Four Day Weekends

I love America~ truly I do, I am a proud American and sappy at that. I tear up every flippin' time I hear "The Star Spangled Banner", every photo I see of a soldier fighting for our country makes me lose it. Don't even get me started on Memorial day parades~ I want to hug every one of those veterans~ my Grandfather was in WWII and I see his patriotism in each of those men.

That being said, my kids had Friday off of school for some inservice thing, today they had off because it is Columbus Day. Yes, we should take time to celebrate that Mr. Columbus ran into our great country, but I'm sure the kids will learn more about it in school! I love having extra time with my babies, I miss them now that I'm working again. I was a SAHM for quite a while and loved it~ really I did! However, I did not have Friday off of work, this resulted in the Brackel kids joining mom at work.

As I said yesterday, my kids are adorable but 9 hours at my job makes me grumpy and I'm SUPPOSED to be there! It was cute at first, they colored pictures for my coworkers, played Sorry! 47 times, "helped" Mommy paint a sign for the window display and browsed Barbie.com until Helen's eyes glazed over, then it all went downhill, bottom line: 9 hours, one office, and 4 Brackel children equals a stressed Mom in need of a good drink! Sean finally ditched us to go to a football game with "Papa" (my dad) and everyone else headed to bed early. Not a good start to "4 days of quality Mom time"!

Saturday was an insanely busy day of running here, there and EVERYWHERE! Helen had dance, Alex had a soccer game WITH a goal assist (!), we then had lunch and ran to Lowe's for my remodel of Alex's soccer bedroom. Started to put up Halloween decorations (second fav holiday!) Helen had a skating party to attend and Sean invited a friend to stay over. We met up with my parents, "Grandma & Papa" and saw "Hotel Transylvania" what a cute movie! We wound down with a pizza, said goodbye and headed home~ exhausting but successful day!

Sunday involved sleeping in.... till 7:30- GO ME! And a Hell's Kitchen Marathon, Gordon Ramsey is HUUUGE in my house. Sean idolizes him and I think he's such a stud (Sorry Beast!) the "Littles" entertained themselves in their rooms for a bit and I got in 3 episodes.... success! Elizabeth had cheerleading, now remember she is not even 3 1/2 ft tall and in 1st grade, God love her she is the LOUDEST cheerleader! She doesn't always know all the words but she sure has S-P-I-R-I-T, SPIRIT!!!!!! Our fun day Sunday festivities continued with a trip to Grandma Betty & Joe-Joe's house (my mother in law & her hubby) for some Sunday night football and tickle wars :) On the way home we stopped to collect Sean from his Dad and picked up his other little brother in the process, Brennan is possibly the funniest kid I've ever met and he sure does love his big brother! While the boys settled in I got some snuggle time with my little ladies~ Sunday was pretty perfect!

Today is Monday~ I'm in the home stretch in 21.5 hrs my kids will be back at school, I will have little moments of sweetness to tuck away in my heart. We have another busy day ahead of us: two friends over, + Brennan, two dance classes this afternoon, finishing the Halloween decorations, cleaning before my Beast gets home tomorrow night, dinner with my mom tonight (Girls Night!) and getting ready for a road trip tomorrow; blog to follow. I had a really stressful start to my weekend but after writing it out, I really do miss being with them all the time. Sean is going on a trip to Australia next summer, Helen wouldn't know what to do with herself if she had "down time", Liz is really starting to "branch out" and I'm afraid she's not going to want to be BFF's much longer. Alex has one speed, "GO!" so it's always nice to get a few extra moments, he had all of last school year with me and I had a REALLY hard time "letting him go" to Kindergarten.

So, in the end, thank you Christopher Columbus for stumbling upon America. Thank you to our school district for a few extra moments to cherish and thank you to my kids for including me in their childish play~ today we are making leaf piles, playing Red Rover and jumping rope (Pictures to follow!).... These are the moments I live for, the moments I hope to hold onto forever.

-Sarah