 |
|
Reply
| | From:  PCBombChelle (Original Message) | Sent: 7/12/2008 2:22 AM |
I'm leaving tomorrow for a MOPS retreat. I signed on to be a part of the steering team for next year and we're leaving for the weekend to plan next year and get to know each other better. I'm excited for it and have been really looking forward to it for a couple weeks now. But my hubby and my kids just left to go "home" so he could have some help from his parents for the weekend. He works nights so I didn't want him home alone with the kids. He sleeps days and we were just both a little nervous about him falling asleep while they were awake or being grumpier because of lack of sleep.... He wanted to try it by himself at home, but we talked it out and knew it would just be better for him to take the help just in case. Besides, it's one less thing I'll need to worry about while I'm gone. I haven't been without the baby. He's 18 months now, so not a baby baby, but he's my baby! When I gave him a kiss goodbye it took all I had not to tear up! I gave my middle son a bigger hug to make up for it! It was really harder than I thought for them to leave! To top it all off it's my hubby's birthday. And he's driving an hour and a half away so he wanted to leave before it got too dark. I was hoping they'd leave a lot later, but it's probably better that they left when they did. Better for the kids anyway! I just needed to release this before I started crying! I do feel a bit better. I guess I should get myself busy so I won't think about it! Besides I need to get to bed at a decent time tonight so I can make sure to get up early to leave tomorrow! Thanks for listening! See you all back here on Monday! Michelle |
|
 First
Previous
2-9 of 9
Next
Last
|
Reply
| |
Well! There really are signs everywhere! I just looked up at the ad banner after this posted and it was for career builder...it said: They will get along without you!! |
|
Reply
| |
Oh, Michelle, I feel a bit of camaraderie with you this weekend. This will be the first time my children have ever spent the night away from Mommy or Daddy (except for the older one when I was in the hospital delivering the younger, but she was still in her own bed).
My youngest, a boy, is 16 months, and has never slept at night anywhere but his own bassinet or crib and Mommy's ALWAYS been there to get him if he needs anything.
My oldest, a girl, turned 3 in April and has never spent the night at anyone else's house.
My husband and I have conflicting schedules tomorrow and need someone to watch the kids (he has a water ski tournament to help run and I have a show mid-day). So our children are staying at Grandma and Grandpa's--45 minutes away.
Our arrangements are such that I won't see my kids from 9:30 saturday morning until late afternoon on Sunday. When I return home from the show saturday afternoon I don't know what I'm going to do in the absence of my kids. It will just be strange for them not to be here while I am.
I do plan to take advantage of the uninterrupted time to really clean the house and not be distracted.
I just hope my son can figure out that people other than Mommy can take care of him. He's been really clingy lately. I think my daughter will be fine.
I'll be thinking about you this weekend, Michelle.
jill : ) |
|
Reply
| |
| Michelle, how did your weekend go? |
|
Reply
| |
I'm just now reading your posts - how did your weekends go? Can I give you a bit of grandmotherly sentiment? Our two grandsons are 8 and 4 now, and almost since the older one, Caleb, was born they have spent every other weekend with us (their mom's mom and dad). Well, ALMOST, of course there were a few times when they were sick or we had conflicting schedules, but MOST of the time. My daughter is a stay-at-home mom and those weekends have been SUCH a blessing to her!! When they were little guys it gave her time to do the chores she couldn't manage during the week with babies (Caleb especially was a challenging baby, probably mostly because he was her first but also because he's a bit (major understatement!) strong willed! She and Kevin are great parents which as all of you know means spending lots of time with the boys. Now that they are older she uses those weekends (usually Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon) for 'me' time and date nights with her hubby. After 10 years of marriage that's IMPORTANT!! That is the picture from HER side - from OUR side we have a FABULOUS relationship with 'our boys'! We feel this time and these memories are something that can never be be taken away from us, and that when the boys are older and want to spend time with THEIR friends rather than us the bond we've built will still be strong!! Brandy is our only child so this is REALLY important to us!! Sorry for writing a book, but I just wanted to say this is a GOOD thing!! And to encourage you to repeat the experience another time just for the fun of it!! Your kids will be all the better off for it - after all, what better gift can you give them than parents who are happily married? And date nights and alone time HELP in that area LOL!! Have a great week!! Marilyn in GA |
