Deployment Days

Sean left for his six month, all expense paid, exclusive, reclusive, vacation in the desert on Saturday. The departure worked out well; he put the kids to bed Friday night and left early Saturday morning before they woke up. No tears, no long goodbyes, no super sadness. I had new toys ready and waiting to distract the little ones for when they awoke and asked for Dad. We kept busy on Saturday, the boys had make up piano lessons and Colton played with some friends down the street. We were rewarded with the ability to watch Sponge Bob Squarepants in the evening as I had just had Skye cable installed that afternoon. Things went smoothly; on Saturday.

Here's Ella with her new baby doll to keep her happy while Sean is gone.

Here's Ella two seconds later having a minor temper tantrum over something trivial.

Here's Mason just being cute.

When Ella asked, "Mom, what fun thing are we going to do today?" I drew a blank. Fun? Fun? Really? I'm in survival mode for the next six months. I didn't know fun was supposed to be provided too! Well, I paused for a second, then said, "Pudding finger painting!!!" It was well received. And tasted.
Ella said the cutest thing on Saturday. She was being a sweetheart and I said, "I remember the old Ella would fuss and whine sometimes and not be polite or say please. I LOVE the new Ella with her good manners and sweetness." Ella said, "Uh, Mom, you do know that I'm the old Ella too, right?" Mom: "Yeah, I know, I just hope the new Ella sticks around a long time."
Sunday was a different matter. A day of rest you say? Yeah right! I awoke and swore I heard water running outside. Silly me for not checking right away. By the time I finally figured out what the noise was, we were in trouble. One of our sons, who shall remain nameless, had a water fight with friends the day before. This son forgot to turn off the faucet outside. Water was running for over 12 hours. Our side yard was soaked, and the water had seeped into our laundry room which has a cement floor, covered with thin carpet. Well, after walking into the laundry room and discovering my squishy wet socks as I walked across the room, I panicked. For a minute. Then I rolled up my sleeves and wished Tony Horton was around to see me flex my muscles as I removed all the totes, boxes, and suitcases from the room, rolled (dragged) the carpet outside to dry, and cleaned everything up. Yuck.

Here's a lovely picture of part of our laundry room floor trying to dry. Previously mentioned son has had Super Soaker water gun permanently removed from any future birthday/Christmas wish list. Ugh!

Someone once said that a parent's favorite two times of the day were right when their kids wake up, and right when they put them to bed. I can relate. I am so excited to see these sweet fun faces in the morning, and I am pretty much ready to wish them sweet LONG dreams at night time. I snuck this picture of Ella Sunday night. No finger sucking: YEA!!
On Monday we were busy with dropping kids off from school, picking kids up from school, grocery shopping, and of course a quick trip back to Toys R Us because Jaxon needed to 'check something out'. We were invited over to the Colton's house (great last name) for FHE and had a good time. The fact that they have Mario Cart for the Wii had nothing to do with it in my boys' opinion. Today was Jaxon's first official day of Summer Vacation. He slept in til 10:40. I can't remember the last time I did that, but I think it was in the 80's. He was great today helping with Mason and was excited for the little ones to go to bed so he could watch a DVD he wanted.