Almost Home

In just a half an hour, I get to load up the kids and go pick up Scott at the airport. It's the end of his second (and longest) trip. And he's getting to come home 4 days early. The 19 day trip got cut down to 15 days (which is still a heck of a long time to be gone, but we are very grateful for the extra 4 days). Four days early means that he will be home for a whole week (instead of just 3 days) before he has to leave again for his third and final trip. We can't wait to see him!

The last two and a half weeks have been difficult (and that's putting it mildly). They have been filled with lots of work...

-I mowed the lawn twice
-Picked produce out of the garden
-Cleaned the house more times than I can count
-Put kids to bed by myself too many times
-Washed, folded and put away tons of laundry
-Ran kids to activities (which requires loading up all 5 kids each time)
-And everything else that is required to run a household by yourself.

The last two weeks have been filled with low points:

-A doctor's visit with the two little boys. Aaron refused to come back to the exam room, so I carried him kicking. My doctor told me I was no longer allowed to carry him (he's 50 pounds). Try being a single parent with a stubborn 4 year old and not be able to pick him up--not easy!
-Church by myself with the 5 kids. I was asked to sub in Sara's class. Nate fell asleep the last 10 minutes of Sacrament, so I had to carry him with me to primary. Aaron refused to go to primary, and I couldn't do anything about it because Nate was asleep on me. Thankfully, his Sunbeam teacher and a counselor in the primary presidency stepped in and "handled" him.
-Gymnastics with Aaron. He refused to do his class, and just sat against the wall and cried the whole time.
-A trip to the park with the kids, where Aaron threw a cell phone into the pond. That's right--who's kid throws a cell phone into a pond? Apparently mine does. I apologized profusely to the teenage kid who was the owner of the phone and gave him my name and number so he could send me the replacement bill. Still waiting to see how much that will cost us.
-Grouchy kids at bedtime.
-Grouchy kids in the morning trying to get them off to school.
-Grouchy kids all day long because they miss their dad.

And we've had some high points:

-After Scott's first three day trip, he was home for a day. We spent that day going to Justin and Megan's birthday party, playing at Bounce, then going to the zoo as a family. We ended with gourmet frozen yogurt with every topping imaginable.
-Grandma and Grandpa Sorensen came to help out and celebrate Savannah's birthday.
-Savannah's birthday celebration with just her and me out for the afternoon.
-Getting to help with the kids' Walk a Thon.
-The ward brought in two meals this last week.
-The kids had Thursday and Friday off of school this last week, so Grandma Jo invited them for a sleepover at her house Thursday night. The four older kids got to go, and Nate stayed home for a very quiet time with me.
-Yesterday I took the 4 older kids to a sibling prep class at the hospital to learn how to care for their new brother. Nate was too young, so he got to hang out with a babysitter at home.

And the best thing of all is that right now I'm telling the kids to go get their shoes on because it's time to go!!!!!!! We are off to the airport to get DAD!!!!!