Recharging Batteries

During the holidays my husband and I had to work so our children went to visit their grandparents for the weekdays, they were home, however, from Christmas Eve through the Sunday after Christmas for some well-needed family time.

But, since the kids were gone and my husband had nothing more than working on our plates for a change, we had a chance to recharge our batteries.

So the first morning that the children were with their grandparents my husband decided to leave for work a little later than usual. Well, he left then came back a few minutes later and explained that his car battery was dead so he would wait for me to get ready and we could take my car. He asked when I would be ready, to which I replied, "About 45 minutes." His jaw dropped onto the floor and he said, "How come so long?" Need he ask? It always takes me longer than him to get ready.

When I emerged from our bedroom ready to go we headed for the garage together. When we got into my car I thought it odd that someone turned off the dome lights. Turns out that my car battery was also dead. What a coincidence that both car batteries could be dead at the same time. I thought it was just that both cars needed their batteries recharged also after the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. My husband gave me a sideways look.

We were able to get jumped and off to work but, who wants to start off on a Monday like that?

A Real Vacation

Last week we took a vacation, just my husband, the children and me. We visited with my husband's family and even though we did so much it really felt like a vacation.

There was no worry about work for me, my husband had no calls from work (and that is a miracle!), my mother-in-law provided all meals and hospitality to boot. We had to think about nothing except what we were going to do for the day and we did a lot. We guessed about when we would be back and my mother-in-law did not pressure us for anything exact. We phoned her when we had a better idea of when we would return and she had a meal on the table as we walked through the door.

We actually did more in this trip than I had done in all my previous trips to my husband's family's hometown of Seattle. Despite the rainy weather in August(!) we went to Seattle Center, Pike Place Market, took the ferry to Bainbridge Island, went to a Mariner's baseball game (wow did that stadium cost some dough?), the Museum of Flight where we boarded the first "Air Force One" and a Concorde bound for no where, the University of Washington (the U Dub, to the locals), and Boehm's chocolate factory and even took the tour which was a bargain at $3 each. What we did not get to was take the Victoria Clipper to the San Juan Islands with the whale watching add on because the boat was broken, so that's the day we went to Bainbridge instead. That's okay though because we will have a new experience to have the next time, oh, and the Space Needle, too, we promised the children next time we would go up in the Space Needle. This time since it was rainy and overcast we did not see the point given that we will go back, especially since it was so relaxing despite all the running around.

I have to say this is the first vacation we have been on with the children that we did not need a vacation to recover from our vacation. On Monday it was back to work and trying to get back into the routine...

Life's A Circus

That circus song, you know the little catchy tune, keeps swirling around in my head. I'm not sure how to get rid of it although I've tried.

We are scheduled to take the children to the the circus and I am pretty excited because I have not been there since I went with my grandparents when I was small. We were lucky enough to get group rate tickets. I say lucky because I checked the regular prices and the ringside seats go for around $200 each seat. Wow, now that set me in a tail spin. That would be $800 for a family of four, and it cannot be longer than a couple hours of entertainment.

There are not many tickets I would feel comfortable spending that much money for and the circus is not one of them. I think I'd rather take the family away for the weekend somewhere. It might cost a little more than $800 but it would be a weekend's worth of entertainment, not an hour or two!