The Gift

A week ago this past Thursday Daddy-O and I received a gift. No it wasn't money, a car, or a coffee maker (which we really need by the way). We received one of the greatest things you can give a couple with four children, time.

My sister-in-law loves my children to pieces. And on top of that she has always loved keeping the two older boys. It had been almost 2 years since they have spent the night with her until Thursday evening. Not only did Jan take the two big boys but she also took The Princess. Oh and it gets even better! She had them from Thursday evening until Monday afternoon!!! Okay, don't get me wrong. I love my children but it's nice to have a break, occasionally.

From Thursday evening until Monday afternoon it was just the three of us: Daddy-O, The Messenger, and me. We had a great time together, but the main focus of the weekend was transforming the boys room in to a Star Wars room (that post will be coming soon). However, Daddy-O and I did get some time to ourselves.

We started our weekend off with breakfast at Cracker Barrell and then home to paint. I spent Thursday evening moving things out of the boys room while he took the kids to Jan's and then back to work until 3:00 am! We work diligently all day. It was finally time for dinner. We have been wanting to try the Korean restaurant down the street for quite awhile. We headed there for dinner. The Messenger loved it. We got a sitter from 9-11 pm so we could go see The Messenger's godfather play in his band. That was fun, but really, really, really loud. 

Saturday came bright and early and we continued to paint and work on the boys' room. We took a break around 12:30 to head to Hendersonville. We bought The Princess a play kitchen off of craigslist for her birthday and had to go pick it up. On the way home we stopped at Sonic for a drink and a banana for The Messenger. It's amazing how different a trip to Sonic can be with just one child. It was very quiet and relaxing. We actually were able to talk to each other.

We made a quick tripped to Wal-mart to find the crates for under the boys beds to store their clothes. We returned home to continue working on the room. At 4:00 The Messenger's godmother and godfather came over to hang with him so we could go to the movie! After much deliberation we decided on Avatar 3D. We enjoyed it. It was visually stunning! And you've got to love movie popcorn! After the movie we ran over to The Home Depot to purchase the shelves for the room. We actually got the big boys up that night.

Sunday morning we went to mass at 8:30. Afterward we went by the office to "hide" the kitchen until The Princess' birthday in February. While we were there we decided to pack up the cardboard to recycle since it was about to take over the back corner of the office. It was now 11:00. We were hungry and decided to have lunch at Amerigo's. Yumm! I had the goat cheese pasta, my favorite thing there! We haven't been to Amerigo's in at least three years.

The Messenger was pretty whipped out. Daddy-O dropped us off at the house while he recycled the cardboard and went to purchase Surfer Dudes bed. I painted. We finished The Messengers shelves and the last of the painting we could do on Sunday. We started putting the room back together, assembled the bed, putting the boys things on the shelves.

Monday morning I made an early trip to the store to pick up the bobblehead clones I had found and then to Walgreens to pick up the pictures of the boys I wanted to have in their room. Then for a special treat I ran by Best Donuts so we could have coffee and apple fritters for breakfast!

Daddy-O had to make one more trip to a different Walmart to get the rest of the crates for the clothes. Also, he ran to Brookstone to get the Frog-o-Sphere No. 1 Son wanted for Chirstmas, they finally had some! I finished up the room by making the beds and storing the clothes. And then spent the rest of the time running around like a crazy woman picking up the rest of the house. Around 2:00 we decided we were toast and head to Schlotskis for a sandwich. We got home in time to sit a minute before Jan pulled up in the driveway.

It was a great weekend. We were incredibly busy, I'm pretty sure I didn't list everything we did. I'm so greatful for the time we had. We really enjoyed our time together and with The Messenger. What we accomplished in those few days would have taken weeks and a lot of yelling and frustration with all the kids home.