On her way home!!

Just spoke to Christi, she is on her way home with her sister in the car (black Mustang convertible!) and she seems to have had a great time. I missed her a lot but am glad she had fun. She deserved a good time. It's funny how you know intellectually what a person deals with, but you don't really KNOW until you spend a weekend in their shoes. This is the first time that I have ever spent an entire weekend without her, except for one business trip I took, but that was about 11 kids ago. In point of fact, I really only got a partial taste because I didn't have any budgeting or scheduling work to deal with while trying to keep the kids fed, clean and safe. Plus I did have Jessica to help on the night I got called into work. But I definitely have a deeper appreciation for how she buzzes around keeping things nice and the kids fed and happy so that when I get home, things are nice for me. Hopefully she has some good pics to share and a tale or two about which to write a good post.

I can't wait!!

Some pics, but not of a car.

We only got a chance to look at 2 cars this weekend and neither of them was suitable. The only upside to our driving 200 miles to see 2 P.O.S cars was that after the second, which was in Chula Vista, near where Christi grew up, we got to drive around her old stomping grounds a bit and see the house she grew up in. She is so excited to be going back there next Friday to her class reunion. I'm excited for her too, if not just a bit jealous. She's gonna have a really good time and she deserves it. I sure am going to miss her though. It's going to be a trying couple of days trying to imitate her juggling act, but I'll give it my best.

The kid's band events went well with Austin's band winning their competition and Bailey and Gage both having a successful parade. Gage being a 6th grader, can only participate in the marching "band" as a member of the flag squad, but he had a good time. Can't you tell?

Bailey hates getting her picture taken but there she is with her valve trombone. These photos were taken by Christi's best friend, Dana with her Blackberry. We just recently got our own camera fixed so Christi should have some great pics from her reunion to share next week.

A busy weekend, and maybe some luck thrown in

A busy weekend in store for Christi and I. We finally have to get it in gear with the search for a used car, the band kids have got events on Saturday and Christi still needs a couple of things for her reunion. This coupled with my having been unexpectedly moved to a different shift (not only am I now on the night shift for the foreseeable future, but I'm now on the opposite day schedule). All of this means that Christi is working her magic even harder now. She is constantly reminding me of the silver linings of this shift change, probably as much for her own benefit as mine. She always has that way of seeing all sides of things so that when life seems to throw us lemons, she can instantly point out that it's really oranges if you look at it the right way and who doesn't love a good orange? She doesn't really know how much she keeps me going. Aside from the obvious things like, keeping me on schedule for all the stuff we have to get done, her enthusiasm for stuff, like the way she looks forward to our weekend evenings, even when we have nothing more exciting to do than catch up on our favorite shows. The way she smiles and claps when some plan of hers comes together, or some unexpected bit of luck makes a bad day turn good. Plus the things she thinks I don't notice, like the little fist pump in the air she does when the checkbook balances perfectly (which it always does) or the way she high fives me when I put my hand up, even though she hates high-fiving. All those things and so much more are just a small part of why I love her so much.
So tomorrow we'll venture out in search of a used car, and she'll watch me do my manly thing as I check out each car and try to work a deal with the seller. With any luck, we'll come home with a decent commuter car that I can then drive to death with my 78 mile one way commute. With a little more luck, it will have a half-decent stereo so I can listen to my CDs and talk radio all the way to work. With even a bit more luck, we'll find a bargain car for Dalton too.
Then if all is well, in the evening we'll plop on the bed with most of the kids and watch our shows on the DVR and maybe have a little popcorn and whatnot to snack on.

That would be the perfect end to the day.