I Can't Come Up With a Witty Title. TToT Week 43

This post is an illusion.

I'm not really here.

After being home for 6 days, I decided that all of this staying in one place is for the hermits!  I need to be on the road!

For this weekend's road trip, no kids are involved.  There will be no stopping at fun places.  It is a 10 hour race to Virginia for my older sister's wedding.  I will be stopping in Kentucky to pick up my mom and youngest brother.  My dad will meet us there.

I can't tell you how happy it makes me that my mom is coming with us.  The sister getting married is not my mom's daughter, but the daughter of my dad and a woman he knew before my mom.  The weekend is a perfect example of a "water under the bridge, life is too short for grudges, forgiveness is the best way to live" attitude my parents and sister have embraced.  We're going to have so much fun.

So, I'm not here.  While you read this, I may be in the middle of a 10 hour drive to Virginia.  I may be at a wedding.  I may be playing cards with my mom, dad, and brother.  I may be sleeping in the backseat while my brother drives the 10 hours home.  Regardless, I'm not here.

Doesn't mean I haven't been thankful this week!

1.  I am thankful for the dozen roses which greeted me when the kids and I got home from our trip.  Bryan missed me.

2.  I am thankful for new sheets for my bed.  It seems that when I sleep, I kick a lot.  So much so that the area by my feet always wears thin.  The other night, I actually put my foot through the thinning sheet.  New sheets for me!

3.  I am thankful for opportunities for my kids to grow.  The kindergarteners were in charge of presenting the all-school Mass this week, and Turken led the way by reading an introduction.  I was a bit nervous for him, seeing as how he is one of the most shy of my children.  I needn't have worried.  He stood tall (you could actually see the top of his head over the lectern), spoke loudly, and paced himself nicely.

When kindergarten is in charge of the Mass, a couple of 8th graders are in charge of helping the 5 and 6 year olds to their proper positions at the right time.  Buttercup was asked to help, and after Mass, the other kindergarten teacher proclaimed that she wanted Buttercup to help her class when it was their turn.

Proud Mama right here.

4.  I am thankful to have had some time to get a haircut.  Finally! Another related thankful... Except for the incident where he loudly and repeatedly exclaimed, "Look at him!  He's getting a mohawk!" and pointed at the poor older woman getting her haircut behind me while I tried to shush him and call him over to me and my wet, half-cut hair, Cuckoo behaved quite well.

5.  I am thankful for the great weather in which the three youngest can play while we wait many hours over the course of the week for middle school play practices to end.  (The show is in 2 weeks, so rehearsals are in full swing.)

6.  I am thankful that we had both the weather and the time to get a bunch of outside work done last weekend.  Basically, we cleaned up the messes last year's pigs created and got a good start on cleaning up the mess the winter created.

7.  I am thankful for my new doctor. I like the guy so far, despite the fact he kept comparing me and my ailments to an 82 year old woman.  He has a good plan and new ideas for getting a diagnosis and managing the pain of whatever this is I have.  Bonus points for getting me out of there in less than one hour and for the fantastic phlebotomist who managed to get 5 vials out of me with no trouble at all.

8.  I am thankful for the opportunities to meet and get to know more of the kindergarten parents.  Most of my friends have kids in grades 6 and up.  That means most of these friends will be leaving me behind when their kids head off to high school.  With Turken and Cuckoo, I am basically at square one at this school.  It would behoove me to get to know the younger parents with the younger kids.  With the weather being so nice, I have actually run into several moms at different playgrounds and have had some nice talks with them.

9.  I am thankful for generous friends.  A few things popped up to add to the calendar this weekend, and there is no way Bryan could have done them all without help.  A couple friends have agreed to help with a bit of the driving our kids to or from an event, so I can still go to the wedding.

10.  I am thankful for everyone who continues to read my blog, especially when I spend 3 days talking about our one vacation.  I'm also terribly grateful for those bloggers who read, despite my inability to read their writing much these past couple of weeks.

So, I left town and forgot to ask Lizzi for the code to put in my post before I left.  Without the code, I have no way for you to link up.  I'm so sorry.

If you have written a post, please go to Lizzi's and link up there.

If you don't have a post, tell me in the comments what got you smiling this week.

Have a lovely weekend!