Home Alone

My mother-in-law and her husband have a tradition of taking the grand kids to Disneyland the year before they start kindergarten.  This year was Kaitlyn's year to go.  The only problem was that Andrew and Jared never got their trips since we lived in Iowa when they started kindergarten.  So my awesome mother-in-law decided to take all three of the kids to California.  When she told me I was thrilled and started planning a weekend getaway for Jason and me.  After all, how often do you have someone ask to babysit your kids for several days?!

The problem....  I found out she scheduled the trip the same week Jason was going backpacking with his brothers.  So much for a second honeymoon... I was going to be home alone.

I'm not the type of person that enjoys being alone.  I always like having people around.  However, it has been at least 12 years since I have had a significant amount of time completely to myself.  I've spent the last month scheming what would be the best use of this time since it probably won't happen again for another 12 years or so.  There were plenty of projects to get done but the problem was that every time I started thinking about how much I needed to do I thought it wasn't fair to work the whole time everyone else was on vacation.  No matter how much I tried to look at this as an opportunity, I couldn't help dreading the week.  In fact, I cried tucking the kids in bed the night before they left thinking about how much I would miss them.

My first thought when I got back to my house was how quiet it was!  Too quiet, to be honest.  There have definitely been some nice things.  I've eaten what I want, when I want.  I've gone to bed when I want, gotten up when I want.  I've gone for some nice trail runs in no hurry to get back.  I went to dinner with a friend.  When I pick something up it actually stays put.  I had a nice phone conversation with my brother in Germany with no interruptions.  I worked in my garden which if I have to say is doing quite well this year.  Yes, that is work; but it is work I enjoy!

I did a lot of shopping.  (I thought about taking a picture of all the bags I came home with today but I think I'm going to have to slowly bring everything out so Jason doesn't realize how much I got in one trip!)  My sister-in-law told me about this neat store in Salt Lake, The Wood Connection, that was probably slightly dangerous for me to find out about because it had a lot of cool stuff.  I've been looking for a side table for months but haven't been able to find one the right color.  Their furniture is unfinished so I found the perfect table and then brought it home and painted it black.

I also picked up a more crafty project that I will post pictures of when it is done.  That's tomorrow's project.

I got a few jobs done around the house but I really didn't get around to any deep cleaning that needed to be done.  I could have a month all to myself and not get caught up on everything.  But as nice at it is to do whatever I want, I'm really ready for Jason to come home tomorrow!