the life of a mom

Dan and I just got back from spending 4 days in beautiful California. Unfortunately, it wasn't a trip just for fun. Dan's grandpa passed away. We wanted to go for the funeral and at the last minute we were able to get a great price on airline tickets, so we could both go. I spent several days getting things ready for us to leave--cleaning, laundry,shopping for food, making out schedules, preparing meals, etc. There would be 8 kids at our house. My mom and sister and her 4 kids, plus my 4. I knew it would be chaos, so I wanted to try and make things as smooth as possible. It didn't hit me that I wouldn't see my kids for 4 days, until the night before we left. I haven't been away from them for that long EVER! The thought of that was very weird.
We had a good time with family while in CA. There was tears and laughter. Dan and I even had some time just for us. We walked on the beach, collected shells and sand dollars for the kids, ate lunch in Morrow Bay and visited Hearst Castle. We caught up with family and even got to watch a romantic sunset on the beach, followed by some awesome sushi! The time went quickly, I missed the kids, but enjoyed my time with Dan and his family. I did shed a few tears while away...missing my kids.
Then we got home.

David was sick, complaining that he had strep throat. We immediately got home,looked at his throat and took him in to Linc Care. Sure enough--he had strep. Natalie and Kaylee were snotty and cranky. And that was just my kids. My mom was sick and two of my sisters kids were sick with fever and headaches. On top of everything else, Lauren had had a huge collision with her cousin--- her teeth and his head. His head got infected and upon coming home, I looked at her mouth and it didn't look good. Her front teeth were loose and the gums looked dark, bloody and awful. She ended up with a trip to the dentist the next day. After the dentist, she also was complaining of a sore throat and ended up on antibiotics for strep. Welcome Home Mommy!!

Besides the sicknesses and injuries, I got some reports of a naughty 2 year old! My niece, Sadie and Natalie are both two. They both had some pretty good fights with war wounds to show for it. Their main source of defense was biting. They both had drawn blood on each other!! I guess the youngest kids of four have to know how to defend themselves--yikes!

So is the life of a mom...
Can I go back to the beach???