The babymoon...

If you've been keeping up, last week I was distracted by a couple of things.  I'm still distracted by the first thing which is that a classmate of our older son has leukemia.  While her prognosis is good, it doesn't mean that just because she should beat this thing, be in remission and be back to school next year, that the fight is going to be any easier.  I took dinner to their house last night and I think I hugged the mom an inappropriate number of times and maybe even a little too tightly.  But I had to even if just to pass on a little bit of love and strength to her.  Her little girl is doing okay but her tired, pale face sent hot, stingy tears streaming down my face as soon as I got back into my car.  I drove to the Safeway parking lot to give myself time to pull it together before returning home.  Yep, Safeway parking lot.  You know you live in a boring a$$ town if the best place to dry your eyes is the grocery store parking lot.  Last year at this time, I would have headed right down the street to the bay and calm my nerves over rolling waves and fog horns.  Aww, the good ol' days.  Well, anyway, I pulled it together and came home. Still distracted but cheered by the healthy, obnoxious faces of my hungry boys.  After we got them off to bed, I started in with this week's distraction.

Distraction #3 - Babymoon!
Since baby sister will be here sometime in the next 9 months, or so, we figure we better get away for a weekend before that will no longer be an option.  Not that it won't at all be an option but not sure anyone loves us or our kids enough to take on days and/or nights with 3 OF THEM!

I hate to admit it but we've yet to go anywhere, that isn't within driving distance, without our kids.  I'm totally freaking out about it but we have plenty of life insurance and our dear friends Tommy & Colleen are the named guardians for our kids so we're covered!  But I'm still freaking out!  I'm excited too though, so it's strange to reconcile it physically and mentally.  The boys couldn't care less.  They're super pumped to spend the weekend with one of their old babysitters who came into town just to help us out.  I think they also know that mommy guilt nets out well for them.  As if having a babysitter, busting the schedule, messing up the house and leaving it that way and doing nothing but goof off and play all weekend isn't good enough. I also got them some sweet and salty treats usually reserved for vacations and other special times and a few new toys. I almost bought them a new movie but caught myself.  This is craziness. I'm spending more time preparing THEM to stay home than I am MYSELF to travel.  This is what's wrong with me. No matter if it's necessary or not, I can't turn off my mom-ness. It kinda grosses me out sometimes.

Back to the babymoon!  We're going to Vegas, baby.  This means we have to get on a plane.  And fly.  To another state.  Aahh... nervous!  But funny enough, we went to Vegas for our babymoon before we had our first son so it's kind of funny to think about what we did then vs. what we'll do now.  The best part?  I'M NOT PREGNANT!!  So I can get all sorts of crazy.  Well, sort of.  Unfortunately, and probably fortunately, my tolerance is not what it used to be, but I plan to test the limits a bit this weekend.  Why not?  Tired?  Sleep in. Hungover?  Sleep in. Eat greasy food.  Sleep in some more.  And if that doesn't work, drink more!  You know, the old hair of the dog trick.  Big talking is what this all is.  The whole reason we're going is for a Brad Paisley concert on Saturday night.  (Our boots are packed and ready - photo above!)  Parker is a HUGE music fan.  When we first met, he was always going to shows around the city, or meeting friends for different music festivals all over the country. He likes a little of everything, but has been getting in touch with his inner hillbilly the last few years so he's been listening to more country.  I grew up on it, and I don't have to go far to reach my inner hillbilly.  I can belt out old Johnny Cash, Charlie Pride, Patsy Cline, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton and my 8 year old self's favorite, Tanya Tucker.  If there's one thing my brain holds onto tighter than 1970s and 80s commercial jingles, it's the music we listened to growing up.  Often from the bed of my dad's toyota pickup with the little sliding window opened up for our listening enjoyment as we sat bundled up in our sleeping bags and blue hanes zip up hoodies to keep warm on our 2 hour drive to the beach.  I took a break from country during after about junior high, poo pooing it because that's what my weirdo parents listened to.  I started getting back into it about 10 years ago and I'll admit, I totally love it.

I was going to surprise Parker with the Vegas trip but then a wrench was thrown into my plan.  He travels like crazy for work and he just made companion status with Southwest Airlines.  This means, I, as his "companion," will now fly for free anytime I fly with him.  Well, I couldn't pass up using that little perk so I broke down and told him about my plan. He was shocked.  Shocked and stoked!  (See, inner hillbilly. Who uses that word...)  So together we planned our Vegas babymoon. We're taking the last flight out on Friday night, getting into Vegas at 9:30.  Our plan is to dump our bag at the hotel, and head out for the night.  I really don't remember the last time my night out started after 7pm, let alone 10pm.  We'll probably just get some drinks and appetizers somewhere.  Then Parker will hit the tables.  I may shop or play some slots.  Either way, I'll probably stay out with him to make sure his balls don't get too big playing blackjack. He's a great gambler, comes with his crazy math master of a brain, BUT he likes the drinky drinky.  Especially if he doesn't have to wakey wakey!  So this is what happens when he goes to Vegas: 11pm up a bit, midnight, doubled his money, 1am starting to slur and lose, 2am drunk and totally gonna win it back (balls talking for him), 3am hammered and broke.   If I can stay awake and monitor my IV of chardonnay well enough, I'll try to drag him back to the hotel before the 1am blur sets in.  For both of us.

Our dear friends live in Vegas. We haven't yet met the latest addition to their family - a 6 month old baby girl joins her 2 1/2 year old sister.  We'll spend the afternoon with them, then they'll head back home to put the girls down for a nap and we'll all get ready for the night.  They're joining us for dinner and the concert.  We're having dinner at Stripsteak, Michael Mina's first steakhouse. We love Michael Mina in the city so we have high hopes for overindulging at Stripsteak.  Our reservation is at 5:45. How's that for wild and crazy!   The concert starts around 7. Scotty McReery, yep from American Idol, opens the show, followed by my new fave The Band Perry then the man himself, Brad Paisley.  It should be an interesting night.  Our friends are a showgirl and calf roping cowboy respectively.  Sounds fun, right!  Mister cowboy is hysterically funny and always the life of the party and then some.  I'm sure the night will be filled with lots of laughs. I can't wait.  It's a rare occasion to get to hang out with such good friends, sans kids, enjoying good food, good drinks and good music!

My excitement about the weekend is reinvigorated just by typing up this post.  I'll try to enjoy the kid free moments as I'm sure over the coming year, there will be few to none.

Adoption paperwork update:
Nada from the social worker since I emailed back all the details she asked for.  Not even a thank you.  Shocker!

Made contact with the Assistant Stork to get going on the paperwork for our dossier.  I have to get a FedEx account number, have some documents sent from our agency to the Assistant Stork (from hereon labeled as AS), get our police clearance letter from the town of Moraga, and fill out the financial certificate. The other docs are done or ready.  We were going to get the police clearance this week but we blew it off.  My plan is to get all the documents I have out to the AS next week so she can get started getting them all certified by the state, embassy, etc.  The last piece of that pie will be the notarized copy of the homestudy and the approval from USCIS.  Realistically we're probably at lest 8-10 weeks away from having the approval as I don't foresee having the homestudy for at least a week or two.  But from a glass is half full approach, at least we have plenty of time to get all of the certifications without having to rush or pay for anything to be expedited.  It's been nice to have some other things going on to keep my energy focused elsewhere while we idle in place. I have a big week of workouts planned next week.  I'm hoping to be too exhausted each night to spend any time or energy worrying about adoption stuff.

The best laid plans...