Flying without my cape

I'm a single parent for a week, flying without my Super Cape - my husband is half-way around the world in South Korea for a conference this week. Oy! He left at o-dark-early on Friday morning and I think arrived in Seoul around 1:30 am EST Saturday morning - poor hubby :( So as I'm typing this, I've survived 3 full days of summer with my kids. I'm wondering if this knot in my back is permanent, or if it will go away when the kids go back to school?

My point in mentioning this, blogging friends, is please pardon my absence - I miss seeing what you all are up to, but honestly I have NO idea where the days are going - well, I do - they're being eaten alive by my job as SAHM, and the fact that Sarah has now discovered PBSkids.org and wants to play games so I'm fighting for computer time to do what needs to be done as well as what I WANT to do. Wonder when we will need more than one method of internet access? I'm guessing soon....

So I have some randomness for you, since I haven't done any sewing or taken any pictures of what I have done, or even managed to deal with the yard sale leftovers from a month ago - let alone all the end of school stuff sitting on my dining room table for the last two weeks - so here goes:

- Evie and William have been playing 'Punch Buggy'. Or, more like Evie has been playing Punch Buggy and hitting William whenever she sees a Volkswagen. Apparently Matt was familiar with this game growing up - I only remember it from recent commercials. Let's just say it's one more area where William is a bit lost - Eagle Eye Evie's always been very savvy and aware of things whereas William is more of a thinker and lost in his own head. Which is not to say he's not competitive, so the fact that he NEVER sees a VW first just crushes him. We've tried banning the game (didn't work), telling them not to punch, until finally I've resorted to helping William along or just calling them myself. Although Matt did tell me that when he was out with William the other day, William saw one, took a look at Matt & said "You're kind of big - I don't think I want to hit you." He's a smart boy :)

- I took the kids to see Toy Story 3 Sunday afternoon, as it's been so hot here (102 in the car today - we didn't go outside at all!) Great movie. Interestingly, at bed time Evie was asking me about college & how long it takes, how long you're gone, & all that. I explained how it all works to her & then she told me she's going to get her degree online, so she doesn't have to leave home. I guess ever. We'll see how long that lasts :) I'm sure by the time that day rolls around she'll be chomping at the bit to get the heck out of Dodge!

- Have you ever seen this bit of awesomeness? Our church was taking pictures for the new directory early this month and seeing as how we hadn't participated before (I think the last time this rolled around I was due to give birth to Jason in 2 weeks and there was NO WAY NO HOW I was having THAT image immortalized for the entire congregation to see, should they have chosen to look - the horror!) we thought this time around we were up for the challenge.

And here is the best of the best of our pictures, which came in the mail last week. I have to say I was instantly reminded of that blog post when I opened the envelope :) This scan actually looks pretty good color-wise, but the print in person looks very 'blue'. Matt's expression was absolutely identical in every shot, and I think this shot is the only one where Evie's eyes are open and William isn't making a goofy face. Jason is sitting on my lap because otherwise he was curled up in a ball facing the backdrop, and Sarah is laughing that big laugh because of the photographer and his stuffed monkey. At least I think it was a monkey.

After the pictures were taken, Matt ran off for an appointment and I, in all my educated smartness, decided to take the 4 to the Chinese restaurant by myself for some crappy Chinese food (the only kind they serve). That was a disaster - we had spilled juice, small people crawling under the table, and no music playing to mask some of the noise we were making. Or, I thought that was a disaster until I tried to take them to Mario's Pizza for dinner Friday (no, Mario, Luigi and Bowser will not be there, they are not REAL) and we ended up bolting because Sarah turned into Linda Blair before my very eyes because she wanted to sit next to William and he didn't care to oblige - we didn't even sit down, she was making so much noise. Let's just say I will not be going back to Mario's for a very long time, if ever.

Motherhood is not for the faint of heart. Thanks for letting me vent & Happy Monday :)