(4 years)

OMG, what a freaking roller coaster of a start of a week!

So Friday, Scott is getting packed to leave for Germany..... no worries in bed late, ahh well, make up sleep else where.... famous last thought.

Saturday, wake up girls fed dressed and we say our goodbyes to Scott as I hustle Reese over to my IL's so that Tom can take Reese to soccer since I can't leave Riley and Ashton with Linda since she has breakfast with her ladies. We get to Tom's in the nick of time and I move Reese out of the van and into their van. Poor Riley devastated she can't go, but if the class was 30 min instead of 1 hr maybe, she lost interested when we tried it after the first 25 minutes. She's 6 months younger than Reese when she started... may not seem like a lot, but between 2 1/2 and 3 is a TON of development especially in the kind that's needed for standing between cones and tossing balls, bouncing, etc... instead of just full on kicking the ball for an hour.

While Tom had Reese, I ran to wal-mart super quick with Riley and Ashton to get some toiletries I needed to replace and got home and fixed the girls lunch and they took a long nap..... and Riley wanted to see all the Christmas stuff.... and then everyone needed to go potty and/or be changed. I joked that Scott may be in Germany but I was having my own "Euro-peeing" adventure in Wal-mart.

Sunday, woke up and didn't really get moving until around 11, but by that time it was already lunch time and before we knew it it was nap time.... when they got up we made a BEE LINE for the van as it was starting to snow and I needed to get snacks for Reese's preschool as Monday was her snack day....

I get to the van, get everyone strapped in and packed in turn the van on...................... CRAP. The same tire that was showing low yesterday evening and I had filled back up is low again............ I get out, sure enough, it's flat. Son of a Biscuit Eater.

At this point I'm looking at the clock, it's 4PM on a Sunday, I'm about 2 miles from SAMS Club.... I nurse the van over there taking back roads as the tire had a wee bit of air.... I unpack everyone, get them in carts, hustle inside because it's still snowing now almost a blizzard to find that there is a 2 - 3 hour wait for any car!!!!

PANIC SETS IN.

What am I going to do!? This is my ONLY vehicle as Scott's in GERMANY, and the only person I could think of was Tom and LInda, but then again panic sunk in as I thought there was a home Brown's game and Tom would have had the van in CLEVELAND!

I called their house, on the very last ring Linda picked up, I've got tears in my eyes because now Ashton is screamin his head off, Reese is even trying to calm him down.... Riley is just sitting there, guess she knew the tension in the air.....

Linda said that Tom was on his way. I was so upset with the tire people at SAMS. There were 5 cars ahead of me, but obviously those people WERE NOT THERE, they had rides to get them home... but here I am, with my only vehicle with a FLAT, 3 kids and by some slim chance someone was able to pick me up. I think that SAMS should have some sort of judgment call when it comes to what I would have considered that an Emergency situation..... TRIAGE PEOPLE. TRIAGE.

Luckily Linda calmed me down, told me to just get the snacks there, thank you SAMS for being able to get a tire changed, fruit snacks and a gallon of apple juice...and after check out 2 slices of pizza, a drink and a 3 berry sundae split between the girls.

My head was pounding so hard by the time I was checking out when Tom got there I thought I was going to have an aneurysm right there.

Tom helped me load the kids in the car, I even got to try out the infant seat using just a seat belt, in the 3rd row no doubt for Ashton. Linda hasn't kept Ashton for long periods needing to go anywhere, so no need for a base to be installed. but worked like a charm and he liked the new view. I couldn't thank Tom enough, and he wouldn't even let me buy him a 3 berry sundea.... if he wouldn't have been able to help out, I'd have had to put in some calls to Canton or my neighbor, worst case senerio, Yellow Cab. Oy.

By the time I got home and the kids finished their pizza it was just about 5:30. I called the guy back at 5:45 to see about the van and he said it was done, though he wanted this other guy coming in tomorrow to look at the sensor, valve and core to make sure that it was ok and of course, it was better to leave it over night to see if the tire pressure held.... fine, made sense.

I gave everyone baths, read stories, did prayers and in bed for the night.

I had to get up a few times between Riley and Ashton, more Riley than anything.... she kicked one of her crib bars and hurt her foot, then there was one of her hairs around her paci she couldn't get off.... can I just say I can't wait until Santa takes away all of her pacis?

Now it's Monday morning. I call the main tire guy at 8AM to see about the van. He told me he couldn't believe that the other guy made such a big deal out of it.... which in hindsight may have been a ploy to make me feel better about not being able to get my tire fixed sitting there.

Again, HUGE thanks to Linda for picking up the girls, bringing napkins and cups (I only needed 17, not 1000 from SAMS) and coming over after lunch to pick me up and drop us all off at SAMS to get the van......

Of course just as we're loading everyone back into my van it's snowing SO HARD... and not normal snow, it was coming down like dip n' dots! SO WEIRD.

But we got home safely, everyone took LONG naps.... Reese took the longest at 4 HOURS! I had to wake her up because she was going to sleep through dinner! I thought she was sick, but I guess just truly exhausted. Poor kid.

Dinner made, dinner served, diner kinda eaten..... in PJ's (no bath night for the girls.... bath for Ashton every night, if not he smells like puke), book read, prayers and in bed.

I just finished baking brownies for a treat for us tomorrow for snack time. I think the girls will love it!

And on a happier note. I have gotten a couple of emails from Scott. He got to Dusseldorf ok, tired, to be expected for losing a day.

It is weird to have him gone for so long and having NO contact except through a random email from his boss' international cell phone. hindsight will be for us to buy a calling card!



So yeah, it's been crazy, and busy..... tomorrow, hopefully NOTHING.

I'm going to try and update these past updates from about a month ago, and I do have a TON of photos of Reese, Riley AND Ashton.... just need to get them up!