Circus

Tyler got called as the second counselor in our new bishopric a couple of weeks ago while we were away visiting family. I had a little while to get used to the idea before responsibilities hit, and I felt very optimistic. He'd been a very well used executive secretary before, so we should be fine, right?

Well, out of the first six days we were home, we got him for New Year's Day and then two evenings. He was home for another day but was very busy working on his final gospel doctrine lesson and doing new calling things (after letting me go run some errands for a couple hours). This last Sunday he was gone from 6:30am to 4pm. He opted to stay home from the evening fireside. This was a lot more time away than I had anticipated, but I think it has been tougher for Tyler than it is for me. He's gone tonight & tomorrow night, too. Busy, busy guy. I don't envy his busy-ness and all his responsibilities that he must manage -- work, church, family. And when he is home, it's not as if it's relaxing. Prime example is what he missed tonight -- you can count your lucky stars, Ty.

Tonight I feel as though I've just been through a three ring circus. And not as the ringmaster, either, unless it was a ringmaster that the animals turned on and that got throttled.

Jacob said he was sick today. He did sniffle a couple of times, but tomorrow you can be assured that I will be sending him to school. He was a busy boy discovering and creating and leaving a trail through most rooms in the house. Fortunately he also picked most of those up but getting him to do that was quite tiring.

Hannah had a new friend over today. We were lucky enough to have a co-worker of Tyler's move into our new ward boundaries. They have four children and we are sooo excited to welcome a great young family into our midst. Today their 3 and 8 year old daughters came over for a short playtime, in which all of the 6 mobile children in the house played really well together. When their mom came to get them is when our world started to fall apart. I was trying to get to know this kind lady and Jacob was banging on the piano, making the metronome be as noisy as possible, and then three of my children escaped out the front door in bare feet. A certain 5 year old climbed the Honda and was dancing on the hood (as was pointed out to me by the other mother), another child led a parade of kids running away from the mothers and into the neighbor's yard, and then there was Drew holding a fist full of stale gingerbread candy that he found in the remains of our shooting session in the basement. Any bets on whether our new friends will get to play at our house again? I was appalled that we put on such a bad front after a nice playtime.

Daisy got into the remains of the gingerbread houses, too -- not recommended for a diabetic dog. I did manage to make sopapillas for dinner. Mandi found me just as I was exclaiming because I realized that we were all out of cheese. AAAHHH! Not the night you want to be cheese-less. Plain beans in sopas aren't very tasty. Mandi to the rescue -- she went right out to the store and got us some.

Tyler came home from work long enough to change in the middle of all of that and head off to the church, and I chose not to share any of our excitement with him. The poor guy has enough on his plate. And Tyler, when you read this in a day or two you can just laugh & be glad you were gone since you'll know I have lived to tell the tale.

Now the kids are in bed only an hour late. My personal valet (aka Mandi) has cleaned all the dishes & kitchen. What else was she going to do after doing all my laundry last night? She is the stabilizing force in our home right now. Everyone should have a Mandi at their house. I have just enough time to re-group before heading back into the ring in the morning. Photos below courtesy of Hannah. These are real life -- the only posed part is that Jacob decided to jump in the picture. And for some strange reason the room looks pretty clean!