Weekend Fun

The boys came up to stay at my house on Friday evening. We didn't get back until very late, so they were asleep. Although, Drew woke up very fresh like he thought it was morning. I kept having to tell him to relax and lay down in his bed. Finally, just to keep him "occupied" and willing to stay in his bed, I gave him a small toy to play with quietly. I went to my room, laying down to read for a little while. Around 2 AM, I finally put my book down but I could still hear Andrew in their room playing with the toy. All the lights were out in the house, so I just figured he would eventually fall asleep.

Around 5 AM, I rolled over in my sleep and just peaked my eyes open. Andrew was standing still next to my bed, staring at me. Normally, this wouldn't have bothered me. Having recently watched Paranormal Activity, this really creeped me out. I ushered him back to his bed and reminded him that everyone was still sleeping and that it wasn't daytime yet. He immediately started wailing and threw himself back into his bed.

I couldn't get back to sleep at this point, so I showered and finished sorting their playroom in the basement. Michael was up by 6:30, so at that time I allowed Andrew to get up. I'm really unsure if he ever did fall back asleep but it really doesn't seem like it. They played for a bit, and then we decided to eat breakfast at Bob Evans. There is a balloon lady on the weekends, and the kids always enjoy that.

After we left Bob Evans, we stopped by Walmart to find Grandma a Christmas present, caught A Christmas Carol at Savoy 16 (btw, that is really not a kid oriented version of A Christmas Carol.. Kind of scary for kids if you ask me), then decided we would stop really "quick" at the mall to find a photographer to get Christmas Photos done. Yeah... I had forgotten, the Saturday before Christmas, there is no such thing as a "quick stop." Finally, we made it back home around 5. We had rented the latest Harry Potter, so the kids watched that in the basement while I tried to rearrange some furniture down there.

Sunday was a little more organized, but still pretty stressful. Michael told me he thought it would be really fun if we had a Christmas Dinner "pre-game" so to speak. I figured, sure... why not? Left overs mean I won't have to cook again until Christmas Eve. A friend of mine has a little boy that's near Michael's age that Michael really enjoys playing with, so we invited them over to eat.

So all morning we basically just played in the basement, taking a break around noon to run up to Barnes & Noble. After we got home, I tried unsuccessfully to have Drew take a nap. Eventually I gave up and started getting stuff together to cook, finding out the hard way that Michael really had no intention of "helping" out at all. I can't say I'm surprised since he is only 5. Although I was still a little irritated over it since he made it clear he wanted to help make some of the food.

So besides the fact that Andrew had 2 melt downs before our company even arrived made a good sign of the evenings coming events. It's my fault really, since there was so much going on here. After our company arrived close to 4, the boys played and we ate around 5. We had Ham, Macaroni Salad (from scratch), Baked Beans (Scratch), Rolls, Banana Pudding, Pecan Pie, Pumpkin Pie, and while the kids ate I mixed up a cake mix to try a fruit cake variation that I sort of created in my mind. It actually worked out fairly well (my mind creation recipes don't always work out well for anyone involved).

After everyone had eaten, we decided to go see the movie Avatar. We were late for the show we intended to see, so we waited 20 minutes and caught the 3-D. I thought the movie was going to be good, but it was way better than good. It came across to me with the Tree-Hugging-Hippie message in an odd-ball sort of way. The movie lasted way longer than I thought it would. We checked the time as we were leaving and it was nearly 20 after 9. I had to hurry since Michael had school on Monday. Since it had been snowing all day, there was a light layer of ice and snow on the roads.

By the time we had gotten dropped off back at home, I had to gather all their things and rush out the door. Andrew had fallen asleep in the movie theater, so once again he seemed fairly fresh. It was difficult to get him to cooperate since I kept telling Michael that we had to hurry so they could go to sleep at Grandma's. Andrew picked up on that and didn't really like that plan. By the time we left Champaign, it was nearly 10 PM. Thankfully they had both fallen asleep by the Willard Exit. It was pretty scary driving to Oakland on the interstate, so I was glad they were asleep and weren't distracting my driving. I kept seeing cars off in the ditch, and their wrecks were all fresh since headlights or police officers were at each of the scenes. When we got to the rest stops by Pesotum, the North bound lane was at a stand still. A semi had jackknifed off the interstate into the ditch. The drivers side of the semi was pressed into the trailer and you could see the indention it made from slamming into the trailer. It looked pretty scary.

Thankfully, the actual Southbound Pesotum exit looked like the bad weather line. As soon as I drove over the pass and made it around the curve in the interstate, all the traffic had sped back up to "regular" interstate driving speeds. I could clearly tell I had more control of my car while driving. So from there, we were able to get all the way back to Oakland safely.

I got to Oakland right as Casey's were closing. I'm pretty thankful because I think I came around the curve on 133 faster than I meant. Whoever was on duty Sunday night was already sitting in Casey's parking lot, so I wasn't clocked. I got back to my house in Champaign around 12:30 - 1 AM. I ended up reading for an hour or so before falling asleep with my book across my lap.

All in all, I think our weekend went well.