Week With No Dad

Brandon left last Sunday evening for the Black Hat convention in Las Vegas. He was gone until Friday. I think I under estimated how much time that is. We tried to keep ourselves busy, but we were a little too busy. I did not get the house organized like I wanted or got any yardwork done for him. What we did do:

Monday: I took the girls swimming all afternoon. I had a coupon for a free burrito from Chipotle's, so I went and got that. They weren't interested in eating anything there, so I took them to McDonald's. We picked up a movie while we were there and watched it that night.

Tuesday: Chloe had a dress rehearsal for her Liberty Girls "fiesta." I took her to that and hung out with them. I gained some new insight from watching all those girls -- insight that I hope will help me see Chloe in new light, and refresh my gratitude for having such a "shy" girl. Afterwards I had to go do some shopping. We needed some treats in our house to fully enjoy our week alone (plus some other stuff). While unloading the groceries after getting home, I dropped a gallon size bottle of apple juice onto my bare foot (I had sandles on). It killed! Chloe was so sweet to finish bringing the groceries in. She even got the hatch to the van put down, and did a few things to help me get comfortable.

Wednesday: In spite of having a maimed foot, it was the only day in our scheduled that allowed for a shopping trip to Park City. I did ok hobbling around, but I don't know what I was thinking trying to buy shoes for myself. But as you know, I did get 2 pair -- simply by trying on only the right shoe. It was still a fun day. We had lunch there and I let the girls play on the play set at the mall.

Thursday: This was my day to clean! All my great plans about organizing everything were long gone, but I knew I had this one day I could accomplish SOMETHING. I chose the family room. I thought that would make Brandon the happiest. I don't think he really liked the food storage that I had lying all over the place ever since we had to replace the furnace. I got that all put away, furniture put back, a box unpacked that was still sitting out from our move over 2 years ago! (and it's not the last one). It's still not perfect, but it's a huge improvement.

That evening we had Chloe's Fiesta! They did a little play and had a talent show, followed by refreshments.

Friday: I wanted to take Sophie down to Build-A-Bear to use her birthday coupon, but we just didn't have time. We had to go to the grocery store so we'd have some food for Brandon to come home to (he's not so happy when the cupboards are bare). And, yes, going to the grocery store takes me an ENTIRE morning. Then we had to leave for the airport to go pick him up.

Once he got home he had a few minutes to relax, but then we had a company party to go to. It was a luau! I got to talk to one of his co-workers wives about digital scrapbooking, Photoshop and photography. That was a highlight for me. They had a drawing and gave away a bunch of prizes -- Brandon got a gift card to Applebees! Yeah, another date night in store!

Now we're past the week with no dad, but on to other things: Saturday we had another party to attend -- a birthday party for one of Brandon's co-workers. Brandon made his famous squash bread to take. It didn't even last until it was time to eat! Sunday my family all came to town. We had a houseful. My mom's birthday present to Sophie was a trip to Lagoon (Chloe's was the trip to Cherry Hill). We spent Monday at Lagoon. I was exhausted before we even got there. We did a little swimming at Lagoon-A-Beach and rode lots of rides. It was a fun day, even if it was tiring.