Return To Normal

The dog is much better and therefore, life is much better. Seriously, you cannot be optimistic when your dog is having intestinal issues and you are the janitor. It was a great time to point out life lessons to my children, however. I told them that they needed to do well in school, otherwise, they could spend their lives cleaning up after dogs. So, there was that, anyway.

Saturday Patrick, James and I went to the CYO City Championship game and watched the other 5th grade team. It was fun to cheer them on. James watched from the sidelines with his teammates and they were excited for the other team when they came away victorious. Nothing but smiles were to be found on my son's face. What a difference a week makes, eh?

Then Saturday afternoon I sat down on my bedroom floor and folded laundry for long enough to watch almost all of Dirty Dancing. That's a lot of clothes, my friends. I learned two things from this marathon folding session: 1. I really need to make a point of folding clothes in a more timely manner, and 2. Nobody puts Baby in a corner.

In the afternoon, Patrick and I headed to a store with which I engage in a love/hate relationship: Lowe's. We went to look at tile for the mudroom. We also looked at bathroom fixtures for the basement bath--you know, for someday when the basement finally gets finished. And cabinets for the basement. And carpet. And countertops for the kitchen. And a new stove. Yeah, there was a whole lot of dreaming going on there, but it's been a while since we've done that and it was fun. It'll continue to be fun until work actually starts on any project, then I will find myself cursing Lowe's and just how much time and money we spend there.

Saturday evening found me shuttling my daughter and her friends to and from the movies. Part of me longs for the day that she can drive. Then the more sane and rational part of me screams at that side of me that I am insane for wanting such a thing because that would mean my daughter would be driving. My daughter! Driving! AAAAAACCCKKK!!

After all of that shuttling, I had worked up powerful thirst and the couch was calling my name. So Patrick and I sat on the couch, drinks in hand, and watched Chevy Chase, Randy Quaid, and John Candy in "Vacation." It's been years since I've watched the whole thing and I had forgotten how funny it was. It's possible that consuming a glass or two of wine while viewing it makes it funnier. Hard to say.

Then, Sunday was spent with church and church-type activities and of course watching the Colts game. They won, but there was a point where I almost had to leave the room because I thought they were going to blow it. The best part of watching the game was tossing the football back and forth with James during commercial breaks (when told by my husband that I was breaking my own rules about throwing balls in the house, I told him to shut it because I'm da momma.) and watching James impersonate a dancing, plucked turkey. I really need a video camera to capture such activities for posterity and future blackmail.

You know what? My neighbors were gone this weekend. You know what else? My boys played with all the other neighborhood boys and there wasn't a fight to be found. Why, it was completely peaceful. Wonder what the common denominator in that equation could be??? Perhaps we are not actually the problem. Things to ponder...

All of this is to say that for all of the drama and messiness of last week, we are back to normal. Well, normal for us, anyway. Whatever that is. And I couldn't be happier to be there.