Summer School Carpools and Ipods on My Pillow

Sam was gone all last week at a "business" conference. It has been dubbed by the attendees as "Summer Camp for Christian Capitalists." He had an amazing time. It was all about using your business to further the Kingdom of God. He came away very encouraged and motivated to serve Jesus more fully through his work. Very cool week. For him. I was at home with the kids. Slaving away. And getting up WAY too early.

The early deal was because Emily is in summer school and our car pool was split up by weeks. Last week was my week. Great timing. So, every morning I got up at 6:00 AM to get ready and then leave at 6:40 to start the rounds of picking the other kids up so we could be out at Desert Ridge in time for their 7:15 start. And I am such a morning person that I loved every minute of endured it. It was nice to experience the boys in the carpool that Emily had told me about live and in person--'cause they were a hoot. But I think I could have enjoyed it much more at a more reasonable hour. This was one conversation they had: "Dude; (note: every comment started and ended with 'dude'. Clearly it is a requirement for 15 year old boys) wouldn't it be cool if we fireproofed the inside of a car and then lit the outside on fire and then drove around? People would be, like, whoa, Dude." They all agreed that would be, like, cool, dude. In between teasing one another and punching one another, these little gems came out of their mouths. Apparently this is what I have to look forward to with Noah and Tommy and their friends??? Yeah, looking forward to that.

The upside of getting up with the sun (I know the sun actually came up earlier, but I'm not about to confirm personally what time that is), was that several mornings I did get a lot accomplished at an early hour. The downside was that I was brain dead by dinner time. I was completely numb and in a walking coma for the entire evening. But the kids, who slept later, were full of life long after their cereal dinner thankyouverymuch.

Oh, and did I mention that my "Aunt Flo" came to visit on Monday (wink, wink). This just added to the level of exhaustion that I was feeling which made it even more fun. I felt like I was unable to focus on one thought for more than about a nanosecond the whole week. The good news is my mood was relatively stable, by the grace of God to be sure, and so I didn't seriously hurt anyone in the family. Clear evidence of the grace of God.

Several days the kids had friends over, which in hindsight was a bad idea as it used the remaining brain cells I had at my disposal, but I was attempting to give the kids something fun to do and didn't pace myself.

So, back to the Summer Camp for Sammy. Each night he would call me and tell me all that he was learning, and how he was so encouraged and they were spoiling them with great food at wonderful restaurants and going to baseball games. And then he told me how each night on their hotel pillow there was a gift left for them. One night it was an ipod shuffle and an itunes gift card to give you an idea of the caliber of these gifts. So, let me get this right Honey...you are sleeping in a hotel room that a maid comes and cleans, you are eating out at every meal AND you get a fantastic gift every night on your pillow? I told the kids to pool their money and get me something fantastic for my pillow gift that night. Nothing showed up. And I still had to make my own bed.

Well, I did what any sane mom would do in this situation, I packed up the kids and took them right over to Sam's hotel and camped out with them for the final two days of the conference. We hung out at the pool, played in the glass elevators and went out to lunch at TGIFridays at Chase Field. Friday night was the "graduation" dinner for the conference and I got to go. It was an amazing dinner. The most tender piece of beef I've had in a long time and way better than cereal for dinner! Mmmm. It was nice to be included in the spoiling!! I still have my eye on that itunes gift card though....

So, on Saturday morning I was excited to have Sam back with us and not off at his conference sessions. We were still in the hotel and Sam and I went down for breakfast to talk while the kids watched cable. We chatted and even visited with several friends and throughout, Sam kept saying it was like he had looked into the sun and had a bright spot in his eyes and that his eyes were hurting. I suggested we go get some ibuprofen and as we were heading toward the room the nausea hit him. He only gets a migraine once every couple of years, but it picks my first day of freedom to hit. So, he went up to the room, we closed the curtains and the kids and I went to the pool while he slept. And puked. He alternated the two apparently. The latter of which I was happy to have missed. At check out time we packed up and came home and then he proceeded to take a nap. And when I say "nap" I mean he went to bed for the night at 4:00. And then I babysat the 2 year old and 2 month old that "we" had committed to babysitting prior to the Great Migraine of June 08. Oh, I need to mention that the 2 month old refused to take her bottle and cried for much of the 4 hours that I babysat. Thankfully the kids occupied the 2 year old while I walked the floor and prayed and attempted to pacify a hungry baby. It has been a VERY long time since I had to do that! The good news is that both the baby and I survived the incident, although I had a hard time using my arms for a while since they were locked in the same position for hours!

Today we had church (my arms are still sore by the way) and nothing else. Ahhhhhhh. Tomorrow VBS starts and I am a helper. At least it starts "late" at 8:30. :-0

So, tonight I am going to bed early, well, as early as it will be when I finish here. And maybe I'll dream of Spa Weeks for Summer School Moms where I get a maid and a masseuse and an ipod on my pillow.