back to reality....

Phew. Reality sure is busy. I am adjusting to my post-vacation house, which is much different than my pre-vacation house was. I cannot find the tacky little wicker baby carriage that I kept the thermometer and the triple-antibiotic ointment in, on top of the recipe card file. It is gone, and no one knows where it went. A pile of freshly laundered clothes that were in my drawer was on the couch when I got home.....explanation? The little girls found a bottle of pink glitter, opened my dresser drawer, and decorated all the clothes in there. So Evelyn so nicely washed them all for me. The little girls also taped my toilet closed in my bathroom, and dumped my nice Aussie conditioner all over the shower. Oh, they did it so quickly, Mom, we WERE watching them. Since I know all about these things, I believe them.

Anyway, things are in different places (I couldn't find the pizza wheel, but this is rather normal. We always put it in one of ten places.)

But the kids also learned a new line:

"Mom, we ALWAYS did ______while you were gone, and it was FINE!" Fill in the blank with things like letting Rosie out on her own without a leash, leaving the butter out (they actually sent me a text message that said, "Ha ha, Mom, we are leaving the butter out!"), and their pizza making methods....

They also made a Pearl Harbor cake while we were gone. Now, my kids are history buffs. They all get upset how year after year, Pearl Harbor Day is overlooked, and say that the majority of their classmates don't even know what happened on that Sunday morning so many years ago. So they made a cake depicting a so politically incorrect Japanese soldier dropping bombs on ships.... they put a picture of this on facebook, and when I checked it from the hotel and saw this, I pictured them all in the kitchen laughing and I wanted to come home....

Anyway, now we are home and the fun has begun. Mali's jaw is swollen again, she already finished ten days of antibiotics. Aaron apparently got his nose broken in gym class last Thursday. It is swollen and he is getting two black eyes. So there are two phone calls to make tomorrow.

Benjamin is coming home on Saturday!! He was able to arrange his flight through a travel agent who specially visits the soldiers, and his flight was a mere four hundred something, but the catch is that he is flying into Buffalo, which is a few hours from here....and Buffalo is a snowy city...down the New York State Thruway towards the west in December - AAHHH!!! The sort of thing that nighmares are made of. But I shall go anyways, and pick him up. And give him the biggest hug. He has only been gone for a short while, but I got the nicest letter from him yesterday. He has been turning to God, and is really adjusting well, and seems happy.

So the wedding plans....so far all I know is that we are having white roses as the decorations, and Mirielle and I are planning the home made cupcakes....some chocolate, some vanilla, with my buttercream frosting.....we shall buy some more decorating tips, and just pipe the frosting on bakery-style, and perhaps add some gold and silver bows.

The next few weeks will be busy, but I have had three babies in the month of December through the years.. (Abigail turns 24 tomorrow) Margaret was born on December 22nd, and I brought her home from the hospital on Christmas eve. She was baby #9, and my oldest was not quite 12 years old, Mirielle started throwing up, so Paul stayed home with her and I brought the other 8 kids to my brother's house for the Christmas Eve celebration. Anyway, my point is that I have had babies and toddlers and have had to make the cookies and wrap the presents and go to the chorus and band concerts, so I guess now not having a baby or even really a toddler, it doesn't seem all that crazy to get things done. So I am not stressing...yet, anyway.