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Friday, August 31, 2012

Pool for one.

Strangest feeling in the world is showing up to the pool by myself.  This has been my hang out each afternoon -- as soon as General Hospital is over and until the time Jeff comes home at 6:05pm, I can be found lounging on a pool chair, reading my kindle. 

It's been a bittersweet week.  On one hand, I've seriously enjoyed not having to look after anyone and do as I please.  On the other hand, it has been hard not having Ian and Sam home with me.  The house is VERY quiet, even if all the tvs are on.  I greatly miss them and feel like a big part of me is not complete.  I feel selfish that I have all this time to myself.  But then I remember how much I need a break. 

Every day my to-do list seems to take up a big part of the morning.  I've been able to volunteer at Ian's school, set-up a chore chart (oh boy, the kids are going to love this!- said very sarcastically), drop off Jeff's dry cleaning, bring in his pants to get fixed, get to Costco, get a haircut, be home for the Orkin guy and so on.  I could make phone calls, research things, and write emails in peace. One of the best things was going to Target and not having a set time I needed to be out of the store.  Wowee!  And I got the whole house clean on my schedule when I wanted to do it, rather than squeezing it in, in between activities. 

And remember how last year at Ian's Open House orientation (Sam at her worst - click here if you need to be reminded just how bad it was) I vowed I would never do that again?  Guess what?  This year I got to go by myself.  Yeah, it sucks that Ian couldn't meet his teacher in advance of the first day of school, but for all concerned it was best the kids were in FL.  A repeat performance was not going to happen!

Each day, I make sure to have things wrapped up by 3:00pm.  That was my time to stop being so productive.  Sitting on the couch watching General Hospital was my reward, followed by a trip to the pool.  It has been devine.  I am making sure I rest up for the craziness the new school year is about to bring. 

Tomorrow, I fly in the morning to go get the kids.  My plane lands at 11:00am.  And at 6:00pm, the three of us are on a flight headed back home.  This is the last hurdle.  Flying with Sam.  I am coming armed with some new coloring/activity books for the flight.  My friend Heather came up with a great idea.  When we get to the airport, let Sam (and Ian) pick out 3 pieces of candy.  Every 30 minutes when airborne, give her one of her selections to eat.  And whatever I do, don't say no.  No matter how oversized, gigantic, sugar-high inducing her choice is, let her get it. And if she tries to negotiate and want 4 pieces instead of 3, be okay with that.  And then Heather added in for good measure, if after 20 minutes Sam is ready for her next piece, be okay with that too and don't make her wait an additional 10 minutes.  Heather figures that at some point, Sam will be so sick from the candy she won't want to finish all she picked out, but she will be a good girl for the flight.  I have a feeling I will have her throwing up within 1 hour 10 minutes of the 2 hour flight.   But I am game for anything and will give it a try.

We will start off the flight with dinner.  Since the flight is at 6:00pm, I figure the fast food take-out chicken nuggets (complete with fries!) I bring on board will buy me at least 20 minutes of quiet before I have to start hitting the candy stash.

As always, my number one goal is to not make the news or get thrown off the plane.  Ah, I can't wait for the day when my aspirations are a little less ambitious. 

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