Home Away From Home

Saint BJ decided to lay the new tile in our kitchen (remember, the tile we bought like 2000 years ago? I'm sure I blogged about it when it happened, that BJ tried to change a lightbulb and found that the fixture was rusting inside so we called a plumber because we thought the upstairs faucet was leaking but he said that the ticking noise was just the hot water pipe expanding so then we figured it rusted because our dryer vent was leaking and our friend Jim came over and helped us knock a bunch of holes in the wall to find the place where the vent was busted, fix the vent, replace the fixture, and eat Mexican food, and then we had to repaint to cover the drywall patches, and oh did I mention that when BJ moved the fridge out to get to the part of the wall the dryer vent calls home he put giant gouges into the linoleum/vinyl/whatever ugly floor that I've hated since we moved in? Hence how a lightbulb change became a kitchen remodel.)

So, since you're not allowed to walk on the kitchen floor while it is covered with wet self-leveling concrete (which, it turns out, does not level itself), nor while it is covered with new tile, I decided to take the girlies to Grammaland so he could work on the floor without little footprints getting all over it.

That was Friday. We spent Friday night at Gramma Denna's, then Saturday night at Mimi's, and Sunday night at Aunt Kathryn's. We started to feel a little homeless, especially when my cell phone battery died and I didn't have enough car charger juice to get it going again. No, of course I didn't take my charger for my phone, or my iPod, or my camera, so there were no tunes and no photographic evidence of our trip north. I have learned that I would suck at being a pioneer, because 24 hours without my gadgets and I start to get a little twitchy. It wasn't pretty, so in spite of the fact that my kitchen is currently in my dining room, and my new tile floor is currently made of self-unleveling concrete, we had to come home. We were also out of diapers and clean clothes. And MG has a cold. And Claire's teething. And I am never leaving home without my laptop again. All three of us were uncomfortable.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a bad trip. We scammed several excellent meals, lots of hand me down toys and books, and got to visit with lots of the fam. But it's really exhausting to have two small kids out of their own environment and their schedule. I didn't realize how much of a routine we're actually in, until I got out of it. Everyone gets cranky when the routine gets hosed up. Especially me.

I came home to more than a little chaos. My stove is in the dining room, along with my fridge. However, I have a new dishwasher! I'm not sure what BJ did to the old one, but I didn't ask. Our anniversary is the 26th, so it is our anniversary gift! Yay!

Speaking of anniversaries, I've been blogging for one year today. Since only five of you entered my giveaway, I think I'll go ahead and make a silhouette for each of you. Please give me a few days to get my act together. E-mail me a digital picture of your kid(s) in profile, and I'll get to work on them ASAP.

Claire's screaming, I have to go figure out why. More later!