Guess who’s mom was at Kinko’s until after 10:30 last night? Guess who’s mom will never ever help her daughter again with a seven page project the night before it’s due? Especially when such daughter had a week or more to work on the project and forgot ! Guess who’s mom will need lots of caffeine today to get her through her work day? But guess who’s mom BETTER come home to a clean house and she damn well better come home to some real sucking up and thank you kisses from her daughter!

Gerry and I are still all stuffy and feeling crabby. I was feeling better Friday evening and most of the day Saturday and then I got all stuffy again and it moved in to my ears so I feel like I am under water all of the time. It’s really pissing me off.

I did still have a nice weekend and a nice Mother’s Day. I spent the day Saturday with Rebecca who is now crawling and getting in to everything. We had a nice day and sat out side for most of it. After she went home and Allison went to a friends house for the night I was able to talk my husband into a nice quiet dinner out, just the two of us. It was so nice! I had steak and crab cakes, it was wonderful!
Of course my Mother’s Day was also very nice. It was the opposite of quiet for the most part there was even living room pillow fights in the afternoon which I did not win. I never win, both my husband and daughter are too vicious. In the evening Gerry and Allison cooked me a delicious spaghetti dinner and then severed brownie ice cream for dessert. Allison showered me with handmade gifts from school that say how wonderful I am and a digital key chain that holds 60 pictures. It was really nice. I am a lucky woman.

"Aunt Jenny” that is what my pretty little niece calls me. She has the sweetest little voice when she says it too. I ended up taking Rebecca and Allison over to my sister’s house this evening and sitting with the kids for a while until she came home from work. The two babies were so cute and really good together. In fact for the couple of hours I was there, all four kids were really good and it was nice to be with them. I love it that we are all so close and spend so much time together. I have to say we are blessed with some pretty awesome kids.

Allison’s class just finished reading The Spider Chronicles with their teacher and this evening they all made plans to meet at the dollar show to see it on the big screen. Allison was so worried she wouldn’t be able to make it because it started at 5:15 and most days I am home from work just about that time but lucky for her her dad was home in time to take her. I hope they are having a good time. It’s been a while since she has been out some where with just her dad. It makes me smile at the thought of them standing in line for popcorn and Allison introducing him to all of her little girl friends.

Bethany and the baby are here for the night and so is my nephew. Making our house pretty full. We picked up a stack of movies, some thing for everyone and then this evening we ordered pizza for dinner. It’s been a great time. I love these kinds of weekends.

I even bought Jiffy popcorn to pop on the stove burner. Remember those, the ones you shake? I thought they would be fun for the kids. Well, I was wrong. Allison was too scared to hold hers and I had to pull my nephew back from placing his face right above his about a dozen times. It took about ten minutes and we finally heard a little sizzling and then they just burned. It was the worst smell. Oh well. I had good intentions.  Lets hope my plan for homemade pan cakes goes better in the morning.

My aunt just showed up at my house with a birthday gift and a container of my favorite homemade cinnamon rolls just for me. The birthday girl.
Have I blogged about how lucky I am lately? Because I really am blessed with a loving family that I adore.

Allison is so over tired and winy that I am loosing my mind the last couple of days. I feel bad because it’s not her fault we have been on the go the past few evenings causing her to be up past her bed time and she is a girl who really needs her sleep. Thank goodness we don’t having plans for the next three days so she can get back on her schedule because I am really losing my patience. BIG TIME !

Allison had a great time but was very happy to be home last night. She met us at the terminal with tears rolling down her face and great big hugs. Things were kind of hectic getting in last night. We really only had a few quiet minutes together before bed. I am looking forward to seeing her photos tonight that I dropped off this morning on my way to work and hearing all about everything. So far she told me as far as sight seeing The Eiffel Tower was her favorite.

In fact she called us from France to tell us that before she even came home. We knew that while on her trip the best way for her call home any time she wanted was by using international phone cards. It just makes things a whole lot easier when it comes time to pay the bill because there is no bill. We have been big users of using calling cards while on vacation even before I searched GetMeCallingCards.com for the best France calling cards a week before she left. We even leave one up north in our trailer now for those weekends that run in to “long” weekends and we need to call the babysitter or even the office to say we wont be back for one more day. Those are my favorite calls to make with our calling card! One more day !

I love it that I can track their flight online. I woke up and saw they had left London on time and will be landing in Washington this afternoon and then arriving in Detroit this evening. I can’t wait to pick them up at the airport and give my girl a big hug.

In some ways I can’t believe Allison will be back home tomorrow night already. These two weeks went by so fast. Yet there have been a lot of moments like this morning when I went in to her room to feed her bunny my heart kind of ached a bit. I really miss her. Two weeks is a long time for my eight year old to be gone so far from home.
I also got her post card from France today. I can’t wait to hear all about everything.

I heard from Allison and my mom. Sounds like they are having a blast! They’ve been out doing a lot of sight seeing and have already been to Buckingham Palace and spent the day in Oxford and enjoyed fish & chips at a pub near the water. Tomorrow is their day in France. I sure hope they have nice weather.

Here is a photo I found in my email this morning of Allison during their visit to Oxford University,

and outside the pub with her new friend Morgan.

I can’t wait to hear all about Paris.

My parents had to say goodbye to their beautiful golden retriever this morning. She had to be about the nicest dog I have ever known. So good and patient with all of the kids. She was part of our family for a long time and will be missed.