My Freedom: Day 1 - 6

My work-week of freedom started earlier than planned. MeMa and Poppi arrived on Thursday to spend a few days with Art and I before taking Zachary and Wyatt on the long driving trip back to Georgia. It was a good time with them here. Wyatt took a day to warm up to them, but Zach was thrilled to see MeMa and Poppi again. Friday we took a trip to the library to get Zach's free book (he completed the 9 hours of reading required this summer), then met Art for lunch at the Lucky Platter (ham and brie sandwich - yum!). Earlier that morning Zach and Poppi took a trip to Home Depot to get Art his birthday present: a Weber Grill. Saturday Art and I took a date to go see the 6th HARRY POTTER movie! That night for dinner we broke in Art's new grill and his new coal chimney with burgers. That's when things started going downhill for me. During the movie, I *somehow* ate an entire box of Jr. Caramels (makers of Jr. Mints) because Art REFUSED to share with me. After the movie I had a stomachache, which I assumed was because of the candy, but it did not get better. I was up from about 3:30-5am with cramping and bathroom issues. Art left this morning at 7am, (he had a conference in NH and I could no go since they were staying in the dorms of a boarding school) and I was still not better. Went to church w/ the boys and MeMa and Poppi. I wanted very much to go to church today b/c it was our first day in the new space at the Music Institute of Chicago. Closer to our house too! Still not feeling great, so Poppi and MeMa decided to take the boys early. They were planning on leaving Monday morning, but since I was sick, they thought it would be better to get the boys out of there so I could get some rest.

So off they went. I have been looking forward to this for a good long time, but it was still upsetting to watch my babies get driven away, knowing I won't see them for 11 days. I had a good 10 minute cry then embraced the quiet and solitude.

I have spent the rest of the day either in bed, or laying on the couch, save for one trip to Walgreens to get some Immodium AD. HUGE HELP! I'm feeling much better now. I'm very relieved that the boys were not here while I was feeling so badly and in and out of the bathroom.
So day one of my rest and relaxation was not exactly as I would have liked it. 5 days until Art gets home, and 11 days until we see the boys again.

Day 2 - Monday Still feeling ill today. Much better though. Highly recommend Immodium Multi-symptom. I did not do much at all today other than lie on the sofa. I ate very little and moved very little. I found Season 5 of The Office on the internet and very very badly (b/c Art and I are to be watching them together) watched a bunch of episodes. They are like cheese puffs - I think that I can just have a few, but then they call to me all day long. And since I was sick and not eating cheese puffs, then The Office had to do! :) By evening, I finally felt good enough to get out a bit. Target had some Netbook sleeves on sale last week. We got one for our new dvd player, but I did not get one for my Netbook b/c I had not yet purchased one, and wanted to make sure it would fit. So tonight, despite feeling a bit ill still, I took off for some shopping. First, I thought I should stop by Unique Thrift Store since Mondays are 1/2 off everything. Apparently, though not feeling well, I was still able to find a few new shirts for me and a pair of shorts for Zach (poor boy only has 3 decent pair, but summer is nearly over). Then off to Target. No Netbook sleeves on clearance anymore. I got a few things at Target but mainly just browsed. Back home for more relaxing.

Day 3 - Tuesday Feeling much better but not great. After a morning of preparing a lesson for our FBOW group, I finally got going. Walked up to the church office to turn in a long-overdue tithe check. Continued walking to visit a few more Thrift stores for some shopping. For some reason, the Jr. League Thrift store was closed, but I made it to a few others. Also made it to the library to return a bunch of things and get a few more. I had to beat it home, b/c Art was going to Skype me. He has no cell service at his conference and the only way we can stay in contact is through Skype. What a wonderful thing Skype is. After a quick dinner, I got everything ready for the FBOW ladies to come to my house for the lesson. I even made cookies.

Day 4 - Wednesday A morning of cleaning the house...after finally getting out of bed around 9:30. I was expecting our upstairs neighbors for lunch around noon and needed to make sure I had everything in order. The kitchen was a disaster since I had not yet gotten it cleaned since Dad/Faye/Zachary/Wyatt left on Sunday. No small task. I also got a bunch of stuff organized to go down to the basement. Did a big project with Zachary's old clothes, organizing them a bit better into different bins. Today was mainly for cleaning and organizing. At noon, Judy came down for lunch and we had the yummy crossants I've been eating for 4 days now, with BLTs. It was a fun visit, and she stayed for about 2 hours. After she left, I got myself together and dropped off some stuff at Goodwill then finally went to the Jr. League thrift shop again. Found a few cute things, including a onsie for Wyatt that says "I'm kind of a big deal". Funny. After dinner, I had a nice evening with Stephanie M. I went and picked her up at her house, and we went to the Skokie movie theater. Art and I have a $5 Club card that makes any eligible movie only $5 (instead of $9.50 I think). She and I saw The Proposal. Much cuter than I thought it would be. My only issue is that the movie setting was a bit inconsistent. It was set in Sitka, Alaska, during the long days of daylight - which is in the summer. However, people wore long sleeves and sweaters. IN THE SUMMER. As someone who has actually BEEN to Alaska during the long days of daylight, it is not cold. And Sitka is in southern Alaska - not even in the Artic circle, where it could be cold. Enough ranting. Still a funnier movie than I expected. Anyway, a fun time.

Day 5 - Thursday A day of errands. Had to take the glass bottles back to Jewel, drop off some more library books. I also finally mailed Maddy & Jake their XXL Ziploc bags. Then off to the pool finally. The weather has been a bit crappy - not at all the beach/pool weather I was expecting. I got to the pool around 4pm, and was cold. I only stayed about an hour. What is the point of being cold? Sadly, I never did go on the water slides or swim or do anything that I normally cannot do w/ Zach and Wy at the pool...well, I did lie down on a lounge chair reading or listening to my book on mp3 for an hour. Off to home for PIZZA! Since Art was not there, I got to have Ultra Thin pizza. Pretty yummy. It's POSSIBLE I should not have eaten the entire thing. I spent some time working on the blog and watching tv. Also started pulling out all the stuff we would need for the next week of camping. The office area looks pretty crazy now w/ sleeping bags, a tent, and sports chairs all over the place.

Day 6 - Friday - last dayTalked with Art when he was at the airport this morning and he said he was going to attempt to catch an earlier flight, which would put him in at 3pm instead of 5:30pm. So that nixed my idea of seeing a 12pm showing of Harry Potter (a second viewing). I still had a bunch of work to do getting us ready to be packed, plus dishes, getting the sheets off the bed in the playroom, etc. THEN, turned out that Art did not get on the earlier flight. He did not get home until nearly 7pm. We went to Zoba's and he went straight to bed. He had an ear infection that started in New Hampshire, but did not have his ear drops w/ him, so we did not get them started until Friday night. Tomorrow we have a few options. We'd like to go rent a canoe or kayak on the Chicago river, or take our snorkel gear down to the beach, or who knows. It depends on the weather, and if Art needs to go into the office or not. It looks like it is supposed to rain, so we'll see. Should be plenty hot though - 92 degrees. We need to leave the house by around 2 or 2:30 on Saturday to get started on our adventure - begining with Matt & Jackie's wedding.

Overall assessment: It is a bit scary how much I enjoyed being alone. I really loved it, and was not really ready for it to end. The last time I had a good portion of time just for me was when I was about 30+ weeks pregnant with Zach and Art went camping. Dad and Faye were great at keeping me informed on Wyatt and Zachary's goings on, so I didn't feel anxious about them. So really, I was totally selfish and missed no one! I should not be allowed to do this too often! :)