All About My Weekend

This past weekend was just me and the kids!

For those of you who may not know, my family is from Florida, and we are currently traveling the country, looking for the ideal place to settle down.

Long story short - My wife is an echocardiographer ("ultrasounds of the heart") and since the real estate has slumped in Florida, she decided to take her skill (as well as the family) and hit the road. There is big business for traveling medical technologists - the company that hires you pretty much foots the bill for living, food, gas, etc. and the hourly pay is greater than the usual.

The companies generally hire out for three months at a time, and we have been traveling for a little over a year now. We have lived in Phoenix, Arizona, Lake Shasta, in Northern California, Seattle, Washington, and we are currently in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

While we travel, I am a stay at home, home-schooling father, of our three youngest children - our oldest son was accepted into a brand new, top-notch high school back in Florida, that only 400 other kids were accepted into, in the entire county, so he is staying with his father, until we decide where we are going to live permanently.

[Now, you have a little bit of the background story] :-)

So, we have decided to go ahead and put our house, in Florida, on the market.

(I have a friend that has been staying there watching over everything)

After some discussion, my wife and I decided that it would be best if she went back, to "clean-house" [I tend to be a bit of a pack-rat, and she knew that I would not get rid of anything - she is probably right] :-)

So, she flew back to Florida and met up with our oldest son, and some friends, and they packed everything up in those P.O.D. Storage Units.

While all of this was going on, I kept receiving calls from my son - they went something like this - "Hey, um, can I have your gaming chair? Um, I found your PSP, could I have that? Uh, Do you still want your skateboard? What about these knives?" This went on every ten minutes or so, until I finally told him that he is there to pack, not scrounge. We can discuss what he can have, when we settle back down. . .

So, backtracking, on Friday morning, we all took mom to the airport and said our sad farewells. The kids did really good though. My youngest daughter almost cried, but she held back her tears. (If she had cried, they all would have cried)

On the way back home, we took our time, stopping at different places.

When we got home, dinner was waiting for us. My wife had made a pot roast meal, with potatoes and carrots, that had simmered in the crock pot all day - it was delicious!

[Now, you have to understand my wife, she is a wonderful woman - she had dinner prepared, in advance, for us, for each night that she was gone. Every day, she had a little letter for me and each of the kids, along with a special "treat bag" My wife is Awesome, plain and simple!] :-)

That night, I told the kids that we would have a "slumber party" in the living room. I had Netflix send some children's movies for the weekend, and we started off the night by watching Nancy Drew. (I brought out my mattress and we all lay on the floor watching the movie) That was a decent movie - my daughters really enjoyed it. We then settled in for the night. Now, I like to sleep in pitch black darkness, so being in the living room, even with the blinds closed, it still seemed pretty bright, and not having my wife beside me, I just don't think that I got much sleep that night.

On Saturday morning, I awoke to my youngest son (he is 2) whimpering. I asked him what was wrong, and he just rolled over, facing the opposite direction. I went around to the side he was facing and again asked him what was wrong. He just sort of pouted and rolled back over, the other way. I picked him up and carried him into the bathroom while I brushed my teeth. I sat him on the bathroom counter, where he curled into a little ball. I just figured that he was missing mom pretty bad. I put him on my bed, while I got dressed, where he promptly decided to throw up. I quickly grabbed a washcloth and helped him into the bathroom, where I started cleaning him up. About this time, I thought I heard more retching, and my oldest daughter hollered that my youngest daughter was throwing up, in the living room. Needless to say, I had two sick kids that day, so I decided to just stay home and let the kids rest. We watched that old 80's E.T. wanna-be movie, Mac & Me - the kids really enjoyed it though, so that was cool.

My oldest daughter is a big Classic & Musical Movies Fan, so, while the other two kids were resting, I found the 1973 Musical Version of Tom Sawyer on Turner Classic Movies and she really loved that movie! We then watched Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, on Disney.

So, basically, Saturday was just a "lounge around the house day" Nothing exciting. I had planned on taking the kids to the park and having a picnic lunch, but obviously that did not happen.

Sunday morning, I was planning on taking the kids bowling, but I let them choose what they wanted to do, and they chose to have a picnic lunch at the park.

After the park, we went to a local strip mall, where our budget theatre is located. At this mall, they were having an exotic animal show, so the kids actually got to play with some tiger cubs, which was awesome! The exhibit also included a Magic Show, so I took the kids over, 20 minutes before it started, and we got good seats, right in front! Joe Exotic is a Master Illusionist and the show (which was an hour and a half - and free!) was fantastic! We all had a Blast!

[This show is called Joe Exotic's Mystical Magic of the Endangered - it is put on by Awakening Productions, so if you ever see them in your town, definitely check them out!!] They are based out of Oklahoma, and tour all over the United States.

Well, I feel that this Blog is becoming a bit lengthy - I just wanted to document my weekend. :-)

Let me leave you with some pictures:

Three of My Beautiful Children

This was a weird roller-bar slide

Playing with a Tiger Cub

One of the 'rules' were "no picking up the cubs" As you can see from this picture, my son knew better and was seeing if he could get away with it. . .

It looks as if my oldest daughter is a bit nervous in this picture. I think that the cub yawned and she thought it was going to roar or pounce. :-)

Isn't he a cutie?!?

Well, I will be back to my regular reviewing of movies, probably one day this week (depending on what arrives via Netflix, and if it is any good. . . Right now, I am off, with the kids, to pick my wife up from the airport - I miss her so!

Jason