oh, i love my children. ya all i do. but us moms need a break once in awhile! thankfully, i have great girlfriends that understand that wanting to 'get away from it all' DOESN'T mean i love my children any less. it just means that when mommy is re-charged, EVERYONE WINS!!
my dear friend, joy, from high school has moved down to Scottsdale, Arizona 3 years ago. (if you HAD to go, i'm so thankful that you didn't choose someplace COLD!) we miss you here in Washington but honey, we LOVE you in Arizona! :)
this past Thursday Kathy, Karla and i boarded a plane, leaving behind 45 and rainy! when we arrived in Scottsdale it was a blistering (wonderful) 103!!! our host had a very cool cowgirl/cowboy hat and very hip pair of PARIS HILTON sunglasses waiting on our seats! from there we made the quick trip to joys house where she made us UNBELIEVABLE margaritas, delivered poolside! side note, when we were planning this trip, joys husband, jeff and generously offered to take her 3 kids away for the weekend so that she would also get a 'little girl time' without the 'mom' responsibilities. however, 6 weeks ago, he snapped his Achilles tendon. (OUCH!) so he was not able to 'get out of dodge'. since joy was already mentally on vacation with us, she put us up for 2 nights at the local Scottsdale Hilton!
talk about being pampered!! she thought of it all!! she had food and drinks all packed and ready to go. 3 WHOLE days of doing NOTHING but sitting by the pool, reading and doing what girlfriends do best, TALKING!! we usually hit the pool by about 9 and hit the showers about 5. she took us to all the SUPER cool places for dinner! (some interesting men there in that town! right girls??!!! :)"can i have my picture taken with you?? will you dance with MY DAUGHTER??" and um...what were those ladies talking about at Chelsey's kitchen?? gross!)
saturday night we had the honor of seeing the blind-guy (he hates being referred to that), Scott Macintyre, from American Idol. he was doing a free concert (or as he would say, 'leading worship' since by AI contract,he can't do any REAL concerts until august). he was amazing! sounds better and is even cuter in person! :)
Sunday night we headed back to joy's house for take-out Chinese and then to watch the season finale of Amazing Race. (Great outcome!)
Monday morning was back to reality. we flew into Seattle, greeted by a lovely BALMY 54 degrees and raining!!!
thank you Joy for being an incredible host!!! i almost hate to have you here since i'll NEVER be able to TOP what you pulled off!!! (i totally want you here just don't come with any high expectations! :)) i will add this to one of the most amazing weekends away! thank you girls for the memories!! can't wait to start planning the next outing! a cruise to the Bahamas anyone??? :) (what is it, like 2o mins. away??? :))
one of the nicest surprises was coming home to a clean, newly kid-decorated house! this man that i'm married to went above and beyond. the dishes were all done, beds were made, yard had new dirt in some of the flower beds, laundry was all washed (not put away but i'll take it!). one of the sweetest things was that my boys could hardly wait for me to get in the house! since i picked them up from grandmas they were Busting-at-the-seams for me to get home and show me all the things they had done for me. you have to take a close look at max's 'coupons'. they are little sheets of paper that i can cash in on when i need something done. the funnest thing is that he first wrote 'everything' then crossed it out and wrote 'make my bed'. i think he was afraid that i would make him follow through on that one! :) sam wrote that little poem in school. a true republican that boy!! :) jackson made me a wonderful little bird feeder that he claims will get ruined if we leave it out in the rain so he suggested that we get an "inside bird". sorry son, NEVER going to happen! even though we were gone over Mothers day, they made me feel so special!! they had gone to Micheal's where they bought a big roll of white paper and everyone wrote down what they loved about me! it was hanging above my couch, which is where it's going to stay for awhile!!! bouquets of tulips graced my counter tops and there were little piles of cards and handmade gifts from each of them! i am blessed!! what wonderful little people they are! thanks honey for all you did too!!!
this morning it was back to mom-duties. for some reason, today, i'm feeling like i could tackle the world! oh what a bit of sunshine will do! :)
