One Week Down, Two to Go

John left for 20 days of training a week ago and it's been pretty boring around here to say the least. We did get some excitement with the storms last week but that was about it. I, being the scaredy cat that I am, stayed Tuesday night in the basement with the boys. Not an easy task. They're used to going to bed at a certain time with a certain nightly ritual that was interrupted by the scare of tornadoes. The boys did pretty well, but fell asleep WELL past their bedtime. Shamus fell asleep around 10 and Roman about 10:45- NOT fun. Shamus was pretty cranky about being stuck in the pack-and-play and required a second night-time bottle to go to sleep while Roman constantly pushed his boundaries about staying on the futon. After all was said and done with that night we woke up to no power the next morning. Thankfully it was just Roman and I that were awake at the time and Shamus slept until just before the power came back on.

Then came Wednesday- John's payday from Planes and grocery day for us. John, being the wonderful husband that he is, usually does the grocery shopping so that I don't have to endure that torture with the kids but since he's gone I got to do it. Now this is something that really irks me about grocery store carts- they only seat one child comfortably. Some stores are adapting and making the carts wider to allow for two children to sit, some have the cars in the front (which means a smaller cart and harder to maneuver) and some have these seats that are separate from the cart BUT they only have a few (usually no more than maybe 3-4). So if you're not these when one of these carts become available then you're just out of luck. Normally if I'm just going in for a few things then it's no big deal, Shamus sits in the seat and Roman sits in the main part. But full on grocery shopping, NO WAY. Well I just happened to get to Kroger's right as a woman is taking the only cart that seats more than one child, so in the main cart Roman goes. Well as I'm getting what I need from produce the same woman is there and I notice she only has ONE kid. Needless to say I was kinda mad. If she hadn't looked directly at me when I walked in then it wouldn't have been so bad, at least then she wouldn't have known. But she did look at me as she took the only cart that seats more than one child and just kept on going. On top of that I had to see her in just about EVERY isle I was in, GRRR I was bitter. Well we go on with our shopping, Roman is trying to open everything I put in the cart or take everything off the shelves and Shamus smooshes my bread and keeps trying to throw my produce out of the cart, fun fun. I felt so bad for Roman. By the time we were done he literally had groceries on top of him, but he handled it well and kept complaining to a minimum. I finally get to the checkout and Roman, bless his little heart, helps me put the stuff on the conveyor belt (the whole time saying "I'm stuck" and "Here Mom"). As we're putting everything on the conveyor belt my phone starts to ring, ugh who is it now? I finish up and answer the phone on the way out. It's my Mom "There's more storms. You better get into the basement." I walk out and it's starting to POUR! By the time I was able to get the boys in the car we were all soaked- and I still had to put the groceries in the car. So the boys are in the car and not happy because they're hungry and I am battling strong winds and rain trying to get the groceries in the car. When all was said and done my groceries and I were drenched. When I got home I found that our neighbor Ernie had moved some of the stuff under the carport so I could back in and not get wet getting out of the car- thanks Ernie.

Besides all of that it's been pretty uneventful around here. We've had some rain and we've had some sun. We've played in the pools in the backyard on the nice days and stayed low key on the yucky ones. One thing is certain- John is very sorely missed. I can tell in the way the kids react to some things, the way they push me where they would never push him, the meltdowns and in some of the cuter things they'll do like cuddle with me for no reason or just a random "I love you." It's comforting to know that he'll be home soon but also bittersweet knowing that 4 weeks after that he'll be gone. Time just doesn't seem to want to slow down when you want it to the most.