Whatnot Wednesday: Vacation Edition

Disclaimer: This may be ridiculously long.

* Our vacation week started last Thursday (sort of). Josh had not gone a Sunday without preaching since December of 2009. I've decided I'm just going to cherish our weekend together and not blog about it, but I will tell you, it was bliss. I came back feeling so relaxed that I was a danger to myself. I had no motor control. I kept hurting myself. I will also tell you that last week at church when I was discussing our plans with some of our church members and told them where we were going one of them said, "Be careful! That's where our son was conceived." Ha! Well, at least there was no pretense that we were going on a spiritual retreat or anything like that! :)

* We took the kids bowling last night and had the best time. We were going to take them to see Cars 2, but we decided to go in somewhere to eat instead of getting fast food. Beef o' Brady's was having kid's night. Score! But, that made us end up running late, then we got stuck in a traffic jam AND stopped by a train. So, that's how we ended up bowling. Kate won the first game. Eli won the second. Poor Sarah, she threw her ball and it flew off into the employee area!! I had turned away and missed how it happened. I just looked to see it flying and couldn't help but burst out laughing. Then, I happened to look back where the rest of the alley was leagues playing and they were not laughing. They looked like we were going to be in so much trouble. Or like we were the worst thing that could have ever happened to their league night. I tried to hide my laughter, but I just couldn't. It made me laugh more that the whole bowling alley was staring at as, mouths agape like we were aliens who had just landed on lane 16. We take so much pride in our social outcastness....

* Speaking of that, guess what we ended up driving last night? Yep, the church van. We learned on our weekend away that the jeep needed new rotors and calipers. That's stuff for the brakes. Are you impressed I know that? Well, I feel like I could pretty much be a certified mechanic by this point with all of the car issues we are forever having. Anyway, Josh was working on them yesterday and realized he needed another part (he actually realized that like, 45 times during the whole process and asked me to hit him in the head if he had to go get one more thing) so he couldn't fiinish it. Soooo, that put us rollin' in the church van. The radio is broken in the van so Sarah brought her MP3 player and Josh had hooked up some little speakers to it. We stopped for Josh to run in the auto part store and I found myself singing Taylor Swift's "Today Was a Fairytale" at the top of my lungs. As I sang I thought, 'It's getting really warm in here'. Then I remembered, JOSH HAD ROLLED THE WINDOW DOWN!!! Oops! The good news is, my kids are still too young to be completely mortified by my presence.

Rollin' in the church van

* During this week of vacation, I've still been teaching my theatre classes. That job came up at the last minute so we just had to plan around it. Friday will be our big performance and I am anticipating it either being a smashing success or that I will be sneaking out the backdoor with a bag over my head. You just never know how these things will go. For one thing, half of my class has band camp this week and any of you who've been in band know you have to have a body part amputated or something to get out of it. So, we're having an extra practice tomorrow and I'm PRAYING everybody will be there, because so far, I haven't had all the cast together at the same time to practice. Yeah.  I also had to pick a new Cinderella today. Don't worry, in our version, she doesn't have any lines. But still, I'm pretty much a nervous wreck. Today one of my 11 year olds asked me if her character could be carrying a bottle of wine. I yelled "NO!!! I am a preacher's wife!!" And even if I weren't, I am pretty sure that even the most non-religious people in the community would not be cool with alcoholic 11 year olds in Cinderella. What do you think? 

* BTW, I have two new stage names. The girls in my theatre class have named me Snow White. I think that is their nice way of telling me I need a tan. And, in the local paper they listed me as Emily Fid, so Barbie has given me the hip hop name EmFid. I'm so cool.

* In other dance news, our studio owner and her girls moved last weekend. Josh had just come to pick me up from class to leave on our getaway when she and her girls were walking out the door. We all held it together and then the door closed and we all fell apart. There was some big time ugly crying going on up in there. 

* Tonight, we went to the beach for the second time this summer. Can you believe that? We took some food and had a picnic.Josh got on to Eli for throwing food to the seagulls and then he turned around and started doing it!! We were surrounded! Before I knew what was happening we were under full fledged attack. So much for a peaceful evening on the beach! Eventually they moved on. The kids played in the sand and Josh and I laid on the blanket and it was awesome. We strolled down the shore as the sun set. I've decided we should definitely do that more. Even after bath time, I still think we should do that more.

* I hate bath time. Am I the only Mom that feels that way? I hear a lot of moms talk about what a special bonding time it is, but that just is not the case around here. I have never been able to teach any of my children how to look up. No matter how many times I tell them to look up while I wash their hair, they always look down and get shampoo in their eyes. Is there a mom shampoo secret I've never learned? Please share it if you know it. Sarah and Eli was their own hair now (Praise the Lord!), but now Kate and I are fighting the hairwashing drama. And that child has some hair!!

* Finally, in very exciting news, my niece, Layla, was born yesterday! We are so excited. Congrats to Brad and Leah! And all the grandparents! And prayers for them, too, as Brad is serving our country in Afghanistan right now. What a brave Mommy and Daddy Layla has!