Some Things Never Change

I woke stiff. My ass ached where I landed hard after a fall, and my calves ached most likely from my new ski boots. I was stiffer today than I’ve been all year after skiing. Not sure why. It was 8am when I rolled out of bed and headed downstairs to exercise. The kids were awake but I was bent on getting my exercises done before addressing anyone else. Ykraps and I headed out the door for our walk around 8:15am. The weather was sunny and about 25 degrees. A lovely winter morning. I went to get Landon from his bed after returning. Mindy met me at his side. Good thing too. He had a very messy diaper – a Mindy diaper. For the next hour I sipped coffee and hung out with the family in the kitchen/family room area. Mindy began making breakfast burritos while I got dressed for my run. I left around 9:40am. For the first time in a really long while I ran along Trabue and then south on Hague. That route wasn’t really feasible with all the snow on the ground. If anything, I got a little warm, especially around the head and neck. I removed my gloves with a mile remaining. I didn’t bother removing my gaiter as that would’ve required me to stop. I simply pushed through the mild discomfort. Shortly after arriving home I carried in our skis from the garage to the basement. I planned to clean them up after breakfast. I fixed a breakfast burrito with lone remaining tortilla. I stuffed it full. Mindy talked about going into school and grocery shopping. Lindsey still wanted to visit too. We called Lindsey and suggested her mother bring her by since we had a house full of kids to tend to. While at it, we suggested that she bring Olivia, who had already called asking to come over. According to Lindsey, Kelly agreed to bring her but begrudgingly so. In return, we agreed to get everyone home. I was surprised that Lindsey & Olivia arrived when they did. It couldn’t have been 45 minutes later. They weren’t there long when Mindy left for the grocery. She decided to bag the idea of going into school for the sake of time. After all, we had a busy afternoon planned with Sunday dinner at her mom’s and all. The kids played all afternoon. I fed them lunch, hot dogs and beef & noodles. Mindy really wanted me to put Landon down for a nap, but I purposefully didn’t since Olivia was over. He would’ve pitched one, and rightfully so. I did curl up on the floor hoping that Landon and Olivia might join me. They did, but only briefly. Mindy got back from the grocery around 2:45pm. Courtney showed up around the same time. She stopped by to review the details surrounding Ykraps’ care. I gave her some brief instruction and a key. I am hopeful that it’ll all go down without incident. She left around 4pm. She agreed to give Lindsey a ride home. She was going to give Olivia a ride too but couldn’t because she doesn’t have a baby seat in her van. No worry. We’d take Olivia home. Soon the older girls were gone. All of us got ready for Sunday dinner at Gloria’s. We hadn’t been to Sunday dinner for two months. Last minute we decided to take Olivia with us. We’d drop her off at home afterwards. Ashley agreed. We arrived at Gloria’s around 4:30pm, all seven of us! Yikes! I helped brother-in-law Larry install DTV converters on the TVs. He did most of the work. The house was soon rockin’ to the sounds of six wee ones, not counting Jacob. Dinner was served around 5:30pm. We had sloppy Joe’s, macaroni salad, and fried potatoes. Thanks to the wee ones, it was one of the noisiest, liveliest dinners I can recently recall. For dessert, we had ice box cookies. As always, they were delicious. Mindy gathered the kids and got them ready to go around 7:20pm. We took Olivia home first. We phoned Ashley just as we were pulling up. She came out to fetch her. We headed for home. We must’ve arrived around 7:45pm. Mindy quickly started getting the kids ready for bed. Both Jacob and Rocky walked Ykraps with me. They headed up to ready for bed immediately after we got back. Mindy & I were both tired and thirsty. Sunday dinner will do that on its own merit, but most of my tiredness was leftover from yesterday’s skiing. We chatted briefly about the kids and how we need to push for clarity relative to their stay. We simply need a plan. We headed for bed around 10pm. Short work week ahead.