|
Reply
| |
Marilyn ~ You are so right! I can speak from the child's perspective because I was the child that spent almost every Friday night with my grandparents (my mom's parents) and I loved it and developed a special bond with my grandparents that a lot of kids don't have. When there was instability in my life, I always felt safe with my grandparents and, as an adult, I am so grateful for them and the memories that I have are priceless. My grandpa died in 1997, but my grandma is still going, although she's failing...she'll be 97 in October! |
|
Reply
| |
First, thank you all for your kind words! Jill, you were in my prayers! I hope all went well for you too! How'd it go? Friday night before I left turned out to be a NIGHTMARE though!! And it didn't have anything to do with me missing the kids after all! One of our water pipes downstairs sprung a leak! It was in a room in the basement (unfinished) that I VERY rarely even go into but I keep my extra PC inventory and theme show stuff (divided into boxes) and needed to grab my HWC stuff (pink flowers, pink tule, pink ribbon, and HWC pins) for a donation. Anyway I saw water running down the wall and noticed there was a pinhole size leak. Of course I'm by myself and had no idea what to do. So I called my hubby (it was midnight!) and he told me to turn the water off to the house. WHAT?!! I still needed to take a quick shower and start the dishwasher and had a load of clothes that I NEEDED for the weekend in the dryer! It wasn't a big leak so we decided to finish up the things I needed to do and just to make sure we turned off the water when they finished. But that stuff ended up taking 2 hours to finish up and then I had trouble gettting the water turned off from the source. I was sooooooo frazzled and felt so unprepared! But I made a list and got the necessary stuff around for me to leave and got to bed about 2am! So I finally got to sleep and made sure I set my alarm for 7am so I could be there at 8am. I don't know what I did, but I must have pushed CANCEL instead of DONE on my cell phone so the alarm didn't go off!! (I can't figure out our high tech alarm in our bedroom so I decided to use the phone) It was raining a lot so the sun didn't even wake me like I thought it would. But all the sudden at 8am a loud crash of thunder woke me up! I KNOW that was a sign from God telling me to get up and get out of the house! So I grabbed my stuff, shut off the water again and hurried to the church to get on the van...in the pouring rain! But I made it on time, by the grace of God! There was absolutely NO other crash of thunder after I woke up! The retreat was amazing!!! It was so full of emotion that I had a headache all weekend, but it was still AMAZING! I just can't express it all in words but it was a great time to make friendships and plan and pray. It was just really nice. For those of you who are NOT a part of MOPS I strongly encourage you to find a group near you. I can't even express how much of a blessing it has been for me! And now that I'm on the leadership side, I really appreciate it even more! It was hard work to plan an entire year, but it was the most calm and stressless planning meeting I've ever been envolved in. There was no fighting or bickering over anything! I've never been to a planning meeting where someone didn't get upset because they didn't get their way! This was sooo not like that! Just encouraging and uplifting and it felt like we acheived so much! I can't wait to be able to translate some of that into my PC biz! The kids did great at grandma and grandpa's. Although grandpa got food poisoning! But they went to the county fair and just had fun with their grandparents. We spend a lot of time with them and I can attest to how important it is that they do! We're actually thinking about sending them back in a couple weeks WITHOUT the two of us! We'd kind of like to go to Kansas City for our 8th Anniversary. That's where we had our honeymoon and Bryan would kind of like to see a Royals game. Michelle |
|
Reply
| | | From: Suz | Sent: 7/14/2008 6:39 PM |
Oh Sweetie, I know what you mean! Before NC, I'd never left my 22 month old son for more than a few hours (and even THAT was rare!) It's SOOO good to be home after wave 1. But I'm really glad a went! My business is going to benefit SO MUCH from going. I am more confident, made great connections networking, and wow was it ever nice to be among ONLY grown ups for all that time! :) And my boys (son & hub both) were JUST fine while I was gone. Glad to have me back for sure, and still both on their best behavior, too. *laugh* Big hugs to you! |
|
Reply
| |
Thank you Marilyn and Kim for your words of experience. My kids did just fine with my parents. There was only one incident where my daughter got upset about which carseat she was riding in but that was it. They played and had fun and my mom even took a few pictures and I could tell they were having a great time.
