Finally!

For reasons known only to God, AOL wasn't giving me the option of posting on my blog from my daughter's, even though I've done it before.  Go figure!

My trip to Muncie on Saturday was not without incident.  When I left Plainfield, I had a couple of errands to run.  One was to take Nate's parents' anniversary present to Danville to drop off at his brother's so he could deliver it on Sunday.  Danville is considerably west of Indy, and my destination for the day (Muncie) is considerably northeast of Indy.  Rather than backtrack through the city and traffic, I thought I would take state road 39 north out of Danville to a road that would take me through Westfield, Noblesville, and Anderson...to I-69 just south of Muncie, and on in.  Well!  It didn't exactly happen that way!  State road 39 was closed just north of Danville.  That is uncharted territory for me, so I followed the detour which took me miles and miles west, out of my way!  I managed to snag a ham friend of mine just before I lost the repeater, and he helped me find state road 32 eastward (which is the one I wanted, but I didn't have the number).  Thanks, John!  I drove through a number of little towns, then Westfield and right through downtown Noblesville (which took some time), then realized that I wasn't going to know how to navigate Anderson to find I-69 because I had never been there.  Radio to the rescue again!  I got on the 146.700 repeater and asked for help.  As luck would have it, one of the guys that responded to me knew the area like the back of his hand and stuck with me.  I was passing the landmarks as he described them to me.  Perfect!  Better than a GPS!  The trip, which should have taken two hours from Danville, actually took three.  Guess I won't be doing that again!

I should say, at this point, that I did have an Indiana atlas in the car and had looked at it.  Had radio not been of help, I would have pulled over and looked at it again.  I mean, I'm not stupid!

Megan and Nathan left for their overnight party while the children and I settled in.  We watched some videos that I bought at Marsh--pre-viewed--because Marsh had closed its video rental department.  We ate popcorn and generally got along just fine.  I let the children stay up late.  When it was time to sleep, I spread a blanket on the floor in the living room and got the children's sleeping bags, thinking we could have a "slumber party" in the living room (with Gwamma on the futon, of course).  For a few moments, I actually thought it would work because the children got quiet, but Ryan soon got his second wind and started being squirrely.  It's contageous.  Robin was getting that way, too.....so, after several warnings, Ryan had to go to his bedroom.  We all settled down then and got some (a little) sleep.

Sunday, Nathan came home without Megan about 12:30 PM...and headed right for bed.  He had to go to work later in the afternoon, but since they had stayed up all night, he needed a nap.  Meg arrived with two friends about 2:30.  The friends stayed and visited for a couple of hours.  The children were pretty good, but I still felt that they were under my charge...and I was pretty tired.  We had early baths and on-time bed.  Ahhhhh...  Still, I think Megan and Nathan had a really fun time.  It was good for them to be with adults and to get away from the children for a little bit--as Meg put it, to act like teenagers again--and I'm glad I could contribute to that.  It gets easier as the children get older.  (At 4, Robin is almost civilized.  Ryan will take a little longer BECAUSE HE'S A BOY!!)

Today was a beautiful day.  I thought I could get a lot done at their house, but I forget that, with little ones around, one needs to cut one's to-do list down by three-fourths.  In the afternoon, Nathan mowed while Meg and I took the children and went grocery shopping.  Thereafter, I fixed a chicken stir-fry, did some dishes, and hit the road for home.  Just before I left, I was sitting in their back yard when Robin brought me a marigold from their garden.  "This is for you, to remember the good times we had here."  Uh....huh??  Did a barely-4-year-old say that?  To be honest, I almost cried.  It was funny but touching at the same time.  Robin-baby, I don't need a flower to remind me of our good times, but I will treasure it always!  I'm going to find a way to preserve that bloom!

So now it is after 10:00 PM on a school night.  My little house sure seems quiet and orderly, even though it is a mess.  The only saving grace about the new week is that it is Homecoming Week, so I don't have to dress up.  Every day is a different dress theme.  (Tomorrow is "Hawaiian Day."  I don't have anything that even remotely looks Hawaiian!)  Another saving feature is that the week is only four days long.  Yeah!!