Thursday, March 27, 2008

We Made It!

So I am writing this from Germany after a long night on an airplane! We got to Charlotte and checked in with no real problems. We were quite a procession with all three kids running and pulling their backpacks behind them through the concourse. They were so excited and ready to get on the plane. They all did great on both plane trips -Charlotte to Detroit, Detroit to Frankfurt. Jack kept referring to takeoff as "blast off" and would white-knuckle the arm rests on takeoff and landing, but he seemed as excited as he was nervous. The boys all slept on the plane and none of the girls did (me, Mom and Emma) so we are all feeling a wee bit tired this morning, actually afternoon. My Ipod stopped working properly and Emma's DVD player didn't work, but we had enough other things to keep us occupied. We gave the kids Dramamine when we got on the plane and I was the one who felt a little motion sickness on takeoff, but then my Dramamine kicked in and I was ok. Will looked a little pale when we got off the plane in Germany, and continued to get whiter while we waited on our checked luggage. I thought he would throw up for sure, but he managed to pull through ok and Ann and Jeff met us there, loaded us up, and we were on our way.
Mason and Katy are very grown up and very tall. I told Ann they make our kids look like pygmies. Will thinks he has died and gone to heaven because he gets lots of time on Katy and Mason's Wii, and Emma is diligently doing her homework.
We leave for Paris in the morning. I am so excited. I guess I need to decide what I really want to see there, since I'm the one who wanted to go so bad.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Easter

It was a great day for an Easter Egg Hunt yesterday! Grandaddy and Daddy hid about 90 eggs (we think) and the kids had so much fun finding them. Emma found the silver egg and Will had a repeat as the golden egg winner. Emma told Jack that she would give him the golden egg if she found it, so both of them were disappointed when Will came up with it. I could see an "it's not fair" type announcement hovering on Emma's lips, but she managed to keep it in. And then Grandmama gave five dollars to everybody anyway, so we're all winners! I did not pack a lick while Justin's parents were here, so now I am really under the gun. I feel pretty confident I'll get it all done. I still have two more days, right? Next I'll say, "What could go wrong?" and a tree will come crashing down on our roof and the passports will be the only things damaged beyond repair. It's already 1:30 and I have most of my stuff packed and about halfway done with Emma. Next come the boys and Justin is on his own. Boudreaux is going to live with Mark Miller - yea, Mark! and he will come to pick her up on Tuesday, bless his sweet heart. Tuesday Dad is bringing Mom to us and then the excitement will really pick up! Mostly in the form of Mom saying, "Did you remember this? and this?" And me saying, "Oh no! How did I manage to pack without you!" Just kidding, Mom.

Jack is turning into a reader, overnight it seems. For months we have worked on it via Learn to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and he was game, but not very interested. Now he wants to read for himself and we have found some books that he can read. It is so much fun! Right now he is pretending to be a dog and barking at me and trying to climb into my lap, so I guess it's time to go. Plus I want to get my exercise in before the kids get home from school.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

The countdown begins

This time next week we will be getting ready to leave for the airport in Charlotte for our big trip. So exciting! Right now, I am getting ready to go to Jack's easter party at his preschool. We register him for kindergarten at PGS this Friday. It is hard to believe he will be going to big kid school in the Fall and I will have no children at home with me. For eight years I have had some little person tagging along at the grocery store, watching Dora at lunchtime, taking naps, reading stories, pitching fits, needing to be wiped, hugging...I could very easily cry. Yet how often have I longed for the day! I think of grocery store trips with one child in a front carrier, two in those monstrous carts with kiddie seats that I always managed to slam into some fruit display, just hoping that the baby would make it to the frozen food section without screaming his little head off or pooping. I remember little old ladies always stopping me and complimenting my beautiful children (and they are beautiful) and then telling me, "Enjoy this time, it goes by so fast!" And in my head I'm thinking, "You enjoy it, Lady, when someone has to go to the potty so we all have to trundle back to the meat section, use the bathroom, get wiped, everyone's hands washed, 'Don't put your mouth on that!', then load back up in the cart, get down two more aisles, someone else realizes they have to go to the potty, back to the bathroom we go, Oops! False Alarm" - the old ladies seemed to have forgotten about those days. So why does it make me sad to see Jack go off to school? Part of it is wanting that time back so I could do it better - enjoy it as the old ladies remind me to, laugh at the funny things my kids say, marvel at the world through a three year old's eyes - but I am who I am, so I can't say another go at it would be much different for me. But the older I get, the more I realize it all does go by so fast, and I pray that I would not take for granted the days and the people God's given me but love them with all I've got, imperfect as I am. So with that in mind, I'm off to an easter egg hunt with Jack and thirteen of his best buddies. :)

Monday, March 17, 2008

So anyway...

The blog is called "anyway" because when I am talking to Mom or Sam on the phone, that is the verbal cue we use to round up the conversation or signal that we have nothing more to add to the current line of thought. I'm not sure why, nor am I aware of other people who use anyway in this same way (I guess it's just a nice way of saying, "well, I've got to go now!"), but there it is.

I am blogging because my mom told me to - really she just wants me to write, but thoughts flow more freely for me at a computer than with a journal. A journal just looks like another project I have left uncompleted, and those sorts of things make me sad. I am also blogging because we are about to take the whole family on a trip to Europe, and I thought a blog would be a great venue to share the journey with all of our friends and relatives who won't be there in person. Plus this way I won't harrass each of you personally to look at my pictures - I will do it subtly through electronic media instead. So be thankful for the anyway blog! It is my gift to you.

And it is now 9:22 p.m. and I need to put the laundry away and turn the lights out for the kids. Justin is playing in the church league basketball championship game as I write this, and I hate that I am not watching.

Anyway!