Life's been good to me so far

I'm really enjoying participating in and moving through Holy Week. Palm Sunday Mass was so, so beautiful (when we got home Grant asked how church was and Aaron piped up, "really good!!" so you know it had to actually be...) We went to the Holy Thursday Mass tonight. Tomorrow I'm taking the kids to an afternoon Stations of the Cross thing and then going to Good Friday Mass by myself later in the evening. All seven of us are going to the Easter Vigil on Saturday night.

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Yesterday was my 4th wedding anniversary. I don't know how many of you remember the insane dress debacle that went down with the zipper on my wedding gown but it seemed pretty ironic to me that I found myself freshly showered, moisturized, scented, and struggling and sweating to get a zipper up in my bathroom on the dress I'd decided to wear on our "date night", yesterday afternoon...I took it off to find the spot where it was sticking. I had my brother and Annie help. I ended up laying on the bed, once Grant had gotten home, with him using tools to make it work.

ONE DAY I will manage to get into a nice dress for an occasion with my husband without a team of helpers or any extraneous tools.

We had a great time. We had a delicious amazing off the chain holy shit I die dinner at Texas de Brazil (where they will ALSO send you a "one free meal when you buy the other one" for your anniversary, what-what!), and did some great bargain basement clearance shopping outside of Borders, and then went and walked on, sat on, splashed on, talked on the beach.

While we were there we got to see the beginning of a striking red moon rise and watch a man strip naked and do tai chi in the wind. Then we sat on some hotel's wooden lounge chairs and kissed for awhile. It was nice.

And ended better, back home. I fell asleep hours earlier than normal in a sweaty contented heap. All in all every day should end that way.

Purchased at the bookstore (everying from 1.99-5.99 per item!):

(For Me)
-How to be a Movie Star, an Elizabeth Taylor biography. What? I like biographies, ok!
-The Scalpel and the Soul; The Power of Hope, by a DOCTOR. This is the kind of book I have been looking for - both for my own book's research and personal survival - for a LONG TIME.
-The Forest of Hands and Teeth, on idiolecto's recommendation, because I trust her taste in everything but ESPECIALLY BOOKS.
-Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana by Anne Rice
(For "Grant")
-She Comes First: the Thinking Man's Guide to Pleasuring a Woman
(For Grant)
-The Book of Useless Information - this will be his latest dinner table book, brought out to read from while we're eating, I am sure. It's replacing puns and a double wide "Would You Rather?"
(For Us)
-Sex Deck
(For Everyone)
-Story Cubes

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Today was crazy. I woke all the kids up with french toast casserole and bacon. The van needed an oil change and new back brakes. After dropping it off, the kids and I took the free trolley and went and saw Rio, then had a pizza, then picked it up. Except that doesn't capture the route confusion, waiting time in between things, going by the college bookstore only to find it was closed, or walking all around that occured to make it last so many hours. It was still a good, if tiring, day, but it was a lot to lead up to church with all of them, especially since it was just me and "church" involves driving a half hour each way. We were alright, but it was way more stressful than it usually is on a Sunday morning. And this is the first Serious Business day of my period, which made for lots of insteresting near emergencies and bathroom stops.

I think it was a great day for the kids all things told. Lots of alphabet, I Spy and other sorts of word games, lots of teaching moments (in the movie and the Mass), blah blah blah. Elise had never seen a movie in the theater before.

I'm tired.

But I don't sleep anymore. I'm really starting to suspect I'm approaching a point of just NOT SLEEPING AT ALL, EVER. Like last weekend due to various circumstances there were 50 hours during which I slept ONE hour, like right in the middle almost. Grant was talking about reporting me to the authorities as a witch because I still wasn't acting tired :p Really, though, it's nuts. And stupid, because I spend far too much time in a sleepless delirious haze adding to my tumblr queue and reading fanfiction and then I can't function as well as I should be able to during the day. But...I can't give up my time to myself. And I can't stop being a good mother or a wife or whatever. So...I'll sleep when I'm dead?

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It's so rare for me to see Aaron really immersed in doing things with his brothes, so this is kind of awesome. Mario drawing contest:


(Girls blowing bubbles)




Uno:


♥

I think we've gotten over a hump and now Isaac and Jake are old/smart/independent enough that they CAN do things Aaron is interested in sometimes.


Off to collapse for like...an hour before Grant wakes me up to go take him to work, and then I come home and take a nap until the kids drag me out of bed and it chores and schoolwork time until Stations of the Cross...maybe then I can nap until Mass once G is home.

This painting is having a confusing effect on me. When I look at it I get upset, thinking I don't want to be like this woman, and imagine it's title should be "Control Freak".


It is actually "Gardening in the Rain" by Brian Kershisinik.


He has many others, like "Dancing on a Very Small Island"


And, "Women Out of Danger"

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As an aside...I AM SO EXCITED. Grant and I are "officially" going away together - ALONE - for our anniversary :O Not for very long, two days and the night in between, but hey. I am hyped. I have not been apart from children overnight, aside from hospital stays, in 8.5 years. We'll leave early in the morning, go up to our sweet resort hotel The Westin that's like two hours away, (where we spent a weekend when we first got the settlement, in connecting rooms with the kids and co-sleepers and all), stay all day and night and most of the next day, and then come home in the evening.

And we'll order movies and watch them without interruption.
And sit in a hot tub.
And eat in their fancy restaurant just the two of us, instead of ordering room service.
And I'm sure you can imagine other things that might be possible without any children in earshot.

They have beds with curtains, right on the beach! This has always been something awesome looking but never a possibility.

I talked to Ananda about it tonight and she is surprisingly alright with the whole thing. Gloria will be here the whole time, with my sister stopping in to help both afternoons.

Sometimes I think back to my mother and father dropping my sister and I off at my Nana and Pa's house EVERY WEEKEND for the ENTIRE WEEKEND and it just blows my mind. I mean, geez. Can you imagine only parenting on weekdays for years at a time? And it was paradise for us, too, with a pool and all the popsicles we could eat and a whole room to ourselves for nickelodeon. We loved it there.

We also went to our Ma and Pa's house (other grandparents) for an ENTIRE WEEK twice a year, for Thanksgiving and Easter.

Sometimes I dream of what it would be like to have a free, local support system.