The Short Version of a Long Story

Told ya it'd be quiet around here. I'll post more specifically later, but here's the short version:

Thursday, May 26th, we loaded up about half of our house a lot of stuff and headed northeast to my parents' house (3.5 hours away if you don't hit traffic or make stops; so usually 4 hours for us).

Friday, May 27th, I spent the day with Eric and Brennan (since I'm kinda his main food supply) at the College of Wooster for the Power of the Pen State tournament. Four of my twelve writers made it to this elite level. Impressive! Cate enjoyed hanging out with her Nanny, Poppy, Aunt C, and Uncle Jeff for the day.

It was Memorial Day weekend, so we just stayed in town, enjoyed a date night (free food b/c they lost our order in the kitchen or something and we waited almost an hour to get it), and just visited.

Tuesday morning, May 31st, I kissed my husband goodbye. He drove back down here with my dad since they both had to work (my dad works in Cincinnati Monday-Thursday usually). I stayed in Hudson for reasons that will later be disclosed. The kids an I had an uneventful day.

Wednesday we celebrated the beginning of June with a day trip to Pittsburgh to see one of my best friends. We visited the National Aviary where my animal-lovin' girl did this:While my friend, Jenn, protected my little man:
Thursday we went to the Cleveland Zoo with another high school friend and her son (a couple weeks older than Cate) and daughter (a few months older than Brennan). Cate and Logan took a couple of train rides together.
By Friday, the kids (and Mommy) were exhausted, so we just decided to lie low. We walked to the park some, hung around my parents' house, and ran a few errands. Eric left for Lake Tahoe (for work, poor guy I know) Friday morning. And that's why I stayed. I figured I could be home alone with two kids or stay a few extra days at my parents with lots of hands to help. It was easy to get Cate to bed when there were willing arms to hold Brennan (and even bathe him and get him ready for bed) while I did so. My sister has twin beds in her room, is home from college, and like a champ got up in the middle of the night if Cate needed her and helped her out. I actually got 8 straight, uninterrupted hours on a couple of occasions.

We returned home yesterday (Monday) afternoon. Eric got home last night. We're all a happy family again. Incidentally, that was the longest time span Eric and I have spent apart since before we got married. And this was installed in our yard today:
I'll write more specific posts about different aspects of our stay in NE Ohio as I have time (our weeks are filling up fast with all kinds of random fun and goodness). We're busy enjoying our new playset (so worth it to get it installed-- it took 3 guys with all kinds of tools and who do this every day 4 hours to do it-- it probably would've taken Eric and I all summer), getting Cate to swim lessons, and just plain kickin' off summer.

I stayed relatively unplugged (only doing a few things from my iPhone and getting on the computer every few days) while gone and I kind of liked it. But I did manage to win a giveaway from Mama Marchand's blog and read a couple of blogs (though not always getting a chance to comment).

Anyway, welcome back. That's the short version of my long stay and I'm stickin' to it.

~Melody :-)

P.S. We're busy this week. I'll probably be taking a week off from a couple of my favorite linky parties. We'll see.