Now husband free

Fred left for his hunting trip this afternoon. He's says it's his vacation, but really it's mine too. I love Fred, but it's nice to get rid of him for a few days. One less person I have to pick up after. And one less person to whine around here. The best part of him leaving comes at dinner. Tonight we had meatloaf, which Fred doesn't like, and I have an awesome recipe for. The rest of the weekend I can make macaroni and cheese and no one would complain. I may try some other recipes that I've wanted to try that are meatless. If I made them for Fred he would complain about the lack of meat. The kids and I don't really have anything planned while daddy is away. The only thing I really want to do is go to Coldstone Creamery and get my free ice cream for my birthday. Torii wanted to go to DQ today, but I told him we were going to try a new ice cream place tomorrow. He is so excited. We don't get to Coldstone very often so they probably don't remember it. I really should live it up this weekend, but we will probably just relax at home which is nice too. For some reason I always do a big project while he is gone, but this year I'm not sure what to do. I should finish the top of my bench in the entryway and get that area cleaned up. I don't know. I'm sure I'll come up with something.

Hunting widow

This weekend Fred is going up to the farm to deer hunt. Since the season opens at noon on Friday, he will be leaving on Thursday to get up there. He went through the right channels and I approved this time off for him. However, he also wanted to take Rion and that request was denied. We have been "discussing" this issue for a couple of weeks now. First, I don't think it's an appropriate excuse to miss a day of school. Yah, he's only in Kindergarten, but that brings me to my next point. He is too young to spend a weekend hunting. He spent one night at the lake with Grandpa and Grandma this summer and he didn't like it. He said it was too long and he missed me. Oh, and he missed his computer too. If he can't have fun at the lake, why would he have fun in a field? So Fred got mad and said, "Fine. I'll remember this when you want to take him out of school for something." As if he has any say in it. There is no doubt that we will be going to Disney World during the school year. If he thinks I'm dragging three kids around a mega packed Magic Kingdom during the summer he has to be nuts.

Date night

Last night Fred and I finally went out for our anniversary. Between being sick and having a busy schedule we haven't been able to go until last night. Since I'm old, I wanted to go to the early movie so we wouldn't be out late. We did make it to the early movie, but still didn't get home until around 11:00. Today I was really dragging. (We also spent three hours at the pumpkin patch yesterday so I was tired before we even went out on our date). After the movie we went to Red Lobster as usual. They are nice enough to have endless shrimp every year around our anniversary. We were paying the bill and as I totaled it up with the tip I came to a startling realization. Our bill was cheaper than a tank of gas for the SUV. That is crazy. And I think I have been stuck in this married with children routine for too long. Fred just started getting Saturdays off again. It's been years since one of his regular days off was on the weekend. Because of that we don't get out much on Saturdays. I was amazed at all the people eating out so late (9pm, I know I'm old) on a Saturday. How quickly I have forgotten what it's like to be young without kids. I may have had a pang of jealousy of the girls out that night. They have freedom to do whatever they want, but really I wouldn't trade it for what I have now. An afternoon at the pumpkin patch and a date with my husband was way better than anything those girls did that day.

Pretty soon I can have a beer!

I've had enough of nursing and am trying to wean Cordelia. My goal was to go a year. By the time I've gotten her completely weaned we should be close. She is doing a lot better than I expected. I didn't think she would take a bottle from me, but she had no problem. We did have trouble at naptime today though. It was way past her naptime, but didn't fall asleep with the bottle. Later I nursed her and she fell right asleep. Naptime and bedtime are going to be the two hard ones to get rid of. Really it's probably harder for me to give up nursing than it is her. I would like to say it's because of that wonderful mother/daughter bond that has been created though nursing, but that's a bunch of hooey. It's just so easy to nurse instead of preparing a bottle and I'm lazy and I'm a busy mom that needs all the time she can get. Also, it will be sad to see my breasts back to their regular smallness. I know Fred agrees.

Be green

Recently, I started to save all the plastic bags from shopping for our rummage sale. I could not believe how many I accumulated in such a short period of time. It wasn't until then that I decided to go the reusable grocery bag route. It's nice that many stores have them for a buck each, but they are so ugly. And it almost defeats the purpose. Part of the green movement is to cut back on consuming. To me it doesn't make any sense to have a reusable grocery bag with the name of the store that wants you to spend and consume as much as possible. I did find some nice bags online and I can't wait to get them. I also got reusable produce bags to use instead of the ones they have in the store. I also found some nice grocery bags in the dollar section of Target the other day. I used them today and they were so nice. So much more stuff fit in the bags which was nice when it came time to carry them into the house. And they looked so nice too. I will definitely be green if that means fashionable at the same time!

Letting go

Usually Fred drops Rion off at school and I pick him up, but today I had the morning off from work so I dropped him off. Fred has been telling me for weeks how hard it is to drop him off. "They just want us to drop him off at the playground and let him play until the bell rings," he told me. "I'm just not sure about that." Oh, he's fine I told him. Then the other day Fred was going to walk him to the playground, but Rion told him, "I know where to go," and was off. "See," I told Fred, "he's fine." This morning we arrived at school and I got out of the car to give Rion a hug before he ran off. I told him to have a good day and he bolted for the playground. Halfway there, he turned, smiled big and gave me one last wave. I waved back and my heart melted. Every time I thought about that moment today I got a big smile on my face. My little boy has gotten so big.

A different world

Over the weekend we had a rummage sale. While setting up my mom came across some Smurf glasses we had as kids. She asked me if I wanted them and of course I said yes. Tonight at dinner I had the Smurf glasses out and Rion was looking at one of them. Jokey Smurf was on it and he was laughing because another Smurf had opened his exploding present. I told Rion that the Smurfs was a cartoon that was on when I was little. I told him Jokey Smurf was always giving Smurfs exploding presents as a joke. Then I thought about what I just said and quickly added that exploding presents weren't funny at all. Every once in awhile Fred and I will come across something like that from our youth. Things, like an exploding animated present, were never given a second thought by my generation when we were young. Now I don't think something like that would even make it to television. All of our children were born after 9/11 and the world they will grow up in is undoubtedly different than the one I grew up in. For as long as my kids have been alive we have been at war. Wouldn't it be nice if they could know a world at peace?