FREEDOM!

Due to extenuating circumstances, Mimi and Pop Pop have not been able to take the boys for quite a while... that was rectified yesterday! They now have the kids until this weekend! Ahhhh.... As much as I love love love my boys, and miss them, I am so excited to have a little 'freedom!' Time to catch up around the house, and take advantage of some quality time with my husband.......... who I have been married to for EIGHT years as of yesterday!

It is the best feeling in the world to be married to your best friend and love of your life! God definitely made us for each other. Over the past eight years, we have experienced extremely high highs, and extremely low lows... through all of them, our marriage is stronger and we are better together because of each experience. I can honestly say that I love my husband more today than I did the day I married him. And I didn't think that was actually possible. The love has changed (and matured... I think ;), but it's so much stronger! I love that man!

Now.... today is day #1 of my so-called 'freedom.' What SHALL I do with myself????

Pick up the house (OMG - if you could see the MESS of STUFF just strewn around!), clean the house (thoroughly), change beds, wash, fold and put away the laundry, cook dinner (maybe not!?), blog (we see where my priorities lie), organize some things, and some other basic needs of maintaining a household that don't seem to transpire when you have two little rugrats running around distracting you!!!! That ought to fill my day!?

What will the kids be doing? What WON'T they be doing may be a shorter list!!! I met Mama and Daddy at 4:30 yesterday afternoon... before bed, they went to Five Guys (had a Popsicle drink - aka PowerAde), ate a cookie (or two), went to Wal-Mart and bought a new pool, rode on the mule (while eating suckers), and went to bed at 10!!!!

Sam and Jake with their cookies...

Sam and Jake on the mule with their suckers! (this SO captures the adoration Jake (Sam does too) has for Pop Pop!!!) Today sounds like they will be going for a boat ride and swimming in their pool. I'm sure there will be lots more involved!!!!!

When I met Mama and Daddy to give them the kids, Sam immediately got into their car. When I asked him for a bye-bye kiss, he looked at me, smiled and said, "I'm way too busy Mommy!" I informed him that I would just have to take him home with me if I couldn't get a kiss. He RAN and gave me a kiss!!!! Once we got them buckled up and I started getting into my (lonely) car, Sam started grinning and squealing with delight! Things like this COULD give a Mommy a complex.... I'm trying not to let it!!!! I'm glad he was so excited to spend time with Mimi and Pop Pop... really, I am!

I have a few more stories saved up:

• The last time we went to the farm, Sam and Jen were there for a few hours alone while Jake and I took Nanny to lunch. They rode the four wheeler and stopped to look at some buzzards. Once they rode closer, they realized that the buzzards were eating a dead baby fawn. It was too late to turn around, Sam saw it! He asked what it was, Jen told him it was a dead baby deer, and that was the end of it. He wasn't bothered by it in the least! I'm surprised... and glad!!! Guess death hath no sting at three!? (Later, Jack - their black lab - drug the deer down to the barn... still didn't bother Sam!)
• We watch Finding Nemo A LOT in the car... it's Jake's favorite, and I'm too lazy to change it most of the time! Sam has begun speaking whale.... just like Dorey! Too funny!
• At church, Sam has 'graduated' up to the three-yr-old class. They go to Butterfly Island, which is where they have a puppet show and sing and dance. We went and spied on Sam... he was standing right in front... not moving, not singing, not smiling.... typical! We asked him afterwards if he had fun (he did), if he sang and danced, etc. His answer: "No, I didn't, but everybody else did. I was only there to learn about Jesus."
• I was feeding the kids dinner (which tends to be my most frazzled meal of the day), and gave them each a fork (Jake can NOT eat without his FORK (whick sounds more like a curse word than 'fork'!). Sam tells me that he can't eat with this fork because it's Jake's. I told him it was HIS fork and that it was fine. He insisted that it was JAKE'S fork. After much frustration, I took a new fork over to him and took the other fork. Low and behold, it had Jake's name written on it!?
• One morning when Sam came to my room (at 7:00 --- thanks to the little clock in his room, it was NOT 6:15!), he got into my bed and said, "One day I will be bigger than Daddy and can sleep in your bed." I asked him where Daddy would sleep then, and he said, "In my room." Oh, my precious little boy!!!!
• The other day, I was trying to accomplish SOMETHING while the kids played. I heard squealing (delight), then I heard screaming (pain). I ran to see what the problem was... Sam had slammed Jake's hand in the door. Not the wide open part. Jake had put his hand through the crack of the door and Sam had pushed and slammed the door not understanding why there was so much resistance!!!! Jake's little hand had a blue/red line across it. It got a little puffy, and it took a lot of TLC to calm him down! Poor baby! I really thought we were headed to the ER with a broken hand. Sam honestly didn't know he was hurting Jake.... but he got in big trouble, and we went over the "if you hear Jake screaming, you need to throw your hands in the air just in case it's you that's hurting him" rule!!!! YIKES!!! I cringe just thinking about it!
• Sometimes we end up in the car right at nap time. My primary goal is to get the kids home AWAKE!!!! If they fall asleep in the car, it's bye-bye nap time for me!!!! One time, I kept asking Sam if he was awake (he had on sunglasses and I couldn't tell). He finally tired of my asking and said, "Yes, Mommy... this is how we look when we are riding!"

That's all I have for now! Ahhhh.... One thing done on the list.... moving onto picking up and cleaning!!!!! I think!!!!