A night to myself!

God is GOOD! We'll start with that. As for winter, I'm over YOU...it's time to get on board with Global Warming Minnesota! Last night was MY first night in like forever without kids and a husband. It started great with a movie (When in Rome)...and on the drive home I was daydreaming about how the rest of the night would go...bath...some DVR'd American Idol, Bones or House...but instead...when I pulled into the driveway, my garage door would NOT open because of these lame*ss subzero temps we've been having. So I get out my keys and go to the front door, only to remember that my overly paranoid self just had Chris install those locks at the top of the door like what hotels have...so the kids can't open the door all the way...since I haven't mastered the art of magically opening them from the outside, I knew I was locked out. After about 20 minutes of pressing the garage door opener repeatedly while thinking of how it was too good to be true to have a night to myself AND a quick little prayer to God...it opened! And the angels sang (I will say that God tested my patience for a good 10 minutes before answering my prayer BUT in the end he did and that's what counts!).

BUT, I did get my night and it was wonderful. I stayed up until 11:30 and didn't wake up until 8...I've watched House this a.m. and taken a shower...had breakfast, put on my makeup and done a few loads of laundry...all without any distractions! So thank you to Chris and Papa for taking the kids to the Mall of America and then having a sleepover so I could have some much needed ME time. (The only problem I foresee now is wanting that luxury more often (wink wink) =)

In other news, I stuck to my plan of saying YES more yesterday...Ayris started the morning asking to do face paints...NO is what I wanted to say...what a greasy mess...followed by about 15 good minutes of scrubbing the kids bodies so hard they turn red...and I say bodies because we couldn't keep it in the general face area...it was on the bottoms of their feet, arms, legs, faces, bellies...and lucky for Asher, he still has it inside both of his ears...apparently Lions have a blue color inside their ears (that's what Ayris was going for...painting Asher like a lion)...anyway, Asher wasn't having the scrubbing inside of his ears so for now...they remain blue...and probably will for some time. My second opportunity to say NO came when Ayris asked to get into her costume from 2 years ago. That may seem like a simple request...and it is for the most part but its way high up in the closet...not to mention the fact that its about 2 sizes too small for her...which translates to a waste of time to pull down some kitty costume that barely fits...BUT again, I said yes and the kids ran around in their costumes for a good 5 minutes before stripping down to their skivvies. And lo and behold, it only took a good 3 minutes when I count the time to get them out and put them back later in the day. I'm sure Ayris would have whined for a good 5 minutes about the whole thing so...I think this is a good thing =) I actually gained 2 minutes in this scenario and everyone was happy!

AND, as for little man Collins...I *THINK* he might have had hiccups this morning...I'm just sorry I wasted the time without realizing it. I was on the computer and had it resting on my stomach...he kept knocking at the computer but I left it because I like feeling him move...but he kept it up so much that I decided maybe he was uncomfortable and I was crowding his space in there so I moved it...but the "thumping" continued 3 more times after I moved it...just as I began wondering if they had been hiccups at that point, they stopped...so I guess I'll never know...but I'm crossing my fingers that they were and they'll start increasing in frequency from here on out =)