My show went well, but I didn't get to clean the house like I'd planned to. When I got home my brother- and sister-in-law were here with their kids hoping to watch the ski tournament, but it had been over for a while. So we just sat and talked with them, then they left and my husband and I got ready to go on our first date since January 1. We had dinner and saw a movie, and I know he was expecting some, ah-hmm, action, but that didn't happen. (Too many details to tell here.)
So Sunday he helped with the trick ski and ski jump portion of the tournament and I went to church where I'm volunteering in the 5th and 6th grade room for the summer, which I really enjoy.
I get back home, knowing that if I get hungry I'll just grab something; I don't have to try to rush around and cook lunch so the kids can take their naps. Skiers are still jumping so I change and walk down to the starting dock, which also happens to be our neighbors. I'm chatting with people; my husband's in the boat and it's SOOOOO nice to not have to worry about one of my kids walking off the piers and the dock and falling into the water. But as soon as I left the house my dog, who loves to be outside with me and loves to chase the boats as they go up and down the lake started barking and wouldn't quit for anything. He's quite loud and just keeps barking. I finally started to ignore it but there was also a tennis tournament going on that day as well and our house is one empty lot away from the courts. So the tennis women could really hear the dog barking. I'm at the dock working on my tan and all of a sudden here comes the "queen tennis player" who also lives on our lake. She comes up to me and says, "Jill, you've got to do something about your dog. He keeps barking and it's really loud and the people in the judges tower are tired of listening to it and my girls [tennis women] can't stand it anymore. He just keeps barking and barking and I'm not sure he even takes a breath. We're going to be starting another tournament at 1 and . . . " I had sat there for a little bit, not really caring, but she just kept going on and on and finally I got up and said, "if it's not one **** thing, it's another!" (She had also come to our house once to complain about the music being "too loud" and how no one at their end of the lake got any sleep and she even got up and flicked her outside lights on and off at us. Here's the thing, though, when she came to say that, she just walked up to us and said, "I'm here to complain." No "Hi, how are you today?!" or "What a great day this is." or any kind of greeting. Just "I'm here to complain." Oh, and I asked our NEXT door neighbors if our music bothered them and she said no.) Well, it was a similar situation this time. No nice greeting to acknowledge that I finally had some time to make it down to the dock and visit with people or anything. Just, "You gotta do something about your dog."
The woman has NO tact.
So now I'm just so flipping mad that she's complaining again, but this time it's interrupting my weekend without responsibilities. I only wanted to socialize with some people I hadn't seen in a while, and yet I had to go back and try to shut up the dog. I ran all the way home almost bawling and I got to the house and screamed at the dog, "SHUT YOUR TRAP!!!!" He didn't bark for the rest of the afternoon; I think he could tell how mad I was. I tried to calm myself down so I could go back and socialize again, and I did enough to be civil to people, but then my husband comes back to the dock in the boat and not knowing any of this has happened, jokingly says to me, "You going to jump?" I said, "I'm going to go jump off a cliff!" (not really, but I was terribly upset.) That got his attention and he asked what was going on. I told the whole story of the woman coming down and harping at me about the dog and how I just wanted to relax and socialize, and a couple other things. I'm getting upset all over again, crying again, a few other people are there and heard me and as I finished I said, "I'm sorry. I'm going to go home again." And I left again.
This is probably much longer than you expected. So to make a long story much shorter, my husband went up to this woman and laid into HER about her tactlessness and how she needed to apologize to me and to think about how she's coming across to people.
We had a meeting to go to about a charter school in our area, so we did that and then we went to pick up our kids. It was nice to see them again and learn they had a great time at their grandparents. We came home, and just relaxed for a while, and that was my weekend.
Sorry that was long. I did not have the weekend I was hoping to have, unfortunately. Maybe next time will be better. I hope there'll be a next time soon to have a kid-free weekend; we don't have a lot of extra money for dates and stuff. |
|
|
First
Previous
2-9 of 9
Next
Last
|
|
Free Forum Hosting
Important Announcement
Return to OFF Topic