropes. I replied with, "well, that'll teach him not to swing on those anymore". A few seconds later I realized that he was really hurt. He decided to jump on these ropes that are right inside the deli. He apparently ran in and went swinging like Superman. The poles that hold the ropes came down on his pinky finger. Long story short...we went to a foot & ankle specialist. (They do fingers too.) Max was so brave. He didn't flinch when the doctor touched his pinky. I'm sure that the tootsie pop he had in his mouth at the time helped with that. He didn't start crying until the doc pulled back on his nail and then cut half of it off. OUCH!!! I felt so bad for him, but he was a champ. We've been watching it turn all sorts of different colors. I even bought him $4 band-aids...only for my boy.

We will now try to decompress. Since we hit the door it seems as if they have both been on speed. We'll hit the festival this weekend and they practice getting up, getting ready and getting in the car by 7:40 a.m. I can't believe that he is starting school this coming week. I am going to have to get up an extra hour earlier just to make sure I get all of the photos that I want! :)

Good Night