Slack-a-Lackin

So for anyone who actually stalks my blog, I apologize. I've had time, really I have.....but I have had my mind on other things.
This weekend Tony was home for a whopping 5 days!!! It was stupendous! We went to a movie, a car show, a wedding, a roller derby game, the farm, and spent lots of time enjoying having him home.
When he left, everyone was sad. The great news is, this will probably be the last time he leaves. Next time he comes home it will probably be because he is done doing this on the road thingy. Big smiles all around. Not to mention the $20,000 in unsecured debt we have been able to pay off, WHILE I was being a stay-at-home-mom!
So let me sum up our weekend. :D
We had to run some motor parts up to Savannah to Tony's machinist guy for his race car motor. Tony will most likely not be racing this year, (since he won't get much racing in by the time he's back) but he is making sure everything is in order for next season. Then we stopped in St Joseph to take the kids to see that new dragon movie. Cute movie, although I thought for sure they would have it in 3D there, and how cool would that have been?! Alas, no 3D. It was still enjoyed by us and the boys and Autumn was happy to chow down on the bottomless bucket of popcorn.
The next day we spent most the morning hanging out inside, thanks to the lovely rain. That evening though, Tony and I went to a car show in Kansas City called Gear Grinders. Mostly we went because I needed to get in some event attendance for my roller derby league, and thought it would be a cool date thingy for Tony and I. So he walked around and looked at cars while I skated around in my derby gear and annoyed people with fliers trying to convince them to come to our game! It was a nice evening, just us, as us.
Sat we went and bought Tony a new weed-eater/whacker/whatever-ya-call-it and came home to do some yard work. First time the yard has been weed-whacked since last spring-ish! Then went to one of our friends wedding and reception. It was a nice wedding and it's always interesting to see how different people do things. She looked lovely, and guys in tuxes are always a nice sight...well except the one who really needed a hair cut, but anyway. Afterwords was the reception and we didn't stay long, because we had the kiddos, and besides them getting restless and people breaking out the adult beverages, it was bed time!
The next day we went out to the farm and pulled soaked straw bales out of our burn ravine and loaded them into the back of the truck. We then hauled them up by our pond and, using the four-wheeler we took them to the outlet/overflow area to create a damn. See our pond is super shallow, but has quite a shelf to allow for more depth, just the overflow area is too low So we blocked it and hopefully it will work! Let me tell you, the lifting of those soaked suckers, was not fun! They were sooooo heavy and we had to load them into the truck, out of the truck, and off the four-wheeler, and walk them several feet to their final destination. Whew! Then we came home and cleaned up from the yucky-ness of the bales and bathed everyone to avoid tick-chigger-poison ivy fun-ness. Seems like it worked anyway! Then I got all glammed up and Tony and I went to my roller derby game. I had a BLAST! We were short jammers (ie point scorers) for my team due to injuries, so I had to skate my butt off! Boy was I sore the next day! I skated a lot and had a lot of people telling my how awesome I did. Personally I was just having fun and don't know how awesome or not awesome I was. But we won!!! So that was fun! Tony and I even went to the after party for a little bit so he got a chance to mingle with some of my fellow derby girls! I'm glad he got a chance to get to know some of the women I talk about frequently.
Monday was D-day. So we hung out as a family and Tony marveled at how much the kids are changing. Alex is becoming a Daddy's boy, (shocker I know!), Anthony is an oh-so-adorable little stink-butt, and Autumn is the sweetest little charmer who is on the go-go-go! I tell you what, she didn't have to flash that smile but once, and Tony was wrapped around her finger!
I love my family! I have days when the kids make messes, or are too whiny for me to handle, with any shred of sanity. I also have days when I can't hug, squeeze, smooch, and tell them that I love them enough! Tony is a wonderful husband, father and provider! I know I whine that he's gone a lot, but I know he has it hard too. Being away from his kids, for almost 6 months with only a few visits in between, can't be easy. I love him, and boy do I miss him! The financial blessings have been awesome, but I'm sure glad it's almost over! One more month honey! I love you.